Category Archives: Bikes

Contents:
2x 700x25mm Continental GP4000s
4x 700x32mm Kenda Small Block 8
2x 700x25mm Bontrager Race X Lite Hardcase
2x 700x28mm Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase
1x 26×2.35 Bontrager Jones ACX
1x 26×2.2 Bontrager Jones ACX
1x 26×2.2 Bontrager XR4

My somewhat delayed new chainset was finally delivered at 11am this morning. Things must be bad if they’ve had to resort to delivering on a Sunday morning.

Despite not working for DHL, I got co-opted into this by Steve who needed a bed for the night beforehand. The ride was from a DHL depot in Bristol, into Bath, up to Marshfield, then back to Bristol. The Marshfield bit worried me a bit, it’s at the top of several steep hills.

12 of us set out from Bristol along various cycle tracks to Bath before picking up our escort of two DHL vans who would chaperone us for the rest of the ride. We lost one rider to a puncture in the middle of Bath thanks to his use of tubs, leaving the remaining 11 riders to head up Bannerdown, most of whom were blissfully unaware of the climb coming up.

We climbed the long drag up to Bannerdown, surprisingly I was one of the few who didn’t resort to walking. Unfortunately while refuelling at the top it started raining making the next 15 minutes of the ride rather damp and cold.

After a bit more climbing up towards the M4 we cut back across towards Bristol before picking the cycle tracks up again for the last few miles home.

We did 38.5 miles in about 3 hours, slightly more than the promised 32 miles.

The Route.

If you’re feeling flush, you can sponsor me belatedly via Steve’s page.

A nice road ride from Bradford-on-Avon with Ian today. We looped out via Warminster and down to the Longleat estate, raced cars down a fantastic descent to the house, then climbed out again for a tea stop before picking up the route back through Warminster and home via Trowbridge after a slightly lumpy 42.5 miles. Not bad going for what Ian reckoned was a flat 30-miler.

The Thule ProRide bike carrier worked well, although it’s a bit nerve-wracking the first time you load a bike worth about the same as the car onto the roof, especially when you can’t recall how high the bridge is that you need to drive under, and can look up through the sunroof roof to see it wobbling away.

40 miles out to the lake and back with Ian, both on our Titanium road bikes. I was on my Singular Firebird,

and Ian on his De Rosa Titanio.

It was bloody hot, I ran out of water, and by the time I got home was struggling to turn the pedals. However a cold shower, chocolate milk and bacon rolls soon cured that.

Some post-ride fettling has hopefully cured the annoying rattle from the back-end of the bike. Looks like some ham-fisted idiot didn’t fit the 12T sprocket correctly when he built the bike, and therefore the cassette was slightly loose.

According to the Bath Cycling Summit programme, one of our staff is leading a discussion group entitled “Becoming a Cycle Friendly Employer”. This is from an organisation which recently disbanded it’s Cycle User Group, and is doing nothing related to this weeks Bike Week.

We do have plenty of cycle racks and a couple of showers though, maybe that’s all it takes?

The original plan was to head out with Sandy and Simon for the organised Midsomer Madness ride this evening, but a dodgy knee meant I decided to stay a bit more local in case a bailout was needed, and the others elected to join me.

It didn’t all go to plan to start with. Whilst waiting for Simon I decided to put a narrower tyre onto the back of the Hemlock, and due to it being a very tight fit I managed to pinch the innertube necessitating a replacement. Then once out riding my Edge 205 forgot where it was for the first half-hour, and Endomondo on the iPhone was worse than useless.

We did more or less the same 12 mile route that I’d ridden on Sunday, but with added slop, a half-dozen comedy crashes from newly SPD’d Sandy, and a stop in Bathampton for a restorative pint.

Back home after 2.5 hours for a shower, a sausage sandwich, a beer, and and evening of legs gently tingling from nettle rash.