Zen and the art of...

... bicycle maintenance.

Another windy day in the Tropical Tip, with lovely temp.  This morning, Joan said, "Do you want to take the bicycles to pick up mail, then ride to the Post Office?"

I'm in.  We haven't had the ebikes out of the resort since we got home.  It will be good to see how they handle this gusty wind... the wind that started around 10 and is now 20 gusting above 25.

We had a slip in our box, letting us know we have a package to pick up at the Post Office.  We rode directly there.  Joan went in while I waited outside with the bikes.  (We didn't bring locks.)  Just before Joan came out, the wind blew her bike over - I did mention that it was gusty.  Her bike was having an issue with shifting, and after the fall, it was pretty much stuck in 5th or 6th gear.  We weren't ready to head right back home, so we rode around town a bit.

Port Isabel is pretty much flat terrain, so even in 5th gear, with some pedal assist, Joan had no issue getting around.  I only shifted to 4th once, while going straight into the wind.  We rode on side streets we haven't been on in years.  Over the Port o' Call (more houses along canals), back down the street along the Intracoastal Waterway, across the main highway, north to North Shore, then down past the lighthouse.  We stopped at the raised cemetery for a photo op...

 

As we rode by Manuel's (our favorite breakfast restaurant - the one with the huge home-made tortillas), I suggested we stop in for a late breakfast.  "No locks."  Ohhhhhh.

When we got home, Joan pulled her bike up on our deck, I made a "work stand" out of a chunk of lumber (so I could move the pedals freely by hand), and brought out my laptop to learn about "Shimano shifter not shifting."  I was able to move the deraileur by hand to make it shift.  The shift lever wouldn't move.  I learned how to adjust the limiting screws - again, moving nicely between the gears... when I manually moved the shifting mechanism.  Joan OKed removing the lever pod on the handlebars, and I could immediately see what was causing the shifting problem - the back of the shift lever was jammed against the brake lever.  I moved it a bit, snugged the assembly down, and Joan took it out for a test spin... all good.

Saves us a trip to Brownsville or Harlingen.