Lose lbs from your bike with this one simple trick

Swapped the drivechain on my genesis, got rid of the plateau du fromage that it came with and bunged on one of these I did want a stainless steel surly one but they cost a bomb and the fsa was even cheaper when I got it. That saved me a good 20g, probably put all that back on again with a 1/8" chain but it was all I had in stock. See how long this lasts, the original ring was getting hooked, if I was still running the original freewheel I'd have just run the whole lot into the ground but I didn't want the WI getting wrecked prematurely*.

Busy weekends and no nightride due to various reasons meant another full week of commuting last week, I'm hoping this is good base fitness training but it's probably just training myself to ride for 13miles at a time, ho hum atleast it's getting rid of christmas weight. Riding has been top notch too, perfect winter weather, dry crisp days. Last thursday was sublime, bit of mist as I turned onto the dirt at the bottom of my road, sun shining through the trees, searing shafts of light in the mist, firm fast trails plenty of grip, did the woodsy singletrack on the way in for the first time ever on my cx I think. Gorgeous. Of course a couple of nobs tried to ruin it on my way through the city centre but I was too happy to let them trouble me. Friday I yomped home at full pelt got home properly buzzing from endorphins, not had that in a while, fun fun fun.

Oh yeah, if you want to lose weight from your bike don't ride in the dark, check the calendar, spring appears to be here! I took my Hopes off >400g gone, might need em again briefly when the clocks go forward, we'll see but right now commuting offroad is going rather well, another thing to thank STW for as it was a thread on there that got me considering year round xc commuting. In mid summer when it's wall to wall rain and mud you can laugh at my complaints.

*Guy at work just changed his original shimano freewheel on his langster after about 3 years use, I never get anywhere near that long out of mine, but then I had a look at it, teeth really hooked, bearings rough as hell, would hardly turn and the guy admitted it did slip frequently pulling away from lights and stuff. I guess if you're prepared to put up with shonky performance they will last.

Still lurgy-ed

Still got a cold, so my idea of grabbing a keilder cancellation last minute was out the window, lucky escape there I feel, ouch. I had decided if I wasn't doing keilder I'd do a biggy to make up for it. Weather was looking good, alarm woke me at 6, felt rough so hit snooze and had another 2 hours kip, feeling a bit better I got up at 8 and headed for the peaks. Parked up on the road between glossop and hayfield, headed over to lantern pike. Passed a big group of horse riders just below the pike, they started off with "You're not going to ride up that are you?!" but quickly moved on to "check out his legs" and a few phwaors ego stroked I kept on. Ripped down the other side but the steep climb up ollersett showed up my lack of fitness, proper struggle, my travel plans were duly amended no trip to edale today. My bike was creaking like mad too, there was a bit of play in the back end last time out so I'd tightened everything up extra tight but now it made a racket every time I stood up. Grrr. Peep o day, up mt famine, drop into roych clough, nice, picked up a flat but it held till the bottom, quick change and back up to mt famine and dropped into caldwell clough, where I ran into the horse ladies again, more astonishment, more perving - them, not me. I dropped down into hayfield and headed back up towards kinder res. I stopped for a crackin cumberland barm (with egg) at the butty van and got chatting to another mountain biker Lee, he's an STWer and does the peaks pootles, he recommended coming along to the next one. He was headed the same way so we slogged up kinder and did the middle moor descent together, we each pointed out other routes we'd done in the area. Middlemoor was great, lots of pink heather, pretty dry and fast, multiple line choices, some faster than others, especially if you forgot to unlock your forks ;-) excellent stuff. At the bottom we split Lee was headed over to lantern pike I had an appointment with some cheek. I pushed most of the way up chunal moor but the wormstones singletrack was well worth it, cracking end to the ride. Bit short considering I had all day but I wasn't up for anymore. Hope I can get rid of this cold for next week, really slowing me down. Stripped the bike at home, everything looked ok, bearings seem smooth, back together with the minimum torque to prevent play and it seems OK, no creaking, hmmm.

