It took forty minutes of filing the plastic adaptor you get with the bottom bracket to get it to fit the tool so I've ordered a Park Tool BBT-59 for next time. Anyhow, it was overcast but bright and not too windy so it was quite a fun ride in the end. I came back via the bypass to avoid going through the village during the school run so it was 26.4 very smooth miles to kick March off.
8th March: Well today was a very strange day indeed weather-wise. I left the house this morning to go to work and found it was snowing heavily and there was a good two inches of snow on the ground (the press are calling this one The Pest from the West)! I legged back in to change out of my shoes and into my boots and then left for work. By lunchtime, the snow had stopped and the weather brightened up and actually turned quite pleasant. By the time I got home it was as if it had never snowed so I took Awesom-O out to do the usual. The weather was pleasant, around 5 or 6 °C and not too windy, but the snow melt had really filled the two big puddles; they were both around forty feet long and a good three inches deep so Awesom-O was an absolute state when we got back but it was a fun ride overall and 25.0 more miles.
13th March: It was a nice calm evening after work today, maybe 3 or 4 °C with very little wind, so I took Awesom-O out to do the usual. It'll soon be time to put the lights away because it was still light when I left the house at six o'clock and didn't start getting dark until the second 'down' of the three ups and downs. Other than that it was pretty uneventful ride although I did have another of my 'firsts'. I was heading along the exposed section of the track on my third 'up' and my light picked something out on the path ahead. I looked down and there was a large rat, or possibly water vole, casually walking across the path ahead of me. There's a drainage stream running between two fields running up to the path at that point so maybe he was just visiting friends, who knows? Also, slightly annoyingly, Awesom-O has developed a really weird rattling noise which will need investigating before we next go out. Anyhow, another 25.3 miles and, coincidentally, the ride that took Awesom-O over the 4,000 mile threshold!
22nd March: Another finally! It's been very wintry recently and the Beast of the East came back for two or three days so the chances to get out have been slim. Before heading out though, I had to find out what the rattling was on the last ride. The rear mudguard is held on at the top by a plastic assembly that clips over the 'guard and is pinned between the rear brake and the seat stay bridge. It turns out mud had been building up in the clip and it had abraded a rectangular gap into each side of the mudguard so it was free to jiggle around! I took the mudguard off, washed and dried it thoroughly and then degreased the affected areas with isopropyl alcohol. I then liberally applied Araldite Rapid around the whole clip area and put it back together. The next morning the whole thing was as solid as a rock so that was a nice win. It wasn't too cold tonight, maybe 7 ° C, and not too windy so a very enjoyable ride and Awesom-O was as quiet as a well oiled machine should be again. Another 25.1 miles on the clock and a 55 mile sportive in the Lakes on Saturday to look forward to as our next ride.
24th March: I did my first sportive of the year today, the No Excuses Cumbria sportive. The weather was predicted to be pretty much perfect, sunny with not much wind so I put Awesom-O in the car and headed for Carlisle race course. Slightly worryingly, as we set off at about ten past eight the weather was very cold and foggy but by mile ten there were patches of blue appearing in the fog and by mile fifteen the fog had burned out and it proved to be a very pleasant sunny day. The ride was going well up to the feed stop when I took a very welcome bathroom break and had a slice each of fruit, cherry and ginger cake and a cup of water and headed off again. Not long after I set off again, I rounded a bend to be face with an enormous hill. It was seriously hard work and I wasn't 100% convinced I was going to make it. I was grinding away in bottom gear staring at the road six feet in front of the front wheel fantasising about reaching the top.
There was something of a false summit and then it carried on climbing, around 800 feet of elevation by the time I finally reached the top and my legs were absolutely burned out. I then arrived at this tiny hamlet where there was a sign asking HGVs to engage their crawler gear at which point my heart sank but I carried on. The road was 17% but only a few yards long and I admit I got off and walked for about ten yards, my legs were just fragged. I carried on though and my legs recovered in time for the last few miles and I arrived back at the race course and got a finisher's medal, a pair of ukcyclingevents.co.uk socks and choob, a protein gel and a Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Sense razor (you have to love the sheer randomness of sportive finisher packs!). A hard ride but another 55.4 miles for March.
30th March: I've had a bit of a case of the can't be arseds recently because it's been cold and windy so I performed a bit of preventative maintenance on Awesom-O. I took his cassette off and cleaned every cog with an old t-shirt and then removed the freehub. I took the freehub off mainly to see if I could because this is the wheel that had to go back to Hunt because the end nut froze onto the axle. It came off OK so I took the freehub off and air-blasted the old lube out of the three pawls and put a single drop of Morgan Blue race oil on each one and put it back together. I slathered the threads on the axle and the ones in the end nut with Finish Line grease, to prevent them freezing together again, and put it back together. I also decided to have another look at his front shifting.
I don't use the big ring on any of my bikes so I don't worry about setting up the front shifting. Anyhow, after about fifteen minutes in the workstand he now has what turned out to be perfect shifting! I took him out to do the usual this afternoon and definitely had another cycling first. I decided to add a bit of distance by heading back up Hall Lane and as I was cycling along, a male and two female ducks walked slowly out of the hedge and into the road. In the middle of the lane, the male duck jumped on the back of one of the females, gripped her neck in his beak and started doing the business. Luckily it's a quiet road and there was no traffic but definitely not a safe place to get amorous! Anyhow, another 25.4 miles at a very 'good for the season' average of 16.7 mph.
Update: I've just checked the chain and the 0.75% end of the Park gauge drops through most links at 694.4 miles so my EP90 and Morgan Blue Synlube experimental mixture is not a good winter lube. I've fitted a new chain and the next lube I'm going to test is Pedro's Syn Lube.
Well it was cold and windy today so I couldn't be arsed dragging myself out of the house. This means finishing the month on a less than optimal 182.6 miles but the evenings are really starting to brighten up and the weather's definitely getting warmer so I think I'm just tiring of the cold, miserable weather. Apparently it's going to be really warm and bright towards the end of next week so I'll definitely be taking Awesom-O, complete with new chain and lube, out for a spin then!
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