The all new Love/Hate – Wales version.

Apologies for the cleanliness of my bike, ie sorry its clean, its normally much dirtier.

The my Singlespeed mountain bike got a bit of a clean over the weekend, its also got a change of bars and grips going from a set of weird Mary Bars that I didn’t get on with and a set of worn out WTB grips back to the dialled bikes Pablo Escobar risers with a set of DMR zip grips.

The suspension forks that have been on the bike since the new year will stay put until after the weekend when are heading to Wales. Hopefully they’ll make the 46km Skyline trail at Afan Argoed a lot more comfy than last time. The last time I did that trail, I had a blister on one hand and really sore forearms. But that was with rigid forks and a pair of ergon grips that I really didn’t get on with. I should think it will be a much comfier experience.

In things that suck news: I appeared to get an asthma attack last night. Whilst riding up a hill at a fair old lick on the singlespeed my lungs got tight, I have been coughing well now since the event. It seems that the cold dry air triggered the attack. Hopefully my lungs will be all better for the weekend though. They are certainly better than they were last night which is progress.

Also in things that suck news: why is it that I now have to have a Yahoo account to use Flickr, I used to use my email as my login but now this apparently not good enough. Bit the same as blogger now liking you to use google accounts. That doesn't worry me so much as I use gmail, but there you go.

Friday night surreal road ride...

Good weekend? I had a nice one. Started in fine form on Friday night with a 17 mile nice and easy road ride which to me over 200 road miles for the month. However I had an Albino Stag cross my path in Bradgate Park (bad omen?) and further along I saw an OAP on a powered wheelchair in a balaclava. OAP IRA? Slightly surreal.

Saturday was a “shit to attend to” day but the Love/Hate got its old bars back after a dalliance with a set of daft Mary Bars. It also got a good clean and a new set of brake pads. It also has a freshly rebuilt rear hub with a fresh freehub. In non-cycling news Claire and I got attacked by geese and swans whilst trying to feed the ducks.

Sunday, out on the road bike. Lots of road miles. Longest training ride since the summer - 73.98miles. At the end of the ride I notice my saddle is right back on the rails, which explains why I’m sliding forward on the saddle. Doh! That’ll get sorted tonight.
This weekend a few of us are meeting in South Wales for a Day at Afan Argoed (most likely for the Skyline trail – 48km of fun) and then a day somewhere else. Woo yay!

Monster post! Frosty trails! Crap Hubs!

Woo yay!

Winter is here, out last night for our normal Tuesday nightride and the trails varied from chocolate slush puppy to rock hard frozen loveliness. A thin layer of frost covered most of the trails in Leicestershire biggest deer related tourist attraction which didn’t effect traction when climbing but as soon as you braked you pretty much guarantee’d locking up your rear wheel – mental fun!

However our favourite singletrack descent through the woods has now got a big tree over it which I can’t see getting moved anytime soon, though I’m sure a line around it will become apparent.

We had a covering of snow overnight and if it looks like it’s going to hang around until tonight I can see me heading out for some snowbound night ride action, but it’ll probably be gone by this evening dammit [12 midday and its gone boo!].

In further “isn’t bike kit crap news”…
I need to service my rear hub, the freehubs making bad bad noises and now the cones need adjusting as there is a bit of play. Luckily I have the exact same hub to use for spares and I have robbed a 10mm allen key from Ian, why do I not have a 10mm one? More to the point why do I continue to punish myself by buying cheap crappy hubs? Since I bought my Marin (now there was a decision based on too much thinking and not enough gut trusting),where my current front wheel originates from, I have got through the following rear wheels:

1x XT Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by my local LBS – cause of death the hub internals died when the free hub body started to ream out the threads it was mounted on, however the I had to keep on adjusting the cones and the build quality was less than stellar.

1x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by Chain Reaction Cycles, had to adjust the cones a bit but it was fine until I got to Morzine where everything went a bit wrong and I starting breaking spokes. But that could be due to the huge amount of (ab)use on the back of a the Prince Albert (a hardtail for the uninitiated) with Big-ish forks over the summer. Getting a couple of high speed pinch flats probably didn’t help matters either.

1 x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by a robbing Frenchman in Morzine. The current wheel, still nice and true but the freehub hasn’t been great since day 1 and now the cones need adjusting. It will get the full strip down, swear at it, chase the bearings from under the fridge and put it back together with loads of grease and a healthy freehub.

However I have sworn never to buy a frickin Shimano hub again as they have rubbish seals however getting a cartridge bearing hub for under 75quid seems to be a bit of a task except for the DMR revolvers which are generic Taiwanese jobs. But that’s what I shall be buying next when this one finally dies.

Also note to self when lifting bike over fences to access trails of the cheeky sort hand bike over the fence to your mate with the non computer sensor side facing him otherwise you’ll not get any mileage collected for the rest of the ride. Grrrrrr

In mileage news, I’ll pass the 200 road miles mark the next time I head out on the roadbike which was sort of my aim for the month with just about a week to spare.

Other People’s Bikes Part 1.

Ian likes bikes, actually lets be a bit more specific, he likes bikes from the North.
He is a regular customer of one Mr Brant Richards, in fact he has his own parking space for when he dashes up to the grim Northern Industrial estate to pick up yet another Taiwanese lovely. He has bought 3 Planet X/On-One frames in the last 18 months and had one before that. He has also had a Cotic Soul but seeing as he rode it about every 4 months it had to go. Rumours that the Cotic was bullied by the other bikes for being up-its-self with its posh 853 tubing and posh Midlands ways, are yet to be confirmed.

