
Category Archives: Summer bike
Last Zing
27°C, 0 cloud, light breeze.

Thought I was getting tired of cycling yesterday but then did this fun short route this morning. Everything was right, felt fit and happy with the bike. The photo above is the stop at Aregnu spring to fill up. There follows a steady climb and a thrilling descent.
Ideally, this bike needs a longer stem; the 175mm cranks felt right though. I’m saying that considering that frame in the box at home. 180mm cranks are hard to track down, so perhaps I should settle with 177 5mm instead.
Avapressa

31°C,full sun.
This one left me tired. The route extended into the next valley east and came down to the coast via Montecello.
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.
Calenzana horseshoe
27°C, patches of thick cloud clearing later.
The trunk road was mostly clear and cooler this morning making the climbs easier. A blast down from Lumio was a scream!
This year I have 2x 750ml bottles and made full use of the springs at Zilia had Aregnu. Wonderful.
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).
Warm wind.
21°C, strong S, strong sun
Another short ride.
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.
Perfect summer’s day.
19°C, no real wind, bright sun.
Rode along thinking about my yet to build new frame. The fit on the cross bike seems best of the bikes I have. It should be easy to copy over the measurements.
I need to make building it as painless as possible but it will need 180mm cranks. So far, I have: frame, headset and wheels.