I did end up sawing through the shaft of the bolt in the gap between the stem and the body, to remove the aluminium bolts I unwisely used as stem bolts. The slot I’d sawn into the head of the first bolt wasn’t wide enough to take a screwdriver blade.
Before the
hacksaw blade had made it the whole way through the shaft, the tension
the bolt was under snapped what was left of it and the hex head pinged
out of the faceplate like an aluminium bullet!
At that point the
other shagged bolt magically loosened itself and I was able to remove it
without any trouble. So I’ve binned the old stem. It was a replacement
for the original Boardman stem that was far too long. And I’ve put on
the stem that came with the X originally, which is 10mm longer but I
think it should be fine. I’ll have to adjust the saddle a touch, I
expect. But actually it should be closer in geometry to the Cannondale,
which really suits me. Might improve the handling a tad as well.
So ignoring inner tubes, bar tape, bottle cages and tyres, the Boardman has now had:
Left work early, took the X for a Twycrosser. Decided to do the Minor
Orton Triangular Detour once I got to Twycross. I must give the Major
Orton Less Triangular Detour another go sometime soon, as well. That one
misses Twycross completely.
Wasn’t sure whether I
wanted to come back the same way (perhaps omitting the Orton detour)
once I got to Fenn Lanes, but decided to press on the usual way home
through Bosworth, Carlton, Barton, Odstone.
Stayed
resolutely dry throughout. No sign of the light rain threatened around
7pm, though the skies did seem to threaten it once or twice. Mostly
cloudy, but occasionally sunny. Lovely weather, really. Warm and not
much wind. I overdressed slightly up top, but wasn’t really bothered.
Ended up doing a few more than I expected – 34.29. But no problems.
I
was impressed with the oncoming cyclist near Ratcliffe who literally
wagged his finger at a driver who’d just overtaken me, not giving either
of us a great deal of clearance. Also saw a young chap on a red
Boardman Road Sport like mine, don’t see that many of them. Speaking of
which – I had an idea to remove those aluminium stem bolts. I’ll saw
slots into the heads and see if I can get them out with a screwdriver.
If that doesn’t work I’ll saw through the bolts between the face plate
and the stem body – there’s a bit of clearance. If I do that I’ll end up
replacing the stem though that’s not a big deal, it wasn’t expensive
and I could use the one I took off the X.
Relubed the Cannondale on my lunch break and perhaps it’ll get a run out next time.
Fitted some inexpensive stem bolts to the Boardman. The old ones had a bit of surface rust. The new ones are red aircraft aluminium. They go nicely with the frame. Very light of course.
However an hour or two later I read some conflicting advice on the wisdom of using aluminium stem bolts, including the comment to one person who’d done this that “I hope you have a good dental plan”.
The consensus seems to be – only use steel or titanium for load-bearing connections like the seat post or stem. I think I’ll take them off again and put some steel ones on from a spare stem. Perhaps I’ll use the red ones for a bottle cage.
Back from a holiday in Wales yesterday and anxious to give the July
distance tally a bit of a boost having been out on two wheels only twice
thus far this month. But both knees appear still to be suffering the
after-effects of my ill-considered Fondo two weeks ago, so I wasn’t sure
what distance was wise. I thought to do a 25 mile-ish Twycross and see
how they did.
Nice weather – warm, only slightly windy. Resolutely dry. I took the X.
From
Twycross, I decided on a whim to take the triangular detour through
Orton, for a bit of a lukewarm adventure. And that was quite pleasant. I
do quite like the usual (direct) road from Twycross to Sheepy though,
so mixed feelings about that.
I’d decided to come back along
Gibbet Lane by the time I’d propelled myself along Atterton Lane but as I
made my way up the A444 in order to do so, instead, on the afternoon’s
second whim, I took a right along Upton Lane. I knew I’d done this
before and ended up at Bosworth. I didn’t think it would add too much to
the distance but as I encountered the first signpost to Bosworth I
realised I’d end up having done about 31.
Ah well! My knees were
sore, but I wasn’t getting pain from pushing up inclines. I was pretty
pleased with how they were doing, definitely better than last time they
had a run out on a bike.
