Bike: Vela
Distance: 30 miles
Snigger! my wife didn’t realise I’d gone out first thing in the morning so made tea early so I could go out in the evening as well. SSSHHHH!
30 miles, balls out fast (20mph average), lots of idiots on the road who can’t anticipate bike speeds at night.
First ride for my Garmin HCx. I say *first* ride, it’s the first ride for this replacement, which is the third one I’ve had so far. I’ve noticed the serial number is actually a sticker rather than moulded into the body in any way so when this one fails in a few weeks I might place a very small scratch somewhere to confirm they’re doing what I think they and sending the same unit back to me again and again. After all, when I raised Garmin reliability issues on STW, I was beaten down by pretty everyone (with a couple of exceptions) saying how great they are, which would make me the only person on earth to have three dodgy ones and that can’t be possible can it?
And everyone there said how great their customer service is. Again, i must be the only one to raise multiple requests for support on their website (which is the official path to raising requests) and having to wait THREE weeks for a response.
Bike: Vela
Distance: 29 miles
I had a flash of inspiration on the way home from the skateboard park last night (don’t worry, i was just taking my son and his friend, I’m staying well clear of that game now). I could take the wheel off my virtually fully stripped cross bike, stick the 7 speed cassette from the vela onto that, move the tyre across and I’d have a working bike. It might be a bit of a cludge because the rear wheel off my cross bike has a massive delargo rim on it but it seemed to work.
Took it out this morning for one of my hilly loops (800m climbing), and it worked fine. I got stung on the head by a wasp in the first few miles which still hurts now. It was seriously windy and rainy over the tops, right up in the clouds I was, and there were a huge amount of bell ends on the road. But apart from all that, it went great.
Bike:Pimpino
Distance: 49 miles
Right. Strip it all right back down to scratch to find this creak. Cranks off, BB out, clean it all till it gleams, grease the BB, that goes back in, remove the ring from the crank, grease like it’s being entered into a Channel swim, bolt back together, cranks go back on (heavily greased, obviously). Pedals get removed, cleaned, greased, back on they go. A test ride reveals no creaking but it’s caught me out like that before.
This is also the ride when I check out if it’s the bike or the bak that’s causing my back problems. I have a saddle bag and water bottle, camera and pump in my shirt pocket. LETS GO!
30 miles out and it looks like my back problem is sorted, not a twinge, looks like I can’t use a bak any more. Bike is going grea…. CREAK!! Feck. It’s started again. It’s definately coming from the crank area. It happens when I’m stood up so it’s not the seat, it happens when I ride non-handed so it’s not the front end. it happens no matter which crank I’m clipped into so it’s not the pedals. What the fuck is it? I wonder if it’s actually the back wheel….. I need someone to ride it while I listen.
Oh, and I went out to Sutton Manor almost purely to get a photo of the big head. S’clickable.
Bike: Velodrome
Distance: 20 miles
Another guess, 20 miles is almost certainly way below what I actually did but there you go.
My first SQT session at the ‘drome. Not bad at all and I really enjoyed myself. Proper riding in a line with people who mostly know what they’re doing (although there’s still a large amount who are scared of crashing and ride above the line which cocks things up). We did some cool riding including the team 4 pursuit, hunter and some sprint races. Not a massively hard workout but still worth going to as a training session. I just need experience now so I can start the A sessions and do the derny and sprint stuff.
I can see myself really getting into the Velodrome riding although it’s a real ballache getting there and it costs a fair bit. I need to get my own track bike now, which will save some money in the long run….errm maybe.
Bike:Vela
Distance: 40 miles
I’m guessing about 40 miles for this one, to Dave’s house and back. Broke a spoke on the way back, WTF! And of course, allmodern road wheels have odd spokes nowadays which cost £3 each!!! Yeah, right. These spokes are now approximately £2.75p more than the normal spokes. Lying, cheating rip off merchants. (Manufacturers that is). These spokes do not cost that much more to make but it’s a marketing exercise, they cost 1200% more so they *must* be 1200% better. Which clearly they’re not because I snapped one just riding along a road, but what you gonna do?
