No rain today, although it rained quite a bit yesterday and the roads were wet. I took the Prof out again, partly because I wanted to reassure myself that the squeak from the rear wheel had definitely disappeared, and partly because I’d re-angled the handlebars yesterday and wanted to test the new configuration. I also replaced the steel stem bolts with titanium ones, though I was fairly sure they were secure.
Left the house just before 1000. The general idea, since a wind was blowing from the west, was to pedal up toward Donington, take the sharp left to Melbourne and from there continue on to Shardlow and head east toward Derby. I’d only hatched this plan shortly after leaving the house, it wasn’t properly prepared and as it turned out, it was nonsense. I was sure you could get get onto the road from Shardlow from that road and thought I’d done so before, but looking at the map now – clearly, I hadn’t. I must have gone through Donington to do that.
Thus I found myself at the northern end of Swarkestone Bridge having a What Now? moment, but decided to take a left, west along the long, flat road that goes to Willington. Not been along there for a month or two and it’s a pleasant run, despite being an A road. I decided I’d go as far as Hilton, which I’ve only done once before. So I did that. Very pleasant out there in the sunshine, and not as cold as I’d expected. I’d decided on a two sock strategy without overshoes as I haven’t adjusted the pedals on the Prof yet and the overshoes would have made clipping in a bit tricky.
I must get some new ones. I did have a splurge of retail therapy on Amazon yesterday and bought a couple of inner tubes (didn’t have any spares for the new bike so I’ve been taking a bit of a punt going out on it), a supposedly lightweight cycling backpack that isn’t particularly lightweight, a pair of new ultra light and inexpensive bottle cages and a new, simple bike computer (a Cateye Velo 7 – tried and trusted). And some more titanium bolts.
Anyway – I arrived at Hilton and spotted a pub on a little retail park on a roundabout. I had a quick lunch there, sausages and mash and a half lager. Not a particularly inviting place, with a view of a Tesco Metro and a roundabout, but the staff were friendly and the food was fine. Took a bit of a chance leaving the bike outside – I couldn’t find anything suitable to fasten it to! My lightweight bike lock was too short to tether it to the table or bench. But I only left it unattended while I was ordering the food and got away with it.
Had a look at Google Maps on my phone as I finished off my Carlsberg Export, and decided to head back as far as Willington then come back through Repton and Hartshorne, to Ashby – I’d had an idea to try that route months ago but never got round to it.
Annoyingly, the bloody rear wheel squeak made a reappearance shortly after I set off.
Repton is a very picturesque little town and home to a prestigious public school. But I don’t think I’ll do that route between Willington and Ashby again, or at least not between Willington and Hartshorne. It’s very rural and quiet and almost reminiscent of the lake district, being lined by hills. But it’s too climby.
At Hartshorne I stopped at a bench and examined the rear wheel closely. I prodded it a bit and tugged gently at the spokes and after that, the squeak vanished again. I have a theory that it’s the rear disk fouling one of the disk pads. It does disappear for a few seconds after braking. From peering intently down the gap between the pads, it looked like that might be the case. Why it doesn’t do this for the first 20-odd miles, and never when I don’t have my weight on the saddle I have no idea. But I’ll adjust it anyway. Apart from that I’m very happy with the Tricross – it is a little bit more sluggish than the Boardman but it’s comfortable and feels very dependable. It definitely absorbs road bumps and buzz better.
Ended up on 39.17 miles. Should have come back the way I’d gone; I’d have done another few miles and they’d mostly have been considerably flatter. But an enjoyable run out nonetheless, and something a bit different.
I used the Garmin Edge 25 that I bought a couple of months ago to track the ride. I’d never got round to trying it. it sits nicely on the stem and works well except that I couldn’t get it to pair with my phone for some reason. But it shows up as a mass storage device when you hook it up to a computer so it’s easy enough to get the track off that way.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3022255916/
231 this month.