Bike Diary

The forecast was for showers in the late afternoon but since it’s been such a thin cycling month due to the weather, I thought I’d just take the Tricross and accept the conditions. Actually the weather was rather nice when I set off, sunny and mild.

A couple of miles after setting off I noticed that I had a lot more lateral movement in my right shoe than I ought to. I tried to remove the shoe from the pedal, but couldn’t! The cleat was securely attached to the pedal, but clearly it wasn’t properly attached to the shoe. It wasn’t actually giving me any trouble though so I pressed on, hoping I wouldn’t need to release my right foot until I had a chance to stop and have a better look, which I did near Twycross.

The front cleat bolt was missing altogether and the two rear bolts were loose. I probably had an Allen key in the saddle bag though. Did I? I still don’t know, the zipper was corroded onto the zip and wouldn’t budge.

So: I decided my best bet was to remove the cleat (it was easy enough to unscrew the bolts with my fingers) so I wouldn’t lose it – and attempt to operate the right pedal like a conventional bike pedal. A mistake, probably. I’d been doing fine with the cleat loosely attached apart from the fear of not being able to unfasten my right foot. But without the cleat, my foot kept slipping off the pedal. It was just about workable though so I kept going but cut across via Little Twycross and Bilstone to keep it short.

Half an hour later, the rain came down. I’d expected showers, but this was 15 minutes of persistent cold rain. Naturally this made the right cycling shoe even more slippery on the pedal.

Only 23.53 miles, but I wouldn’t have gone out at all if I’d know it was going to rain like that. I’ve done 222 this month which I suppose is acceptable. And 1592 this year. This time last year I’d done 1800. Actually I’ve just noticed that I did a 120 mile ride a year ago today. It was the day I got two punctures near Bourne, a lovely warm day. How can that be a year ago already?

https://www.strava.com/activities/11204052764

A pretty nice cycling day today, but I’m on call. Also, I was keen to try out my Planet X following its maintenance yesterday, which involved furnishing it with a new rear mech, hanger, gear cable and chain. Not wise to stray too far from home in those circumstances but I was keen to clock up a decent distance, so last night I planned a route that would take me down south-east to Kirby Muxloe, then west right across to Warton, taking in Fenn Lanes, then north-east back homeward. A decently interesting ride, without straying too far from base. I hoped.

I didn’t actually plot it out on a route planner, so I didn’t know the exact distance. I was going to improvise a bit, anyway.

I set off at about 0845. Yesterday’s forecast had threatened rain in the late afternoon, but I was pleased to see this morning that the meteorologists had changed their mind about that. Just as I set off, a gentleman with a striking resemblance to Boris Johnson strolled past and wished me a good morning. Surely a good omen.

Very happy to find that the bike was running very nicely – I’d half-expected the chain to skip for the first few miles, where I’d joined two lengths of chain. But all the gear changes were nice and smooth. I didn’t try any of the stupid combinations, smaller ring at the front and smallest cog at the back for example. But I try to avoid those anyway. I’m sure they wouldn’t have caused a disaster. I did regret choosing a route with a few steep climbs, not really what you want with an untested chain. But everything was fine.

The ride didn’t go exactly as I’d mentally sketched out, but I did roughly what I’d intended. I found myself at Ratby at one point which wasn’t part of the plan, but I visited the Co-op there and acquired a sandwich and some freshly baked cheese & onion rolls. Nice.

After Kirkby Mallory I took the wrong turn on the A444 and ended up at Stapleton instead of Sutton Cheney. But I followed a sign to Dadlington. I knew I’d find Fenn Lanes from there. This took me along a country lane that was a bit stony and ill-maintained, but it wasn’t too bad. I took the pic at Dadlington.

From Fenn Lanes I did a sort of reverse Bypasser with some deliberate meandering to clock up some extra miles. I was determined to do a fondo by this time. This involved coming along the fast road from Ashby for a couple of miles which was a bit hairy, but at least it was mostly downhill.

Back on 62.84 miles.

Mostly nice weather, cloudy in the morning but sunny later. I removed my new cycling tights at about 1100 and a fleece about 90 minutes later. My legs were a bit hairy and I was slightly embarrassed every time I glanced down, but I’ve given them a good seeing to with a razor in the bath since I got back.

