1st June: It's finally summer, huzzah! It was overcast and breezy after work tonight so I took the Giant out for a ride. I was going to do the farm track and a couple of loops but as I started the second loop I saw a horsist further down the road so I turned around and ended the second loop the wrong way around. For the second time recently I saw about twenty cyclists hanging around on the corner of Hall Lane and Intake Lane and then I passed a peloton of about another twenty as I carried on down the road. I've had a quick Google and think it might have been St. Helens Cycle Racing Club. Anyhow, a fun ride and 22.4 miles to kick summer off.
4th June: Today's ride was something of an experiment. I've heard how, back in the early days of cycling, a popular way to lubricate your chain was to submerge it in molten wax. The benefit of this is that the wax stays in the rollers providing lubrication but flakes off the outside of the chain leaving bare metal so there's nothing for dirt to stick to. There's been a bit of a buzz recently in the cycling world after velolabs did a test that paraffin wax was by far the best lube in terms of efficiency and longevity. With that information, and the promise of a cleaner drive train, I decided to give it a go. I ordered some graphite powder and wax from eBay and managed to find a crockpot on Gumtree for less than a tenner and set to work.
I degreased an FSA Team chain and melted 500 g of wax along with a couple of teaspoons of graphite powder and a small block of beeswax (which makes the wax a bit more tenacious) and soaked the chain in it until I couldn't see any more tiny air bubbles appearing (the bubbles appear as the wax gets into each roller displacing the air) and then hung the chain up outside until it cooled down. Threading the chain back on the bike is a pain as you have effectively turned it into a stick and getting the quick link closed is something of a challenge as well but I got there in the end. I took the Giant out and did the farm track and a loop with the newly waxed chain. It was quite sunny but with a fresh breeze so quite a nice ride. The chain was super smooth and quiet although you can hear the chain riding onto the front chainring as you ride along which is novel. The great thing about wax is that if it runs out or gets contaminated, you just chuck it back in the crockpot and start again. Anyhow, I'll persevere with it and report back how I get on. 18.8 oil-free miles.
7th June: Despite the weather today looking a bit sketchy I was determined to get out for a quick ride after work. Before setting off however I decided to wax the chain one more time because I'd noticed the shed wax coming out of the chain was black signifying that it was removing muck from within the links. I gave it a ten minute soak but I didn't hang the chain outside this time. Instead I just let it finish dripping and installed it whilst it was still warm which was way easier than letting it harden into a stick! I'm testing a new app at the moment called 'Rain Today' that a mate of work put me onto and it turned out to be scarily accurate.
The BBC weather website showed it being overcast and dry so I was happy to take the Giant out. As I was leaving however, the app told me it would start raining in 24 minutes. I set off to do the farm track and a loop and, hey presto, after about 25 minutes it started raining! It wasn't heavy, the sort of rain that gets you wet but doesn't seem to wet the road much, so I didn't end up soaked and it was pleasant enough ride overall. Anyhow, another 20.2 miles.
9th June: We've had a lot of rain recently so when it dried up this evening I took the Giant out for a spin. It was overcast and chilly when I set out but I soon warmed up. I did two runs of the farm track which was really cool because I saw another hare. They must be able to run fast because I startled it and it ran off along the path away from me. I was rolling at 13-14 mph but it got a long way ahead very quickly before jinking left into a field. It was smaller than the one I've seen in the field before so there's probably a family of them which is awesome. Anyhow, I followed it with a loop and headed home for 24.6 miles.
11th June: I had quite a weird ride today. My new app, RainToday, said no rain predicted and the BBC weather website said overcast but dry so I took the Giant our for a spin. It was windy but warm so the ride proceeded normally enough. I wasn't far into the ride however when it started drizzling. It eventually stopped but it started and stopped at least another six times on the ride, the last time heavily enough to give me a light soaking and make the brakes on the Giant yowl. On a different note, there was some kind of organised bike ride on today. There were fluorescent directions signs on various lamp posts and groups of riders on the farm track; I Googled it when I got in but I haven't managed to find out what the ride was. Anyhow, two lengths of the farm track and a loop for another 24.6 miles.
13th June: It started off overcast, warm and calm this evening and ended up the perfect summer evening with blue skies and warm sun. I took the Giant out to do the usual ride and ended in detente with the horsists! I was heading down the farm track and I saw two girls on horses up ahead. I slowed right down until I saw that both horses had glanced around and knew I was there, about 10 yards back, and I was just about to ride past when one of the girls smiled and shouted "You should've just shouted, we'd have moved out of the way for you!". I thanked her and carried on not thinking any more of it. About forty minutes later (I'd done farm path, loop, farm path for a change) I was riding up the path again and they were coming towards me this time. I smiled and waved at the same girl and got a very giggly "Hello again!" back. A fun ride and another 24.7 miles.
