Hi All
We are back from our hols. The weather was disappointing, but we managed a few rides - Danni more so.
I finally fixed my bike after a delay of a couple of days. On Wednesday we cycled out of Ross-on-Wye on a circular route prepared by Danni. The first small problem was when Danni accidentally broke the twiddler off the valve when doing tyre pressures, so I quickly fitted a new tube. As we left the car park, my bike computer told me that my heart had double speeded, at 117 throbs per minute before turning the pedals more than about twice; she was already up the road and I was playing catch up. We hit quite a steep rise within about 200 metres and my heart rate went berserk (174), so I thought it wise to stop. When I restarted and rode to the top, Danni just said ''you look red'' and rode straight off again. hmmf.
I struggled from that point until the rain started, I quickly cooled and my heart rate dropped straight down to normal. I'm a bit more experienced on wet riding than Danni and a tad braver (read, more stupid) so I led for a while. We met some significant rises, the likes of which probably don't exist in Hampshire. I used weaving as an aid to climbing as the lane was so very quiet, which Danni considered cheating. She likes to try to remain in the saddle and style it out - she's such a poser!
All was well, the scenery simply beautiful in many places, until we hit this so-called hill, it was more wall than hill - 33.6%! Even walking in cleats on wet tarmac at that gradient was a challenge. It was even steeper and wet just beyond that left hand bend.
After cresting this wall, there was about a mile of mild descending and with a small push from a following wind we easily covered that at about 30mph, then the road simply fell away as if as the result of a landslide. At this point the surface also became deeply rutted, wetter, covered in mud, gravel, and small piles of flints. I unclipped my left foot, relieved some weight from the saddle and feathered my brakes (rim brakes) - average speed for that half mile 51.7 mph! I could hear distant ear-ringing squeals of Danni's protesting disc brakes - a heck of a racket, and she says that they would not have stopped her if she'd needed to.
After this the road turned up hill again, and I reached the point of 'the bonk' just as we returned back to Ross. It was the toughest 15miles I've ever cycled, but great fun.
I'd put my bike on a diet in the week before we left, reducing its weight by about 1.4kg in the process. This was all well and good but I remain about 12kg overweight. On those hill I felt that. I'd also upgraded my cranks/chainrings; the decision to go from a compact set to a semi-compact now felt like a poor one. On those hills Danni had 34 front and 32 rear; I had 36 front and 28 rear. I think that more new bits will be ordered before the next holiday to anywhere with climbing walls, and those energy chew thingies are looking less ridiculous.
Post diet Emonda ...
