Road Bike Revenge ... Part II

...This time, it's personal?

So I bit the bullet and installed a rack on Quicksilver.

Not four hours later, as I was completing a series of scheduled 4:00 deliveries, I felt a hesitation in my pedal stroke, and then -- boom, nothing.

The cranks wouldn't turn.  In the middle of traffic.  When I'd just sort of squeezed my way into the right-most lane after a last-minute decision.  D'oh.

Sheepishly, I pulled off the street (fortunately, I had just about arrived at my next drop) and glanced down at my bike.  The sight that met my eyes filled me with dread: the left-hand BB lockring had come unstuck and was lodged between the crank and the frame.  I just about had a heart attack.

Fortunately, Jon at the shop was able to get my baby back together and rolling again in the morning ... after which I immediately blew a tire.  A few hours later, though, the lockring came off again.  I sent a shout-out to J, who picked up the run I was doing, thus saving my bacon, while I rolled ... on foot ... back to the shop.

Jon popped the crank off, removed the old lockring, tightened down the drive-side assembly while slightly loosening the off-side assembly (to expose a bit more threading), and replaced the lockring with another one.

Now it appears that the whole pedal-crank-bottom bracket assembly is hanging together ... but my pedals are making horrible noises again.  I'm trying to hold off on a complete overhaul until the winter weather is behind us, because, frankly, it would just be kind of dumb to replace everything twice in one two-month span -- but at this point, I'm beginning to think a partial overhaul might not be a bad plan.

So what's the lesson, here?

I could say it's that winter is hard on bikes, but we all know that already.  Instead, I'd like to point out that road bikes are persnickety, and sometimes they like to put on airs.

If anyone out there has any idea how to convince a classic racing bike that carrying a rack is really a good thing, I could use some pointers, here ;)

Edit:
Oh, also ... in other news:

SNOW RACING!!!  WOOOOT!  Check out the vids if you can.  These guys rock my socks.

In other, other news, I woke up yesterday with a little tickle in my throat and am officially dog-sick today, blargh.  I went to the doc-in-the-box, was diagnosed with yet another sinus infection (apparently a fast and aggressive one -- maybe I should ask it for tips for next year's 'cross season???), immediately issued a ten-day run of doxicycline (or however you spell it; I'm not feeling well enough to look it up).

I am primarily peeved because I wanted to take a ride with DD in the beautiful weather.  Flargh.

Hoping for a miraculous recovery by Monday...