Monthly Archives: August 2011

Race entry, 20th August – Brighton Big Dog

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: Luton to Brighton. And back. After a race.

HunterBrighton Big Dog was on my radar as a potential race this year. There are, normally, trains straight through to Brighton from the local station. So it was always feasible to get there by train, race, then ride home. The Ondeder Dog, which means you can race “on spec” is a great idea. It was also a great opportunity to see if riding to the SSUK is going to be a goer.

Due to work on the Thameslink there are no straight through trains at the moment. Which meant a ride across London from St Pancras to London Bridge. Now I’m not doing that in my racer boy lycra. Skinny jeans and an ironic hipster T-shirt are much more appropriate.

545
545

The atmosphere at the race was nice. Sunny, laid back, plenty of familiar southern faces in shock at seeing a Northerner this far south. Entry was casual, and the amount of freebies on offer – including a free tea and cake with each Ondeder Dog entry – puts bigger races to shame.

I couldn’t be arsed getting changed, so I did my lap in my jeans. A couple of serious lycra clad racers got a surprise in the singletrack when a bloke in jeans caught them up and hugged their rear tyre.

In deference to being in the South when I had my tea after my lap I had it “Vicars”.

I did ponder a second lap but with a three hour journey home just hung around and chilled. Actually sunburnt and stewed. Did I mention that I’ve ridden my horse back from the field to the stables at least twice in these jeans, so they were already waterproof before I started? I had seats all to myself on the trains home :)

This race is definitely in my diary for next year.

Chain Pup

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Chain Pup
Chain pup. And other stuff

I had been looking for an image of a Chain Pup in a product review stylee – well lit, white background – to accompany my recent posts which mentioned snapped chains. Amazingly I couldn’t find any.

So here’s my contribution to the web. I did find people slagging them off as “too small to be of any use” which, frankly, is bollocks. I’ll admit that the 4/5/6mm allen keys they came with were shonky – and you’ll notice they are missing from the image above due to breakage. Seeing as I always carry a decent set of allen keys on my rides anyway*, which includes a 4mm key with decent length, a Chain Pup is well up to the job of fixing chains.

Or indeed installing them. As was the case tonight when I used it to replace the worn out PC-7 with a brand new, and mightily weighty KMC.

* the free set from MTB Pro if you’re asking. I know there are many such sets still out there

Ride entry, 14th August

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1 hour 15 minutes
Chain snappage: 2

HunterMabe The Babe was out for a dressage test this morning. We were back in time to get in a quick lap of the golf course. 8 miles, most of which is off-road, with a high proportion of singletrack.

Bench cut
Colour co-ordinated

I must heed SRAMs advice that PC-7 chains can’t be rejoined except using their split link. Two more breakages today. I’m changing it before I go out on the Hunter again.

Ride entry, 13th August

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1 hour 20 minutes
Playlist: Led Zep

HunterI wanted to get a proper measure for the ride the other day, so retraced my steps. This time the Endomondo app worked properly and recorded the mileage. Means I can go through my rides spreadsheet and insert an accurate mileage for most of my evening rides. Smaller, but fatter, tyres might not have rolled as smoothly on the gravel sections or road , but on the plough they were much more forgiving.

P1010046
I can remember when all this was fields

After my last ride on the Hunter I was niggled by the slight rubbing of the Hope rotors on my new wheels on the inside of the caliper. Avid rotors are slightly smaller so was a quick fix.

New rotors
New rotor

It’s all less hassle than the derailleur experiments being undertaken by dR j0n at the moment.

Ride entry, 10th August

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Bike: Il Pompino
Distance: 1 hour 13 minutes
Playlist: Unplayed last four months*
Wildlife: one deer, two courting buzzards, two hares**

Spot The Bike Competition

There was supposed to be a 24 hour ride entry for last weekend. A day trip to Bristol and back plus a dose of lurgy put paid to that.

It was more than time to get back on the road. Took the Il Pompino out tonight.

The gravel paths of Bedfordshire are a long way from the epic roads of L’Eroica, but as you’re skimming over them and drifting round the corners in evening sunlight you could almost be there. If you ignore all the combine harvesters about at the moment.

.

Woo 90s Yeah
Not l’eroica.

Turns out those big wheels are smoother than 26″, but 23mm tyres more than compensate. 44:16 is also too big a gear for me and for the first ride in a long time I finished with cramp. Other niggles include the stem the “right way up” which raises the handlebars way too high. Means I can ride in the drops most of the time though I then get lower back ache when riding off-road. Gotta love the hurt.

I had intended to measure my route using my new Endomondo app. Unfortunately it couldn’t get a GPS signal so ate through iPhone battery only to provide me with ride time. Something I normally get from looking at my last.fm logs or a simple watch.

* Which reminded me that I must listen to Low Life again.

** hares being my favourite