Author: Cris Bloomfield

The mild warm weather of yesterday that had Simon wearing shorts for the first time this year has been replaced overnight. Opening the curtains this morning resulted in a vista of shark skin grey skies and more than a hint of moisture in the air. Normal service for this time of the year has been resumed then. I rode the singlespeed in again today with the intention of riding from work once more tonight.

As the day went on the weather deteriorated and I decided to keep this ride as short as possible. Long circuitous route home, dump courier bag in garage head out immediately with some exploring in mind. Rode for a bit longer and ended up in some places I wasn’t expecting, but I think that’s the charm of navigating by sense of direction and what feels right – whether a particular option has a good vibe about it. Ended up soaking wet and a bit cold, but that’s another one done and some new singletrack through woods discovered.

I decided that having always skirted around Audenshaw, it was probably worth actually putting a ride in that took me through the area. Cold again tonight with a much more noticeable Northerly wind adding to the chill factor. Took the bottom bracket out of the road bike today whilst cooking dinner. The threads on the frame are fine so I stuck in a new Ultegra unit and put everything back together and it seemed okay. During the ride I noticed that there is play in the assembly. This is not good. It means that the axle has worn out on the Bonty Race X Lite cranks, so time for a new chainset then… I have put in the wrong king of bottom bracket for my cranks and need to order the proper unit. Doh!

Last night I watched an episode of Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory. People have been talking about this for a few weeks and it has been fairly interesting to hear about it. There’s not too much of a surprise in the story of an entrepreneur setting up in business and finding that it’s a lot more hardwork and difficult to achieve than might have been expected. The interesting thing for me was that there was an interesting focus on Willie and that he turns out to be a bit of a dab hand at cooking and (perhaps not that surprisingly) has the same passion for dark, spicy chocolate that I share. So as he spent a good segment of the show making hot chocolate, it seemed wrong not to follow suit.

Now I didn’t make the same – consistency of thick cream – drink that he produced, but I did have a good rummage in the ingredients cupboard and the end result of a very generous portion of Green and Blacks 70% Cocoa Powder combined with ground black peppercorns, a dash of red chilli powder, freshly grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon and some fresh orange juice with hot milk was probably the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. So hat’s off to the man and I’ll be keeping a look out for his chocolate billet which is being stocked by Selfridges (will have to have a look next time I’m in the City Centre) and there is some more discussion on this forum. I’ll be experimenting a bit more over the next few days I think.

Tonight’s ride was a good one. Leg has improved over the day and I hardly noticed it on tonight’s ride. It was very cold again and I had to dig the Buffalo jacket out. I’m fairly sure it was still a bit breezy, but I can’t honestly say it was hard going in any particular direction, so maybe it wasn’t at all. Probably could have ridden for longer, but my inspection of the bottom bracket revealed stripped threads on the non-drive side cup and I didn’t replace the unit, so I’m probably pushing my luck to be doing too many more miles on it before I get it fixed.

Friday was a nice evening for a ride and I headed out with grand plans of an extended loop around the back of Stockport towards Marple and home. This plan was rather scuppered by a puncture on one of the climbs. Now this wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a normal puncture, but no a piece of glass had slashed through the top of the GP4000 and if the tube was pumped up beyond about 40 psi it bulged through the carcass. So it was a slow, careful and squidgy ride home.

I dusted off my rugby boots on Saturday for a game. I felt much better this year than on previous occasions because I feel like I’ve put a good number of miles in this year. Shortly after the kick off for the second half, a crushing tackle from one of the oppositions front row, left me feeling a bit green. It was one of those moments where you get that sickly feeling in your stomach. Pause and assess: Well I’m still standing so my leg can’t be broken…. Phew, just a dead leg then, but this one is a humdinger. Hobbled about for the rest of the half trying to run it off, but no luck – this one’s a keeper. Home, shower, slap on a load of Deep Heat and then head out on the Singlespeed. Not feeling too great, certainly no power, so kept it local and the pace comfortable.

