Had a fun Saturday - club social and we rode out to watch the Tour of Britain in Abergavenny/up The Tumble.
https://www.strava.com/activities/15717740816 - several pics & vids on here! There's a fantastic picture of G climbing The Tumble from a Hereford rider on there.
I had other family plans later in the day so had to be home for 3.30pm. With the race not scheduled to finish on The Tumble until around 3pm and it usually being over an hour ride home just not enough time to catch the first ascent, some of us (4) decided to ride further out and catch the race at the first KOM Llanvetherine (Old Ross Road) as there was a cafe at the top, perfect!
Put a good effort into the KOM - still a minute slower than the Pro's. Get there at 11am and the damn cafe was shut. They where at some local ploughing match - on probably the busiest day of the year for passing trade! Fools. Headed into Abergavenny and met up with a couple of others for coffee+bacon baps until the race came through at half 1. With the rest of the club already up the Tumble getting positions to catch the first ascent and the finish, we had a couple of beers in town too while we waited - why not!
Before the race came through a bunch of protestors carrying Palestine flags where being nuisances, just getting in the way, occasionally blocking normal traffic and the handful of local cops had their hands full. A few more arrived as the crowds got bigger and thankfully had them penned in behind some banners next to a junction. A shame as that was in quite a prime place to watch the riders coming through, but at least they where only in 1 place. The Police motorbike outriders had obviously been told where they where as when the race came through was extra focus from them on the crowd there. The protestors being difficult where not locals - actual local protestors next to us with 'Stop Sportswashing' signs moaning about them! A guy came up the street handing out the Geraint masks and attaching to lampposts so grabbed a couple! The race came through FAST, knew it would but they where even going faster than expected on the wide town roads. Partly why we'd originally wanted to catch them on the climb! The breakaway had a 2 min gap at this point - just before they came through one of the official camera motorbikes came into the side street behind us and had a brief word with him -asking the gap and who was in the break - only a couple of names I recognised. Also nothing had really happened on the KOM so expected it all to kick off on The Tumble (starts only a couple of KM from town). He said he'd take some pics of us (club jerseys from behind when the riders came through,
with a church in the background) so kinda waiting to see if they pop up - but don't really know where to look for official photos?!
Just before the break came 3 MTB riders came through and got a massive cheer, the last one actually waving his arms to hype the crowds. Lots of laughing but also great to see. The break came, pretty quick but think at that point they knew they where caught as not really pushing on. Behind them came the 'forward announcer' official car and he stopped right in front of us. Couldn't remember the guys name - the one with the greasy slicked back hair and round glasses. I grabbed a quick pic - nobody else seemed bothered. He paused, looked at me, I gave him a thumbs up and said "Remco is gonna smash it" and he just grinned!
The main pack came through, as expected, fast. They where pushing on then, easily going faster than the break riders spread across the road. With the tight corners (although a wide road and good surface) and a couple of traffic bollards pretty impressive. Massive convoy of cars took much longer to come through - the crowd still cheering them. After things had cleared, clubmate and I headed home while the other 4 rode up The Tumble to catch the finish. My legs struggled to wake up - it's such a drag out of Abergavenny on the '
Old Hereford Road' but once up and having a bit of a natter on the best route back my legs where flying again.
Sat on the front for 75% of the main road section pulling at 230-250W but really just looking at speed - aiming at 25-28mph (I'm still old school with speed on my head unit!), with the slightly gusty cross headwinds it was a good speed and effort.
Rougher and more rolling roads towards home killed much of the average. When I turned West it was almost a block headwind, then a cross gusty headwind coming back home heading mostly North. I got home just before 3pm - a whole 30 mins earlier than planned. Pretty unusual for me - especially as I knew we didn't have to really go out to watch a Fireworks Competition until 5ish (it was amazing!).
Yeah, going to switch my other rear wheel back over and see if it still happens. Should help narrowing it down.
I know you narrowed it down to tyre rub on your FD/battery - guess that's part of the issue riding such a 'frankenbike' combo - you likely have combinations of things nobody has tried before so really are into the unknown... Aka a trendsetter!
Another thing to watch with drag like that (this might come in useful for the future), but a collapsed or seized bearing in the freehub. As it doesn't rotate it doesn't make noise, just massive amount of drag like a brake rubbing. Some freehubs also have a spacer between the freehub & axle which sits on top of the bearing. That too can cause drag as the freehub is just spinning on the outer bearing (or cover, or race), then the freehub is riding on the axle or hub, instead of the inner bearing.
Another big tick in the box of not using that bike shop. Was flying down a fairly rocky gravel hill yesterday, when the 2 bottom bolts of the stem worked loose and the handlebars jerked downwards. No idea how i didn't crash, as any attempts to brake made the bars move even more, so i had to try and hold the bar steady with my left hand and brake with the right. By the end of the ride the top bolts were also working loose and i had vertical movement as well as rotational
Annoyingly this was around 15km into a 40km ride, and i hadn't put my toolkit back in the bike bag so had to do a mix of walking on anything sketchy and then try and hold the bars in place for the rest. Didn't see a single cyclist to try and tap up either!
Scary! Lesson learned from that shop then. Give them a snotty review on Trustpilot or Google, whatever. And a lesson in carrying your tools! It's not the first time...