So I’ve ordered 4 spokes for more money than I would get a box of normal spokes for.
After months of waiting and sprinting down to the velodrome every friday, the day of accreditation finally arrived. This was an all day accreditation which is intended for people who are regular track goers but can’t get to the spaced out accreditation.
First thing is it was surprisingly hard work, around 50 miles in total and you have to focus constantly, any break in concentration and you can literally find yourself on your arse. We all passed in the end but at the start it was mayhem, I’m amazed there was only one crash, people were diving around all over the track, shooting up to the wall on the corners, the difference in speed at various parts of the track was astounding.
Obviously me, being the track veteran that I am, made no mistakes. 
Or not.
Anyway, everyone passed in the end and now we can ride any session at the ‘drome. I really fancy getting into sprinting and derny riding but I think it’ll be a while before I get to that stage. The Thursday night SQT sessions have been recommended as the first starting point, the website says ‘for the not so fast and not so fit’ but I suspect that means ‘you will nearly get your legs ripped off’, rather than ‘you actually will get your legs ripped off’.
Then there’s the racing, that looks fun too. I think I’ll get a few SQT sessions under my belt first, maybe see out the last month of racing or something.
Anyway, I’m counting this as a 50 miler on my Vela, because it’s almost ‘Velo’.
Bike:Vela
Distance: 31 miles
Nice evening ride, windy obviously but not much so. Not to many cocks about neither, which was nice. Only one I can think of who pulled out in front of me on a roundabout but he sadly then had a very bright flashing LED shining in his door mirror for about a mile, I could see his little angry face lighting up in the mirror every time it flashed. Maybe you should have waited on that roundabout then eh? I was after all, doing about 25mph.
And yay! My deficit has fallen below 300 miles for the first time for ages, it’s probably only a very brief drop below 300 because I doubt i’ll get a ride in tomorrow, I may get a quick 20 odd miles in Saturday morning but I know I won’t be riding Sunday and fairly certain I won’t get chance on Monday…hmmm unless I work from home….. makes mental note to not accept any on site meetings on Monday.
Bike: Vela
Distance: 22 miles
Quick blast out to clear the cobwebs. I started thinking about the mileage this bike has done since I got it, 1500 approx now, and it was second hand. The wheels have been replaced because the bontrager ones were a bit crap and I’m gradually moving the Ultegra groupset across from my cross bike 
but then I realised that the Continental Grand Prix 4000 tyres have been with my road bikes since I had the Lemond. So they;ve done 1500 miles on this bike and probably about 500 on the Lemond, so that’s (for those of you who have difficulty adding up), over 2000 miles, on one set of tyres. Then I realised I’ve not had (and here’s the kiss of death), one puncture in all that time.
I’m mightily impressed with that. I’ll be getting another pair (although they are 31 quid each!) when these wear out.
Bike: Vela
Distance: 32 miles
Couldn’t sleep so I got up at 5, wandered about the house for a bit and then thought sod it and went out for a ride. Glad I did too, what a beautiful morning. Bit sharp and quite windy but still very nice indeed. Did some proper climbing too, about 800m and then caned it back home along the back roads, most entertaining.
Bike: Vela
Distance:72 miles
A nice big loop up into Lancashire. Over to Bolton, Ramsbottom, Rawtensall. Up onto the tops and then back down into Burnley, Padiham, Whalley and then come back round and head for Preston through Salmesbury. Past the aerodrome and the brewery, Walton le-dale and hightail it home through Bamber Bridge and Wigan.
Only 1226 metres of climbing, it felt more than that, and I was quite slow, 18mph average, not sure what was going on there. Back ached at the end and aah yes, forgot to put food in, must remember that one for next time.
diary, rides | admin | 
September 29, 2009 2:50 pm | 
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