Lost your quick-link pliers? Here's a workaround to get you up and running.

I don't know about you but I am always losing my quick-link pliers which is incredibly annoying if you want to whip your chain off for a re-lube. I can't claim to have invented this particular fix but I use it regularly with 100% success.

You simply take an old (or new if you keep a lot of spares) gear inner cable and feed it down one side of the quick-link and back up through the other side of it. Now cross the ends of cable over and pull. The links should pop straight open with very little effort. Thank you internet.

Finally, the correct screwdriver for adjusting the screws on Shimano derailleurs.

I can't be the only home mechanic who's wondered why adjusting the stop screws on Shimano rear derailleurs is such a fiddle. I came across the answer recently browsing bike websites and have finally got the answer. Shimano are a Japanese company and, despite probably exporting 90% of their products outside of Japan, have used Japanese standard screws.

 

In this case the standard is JIS (standing for Japanese Industrial Standard, funnily enough) and the size is +2. This is a trick owners of Japanese motorbikes have been aware of for years although it seems to be taking longer for the cycling community to catch on. Anyhow, I found this screwdriver on Amazon, although a quick Google suggests it's available from many different vendors now, and I can confirm it fits the derailleur screws perfectly!

Protecting your Brooks saddle from the rain and spray.

One downside to owning a Brooks saddle is that they are made of leather and thus vulnerable to getting wet. Getting wet on it's own isn't a huge problem but Brooks do say never to ride on a wet saddle as the water softens the leather which can permanently deform it with the rider's weight on it.

Various companies, including Brooks, sell fancy covers but I decided on a more red neck approach. If you put a carrier bag over the saddle and then twist each handle around the seat post in the opposite direction and tie the ends together, it creates a rather handy free saddle cover!

June 2017.

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.

Full stem slammage on the Giant.

Being very happy with how the new, longer stem has improved the feel and handling of the Giant I decided to lower the stem a bit more. I didn't want to go ridiculously low so I ordered two 5 mm spacers from eBay.

I ordered two because most Bike companies recommend having a spacer between the top of the stem and the top cap which I guess reduces the stress on the steerer tube compared to clamping it right at the end. I'd already tried it with the lower stem, and it was awesome, so I trimmed the steerer tube and put it back together and I think it looks pretty awesome!

Review: BBB stainless jockey wheels.

At nearly 3,600 miles the jockey wheels on the Giant are looking a bit shabby and the shifting isn't as crisp as it was so I decided to replace the jockey wheels. I chose the basic stainless steel jockey wheels from BBB because they were a sensible price (~£9) and got pretty decent reviews. These jockey wheels are universal in size and use plastic adaptors to fit different derailleur models properly so I chose the 'Shimano 11 speed' adaptors and fitted them.

Shimano jockey wheels use bushings rather than bearings and the upper wheel has about 1.5mm of side by side float whereas these wheels use cartridge bearings and have no float so I was interested to see how the bike shifted. I took the Giant out for a spin and was very impressed. There's definitely more noise from the cassette area sometimes when shifting, I suspect the float in the upper jockey on the Shimano wheel helps negate that, but the shifting is extremely slick, much Like I imagine Di2 must feel - very impressed!

 

May 2017.

4th May: I got out after work today and took the Giant out for a spin. It was hot and sunny but with quite a strong wind so I knew it might be quite tough. I was going to do the usual, the farm, track and two loops, but the horsists were out so I ended up doing the farm track, one loop and then the farm track again. Despite the wind, I took my jacket off halfway around so I just had my new Altura top on. It was a bit chilly when I was out of the sun but quite an enjoyable ride really despite the wind. On a side note, the saddle needs tilting up a bit more as I still felt I was having to push myself back on the saddle; I'll do it before the next ride. 24.6 miles to get May started.

6th May: I don't know if it's the Brooks not sitting as far back as the scoop or if it's the slightly shorter endurance geometry of the Giant's frame but I've felt myself wanting to get a bit more stretched out recently. To this end I decided to replace the Giant's 110 mm stem with a 120 mm version. I chose the Cinelli Vai because it has very understated graphics and was pretty cheap at around £20 plus delivery. Anyhow, I fitted it (it was 18 g lighter than the shorter Giant stem!) and headed out for a spin.

