your daily bicycle log

keep resisting the dick

no, i will not

Just back from more evening miles, even after the mighty tiredness. Feeling it, but feeling good.

Evans fitted my crown race in 2 minutes for free. So they're not all bad.

However, about an hour of powerdrilling with various now defunct dremel-type grinding attachements, and my brake lever is still microns too narrow.

New wheels arrived yesterday although probably won't get a chance to fit them before friday. Want to do an extensive tunes up, clean and grease of the mechanical components, a new rear break cable may be in order.

New wheels finally fitted, so much better. Just in time too a spoke broke on the way to the bar last night (I guess one that got hit in the accident).

Todays' fun and games is the East End Brewery Pedal Pale Ales Keg Tapping Ride:

http://www.eastendbrewing.com/node/706

Will no one selll me a properlyt sized seat post clamp!??!

SRSLY!!! all i want is a 30mm qr. none in lbs or evans, none in stock at chainreaction, the only on at wiggle is a salsa and i baulk at spending £20 on a clamp.

have planet x got any?

oh yeah they've got a 29.8, that would probably do - hopefully a friend who works in evans is sorting me out with a salsa though.

srsly tho who knew the cycling industry was even more in love with standards than the computer industry. 28.6, 29.8, 30.0, 31.4... i can understand the need for different frame sizes but that is ridic.

I did 2 laps of Richmond Park last night on my new fixed wheel lovely with my friend Liv, a fixie veteran who taught me the tricks of the trade. It was brilliant! Tough into the wind, tough on hills (but you know where you are, at least, and I didn't have to get off on any), and downright comical on descents. I managed just over 26mph, Liv tells me, which at 72 gear inches equates to about 125rpm I think. I felt like Chris Hoy at times!

Good stuff. Bloody good going. Which way round did you go? Clockwise or anti-clockwise? I only ask because, if anti-clockwise, I once made a MASSIVE BOTCH of that s-bend downhill bit, completely cowarded out of the turn, flew onto the verge and by a miracle also somehow flew over the ditch and bumped all over the shop but miraculously stayed on.

I haven't been up to Richmond Park for ages, used to live out that way, don't any more, but this I must rectify.

Anti-clockwise - the thought of going up Broomfield Hill does my head in on a geared bike! Your off-road adventure sounds terrifying - here's a video of it so you can relive the memories.

what tricks of the trade did you learn? I had my first fixie ride back into town from balham yesterday. pretty smooth, only one slightly nerve-racking encounter with an idiot in an automobile. fancy any richmond park action this w/end?

Not sure what tricks I've learned, though I am still repeating the old "don't stop pedalling" mantra to myself at regular intervals. Oh, there's "pedal like a loon downhill if there's an uphill straight after it", I guess? Otherwise it's just confidence, learning how the brakes behave, that kind of thing.

I actually have two RP rides already booked for this weekend - one with my teammates for the 24-hour relay race, and one a pootle with a friend who's trying to regain confidence on the bike after she had a nasty injury coming off her bike. But I'd theoretically be up for meeting up with you after the latter on Monday, 12.30 or so I guess?

so you can relive the memories.

Yes, that's pretty much how it was. Only worse of course.

xp that sounds good, if three RP rides in as many days isn't too much for ya.

I'd ride round there every day if I could. I used to do it in the summer before I went to work. If you get there earlier than the traffic gates are opened you practically have the place to yourself. One particularly memorable occasion, must have been about five in the morning, high summer, the promise of a hot day ahead, mist sitting in the hollows and over the water, and the deer just waking up and that wonderful view of London (clockwise), with the BT tower, Canary Wharf and the Millennium Wheel winking in the first rays of sun. A memory that will stay with me forever I think.

I do wanna take an early morning trip there sometime, might take a day off for it soon.

you wanna join us on mon?

I'd love to, fixed wheel as well, cos my geared bike is out of action, but I'm popping down to my brother's, who was just about to get his race license, but came off on the north Downs and got internal bleeding in his leg. He seems to be mending ok, but he won't be racing this season - giving him some moral support. Another time tho, for definite.

(That 'racing license' stuff by the way is strictly for my brother - I go backwards as soon as I hit an incline)

first rec ride of the year in which i actually felt good, a nice 45 miles.

there you go! climbs?

the main climb is 2600 ft, but varying gradient, mostly quite easy at about 4-5%. short section of 8-9%.

ive boycotted vino lately in order to shed some of the extra 10-12 lbs on me, but its not working. at all. considering getting hammered as i watch the nuggs in protest, which is bound to be rather unpopular in the household.

googleped says i burned 6000 calories. they need to work on that algorithm, because i doubt it was more than 1700.

6000 is like a 7 hour ride

Called off the Richmond ride due to prediction of heavy rain. Dunno what actually transpired there, but in central london it's drizabone and fucking roasting (although 'fucking roasting' for me apparently begins at about 22 celsius).

I don't know what's going on with the weather / the forecasts either. Going into the Bank Holiday weekend they were saying 'make the most of Saturday and Sunday because it's going to piss down on Monday' (or words to that effect). By last night the forecast had changed to 'London will bake in the sun - scorchio! - p.s. thunderstorms coming in the evening'. So I did 27 miles this morning and sure enough it pissed down for the last ten minutes (with a kind of stinging rain that felt like hail). I went to the park an hour ago and it was scorching sunshine.