My Upton Lane detour rewarded me with a nice view of a steam train pulling four old carriages along the Battlefield Line heritage railway between Bosworth and Shenton stations.
Listened
to 6 Music, then the men’s singles final on 5 Live Sports Extra which
has still not quite concluded as I type. No particular interest in the
British Grand Prix or the Cricket.
The usual route back home from
Bosworth is quite handy in that it has landmarks at strategic two-mile
intervals – the crossroads in the town is 8 miles from home; the
crossroads at Barton is 6 miles, the old railway bridge is 4 miles, the
top of Heather Lane is 2 miles.
No wildlife of especial interest.
I saw a vole scurry part way across the road near Swepstone, then
retreat. I was having to blow tiny flies off my cycling specs every
minute or so for the first couple of hours and I noticed that they were
all over my legs as well, bloody annoying.
Thought I’d taken a
nice pic of an alpaca on the way up from Bosworth but it’s not on the
phone, so apparently I didn’t. It was rather difficult to get its
attention, as well.
Anyway – 30.82 miles which brings me to 99 this month. Looks like decent weather for a few days, but I will keep my outings down to 30-ish miles for a bit, or possibly a bit less. I’m on call next week anyway, and of course – the daylight hours are now in slightly shorter supply.
Had to work until 6pm, but it was a lovely evening – warm, sunny, not
windy and no prospect of rain. I thought it might be rather nice to do
about 17 miles of a Twycrosser, then come back the same way. I took the
S-Works.
About 2.5 miles into the ride, coming through Heather, I
somehow failed to re-insert my yellow bidon into the cage on the frame,
and it fell to the road. I pulled up to pick it up but turned to see it
rolling slowly into the path of a Vauxhall estate. The left front wheel
rolled straight over it and a chunk of the cap blew out like an
anti-personnel mine, propelled by the hydraulic pressure of ~500ml of
lime-flavoured water. No more hydration for me on this ride.
Apart
from that it was indeed a very pleasant, leisurely run out in the
bright evening sunshine. My right knee started to feel strained again
after 13 miles, though. It looks like I did overdo it at the weekend by
doing that semi-contrived Fondo. I’m hoping though that it’s only a
temporary setback because it took a long time to get back to doing 40+
milers and I’d started to enjoy my longer cycling adventures. I’d hate
to have to start again from 15-20 mile distances. But I’ll see how I get
on with 30-40 milers for a bit. I’ve sort of got the Fondo thing out of
my system for a while, anyway.
Anyway I kept pushing on and into
Fenn Lanes until I’d done a bit more than 17 miles, then I turned and
came back the same way. No lights on the Spesh and I didn’t want to be
out after sunset really. Very nice to do the stretch between Ratcliffe
and Fenny Drayton at that time of day; so quiet along there.
Just
before you cross the A444 into Fenn Lanes, in Atterton Lane, there’s a
heavily wooded stretch. It was there that I noticed one of those big
horrible brown flies crawling on my top tube. I left it, because I was
interested to see how long it would stay on. It stayed there for 0.7
miles, even crawling forward on the frame slightly, against a gentle
headwind. Are flies territorial? Do they have homes? Did the poor thing
become confused by being migrated half a mile from its previous location
without trying to?
Took this pic at 1445 Twycross, an unmanned off-road gas installation which is my most oft-used wee spot.
Couldn’t leave work early but set off on the X to do a Twycross just
before 6pm. The idea was to do 16 or 17, then do a U-turn and come back
the same way. I was particularly keen to reassure myself that I hadn’t
buggered my knees by doing 63 miles on Sunday.
Cool weather, intermittently sunny. Very dry. A little blowy.
I
did feel a bit of strain in the right knee after ten miles or so.
Nothing desperate, but I don’t think it has completely recovered from
Sunday. I don’t think it’s a setback per se, but will keep the distances
down to 30-odd this week. That’s all I’ll have time for anyway,
probably.
