samuri.co.uk

Bike: Handjob
Distance:66 miles

Grrrr!!!! Proper ride. Last biggie before Keilder, (assuming I actually get there but more on that later).

Three towers from my house and then come back and visit Darwen and Rivington again, ride home. Do it fast. Well, I didn’t do it that fast to be honest. The route profile belows says 4 hours but that’s not right, about 6.5 hours which is roughly 10 mph average but I deliberately took it a bit easier than normal. I felt FANTASTIC the whole way round, really good. My back gave me a couple of pings (it’s always been my weak point) but each time I stopped, did some stretching and that seemed to sort it, thanks DONK! Superb advice.

Pity the same couldn’t be said for the bike. The indexing was screwed from the start despite me checking it before I left. The back brake very quickly reverted to ‘fucking useless’ and the front packed in about ten miles from home. The rear mech exploded about 5 miles from home and I finished the ride with the chain looping round the bottom mech wheel bolt, that made a nice noise. I can buy a new mech but the brakes need to be replaced under warranty. I need to have a sit down tonight and think what I’m going to do with them. I have some mini’s on the chameleon which I could move across, or buy a couple of deores and sell them after Kielder, seems like a whole big waste of money though. Never get these ones sorted by friday though so I might not be able to make it. Bit ironic really, I’m fitter than I’ve been since I was 18 and riding road races on a pig iron Raleigh, probably even fitter than I was then to be honest, and the bike has let me down big time, or shimano have at least.

Anyway, profile from today. Sweet!. Click to make it bigger. 66 miles, 2223m of climbing, get in!

Edit: Weekly mileage update. Going to be shockingly crap, hang on…..

246 miles for the week, cripes, I should just go and sit in front of the telly all week, it’s hardly worth it.