It was hot and sunny but very windy today so I was interested to see how the ride would go. As it turned out, the word 'awesomely' turned out to be the answer. Despite the wind, I constantly felt like I just wanted to ride harder and faster. I guess what cyclists would call my 'core' must be doing alright because I still felt I could support myself in position if the handlebars suddenly disappeared despite the longer stem. I think I've got the new saddle nailed now as well. An app on my phone told me I had it pointing 1 degree up so I changed it to 3.2 degrees up and it felt a lot better. Not a long ride but a fun one at 21.5 miles.

10th May: I had another of my 'book a random day off and really drop on with the weather' days today. The BBC were predicting nice and warm and not much wind so I took the Giant out to do the local 27 maybe tacking Billinge on to make it 32. The weather was windy but otherwise pretty warm and sunny so the ride started off pretty well, the bike still feels awesome with the longer stem. It wasn't all roses though, as I was heading over the last roundabout in Kirby I had my first encounter with a motorist! I was crossing, fairly banked over and had just banked over to the left to leave the roundabout when a man who looked about 100 who'd been watching me approach decided to pull out in front of me. He ended up stopping briefly as I gave him an absolute bollocking about being a massive knob. He drove off eventually and, to be honest, I wasn't that bothered because it was such a beautiful day. I've nothing again older people, obviously, but there comes a time in everyone's life where they ought to think about their own safety and other peoples when it comes to driving. I then crossed over Windle Island and headed up the new cycle path but decided I couldn't be bothered doing Billlinge so I headed back and went to explore St Helens cemetery, something I've drive past thousands of times but have never actually seen. It turned out to be pretty awesome, beautifully maintained and absolutely huge. Anyhow, a very enjoyable ride overall and another 30.3 miles.

13th May: This weekend was looking a bit sketchy with some rain predicted. As it turned out, the rain stopped this morning and the sun came out so I took the Giant out for a spin. I did a bit of a hybrid ride taking in some roads I haven't cycled for long time. 

It was OK but I got a couple of dodgy passes; major single carriageway A roads are probably my least favourite kind of road for this reason but they're fairly easy to avoid. I also did two of my loops which was horse free for a change. The weather was fantastic, mainly sunny and really warm even in the shade so a nice reminder that summer's on the way. 21.9 more miles.

14th May: By pure fluke I managed to get a great ride in today. Normally on a Sunday morning I take my niece Daisy and her three mates Ella, Freya and Liv for a walk to a nearby farm centre where they can run around and stroke goats, miniature ponies and a sheep and a donkey who share a paddock together. Anyhow, my sister in law Kerry Whatsapp'd me this morning to say one of them wasn't well and could we put it off? Ok, bike ride on! The weather was gorgeous, hot and sunny with just a few clouds so I did the farm track and a couple of loops. You can tell summer is on the way, I've never seen so many cyclists out, I even passed a mini-peloton of around 20 riders out for a group ride.

One thing I did manage to do at around the part I saw the mini-peloton is take a pic of a house I've often wondered about. It's in good shape, although run down, but it clearly isn't lived in. There's a static caravan on the site and some other large buildings and junk cars but I wonder why the farm house is abandoned? Anyhow, on a different note, as an attempt to be a bit more social I was making an effort to wave to as many fellow cyclists as I could and in return got a nod, a wave and a hello from a girl on a road bike which was cool. To top it off, when I got back in I found it had been my fastest local ride ever with an average of 17.2 mph which was awesome. Another 22.1 miles.

18th March: I had today booked off because the car's in for it's MOT so it seems like an excellent day for a ride. It was overcast but bright when I set off so I had the Aldi long sleeved top on over my Altura top. I soon warmed up and the weather started to brighten so at about mile six I took the long sleeved top off. I did the farm track and two loops and as the ride progressed it became a lot sunnier so it was actually quite a good ride. One weird thing did happen though, as I was cycling along I thought the saddle felt a bit low. I assumed it was the Brooks bedding in and decided I'd raise it a bit when I got home. When I did get home I looked and found it had actually gone down a good inch! I've reset it and tightened the wedge to 5.8 nm (it says 6.0 max.) so here's hoping it stays up. If it doesn't I might try a bit of Loctite 242 on the bolt threads. Anyhow, a mainly enjoyable 22.3 miles.

20th May: It turned out to be a very rule #9 ride today. It was chucking it down so I took Awesom-O off his wall hanger and took him out for a spin because he has mudguards and I hate getting a mucky stripe up my back and rucksack. I wore my bib shorts but had my Aldi jacket over my new Altura top and as it wasn't particularly warm I actually wore my fleece gloves which I didn't think I'd need until autumn. Anyhow, it proved to be quite a fun ride, the rain slowed down after the first half hour and it brightened up a bit and got quite warm. Awesom-O is fab, I always forget how well he fits me and his new 105 groupset shifts brilliantly. A wet but fun ride and another 22.2 miles.