Slept all Sunday morning, eventually waking up and then faffing around before limbering up enough to get out on the bike. First 10 minutes were really uncomfortable, but eventually the leg seemed to free up a bit. Managed to ride out to the M60 exploring some old bits of trail I first explored a few years ago. there’s been a lot of changes, with new housing developments coming up. Nasty north easterly wind coming in made the ride out hard work, but otherwise okay.

30 from 30 Riders

Simon | Sara | Grant | Ali | Samuri | Jenn | Steve | Marty | dRjOn

Didn’t want to ride tonight because pretty much from the moment I came in the door tonight it’s been raining. As I was oiling the chain and pumping the tyres up before heading out I noticed a gap between the non drive side bottom bracket cup and the frame. I’ve had problems with this coming undone on the Harry Hall ever since I fitted it, but it was particularly loose tonight. Go to tighten it up with my fingers and it just keeps on turning. Both ways. Bugger. So either I’ve cracked the cup through and the threaded section is jammed in the frame, or I’ve stripped something completely.

Then I thought about what Steve said this morning “I’m facing a 12/14 hour day today and it would have been so easy to quit, but then when I think about it I can quit drinking for a month, surely I can do something everyday for a month? Especially something that I consider defines who I am and what I do ?” and of course riding whatever the weather is no big deal. So I just took the bike out, dodgy bottom bracket and all and rode it. Just about to ride out and go to turn the iPod on – it’s completely flat. No tunes tonight then.

The news is full of the current weather. Winter Storms Bring Chaos read the headlines. Trying to avoid getting blown off his bike Tyrrell was doored on the way into work this morning and then almost run over whilst lying in a crumpled heap in the road. It happened on Upper Brook Street outside the Hospital. For a few years now ever since they started the construction work on the Hospital expansion, the contractors have parked along the side of the road. It’s been a constant threat that’s worried me so I’ve chosen to ride in the centre of the lane rather than end up too close alongside the parked cars and vans. Still he’s okay, apart from a bloody knee and the idiot responsible was lucky to escape without a bloody nose.

The council are finally building a cycle lane to connect the two ends of the University Campus, primarily it will provide a safe route between the Upper Brook Street/Grosvenor Street junction under the Mancunian Way through to Sackville Street. I bumped into the planners yesterday afternoon and the workmen started work on widening the path this morning. This is a welcome bit of trail because when the traffic is heavy the complex of bends that form the road route are a bit dangerous.

So tonight I decided that rather than get battered by the wind and rain, I would try and seek some shelter and still get the miles in. Coupled with an ambition to get a local crit-type circuit, the recent resurfacing work on the Oxford Place has now opened up a realistic route. So 15 laps later, the jobs done and the weather really didn’t matter.

18 rides now into the 30. Weather is grim. It was either hard work slogging into the wind, battling the bike to maintain a line with the cross wind or getting a glorious tale wind all through the ride. It was cold and wet too so I didn’t enjoy it much at all. I wouldn’t have minded the ride in daylight, but at night it’s just horrid. I spent most of the ride thinking about a new all mountain trail bike and riding in the Alps this summer. Well you have to dream…

I was so tired this morning. I think it was all the excitement from the weekend and three early mornings, but I was barely keeping my eyes open at about 11.30am. Tonight represented my biggest challenge to date in terms of getting the motivation to keep on riding. I felt mentally and physically drained and it was only a steady supply of caffeine that kept me going.

Suffered my first puncture on the road bike since I built it up (that’s over three years now) on the ride home tonight. Inspection revealed a shard of glass that had just pierced the tube, leading to a slow, but inevitable softening of the rear tyre. I hate it when it’s wet, I seem to get all my punctures then which makes changing tubes a messy job, so I just unweighted the rear wheel and road it home to fix it in the dry and warmth of home.

In the end managed to ride out about 8.30pm. I had been thinking it might be interesting to do a different route every day of the 30, but I destroyed that idea tonight by riding the same route to Altrincham that I covered on day 10. I really couldn’t put my mind to coming up with something else. Catch up with how everyone else is doing via the links below:

30 from 30 Riders

Simon | Sara | Grant | Ali | Samuri | Jenn | Steve | Marty | dRjOn