I’m overdue a spring clean, new bar tape etc so be a good time to just check the head tube bearings (should be good as did them not too long ago) and a general once over. I already have the tape, just making the time to do it!
Haha I'm not far off considering the same myself but always things getting 'delayed' due to something else!
This weekends job:
- drilling out stripped mudguard mount (actually broken off inside so bolt stuck in it) to replace with an internally secured bolt, as it's behind a plastic cable guide I can get to but need to take the BB out which needs a new bearing, so no point until I had the bearing for it...
And the longer term:
- gummed up rusty old gear outer cable at head tube = no point when going DI2
- bar tape = no point if doing DI2 means redoing it
- new handlebars (these slightly bent from a crash 3+ years ago!) = no point until doing bar tape
Really need to just list out the DI2 stuff I have and spitball what I think I need, for someone to give a once over then get it ordered...! Any volunteers?
Good luck doing 7NM+ on one of these
I'm peeved recently... My area is littered with level crossings. It has a distinct lack of road bridges. Health and safety standards nowadays seem to mandate they come down around 2-3mins before the train and there's often multiple trains so it can be 5 mins+. I used to start 70% of my rides by going via a level crossing that was only half width across the road and it generally came down just 30s before the train. They've just replaced it with a full width crossing like the 3 others so now quite often I get stuck for 5+ mins at the start/end of my ride. Feels pretty significant on short rides.
The tool says it goes up higher to 12 nM but you're right, once towards 7-8 nM I'm always questioning just how accurate a bending piece of uncalibrated spring metal can be! But have a proper torque wrench (or 2) for that!
Oh that is annoying, guessing more regular trains as well?
I've got an annoying spot on my way home, it's nothing like yours but regular 1 minute waits, sometimes as long as 5 just to join the road from a badly designed segregated cycle path. The road narrows and (imo) they built the cycle path on the 'wrong side' of the road. So due to houses there the segregated cycle path ends and you have to cross incoming traffic to join the road (
at this point here - cycle path on right). It's on a slight rise and corner in the road, so me coming to a halt, waiting for traffic, crossing and then continuing with the trailer is not a very fast thing. It's a 3-5% drag
so a 40kg trailer takes a bit of power to get going again! But now as the SAS camp has built a
new entrance on the top of that rise where the road is narrow, there's far more traffic. I'm regularly waiting there (probably 90% the time now, it used to be 30-40%). Some of these waits are a couple of minutes, it's not much, but a couple of minutes wait in an 8-10 minute commute gets old very quickly!
A sensible thing would've been to also add a cycle path that side, so the cycle path directly crosses the road and continues that side to the camps main entrance (
even better if they built an extended slip road there for the increased traffic -
busy mornings there is a 0.5 mile queue to enter the camp), whereas at the moment the cycle path finishes on an uphill for 50m before starting again over the top on the same side. So the 'slow' bike traffic going uphill has to cross oncoming traffic to join the carriageway, before then stopping on the carriageway to cross oncoming traffic again to rejoin. The second of these is on a bend,
so you're stopped in the middle of the carriageway trying to turn right onto it with traffic approaching from the rear not seeing or expecting you to be stopped. It's unsafe to be stopped in the middle of the carriageway where drivers do not expect you to be, especially with a kid in a trailer, so I don't do it!
Finally back to some sort of normality after last weeks sickness, actually able to push 200+w for more than 30 seconds at a time last night just in time for a couple of long rides this weekend before 3 and a half weeks off the bike for my honeymoon. Not sure how i'm going to cope!
Good to hear mate, spotted some of the house stuff you've been doing too - good work! Well done! That rest on the honeymoon will be a welcome one!
I'm off to Florida for 14 days at the end of the month. Absolutely gutted to be riding so well right now and seeming to be 'doing the right thing' to hold the good form... I just know the best part of 3 weeks away from the bike is going to throw that out the window. So June is going to be me mostly trying to get back to where I am right now! Grr! At least that should mean a couple of months of good weather to do some riding in before the days get shorter again.