Belated Sunday Ride Report

Yep – didn’t get chance to do a writeup on the sunday ride – frankly the lure of a warm pub and a few beers got in the way.  Then as I arrived home, I ate a bowl of pasta and fell fast asleep in front of the telly.   I’m useless, I really am.   It’s not as if it was a particularly hard / long / tough ride either.   I cut the distance short as I managed to pick up YET ANOTHER puncture and rip on the bloody useless Schwalbe Duranos.   The back tyre is pretty much shredded in under 300km of riding.  3 large holes right the way through the casing plus god knows how many other little tears and cuts that show through to the “breaker band” of blue rubber.   Its off now, and been swapped out for a Durano Plus…  Strangely the front tyre is completely unscathed – maybe I just got a dodgy one.

Anyhoo, strava for the ride is here

Another Sunday…

And another 3 hours+ of nice solid base distance.    Weather was better than I’d expected to be perfectly honest, a bit windy on the homeward leg, but nothing that was either dangerous or which pushed things into a granny-ring grind.

I’m starting to get to grips properly with the Cannondale now I think, actually feeling confident in the slightly different “feel” to the braking from the disks, and of course the extra bit of “heft” to the bike and especially the wheels compared to the Dolan…  It’s strange really, 20 years ago, if someone would have said “here’s a bike that weighs 23lb” I’d have been thrilled skinny.   At the time, my Raleigh SPD 531SL framed Shimano 600 equipped bike with sprints/tubs weighed in at around 25lb – and was considered quite a light machine – and that’s something with 14 speeds, not 20 and single-pull rim brakes that stopped you… eventually….   in the dry.

Yep, we’ve all passed a lot of water under the bridge…

which brings me to my in-ride photo…

I’ve called it “Pibroch” because it was taken just after me having one…  A Pee Break that is…

Anyhoo, there’s a Strava file here for those of you that care, and there’s a pint of Sam Smiths Best Bitter with my name on it at my local, so that’s all for now.

 

Soggy Sunday

Things I Have Learned today.

1. Don’t get all Excited about getting out for a proper long ride and forget your drinks bottle.
2. Weather Forecasts of Sunny Dry Cold Mornings are seldom correct.
3. Sammy Slicks aren’t slick, and kick up lots of spray from the road.
4. After 2 hours of Salt Spray from the front wheel, you really miss having a Drink with you.
5. Theres a reason I spent Months getting my road shoes set up properly with orthotics etc. and frankly, I should have swapped to road pedals and shoes for a 3 hour ride, rather than sticking with the SPD’s
6. Despite all the above, I really, REALLY enjoyed my morning out on the bike…

Strava stuff for it is here, in case anyone’s interested.