Chain cleaning and pet peeves.

I'm a pretty laid back kind of guy but one thing that cheeses me off rather a lot is over priced chain cleaning solutions and degreasing fluids. Sure, 500ml of citrus degreaser lovingly distilled by beautiful young virgins from Californian oranges for a tenner smells nice and is eco-friendly but I don't think you can beat good honest hydro-carbons for dissolving oil off a chain. White spirit is basically an industrial metal degreaser and at 2L for about £4 is pretty good value for money.

To clean my chain thoroughly, I just pop the quick link, put the chain in a cheap plastic container, submerge it in white spirit, put the top back on and shake vigorously for a few minutes and drain the dirty fluid into an empty white spirit bottle. This gets the road dirt and most of the old oil off. I then repeat the process but leave it to soak for a while after shaking. When finished, I just put the chain on the radiator to dry for an hour and it's ready to re-lube and put back on the bike.

 

When the empty bottle of white spirit is full of dirty white spirit, I just seal it up and take it my local Veolia recycling centre where it goes into the old paint section for recycling.

I'm sure many people will disagree with this process but let's be honest, chain cleaning regimes have been argued about for cyclists for donkey's years and probably always will be!

Wear indicators on Continental road tyres.

When I first fitted the Conti Grandprix GTs, I spotted a couple of what I thought were minor manufacturing defects, like tiny bubble holes, in the rubber of the tread. I thought it was odd given the very Germanic quality one expects from Continental tyres but thought nothing more of it.

A few weeks ago I was bored at work and looking around the technologies section of the Continental road bike tyres website when I found that these holes are actually wear indicators! When the hole effectively disappears due to tread wear, replace the tyre - simple. They're not universal, I've just checked the GT 4 Seasons I have waiting to go on when the weather changes, but very useful if they are present.

Getting ready for autumn: New tyres for the Roux.

The Grand Prix GT tyres on the Roux are pretty awesome but they're not designed for winter. They're excellent in the wet but it's the temperatures in winter that can cause problems. Like winter tyres on a car, you need different rubber for a winter tyre, one that's designed to stay soft and grippy in plummeting temperatures.

Having scoured the internet for reviews, I went for Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons in the end. They're not cheap at about £35 each but they're made of a softer, stickier rubber designed to grip the road in the grimmest winter conditions and they also have a double Vectran puncture protection layer, Continental's toughest anti-puncture technology . I'll fit them when autumn arrives and report back on their performance.

Some much needed security for the Roux.

The Roux spends it's life when not on the road leaning on the radiator in my living room. The fact I tend to leave the back door wide open when I'm upstairs on the computer led me to decide that some sort of security was in order. I subsequently discovered that 56lb weights seem to have become collectors items since I bought the one for the Dave Yates and are now as rare as rocking horse poop...

Not to be beaten, I soon found a more modern 25kg weight on ebay which, luckily enough, was just up the road in Liverpool. I picked it up after work today and I now feel a lot more secure. The Roux's only locked to the weight with a bronze rated Kryptonite chain but it'll definitely stop some chancer wandering off with it!

September 2014.

3rd September: I started September with a version of the local 18 with the industrial estate but starting at my parents and ending at the chippy in the village. The weather was overcast but fairly warm so pretty pleasant overall.

The wind was fairly light for a change but it was quite warm and I was pleased when I arrived at the chippy and found I'd averaged 18.2 mph. A solid 21.2 miles to start the month with.

8th September: I didn't get out for a ride with James this weekend because he over-did the partying somewhat on Friday night so I had to go out today to get some miles in.

I'm getting rather bored with the local 18 so I decided to visit Formby Cycles in Formby, I've known it's there for ages but I've just never got around to visiting. The weather was hot with a coldish wind that howled in my face all the way there but was reasonable on the way back. It was OK, lots of nice MTBs and road bikes to drool over and 30.4 more miles for September.

10th September: Did the local 18 again tonight but with a bit of variation thrown in. The road marked with the black dots on the map is a farm track that runs through the fields, it's all tarmac'd but very uneven and heavily patched.

I've definitely decided that as long as you're sensible and try and avoid rocks, stones and potholes, there's no reason to stick rigidly to tarmac roads with 700x25c tyres. Another 21.9 in the bag.

15th September: Did the above route again today. It was nice and hot and barely any wind so very pleasant and 22.0 more miles for September

21st September: Today James and I did a route I drew in Map my Ride yesterday. It was very pleasant with a good mix of unmarked country lanes and A and B roads with around 1,800 feet of climbing.

The weather was spot-on, a combination of that subtle late summer heat you get at this time of year with a pleasant breeze so a very nice nice ride and another 31.3 for the month.

As a slight aside, I think it must have been the Southport air show today because as we were chatting by the cars after the ride I heard the sound of jet engines overhead. I looked up and a Vulcan bomber was flying over us at about 500 feet which was awesome (photo shamelessly borrowed from the Daily Mail website).

24th September: Did the rural version of the local 18 with (most of) the industrial estate last night. It was overcast and slightly chilly. It was the first ride this year where I had to wear my thin fleece over my t-shirt, quite depressing but you can't hold autumn at bay, I guess.

Despite the cold it was a nice ride (ending at the chippy in the village for chips - I'm doing the BHF Manchester to Blackpool on Saturday so I'm carb loading!) and 21.7 more miles for September.

27th September: Well, it finally arrived - the 2014 BHF Manchester to Blackpool night ride. Starting from the Trafford Centre in Manchester at midnight and finishing at the tower in Blackpool, it is a 52 mile night ride aimed at raising money for the British Heart Foundation.

After a bit of forum searching I decided I really wanted to complete the ride under the magic four hours barrier and ideally wanted to get under the three and a half hour barrier. In the run up to the event, I was slightly apprehensive about this ride and treated it more like a grand tour than a single ride, I had home-made caffeine drinks and six inch-thick slices of Soreen in my rucksack paranoid about running out of energy half way through the ride. In the end, the chasing after other groups and sticking with people going as fast as I wanted to seems to have overtaken any nerves and I didn't stop for food at all and was extremely pleased when I finished in 2h 57m!

My bike by the sea in Blackpool after a hard three hour ride up from Manchester.

Judging by the number of people at the finish area, I'm pretty sure I came in the top 10% of the field so a very pleasing first BHF M2B night ride and 51.4 more miles for September.

30th September: I needed a massive 0.1 miles to make the two hundred miles for September so I went for a quick pootle 'round the village for 2.8 miles and a total of 202.7 for September.