SIDI Heel Pads Too Far Gone?

With all the miles I've been racking up I failed to notice that the bottoms of my SIDI shoes were getting very ratty, and the left heel pad, the foot I always disengage when stopping, was worn through in spots, and more dire, the attaching Phillips screw was so badly worn I couldn't unscrew the pad to replace it.

What to do? Well, I did a nice ~ 55 mile ride yesterday, so I decided to take a little mid-day Siesta and sleep on it. Sure enough, the answer came to me. My 1st take was to use a Dremel cut-off wheel to deepen the + of the Phillips, but that seemed unlikely to succeed, so my **brilliant** idea was to cut a single groove in what was left of the screw-head and use a standard screwdriver to unscrew the pad.

That worked, although a steady hand and some cold water are needed, in addition to a very pristine screwdriver. The 2" stubby I had seemed to work best, and probably had never been used before (stubbies are in a class of tools that are rarely needed, but BADLY needed when they are). Using a grinding wheel on hard stainless steel generates a lot of heat - enough to melt the plastic the "nut" is anchored in, so I did my grinding on the wife's vanity and ran cold water over the screw head immediately after cutting the groove.

You do need to move the grinding wheel side to side to get a nice groove all the way across the screw head, and this requires a steady hand, so try to have a stable perch for the shoe. The edge of the sink seemed to work quite nicely for me, and tile is durable enough you don't have to worry about the sparks pitting the finish.

This little trick can save you from having to buy a new pair of shoes, and those are getting quite expensive these days, so a nice cheat if you need it.

BTW, these heel pads come in two varieties, both made by SIDI. This one is the "Anti-Slip" version, which probably wears out faster as there is about 1/2 as much rubber meeting the road. I chose the  full-bodied "Universal Heel Pad" for $2 less. Both come with a bit of LockTite on the threads, so no need to run out and buy that.

Gatorade on the Go

Yes, I am painfully aware I still owe everyone a post (2 actually) on half-step gearing, but as John Lennon famously said "Life is what happens while you're making other plans".

I was cleaning my "new" Gatorade container and thought somebody else might want to know how to carry Gatorade powder with them in a neat, clean, reliable way that allows you to open and consume as you please - not all at once or not at all. I carry this in my saddle bag at the very back, on top. Easy to get to, and after 1 month, zero mess.

I think the picture about says it all, but I did want to point out that the translucent seal can be installed upside-down. To insure it's in the right way trial fit it to the top of the bottle. It should press-fit into the bottle and present a flush surface to the cap. You'll have to install it properly into the cap before the cap can be used to seal the bottle though. No dice trying to press the cap into place with the seal installed in the top of the bottle.

This 50.9 oz container of Gatorade at Walmart goes for a mere $8.38, so a typical 24oz waterbottle full of Gatorade, sans the cost of the tap water, can be had for just under 27 cents, which is about 1/5th the cost of buying it in liquid form, so you can ride 5 days a week for the cost of 1 day. Obviously, carrying powder instead of liquid Gatorade is a lot lighter and more compact, but it's also cheaper by far and contains sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.

The medicine bottle has a pressure seal cap that is crazy effective at hermetically sealing powder from water, damp air, whatever. You can open it, pour some random amount into your partially full bottle at a hydration stop, and it will reseal beautifully.

I've tried double zip-lock bags, and they don't reseal worth a darned, they leak all the time, and after a few rides the Gatorade is ruined from being sweat-soaked. I know Gatorade claims to "Help replace what you sweat out", but I don't think they had in mind to literally recycle your sweat! ;)  Not all medicine bottles are of this design, so do be certain. I don't think the screw down bottles would work very well at all.

Cheers!

PS:

I've decided to break my post about half-step gearing into two parts, the 1st will be on theory, and the 2nd part will be on practice.

I couldn't find a 52/36 crank in stock for under $245, but I did find the big 52t chainring at Tree Fort Bikes (online) for $110, so I will replace my stock 50t with that, BUT, in the process of Googling around to find the big-ring, I found an R8000 compatible 38t small ring made by a new company called Absolute Black, which also makes oval chainrings.

Having chainrings for BOTH a 52/39 and 50/38 I now find myself with an embarassment of riches, so I will do the theory part of half-step gearing "real soon now", but may have to play around with both combinations before finding a clear winner between these two options. The shaping of the front derailleur cage, in particular, may play a dominant role in which shifts better, and therefore, rides better.