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Date:
7th to 9th August 2008 The bearings on my Shimano XT Hollowtech II bottom bracket have felt worn for a while and I finally bit the bullet and ordered some more from Enduro Fork Seals plus a 50% stake in one of their beautifully machined 'outboard' bearing bottom bracket - bearing press (Huey is purchasing the other 50%). The parcel duly arrived and the first bearing pushed smoothly out of the cup, the exercise being completed in less than 30 seconds. However the second one was more of a trial. I followed the same procedure but the bearing came apart with only the central facing being pushed out with the ball bearings and ball-bearing cage leaving the external facing stuck fast in the cup. A liberal dose of WD40 and plenty of tapping with a long flat bladed screwdriver and hammer eventually drifted the reamins of the bearing out but it was touch and go and I was sweating over whether I would totally screw the cup. For a full desription plus pictorial 'how-to-do-it' see my Hollowtech II bearing replacement page.
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MORE: Single
speeding
Date:
14th September 2008 It was a great day today: great weather, great route, great mates and great trails after 3 days of sun (for those readers not based in the UK, that constitutes a summer for us). So why did I feel so bad then? After all the miles I put in during August, I missed riding last week and so this was the first day out in two weeks. Can I really have lost all that fitness in just fourteen days? You know the feeling, no power, empty inside and lacking co-ordination too. It couldn't be 'the bonk' as it came on almost immmediately we started although a power bar from Lee gave me a temporary respite. On top of that, the bike felt really strange, as though the front wheel was disconnected from the handlebars. I remembered that I had dismanteld and re-greased the headset yesterday; was anything loose? A quick stop confirmed that everything was fine. It was only after ten miles or so that I recalled that I had also been fiddling with the rebound and compression adjusters on the Fox Vanilla 130R forks. Obviously the adjustments I made whilst riding up and down the road in front of my house weren't cutting it once I got out on the trails. The front felt horrible and I was hard on the brakes on some of my favourite descents that I normally fly down and I simply bottled out of the more challenging trails on Ranmore Common around Abba Zabba. No need to push it when you aren't on top of your game; in fact I wasn't even on the sub's bench today. A few adjustments on the hoof made some difference but it will take a few more tweaks to get it back to my preferred setting (if only I had written down somewhere what the combination is, you know, two twists of the dial clockwise and three anti...). So back to the route; along Stane Street, down the chalky gully and steps past the King William IV, across the A24, up to Norbury Park, down to Bocketts Farm, past Polesden Lacey, past the scout campsite, along the north downs way, over to Abba Zabba and Ranmore Common, back along the south side of Ranmore and up to Ranmore church, Box Hill, Headley heath and back to Epsom Downs. A big route in anyone's language, mileage to be confirmed later. We had a few stops for tea and ice-cream but time was getting on by the time I had climbed Box Hill, crank turn by crank turn as I winched myself up inch by inch. So Lee and I hoofed it back via the road whilst Dave and Dave continued across Headley Heath and Colin managed to avoid it altogether with some poor excuse like living at the bottom so what was the point of riding up the hill? "Because it's there!" is the answer. In fairness to Colin, he didn't actually say that but like all good reporters I never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I really wasn't on my game today but I managed the whole route anyway despite thinking about quitting numerous times particularly when faced with a hill or we were passing close to the stations on the Dorking line.
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MORE: Single
speeding
Date:
21st September 2008 It’s
12 months since
the inaugural
event in 2007
and so here we are
again at the London
Freewheel. The format
is pretty similar
although nothing
received in the
post this time and
no Red Bull or refreshments
at Clapham Common
was a minor disappointment.
READ
MORE: Single
speeding
Date:
26th September
2008 A quick spin on a Friday afternoon gets 40 miles in the legs ready for Sunday.
Date:
28th September 2008 It’s great to have Rob back from his knee injury sustained at Afan back on 14th June and we take on a reasonable sized route taking us across the A25 and down our two favourite descents being the 'Alpine Descent' and Druids Grove. Rob is sporting the 661 knee pads to protect his right knee from being banged about too much and Terry is well, just riding really, really fast. We spot the muddy moles at the bottom of Druids Grove and after a chat we go our separate ways although we then change our minds on our chosen route and follow in their tracks to find them all having another sneaky breather around the next bend of the trail! The weather is great and we ride some classic trails that are kicking up dust as we storm all the descents. A great ride covering 28 miles in 4 hours for me including the round trip from my house to Epsom Downs and back. It's just the kind of day you should be wondering why you aren't riding with us instead of reading about it.
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June
2010
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