Wanted to do 30+ today. The roads looked a bit moist when I got up and waiting a few hours for them to dry up wasn’t an option, as I had other plans for this afternoon. The Boardman is presently missing a chain and cassette, so – although I did briefly consider taking the X, I finally decided to give the hybrid its first run out since December 2017. In all that time I haven’t got round to sorting the gears out since I changed the rear gear cable, but although you can’t get all the gears it does still have a usable range, and the changes are fine – slick and positive.
I gave the chain a good dose of GT-85 and pumped up the tyres good and hard to squeeze as much rolling resistance out of them as poss. And actually although it felt bloody heavy, it did roll along quite pleasantly on the level, and it didn’t struggle too badly up the climbs.
It’s actually only 4kg heavier than the X and I’ve lost more body weight than that since Christmas. However there’s more to it than just the weight. It just feels like a great big lumbering carthorse of a thing compared to the road bikes.
Anyway I decided that a regular Twycross of 23 miles or so would be more than enough and that’s what I did, 22.54 miles to be precise.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2325065215
Cool, cloudy morning but I wrapped up warm. Hadn’t thought I’d be back in winter gear again so soon. Still – nice ride out.
A young girl attempted to sell me some lemonade from a stand she’d set up with her friend as I pedalled through Sibson, but since I didn’t have any cash I declined. Would be nice to think she’d had a few customers but in weather like that in a quiet little village, I would be surprised. Quite an optimistic venture, I thought.
Since my Forerunner 10’s battery gave up the ghost I’ve been thinking of treating myself to a new GPS watch. The ones I have tend to be fiddly or cumbersome to use, or need Windows to transfer data, which amounts to the same thing. But I’ve found an Android app for my Garmin 310XT that allows me to grab the data and upload it to Strava from my phone reliably and quickly, so it has a new lease of life. Cost about £4 but well worth it. The last app I was using for that was really slow and flaky and typically took three or four retries to work properly.
Anyway – 292 done this month and hopefully more on Tuesday. The weather looks ideal, about 18C and not much wind.