The rain is coming up from the south by the looks of it - it's looking v v v stormy back towards Croydon, and it's starting to get really muggy.

I am borrowing Mark's bike, I live at the te top ofthe biggest hill in London, I may die - only need to lose what? 5 stone.....

Hope you get all the adjustments made okay, Chris - let me know if there are any problems. Hope you enjoy your first ride...

ta, that should be tomorrow, today has been taken up entirely with interview.

really unpleasant altercation with beardy old guy in classic car downtown. the new law says he has to give me 3 feet of space when he passes me in moving traffic. he reeeaaally resented that if his car is stopped in traffic at a red light, im gonna pass him back and proceed to the intersection before stopping, even if there's less than 3 feet between us. its unfair and we people are obnoxious and dangerous. he bitched at me, i did mocking things, and he called me v. bad names. :(

Is this Canada? I see what you mean about the overtaking/filtering inequality, but then you're not traveling at speeds or in a vehicle that is likely to do serious damage if stuff goes wrong. Or maybe you are. And I suppose sometimes speed isn't the issue. I once sustained rather nasty looking injury by falling off while stationary.

Still, it's so hard not to do the mocking things that make the bad words when they're stuck in their big clumsy jam-mobiles. I'm about to cycle into work tho, so maybe I should pipe down until I get there safe and sound.

There was a dude recently who was prosecuted for *getting* doored - the law said he had to ride at least 3 feet from cars parked on the kerb, which meant by definition he couldn't get doored, so as he did get doored he must have been riding less than 3 feet from the car. QED.

yeah, i saw that story and have been meaning to determine whether that dooring rule holds in colorado.

im not gonna pass between two cars in moving traffic, but if they're sitting, i dont think stopping alongside the cars wherever you are makes sense. never seen it done in fact.

absolutely. go through if you can, stop behind if you can't. any 3-foot rule should be there to protect cyclists not car drivers.

fwiw, if you're going to go between stationary cars at an intersection, i strongly recommend going between two lanes of traffic (if it's a four-laner) and not between the parked cars and traffic. seems counter-intuitive, maybe, but you're chances of getting doored or right-hooked are virtually zero. then, right before the intersection, zip over into the right-most position and carry on.

if traffic starts moving before you get to the front, then just pull right, behind a car that hasn't started moving yet, and wait for things to get going

Seconded iltfaiac. Well, left in this country anyway. In fact, I can't remember the last time I voluntarily filtered down the pavement side of traffic, parked cars or no. Undertaking is a death trap.

I entirely disagree. I've also never been doored, so I haven't learnt from that (as it were), but my reasoning is that if I DO have an accident, or get trapped, or a driver does something unexpected, then I have an out which is either a pavement or, at worst, a row of stationary cars. I've had too many near misses overtaking traffic, and while undertaking has its issues too, I am very aware of them and, I hope, I avoid getting into any stupid or life-threatening situations. Which is something I can't guarantee on the outside.

Have we had this convo before? I'm feeling deja vu ish!

i think so!

Not with me, but of course what you say makes complete sense. I suppose it's just part of being as aware as possible about road position, spaces and safety. I still really really don't like undertaking. That said, quite a lot of the time, especially if it's not going to involve an awful lot of hanging around, I just sit behind the car in front and wait for it to move. Mainly because my spatial awareness is a bit crap and I know I'll come a cropper if I attempt some of the things I see other cyclists doing.

a real eye-opener was riding in a large (15 tonner) delivery vehicle and watch cyclists undertake at junctions, not realising that vehicles like that have to swing out to turn left - it was heart in mouth stuff, but lorry drivers are pros (moody, arrogant bastards too) and do look out for it, but won't see folk every time, leading to inevitable clashes.

~finally~ sorted out the stuck-cleat issue, and put on my Time ATAC XS pedals. really nice, imo, it's been months since i've been able to pull during my stroke.

got ice cream and a sixer :D

I'm loving this weather*. I got up at the crack of dawn on Friday and did 22 miles before going to work. Then I did a 60-mile ride on Saturday (3 hrs 30 mins of riding), with a couple of nasty climbs around the 50-mile mark. Then no riding on Sunday (family stuff) or Monday (too much work). Then this evening I did a 10-mile time trial on the hilly Hog Hill circuit and rode 34 miles in total. I'm feeling fitter now than at any time in my adult life.

*for the benefit of non-Britishes: we've been having a mini-heatwave in England for the last week or two

awesome!

Did about 30-40k on the fixie last weekend, round the Lea Valley and to and from North London. MTBing this sunday, for the first time in donkey's years.

I'll hopefully have a proper ride on Saturday - not done anything long for a few weeks and I have my 110-miler in 3 and a half weeks gulp! I've done 1,409 miles in 2009 so far - hope to break 3,000, which should be easy enough as long as I don't injure myself again...

Which reminds me - if anyone can spare any change, sponsorship would be hugely appreciated. It's a 4-man, 24-hour relay race for Action Medical Research: http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/mark_casarotto

Thanks in advance, you guys.

mid sole cleat placement: for real or f'ing ridic?