Listened mostly to 5 Live which annoyingly was largely devoted to golf coverage, but there was a very good interview with Mark Knopfler on Patrick Kielty’s show. And I listened to the Prefab Sprout album From Langley Park to Memphis.

That was a really nice run out. Very happy to have the green bike available for use again.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11173148147

No cycling today, but: I did finally get round to sorting out the Planet X. New hanger, rear mech, chain and gear cable fitted. Only took about half an hour.

Annoyingly, the KMC 11 speed chain I’d bought was too short! So I made up the length with an unused bit of chain from the last KMC 11 speed chain I bought. They aren’t actually exactly the same – the new chain is shiny metal with black centre links, whereas the spare links are uniformly dull steel coloured.

I only had one quick link so I had to join them using a chain tool. I knew hoarding spare bits of chain would come in handy one day.

I was going to leave setting it up for another day but I went ahead and finished the job. The chain seems to be going round smoothly enough and doing all the changes properly on the stand, but I dare say it’ll need tweaking after a ride.

The warmest day so far this year I think, and dry as well for a change (mostly). Once again immoderately windy. Wish I could have got out of work earlier, but for my sins I had to give a Teams presentation at 1530. But I was off and away on a bike 53 minutes later.

I wanted to do more than 35, but didn’t have time for 40. My first idea was to go down the Lower Westbound but just as I was approaching Measham I decided to take the left turn down to Snarestone and do a Bypasser. I augmented it with an excursion down toward Old Grendon, then another one down to explore suburban Atherstone briefly. Not very interesting.

Just for laughs I parked the bike against a wrecked car near Warton rather than the usual farm gate or telegraph pole, for the photo. The rear window was completely smashed in and one of the front wheels was splayed out at a near 90 degree angle. Nasty.

First legs-out day of the year. I did take tights just in case but didn’t put them on. Picked up a few splashes of rain but only briefly. Back about a minute after sunset on 38.99 miles. Nice run out, wish I’d been able to set off an hour or two sooner.

136 this month which I’m not really happy with, hope the weather improves for the remaining 19 days.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11160160718

A pretty nice day apart from a fierce wind and a threat of showers, so I abandoned my desk rather early and mounted a bicycle, in the hope of getting a fondo in.

I had the idea of going south at first, but I developed an urge to do a Bypasser. Could I somehow extend a Twycross Bypasser to the requisite 62.14 miles? Well I thought it would be fun to find out.

After Norton I thought of going over to No Man’s Heath, from where I could join the Lower Westbound route. I did that. After King’s Bromley I’d done more than 27 miles thanks to indulging a part-Bypasser and I decided to keep on going south past King’s Bromley Wharf rather than turn off for Abbot’s Bromley. Again, just in a spirit of adventure really. The headwind was shocking at this point and I was riding directly into it.

After about three miles I turned back, but I took an unfamiliar left turn shortly afterward to go exploring. This took me to Handsacre and I followed a sign from there back to King’s Bromley. However just to keep things interesting, from there I came back via what I might term the “Disused Lower Westbound Route”, through Barton under Needwood and Coton in the Elms. I remembered why I don’t really use that route now, it’s gritty and climby in places.

I stopped for food at a village shop in Yoxall. Nice place, very nice sandwiches. I wonder if I could fashion a useful route that goes through Yoxall.

After Netherseal it was apparent that I still had a few miles to make up so I came back a slightly indirect way after Measham, and detoured via Ibstock. The sun had set by this time, and I’d deployed lights.

However .. just as I was coming into the village, a friendly motorist emerging from his car flagged me down. “Did you have a red light on the back of your bike?” he wanted to know. Indeed I did, but not any longer apparently. “Because I passed one flashing on the road back there”, he continued. I thanked him, put a spare rear light on and went back a mile or so to look for it, but I didn’t see it. Ah well, it was cheap, and obviously a bit useless. The rubber strap was still attached, but the main body of the light had fallen off the mount.

Back on 64.27 miles. If not for backtracking to look for a missing rear light, I’d have been back in just over fondo distance so I’d managed the distance quite nicely.

Lovely out there apart from the wind, and obviously that only bothered me over the first half of the ride. Spring-like. I did get rained on, but only for five minutes. This was the first time I’d been out on the S Works since September and it zipped along beautifully on the way back.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11114186122

Rain was expected at about 8pm, so I thought I could crank out 35 miles or so after work without getting wet. I did a Twycrosser With Orton Detour, 32.38 miles. I would have done more than that, but I did get rained on after the first hour.

