Busted front mech
Busted front mech
Seems like everything on my road bike is breaking. Within 3 weeks:
- freehub body
- front mech
- front shifter
The mech cage plate snapped on a down-shift at the bottom of the bank just north of Brasted.
New Posts
Scott Long Leg
Tough sportive yesterday courtesy of the Scott Long Leg, which I rode with Jonny, Millsy, Andy and Max. The event itself had an easy-going first half – which our group made even easier by spinning along and socialising – followed by a very spiky, hard second half – which Jonny and I made harder by chasing each other up the steepest climbs of the day.
In view of the fact that I’m supposed to be riding the Etape du Dales in a fortnight, and that 85 miles is the farthest I’ve ridden in training so far this year, I figured I needed to extend the Long Leg’s 70 mile distance. Therefore Millsy and I started the day in Epsom, and rode to and from the start line.
We’re into our fourth consecutive week of wet weather here, so it was no surprise to find some of the narrower roads in a really poor state – in fact no better than forest tracks. Millsy and Andy both flatted, and there were further mechanicals: Millsy’s rear mech broke after 30 miles, restricting him to a 3-speed drivetrain, and my front shifter broke after the second feed stop. Unable to shift into the big ring, I was forced to keep the cadence high – but actually I found this beneficial. Since I was never tempted to squeeze out extra revolutions from a big gear on an ascent, my legs felt faster and fresher.
I got impatient with the pace early on and made a break, but I didn’t sustain it, partly thanks to a random rider who latched himself onto my back wheel and then started chatting to me. We re-grouped at the second feed. As the gradient really kicked up for the first time, I paid the price for eating a whole chocolate brownie at the feed stop, and struggled with a ball of butter in my stomach. I fell back from Jonny’s pace on the climb, then I lost him for good without a big ring on the descent. In the end he took 6 minutes from me – but I had us at 10th and 11th fastest on the day.
The day’s heroics culminated in a climb over Box Hill on the way back to Epsom.
It’s been a while since I’ve been as wiped out by a ride as I felt last night.
The Tour of the North – debrief and microsite
It’s been 4 weeks since The Tour of the North. My rig is long since cleaned and put away in the shed, the Deuter lies in storage, the tub of Sudocrem is sitting like a trophy on the mantelpiece now hidden from site in a bathroom cupboard. My legs recovered well – in fact the experience transformed my form, and after a week I noticed a big speed and strength boost on the road bike.
Note: this debrief never made it into full post form – but here is the microsite I created for the Tour:
Rapha: Sella
Motivational.
Busted chainring
Definitely one for the broken archives.
This happened back in February. It actually all started in December last year, when I needed to change the dinged chainring (I feel the irony too) on my hack bike, and discovered that the bolts were simply turning in their washers as opposed to unscrewing normally. Out came the drill – wired from my kitchen, out of the window, through my neighbour’s garden, to my work bench. Four hours of heavy hand-tooling later, I succeeded in dismantling the bastard.
The saga continued when I replaced the drilled-out bolts with fresh ones, but didn’t tighten them up properly. 3 days of commuting later, I was pulling away from the lights at the Atkins Road crossroads, and my pedal stroke turned to butter. Looking down, I could see that the force of my downstroke had warped the chainring into the shape of a crisp. Cue an emergency call to Jas, who drove out to rescue me.
I’m now on my third chainring, but so far so normal.
Puncheur 2012
Evidently we enjoyed ourselves... Intermediate sprint for the cameraman.
For posterity – and consistency – I’m making a brief record of this, my and Jonny’s fourth Puncheur. In most respects, however, this was a punishing experience that I’d prefer to erase from my memory.
It literally rained all day, beginning as soon as we poked our heads out of the door at 7.30am, and continuing until the late evening. I think the first hour was not too bad, but thereafter the rain got stronger. It was like being sprayed in the face by 10 water pistols – some filled with slurry, others with sandy mud – for 4 hours. Mentally, I lost the will long before the first feed.
Jonny, after his customary light winter training schedule, was much stronger on the day and pulled away from me and Simmo soon after the half way point. I played some cat and mouse with Simmo for about 30 miles until managing to summon some hidden reserves of willpower, leading him by a couple of minutes by the bottom of Box Hill. I summited, red-eyed, sodden, and actually almost brake-less.
My finishing time of 3:59:19 was just inside the Gold time cut-off, but in fact the route was 4 miles shorter this year owing to roadworks, and I don’t think the organisers altered the award times.
Red Bull Minidrome
Just watching this makes me nauseous. It probably falls into the same category of entertainment as Rollapaluza.
Bike Theft NYC
Filmmaker Casey Neistat conducted an experiment in New York City to see how easy it was to steal a bike. The answer? Check the video.
Via Kottke.
Concept bikes #2
Derringer rig.
A couple of random concept bikes to round out the week.
Firstly, the Derringer – “A modern interpretation of the board tracking racing motorcycles of the 1920s” – which is basically a really heavy bike with a nice paint job and 3 metres of chain arranged cats-cradle style. I don’t really get it. From David Hardy.
The Arantix by Delta 7 Bikes.
Secondly, the Arantix by Delta 7 – or is it the Delta 7 by Arantix? Who cares, this kicks serious ass. I would love to wheelie drop this mutant off the train at Dorking just to see Andy and Tom’s faces. I imagine it would be the kind of bike coveted by Karl Stromberg, the villain in The Spy Who Love Me, riding it endlessly around his ocean lair and stroking the DNA spiral mesh. Imagine trying to clean it though.
Shirt Shuttle road-tested
I finally tried out my new Shirt Shuttle on the ride to work this morning. The shirt – a casual Friday option – went from ironing board to shuttle, and arrived in central London in very good nick.