Monthly Archives: July 2011

Ride entry, 29th July

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 2.5 hours
Playlist: Rock
Chain snappage: twice

HunterGlorious sunshine today was great for topping up my cycling tan.

The awesome power of my legs, or possibly just shonky fixing of my chain, was responsible for not one, but two incidents of chain snappage. The second occuring under full “thrutch” load up a local climb.

chainsnake
That’s not supposed to happen*

Obviously I’d have made it to the top without this incident. Ahem.

* is it just me that thinks of Westworld when they hear that?. Oh, OK.

2012. What would you do?

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“The Olympic Games is the priority [compared to the Tour] next year”

Brailsford still doesn’t get it.

“He’s done the gold medal thing. [The tour] should be more important for him.”

Boardman does.

We’ve had Olympic success on the track going back past Boardman and Queally and others. Track success has captured the imagination of enough young British talent that we can now put together a team as good as Team Sky Pro Cycling.

The next stage is to get the results in the Tour De France to inspire even more young riders, and to introduce the great unwashed to the joys of the Giro, the Vuelta, and the one-day classics.

Repeating the victories of the past, even on home turf, just doesn’t have that inspiration.

This year we saw Cav finally cross the finish line in green. How long before we can do the double of green and yellow?

Be careful out there

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O'Tom Tick Twister
Hope you never need it

Driving home from a trip to Duxford the other day we saw a car stopped by the side of the road with hazards on. We stopped to help. It turns out that he’d seen a feret crossing the road and sure enough there she was, looking up at us all. She let herself be caught and that’s when we realised why. She was pitifuly thin and covered in ticks.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing the deer on my rides, but I was reminded by this poor little blighter of the dangers they pose.

That evening, using medical tweezers, I removed over thirty ticks from the little ferrets head. Sadly it was too little too late, and she died, probably from blood loss, on the way to the vets.

That night I ordered an O’Tom Tick Twister from BADA-UK to carry in my rash kit.

Ride entry, 23rd July

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1.5 hours
Ride partner: Kirsty

HunterFuck!

I think Kirsty was justified in using that word as she rode off a log drop instead of round the corner and faceplanted hard. We were less than half an hour into the ride and on only our second section of singletrack.

Still, she picked herself up, brushed off the worst of the muck, checked that everything was still attached and got back on.

Kirsty
Bruising not pictured

After a hard mornings dressage Kirsty had fancied a ride out, which had made it worth taking the two bikes to the local singletrack by car. We weren’t going to let a little crash spoil our fun so we had a nice long play in the woods. It’s fair to say that the headset in her Spot is now well and trully shagged too, and will need replacing imminently. Maybe we’ll get that King she’s always wanted.

his 'n' hers
hers ‘n’ his

Ride entry, 21st July

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1.5 hours
Playlist: the sound of the suburbs

HunterTime to take advantage of my new, lighter rear wheel from Tim at Sideways. Black Eno hub on black rim. Coupled it with an existing front wheel I already had, also in black, natch. Altogether I reckon Mavic-Eno-Hope combination saves a couple of lbs over the Phil-Velocity combination. OK, so they’re not orange, but they are very very dark. And with a less gyroscopic steering effect.

Tonight, inspired by the rain (yes, really), I left work on time and went out for a quick loop on my new wheels. Despite having to shorten the chain and wheelbase for the new, smaller, 17-tooth rear sprocket, the extra spring in the longer spokes actually softened the rear end up.

None more black
None more black

I felt as flat as Alberto Contadors stock of champagne and so I could really tell that the gear was a bit taller. Things do get up to speed noticeably quicker though. Mud tyres are already on in readiness for biblical flooding by SITS. Well, that’s what the tabloids are predicting and you can always trust them, right?

Lets predict Singletrack issue 68 contents

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Weekend Away
Oh look. Dave’s going bivvying again and he wants us all to know

My reckon of the month. It will have yet another article by Dave Anderson on bivvying.

There’s supposed to be a difference between writing for a paying public and a vanity blog. More thought and originality required please.

Ride entry, 12th July

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1.5 hours
Playlist: Unplayed in ages
Broken chains: 1

HunterAfter Mayhem it’s always time to put the bike to one side and have some R&R in the form of a weeks surfing in Cornwall. A lesson from King Surf in getting out back was well worth it. Especially when you’re always worried about losing contact lenses duck diving. Scoob also pointed out some flaws in my position during the catch and then my pop-up which made a big difference to the number of waves I caught later in the week. Kirsty tried out a demo board from Fluid Juice, and is now getting the “oooh, new board” thrills as she promptly placed an order. Which suits me as I was getting on fine coming down from my 7’6″ mini-mal to her 7’2″ board.

Then last Sundays ride was cancelled in order to go and see Motörhead at Sonisphere. Well, it has to be done.

Morvelo Panda
Morvelo Panda

Anyway, it was time to get back on the bike tonight, especially as Sleepless In The Saddle is only a few weeks away. The ride was delayed slightly when I applied a bit of post-Mayhem TLC and discovered that one of the link plates on my SRAM chain had broken. Don’t know how long it was like that. It was OK at the start of Mayhem, but I never applied lube or checked the chain during the race. Says something about either the strength of SRAM chains, or the lack of power I was producing during the race.