I get up to about 25mph at most, but as I wear glasses I don't seem to have the problem with my eyes tearing up (or insects flying into my eyes).
Ergh, I hate this. I wear glasses, but I was going pretty fast on some downhills the other day and I still had insects hitting my face and ending their lives on my t-shirt (never wearing a white one while cycling again...) which was really irritating. I'm tempted to wear a buff or something, or at least keep one handy if it becomes a problem on longer rides - I still have one that I used in the winter for my commute, and it kept my neck and lower face warm, but breathing caused my glasses to fog up.
Somehow I missed this when you posted it; it looks like a fantastic bike for the money! I think you did really well to get a proper tourer for that amount. It's especially nice to see that it has sensible gearing. A lot of supposed "touring bikes" come with setups like 50/39/30 up front and 11-25 at the back. This gives a low of ~30 gear inches depending on wheels/tyres, which is just daft. Have you got your first outing planned yet?
Indeed, I kept an eye on the gearing before buying it as I figure a tourer is going to have to put up with some nasty hills from time to time.
I have had a few short outings (sub 20 miles) and the bike performed really well, but the state of the roads and footpaths in this country is atrocious. You really notice the cracks and potholes a lot more when cycling! I am going to plan a longer route, but I want to slowly build it up so I might go for a 30 miler, then 40, 50 etc.
I'm currently waiting on a Brooks B17 saddle (not really getting on with this one, I think it's a Selle San Marco Rolls saddle) and a few other bits. I still need some panniers and a bit of clothing too. I'm glad I got a good deal on the bike otherwise all this would be costing a fortune on top of it...
I also have a goal to aim for because my family are visiting some relatives near Exeter in the summer, and I'm hoping to ride there. It is about 300 miles away and I'd love to be able to do that in 4 days, so I need to get training! I'll probably be credit card touring with 2 rear panniers and a barbag as I'm not sure if I want to make the jump to camping just yet!
Actually, I'm going to use this opportunity to ask a 'noob' question about gearing. At the moment I've been keeping my crankset on the middle cog and just going up and down on the rear and this works okay. The guy who I bought it from suggested this approach to start with.
My question is...when do I switch to the smaller/bigger cogs on the crank? It's complicated to explain this, but if I'm on the flats, I tend to be in the highest rear gear. As the hill gets steeper, I lower my gear so that I can maintain a similar cadence on the uphill. I'm not sure if this is the right approach, but it works okay, and with the exception of one or two nasty hills in my area, I have enough gears to make it up to the top without dismounting.
If I wait until I'm on my lowest rear gear and then go to the small cog on the crank, I just spin out because I'm too low. Should I use the middle cog for flats, then shift to the smaller one when I expect a hill and the larger one when expecting downhills? I know a lot of this might come down to personal preference, but I'm sure you guys have a lot more experience with this.
In case anyone missed it earlier, I have 26/36/48 in the front and 11-32 in the rear.
Also, what do people think of the Sustrans routes? I've heard good and bad things about them, but I also need some maps for SE/S/SW England... can anyone point me in the right direction?
