your daily bicycle log

52 miles in 3hrs 13mins, smashed my previous personal best for 50 miles.

Did 55 miles yesterday, about half of it in the New Forest where I saw this horse:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/horse.jpg
I was going past the airport at Bournemouth at about the time that Red Arrow must have come down as I was passed by about seven or eight fire engines and stuff with there sirens on.

Not a bad week's cycling...

https://p.twimg.com/AXZQd_uCQAA2l6x.jpg

There = their (above)

Just 25 miles today, no horses or aeroplanes

Only 12 miles, but it included the yoghurt pots and Barry Knows Best.

Got out to the trailhead, and apparently it rained hard out there but not here. Not enough to make the trails impassable/susceptible to damage, but plenty to make then greasssssssy. Bailed after a half hour :(

Tomorrow they should be fast as heck tho

Today I rode a total of 120.7 mi, 8 hrs and 20 mins, 11,859 ft of climbing.

god yr old

*puts bike up for sale, considers becoming a philatelist, weeps*

dont think id make a convincing cardie/pipe/slippers kind of dad, but a less strenuous more contemplative dotage is seeming appealing atm.

so, tell me about philately?

actual quote-

"if you don't feel well enough to get up off the floor, you should just go back up to bed and lie down and go to sleep."

Shed-derived shoulder injury has me off the bike for five days. Sad face.

Another 30 miles yesterday, making about 110 in three days and 216 in eight days. Rain today and holiday nearly over.

Back in the saddle this morning, and did my 27-mile-round route to the parents and back for bacon and eggs. 6.30am starts = I need arm warmers and 3/4 bibs soon. It was chilly.

I kind of refuse to buy either until it's officially September, though.

I've had a crash. Much blood. Will tell all in the racing thread tomorrow.

no bueno amigo. heal up soon.

Oh no! Hope you're ok.

26 miles in 1hr 35mins this morning.

Actually, forget the racing thread, I'll put it here.

Yesterday was my first proper race for more than two months after an unintended break due to work / family things / foreign holiday. I went to the Hillingdon circuit for the second time (I raced there in April and finished in the bunch). It was a 4th cats only race, for one hour + 5 laps (each lap is a mile long). It's not the most technical circuit and it's reasonably flat, so even though it was raining for about 10 minutes the conditions were safe enough, but there were one or two riders who kept wobbling erratically.

We'd been going for about 18 miles at an average of 25mph and I was feeling OK. I was keeping in the pack with the intention of moving up towards the front when they announced five to go (breaks never seem to stay clear here, so I wasn't worried about missing a move). We were on a fairly straight section, so there didn't seem to be any reason for what happened, but to the front and left of me someone swerved - suddenly the rider in front of me fell to his right and took down the guy to his right as well. There was a sickening split second where I knew I was going to crash because there was nothing I could to avoid them, then I was tumbling and I don't really know what happened but I seemed to land on my face.

The next thing I remember the three of us had clambered to the grass at the side of the circuit. I was lying down because I couldn't stand up: although I'd landed face first, I only seemed to have a few scratches and a fat lip from the impact, the real problem was my left leg which had been sliced up in several places by somebody's chain ring. There was blood all over the place, mingled with oil, but in my dazed state I thought the blood had come from one of the other riders (he was missing a large chunk of skin from his leg/hip). Eventually a first aider came to us armed with little more than wipes to clean us up. It didn't seem like anyone had broken any bones. I hobbled back to the HQ and got bandaged up.

The sensible thing at this point would have been to go to a hospital to get the wounds properly cleaned out and to get myself checked out in case I had concussion or something. Instead I drove home for more than an hour through central London, had a bath and tried to clean things up myself, and then got ready to go out: one of my best mates, who now lives in Spain, was back in England for one night only so I felt I had to make the effort to get to see him. We didn't have any bandages at home, and plasters were completely inadequate, so I had to improvise by sticking some pantyliners to my legs! This initially seemed to have done the job, but I realised later on in the evening that my left trainer was covered in blood (and is maybe ruined) as was the left leg of my jeans. When I got back home from the pub, my leg looked like this:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/leg.jpg

Today I can scarcely walk. Everything feels stiff and achey and tender, but at least the bleeding has stopped. I had been planning to race again next weekend, but I can't see that happening now.

