Monthly Archives: August 2010

For the first time since he moved two years ago I managed to get out for a Sunday ride with Ian, and rather than do the usual ride down to the lakes and back elected to start from Bradford-on-Avon.

We ended up doing a 37ish mile loop, mostly into an evil headwind or so it seemed. Despite the promise of a flat ride, there was still a reasonable amount of climbing involved.

I had very little trouble with the pedals on the ride, I only unclipped by accident once on a low cadence climb. I seem to twist my feet and roll them outwards when climbing a steep hill, and this is enough to unclip from the pedal. As long as I concentrate it shouldn’t be a problem.

The Time I-Clic pedals may be very east to clip into, but they are also very easy to clip out of by accident. I keep rolling my feet out of the pedals whilst riding along which is more than a tad annoying. By waving a screwdriver at them I think I’ve increased the release tension to maximum, a proper ride tomorrow will determine if they are destined to stay, or headed for the bin.

Awake at 6am, first thought of the day “this is far too early to wake up”. Lean over, pull the curtain aside and look out of the window “hmm, not raining yet”. Get up, watch the weather forecast, and faff excessively. Clean trousers packed into the Wingnut bag, fill bottle with Nuun, move the Bob Jackson out of the way and retrieve the Singular because it’s going to rain on the way home, earphones into ears, out the door, music on shuffle, oddly enough it’s Jesus Built My Hotrod yet again, check watch, it’s 7am, time to ride.

Hit the road and get slightly confused by the gear things for a bit, reach the cycle track and spin along at a gentle 16mph or so. Get to the second bridge at 2.5 miles and check watch, it’s still 7am, bollocks, battery must be flat. Spin past Saltford and up the long gentle climb to Bitton. It looks flat but my legs tell me it isn’t, and this 30lbs bike feels a lot heavier than the 20lbs Bob Jackson I usually ride. Get to the turning point and spot a familiar car unloading in the car park so wait for Andy to get ready and spin back with him on his new bike at an even more gentle 15mph.

Reach the office after 12 and a bit miles, work for an hour whilst drinking the Nuun, get changed and finish off with a Clif Bar for breakfast, Crunchy Peanut Butter flavour, lovely.

A fairly pathetic one this, partway back along the cycle track this morning I did my 1000th mile of the year.

The singlespeed 69er came out of retirement today for my first singlespeed MTB ride for nearly a year. I headed out on the usual Uni route with Al, collecting Sandy at the top of the hill. We took a few short detours on the route which I’d not ridden for a few years just for nostalgia, although it was wasted on the others. All through the ride it was like I had two dogs with me, Sandy playing the role of the excitable young puppy shooting off ahead without really knowing where he was going, and Al the wizened old hound plodding along behind.

Once up on the top of the Downs we cut across to the left taking the fast sweeping route across the top, this worked well to start with, I jumped the first two lumps, rolled the second two then slowed to wait for the others before slowing cutting right to follow the path down to the gate. At this point Sandy neglected to slow down and rode at full-tilt into the back of me. Fortunately we ended up off the bikes rolling down the hill with cries of laughter rather than pain. If you’re going to crash mid-ride, that’s the way to do it.

Other than losing Al in the middle of town, the rest of the ride home was rather less eventful and I was soon back home for a late lunch of a Clif bar and a can of lager.

Trek World produces another bike which probably won’t see the light of day, and if it does almost certainly won’t be sold in the UK. The Trek Sawyer Singlespeed.

The geared Sawyer is nice enough, but won’t be available here, and this singlespeed version looks even better. If there was a chance I could get one here I’d have the credit card out and ready, and the Kona Unit would be heading out to door to make room. As it is, I’ll have to make do with looking at the pictures.

Bikerumor » Trek Rolls Out the Concepts: Broadsider, Sawyer SS, and the Gutter

I moved the saddle forward slightly on the Singular Peregrine last night, and now the front mech won’t shift properly. I think it’s doing it just to spite me.

I’ve always had problems with shifting on road bikes with triple chainsets. It works for a while, then randomly stops working for no discernible reason, often mid-ride. I’d try and fit a compact instead, but apparently a Campagnolo one won’t fit, and a Shimano won’t match the Campagnolo levers and rear mech I plan to fit. I’ll resort to swapping out the front mech with a new one I’ve got sat in the spares pile to see if that makes any difference or not, failing that I’ll just swear at it a bit and threaten violence. It probably won’t work, but it’ll make me feel better.

A month ago I overtook the distance I rode in 2009, today I overtook 2008.

I went out on the Bob Jackson about 12:30 and headed out along the cycle track towards Bristol aiming to ride until I got bored and then head home again. I made it as far as Easton in about 53 minutes before turning back. The track was fairly busy today, and one child almost took me off by deciding to swerve across the track as I was overtaking him. Once back in Bath I decided to loop round town to top the mileage up a bit, and got home after 35.5 miles.

160 miles to go to my next target, 2007.

Update: I also passed 12,000 miles since I started keeping records.

After dropping the 69er from the range a year or so back, Trek have shown a new model, The Broadsider.

Shame it’s only a concept design for Trek World and won’t see the light of day.

More information: Bicycle Design – The Broadsider

If anyone was wondering, which to be honest is fairly unlikely, the Halo Fix-T thread cover does not fit on a Paul Components High Flange hub, the bearing adjustment ring is too large.

I’ve now had the Bob Jackson Vigorelli up and running for 5 weeks and 150 mostly commuting miles. It’s a bit of a cliché, but the more I ride it, the more I like it.

There’s a few minor niggles with it though, the gearing at 46:18 is still a little higher than I’d like, but the 19T Surly sprocket on it’s way should rectify that. In addition, the braking wasn’t particularly good, not a major problem on a fixed-gear bike, but not what I expected. However money can cure most ills, and swapping to Campagnolo Record Carbon levers has improved the braking no end. As they were mainly bought for their looks, the better braking is a nice bonus.

The biggest downside to the Vigorelli is slightly harder to rectify though, I now want a matching road bike. Maybe that can be next years project?