The hoods of torture So, as detailed in the previous post my eBay Winter Bike project had had a pretty strong start. My bargain 1990’s Dawes Galaxy had been treated to a complete drivetrain refresh for less than the cost of a contemporary rear cassette, and I’d even found some less offensive bar tape to …
Continue reading Winter Bike Part 2 – it’s not easy being retro ……
I’ve never bothered with a specific bike for winter training. I’ve either just ridden my usual road bike all year round and accepted the increased need to perform distasteful tasks like cleaning and lubing the chain more frequently, or just ridden off road for most of the winter. After all there is to my mind …
Continue reading Buying a Winter Bike – Is this the path to all year round riding?
I'd been tracking the rider in front for over a mile. As we started the climb they were hovering tantalisingly out of reach just up the road. As the gradient hit over seven percent and my frantic clicking of my right hand shifter met its end stop I could see them at the edge of …
So long time to blog, and seeing as the last one was written around the subject of Fish Keeping, it's even longer since I put both middle fingers to keyboard on the subject of bikes and the riding there of. Well mea culpa (whatever that means), sorry, I know I've been letting down my loyal …
Continue reading Spring has Sprung at last – Time to ride mes amis……..
One of the lesser mentioned and debated side effects of not riding as much as one used to is that bikes and kit simply don't wear out as fast as they did when one is young and keen. I once reckoned that if a cartridge bottom bracket (remember them anybody? - you know the ones …
Continue reading So here it is, Merry Christmas, every bodies having….. hugely rising costs!
My relationship with cycles with treaded knobbly tyres is a long and complex one. Once way back in the mists of my competitive youth off-road riding meant winter cyclo-cross races held at muddy playing fields or municipal recreation grounds during the road racing off-season. Like many aspiring junior roadies I subjected myself to these bleak windswept afternoons of cycling …
One of the best things about riding during the UK winter is the way that mother nature helps to level the playing field. For a start when the roads take on their winter plumage of mud, frozen cowshit and massive potholes that seasonal British beast the 'winter bike' makes its first appearance of the year …
Continue reading Winter Riding – The great sartorial leveller
Remember remember soggy November, shit weather, crashes and snot - goes the UK riders parody of a well-known children's nursery rhyme. Yup, November is my full-blown excuse fest month. The slightest thing can keep me indoors and off the bike. Sainsbury's delivery? no problem dear, I'll stay in all day waiting for it in case it comes …
Turbo training - unpleasant sweaty bore festival or useful addition to the cyclist's training schedule? I have to admit to being in the latter camp until fairly recently. Like many riders a turbo trainer had been gathering dust at the back of my garage for many years. Bought one winter in a fit of optimism …
The Declining Cyclist 