What tyres for....apples

I now know there's quite a few apple trees on my commute, one section of singletrack was covered in them last week, grip was erm interesting. Monday and tuesday were quiet commutes. Tuesday night me and Si did the usual, 2lads, wildeswood, ICR, pike, san marino quarries, smithills. Quite nice, load of faffage tho, Si broke a chain and my rocky mountain was creaking, has been for a while, I thought it was the shock mounts (now replaced) but nope, spent a 5 mins trying to narrow it down, bearings maybe, hmm. Anyway decent ride. Thursday was a bit of a miserable start, damp and foggy but halfway through my commute the sun came out and wow. In the woods, still a bit of mist about, sun shining through the trees, shafts of sunlight lighting up the mist, fantastic. This type of thing but more singletracky. Coming home was fun, took the scenic route and one section o ftrail was just a mass of vegetation, you'd have no idea there was a trail there at the start, hard going until I got onto a more frequently used section. The footbridge near me is still out of action, some people obviously have been climbing over the barrier as some generous soul has covered the barrier and nearby handholds with grease, again that doesn't sound like an official council actions to me. Calls to the ROW office later.

Plenty to say

Took charlie out for a spin in leverhulme park on saturday, first time off road since his first ever ride. He doesn't like the fast bumpy bits (downhill with a kicker at the bottom) but he likes getting sideways round gravelly corners :-) Brand new hope hoops don't like getting sideways on gravelly corners, managed to put a bit of a wobble on them. Not sure how much is the rim and how much is the not so good halo ust tyre. We went down to the river and he walked straight into it and had a splash around, then we went for a run around on the footy field, nice.
A rather nice commute on monday, the baby bunnies and geese were out, the trails were dry, the sun was shining, few people about on the way home so got a lot of use out of my bell (which I've just noticed has n+1 written on the side :-) ) everyone friendly having a nice day, top stuff. Bagged myself a pair of oakley MX goggles on the way home too, might be useful for wet downhill days. Tuesday was a bit grim so back on the road. Now stabiliser has almost scared me off riding dual carriageways I think his report on how normal inoffensive drivers gang up with their collective stupidity to kill cyclists is bang on. I've had a couple of 4x4 drivers swerve round me at the last minute and the person behind (too close behind) come passed incredibly close. I've been dodging the 50mph DC on my commute but the alternatives aren't great. A slow cycle route which has 1 chicane and 6 slalom gates within a quarter mile. A road route, extra 1.5miles, a section of narrow 30 limit rd which often has speeders rat running, a roundabout where I turn right and often get drivers (also turning right) going round it the wrong way to over take me followed by a fast downhill heavy with traffic and lots of side roads for people to pull out on me. After trying various routes I'm back to the DC but totally hogging the left lane to prevent the above. But instead of just primary I'm between dead centre of lane and the right of centre, 2 mornings of that haven't been too bad, no attempted kills, no beeps either (yet) tho I have noted a few drivers muttering to themselves whilst passing me. See how it goes.
No-one else could make tuesday night ride and my mrs looked tired so I stayed home, went out for a ride last night instead. Got a bloody flat again down wildeswood (ust tyre+stans), pumped it back up and it stayed put for rest of ride (and overnight) dunno whats going on there, burping, badly applied rim strip (that'll be me then) or just crap tyre. 2lads, wildes, pike, san marino, quarry, home through eagly and hall ith wood. Very tired at the end, fish, chips, cake, strawberrys and a bucket of tea to replenish energy.
Might have bagged myself a bargain, dt240 wheel, mint condition rim, totally shagged bearings, much cheapness. Will have to see how much it costs to get it up and running before I decide if it was bargain or bust, I did a full bearing change on my very similar 440 for £25ish so fingers crossed.

Take a chance on me

Just dropped another couple of hundred grams off the blinglespeed, got rid of the tube in the front wheel, not sure the latex is going to seal the paper thin specialized tyres tho, we'll see...on the ride home. Ride in was ace, first xc commute of the year, lovely. Good one at the weekend too, went to the peaks did cavedale, pin dale, quarry works, up hope brink, hope cross, jaggers clough (where we got stuck behind a big group of sloooow moving gee gees) and back up mam tor. Nice day for it, really should ride there more often, in particular ride a few of my well used routes backward - tho not this one, up cavedale? I don't think so. Stripped my heckler down last night trying to track down an annoying creaking sound from the swingarm/BB area. Swingarm off bearings checked nope, BB stripped nope, BB and cranks replaced nope, everything stripped regreased and put back on creaking gone. Answers on a postcard coz I've no idea what it was.

