your daily bicycle log

First weekend in a while where I won't be racing so I'm looking forward to a late-season early autumn club ride with the bros. There will be lots of coffee, pastries and foodstuffs involved I'm sure.

32 miles today, felt good considering it was first since stinking cold. First riding spds too, went ok, was a bit bambi like for starters but got used to it quickly, which pleased me. Also managed to dance up the really nasty hill just before home, is not long but is bloody steep. It used to be that I got breathless walking up it. Must have been the jerk chicken I had for lunch.

May have spoken too soon on spds, my right knee is bloody sore, have iced it.

You might need to adjust your cleats

Almost certainly. If the pain is on the inside of the knee, adjust the cleats so the toe points further outwards and vice versa. If it's in the middle of the knee, well, I don't know what to suggest.

Can also try adjusting the float, i.e the angle you foot can rotate about an axis coming up through the ball. Depends on the pedal, crank brothers you swap the cleat over, others it's a screw, others it's not possible. Mark's advice is sound too.

In London and going to have my first Boris bike experience.

Is outside of my right knee, will adjust accordingly and try again tomorrow. Ta chaps.

anytime you get fitted for anything or adjust a contact point (seat, bars, stem, seatpost, cleats), take a clear picture for before + after reference. this has saved me a lot of time and pain.

i get knee pain on my outside/front right knee anytime i ride more than 15-20miles. i don't use clip-in. might that help if i did?

Do you use toe clips or just nothing?

out from the Castro through Golden Gate Park to the ocean, then down and around Lake Merced. wanted to go longer but my rear wheel needs to be trued badly.

^^^love that ride.

Do you use toe clips or just nothing?
― Running the Gantelope (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, September 20, 2010 9:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i was using nothing, but recently got clips. i got fitted to make sure my seat was the right height.

And are you using cleats or just flat shoes?

It might be the lack of float that's the problem.

just flat shoes. i didn't realize that they made bicycle specific shoes that weren't clip-in. i'm currently on the lookout for a new bike altogether, so i think i'm just gonna wait till i get a road bike instead of getting shoes i'll never use.

12 mile commute this morning after adjusting cleat last night and things are much better. Also using the spuds seems to have added a couple of mph to my standard cruising speed, which is nice.

oh, and rapha base layer, you really are soooooo comfortable, wicking, warm, everything I need.

Cozen and Mark, will get yours to you forthwith.

The rule of thumb I was taught for cleat position is sit on a table with your legs dangling. The angle your feet are at is the angle they should be at one a bike. I need mine pointing out a little bit, and I notice when I ride the fixed with toe clips (so no single position), I can find I've been too pigoen-toed or splayed at times when I get a little twinge. Easily fixed.

Thanks Chris, excited!

Fixed-gear chain jump = narrowly averted disaster, bent dropouts & a totally messed up drivetrain.

Shit. :-(

Shit! My chain came off just now, getting trapped between the cog and wheel, skewing the wheel round till it was hard against the chainstay. Think the dropouts are fine, and hard-hearted bus driver only nearly didn't let me on, so I avoided the 3 mile walk back.

Moral: always make sure yr chain is tight :/

dudes... be careful. that is one of the most dangerous things to happen on your bike other than brake failure.

My moral: look after your bike better; get it fixed before it actually breaks.

I felt very lucky to have simply skidded to a stop rather than getting thrown all over the place, especially as I was coming downhill at reasonable speed at the time.

<img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/chachuuung/pic/00048dk0";>

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Felt really strong on commute home last night, scalp fully intact and took a couple myself.... Yet I ended up a full 5 minutes off my pb, curse that headwind. Spuds are making a real difference though, pedalling feels much smoother.

Killed it tonight on my last (or maybe 2nd to last) massive hammer ride of 2010, got an SMS stating: "you wounded me" from a guy with armour that is impervious to chinking.

it happened again! chain jump or whatever, ploughed to a halt while speeding up to junction in middle lane, traffic behind. fortunately the light was red so neither i nor the cars were completely caning it, but. not ideal. so i guess my chain is probably worn tae fuck, probably only ridden 500 miles (v rough estimate) but haven't exactly looked after it, not sure i've ever lubircated.

not sure i've ever lubircated

lubircation is grebt

def sounds like it needs lubing. if it is stiff and dry it will not go from the curves of the chainring and cogs back into flat without some trouble. clean it and lube it. and try to do it once or twice a month depending on how many miles you're riding and if you're riding through wet conditions or high humidity.

