Today's Bike Ride

[vespa]

i use both and i do 40 mile round trip everyday

[mr brightside]

Went for winds, survived, as you do. Getting a bit pi$$ed off with the way Grassington Mines keep filling my chainset up with grit and sand, the wind was so strong up there i had to pedal to go downhill. I've done the same 25ml ride for 5wks running now; the plica syndrome issue is backing off in my right knee, but i've got something starting to show its hand in my left knee now, though it's not bad yet.

The physio has abandoned me. She says there is nothing to be done with me but arthroscopy, and she can't do that. If my issues run for longer than another 8wks i'm under the knife.

[mr brightside]

Finished the rebuild of the Alan last weekend...



Is Campagnolo swearing on here??? It's a mixture of Chorus and GS on the anchors; and Record chainset, HS and BB. 53/42, 13-23 6spd. It picks up speed pretty quickly which isn't surprising given how little it weighs, can't wait till i'm fit enough to go for blasts on it midweek.

It's got a Shimano 600 freewheel...does this mean the cassette has to be Shimano too? Hopefully it's Interglide. It's running a weird old Sachs Sedis chain and experiences shifting trouble.

[wheezing donkey]

Very pretty Mr B. I remember the sensation caused by that style of bonded construction, when they first appeared in this country, ridden by the Polish national squad at the 1973 (or was it '74 ?) Milk Race. They were badged as WAJAC, constructed by a Polish frame builder ( Walter Jacobowski ) living in Italy. I assume that Alan must have bought-out WAJAC? At the end of the final stage on Blackpool prom the entire team propped their bikes against the promenade railings - talk about bike-geek magnets.

On a different tack, with your dodgey knees you should surely consider lowering the gears for exploits around the Dales?

And don't park it up with the gear levers in the position shown. Change gear so that both the levers are fully forward; that way you won't stretch the cables unnecessarily - it all helps to keep gear changes crisp.

[mr brightside]

Very pretty Mr B. I remember the sensation caused by that style of bonded construction, when they first appeared in this country, ridden by the Polish national squad at the 1973 (or was it '74 ?) Milk Race. They were badged as WAJAC, constructed by a Polish frame builder ( Walter Jacobowski ) living in Italy. I assume that Alan must have bought-out WAJAC? At the end of the final stage on Blackpool prom the entire team propped their bikes against the promenade railings - talk about bike-geek magnets.

On a different tack, with your dodgey knees you should surely consider lowering the gears for exploits around the Dales?

And don't park it up with the gear levers in the position shown. Change gear so that both the levers are fully forward; that way you won't stretch the cables unnecessarily - it all helps to keep gear changes crisp.

Have you ever seen another one with blue forks WD? The story this bike came with is that it was crashed by a Tour of Britain rider, and the front end was rebuilt at Tony Boswell Cycles in York. The Tour rider used a spare bike and mine was sold to the fella i bought it off in 1983. It was probably used in either the 82 or 83 tour.

[wheezing donkey]

Have you ever seen another one with blue forks WD? The story this bike came with is that it was crashed by a Tour of Britain rider, and the front end was rebuilt at Tony Boswell Cycles in York. The Tour rider used a spare bike and mine was sold to the fella i bought it off in 1983. It was probably used in either the 82 or 83 tour.

No. not seen anodised blue forks before. A friend has an old Alan bonded CX bike with the tubes anodised purple but plain forks. Within CX they were very much the frame of choice amongst the competitive top lads from the late 70's through the 80's and 90's until the tig welded alu frames started to appear from the likes of Empella, Ridley, Kinesis etc, even Alan went that way.

[mr brightside]

6th bike ride in a row today. My tapering plan allows me to step it up on week 7, i'm at 25mls at the moment broken down into a 10mls warm up followed by a pint of ale then a 15mls hill ride. The way i feel in the knees it would be foolhardy to go for more miles so i'm going to alter my route and standardise on a more sustained road hill route with a shorter warm up. One of these two...

Storiths-Skyreholme-Greenhow-Thruscross-Storiths (22mls)
Storiths-Appletrewick-Hebden-Greenhow-Thruscross-Storiths (25mls)

There's the Bewerley loop down into Nidderdale and back up which adds 6m/900', down the B6265 and up the lane way. It'd be nice to get there because i've always wanted to do that climb. Fingers crossed, walk before you run.

[Stagger]

I like posting on this thread after a turn in the saddle. Need to do a little more.

27m 2000" ascent around the moorland roads and round J22 M62.
Nice morning to be out.

[dominion]

First outdoor bike ride of the year, only planned an hour. Only lasted 1/2 hour before my calf went. Good job I could just roll down hill most of the way back!

[vespa]

could anyone tell me how much of the 3 peaks cx route you can go on before the race?
a quick-ish 34 mile for me today on turbo