The weather was overcast and fairly windy but nice and warm so a quite pleasant 19.7 to start July off.
5th July: It's time to reveal my dirty little secret... I already own a road bike! Nearly a year ago, when I hadn't been back on my bike long, I bought a bike through the cycle to work scheme. The bike is a Roux Menthe and is what's called an Audax style bike ie a road bike with slightly relaxed angles designed for all day riding.
The gears were incredibly badly setup when I picked it up and it seemed to resist shifting properly whatever I did so I did a couple of 20 milers on it and it's leaned against the radiator in the living room ever since. Given that I'm vaguely thinking of buying a road bike, I thought I'd sort out the Roux and have another go. I fitted a new PC-971 last night and got the gears working this morning and I've just been out and done the route above again for 19.7. To be honest, I really enjoyed it! The carbon fork and cromoly frame really absorb road buzz and shocks and it's definitely no light weight but the skinny tyres definitely make it feel faster on inclines than the Whyte or the Dave Yates.
6th July: Took the Roux out again today and did the Alec's hill route but instead of heading back down from Crank, I carried on and came back via Crawford.
Yesterdays ride and todays were both a bit dodgy in a sense as I was out without any spare tubes in my kit although I do have a repair kit... From experience though, when skinny tyres at 100 psi let go they don't just go down, they explode off the rim leaving two tattered ends on the inner tube. I guess I was lucky though and I have a couple of Conti tubes on their way from Amazon. Anyhow, it's another 23.4 miles in the bag.
8th July: Just got back from Merlin Cycles with some new tyres for the Roux - Conti Grandprix GT. They were, like the Conti MTB tyres, a pig to get on and required metal tyre levers and a lot of swearing! The final tally was two destroyed inner tubes but 3rd time evidently is lucky - why are Conti tyres so bloody tight? If I get a puncture on a ride, I've got very little chance of successfully repairing the wheel!
I chose Grand Prix GT because they have the extra wide PolyX anti puncture strip inside and are made from Conti's latest uber-rubber which they call Black Chili. It's supposed to have lower rolling resistance, better grip and better wear than standard compounds. I guess time will tell!
Just been out and done 19.2 miles on the new tyres and I'm very impressed so far. Compared to the cheapy Chinese tyres that were on the bike, the rolling resistance is noticeably lower which is always a good thing!
10th July: Did a version of Alec's hill tonight for 19.7. Very hot and sunny but still loving the Grand Prix tyres - they are SO smooth!
13th July: Just got in from a brill ride with James. We loved the last ride up near Blackpool so we tried one generated by Map my Ride's 'Route genius' feature. It was fantastic but, true to form, there were a couple of weird bits. At one point we were directed into the garden of an agricultural college and ended up going along this path through a wood that came out onto a gravelled road about half a mile long - interesting on 700c x 25 tyres!
I definitely need to get up to speed with these skinny tyres though. When I arrived at the car park at Kirkham, I found that rear tyre had somehow blown itself of the rim wrecking the inner tube in the process. I only had one spare so it was another ride with no spares... Strangely though, I was able to get the tyre back on just using my thumbs so maybe folding tyre beads do stretch a bit once they've been on a while?
Here's a random pic of our bikes outside Londis in Stake Pool where we stopped for a 'lots of mini cheddars' break. A great ride with another 37.9 miles in the bag.
14th July: Did the local 18 on the Roux tonight ending up at my dad's house for 18.0 miles exactly. It was extremely warm but with a strong head wind for about two thirds of the ride so I was very pleased to average 17.4 miles an hour.
16th July: Did the local 18 but back via Crawford like I did on the 6th but with the new Aksium wheels fitted. I averaged 17.6 miles per hour instead of 16.1 - an increase of 1.5 miles per hour which was awesome and another 23.3 miles for July.
As a slight aside, I managed to time this ride perfectly and ended up cycling through torrential rain. The roads must've been greasy because it hasn't rained for so long but I didn't have a single squirrelly moment on the Grand Prix tyres - I guess the black chili compound works as claimed!
18th July: Just done the local 18 in one hour dead for an average of 17.9 mph. A great average but I nearly suffered death by sweating when I got back! 17.9 more miles in the bag.
22nd July: Did the Alec's hill route this evening but starting and finishing at my folks house for a decent 19.5 miles. It was a nice ride but absolutely roasting again!
25th July: Did the local 18 in 59 minutes, my best ever time. I hope this hot weather breaks soon though, I'm getting bored of being a dripping mess when I get in. Anyhow, that's more 17.9 miles.
26th July: I needed some new pedals for the Roux as the cheap ebay ones on it are getting seriously graunchy so I cycled up to Leisure Lakes in Tarleton and bought some DMR V12 Mag pedals. Very hot ride but another 32.6 miles.
27th July: Did a massive 2.6 miles around the village today! I needed this rather short ride to get my Map my Ride 250 mile badge.
This was quite a fun idea, the aim being to do as much mileage as possible in the 22 days of the TdF and virtual badges were awarded for 100, 250, 500, half a tour and the full tour. I hit 100 quite easily so decided to go for the 250 which explains my higher than average mileage this month.
Finally: I've got a bad dose of the 'can't be arseds' tonight so as a penance I decided to give the Roux a much needed clean: a full deep clean for the chain, a good t-shirting for the cassette, the drive side crank and rings off for a thorough clean and a de-crudding of the jockey wheels so at least I've achieved something this evening! The final total for the month is a very good 271.4.
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