Customer service? Whats that?

Figured I'd better get the pivot bearings on my etsx changed they're three years old, back end feels alright but a little flex. I asked merlin who I got it from but they don't do RM anymore but said if I got the bearings they'd fit them - fair enough I guess. I had a look on silverfish website for dealers, leisure lakes nearby and rutland who I've had stuff off before. Emailed both got replies from neither, grrr. I emailed silverfish saying I aint gonna go through your entire dealer list til I get someone who'll help me so sell to me direct or tell me who has them please. I get a reply saying they have them in stock so any dealer can order from them here's the codes. Erm I just said I wasn't going to trawl through your dealer list, I replied asking for RRPs no reply. Fortunatley BETD had some kits for £40, pricey but bearing shops were charging similar and I'm hoping these are the best sort for my bike. Got them next day, cool.
Was going to go to merlin after work to drop frame off but I nipped down to the workshop and I managed to change them without much trouble. One pivot axle wouldn't come out but the guys made me a custom drift, sorted. Quite easy actually (when you have a fully kitted out workshop to hand)
Just need to get my forks back together and fit a new freehub (don't want that failing during kielder) was going to service my shock too but don't fancy screwing it up and having to get it fixed a week before kielder, will do it after.

Bad JuJu

My chakras obviously aren't aligned and my feng shui is all out of whack. This post was supposed to be about a return to form (not my form I'm probably in worse shape than I was in march) but the weather was finally back for a decent night ride. Arranged to meet Si and Johnnie, got my Heckler out, good time to test my new wheel (mistake) saw the spoke key but thought no need wheel is bedded in and I have a key on my multitool (mistake x2) grabbed my backpack (a hat trick) and set off. Up barrow bridge and winter hill. On top of winter hill back end felt all wiggly. Hmm pivot loose or something? Nope back wheel, all the spokes had unwound so it was stupidly slack, like it had just been laced. Sweary, lots of sweary words. Look in my pack for multitool - oops, the multitool with a spoke key is in my other pack and I am bereft, key-less. Lots more swearing. Ended up walking down kennel run, met the lads on georges lane, used Si's spoke key to put some tension in the wheel and gingerly made my way home on road. Grrrrrr. Wheels going into shop at weekend. Might have another go at wheel building in the future but not for use on the heckler, need something I can trust.

Dangerous Dave strikes again

Finally got to test my home built wheel last night. The idea was to go out for a quick run down the street and bed* the spokes in so I could retension them again, but in a classic case of imaptience/overdoing it, I rode a few flights of stairs then went in search of some big stairs to jump off. I didn't find any but I did find some medium stairs with a crap run in/out so I hit them too slow and landed badly not very well. Basically instead of bedding it in I battered the wheel. Again to the eye it looked ok just a couple of loose spokes but in the jig you can see there's some tiny flat spots appeared in the wheel now, only a mil or so, shouldn't be noticeable riding. Tightened everything up, will go on a short ride up rivi soon and see how they stand up to some more abuse.

*yes I know a properly built wheel shouldn't need bedding in but I'm not a proper wheel builder

Hoodoo

With a lot of peer pressure from Johnnie I've been dabbling in the dark arts. Apparently wheel building is not as hard as generally advertised and not as mystical as some believe. So with not a little trepidation I ordered the component parts, hung up some talisman charms, shuffled my tarot cards (kept getting "the fool") sacrificed a chicken (before Johnnie arrived, I doubt he'd approve) and got started. Lacing it all up was pretty easy and I managed to get a little tension in the spokes without dragging the rim severely out of true. With the loan of a jig and some supervision I managed to get the dish something approaching right and trued up the wheel, spoke tension still a bit all over the place but hey ho. Since then I've done a bit more fettling, tried to get the spokes to similar tension and corrected the true. I'm pretty happy with it now, in the jig you can see little wobbles up/down and side to side but hold it in your hands and spin it it looks bob on. I just need to ride on it now and see if it collapses or springs out of true at the first hint of a rock.