Here’s the first of his brood a slidey dropouted inbred (named after the local inhabitants near Mr Richard’s home), and is currently fitted with Hope brakes and Pace forks. Ian has a penchant for unreliable British made technology it would appear.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/65/163772465_78b44400ec_m.jpg

He has also fitted a set of weird bars also by on-one called Mary bars (aka H-Bars for paupers or the married), which allow him to point his lights for night riding either to left or the right but never straight ahead.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/52/155846217_0688ebf1c5_m.jpg

A blue On-one Pompino, Pompino is Italian for a favour your Mrs does for you on your birthday.
Ian’s commute vehicle, after a bar swapping merry-go-round, he appears have gone with the flipped and chopped drop bars, with matching bar tape and whisky bottle corks in the ends. Niche.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/349271860_69b192f192_m.jpg

Twin illuminating marital aides keep his the car drivers away from his back wheel on the ride home from his Evilmegacorp job. Not sure why he has a yellow cockring around his seatpost though…

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/163772324_86cccf40b3_m.jpg

What you can’t see is that he has also fitted a phil wood cog to match the tattoo he has on his forearm, not sure what happens when he needs to change ratio though as it might look like a tattoo of a ex-wife’s name. Or maybe not.

Yet another 80mph trip to the grim North brought another frame back sunny Leicestershire.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/354202144_b23c5d7d90_m.jpg
Pictured here nestled amongst the rest of his babies, Ian is actually yet to ride it as he in a fit of madness trusted Dave Hinde to deliver a set of wheels for the new build, which he is currently waiting for and will be for at least another week I reckon. Continuing the daft bars theme it will be outfitted with a set of weird flared drops.

I’m a lazy lazy boy...

Events* conspired against to keep my riding minimal this weekend. No MTB rides, no big Road Miles and to make matters worse Ian dropped by on his way back to his house in the midst of a 40 mile ride.

I did get out however and do a 17 mile speed ride which saw me dying on my bottom in the last mile or so going into an evil headwind. The new wheels I fitted seem nice enough, especially having cost relatively little money (55quid for a pair of wheels can’t be bad even if they last one season)

Lots of riding planned for this week with good cold clear weather moving in, so unless the snow shows up (highly unlikely) it’ll be a solid 70 miles during the week. I might well need my new thermal headwear though.

* New wheels to fit, lack of light and choosing funky new eyewear.

Coming soon - like later today if I'm bored - Other Peoples Bikes...

Road miles, broken wheels, fancy handlebar mounted wizardry, strange bars and mud.

Well…road training is going quite well. After this weekend I should be well over 200miles on the road for the month to date. That is assuming the new wheels I ordered to replace the spoke snappingly (rear) shite and spoke looseningly (front) shocking wheelset that came as standard on my Specialized Allez, show up [ohhh hang on they are at my loacl post office - woo].
They are cheap as chips Vuelta’s, hopefully they will do the job. I don’t ask much from a wheelset as long as they stay true and go round I’m not bothered about flashness or weight.

Last weekend I did 68 miles on the road which was nice as I didn’t cramp really and felt loads better than the 50, I did the other weekend. However I wouldn’t recommend riding with the following in your stomach. 2 rashers of bacon, 2 sausage, 2 egg (fried), 2 hashbrowns, beans, 2 toast, grilled tomato. It sat a bit heavy to say the least.

If the wheels don’t show up, then I’m going to take in some gnarly bridleway action on the singlespeed, best wear my best waiders then [Thats that muddy bullet dodged then...].

Only 2 MTB rides in the last 2 weeks due to lots of road miles but what mtb riding I’ve done has been shite and muddy anyway as it’s not been a cold crisp winter, more of a biblical flood winter. But I have now got a cordless computer on the MTB, so I’ll have loads of data from MTB rides assuming I can remember to wake it up after whisky stops on nightrides. It seems to go to sleep after 5 mins of inactivity (a bit like me), I’m sure I’ll forget occasionally but hey ho, it’s better than snapping wires. How the data gets from the sensor to the computer I have no idea, I think it must be witch craft*.
I’m also currently trying a set of mary bars by Norths favourite dealer of inbreds, on-one, lent to me by Ian. Initial thoughts, they are odd and I’m not sure if I like them yet. I’ll give them another couple of rides or so and then decide.

*radio waves

Riding Aims for 2007...

As its 2007, there should be 7 goals for me to strive to meet…

1)Ride a Road Century.
After doing 80miles at a canter at the end of the summer when I was fit, and feeling like I was going to die doing 50 at the weekend, it would suggest that there is work to be done.

2)Ride an Audax or two.
Apparently it’s a strange cycling world of kagools, seatpacks, tea and cake. Sounds ace. Might be able to combine it with aim 1. Cyclotouriste de Vlaandren in Belgium is on the cards too. Mmmm cobbles, in April, Belgium. I think I’ll need that kagool.

3)Ride a 100km enduro, Singlespeed.
I’ve never done one of those 100km enduro things, I’ve always done the middling 75km option or chilled out on the slacker 50km option. Time to do it properly. And seeing as the most XC bike (actually it’s the only current working MTB) in the shed is a singlespeed, I think I’ll use that.

4)Do another 24hr Race, maybe solo, maybe Singlespeed.
Oh, I don’t know, maybe in a team, maybe in a pair, maybe solo, most likely Singlespeed for the reasons above.

5)Ride places I’ve not ridden before.
Scotland for example…

6)Ride 1500 Road Miles and spend 500 hours on any bike.
1000 seemed way too little, 2000 seemed a bit to much. We’ll see. Only 1450miles and 496.7 hours to go. I already have a spreadsheet.

7)Have fun.
Which looking at the above might be a touch tricky, but I’ll make sure there are plenty of chilled rides with beer and café stops too.