Month: June 2011

Saturday:  Called in at Vita who put this rather nice set of wheels on. Got to admit they do look nice. Phil got knocked off his bike last week by the Thatch but luckily the Reynolds carbon wheel held up despite him loosing two teeth.

The shop ride had just got back in and I’ve got to admit they do look quite good in the shop jerseys.

Sunday: Trip to Llandudno with the grandkids. Lashed out on a bucket and spade along with a fishing net. He’s not going to catch anything with that I said. Well the proof is in the pudding, the grandsons first catch, a tiny fish and a shrimp.

Headed back to Chester to pick up a Park cable cutter from the Bike Factory. A heady £37 but what a revelation. Been 51 years on the planet and am only just getting some things. The right tool for the right job is one of them, I’ve been cutting cables with hacksaws even an angle grinder but this is so simple it’s a must.
The reason a shifter upgrade to 6700 Ultegra. I’ve not been too impressed by some of the  installations, cable guides causing them to rub the frame on the larger headsets. Standard cables too long  for the bike on display.  I’d want this level of detail on any bike even a £500 one never mind what I’m willing to pay.

The things you need to know when changing Shimano Ultegra  groupsets.
A front double mech and lever 6600 is not compatible with a 6700 mech and lever, as there is an extra 1 mm distance between the 2 chainrings.  Shimano 6703 seems OK  on 6603 front chainrings. 10 speed rear seems fine.

Vita Due Sportive link added.

Monday: New levers fitted and bar s taped up. Went out for a ride and it looked really clean.
Probably going to do Liverpool-Chester-Liverpool next Sunday.
Tuesday: Kitchen to sort out, did the rounds of those still in business. B+Q carrying too much stock of stuff nobody wants, might want to see me Saturday, Magnet couldn’t get off their arses so no sale there.
Called in at Wickes who are selling off the display including the appliances.
Picked up £1600 worth of oven and hob for £350. Pure chance, grab it when you can. Looks like my Tour is going to be in Eurosport HD at this rate.

Vita Due Sportive consider giving it a go as it is in aid of a good cause, Claire House. Also had some rather good goodies up for grabs including a signed Steve Cummings jersey, two bikes , helmets  and so on.

Wednesday:  Spent the last week or so wondering whether to purchase a bike on the Cycle to work scheme but finally opting to refurbish the Carbitubo. A trip to C and G finishes last week had me scouring the internet for some original stickers.  More when I get back from the Eureka.
A really pleasent day in the end possibly spoilt by having an extra layer on. Bumped in to Dave at the Cafe followed up by Ray who was on his 3rd 100 of the week. That’s 35 hundreds this year with his record of 620 miles in one week, for the record he’s 71. Called in at Ness Gardens where things have changed a bit since I last called in.
Most obvious is that it is now all waitress service, which is fine if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands. I headed for the fridge thinking I was barging into a wedding reception ( as there are notices about them) and got a smile while paying for an orange juice. It looks great, whether it could cope with a big group is another matter.
Parkgate next for a water stop, passed by a CTC group who were stopping at the public toilets. These must be one of the worst public toilets around, they’d been far better off calling in at one of the pubs on the front.
Next stop was Vita in Irby where I loitered a bit too long as it meant cutting out a few miles from the ride.
As it was a shortened ride I headed out to Greasby and then Frankby via the lanes. All was going well until a slug of cars passed me in the lanes with a Gunform van nearly squeezing me out by overtaking me on a bend with traffic coming the other way. Good job he had cleared the junction by the time I’d got there because road rage works two ways. Boy it was close, probably only six inches of clearance, need a helmet camera.
Next stop was Vale Park for a Coke then along the front to Woodside and then home for what turned out to be 42 miles.
Thursday: Morning spinning class , painting and decorating and an evening spinning class.
Friday: Glorius day, 25 Deg C tempered by the fact that 2 spinning classes does take it out of you and a headwind is still a headwind no matter how good the weather. Rode out to the Eureka for lunch, spent too much time in good company yapping and taking in the sun and headed home. Had double booked spinning classes at the Oval and West Kirby so cancelled the Oval one online as the bikes are not as good as the old ones at West Kirby.
Only 7 turned up with 4 blokes in the class which is unusual as we are normally well outnumbered.  By the look of things they were all in the beer gardens.
Saturday: Took the grandkids out with Paul which ended up at the Ice Cream Farm. Fitted new chain to the Trek in preperation for the Bob Clift Memorial ride next Sunday.
Sunday: A final check of the bike before heading out had me taking out another link of the chain. Then I found out I’ve only been using 9 gears out of 10 because of the poor cable adjustment not shifting onto the 10th cog. Got to grips with the B+ adjustment too. There is a fine line that I’ve crossed by going for 28 on the rear and an ultra low of 26 on the front granny ring.
Took it out to the Eureka for a shakedown ride as I’m still getting ghost shifts while under load. The only thing I can put this down to is wear in the pivot of the rear mech.  Not too happy with the Nokon cables either, they look great but any movement of the outer alters the cable length and cause a ghost shift. Plus they creak like crazy and drive you nuts.
Painted the shower room door when I got back and booked into West Kirby for a spinning class as watching paint dry is a bit pointless.

It must have been the weather as the class was packed, I’m just getting to grips with online booking which got me a bike at the last minute. Most must have been expecting Barbara, who rang in with a sickie. Instead we had Kirsty, well you wouldn’t want to meet her in the day job but it was a bloody good spinning class, hard.
Tried  “Back to Start” on the Edge 800 on the way home. No direction or routing, just a blue line to follow on the map. Means staying on the map screen all the way home, which is a bit pointless as you wouldn’t be lost.