Wheely Good?

Right, I want everyone's opinions. The designs of my new Phian wheels have come through. They're not final so here are the 2 designs I've been sent. What do you think?

Just One Disaster After Another

On Tuesday we met Jonny, the new kid on the block, and tonight we did a group ride, the 4 main youngsters in the club. It started off well, it got better, we climbed some hills, did some work, then climbing into Caistor Jonny's front mech twisted, so after a few minutes with an Allen key I got him on the road again.

We thought this was all of our bad luck and carried on. Then about half an hour later we were set on the way home, and had made it onto the drag, and Jonny somehow managed to physically wrap his chain around his crank arm. After some moaning about how oily his chain was, I managed to fix it, and we were on our way again.....or were we? Dan got clipped in, rode onto the opposite side of the road, shouted "my chain is off" and a split second later so was he. This was rather amusing so we won't count this too much as misfortune.

A couple of miles later, Jonny's chain was off again, fortunately not in a bad way, and 20 seconds later we were moving yet again.

At the end of the drag we had our customary sprint, which I won as I tend to, but managed to ping a spoke, which has pretty much written off yet another wheel. Dan managed the same thing a few days ago.

So to summarise:

1 front mech mechanical

2 chain problems, 1 of which very difficult

1 crash

2 wheels written off

Kharma? Perhaps, but what on earth for?

Ups and Downs

Cycling is full of ups and downs. My old bike is dying, but I'm getting a new one. My new frame arrived today, but it's the wrong size. So much for getting the bike ready for a couple of races before the season finishes. The replacement frame should be here on tuesday though, and I'm going to try and arrange it with Rourkies to book my frame in for spraying and building the moment it arrives so as not to waste any precious time. I may still be able to get a race on it before I leave for uni again.

Dan's bike is taking a little longer than previously expected too, but he's been told Saturday at the latest, so he should be riding it on the Sunday club run all being well.

A Graduation?

Well as you know I recently inherited an apprentice, Danny, who is doing very well. He's got a long way to come obviously but he's learnt the basics and is always improving. Is it time for him to flee the nest so to speak?

Probably not, he needs to learn a lot more, is the answer. But tonight I believe I have received a new apprentice who we believe to be called Jonny. He came to watch the tail end of the time trial at Fonaby tonight, stayed around for a chat, then he, Danny and I rode back to town together.

We imparted a bit of knowledge, or as much as one can do in 10 minutes, and Jonny is keen to come out for a proper ride with us.
It's good that we have a couple more youngsters coming to the club, and that Joe and I are here to help them through learning the ropes, and now Danny is able to impart some knowledge and talk more about being a new rider in the club. It will definitely benefit the both of them and we look forward to seeing them progress through the ranks and eventually reach the pinnacle of physical condition and racing with the best in the club.

Damp? That's Absurd!

Well three words describe my feelings about time trials: horrible, horrible and horrible. The course may well be slightly in my favour if I was trained up for time trials, so went all out from the line as I always do, rode conservatively up the hill, then blitzed it down the drag and after last turn. Needless to say in the last few kilometres I was dying: the curse of the non-tt specialist. I don't understand the concept of sitting at a constant wattage and cadence for 20 minutes when you can draft behind people and sprint, which seems so much more fun. Let's face it, Mark Cavendish can't time trial for his life, and I am the same.

I don't care though, as today I did do a 23 minute without being warmed up or trained up for the event, and was on a standard road bike that is falling apart. This was the least of my worries however, as when waiting on the start line for my number to be called, the heaven's decided to open. And open they did, with some flair I must say. Torrential downpour started, with a dash of hail stones thrown in for good measure. With the marvellous road surfaces of West Lindsey district council, the road collected the majority of this water in large pools, meaning I was constantly weaving around the road to keep on the slightly safer part, even if it meant riding like a Frenchman (on the other side of the road).

I shall not be riding my new bike in the wet and dirt I assure you, and I shall bring a bag to time trials in future so that I can carry overshoes if neccessary, and I might even race in my wonderful race cape rather than let Joe drive away with it as the rain started. Lesson learned, be over-prepared for time trials or else!

Quit Complaining

Well this title could be aimed at numerous people: the Wiggins fans who wanted him on the podium even though he did an amazing ride at the Tour anyway, Alberto Contador for moaning about Lance and his team during the Tour, but I guess it could also be aimed at myself!

To explain, last night I went for a ride with Joe and Dan, it was quite nice and it didn't rain on us which is never a bad thing. On the way back we stopped at the clubhouse for a chat, then to see what it was like, Dan wanted a go on my bike for a few minutes since we have the same pedals.

Fine I thought, how bad can his brakeless contraption be? Quite shocking in fact is the answer. The hoods are strangely low on the bars which was weird for starters. The transmission was what got me though: You pedalled and the frame is so sloppy that you hardly moved forwards. This is the last time I complain about power transfer on my own bike, it's a world better than the Carrera. The handling is pretty poor too, the steel forks make going round corners an arduous task. They don't feel terribly planted on the road and cornering feels rather dangerous compared to my precise carbon forks and taught alloy frame. The bike holds its speed reasonably well, mostly due to its vast weight and how much inertia it must have once it gets rolling. The only positive thing I can say about this bike is that due to its sloppy handling and power transfer, and huge saddle, it is rather comfortable. Well it must be, the bike practically folds itself in two when you go over a bump!

Now I have compared my delapidated bike with Danny's, I have a new frame of reference for all bikes I test in the future. "How does it compare to a £320 Carrera Virtuoso from Halfrauds?" (deliberate mis-spelling of course)

Back By Popular Demand

Well I guess I should apologise for not giving you your regular dose of blog, but I won't. After a bit of an off-period which I randomly get mid-season due to weather and stuff, I have been back on the bike. Or at least I was until Thursday, when a dog had other ideas for my day.

It was a nice club ride, a steady one with the older chaps, but allowed Dan and I to get some sprints in early on to open up the legs a bit. I reckon we did more hills on that ride than we do on a Sunday with scratch riders.

On the way back from a café just outside Louth, we were somewhere just past Manby, the group had just turned a corner and I was sitting back wheel and in front of me was Dan. A lady was on the floor doing some gardening with her dog near her. The dog, not on a leash, decided he would run out into the middle of the group, right in front of Dan. Dan braked and swerved and missed the dog. I hit Dan, then proceeded to hit the Dog side on. It travelled a metre or so before hitting the ground and I went over, hit my wrist on my bars, doing a fair bit of damage to the wrist. Dan rolled on a little then keeled over and hit the ground.

Turns out the dog and the woman were both fine, my wrist was out of commission so I rode home one-handed, and Dan ripped his bar tape. After repairing my tyre we were on our way again.

Over the past week Dan has been ordering and receiving components for his new bike. To date, he now has everything, and the bike has been sent to be properly cabled up and tuned.

My new bike however is taking slightly longer. The frame should be with me next week, the rest of it is on order and will be here by the time the frame has been sprayed up. It will probably be 2 weeks when all is done and the bike is ready to ride. A bit late on in the season but I'll get a bit of use out of it before the cold and wet comes once again.

Just to wet your appetite here is what the new frame should look like:

For reference, this is Dan's Blog, with pictures of new components and some nice tales of the road.