Oddly, my bike seems to have come out of it largely unscathed (though I say that without actually having tried to ride it yet). The handlebars need adjusting as they're about 30 degress out of line of the front wheel, but that's easy enough to sort out. The only thing I'm not sure about is some damage to the rim of my front wheel:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/rim.jpg
Is that still safe to ride? I imagine it would cut up the brake pads pretty quickly. Is there anything that can be done to it, or do I basically need a new wheel? If the latter, is there any point trying to get someone to build me a wheel with a new rim put onto the old hub, or will it be easier and cheaper to just start from scratch?

Ouch man, here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

Thanks. Photo here, pre-crash obviously:
http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_jphoto&view=image&id=17287:hill133&Itemid=79

woof! get well soon

also: ― Manchester United 8 (EIGHT) Arsenal 2 (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Sunday, August 28, 2011 7:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sb

your rim looks cooked btw

I thought so, but I was holding out some insane hope that they could just plane it down or something.

Re-using the old hub is definitely fine & should still work out cheaper. What hub is it?

Rims and hubs are Mavic Aksium Race. Someone has suggested filing the rim down with an emery board.

scratch looks deep enough to be structural

Could reuse the hub but might b cheaper to get a new aksium race wheel, especially in end of season sales. (apparently they are an arse pain to build and true because of the straight pull spokes).

Might be worth looking if Mavic has a crash replacement programme that applies.

I've taken the bike into my local shop for them to check it over. They reckon they can file the rim OK, but on closer inspection both wheels need to be trued a little bit, the headset is slighlty loose, and my left pedal is making strange noises.

Sorry about the spill, NBS! Facial injuries, especially, are awful/awesome for looking like you really did something over the weekend.

I've said it in other places, but for the record I did 15 miles yesterday in sheer desperation, because if I didn't get out of the house I was going to have caffeine + inactivity seizures. Caught in post-tropical storm rain squall in the middle there, but dried off by the end.

26 quick solo miles this morning, and about 17 leisurely ones along the river this afternoon with the wife. I need a few more and I'll have done 500 in August.

get well soon nbs, and yeah and file that smooth and see how it goes.

i had a mystery hr ride saturday. normally my max max hr is 167 bpm, but saturday i went hard and sustained 170, maxed at 177. no idea how that could happen unless my hrm is fucked up.

I got my bike back from the shop yesterday - they seem to think the rim will be OK, but will inevitably wear the brake blocks down more quickly, they sorted out the various other problems. I can't ride at the moment with my leg in its current state so I haven't been able to check.

I'm a bit concerned that one of the cuts might be becoming infected (it's going red around the scabbing and none of the various other cuts I've got is doing that) and I'm cursing myself for not going to hospital on Saturday (although if I had done I would have missed seeing my mate for another year). I've been googling for information to see whether I should try to see a nurse/doctor tomorrow and rather worryingly came across some advice that said if you've had a deep cut from a metal object you should get a tetanus jab immediately. Yipes. I thought that was just for animal bites. I haven't had a jab for at least 14 years and an oily chain ring is certainly a metal object.

Get yourself to A&E, dude.

In other news, I did somewhere between 25 and 35 miles today (unsure due to GPS user error!), which means I've done over 500 miles in August.

NB&S you will initially feel a pulsation under heavy braking, but the brake pad matter will eventually fill in the groove to some extent in my experience.

A self-healing rim - sounds good.

I've been given antibiotics for my infected cut, but apparently won't need a tetanus jab or a wooden leg. Was told not to cycle for a few more days (not that I was planning to).

Tetanus is only caught from rusty things, I thought? That is 8-yo me talking, though. Idg the science behind it.

nah, c. tetani is found all over the dang place, in spore form. soil, etc.

the reason rusty things are dangerous is because, unlike most things Outside and Near Children Playing, rusty things can be sharp, and you can cut yourself on them. c. tetani, an obligate anaerobe, is now in yr flesh and away from icky oxygen, and free to flourish and crap out neurotoxin like a jerk.

Current status: On the couch, still breathing deep, wearing compression tights, clutching a half-gallon of chocolate milk. Not really moving.

LOL @ "tapering"...

31 miles for breakfast in a smidgeon under 2 hours.

3.4 miles! My leg didn't hurt and the bike seems OK (although the rim made a shrf...shrf...shrf sound whenever I braked).

That 31 miles did my shoulder in. Not been on the bike since, and wont be for another few days at least. Glad you're back in the saddle, NBS.

Monday was one of my last hard training days of the season. 75 miles in 3 hours flat with 1500 feet of climbing.

Alone? That sounds incredible. I couldn't get anywhere near that.