No bike today

I did pick up the bike last night, even managed to fit the speedo and generally get it ready for the journey in until I rememebered taht i was supposed to be onsite this morning at 7am, so I decided to leave the bike at home and restart the challenge next week.

It's Ready?

Just received a call from Halfords, Clydebank to tell me that my bike has been repaired and is ready to be picked up.

I'll get it after work today and hopefully be back on the road tomorrow morning. I'm praying that the repair will be far better than the quality i have come to expect from Halfords over the years.... fingers crossed!

It's Cursed, I Tell Thee!

I don't remember smashing any mirrors recently, I haven't desecrated any shrines and I'm absolutely certain that I have kept up with the regulatory number of sacrifices this year.... so why is my new bike cursed?

The journey home last night was hampered by a slow puncture that I picked up after about 10 mins. This isn't usually too much of a problem, its just a case of stopping to repair the puncture or replace the tube and get back on my way again. Unfortunately, however, after I dug out my puncture repair kit I discovered that I'd left my tyre levers back in Mabie Forest when I repaired a puncture on Sunday - bugger. No tyre lever meant a pretty nasty job trying to remove the tyre so I decided to reinflate the tyre and see how far I could get before I had to pump it up again. By the time I got home, I had had to stop four times to pump up the tyre.
Not a brilliant start to a new bike relationship, but I figured I had the answer to the problem and decided to swap over the tubes currently on the bike with Dr Sludge tubes that I bought from Chain Reaction when I had my last bike. It took a bit of time and effort, but I was glad that I'd changed them over and that I had one good 'spare' tube to take with me. Unfortunately the bike did fall over at one point during the process (it was upside down at the time), but other than that, all seemed to go fairly well and I went on to replace the nasty cheap flat pedals that had come with the bike with some shiny and new Candy pedals.

Which takes the story up to this morning, a lovely sunny day with a hint of winter in the air, absolutely perfect cycling conditions and a brilliant time to be out on the bike. I liked the new setup, the pedals made me feel more connected to the bike, the new inner tubes filling me with confidence as I dodged through on of the puddles of broken glass that can be found along Glasgow's roads, my only gripe was that I couldn't go faster (the other bike had more gears). It was turning out to be a good day....

... and then my rear mech got stuck in the spokes in my rear wheel and brought everything to a crashing stop.

The bike falling over the night before had bent the rear mech hanger which meant that the rear mech was able to shift up into the path of the turning wheel itself. 2 spokes snapped and one is pretty badly bent and the rear mech is almost unrecognisable. Not good.

I've dropped the bike off at Halfords, hardly the most auspicious of bike repair shops, but the closest one available to me at the time. The bike won't be fixed until Monday. Definitely cursed.

My only consolation? Well, the replacement sensor for my bike computer still hasn't arrived, so none of the cycling this week would have counted towards the overall mileage.

Back on the Road

I had to pedal through a small hail storm to get into work this morning but it only lasted a few minutes and I was rewarded with glorious sunshine for the remainder of my journey.

The new bike was smooth, unfamiliar and felt a little clunky compared to my last bike, but a few modifications along the way and it was feeling far better by the time I got to work. I didn't have time to put on my replacement clipless pedals though and really noticed a difference riding in on falts.

No bike computer yet so no mileage towards the challenge, but its lovely to be able to opt out of the souless commute by train.

New Bike

I got to pick up my new bike from Edinburgh this evening. The shop closed at 6pm and we managed to make it there by 5.57pm after some awesome and audacious driving from Pete who managed to claw back the time we lost due to roadworks and slow traffic on the drive back up from Dumfries.

Bike's all ready to go, my legs have had a wee bit of exercise today and its looking like its going to be a wet start to the week - bring it on.

Team Training

It was the first training session for Team Gear and loathing today.

Gear and Loathing is a team of four riders currently entered in the 10 Under the Ben endurance race that is taking place on the 17th / 18th June this year. It's going to be pretty cool to race offroad for the very first time, but the pressure is on as we also have to beat our nemeses, Team Four Crank Redemtion who comprise of Simon, Gaz, Jim and their secret weapon, Mr TBC. Apparently Mr TBC is a uber-fit athlete with a carbon fibre bike, but after todays 20 mile training session, we reckon we'll have the measure of him.

It was a wet day in Mabie Forest today, lots of slippy root, sticky mud, nasty rocks, a stinky bog and the odd tricky skinny, but we all finished the course with wide smiles and some serious filthy clothes.

Top day out - thanks to Pete, Cris and, of course, the mighty Hippo (who's hospitality really is second to none).