21st May: It was warm but cloudy this afternoon so I took the Giant out to do the farm track and a couple of loops. I soon realised the seat was a quarter of an inch low after putting it back up when it went down the other day so I stopped at Sidings Lane and raised it slightly. After it went down recently I'm not using the torque wrench this time, I'm going to rely on my engineer's spidey sense instead. Anyhow, it got even brighter and warmer as the ride progressed so it was good for my rapidly reappearing cyclist's tan and it was another 22.2 more miles.

23rd May: In an effort to get into an even racier position on the Giant I decided to try slamming the stem so I ordered two 5 mm carbon fibre spacers and fitted them to the bike. In case I didn't like it, I didn't cut the steerer and placed the existing lower spacer on top of the stem so I could tighten it down. It was an absolutely gorgeous day today, hot and sunny, so a perfect day for a test spin after work. I got halfway up the bypass and still couldn't help feel the saddle was a bit low.

I stopped in Sidings Lane again and raised it another quarter of an inch and it was perfect! My riding position feels exactly like Awesom-O and I could really get the power down. As I approached the farm track I noticed a local cycling club setting up so I decided to do my original 21 miler which I haven't done for ages. Aside from the gorgeous hot weather it was an uneventful ride but I was amazed to find I'd smashed my own recently set 'local ride' average speed record with 17.6 mph over 20.8 miles and I'll get the steerer cut before the next ride.

25th May: I was by far the hottest day of the year so far today so I was dying to get out after work and take the Giant for a spin. As it turned out it was hot, very hot! I did the farm track and two loops. One rather strange thing was that as I was doing the loops I encountered a group of about twenty cyclists hanging around on the corner of Hall Lane and intake Lane. As I came back around the group had grown to at least forty riders - maybe a local club I haven't encountered before? Anyhow a fun ride but very hot, when I got in I felt like I had heat stroke, it was about forty minutes before I stopped sweating and felt vaguely human again. Anyhow, 22.2 more miles.

27th May: I accidentally had one of the most Zen rides I've had for ages today. I took the Giant out intending to do the farm track and a couple of loops. As it turned out, the local time trial club were setting up on the loop so I decided to do something else instead. It was extremely windy but blowing across the farm track and quite overcast with an interesting ghost busters sky. Anyhow, it was  warm so I was happy just cycling up and down the farm track alone with my thoughts. I ended up doing three end to ends and then back through the village for a very enjoyable 27.0 miles.

29th May: It was quite wet and overcast this morning but it brightened up a bit so I took Awesom-O out for a ride. Interestingly, for the second time in my cycling hobby I had a plate of fish fingers for breakfast and my legs felt really amazing on the ride - definitely something for British Cycling, or Team Sky, to investigate I think? I did have a funny animal encounter on the ride which was a first. There's a paddock with three horses in it on the farm path which was full of buttercups so I stopped to take a pic. The horses had been at the far end of the paddock when I stopped but as I was putting my phone away I noticed they were walking towards me in single file. When they arrived, the dominant brown horse stretched out over the fence towards me so I said "Sorry pal, I haven't got any polos on me". At this he gave a loud harrumph, walked over to the white one and bit it on the arse, funny but odd! Anyhow, it was windy but fairly warm so I did two ups and downs of the farm track and two loops and it brightened up a lot so overall a very enjoyable ride and another 27.8 miles.

30th May: I had a few miles to do today to reach a particular number but the weather wasn't promising with rain most of the morning. Luckily, as I was driving home the weather cleared with a cloudy blue sky and sunshine so it was looking promising. I put Awesom-O back on the wall and checked the tyres on the Giant and got changed looking forward to a good ride. However, more or less as I left the house the clouds rolled in and it started chucking it down! Unwilling to swap the bikes back around I set off on the Giant. It was a fairly unpleasant ride but I meandered around until I'd bagged the miles I needed. Interestingly, despite the weather the local TT club were out. It's odd cruising along the road at 22 mph in the pouring rain and having a skinsuited guy on a TT bike cruise past at 30-ish! A wet ride that involved stripping off completely in the back porch and putting everything bar my shoes straight in the wash but a very healthy total for May of 300.5 miles.