Still fettling ...

With just over a week to go I find myself still fettling with the bike and worrying about the rear wheel.  

From previous posts you'll know that I swapped out the carbon seat post for a spare aluminium one I had.  Well, after several test rides it became clear that the one bolt clamp was not capable of holding my saddle in place and it kept moving during rides.

So, one Wiggle order later and I have a new alu seat post with a 2 bolt clamp.  I fitted this to the bike yesterday and attached the saddlebag mount.  It gripped the saddle solidly and, using a slightly higher than usual saddle height I managed to get enough clearance to mount the bag.

This week-end was also the time to put on the 25mm tyres and give the bike a good clean and check.

So here it is in (hopefully) its final configuration just before today's test ride.

The test ride went pretty well, I'm still amazed how much speed I can hold even with the loaded saddle bag attached.  There were some issues though.

Firstly the seat post gradually worked itself lower and by the time I noticed, the bag was rubbing on the back wheel as it has done previously.  It took several re-adjustments and extra tightening during the ride to get the post to remain at the right height - which wasn't the height it started the ride.  This was because the higher than normal saddle was causing pain in my left knee.  

Thankfully the new seat post has some numbered and lined markings that allowed me to gradually adjust to a comfortable measured height and allow the bag to be attached/removed without having to move the seat post.  The amount I had to tighten the seat post clamp to stop it slipping was a bit worrying though and the slippage has already left some gouge marks in the post but they only look superficial.

The 25mm tyres added a bit of extra comfort, rolled well and didn't feel any slower.  They also seemed to provide a bit more feedback from the road and more assured handling.

Only 10 days to go now so I really do need to stop fettling and get everything to remain in place.  One final thing I'm still debating is whether to order some new wheels this week or at least a new rear one.  If there's one reason not to do this it's because I probably won't have the time to test them on a long ride.

Mike

Suffolk Sunrise 100 - Done!

Well, I did manage to complete the 102 miles of the Suffolk Sunrise champion route and in quite a respectable time too.  Just under 6 hours of riding time and just under 7 hours in total.

It was a cool and windy day which made for a strong headwind in the latter part of the course and for the last 15 miles or so I was very grateful to Roger for spending most of the time on the front of our 2-up TT formation and dragging me to the end.

Copyright Sportivephoto Ltd

We skipped the first feed zone at 20 miles and carried on to be greeted by a splendid buffet lunch with fantastic homemade cakes at the 45 mile feed zone.  It was hard not to eat too much but we resisted temptation and limited ourselves to a small portion of pasta salad, bread and a few other bits and pieces and a slice of delicious lemon cake with a coffee.

The next feed zone was at 75 miles and again there were lots of cakes as well as fruit and tea and coffee.  I had a banana and a couple of small cakes.

Overall I was surprised at how little I needed to eat and drink.  I got through three 800 ml bottles of energy drink and a few jelly babies were also consumed along the way.

Despite the wind our average speed was just over 17 mph. This was no doubt helped by being in a few fast groups for long stretches where we were pulled along by some stronger riders.

So overall our confidence is up.  We managed 100 miles without any real discomfort.  Yes we were tired but didn't feel too bad the following day and even rode our bikes to work.

Whether we could get up and ride another 100 miles is another matter though but we're both now more confident than we were.

Mike

Training gets serious

This week-end I'm attempting to ride 102 miles in one day on the Action Medical Research Suffolk Sunrise ride.  This will be more than I've managed in all but one week so far this year!

My Garmin data and Endomondo tell me that I've ridden 826 miles in 2013 so far.  My weekly average is about 43 miles and the longest ride I've done is just under 50 miles.  Is this enough with less than 6 weeks to go?

If I compare this to the two times I did the Dragon Ride - a one day 120 mile ride - then the first year I did over 2000 miles of training between January and end of May and the second year it was a few hundred less. My weekly average was well over 100.

So will I manage the full 102 miles on Sunday or will I bail out onto the 68 mile route.  A strong headwind is forecast for the last section so it could be tough.

I'll let you know.

Mike