It’s amazing how different a bike can look with just a fettle of the forks and a change of tyres.

After changing the travel in the Rebas this morning, then fitting new tyres, I decided it was time to take the 69er 3×6 for a spin. I initially headed up along Linear Way to see what’s going on with the Two Tunnels work, the answer is not a lot really. Picking up the usual route I headed up and into the woods, through the Uni, down into Bathampton, then back along the main road. About a mile from home the rear tyre went flat necessitating a repair or walk decision. 20 minutes later I finished the walked back into my road a home for a beer.

I was suffering from lower back ache every time I stepped off the bike, possibly from the Camelbak I was wearing, time to investigate Wingnut bags.

This won’t be of interest to many people, but it’ll be useful to me next time I need to do this.

• Remove front wheel and brake caliper. Protect from any oil which may escape (I wrapped the caliper in a plastic bag).
• Let air out of both chambers, then remove valve cores
• Remove 10mm nut from bottom of left leg. You’ll probably need to start with a spanner before moving to a long 10mm socket as there isn’t much clearance.
• Remove top cap from left leg with 24mm socket.
• Keeping fork compressed (use zip-ties or similar) push the piston rod up from the bottom of the fork. This’ll need freeing with a tap from a hammer, then pushing thorough with a 5mm allen key or similar. Stop when the air piston pops out of the top of the fork.
• Remove or add spacer as appropriate.
• Push air piston back into fork until piston rod appears out of the bottom of the fork.
• Add 10ml fork oil to bottom of fork and replace valve core.
• Replace 10mm nut on piston rod and tighten until snug.
• Add 5ml fork oil to top of fork, replace top cap and valve core.
• Remove any zip-ties etc. used to keep fork compressed.
• Pump air back into forks, 160+/150- psi ish.

My current favourite all-round MTB tyres are the Bontrager Jones ACX in varying flavours, however in their infinite wisdom Bontrager have  stopped making them. This leaves me with something of a conundrum, what should I buy instead for the 69er?

The rear tyre isn’t too much of a problem, I’ll probably get a 2.2" XR4, but what do I get for the front? There isn’t a 29" version of the XR4, so I’m left to pick between the 29-3, 29-4 (which isn’t on the Bontrager website), the FR3 or the last Jones ACX hanging on the wall at the LBS provided they haven’t sold it in the last few days.

Why can’t they make things easy and bring back the ACX?

Update: Decision made, the 29-4 will not available for a while, so it’ll be 2.2" ACX on the front, with a 2.2" XR4 on the rear.

Tonight was the first evening ride with Ian for quite a while. I rode as far as Avoncliff then turned round and headed back home again, a round trip of just under 20 miles. There must be some sort of weird phenomenon alongside the Kennet and Avon canal which messes with shifting. My front mech shifted perfectly on the way into to town, but as soon as we rode up onto the canal towpath it refused to shift back into the big ring and took a good couple of minutes of fiddling to get it to work. After that I just left it in the big ring for the rest of the ride.

The biggest problem tonight was the cold. My winter tights don’t fit properly, but probably wouldn’t have been much better, and despite thick Merino socks, shoes, and toe covers, I still lost feeling in a few toes.

The warm weather can’t come soon enough.

Today was my first proper ride of the year today, and the first proper ride on the Singular Peregrine. Nicky wanted to do another 17 miles before the end of the month so after procrastinating with the aid of toast and coffee for a few hours to avoid the rain we ended up heading out along the cycle track towards Saltford.

Leaving the track at Saltford we headed up the Double Gravity climb, looped round through the back of Keynsham, picked up the cycle track again and then headed into town to top up the miles. We arrived back home after 20.5 miles in pretty much two hours dead just as the rain started again.

The Peregrine worked superbly now that I’ve fettled the brakes a bit more, it still weighs a ton but thanks to that it was fantastically stable on the downhill bits of the route. Despite woolly socks and toe covers, I still ended up with cold toes though.

The Lemond now has almost a full compliment of Campagnolo Centaur components fitted. I bought it with Centaur hubbed wheels, and quickly replaced the Veloce brakes with the Centaur equivalents. Following the purchase of some pre-enjoyed parts, it now has carbon Centaur levers and a matching rear mech, leaving just the Veloce front mech to let the side down.

The hand me down Veloce shifters and normal Centaur mech will probably make a move to the cross bike at some point provided I can source a Campagnolo spaced, Shimano splined cassette.

I decided to drive to work for a change this morning. The roads are fairly clear once you get out onto the main roads, and I suspected the car parks would be empty at work today, however my plan was thwarted by the doors on the car being frozen shut. The seals along the bottom of the two front doors have frozen solid, and neither door will open. I did get one rear door open, then couldn’t close it again. Judicious use of a can of de-icer means I think it’s locked properly again now.

At that point I gave up, changed coat and shoes, then dug the geared 69er out and rode in trying to avoid the worst of the ice. There was still a few inches of virgin snow at one end of the site which made the ride worth it.

After 3.5 years and 1700+ miles, the Ribble has been retired. It’d been my main commuting bike since I bought it, especially in wet weather. However after breaking yet another rear wheel I have replaced it with a Singular Peregrine. It’s got the drive-train from the Ribble, a pre-enjoyed Bontrager Race 29er front wheel, a new XT on Mavic A319 36-spoke rear wheel, 38mm cross tyres, Avid BB5 Road brakes, a mix of finishing kit (Specialized, Thomson, Bontrager), and some rather shiny Gilles Berthoud mudguards. Total weight is a rather hefty 29.5lbs, a planned swap to 32mm road tyres should help reduce that a bit.

The first proper test ride will probably be to work and back on Monday.

• 180 CDs
• 4 SACDs
• 2 DVD-As
• 43 gigs
• 617 DVDs
• 26 Blu-rays
• 6 cameras
• 12 lenses
• 18 bicycles