your daily bicycle log

30 mile daybreak route north of Exeter, vaguely inspired by the piece with Tom Staniford in this week's Cycling Weekly (he's a student at the uni where I work, and seriously inspirational paracyclist). Did the 30 in just shy of 2 hours, doing some roads I know well but backwards, and some new roads I'd never done before. It was beautiful.

ha krakow, i got in 60km on the friday before, that put me over!

Cold first proper ride of the year. 50km despite not putting on ear band, freaky warm weather is good. All my lycra feels tight after xmas though.

Fantastic haitch, well done!

A friend of mine actually got into Rapha's picks for the best of the Festive 500's!

35 miles for breakfast.

I had bacon and eggs

Paceline riding through the valley. 85 miles. Didn't blow up for once.

22 miles for breakfast. Next weekend I hope I can do a nice long ride with company.

I'm still getting over a cold I've had since Tuesday, but dragged myself out this morning. The group was about half the size of last week's (just 7 of us), probably due to the much lower temperature. We stuck to main roads on the way out to avoid any ice. Me and another guy who needed to be home by 12 peeled off after 20 miles and came back via the lanes. 44 miles at an average of 17mph and my toes are completely numb. Gorgeous sunshine today, even though it is cold.

140km over the weekend, two rides on the trainer. I know it doesn't count but its alternating between snowing and raining at the moment.

Doesn't count

GET WET!

was too wimpy to go out on a 36f/2c morning ride today

Rode about a mile to yoga and back before work. Got whistled at (which never happens to me, like, ever) by Occidental students and a woman unlocking her front door said "HI I like your CAR" (?). Is this a common bike thing?

Biking

Enjoy it! Most of the heckles around these parts are a lot less positive.

No work today. Cycled into London to the Condor shop as I had a £30 gift voucher to use there from Xmas. Ended up spending well over £300 on a new helmet, shoes and pedals.

Good work.

I had a cheery "Respect you for riding in this", as I rode through the snow on my way to work this morning. Still going to ride indoors this weekend.

been playing around with trainerroad and sufferfest. the hunted is fun, fight club is diabolical imo.

That looks like fun

yeah, i have a kurt trainer, i think it does seem consistent enough to provide accurate benchmarking even without accurate power numbers.

that said i have no program this year, no objectives, and i just basically get on there and beat the shit out of myself if i feel like it.

what are you guys talking about

there's a website called trainerroad that takes speed information from your indoor trainer, extrapolates power data, and provides an online workout profile for you to do. it's like a computerized, workload-quantified spinning class you do at home.

40 miles over hills and along rivers in very windy conditions.

Threw my chain on a fast downhill yesterday!

I thankfully managed to control the resulting skid (I'm on fixed gear) and not deck it.

The chain had popped a link before getting too tangled up, so I was able to push that back together and ride home. Took it to the LBS and got a new chainring and cog fitted, as it was old worn ones which had caused the jump, I think.

Then today I get a puncture 5 miles from home, find my handheld pump doesn't work, so had to run home pushing the bike, as I would have been late for a photo job otherwise and didn't have money spare for a taxi!

Going to try and fix the puncture now, but I might not even try to ride tomorrow, it feels like tempting fate...

Perhaps best wait until the new week!

I need a second bike!

wait did the chain get caught up or something? because ime a thrown chain on a fixed gear = oh shit no brakes

My experience is that most often the chain is thrown off at the chainring, as there is more scope for slack there and then wraps itself around the rear cog, locking the rear wheel up and generally mangling things to all hell (cog, hub, wheel, dropouts, chain...). Last time it happened my rear drive-side drop out got all twisted up. Luckily this time everything locked up quite quickly and no significant damage is immediately obvious.

I've had this happen 3-5 times of varying severity in the last 3-4 years, but then I ride A LOT and don't keep everything that shipshape.

Fixed-gear doesn't necessarily mean brakeless. I'm an exception in that I have both front & rear brakes on mine, but a front brake is both common and, strictly, a legal necessity.

I'd rather the chain were thrown free of the cogs, which I've had happen a couple of times. The feeling of suddenly losing all tension and spinning the cranks into thin air and with no resistance is very weird, but you can at least use the hand brake(s) to come to a stop without damaging anything.

