A warm day, but overcast with rain threatened for the early evening. Since I put a new chain on the Cannondale and adjusted the front derailleur yesterday, I wanted to give it a run out to check everything’s working properly.
I hadn’t used it for eleven months, because I knew it needed some attention. And of course it’s taken me ages to get round to it. Well – to be fair I was waiting for some warm weather to give it a good clean at the same time. I only ever wash a bike on a warm day so it dries quickly.
I didn’t set off until noon but I only wanted to do 30 or 40 miles anyway so a Bypasser seemed the obvious choice. I found a ROAD CLOSED sign and a barricade blocking the entire road coming into Ashby, so I backtracked and went through Packington instead.
I was overtaken by a couple out for a ride near Snarestone. Posh bikes, swanky cycling gear. The male rider, a well-built man in his late 40s at a guess, gave me a smug wink as he passed. A few minutes later I found that, without particularly trying to, I was catching them up again. I came right up behind them coming through Norton. The poor lad was having a real struggle getting up the hill out of the village in the granny gear, so I breezed up past him. Naturally I gave him a wink on my way past. His face was roughly the colour of a beetroot.
His girlfriend had managed the hill without difficulty.
Down to Mythe Lane and rather than Fenn Lanes I came up and east through Upton. Glad I’m remembering to do that road a bit more often these days, it’s very nice along there. After Carlton I took a right to Nailstone and came along the main road up through Ibstock, which is something else I don’t do often.
The Cannondale is running nicely on the new chain, except that getting it onto the big ring at the front is more of an effort than it should be at the shifter. It requires a harder push than it should (or used to). I think I’ll probably end up fitting a new cable and setting the front gear up from scratch. I don’t think I’ll bother with a new cable housing but I’ll flush the old one through with GT85 to give it a good clean. Not going to bother with the rear cable. Ain’t broke – don’t fix it!
I listened to the rest of the Reacher novel. It unfolded quite nicely. Not one of the best but pretty good.
Back on 35.97 and that’s 440 this month now. I think 600 is very doable for July.