90 minutes creaking

27°C, bright after this morning’s thunder.

Good distance for an end of afternoon outing. Postponed this morning’s outing because of slow persistent thunderstorms. It was exciting, however, to watch the lightning bolts strike the sea from bed.

That poor Kona is getting creaky once it’s warm. The bars are slightly bent but the handling is great. I can only look forward to my own Kona Zing’s first rides.

Zing in Aregno

30°C, fierce sun and thunder at end.

It’s that bike again. I’ve hired this one before but.some bits have changed. The gears and.wheels are new. It handles very nicely apart from a bent bar and slightly too short stem. The reach is a little short for me such that my knees can knock on the bars on steep climbs. 12cm would be better than this 10.

I have a frame the same at.home which remains unbuilt. This will spur on to get that project finished.

I’m encouraged by the handling, the bike holds true on straights and corners and feels light at the front end. No doubt this is helped by the Aksium wheels (which I will use at home also).

12 mile warmup.

22°C, bright warm sunshine.

This photo is looking back towards Rivington where I have spent the last 5 days working on NCS

I’ve not ridden any bike for nearly a week now. This ride totalled approximately 32 miles, but it took me 12 miles to warm up. For most of my adult life, I’ve reckoned on 8 miles to warm up (or 1/2 an hour, whichever comes first). Perhaps the long warmup results from the long interval off cycling.

Big ride= happy now.

18°C, brisk W, sunny and dry.
In a way, heading out with a tail-wind is a good way to way up. The penalty happens when you ride back.
All this DofE work has hit my cycling. That can mean twitchy legs and trouble sleeping. A decent ride can fix those as well as another. I am surprised to find my posture is far better post ride.

Ribble nature reserve

16°C, bright sun and dry

Not a long ride but I’ve clocked up well over 100 miles in the last few days. The trips to work have been quick except the return home yesterday. My legs were just empty and it was a drag to get back. Perhaps my diet was not optimal the day before.

Anyway, I decided to ride the ‘cross on my day off. It’s always refreshing and doesn’t demand much stamina.