This week's mechanical segment has more to do with success than failure. I finished the race with absolutely no mechanical failures. The only thing I even had room to complain about was when I was riding up the hill where Joe Jefferson was announcing. A few times, when in the lowest gear (largest cog) I had the chain slip down one notch. At least that what I think happened. I haven't fully tested this out, but my guess is that the amount of crossover in the chainline is what's causing that. My hope is that it was more that I'd shifted under pressure and the slipping was the gear finally catching. In either case, it didn't affect my race--but it's something I should look into more.

On Wednesday night I went over to Pat's house and changed out the bearings in my Cane Creek S2 headset to see if that might aid in alleviating some brake chatter. It did get rid of an elusive rattle that I'd been hearing when dropping the front end (yes, the headset was checked for play). But I didn't really notice any change in chatter. The front end felt more solid and I had more confidence in it, but not the huge difference I was looking for.

On Friday night I played around with raising the yolk on my brakes. I found that raising the yolk did more to stop some of the brake chatter I've had than any other adjustment that I've made. Really. There's still a tiny bit at low speeds and I haven't spent a lot of time with the pads and rims wet, but I'm encouraged so far.

I also found out that regular brake cable (road nor MTB) will not work as a straddle cable for Empella Frogleg brakes. The ball end is too large for the opening. Regular cables work fine on Paul's, however. My question is whether there is any difference between what cyclocrossworld.com calls 'Empella/Spooky Straddle Cables' and dubs, "Hard to find," and just plain ol' derailleur cable? I can find no difference between the original straddle cables I got with the set and the derailleur cable that I replaced it with--other than the length. But I did talk to a mechanic finally and he said that the difference is in the thickness and derailleur cable is a bit too thin in some instances to bear the load of braking. So I picked up some of the fancy brake cable and now I'm all set.

The most interesting mechanical development this week was the arrival of the Spot Brand guards on Friday. Initially I swapped out both Carbon guards for the two new Spot guards and the setup was pretty sweet. Unfortunately it did add 4 oz, but it was quite robust. But one other difference between the Spot and the Carbon is the thickness. The Spot Brand is roughly twice the thickness and so the clearance between the inner guard and the frame was almost (but not quite) nil. Doing starts on Saturday I could hear it rub the frame when I stomped on the left side. With my frame being thin-walled Scandium Aluminum, I wasn't to keen on possibly scoring the metal.

Solution? I left the Spot on the outside and put a Carbon guard on the inside, using two 0.6 mm thick washers on each of the five chainring bolts. I think that will be my long term solution. If I have any trouble with the Carbon guard, I'll have to take the Spot Brand guard over to a belt sander and add a chamfer. It won't take much to get the necessary clearance. Looking at Peter Nicoll's bike on Saturday, I noticed that the Wetzikon guard has such a chamfer. The appeared to be made out of the same material, and with the Wetzikon having the holes drilled for weight I'd give it the edge (ha ha). In defense, my Spot guard was about $10 cheaper.