Got to Twycross and on a whim, took a right turn along
Orton Lane to take a detour that I’d pondered a few times while perusing
the Strava route planner, but had never tried before. The last part of
the detour is part of the longer alternative route to Sheepy that I
tried about a week ago. Quite quiet and pleasant, glad to have tried it.
So after turning into Fenn Lanes I decided to stop and come back. I did the required U-turn but within seconds I’d changed my mind, so I performed another one. I’d decided that it would be nice to do the road north of Bosworth at that time of night. It can be really atmospheric in the open in the last hour before sunset, especially when it’s sunny. And it was.
I cut across to Bosworth through Shenton, along Mill Lane. I hadn’t been along there for a long time. There’s a bench there, with a plaque bearing the name ‘Judith Birch’. I rested there for a few minutes.
Back home on 33.71 miles; a modest but sure start to the July campaign.
My
spreadsheet has recalculated the monthly targets to take into account
the remaining mileage to reach my target of 3000, and it requires a mere
216 miles this month. I’d weighted July a bit low to adjust for
holidays.
But I think it would probably be a bit rude not to bump the 2019 target up a bit, perhaps to 3250 miles. I’ll think about that.
Thinking ahead to a time when I’ll be able to do 70+ miles again, I had a look at my usual route to Melton Mowbray and back, with a view to changing it around a bit. I did find a really promising detour for the A6006 stretch between Zouch and Six Hills, which can be a bit of a drag sometimes.
So although I wasn’t going to go all the way to Melton today I was quite keen to try it out. I thought I’d go as far as Asfordby, then turn back – which would give me roughly the same distance I did on Friday night, a bit less than 55 miles.
I took the X again. I gave the Cannondale a bit of a clean yesterday and GT85-ed out the chain, and hadn’t lubed it. Must do that tomorrow.
Despite having got back from a gig at about 12:25AM last night, or this morning if you’re going to be pedantic – I arose at about 06:55 this morning. I actually misread the clock next to my bed. I thought it was 07:55. I’d actually made toast and coffee before I realised what I’d done there, but I stayed up, took my time over breakfast and set off at about 08:30.
Lovely and quiet at that time on a Sunday morning, barely any traffic. I actually missed the turn for the new part of the route, but only by a couple of hundred yards. When I turned back I was disappointed to find myself battling a headwind, which didn’t bode well for the return part of the journey. The new part actually adds a couple of miles to the route and a little bit of elevation as well, but it’s much nicer. Quiet, very leafy. Lots of gentle ups and downs which all add up of course, but it avoids a brutal climb just after Normanton. I did have to consult Google Maps a couple of times, though.
Rejoined the usual route at Six Hills and made my usual way from there to Asfordby. Asfordby is a dismal little town really but it does have a serviceable co-op and a thoroughly decent bench outside its parish hall. I secured the bike to some railings using my new ultra lightweight bike lock (not a lock at all really, more like a steel-reinforced plastic tie with a little two-prong tool to unfasten it) and procured a sandwich.
Suitably rested and refuelled, I started on the way back home. I think I’d done about 27.5 by this time. Sadly though, eight miles later I turned left at the Big Lane crossroads when I should have turned right. I only realised I’d done this when approaching Seagrave, a village I knew I’d never been through before. I’d just come down a long hill and I just couldn’t face climbing it again, so I plotted a new course from there, to take me back on track via Sileby and Barrow upon Soar. I was of course a bit apprehensive about this, as it meant I’d be adding three or four miles but my knees seemed to be doing really well so I pressed on.
Looking at the track now, I didn’t really take the most efficient route to get back on track. But map reading while straddling a bike using a phone in bright sunlight is not ideal.
As I approached Normanton and Zouch
it occurred to me that I probably wasn’t far off doing a Fondo – and I
might get close to the requisite distance by adding a brief excursion
over to Sutton Bonington and back from there; a decidedly flat bit of
road. So I did that.
Stopped at Belton for a rest a few miles later and did some stretching exercises.
Decided
to come back home from there through Griffydam and Peggs Green rather
than Thringstone as I didn’t fancy the climb along Talbot Street. I’d
punctured the front tyre on the same bike last time I came home that
way, which also put me off a bit.