I did wonder mid-build how advisable it was to build my first wheel for use on the back of my heckler, the rim dinger, tube shredder, destroyer of tyres etc etc. Time will tell. Oh yeah and more non ust tubeless shenanigans to look forward to.

FFS!

Woke up with a blocked nose and sore throat, with that and last nights shenanigans I am not a happy bunny.

Oh yeah last night,
(warning long bike geek diatribe follows)
cant remember if I've mentioned "project no flats" before, I've switched to a dual ply tyre on the back of my pinch flat prone heckler, only a bit heavier than the big tyre/DH tube combo I was running before and hopefully bulletproof. Started with a standard tyre run ghetto tubeless, PITA to inflate, had to use works compressor. Did the rocky peak ride in april flat free (awesome) but tyre has since deflated, tyre came away from the rim, the latex dried and its uninflatable again. Damn and blast. Ordered a UST minion and a proper dt rim strip, tried fitting that last night, UST tyre will NOT go on, could try with a huge metal tyre lever but will prob damage the rimstrip in doing so. Got a proper UST wheel that I could use so I fit the tyre on there, had loads of trouble getting it pumped up but then it was leaking from the valve, shimano valves not compatible with mavic rims. Grrr. Swap valve, re-inflate (eventually) and it's pissing air from the tyre bead/rim interface. Will try again tonight with washing up liquid. Will also try the standard minion with the rimstrip soon. Sore hands this morning from wrestling with tyres and hooning up and down on the track pump like a maniac for half the night, hope the day doesn't get any worse. Was thinking this morning tho, assuming I do get a useable setup out of this, if I ever did manage to get a flat I'd be buggered fixing it out on a ride. Also I've probably already spent the equivalent time of about 20 puncture stops (and the cost of 10 DH tubes) trying to get it sorted.

Scary moment

Finally fitted the floats to the etsx, front end felt a bit high on the front street but yesterday I rode it to work to bed everything in and it felt fine. Nice and plush, caned it on the singletrack and loved the ride in. On the way home I hopped a raised kerb and dropped a foot or so to the road and heard a crunch, looked back and looks like I'd landed on a can but 5mis later dropping off a 2ft ledge I heard it again but more of a cracking sound. Eeek. Everything looked OK but there is a slight chip in the carbon swingarm. Rode slowly bouncing up and down on it with all my weight and sure enough heard the terminal sounding crack a few more times. First thought was "oh dear, frames dead" I'm ashamed to say my second thought was "ooooh what can I get to replace it" Anyway on further inspection I found the shock bolt was a little loose, tightened it up and didn't hear a peep for rest of ride, will keep an eye on it.

I rode the loop at drinkwater park on the way home, original loop is finished but they are still putting in some rocky diversions and not sure how much more stuff they'll be adding. Short but sweet, blue grade mainly with one swoopy red bit, good for introducing kids/newbies to riding but for regulars not worth travelling to but well worth a diversion if you're riding nearby.

Oh yeah and blood sugar levels plummeted as I got near home, some proper dizzyness going on, straight to the shop for cake - seriously peeved to not find any, why can't you get a decent slab of fruit cake at chain shops anymore (I tried spar and tesco express) had to make do with 4 bakewell tarts to cure the shakes.

Disc brake tinkerers

Had to fettle the back brake on my kinesis last night, one piston was a bit sluggish. Extending the piston and a wipe/lube with mineral oil sorted it out. A bit late now but I found a rather good howto with pics. It's for Hope brakes but should be useful for other brakes too, most calipers are similar design nowadays I think.
http://steveukmtb.wordpress.com/hope-caliper-overhaul-minitrialsm4v2m6/
Those pics show you just how bloody huge those M6s are, proper DH stoppers. Gonna have to do some more tinkering soon, got some old brake hoses that need changing but hope have changed the hose sizing 6mm->5mm i think, £20 for the new connectors! Per brake! Ouch.

