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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

Beautiful clear sunny day but very cold. I rode laps of Richmond Park which was relatively quiet and free of ice. A different story in the lanes south of London just beyond Biggin Hill. Snow in the fields and slush and flooded roads.
 
Had to stop at a T junction on a hill earlier today so had changed down to a low gear to pull away again.. got about 2' when there was a horrendous crunch and the rear wheel locked up solid.. "sh1t the chains come off" thinks I... oh if it was only that... derailleur gear mech snapped in half, bent axle and misshaped rear wheel! So that is why they get called push bikes... more drag bike really..:mad::mad::mad:

It's (was) my only transport ATM...
That's a chore. Unless it's something special you are probably better getting another bike, either for spares or replacement.
 
Nice tootle in the snow this morning:

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Looks nice, but with that gearing I'm not convinced my puny legs would be able to make it go uphill!

Oh I didn't intend riding it up hills, that is a TT spec, I have the 52/42 rings and a Record front mech to make it a bit more sensible. Although I will be selling it due to the current circumstances so gearing is moot!
 
That gearing is insane. It looks like Guy Martin's speed record bike. No mortal would be able to get it up any hill bigger than a dropped kerb.
 
It's not that bad it's only a 56T chain ring, as a fairly low cadence person I worked the gearing out to be fine for me on a fairly flat local course.
 
It's not that bad it's only a 56T chain ring, as a fairly low cadence person I worked the gearing out to be fine for me on a fairly flat local course.

Our TT courses were all pretty hill so one of my TT bikes even has a compact chainset (and the other has an 11-28 cassette on).

One of our weekly TT series did laps of the Redbridge course which has a pretty significant hill on it. On the first lap I'd usually monster my way up in a big gear but after a few laps I'd be blowing out my arse so would in the lowest gear I had and wishing I was on my Roubaix with its 11-32 cassette.
 
Is it a smart trainer and are you going to join Zwift?

No. It’s the cheapest I could find this week, from Planet X. It comes with an app that I can use if I buy a cadence and speed thingy, but I’ll just see how it goes. I cycle on the road alone, so I doubt I’ll ride virtually with others.

But never say never!
 
Single speed town bike now has a CX comp fitted to the rear to almost-match the front. The front is 35mm but that's too big for the frame at the back. a 700 x 30 goes in with nanometres to spare, as soon as the snow melts I'll be back on it. The CX tyre is handy when I take it down the towpath or other light off road excursions. I must get round to getting the frame blasted and powdercoated, it would be great then. Let's wait for the snow to melt, eh?
 
Let us know how you get on with it. I was thinking about the tyre clearance of this bike and perhaps if you find the clearance insufficient, then you could fit 650b wheels with wider tyres.

Might not be necessary of course as my gravel bike is currently fitted with 700x37 WTB riddlers which are fine for all but rooty, rocky trails which is MTB territory anyway.


Did a 48 mile ride a couple of days ago... all within 7 country miles of home of course :D.
Respect to the guys doing >100 miles in a day, this time of year!
Not sure my arse is used to so much saddle time.

I am pleased with the choice. It's decent enough on the road to be reasonably motivating to ride up hills. The gearing seems about right, although a ~25% climb was near the limit of what I could maintain in its lowest gear. I wouldn't want to do Chimney Bank on it!
I did find it made my neck ache a bit towards the end of the ride so I've since flipped the stem over to raise the bars about 15mm. I suppose this loses me any sort of roadie crediblity! I have also left all the reflectors on and added a vintage rear Crud Catcher as a finger to "serious" cyclists ;).

Whatever the Youtube vids and reviews say, from the POV of a mountain biker, it's crap off road. Towpaths and gravel are fine, but anything bumpy is not fun. Dropped bars are incompatible with anything vaguely technical. The tyres are surprisingly grippy though. As this bike is more of road bike for me, I think I would prefer the orignal Panaracer Gravel Kings, to the SK version the bike comes with. That's about all I might change though. I think I'll try tubeless with the SKs, to see if it can help with the feel of the bike over skittery stuff.

Weight seems reasonable: 10Kg including pedals and a few bits and pieces.
 
Whatever the Youtube vids and reviews say, from the POV of a mountain biker, it's crap off road. Towpaths and gravel are fine, but anything bumpy is not fun. Dropped bars are incompatible with anything vaguely technical. The tyres are surprisingly grippy though.

That's what I found when I had a dropped bar gravel bike. While it could be ridden on reasonably rough stuff, you wouldn't necessarily want to. So for me that meant it was mainly useful for routes that had some proper off-road stuff that was useful in linking tarmac and/or towpath type stuff. I didn't do enough of those routes to make it worthwhile so ended up getting rid. I've set-up my Cotic Roadrat as a flat barred gravel bike and that's a lot better off-road than the drop-bar bike was, and it's pretty fast on gentle off-road stuff (although still not as fast as a proper lightweight XC MTB).

I've never had a full-on CX bike though, so that's an itch I do fancy scratching at some point.
 


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