One man's epic quest to cycle 200 miles each month. Also includes bike maintenance how-to's, hints and tips, cycling routes, reviews and whatever else crosses my mind.
Sunday 5 April 2015
James has bought a road bike!
Well, after starting on a Specialized MTB that he completely wore out, moving onto a Merida 29er MTB, James has bought a road bike at last.
The bike is a Mekk Poggio 1.5. It has a full carbon frame and forks and a Shimano Sora groupset bar the Mekk cranks and rings. One really cool thing about it is that Mekk use the same frame for the whole Poggio range so it's ripe for some future upgrades once the Sora starts wearing out. I'm meeting it, and James, later on today so I'll get to see it in the carbon and we'll look like a proper pair of roadies for the first time!
Saturday 4 April 2015
April 2015.
4th April: Did the extended 22 again today. The weather was perfect blue skies with that weirdly clear air that makes things miles away look just as clear as things nearby. The BBC weather said 5 or 6 mph of wind but it was howling so I spent half the ride flying along at 20+ and half fighting into the wind but it's 23.6 miles to kick April off.
5th April: I met James today and we had another crack at the route I needed rescuing on because of the Garmin Edge Touring a while back.
I was using the Edge Touring again and for a fair few miles it worked perfectly normally giving me good visible direction indicators every time we approached a turn or junction. However, true to form, it then turned itself off and lost the first few miles of the ride. I turned it back on but it seems to lose interest after a few miles and so I ended up following James. This was easier said than done because we'd both forgotten about the massive hill at about mile seven which really wrecked my legs and James was flying along on his new Mekk... Anyhow, a hard ride but it was 34.4 more miles for April.
8th April: Did the extended 22 tonight again. The weather was fantastic and it was the first ride of the year in short sleeves and cycling shorts which was awesome. I finally got around to buying a Charge Scoop for the Giant. James and I both experienced some chafing on Sunday's ride which wasn't pleasant (thank god for Sudocrem!) so this ride was a much more pleasant experience and it was 23.9 more miles for April.
14th April: Did the extended 22 again today. The weather was gorgeous, hot and sunny with hardly any wind, so it was the official first ride of the year with just a t-shirt and shorts! Another 24.4 for April.
19th April: The weather was fairly bright and sunny today so I set out to do the extended 24. However, as soon as I hit the bypass I noticed it was pretty windy so I did something I've wanted to do for ages - explore!
It was quite fun and I saw all sorts of things I didn't know were there. It wasn't perfect though, at one point I ended up following an older chap on a road bike and nearly went up Shaley Brow, one of the most evil climbs in our area at an average of 7.2% and a peak of 27% so a tactical turn around in the entranceway to the golf club restaurant car park saved me from that! An interesting ride and and 17.5 miles for April.
20th April: Had the day off work today and the sun was cracking the flags so I did the extended 22. It was pretty windy (BBC weather website said 1 to 2 mph - thanks...) but it was hot and sunny so a pretty nice ride and 23.7 more miles in the bag.
21st April: Another hot and sunny day so I did the extended 22 again after work. It was warm and sunny but, once again, it was very windy which was quite annoying. Anyhow, another 23.3 miles in the bag.
26th April: Another gorgeous, sunny April day so I set out to do the extended 22. Once again however, the wind was howling down the bypass right into my face so I decided to explore again.
Quite a fun ride but I must get Awesom-O's back wheel trued and ready to roll. Exploring involves cycling some really bad terrain such as farm tracks and rocky, potholed lanes which really pound the hell out of the wheels and tyres, not to mention my wrists, which isn't really fair on the Defy. Anyhow, good fun and 21.6 more miles.
30th April: after a crazy day at work I was in no mood for a bike ride but, determined not to miss another month, I dragged myself out of the house.
Nothing exciting, just a pootle 'round the village for 10.4 miles and a monthly total of 202.4, I was hoping to do a couple of longer rides this week to try and make up for January's deficit but the sunny weather dissappeared and the cold and wind came back with a vengeance but you can't have everything I suppose!
5th April: I met James today and we had another crack at the route I needed rescuing on because of the Garmin Edge Touring a while back.
I was using the Edge Touring again and for a fair few miles it worked perfectly normally giving me good visible direction indicators every time we approached a turn or junction. However, true to form, it then turned itself off and lost the first few miles of the ride. I turned it back on but it seems to lose interest after a few miles and so I ended up following James. This was easier said than done because we'd both forgotten about the massive hill at about mile seven which really wrecked my legs and James was flying along on his new Mekk... Anyhow, a hard ride but it was 34.4 more miles for April.
8th April: Did the extended 22 tonight again. The weather was fantastic and it was the first ride of the year in short sleeves and cycling shorts which was awesome. I finally got around to buying a Charge Scoop for the Giant. James and I both experienced some chafing on Sunday's ride which wasn't pleasant (thank god for Sudocrem!) so this ride was a much more pleasant experience and it was 23.9 more miles for April.
14th April: Did the extended 22 again today. The weather was gorgeous, hot and sunny with hardly any wind, so it was the official first ride of the year with just a t-shirt and shorts! Another 24.4 for April.
19th April: The weather was fairly bright and sunny today so I set out to do the extended 24. However, as soon as I hit the bypass I noticed it was pretty windy so I did something I've wanted to do for ages - explore!
It was quite fun and I saw all sorts of things I didn't know were there. It wasn't perfect though, at one point I ended up following an older chap on a road bike and nearly went up Shaley Brow, one of the most evil climbs in our area at an average of 7.2% and a peak of 27% so a tactical turn around in the entranceway to the golf club restaurant car park saved me from that! An interesting ride and and 17.5 miles for April.
20th April: Had the day off work today and the sun was cracking the flags so I did the extended 22. It was pretty windy (BBC weather website said 1 to 2 mph - thanks...) but it was hot and sunny so a pretty nice ride and 23.7 more miles in the bag.
21st April: Another hot and sunny day so I did the extended 22 again after work. It was warm and sunny but, once again, it was very windy which was quite annoying. Anyhow, another 23.3 miles in the bag.
26th April: Another gorgeous, sunny April day so I set out to do the extended 22. Once again however, the wind was howling down the bypass right into my face so I decided to explore again.
Quite a fun ride but I must get Awesom-O's back wheel trued and ready to roll. Exploring involves cycling some really bad terrain such as farm tracks and rocky, potholed lanes which really pound the hell out of the wheels and tyres, not to mention my wrists, which isn't really fair on the Defy. Anyhow, good fun and 21.6 more miles.
30th April: after a crazy day at work I was in no mood for a bike ride but, determined not to miss another month, I dragged myself out of the house.
Nothing exciting, just a pootle 'round the village for 10.4 miles and a monthly total of 202.4, I was hoping to do a couple of longer rides this week to try and make up for January's deficit but the sunny weather dissappeared and the cold and wind came back with a vengeance but you can't have everything I suppose!
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