Brass monkeys

Ride home last night was ok, a bit soft under tread where mud had thawed but not too sloppy. This morning everything was hard packed again only colder, tootsies were like ice by the time I got in. Speaking of which, I recently purchased some sock guy flames merino socks (£9) and some endura thermolite (£10 for 2pr) both pretty warm so in the interests of science I donned one of each on a big cold ride the other week. Not much in it for most of the ride but towards the end the merino cladded toes a teensy bit less numb than the others. The thermolites are cheap and almost as warm but velcro wrecks them (bit of a problem as I can't get my winter boots on without the velcro cuff folding in and sticking to the socks) merino are money no object and possibly a better investment in the long run. The flames are pretty thin tho, I'm sure there must be some thicker warmer merino socks out there.

In other news Charlies been keeping us up the last few nights, I ended up moving to the spare room at 3am, not good, maybe teething pains.

*repair* New cog & chain on the pompino
*repair* new Rear Mech (XT rr) chain & gear cables on kinesis

Ooh thats a big one

I'd been hoping for a big freeze again so I could get a decent mileage in this weekend, it didn't happen but that didn't stop me. Motivated by Lowey's ride last week and my own failed attempt at new year I went for the 3towers, notched up 47miles and 6700ft ascent and I was still up for more, pity my bike wasn't. Overcast but no rain I went all Ed-O and took my best bike out in the filth. I set off, up passed trios boarding spot and through the jumbles, up crowthorne and I realised the maggot farm isn't just a smelly farm owned by Farmer Maggot but a stinking barn where they breed maggots, lovely. Up to peel tower, first time on a proper geared bike so first time I've cleaned the climb. Got lost trying to find loweys path back to the horseshoe but made it eventually, after the climb out I had some cake as I rode along, unfortunatley I put the last huge chunk in my gob just as I came within range of the maggot farm, ewww. Loooong downhill back to jumbles and over to darwen which I would have cleaned if I hadn't dropped my glasses halfway up. Grrr. Decided to go to white coppice via great hill, well I had to warrant bringing out a bouncy bike :-) Up the road climb (very narrow) a car came up behind and immediatley tried to squeeze thru where there wasn't room, just for that you can wait move to exact centre of the road, much revving of engine and beeping of horn ensued. After a good few minutes I pulled over and waved him through, wasn't a boy racer as I expected but an oldish guy out to walk his dog. Knob. Excellent downhill tho I did get stuck in the water run off channel with thick grass either side and went OTB when I didn't see a big hole, ran it out tho. Drivechain was a muddy grinding paste and I was getting major chain suck in granny ring by this time (who's stupid idea was bringing an expensive bike out in all this mud?) so middle ringed it up to the pike. Decided my legs hadn't been punished enough and went up winter hill too. The beatles were singing all you need is love, I was thinking a fine sentiment but a working freehub would be nice. In the dip halfway up I freewheeled for a few seconds and couldn't start again, pedals spinning but nowt happening. Swore and kicked back wheel a few times and the hub engaged, right don't stop pedalling Got to top and freewheeled down belmont, top laugh but even on a normal day 5mins in the "aggro attack" position my thighs and calfs burn, with 40miles in my legs it was very painful. Got to road and absolutley nothing from the freehub, had to scoot the (mainly downhill) 5miles home, pain in the arse but I was buzzing from adrenaline/endorphins and as I flew down to Astley Bridge I was bobbing my suspension in time to Fall out boy and fat boy slim. I think I will be signing up for Kielder100 after all, my legs weren't bad when I got home, reckon I had a few more miles left in them, admittedly not another 53 but I've got time to train before september.

*new rear tyre on etsx nev 2.1 ust*

Bloody bloody bugger

*New drivechain on Heckler*

It's official I've got a cold, this could put a dampener on the weekend, there's a lakes ride planned. So scrap riding in to work, couple of bananas with brekky and I shall be chugging orange juice all day. Try to if not get rid of it then atleaat try to lessen the negative effects.

On a positive note, Charlie woke up same time as me and he didn't seem interested in feeding just wanted to laugh and smile at his mum and dad so a bit of a cuddle with him before I left was a nice start to the day. Yes OK I admit it i've turned into a big jessy, apparently kids can do that to you.