I couldn’t remember whether a
Fondo was 62 or 63 miles, so I did a slight warm down in the immediate
vicinity of home to push the distance up a bit. Home on 63.39 (I’ve
knocked 0.02 off for clogging around the shop and walking the bike to
benches etc). I wasn’t at all proud of myself for overclocking my
intended mileage and my right knee had started to feel a bit strained.
But I doubt the ‘warm down’ or the Sutton Bonington stretch did any
significant harm. And anyway, I think I’ve got away with it.
So that’s a rather pleasing 504 miles for June, 212 more than the target and the highest monthly tally since August 2017.
1861 so far this year.
I was a bit too cool intermittently for the first half of the ride, but fine when the sun was out. I wore a long sleeved top. Got a bit of sunburn on my wrists. My leg tanlines are looking pretty good, although I compromised them yesterday by wearing rugby shorts on a lounger in the garden.
The headwind on the way back was indeed a bit of a
nuisance. But despite having got up stupidly early after a long night, I
felt pretty fresh the whole ride.
I threw out a pair of cycling
shorts last week because they’d started to wear out – they actually had a
couple of holes in them. So I wore new ones for this trip, newly
acquired from Amazon. Best ones I’ve ever had; they’re really
lightweight, the fit is perfect and they have a little zipper pocket on
the back that’s handy for a debit card, garage key or emergency tenner.
They’re a bit drab though, black with red pinstripes. The old ones had
big yellow flashes. I’m convinced that more colourful clothing and frame
paint is conducive to better morale while riding, and that’s why I like
to take the X on longer distances.
Wasn’t able to leave work as early as I wanted yesterday but it’s light until after 10pm at the moment so I wanted to do a longish one. I set off at about 5:20pm on the X.
Lovely sunny, warm weather. For some reason I couldn’t find my long-sleeved non-winter cycling jersey anywhere so I just put a short-sleeved one on and hoped it wouldn’t be too cool later. It was.
I wanted to something a bit more adventurous than the time-honoured Twycross variation. I’d originally thought of going eastward over to Grimston, a nice easy one that wouldn’t require any map-assisted navigation. But the prospect of rush hour traffic through Coalville and Thringstone put me off, and I decided to go westward instead. The plan was to do the old Wales / Stafford route for about 25 miles, then turn back the same way.
And that’s what I did, taking the nice quiet road to Appleby Magna, then over the A42 and into Warwickshire and Staffordshire through No Man’s Heath and Clifton Campville. Would be a lovely route if not for the momentum-sapping, lumpy state of the road for a few miles either side of Clifton Campville but I’d factored that in, and decided to wear it. After that there’s a really nice long, scenic flat stretch which although an A road feels decently safe and quiet. Got to Handsacre on 24.4 miles and decided to keep on for a bit since I was enjoying myself, pedalling along at a leisurely speed and listening to the women’s football on 5 Live. Stopped at Hill Ridware where I took the following pic:
Kept on keeping on for another few miles. I was convinced that I was on a road I’d never propelled myself along before, although I wasn’t particularly bothered, until I came to a pub that I recognised, called the Bull and Spectacles. I decided to turn back at that point, concerned that it would be a bit late (and dark, and cold) by the time I got back. I’d done a bit more than 27 miles.
I took a wrong turn at Alrewas, about 8 miles later. But I realised I’d done that within a few hundred yards, so I wasn’t bothered. Parked the bike against some railings next to the Trent & Mersey Canal and consulted Google Maps, before backtracking to the route proper.
It was still daylight at 10pm, albeit the sun had gone down of course.
I’d put my little LED lights on by then. Home at about 10:30pm, when it
was still quite light enough to see the road ahead and the landscape.
Although I’d been warm and comfortable for most of the ride, I was
uncomfortably cold by this time.
54.74 miles which gives me 440 this month. More tomorrow.
