Mixed Week

Its been a bit of a mixed week.  I had to go down to Bristol mid week, so didn’t get a full week’s riding in.  To top it off the fire alarm in the hotel went off  on Wednesday night.  By the time I’d woken up and got some pants on, it shut off.  Then, by the time I was back in bed, it went off again.  Repeat four times in the next hour.

I then had to drive home Thursday.  I was knackered and there was an accident.  What usually takes 3 – 3 1/2 hours took 5.  I didn’t feel like a ride Thursday evening.

Yesterday, was wet and I spent most of the day fitting STI gears to my Ribble.   I got some second hand Tiagra Shifters from Karl.

I’ve re-wrapped the bars in the original tape.  I’ve got some of that fancy Fizik tape, but I’ll wait til I’m sure the shifters are in the right place before getting Ian, who is a whiz at bar tape, to do it for me.  (see below)

I’ve got some cable stops attached to the downtube bosses.  I’ll need some frame protectors on the headtube though.

Finally, the rear cassette is a Taigra 9 speed mounted on a 7 speed freehub.  To do this, I’ve missed off the last but one cog, so it is an 8 of 9 on 7.  ie an  8 speed cassette that works with 9 speed shifters.  Its a bit clunky in one or two gears but otherwise great.  Need to try it out.

Now bar tape!  Earlier this year my friend Simon was entered for the Paris-Roubaix Sportive.  Unfortunately a few weeks before the event he had a massive crash, bashing up both himself and his bike.  I went round one weekend to help him fix it up and amongst other things we re-wrapped the bars with gel pads and new tape.  It took us ages, wrapping and re-wrapping until we were OK with the results.  Simon went of to Roubaix.  The bikes had to be scrutinized before being allowed in.  Our brake, gear, amateur headset pressing etc all got the OK, but not the bar tape!  The mechanic insisted on re-doing it and in about 30 seconds had unwrapped and rewrapped the tape to a far higher standard than I have ever seen.  I was shamed.

Today was Fleetwood Triathlon, which my friend Tim organizes.  I am roped in to manage the bike course again.  This means making sure the roads are closed and the junctions all have marshals as well as keeping an eye out for drafting and for riders in distress.  Its quite a tough day in some respects, especially towards the end when we are trying to open part of the road, but still keep the short course for the kids closed.  Some people can be very difficult.  All in all it went off OK and I managed to ride 42 miles on he 4 mile course.

Not my best week, only managed 92 miles, but still OK.  Does mean my shortfall increases though.

Cheers

Tim