The Story of a Screw

Imagine, if you will, the minor existance of a small screw, whose primary remit is to tightly fix a small, shaped lump of brass (aka a cleat) to the bottom of a piece of moulded plastic and rubber (aka a cycling shoe).

Now this screw has no other real concerns in life, it really has nothing more to focus its energy on overcoming the deadly vibrations that try to shake loose its hold on the cleat and pedal along with the daily barrage of mud, water, dust and the odd sliver of dog poo (it happens). Its no wonder, therefore, that when it comes to the time for the screw to relinquish his duty and allow the cleat he has loved more dearly than a brother to be replaced by a newer, shinier version that the screw decides to put up a vicious resistance to the impending change, a resistance that ultimately leads to his complete demise (as well as the total destruction of his friend, the cleat).

Translation?

The cleats I had on my cycling shoes were so worn out that my feet were constantly slipping out the pedals. I hadn't greased the screws before I put the cleats on so a few months of day to day dirt has proved to be a better weld than some industrial glues and I eventual had to take a hacksaw to the cleat to get the damn thing off!!


Check the photo to see how much the old cleat has been worn compared to the new one and also the hacksaw action that I had to resort to after rounding the head of the screws (the new cleats have been installed with waterproof grease in the threads).

Weekly Total: 77.58 miles
Overall Total: 1264 miles

Whale of a Time

A busy week culminating in a strangely relaxing and ultimately enjoyable float in the North Sea.

It was a Bank Holiday and I had to take Thursday off work to look after my sick son (who then got very healthy rather quickly and demanded a game of football about lunchtime) so that was 2 days off the bike. The rest of the week was pretty nice, Thursday's storms didn't bring any more rain the next day and I was happy to finish off the week cycling home in glorious sunshine.

The 'floating in the North Sea' bit? That was something that transpired after the wind failed to make an appearance on Sunday afternoon and made all our kite kit completely redundant. Almost all of it, actually - I was (eventually) persuaded to clamber into my suit by the rest of the group and we all made a desperate attempt to imitate a collection of basking seals as we floated in and under and through and over the 8 foot waves that were crashing about us. Brilliant fun.

More sunshine forecast for next week, which means more excuses to let the world see how white my legs really are.

Weekly Total: 62.65 miles
Overall Total: 1186 miles

Guess Who's Back?

Apologies for the lack of updates - although its been fairly quiet on the blog front, its been pretty busy behind the scenes.

I got the bike back about two weeks ago, and have actually been enjoying a relatively trouble-free experience on it since it came back from Halfords, although I hadn't been aware that exorcism was a service option with them.

Anyhow, the bike's back and I'm back in the zone again and cycling almost every day. I don't seem to be as focussed on the whole 'challenge' thing however, I'm much more content to cycling the majority of the days but, if I have to go in particularly early or work late, then its back to catching the train or a taxi to complete the journey. Its not that I've lost the bug or that I can't be bothered to bike in, its just I've discovered that it makes far more sense to cycle whenevr possible, but sometimes its simply not an option without ridiculous effort and organisation. The new 'business casual' dress code at work doesn't help either - shirts and trousers do not tend to travel well when compared to jeans and t-shirts but I do seem to be getting the knack of (almost) crease free folding... any tips would be gladly received however.

Total since getting my bike back: 140.59 miles
Overall Total: 1124 miles