15.2 Mile Ride on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Lately I'd noticed that my freewheel didn't seem to be rotating as freely as it's supposed to when I'm not pushing the pedals, and closer inspection revealed that it was making some very mild grinding sounds... perhaps one of the reasons I've been finding pedaling tougher, though that's probably mostly due to my not putting in enough miles this year and especially this fall. Anyway, I installed that freewheel nine years ago and it's got something like 10k miles on it - so I don't know that it's all that surprising it's starting to act up a bit. Replacements are inexpensive, so the only catch was I had to order some tools (a 1" deep socket and a racthet that could extend to 18" for lots of torque) but once they arrived yesterday, it turned out to be relatively easy to unscrew the old one and put on a new one. And since I left work while it there was still daylight, it seemed like a good time to test it out.
Rode the bike path between SCCC and Rotterdam Junction - I would have liked to have hit the short section of path on the west side of RJ, but as has been the case every time I've been there recently, there was a train parked on the tracks at the crossing. Heading west was challenging because of a slight headwind, and this was probably the coldest ride I've done this fall. There was even a thin layer of ice on some parts of the old canal.
The freewheel worked fine and seems quieter than the old one when I'm coasting. I can't tell yet if it's making a difference in the effort needed to pedal - maybe that is going to turn out to be just me being in lousy riding shape.
JMH