My bike is in for major surgery. Whole new drivechain to be fitted, dropout bent back into shape and brakes serviced while they're at it.

Roll on Friday!

yesterday one of my water bottles jumped off my bike at 20mph and I rode right over it, bit of a scare but no punctures and didn't come off

krakow, have you ever ridden through the blane valley on the ballachalairy yett? the views are stunning from the top of that hill

Thirty miles today at a relatively sedate pace. Very windy, quite rainy, and autumnal temperatures. Wore tights and long sleeves for the first time since the end of winter.

Bad news: 10 days left in my season (4 more races):

I got dropped yesterday in a routine training ride, about 8mins into a 10 min TTT @ ~90%max. FUCCCCCK.

Finding excuses, like: Took Wed off which was NOT the plan and kinda paid the price for it. Didn't eat a lot. Blah blah blah.

Fri/Sat will be relatively sedate affairs with a couple hard efforts. 2 races on Sunday am.

up ballachalairy yett again today, so pretty from the top
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5019667707_fa28813d03.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/5019667347_2f0cb0d216.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5019667517_4e8c68818e.jpg

(those houses in the top pic are where the climb starts, and the top pic is from about halfway up)

MO7S

jk, totally amazing. we need a "pix of your dope ride" thread, i would RSS that in an instant.

kudos to photographers who manage to 'capture' the 'essence' of landscapes or climbs, my pics (albeit bashed out hastily on a K800i) don't do the scenery anywhere near justice

I rode with ILX poster 'jaxon' today around the citay FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! CAUGHT IN A RAD BROMANCE! it was fun. he likes to push the pace.

thanks for riding slow for me

i was the tortoise and you were the hare.

Second week in SF, I stick my back wheel in a streetcar track. Rim now looks like a Pringle.

I mean, I knew better. And this is after my friend patiently taught me to true the wheel.

@cozen, I used to ride that way a lot when I used my road bike, but I haven't ever tried that particular route on fixed, because of my trepidation about the hill. I like the Carbeth huts through there as well.

Marshalling duty today. Up at 5.30am, drove up to the race HQ (for a 30-mile time trial), then rode for forty-five minutes into a howling gale in the rain thinking to myself "I'm glad I'm not racing in this". Then I spent nearly two hours shivering in the freezing cold as I stood at a roundabout seven miles south of Cambridge thinking to myself "I wish I was racing instead of standing here". Then I rode back again, significantly wetter, but with a powerful tailwind.

after reading your first sentence, i was all "WELL RETHINK THAT ONE LOL," but then sentence two. i hope you got many thanks from the racers.

Finished a 150k sportiv. NEVER AGAIN. It was a ride of ups and downs - the hills were all up and the moods were all down. Managed the climbs ok (four big ones, all a few hundred metres of ascent, steepest was 18%) but they were mostly before the half way point, and shortly after half way I felt like I had nothing left, was seriously doubting my ability to go on. But one of the guys I was with hung back and let me draft him for a while, and we caught up with everyone else and had a train of six going, and for a while I thought I was getting a second wind, but after a while I dropped back and was in worse despair than before. Was ok on the flats but as soon as the slightest incline started I was straight into the lowest gear as soon I saw it - even had to walk a couple. I'd turn my computer off, ride for HOURS, look at it again - and I'd have gone about four miles.

So, that was about 20 miles of pain. But then only five miles before the end I caught up with someone else who was struggling, he'd meant to be doing the 110k ride, but had taken a wrong turn onto the 150, and had run out of food. So we rode together for the last bit, and that was a huge psychological boost.

Got slightly confused about directions right near the end - it was raining by this point to add to the misery - ended up asking a woman striding along dressed in pink. She said "Are you doing the John Ibbotson ride? I'm his aunt! Or I was his aunt. Let me give you a kiss!" (John Ibboston was a professional cyclist who died of heart failure at 27, and the fund in his name now helps young cyclists.)

Well, I guess I'm glad I finished. May do 50-60 mile rides again, but anything more? fuhgeddabahtit.

Cool, whitstable on October 24th then? Registration opened today.

lolz! yah ok.

the thing i hate is the awful food, the bars and the gels. they just make me feel bad. i want to eat them to get energy but i don't because they're awful. (not that any wonderfood could have restored my leg muscles tbh.)