Wet & Windy

The weather has turned wet and windy.  Typical Autumn weather here, with fronts coming in off the sea.  I rode to work Monday to Wednesday through some horrid weather.  Thursday my boss was up so I had to drive in, it was the nicest day of the week by far.

Friday I had started to go down with a cold, so I drove again.  So very poor road miles this week.

We did get out today and do some mountain biking.  I have finally got the P7 back on the road.  Karl gave me some cranks, but unfortunately they were octalink and the BB he had was too wide.  The local bike shop didn’t have one and reckoned on two weeks to get one in.  I did a quick trawl of the on line shops, Wiggle didn’t have them, Evans were special order £40, SJS were similar, but Chain Reaction had one for £5 including postage.  It arrived Wednesday and was soon fitted.  I had a spin up and down the road yesterday and everything seemed fine.  This morning, the ride out from Staveley was OK then at Ings, we turned up hill and I dropped into the granny ring.  Immediate chain suck, with the chain coming round and jamming in the front mech.  They are old rings, but didn’t seem too worn.  I was wrong.  Under heavy load the granny sucked constantly, the middle caught a bit but was useable.  I was stuck in the middle ring for the rest of the ride.  It was a wet day.  When the path leading to the stream crossing is under deeper water than the stream, you know its wet.  The P7 was great though, climbing was easy, apart from being stuck in middle.  I was pretty please with my fitness as well.  Despite having a cold and no low gears I rode practically everything, just some of the steeper, wetter rocks beating me.  On the downs, I wasn’t as fast as Ian (on his new Ibis Mojo SL) or Mark, but kept up with Joe and Karl OK.

We were filthy when we finished.  We hosed the bikes and ourselves down at Wheelbase, then I went in for a shower.  I still need a bath!

Miles for the week – 57

Total for the year – 4255

Tim