October 2014.

5th October: Took the bike for it's first decent ride with the Conti 4 Season tyres on this afternoon and did the local 18 with the industrial estate. The tyres roll very nicely although they're definitely smaller than a standard 25, more like 24mm really.

It was a bit chilly and quite windy but not bad overall. As a slight aside, I definitely had a cycling first as I cycled through industrial end of Kirkby - a hedgehog in the road! It was just sitting quite happily in the road by the kerb, there was undergrowth on the other side of the fence on the pavement so I picked it up and put it by the fence hoping it would trot through the slats and back into the undergrowth. Odd but 22.0 miles to start October off.

9th October: Did the same ride as above this evening. The wind was horrible for the first ten miles or so but I managed to get my average back up to 16.5 mph by the end so not too bad and 22.0 more miles. As a plus, there were no squashed hedgehogs in the road near where I rescued the hedgehog so I think it's ok!

12th October: Did the same again today. It wasn't warm but it was one of those crisp sunny autumn days that compensate somewhat for the lack of warmth. Nipped into the village do a bit of shopping on the way back so 22.7 more miles.

14th October: Aaaaand again... Did it in the dark for the first time this autumn which was interesting, the off road bit through the fields was fun with the 200+ lumens from my Hope 1 providing just enough light to see where I was going. I've decided to treat myself for autumn however and have ordered an Exposure Strada light - 800 lumens for three hours and multiple combinations there of. I can't wait to try it! Anyhow, 22.0 more miles.

17th October: Did the same ride again tonight with my new Exposure Strada light. I run it in mode 3 which alternates between 3 hours / fullpower and 10 hours / third power.

Full power is fantastic, the 3 miles that runs through the fields with no lighting at all was amazing, the light lights up a good 60 to 80 yards ahead while the 10 hour mode is more than adequate back on the road when you have street lighting as well. Very impressed and another 22.0 miles.

19th October: Did a beast of a ride with James today. Distance wise it was fine but the weather was wet and windy and there were two killer climbs, the type that leaves your legs feeling useless for hours afterwards.

It was so windy coming down off the moors north of Rochdale that we were struggling to maintain 15 miles an hour down a hill you can normally do 30 plus miles an hour down! An interesting ride and another 35.9 for October.

 22nd October: Did the local 22.0 mile ride again. The weather was quite wintery, breezy with a fair bit of rain but surprisingly quite an enjoyable ride even though the bike needed a good hosing down when I got back to get all the road muck off it.

26th October: I was so stuck for inspiration today that I nearly called it off and suggested to James that we both just do our locals. Then I remembered a ride I'd seen on the Sky ride website ages ago that sounded quite intriguing, it was a short one but we could always do a multiple laps.

We met up in the car park at Wythenshawe Civic Centre and headed off. The route basically goes around the whole perimeter of Manchester Airport. It's not a brilliant route, there are a lot of gates that really slow your progress and about a mile and a half of the route is off road on compacted limestone paths that mean slow progress on a road bike but there are some really cool bits. One part of the off road section goes right along the edge of one of the runways so you can watch planes take off from barely 100 yards away which is LOUD but cool. Also, there are two tunnels (with a seperate tunnel for ped's / cyclists) that go right under both runways which is fun, very smooth and obviously no wind. We ran short of time but managed 3 laps for 24.9 miles.

29th October: Did the local 22 miler tonight to end the month. It was cool and windy but not cold so quite a nice ride, in a way I was hoping for rain to test my new mudguards but I guess you can't have everything! Another 22.0 miles and 215.5 for October.

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.

Review: Muc-Off wet lube.

Since fitting the PC-971 to the Roux about 400 miles ago, I've only ever lubed it with the White Lightning Epic Ride I introduced in a previous post. I've noticed signs of wear recently like the chain checker sitting very low in the chain and being able to see between the inner and outer chain plates if I flex the chain sideways sooooo... I'm switching back to a wet lube. They can be messy but I'm starting to suspect they offer more wear protection.

The Finish Line ceramic wet lube isn't very water proof so I decided to try Muc-Off's wet lube as I believe it's been reformulated since I last tried it. The original lube smelled vaguely of blueberries but this stuff smells incredible! It's like the smell of old-fashioned gear box oil mixed with blueberries. If you don't like mechanical type smells like petrol, diesel or gearbox oil etc maybe give this one a miss, it's quite potent, but I love it.

I applied one drip per link to a thoroughly degreased chain and although I've only done 34 miles on it, I'm pleased so far. It was a dry ride so I've no idea how water-proof it is but my chain was smooth and super-silent yesterday.

2nd November update: Well, summer's over and the rainy weather is starting again. I went out for an hour in the pouring rain recently and the morning after there wasn't a speck of rust on the chain so I'm impressed with the water proofing of this lube. Sure the chain gets a bit clarty and gritty but with wet lubes you have to accept the chain needs to be deep cleaned every 60-100 miles.

2 years later review (October 2016): I have stopped using this lube now in favour of synthetic based oils. This lube is vegetable based and vegetable oils go through a process known as resinification where the oil dries out and becomes clarty and gluey. I've used a couple of the bikes since this review where they hadn't been ridden for 6 months and oil had turned into a hard black residue that was a pain in the arse to clean off.