I’d
thought that I’d done a 52 mile ride a week or so ago and that I’d
extended my distance by about 2 miles, like I’m supposed to. But in fact
it was 50.24 miles. However my knees feel OK today and I’ve clearly got
away with it. Just a couple of months ago, 25 mile rides were hurting
them more than this.
In any case – I’m not sure that extending
ride distances by two miles a week is the best strategy at this point.
If it makes sense when you’re doing distances of about 20 miles, maybe
three or four mile increments would be better when you can do 50 miles.
And if I’m going to get back to doing 80 miles reasonably regularly as I
hope, I sort of doubt that I’ll be doing 56, 58, 60, 62 .. all the way
to 74, 76, 78, 80.
The forecast is dry for the next few days in NW Leics. The weather for a Thu-Sat-Mon pattern looked a lot more promising than Wed-Fri-Sun and today in particular was rather cloudy and cool. But of course the forecast can change, so I took my chance while it was there.
Rainy this morning and I anticipated a few puddles so I took the Boardman yet again. I’d decided to do a version of the Twycross that actually bypasses Twycross itself to the west, taking in a village called Orton on the Hill before joining the usual route just north of Sheepy Magna. This new section was variously a bit lumpy and gravelly, and really startlingly quiet. I mean post-apocalyptic. Actually slightly creepy. I might do this again but it probably won’t be a regular feature. One nice thing though was a section just near Orton where the terrain to the side of the road dips sharply, with miles of open landscape visible.
I heard the loud noise of a jet engine or engines overhead suddenly near Orton. Thought this was odd given I was at least 15 miles from East Midlands. Looked up and saw what I think was a Jet Provost; a small jet with straight wings and wingtip tanks anyway, painted grey.
Once back on the normal course I took the road that goes through Witherley as usual of late, but was halted by a flooded road.
A tributary of the river Anker, itself only about 50 feet from the road
where I stopped, passes under the road at that point. But today some of
it was passing over it, as well.
Decided I’d get my shoes rather
muddy walking round it, so I backtracked to Ratcliffe and did the Sibson
Road version instead, going down to Fenn Lanes via the A444. Because I
was getting sick of pedalling into a monstrous headwind along Fenn
Lanes, I took a left along Shenton Lane to take what is effectively a
short cut to Bosworth. Since I didn’t get my usual bench opportunity at
Sutton Cheney I stopped for a break at the bench at Bosworth instead.
Back the usual way. Quite enjoyable despite the cooler weather and blowy conditions. At least it didn’t rain.
35.94 and that’s 386 done this month. 1742 done this year so I shall aim for 1800 before the end of the month.
Checked the weather forecast at 3pm to make sure Wednesday was still
expected to be dry, only to find that today was now expected to be dry
as well – rain having been forecast for this afternoon. So I left early
and decided to do a Twycross. Thought I’d do at least 25, possibly a bit
longer.
A bit warm and muggy, intermittently cloudy and sunny
and I took the Boardman in case of rain. But not a spot of rain
descended from the skies. I did the recent version that takes in
Witherley and Atterton Lane. I thought of stopping after 22 or so and
returning the same way, but in the end I kept on and came the usual way
home. The road north of Bosworth is quite atmospheric in the evening.
Stopped at my favourite bench at Sutton Cheney for a few minutes and did some exercises.
Also trialled a new GPS watch to replace my old Forerunner 25 which I’ve given up on now; the internal battery is just too knackered and you can’t get decent rechargeable replacements. The new one is a Forerunner 35. I really like it a lot – it’s very light and unobtrusive, could easily be worn as a regular watch, and has a delightfully clear, sharp, high contrast screen that’s easily readable even in low or very bright light. It syncs up to Garmin Connect via bluetooth to your phone, and from there to Strava, automatically. Also has a 13 hour battery life (while tracking) or more than a week if just used as a timepiece.
The
only bummer is that it doesn’t show time of day alongside distance done
while riding. My Soleus does that but it’s much more of a faff to get
tracks off it. I’ve set it up to show speed, distance and stopwatch time
but I’d rather have ‘clock’ time.
Anyway that’s another 33.24 miles in the bag; a very nice run out on a warm, light evening. 350 this month.