17th June: It was an absolutely boiling hot day today but I wanted to get out to test my new GPS computer, a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. I'd given up ever getting useful navigation from a Garmin but I've heard so many good things about Wahoo's devices that I decided to give one a try. I won't go into any details, there are tons of reviews on the internet, but I'm very pleased with it. I've got my first sportive tomorrow so I re-waxed the chain and headed out to do the farm track and a loop. It was a pleasant enough ride and I discovered a skill I never knew I had as I was cycling back along the bypass - I can ride no handed! I only did about 50 yards because I was paranoid about hitting something and being flung off but it was fun. As I said, it was very hot but a fun ride and another 18.9 miles.
18th June: It was the hottest day of the year so far, around 28c, and I did my first official Sportive today. It was called the West Coast Classic and, as is usually the case, it had different routes of varying mileage. I opted for the 54 mile route because my left knee's still a bit twingey. I turned up at Preston college at about 8 o'clock, got the bike together and we on the road by 8:50. The ride went great, I ended up following a young girl in a black and white top riding a Canyon as she seemed to be setting a pace I was happy with (a quick check of the results page revealed she was called Amy Twigge, cool name!). The ride was HOT and quite fun, we stopped for 10 minutes in Lytham for refreshments where I topped up my water bottle with Powerbar energy drink (sticky!) and had a tray of chips and then it was back on the road for the last 20 miles back to the college.
The bike was great, the Wahoo Elemnt navigated perfectly, my knee was fine, the waxed chain was great and we were soon back at the college where we were given a medal, a t-shirt and, a Powerbar Protein Plus Sports Milk drink and a Meridian almond bar. It wasn't a perfect ride, some of the roads are terrible, I thought I'd lost a front tooth at one point as I hit some unidentified bit of road damage, so I probably won't do it again but it was an enjoyable experience over all and great for the tan. The final tally was 53.8 miles done in a not too shabby moving time of 3 hrs 02 mins with an average of 17.7 mph and coincidentally this was the ride that took the Giant past the 4,000 mile mark.
20th June: It was another boiling hot day today but I managed to get out on the Giant after work. It was hot and sunny but very windy. I was averaging over eighteen miles an hour by the time I'd done the nine miles to the end of the farm track but that quickly dropped to seventeen by the time I'd ridden into the wind back to the start. Anyhow, I did two lengths of the track and then headed back through the village for a fairly sweaty 21.7 miles.
22nd June: The tyres on the Giant have around 3,600 miles on them and the rear one is seriously flat across the central section so I replaced them with the same tyres, Continental Grand Prix GT, but in the larger 28 mm size. The roads on the sportive last weekend, plus the latest thinking about bigger tyres being faster rolling, led me to size up and buy these. I fitted them (with no levers, amazingly!), inflated them to 10 psi less than the 25's, and headed out and did the farm track, a loop and a quick length of Sineacre Lane to add a bit of distance. It was very windy so hard to detect any change in rolling resistance but the new tyres definitely protect you better when you hit a section of really rough tarmac. I won't top them off before the next ride and see if they're any faster or comfier. Anyhow, 20.7 miles.
24th June: It was overcast and a bit fresh today but I took the Giant out for a spin anyway. My initial plan had been to take a shortcut to the farm track and then do three lengths to get some decent mileage in but there were quite a few cyclists on there, including a guy I got stuck behind for a while who was running 23 mm tyres which was brave.
At this point I decided to do what would be the rest of the local twenty seven miler as a real test of the new bigger tyres because some of the roads are terrible. Pretty soon after, the sun came out and it warmed up a bit and the tyres really helped absorb some of the worst of the road surface so it turned into a pretty fun ride. Another 24.7 miles.
27th June: It rained all morning today so getting out for a ride wasn't looking promising. Luckily it stopped mid-afternoon and it had dried up quite nicely by the time I got in so I managed to get out for a ride. I'm experimenting with the new 28 mm tyres at the moment trying to find the optimum pressure so I let them down and then inflated them 65F / 70R and headed out. I took a shortcut via Dairy Farm Road and the OCR to the farm track and did two up and downs followed by a blat up and down Sineacre Road. The tyres did feel a little soft occasionally but otherwise they were brilliant; very fast but very smooth as well. I think hitting anything sharp risks causing a snakebite at these pressures but otherwise I think I'm pretty much spot on. I've got another big sportive on Sunday so I might pump them up to 68F / 73R beforehand as a precaution but it's looking good so far. Anyhow, another 20.9 miles.
30th June: I ended up having quite a bitty ride today. I'd taken a shortcut to the end of the farm track and was planning to do three lengths but for some reason, there was a class 2 wagon and a van on the path that were tricky to get around and more cars than usual so I ended up doing just one length and then added a couple of loops. I ran the tyres at 68F / 73R and they weren't as smooth as before but felt better able to survive Britain's lovely roads so I'll leave them as they are for tomorrow's sportive. Anyhow, another 20.5 miles for a good monthly total of 316.5.
