Category: Words

Two months of no riding has now passed. Really missing being able to swing a leg over the bike and go riding. I’m not remotely motivated to do any remedial maintenance or cleaning of my bikes either.

Went in to hospital for an operation on the 24th February to get treatment for an ailment that wouldn’t go away. One of those things you kind of shrug off, but it’s not gone away in ten years so I’ve decided to get it ‘fixed’ as it’s had an impact on biking which is starting to affect other things in life too. It means no riding for the a month or so whilst things heal up. This means that in the short term things suck, but long term is looking brighter. Gotta focus on that.

There’s some irony in the fact that the one day I managed to ride to work this week not only did I get rained on commuting home, but some genius in a white Transit van tried to kill me by not signalling and turning right as if they were parking up alongside the kerb and then swinging left across the road into a driveway. The ultimate cut up. Still not like a bus driver tried to kill me.

I’ve done some power output efforts on the Watt Bike trials a few times, but I’ll never come close to this: 2,500W power. Awesome (even for an Aussie).

Managed to ride three days out of five last week which seems to be about average at the moment. I suspect I will probably struggle to match it this week. It’s been cold on the bike too. Cold enough to arrive at the destination of the ride with an ice cream headache even with a Giro merino cap on under the lid. I may have to resort to the standard issue merino fleece lined beanie if the temperature stays sub zero.

The weather turned from cold to snow on Saturday here in Manchester. It started falling around midday and stuck straight away. We were heading up to Carnforth and as we drove out of the city on the M61 there was a lot of slush and poor driving conditions. The Bridgestone A001 winter rubber was great and was a sound investment. Ironically the conditions just south of the lakes were snow free and 3 degrees warmer (albeit still on the cold side of nought degrees).

Whilst the thaw started late Sunday, there is still plenty of snow on the ground. I’m still hoping to get out for a proper ride soon. Fingers crossed.

Well not much going on in the world of riding at the moment. Since New year I’ve yet to put tyre rubber into contact with trail dirt and it’s not looking particualrly likely to happen any time soon. Even riding to work has taken a beating as I often find myself in a situation where it is more practicable to walk to work than ride in. Still the days I have been on the bike have been fairly uneventful.

Partly this is due to using the new “safe route” and avoiding the knobheads who’d generally try and kill you on the way home and the also in part due to being more prepared. So when the HID ran out of juice a week or so ago, I just turned on a back up. Even the weather is playing nice. The harsh winter never arrived, there’s been very little frost or ice and as a result it’s been happy days on the commute any way. There’s even been some good sunsets, which is a rarity in Manchester given the sky is usually obscured by rain clouds this time of year.

Catching up with a friend in Llandudno left me rather late arriving at Betws-y-Coed for a ride today, so I knew it was going to be tight fitting in a full ride this close to the shortest day. What I hadn’t factored in were the trail conditions. After parking up in town and riding up past the Bryn Afon guest house and up the ‘I swear this road has become steeper’ climb to the Marin Trail, it must have been past 2pm.

Despite the ticking clock I pressed on. The first section of Singletrack that you reach when joining the trail this was is through a thick conifer plantation and was almost pitch black to ride through. After that most of the trails weren’t too bad at all for light. The section through to the carpark at the official start to the trail above Llanrwst was awesome in a brakes off, letting it flow, kind of way.

After that of course is that climb, the long drag that goes on and on and then again once you’re across the road. The trail conditions steadily worsened and there was more and more snow further around the trail. Conditions were pretty severe and without any lighting or proper winter spec clothing, I bailed after Pixies Paradise and took the A5 back to town. It was properly dark by the time I made it back to the van and I had feet and hands like blocks of ice.

It would have been very foolhardy to have pressed on with the trail even if I had just taken the fire road a bit further to the road descent down from Pont Banog, let alone trying to take in the final section of Singletrack. The conditions were getting icy and I would have potentially have just been another statistic. These mountains can’t be underestimated, especially in conditions which have already claimed the life of others.

So ordered a few upgrades for the Remedy as part of keeping the bike going. Shimano XT trail pedals to replace a very worn out pair of Candy SLs. Hope floating rotors and new tubeless ready wheels built around Hope Evo hubs and Mavic XM819 rims. They replace a pair of rather trail aged Bontrager wheels. I also replaced the rather bent seatpost quick release with a a CNC’d hope lever which hopefully won’t be as soft under my grip. Thing is despite chucking a fair bit of cash at it, the bike doesn’t seem much lighter on paper:

The advantage of course is being avke to drop two tubes out of the equation, so that saves about 500g across a pair of wheels. The thing I am interested to see is whether I notice the reduction in rim width. The XM819s (23.5mm) are a bit narrower than the Bontrager Rhythm Elites (27.5mm), but I’m hoping that the ability to run lower pressures will allow things to even out in my favour. All in should save about three quarters of a pound on the bike…

The headset in my 2008 Trek Remedy has been shafted pretty much since the first ride. Coming to use it the next time for a second ride the bottom race had seized up and the bars needed a fair bit of working to get it moving again. In the interests of destruction testing I’ve carried on running the Cane Creek unit until now. After the last ride there was a fair bit of play in the bearings so I new it was time for a replacement.

Tim Johnson at Sideways Cycles in Alsager did the leg work and sourced me a Chris King Inset. Popped down yesterday and Tim did the honours in fitting the new one and binning the rusty old bearings. It’s looking good and spinning smoothly now: