Tag: Cycling

#365daysofbiking Sodden, still

March 13th – Between Walsall Wood and Clayhanger in the failing light, the towpath was sodden and the going tough, but the wet environment did catch the light rather well.

I keep grumbling about the rain, and this winter has been truly, remarkably wet. I’m at the stage now where it just doesn’t bother me anymore. If it’s raining, I don’t grumble – I have no choice. I just haul on the waterproofs and get on with it.

But I do kind of think fate now owes me a very dry, warm and sunny summer to make up for it…

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#365daysofbiking Don’t stop me now


March 4th – The front brake was feeling funny again, it had some initial resistance – like a click – when applied. I’d had it before but couldn’t recall the cause.

Turned out I discovered it riding to work when I lost braking power on the same brake. The pads were so worn, the return leaf spring was being pushed out of place by the disc surface.causing the click.

The pistons were opened back out with a wedge tool for the purpose and new pads dropped in. Braking harmony restored!

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#365daysofbiking You picked a fine time to leave me

January 20th – One of the few hard frosts of the season so far greeted me as I left on my bike for work.

I was very, very glad on the cycleways of Telford particularly for the studded winter tyres: Surefooted and grippy as ever. There was a lot of black ice, and I never once felt unstable.

Sadly what did cause me problems was my back brake losing all bite: For some reason my pads chose this morning to wear completely out to the point at which they were just about useless. The crossover point between ‘These are OK’ and ‘Where’s my stopping power gone?’ was one braking action on a downhill.

The one set of conditions when you really need to leave the front brake alone and only use the back… Oh dear.

Luckily, there were no spills.

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#365daysofbiking Lighting the way

January 17th -As well as the Bontrager Flare RT rear light, I’ve also subsequently got hold of an Ion Pro RT – the similarly connected front light that is controlled by the bike computer via Ant+ personal area networking.

It’s about the same size as my beloved Garmin UT800 which has served me well for three years now, but squarer in shape. It has some nice orange sidelights, and the same three stages of brightness with a day and night flash too, just like my normal light.

But the kicker is it’s 1300 lumens – 500 lumens brighter than the trusty Garmin, and the connected nature of it works much better, with a handy app allowing me to set modes directly from a screen on the computer unit.

The photo above is the light on minimum brightness. It’s bloody bright, with seemingly (so far) better battery life and control.

I think this might be a grower. Stay tuned.

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#365daysofbiking Cubic

January 13th – I’ve been given a new rear light to try out, a Bontrager Flare RT. it’s a funny little black cube, about an inch square. It’s eye-burningly bright, with multiple modes, an ambient light sensor, and a shocking degree of intelligence and connected features.

It’s got bluetooth and ant+ wireless communications, so it links to my bike computer and a nifty app lets me control the light, change it’s pattern and have it detect deceleration and work like a brake light too.

The instructions are bizarre and opaque. It’s not got great battery life, but it does recharge via USB. But it’s certainly bright and very, very red.

I not sure what problem it’s trying to solve, but it’s a fun, impressive thing for sure. And it’s actually pretty cheap for the huge amount of tech it’s bristling with.

I’ll report back when I’ve got a feel for it’s quirks.

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#365daysofbiking One step forward, two splashes back

January 9th – It had been drying up since Christmas, the towpaths were getting nicely rideable again.

Sadly, overnight and during the day, the rains came again.

Back to square one, I guess…

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#365daysofbiking Maintaining the bite

November 22nd – And when I got home, an essential job – replace the missing studs in the winter tyres I’s saved from last season.

Schwalbe, the makers of the tyres, sell kits of replacement studs and a tool for inserting them – they are fiddly to do but with a tiny spot of silicone grease they go in well enough.

I had six to do. Took me a while to re-find the knack, but I got there in the end… and hopefully maintaining the excellent grip I love these tires for.

But so worth in the end.

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#365daysofbiking Metal guru


November 19th – One of the reasons I was comfortable with the ice and frost was that I now have the winter tyres on the bike.

There’s nothing more painful than coming off on ice on a cold day – everything seems to hurt far more. To keep upright as far as possible I fit Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus tyres. They’ve an aggressive outer tread loaded with 240 tungsten carbide studs which grip the road through the ice to give purchase even when cornering. There’s a more continuous, subtle central tread which rolls well when at maximum pressure.

Riding these is noisy and harder than normal tyres – but there are no worries about stability – these grip beautifully, like the ice isn’t there at all. They’re also very effective on leaf mulch which I find a lot of this time of year.

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#365daysofbiking A grim toll

November 15th – The bikes are suffering in the bad weather.

A continual spray of road water containing grit, balsam, leaf litter and road salt is getting into the brakes, frame and drivetrain. The pads and brake discs are wearing fast.

I need to get on with some TLC and show my steeds some love.

But while the bad weather persists, anything other than essential work seems like a losing battle.

It’s not just the rider that needs some dry weather….

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#365daysofbiking Laurel and hardly

October 29th – Also on the Priorslee cycleway in Telford, a new hazard that caught me by surprise – but thankfully, didn’t have me off the bike, but it was close!

These slimy, goopy squished berries are I think, laurel. They are falling from a tree next to the cycleway, and are gradually being crushed by the feet of walkers and wheels of cyclists into a greasy pulp.

Its really fiendishly slippery on narrow tyres, and seems water resistant too – heavy rains seem to have made it worse rather than washing it away!

Take care, folks.

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