Cycling

When the snow is thick like it is here in York today (around 4 inches) it’s great fun to swap the tyres on the mountain bike to the really studded tyres, and go for a ride in the snow.

Where it’s been trampled on by people walking it can be quite tricky to keep balance, especially with SPD pedals, so I will unclip my shoes and pedal with the middle of the shoes, not in the cleat.

Surprisingly I didn’t feel cold at all, even though the temperature outside was -5C.

A quick ride down the cycle path and then I dropped back round the roads.

Only a short ride (in the scheme of things) but it’s heavy going through snow – it felt like a 15-20 mile road ride!

I was already up early this morning for my daily practice, so after that around 7am I looked out of the window to see what the weather was like. The clear skies, moonlight and frost made everything look blue. It looked cold. Normally I’d just dive back under the duvet and enjoy a warm mug of tea, but something posessed me to change into my cycling gear (my warmest tights, two thermal layers, thermal balaclava and warm gloves with merino undergloves) and go out for a bike ride.

I was worried it might be a bit wobbly, but actually the gritters have done their job and the roads were great – very little black ice. Coming out of the village the sun was starting to rise and there was a fine layer of mist rising off the fields like a cotton wool blanket. The sky was a light blue but you could see it was very clear today.

Turning left along the road towards Bishopthorpe, I tried to keep away from the edge of the road because of the camber, which when it’s icy has a tendency to drag your back wheel down and make you spill. I don’t fancy that. I also can’t use any cycle paths for fear of ice (I reckoned it was -2C – the computer says average was -2.4C with a maximum low of -5C) so I stuck to the main road in and over skeldergate bridge. At this point I followed the ring road for a short way and then turned left up Piccadilly. I rode up through the centre of town (I think I went the wrong way down a couple of one-way streets but the traffic wasn’t there so I wasn’t causing a problem!) and then down past the minster, where I stopped to take some photos and have a drink.

Following past the Minster and through the Bar at Monkgate, I turned left along Lord Mayors Walk, and then Left again along Gillygate.

Turning right at the lights and along Bootham the roads became quiet again, passing all the students going to Saturday morning school at St Peters. At Clifton Green, I took a left and went past the Youth Hostel, then crossing the River Ouse again over Clifton Bridge. Then the long slow climb up past the RSPCA. I was starting to get a bit cooler, so the climb was somewhat welcome as it meant I warmed up bit.

Then the only climb of the ride – Carr Lane. Well, it’s not a big climb – but it takes you up away from the river and into Acomb. Stopping to get some cash in the high street, I carried on through and past where we used to live in Foxwood, and then crossed over the ringroad and out towards Askham Richard.

The ducks didn’t seem too happy on Askham Richard pond as it’s started to freeze over!

A quick drink and then it was up the other hill and back home. Even though it was so cold, I had no wiggly moments and a great ride.

Getting up and out on the bike this morning, it was one of those ‘it’s really windy – do I go out?’ moments. But I figured if I get used to the headwinds and don’t let them phase me, I’ll be fine.

Kitted up I got the bike out the garage and put a small dab of chain lubricant on each of the chain links. I’d left the chain to dry last week with just a coat of TF2 (Teflon) without putting any proper long-lasting chain lubricant on it – so it needed this to make it smooth running. Hop on the bike, start the garmin, clip into the pedals and we’re off.

Spending time caring for the bike carefully reaps dividends. If you don’t maintain your bike, you’ll end up fighting against it, and not enjoying your ride. With me, I know when my bike is working well because I feel like I’m at one with the bike. Everything works exactly as I need, and the bike just becomes an extension of me. (My Zen philosophy coming out there somewhat I suppose).

With the wind blowing from the west, I had an easy ride east out of the village. 20mph with no stress because of the tailwind. I had planned (in my head) to ride through town, however, turning left towards the pub in Acaster Malbis, I remembered that I can’t go that way today due to flooding;

Ah. Ok. So I turned back and decided to head into my fear and ride into the strong headwind across the airfield because it’s the one thing I need to get comfortable with that seems to frustrate me when I’m riding. So I did. And to be fair, if I keep a tight profile and keep my elbows in and be streamlined, I can slip through the air.

Once I’d come over the bridge towards Colton, I turned right into Colton and stopped to take some photos of the Phone Box turned Book Exchange that’s now in the village

At this point the wind was behind me again so I got blown home, which was ever so nice

So not exactly the fastest ride I’ve ever done, but definitely one that helped me overcome my headwind issues. Cross fingers the wind drops tomorrow so I can ride a bit further!

A quick saturday morning ride whilst the weather’s held off. Lots of standing water on the roads, but in the main it was quite quiet in town for New Year’s Eve. I bet it’ll be busy tonight!

River level was very high in places.

