Some much more recent pictures of my CX bike after this weekend's races.
To call the races just muddy is an understatement. It was starting-to-melt-snow mix of sloppy, slick, snot-like, goop that was cold and nasty. In one word, FUN! The good part was that it was mostly just slimy and not too soupy (air temp was still in the 40s), so everything was covered but it didn't work it's way into the bearings too badly. Still, my bike did not go the distance, giving up on my bell lap Sunday. The left crank arm decided it had enough and was out of here. I nursed it for a lap and half, but it was not gonna make it and I had to pull from the race rather than risk complete bike melt down. New cranks are not in the cards right now, so since I'm not competing for, well, anything, I decided to bag it. Sucks because it I could have made it just another 5 minutes, I could have run the rest of the lap, but the crank came off about 20% through the lap and, due to a first lap fall (Superman-style slide!), I was off the back (but not yet lapped!) anyway.
None-the-less, FSA used steel for the crank axle, so the drive side and axle are OK. The left crank arm had some very slight spline damage, but about 30 seconds with a file fixed that. The tensioning cap was not happy, several goobered threads that took me about 30 minutes with a flat file, thread file and dental pick to get cleaned up. Even then I was cutting threads a little at the end as I test fit everything. Yikes! But with a new o-ring, some liberal use of WD40 (there was a lot of mud and water) and grease, I should be able to limp through the last two weeks of the season. The left side bottom bracket bearing has obvious side-to-side play, but I think when I snug everything back up they should hold up. Sucks because I didn't get to ride into work yesterday or today and wouldn't you know, the weather is gonna turn tomorrow. Doh!
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