Tuesday evening was another very wet trundle round our hilly Bashall Eaves circuit from Andy F's at Hesketh Lane, but anti-clockwise this time. Added a couple of small loops at Bashall Town and Bashall Eaves itself, but missed out the loop to Lees, rode straight from Cow Ark up by the old lime kilns and down the very steep hill to Whitewell; then the real testing climb from Burholme Bridge to Little Bowland. Still managed the same time 1.33, but half a mile less. Coming out of Chipping, a narrow road with a line of parked cars on the left and an approaching Ka that was not going to stop, I COULDN'T stop, had to breath in and go for the gap. As much as I love the 'crosser, I need a proper road bike with decent brakes!
As for bike fitting, Bowland is in the fortunate position of having a member who was team mechanic for Peugeot UK in the days of Tim Gould and David Baker:
He just watched me riding up and down his cul-de-sac for 5 minutes. The stem went down by 5mm, the seat pin went down by 6mm, the saddle went back by 5mm, the cleats went forward on the shoes ( i.e. feet went back on the pedals ) by 5mm. The front of the bars were swung down in the stem by a couple of degrees, the brake levers were moved up and back by approx 35mm.
It is not discernibly more comfortable or easier to pedal; but I do have a greater sense of being one with the bike, particularly regarding confidence on long steep descents.
Mike reckons that the secret is small incremental adjustments; don't go for quantum leaps!
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