Shop ride for tomorrow announced:
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7522783
30.8 miles with 1200ft elevation @16/17mph
Looks like a good route, fairly flat so I'll be heading out!
Shop ride this morning was good, wind was cold and strong in places! Was a mostly flat route and 28 riders turned up. We formed 2 'equal speed' groups as there were a number of new riders, I jumped on the first group (looked to be the smaller of the 2, so thought it easier to do!). Within 5 miles I'd nearly blown up twice (HR 180+ is blowup territory for me) and I dropped back with 2 other guys suffering the same, one of them had to pull up so we waited a few minutes to jump on the second group.
The wind made the going quite hard and as there were so many of us (20?) one of the shop staff dropped back to us and we formed a smaller group (7 I think) to make it easier on the new guys (& me!). I'm much better at riding in groups now and although the going was hard I'm getting much more confident to stand to help with the climbs! Did a brief stint on the front but any hill killed my speed too much to stay there. One of the guys had something wrong and we held up a little for him, I think he was suffering too much so after a discussion we went on without him (he headed home/pickup). One of the guys took a well known 'shortcut' around a 3rd of the way in and we reached a junction to find the rest of the group there. Couple of them had to stop and as the next stint was along a fairly busy/fast A road we rode it as a big scattered group (around 18 of us by this point).
We picked up a couple of guys who'd dropped off the faster group along the way and in an effort to close a gap which had opened (wanted to get on a wheel due to the wind!) I totally blew up and had to back it off to avoid a bonk. Took it easy for a few miles and we regrouped 4 of us when turning back towards home. We picked up shortcut guy who'd buried himself on the main road to try and catch up (when we were all behind him!)
Price you pay for taking a shortcut!
Much easier ride back and we worked well as a group (thankfully due to the wind!). I knew the road slightly (from driving it) so I knew where to pace myself and where to stand. Typical rammed Hereford traffic for the trip through town back to shop so that killed our averages.
18.5mph average out (most hills). 20mph average on the fast A road section (think it was the only hint of any tail wind!) and then 17.5mph average back to the city. Total distance 30.6 miles @ 17.5mph average. Brings my miles to 97.3 for the week so I'm going to spin local for 3 miles tomorrow to break the 100 mile mark! First time doing anything near that distance in a week!
https://www.strava.com/activities/287591585/overview
I was plagued some of the route by a cold/numb right foot so still need to tweak my cleats some. I tightened my chainrings last night too (heard a click or two commuting yesterday) but I'm still hearing something. Must be the damn headset again so I'll tighten that some more. How tight should chainring bolts be? My torque only goes up to 13 Nm and I've done them past that... Think I'll break it if I go further, I'll use different tools to tighten further.
Swapped my 23mm tyres to 25mm last night too, noticed a good difference - Mitch Pro4E's to Giant P-R3's.
Also seem to have lost the change between 2nd to 3rd gear, I'm having to change to 4th and come back one... I tweaked the derailleur adjuster a notch or two yesterday after refitting the cable in slightly the wrong place. What's the easiest solution? Keep playing with it to get it right, or will I need to try and refit the cable to find the spot again? I've never indexed before so want to avoid it (if possible?)
It's the setting up the gears thing that I'm useless at m8, been there, got the t-shirt. Last time I made such a pigs ear of it I ended up having to put it into my LBS anyway.
What I want to avoid
I just use the YouTube links. Never used anything else.
Good tip, thanks.
I'm not quite sure whether to cycle on or bin this tyre after the cut I suffered yesterday. This is how it looks with the new tube inflated to 85psi. I'm worried that any debris that gets into the tyre through this cut will cause another puncture straight away.
Does look quite bad, how many miles have they done? I believe there is a filler (rubber glue) you could get to protect it some (probably only worth it on a newish tyre).
Think I've earnt myself a beer!
![[Damien]](/styles/overclockers/avatars/4.png){kind=avatar}