Hadn’t done the Orton detour for a while.

Listened to Mike Stern’s Standards album which unfortunately is a bit inspid – he plays brilliantly but overall it comes across like lift music. Then I started a new audiobook, the Philp K Dick novel Martian Time-Slip which imagines a human colony on Mars in 1994. I found it really meandering and unfocused.

Anyway not quite as many miles as I wanted, but 32.38 more than I would have done if I’d known I was going to get rained on.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11093238977

Today’s plan was to visit Rutland, then come back. There are a couple of routes that accomplish this in a round trip of 60-odd miles, but I wanted to do more than that today – so I chose a route that takes in the first 40 miles of my Norfolk route, then dips south for 3 miles near Sewstern.

Set off at 0924 (BST, of course – the clocks having gained an hour overnight).

I took the first Boardman and over the first few miles I had a sense that the saddle was set a little too low, so I adjusted it before I was far out of the village (using estimated torque of course, I don’t take a torque wrench with me on a ride). I don’t think it had slipped. I’m just a bit more sensitive to it at the moment, having had to adjust the saddle position on the Roubaix.

I didn’t have much food on me; the plan was to stock up at the petrol station at Burton on the Wolds, which I did. I also hoped to buy some more stuff at the village shop at Buckminster; alas it had closed at 1pm and I got there 25 minutes later than that. I’m not sure why the proprietors, people manifestly not persons of a Christian persuasion, would close early for Easter Sunday, but hey. I pressed on regardless.

Got to the border, took the pic, went over into Rutland for a minute then came back exactly the same way. I did ponder whether I should come back via Melton Mowbray where I’d be sure to find a petrol station with snacks 9 miles later, but I had a cheese & onion roll and an oat bar on me and I felt sure I’d make it to the petrol station at Burton, 26 miles later, without any trouble.

The headwind going east had been slightly brutal. But the tailwind coming back was an absolute delight. I felt like I was riding a moped. The return trip was such a breeze that I didn’t even bother to stop at Burton. I was just flying along, and I see that I’ve picked up a few Strava PRs for a route that I’ve done dozens of times.

A bit cold when I set off but the temperature climbed nicely. I took off a layer of clothing after 15 miles. The temperature did dip a bit later on when the sun went in but not for long. I was mostly very comfortable. The forecast had threatened a possibility of light rain showers, but apart from a hint of drizzle for ten minutes on the way back, I was untroubled by precipitation.

I listened to Colin Murray on 5 Live, then the Rush live album Different Stages – which I hadn’t listened to for many years – then football coverage; Liverpool vs Brighton and the first half of Man City vs Arsenal.

Back on 86.45 miles. I was home two hours before sunset which makes me think I should have done 100 really, but it wasn’t the best day for it. There’ll be longer, warmer and less windy days soon.

Anyway that’s a wrap for March on 480 miles, and the last neighbouring county box ticked for this year. Last year I did the last two on 2nd April. Quite nice to get them all in before the end of March this year, although in 2022 I’d done them all before the end of February.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11078424986

Eleven whole days since I’d been out on a bike, partly because I was away last weekend but also due to an unreasonable run of rainy conditions. The weather seems mainly to have been wet the whole year so far.

Fortunately, at the moment it looks like Saturday and Sunday will be dry this weekend. Today’s weather forecast was not so promising, but I thought I’d do 25 or 30 miles anyway. The BBC forecast threatened rain from noon, but the rainfall radar picture looked more optimistic. I set off at about 1050. Just wanted to do a Twycrosser.

I was going to go all the way down to Sheepy as usual, but as I turned off down Sheepy Road, I noticed a rather threatening dark grey sky to the south. So I turned back and took the short cut down the main road. Came back along Gibbet Lane.

The rain started at 1202 exactly, so unfortunately the BBC forecast was pretty much spot on. Since I was going to get wet either way I came home the longer way through Barton and Nailstone. I also reasoned that the roads that way were less likely to be muddy.

Unexpectedly a mild, sunny day broke out over the last hour or so of the ride. It’s still pretty nice out there, a couple of hours later. I could have stayed out for longer but I was getting a bit close to home, and the temptation of a coffee and a hot cross bun. I’ll probably do a long one on Sunday anyway.