I sometimes wonder why I do enjoy riding so much, but I think there’s many things I enjoy.

The main thing I enjoy is the solitude – it allows me time to ponder things. It’s amazing what you think about out on a bike ride. I’ve been riding through a forest in France and suddenly a sticky work problem has popped into my head, or I’ll plan stuff. But none of it is planned to be thought about – it just all pops into my head randomly. The peace and quiet enables you to switch off. Well, unless there’s something wrong with my bike which will niggle me until I fix it. (Who knew a badly-fitted bottle cage frame pump could make quite so much noise?)

The other thing I enjoy is the being outside. The freedom of being able to go wherever I want, pretty much whenever I want (well, except when it’s super windy or snowing – but even then spiky tyres on the mountain bike don’t stop me). Being out with nature and seeing it at it’s best is awesome – one of the coolest things I’ve ever experience on a bike is riding along and having a wild bat as a companion – flying alongside me for 300 yards on a road not far from my house.  Having to stop and wait because a herd of deer were crossing the road right in front of you. Seeing Owls sat on fenceposts and hedgerows. And even just seeing amazing sunrises and sunsets.

Finally you get a moving meditation. Getting so comfortable on the bike you become part of it – and the brain empties and the noise of the chain is almost hypnotic. You feel at peace with the world.

It’s a great way to start the day – you are energised for the rest of it.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A post by Lord Sugar on twitter made me think about some experience recently with my bike;

 Just done a 60 mile bike ride up coast in Florida(total 280 miles this week) no flats since I changed to Continental Grand Prix 4000 tyres

I also use Continental GP4000 tyres, and have done for a couple of years. They are brilliant. Everyone I know who rides a bike I’ve evangelised about them to – and quite a few have moved to them. The current set on the bike have been on it now for nearly 2 years. They were the new type (GP4000S) that had just come out when I got the bike replaced when the rear mech decided to self destruct.

The bike has now done near enough 5000 miles on the same set of tyres. In fact, I’ve not had a puncture since I put them on. (They’re the 700x23C road bike type, although to look at them they are much rounder than normal tyres – at first look, they seem like a 25).

However, I did find an issue – but not with the tyres.

I went in the garage early on a saturday morning a few weeks back ready to go on a ride to find the tyre flat at the front. Oh sod. But I couldn’t believe I’d got a puncture – because I have the tyres pumped up so high (usually 120psi) if I get a flat it manifests itself very quickly – Usually whilst I’m still on the bike as I’m not a light kind of guy. I use conti tubes too – again – both in my MTB and Road Bike. It’s not just the bright yellow dust caps (I know – thou shalt throw them in the bin according to ‘the rules’) but they also seem to be bombproof.

So I whipped off the wheel and tried to re-inflate the tyre to see if I could find where the issue was. I screwed down the end of the presta valve after inflating but there was a definite hiss coming from what seemed to be the valve hole in the rim. I wonder if 2 years of riding had weakened the valve seat or there was a slow puncture somewhere.

So I deflated it all and took the tube out, pumped it up a bit, and filled a bucket with water. I immersed the tube section by section to see where the hole was.

No hole.

How bizarre. Yet I could hear it hissing.

I submerged the valve – and a little stream of bubbles appeared from the valve. But it was screwed right down. How strange.

When presta valves were first put on  bike tubes, they didn’t have removable cores like a schrader valve (like the one on your car) does.  This caused problems for tubeless tyres, so people like continental and specialized came out with removeable cores. I didn’t know this, so was puzzled as to why what I thought was a sealed valve was leaking. So a bit of googling and I found that a valve that has flat bits on either side of the cap thread is a removeable core, like the picture on the left. The conti tubes I have had these flat bits.

So I got a small pair of pliers, popped out the core, put a tiny bit of lube on the o-ring (the diver coming out in me here!) and popped the core back in. Once tight, putting the tube back into the tyre it inflated perfectly and has stayed inflated since.

In a twist of fate, my rear tyre was flat a few days later and it was the same symptoms – I did the same core remove / lube / replace and it’s been fine too.

Even funnier is that I’ve recently measured my chain with a chain gauge, and I need a new 9-speed chain. So my tyres have outlasted my chain.

And better than that – I’d only had the bike with these tyres in a few weeks when it threw a spoke at the rear. The aerodynamic spokes were such a pain on the Miche wheels and with my local bike shop struggling to get stock in (and with me hating the wind shear I got from aerodynamic spokes) I relegated them to the turbo trainer and bought a nice set of Halo Rims which have done me proud for the best part of 4000 miles – with these tyres and tubes having survived that too – so without a puncture I’ve changed wheels and chain!

Continental GP4000′s rule.

Note – I bet I get a puncture before the weekend having written this now