your daily bicycle log

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.

Not alone, haha. I'm still sore 2 days later.

Even so, my best ever race-in-the-bunch performance was 24mph for 60 miles. Doing 75 miles at 25mph as a training ride sounds pretty hardcore.

Hopefully, I will reap some benefit out of it!

alone?! thats actually pretty incredible imo.

oh, i c

twenty miles. slowly.

My bike's back in the shop to try and sort the alarming creaking noise that's cost me £90 so far. Hopefully I'll get it back at the end of the day fixed, but at this point, any progress would be a joy.

On another subject, what kind of frame bags, other than saddle bags, have people used successfully? I'm thinking in particualr of ones you might attach in front of the handlebars with a decent capacity. Any recommendations?

ha ha, S1mon from FNRTTC has pointed me at decathlon, him and suz1e both have one and not being so waterprooof apart, they love them. Probably not as big as you want though. Are you considering going rucksack-free?

11 stop-start miles on north-east London streets. I'm considering entering a 3rd/4th-cat race on Saturday at Hog Hill - it's the kind of event where I would struggle at the best of times, so I don't expect great things now, but I might do it anyway as it's the last road race event I can enter this season (without substantial travel). I don't feel injured now, but I'm obviously not race fit: only 45 minutes of racing in the last 2.5 months, and that was brought to an abrupt end by a crash followed by 11 days without riding at all.

Are you considering going rucksack-free?

Hell no! I just know that on a 2-day trip in the UK, I completely stuffed a rucksack but didn't take more than a catch-all jacket and a change of clothes. 3 days on the continent, in changeable/wet/cold season, I anticipate a fair bit more stuff being necessary.

Would this kind of thing be useful?
http://www.funstufffordogs.com/Qstore/uploads/trek

A dog?!

just the thing for the nordzeefietsroute. Mark and I are doing 3 days in Holland at the end of the month, cycling about a bit in lovely, *flat* holland. I will need to learn to draft properly.

that pic is actually a winter training bike. dogs are notoriously heavy and heavier bikes are better for training, as you well know

At this time of year you can probably get away with a lighter breed like a Jack Russell, but by December you really want to be hauling around a labrador.

Nothing in a week now. Physio appointment booked for later today. http://sickmouthy.com/2011/09/10/out-of-the-saddle/

Tomorrow I am riding 100 miles from Glasgow to Edinburgh, on fixed-gear, in this...

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/krakow81/Screenshot2011-09-10at102043.png

I am a little worried, not so much about the distance, but about the horrific weather.

good luck!

Have fun!

Thanks folks, it'll be quite something!

sick, much respect

i was going to do the fifty but i want to change the pedals on my bike (can't get along with cages) and also i'm probably not even fit enough to do 50, plus i'm working, plus it's raining excuse excuses, etc.

100 miles in the pouring rain sounds like a miserable experience.

All life is suffering.

We should grab a ride on a better day jim. It is likely to be tough going tomorrow.

I did that race today. Kind of. I rode over to Hog Hill through the swirling wind and dark grey clouds that seem to pass for an English summer nowadays, thinking I could just use the race as a) training, b) checking my leg is ok, c) to 'get back on the horse' as soon as possible psychologically (i.e. to race in the middle of a fast-moving bunch trying not to fear another crash, rather than leaving it till next season). When I got there I found that the race was part of a league that I wasn't affiliated to: to race I needed to join the league first and it cost me £30! Thirty quid for a 75-minute crit seemed insane, especially as I had no chance of even finishing it, but I paid anyway as it was my last chance of a road race this year and I'd already wasted my afternoon riding over there.

It started raining while I was warming up. The race started with a fast (37mph) downhill section with a sharp bend at the bottom. As we were on this the guy whose wheel I was on skidded and nearly lost control and I almost had a heart attack. The last thing I needed was another crash after just 20 seconds. I tucked in towards the back, but tried to stay on either side rather than in the middle of the pack so I had more chance of an escape route. The race was the usual attritional affair with the hill gradually thinning out the bunch. I lasted 20 minutes, then started to lose contact. I chased for a couple of minutes trying to narrow a gap of about 5 bike lengths. Eventually I sprinted as hard as I could and regained the back of the bunch just as we hit the hill. I then completely blew up on the hill and wobbled my way to the finish line to retire. I could have waited for the stragglers group to catch me, but I wasn't in the mood. Useful practice, but ludicrously expensive.

Well done for getting back out there on the bike, it is no small feat at all, in my experience.

hilly 60km 'group' ride which saw one depart for home before we'd even started (htfu!!) and another suffer so much on the 'warm up' section that he bailed too. intermittent pissing rain and headwinds - perfect spring training ride, haha.

I more than made it!

One gear, seven hours, one hundred miles.

It went amazingly well, even though the weather was dreadful for a good 50-60 miles of it (constant rain and pretty heavy headwinds). All three of our three-man fixed-gear team made it without any serious issues at all, and in very good time. I suspect we will be legends within the Glasgow cycling community now, given the encouragement and respect felt from the road bike riders along the way.

Brilliant times!

nice one! my walk to tesco in this weather was unpleasant enough.

Well done Krakow. A hundred miles is challenging enough without those conditions (and lack of gears).

Congrats Krakow! In a similar vein yesterday I cycled to Brighton on my single speed and managed to make it up The Beacon. Although I had to stop a couple of times I didn't walk a step which, given that when I rode last year I didn't make it as far as the first bend, I was pretty pleased with.

It didn't rain though.

This happened over a week ago but I've only really been calm enough to write a letter of complaint about a pittsburgh LBS where I had a service done:

Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to register my complaint at the terrible service I have recently received from Pro Bikes Squirrel Hill location. I still can’t believe how badly I have been served and treated, I shall recount the interactions I had.

I brought my bike in for a major tune up. I was going away for a couple of weeks and thought it was a good time to get my bike cleaned and adjusted, wheels trued etc. Upon returning I picked up my bike but when I took it out I discovered some things had not been done properly. The first fault I identified was that the stem bolts hand not been tightened, only the stem cap so a little bit of pressure on the handlebars spun them round. This led to a more thorough checkup of my bike. I then found that the front brake had been loosened to prepare for adjustment but then not tightened.

Finally I noticed a small tear in the sidewall of the front tyre, which may well have been there when I dropped the bike off but which the mechanics had not spotted or notified me of. Subsequently I have come to the conclusion that no attempt was made to true the rear wheel.

I took the bike back to Pro Bikes to register my complaint and the response I received was that I shouldn’t have brought my bike in during the summer as they receive less attention then. I asked for a torque wrench and the “chief” mechanic came upstairs, he did apologise but only to say that he didn’t know who had done the work. No taking ownership of the poor work going on in his workshop.

Needless to say since this incident I have decided never to shop at Pro Bikes and to advise any and all individuals to steer well clear of this rude, sub-standard workshop. You seem happy to take your customer’s money and put their lives at risk.

How has your LBS failed you today? that sucks, Ed, hope you find a better shop.

I'm told the Trek store does better cheaper maintenance; Trek I know but apparently a friend of a friend works there and can take care of me.

Thanks all! Definitely feeling it today.