Back on 25.74 miles and that’s 394 this month, which is over target for March.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11061737380

We haven’t been particularly fortunate with the weather recently so with a dry, very mild day forecast I took the afternoon off, with a view to doing a decently long ride. I decided I’d do the Southbound Route again, this time all the way down to Northampton. I reckoned I’d be back by about 9pm, but I got up a lot earlier than I expected. So I’d put in a decent shift and was away and pedalling shortly after 1000.

I was going to wear contact lenses. Unfortunately I lost one of them under my eyelid (again). It’s still up there somewhere. So, with my cycling glasses away having new lenses fitted, I wore my regular metal frame varifocals. Unfortunately they are singularly unsuitable for cycling because they don’t sit high enough on my nose. Fine for checking a watch or something on a handlebar but looking forward, I often only had an unassisted view over the top of the frame.

I got to Northampton at about 1415. Went into Kingsthorpe, past the guest house where I lived for a few months in 1984. Along St George Avenue, past the Racecourse – lovely to see the sun shining on the grass, all very nostalgic. Then I came back.

Took a diversion past the gliding club at Sibbertoft on the way back up. Nothing happening there today. I came the “old” way back up through Husbands Bosworth, Foston and Blaby, which is slightly shorter but I came a long way back through the village to get into three figures. Back on 101.87.

This was the first time I’d been out on the Roubaix for months, and I was surprised to find that the saddle felt a little lower than I expected. Fortunately I had an Allen key on me and I adjusted it after 20 miles or so. But I made a note of the exact position (the seat post has a scale printed on the back). Sure enough when I checked it later in the day, it had sunk 5mm or so. I reset it and tightened it a bit harder. I normally set it using a torque wrench but I set it as tight as I dared (it’s carbon so not as robust as an alloy one would be). It seemed to stay put after that. Not sure whether I should re-torque it, or just leave it. Perhaps I need to apply some grip paste.

This is a more challenging long ride than most in my repertoire because of all the hill climbing coming north of Northampton, but I kept myself well fuelled and it was a breeze.

That was a really nice day out on a bike, especially when the sun was out. The day flew by.

I listened to Camel’s Rain Dances – pretty bland stuff really but quite pleasant and calming. And The Colourfield’s Virgins and Philistines, which is powerfully evocative of the time when I first lived in Northampton. Apart from that, 5 Live and, earlier in the day, James O’Brien on LBC. I agree with almost nothing he says, in fact it’s obvious his main reason for getting up in the morning is to piss people off. But he’s very entertaining, in an unintentional sort of way.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10988332354

Rain was due over in the afternoon and I didn’t want to get out of bed early, so I only wanted to do 40-odd. A simple plan: to go down the Southbound Route for 20 miles or so, then come back.

As I emerged onto the Earl Shilton bypass I saw what appeared to be cars parked on either side, at the junction. Very odd place to park, I thought .. but as I drew closer it was evident that they’d just smacked into each other head-on. I’d guess one of the drivers overestimated the time he had to turn right in the oncoming traffic. Nasty, but fortunately everyone appeared to have emerged unscathed.

At Coventry Road after 20 miles I decided to turn right to Shamford, rather than straight over to Broughton Astley. I only wanted to do a couple more miles before coming back so I was just messing around really. Then I took a left turn signposted to Frolesworth. I expected it to devolve into a gritty track more suited to a gravel bike but no, it was a thoroughly decently surfaced, quiet road. Not particularly interesting though, just a road through farmland.

Frolesworth is also not particularly interesting. Quite a pleasant little village but one of those places that has a church but no pubs or shops, which I find perverse. My intention had been to turn back and come the same way but I saw a sign to Broughton Astley, so I followed that. I came back the usual way from there.

The rain came down three hours earlier than it was supposed to, but it was light. Was sunny over the first hour of the ride.

Home on 47.22 miles. 266 this month.

I listened to Judas Priest’s Unleashed in the East. I don’t think I’ve listened to the whole thing since the early 1980s and actually I still haven’t, I switched it off to go in the Co-op at Stoney to get a croissant and put 5 Live on when I came out. Then 6 Music, then a corking FA Cup tie between Wolves and Coventry.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10972138894