The chain wrapping round the rear cog is in my personal experience and expectation the more likely and potentially damaging outcome of a fixed-gear chain jump though.

Not fun whatever happens! But I didn't die, so all is good!

this is true

krakow ur the baddest ass cyclist on ilx afaict. from psychotic neds to splittin heads to fixie catastrophes, u keep it rolling.

probly the weather isnt good there either, but i cant believe its worse than minneapolis.

Krakow: was your 5-mile run home done in cycling shoes?

Just MTB style, but yes. With loaded courier bag. :-)

Urgh... 58.4 miles today at 18mph. An up, across a bit, and back down route with a cross-tailwind on the outbound leg - cracked off at a terrifying pace of 19.7mph for 24 miles. I was already suffering badly at that point. Then we split into two groups - I was in the supposedly slower group doing a shorter route, but the next stretch was mostly tailwind and it was lined out at over 27mph and once again I was just disappearing off the back and desperately fighting to get back on. Then came the long slog back home into a cross-headwind. I was utterly spent, but knew I couldn't face doing 25 miles on my own in those conditions, so hung on in there until we were safely inside the M25 and then I finally cracked with 9 miles left and struggled home alone.

Because I haven't done any serious riding for a while, I'd forgotten - until your description - how bad cracking can be. The last time I totally went was when I was out with my brother, who was a serious club cyclist at the time. He took it fairly easy, but I was still always playing catch up. The last idk 15? I could barely turn round my lowest reasonable gear, head hanging over the handlebars, barely looking up, actually visualising food I would eat when I got back to pull me along like a cartoon carrot dangling off a fish-rod in front of me. Even going downhill seemed to produce no momentum.

170km on the trainer over the weekend,.5km of real riding to a bar through brown sludge with snow tyres as well for your consideration.

Just as I was coming to warm down today my rear shift lever came off in my hand, sheared off of whatever axle is up in the depth of the double tap hood. It's still under warranty but it is vexing nonetheless. The campag chorus levers on the condor are over 15 years old and counting.

A quick search of the internet shows this to be a far from uncommon problem.

http://i42.tinypic.com/14kz7ew.jpg

SRAM is pretty good about this stuff tho right?

how many hours on the trainer is that becuz it is mental

that wasnt a product failure it was god performing an intervention

a bit less than 3 yesterday, a mildly hilly program, a little less today mainly just doing tempo, and today was with breaks. Audible is my friend in this regard, just stick a book on an zone out. January is pretty boring round these parts.

People do seem to get pretty good results from SRAM it seems.

haha

ha familiar places boulder checks in

http://youtu.be/GMCkuqL9IcM

actual lolz right there

like the nose-clearing in the cafe

getting the bike back on the road this week, fuck this £30 a week tfl smelly tube nonsense. also feel fat and depressed.

(got knocked off by taxi SMIDSY style around late november)

everything is fixed, pretty much, last thing to do is replace the brake cable. i haven't done my googling yet, just popping in here being lazy, but worth doing myself, or best to get a pro to do it?

Replacing the brake cable is pretty straight forward. If you have to replace the housing it can be a little annoying if only because cutting the housing is much easier with a proper housing cutting tool.

Where are you crackle? I've got some good cable cutters I can lend if you're in s London or roundabouts. Mind you' they're not hideously expensive.

Wake up: clear blue skies
Load the car: a crisp sunny morning
Drive for three hours down to Dorset with my three-year-old constantly saying "I want to get out now the sun's hurting my eyes": brilliant sunshine, sunglasses on
Cup of tea at the in-laws: sky turning grey
23-mile ride: hailstorm and freezing rain :-(

Went to velodrome at Calshot today with my club for a three-hour session. My first ever time riding on a track and my first ever time on a fixed wheel bike. I loved it.

Got track withdrawal symptoms today :-(

I really want to do it again, but probably won't get a chance for a year (when my club will go again, I expect). It's a shame Calshot is so far away. At least the Olympic velodrome will be just down the road from me (if I'm still here when it finally opens to the public).