11°C, light S, bright sun.
Fine weather means an earlier than usual outing for the summer bike. As of last year, this is primarily the Kona Zing. It went well though the indexing needs a little work.
First Zing
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Monthly Archives: Feb 2021
Corner well
11°C, dry but strong S. Grey cloud.
In all my cycling, I can corner better than this guy. It’s obvious that he took the corner too fast, it’s not as if there was no warning. See the chevron signs behind. The car isn’t too badly damaged, the windscreen isn’t broken and the driver’s window is open. My guess is that he climbed out.
Anyway; cycling. The big feature was the wind. It’s very hard to make up for slow stretches, you never really get the speed back with a tailwind.
Warmer at last (+10°C)
Arrow, 10°C, light S, sunny.
Clocking up the miles on the old Arrow. I’ve had this since 1994, a steel Audax bike. It needs some updating now. For a winter bike, it’s too low at the front and too stretched. The best idea is to choose new bars with some uplift and a shorter stem.
That didn’t work out well.
5°C, moderate SE wind, sun at first but heavy rain to finish.
Set out on the recently serviced Kona Jake. Just like I used to a few years ago, I rode down the canal towpath and found it almost empty. Here was mud in abundance though. He tyres worked well enough with improved grip on the rear. I put an old 35c Grifo which actually came with the bike. I took them off a few years ago because of he huge number of punctures I was getting. He first month of owning the Jake I got 11 punctures.
Anyway, all went well, even along the Sefton Way, a converted rail line. It was a string of puddles surrounded by deeper mud. It’s actually easier to ride through the middle where gravel can be felt.
Then the rear tyre went soft. At first I hoped it would make it home, especially since rain had started. I stopped to as pressure and fumbled with cold muddy hands. The tyre hardened, for a while. It’s now got a self-sealing Slime tube which should have held it. It didn’t last long. I know there are lots of hawthorn trimmings en-route but I was still annoyed.
{arts of the return ride were on a very soft tyre, others I walked. By now the rain was heavy and the road rippled with thin riverlets running along. I didn’t get cold though.
Micycle 