was awoken at 3am.. got back asleep about 530... 

 

aint no way im goin cycling at 7am after that! fingers crissed later on..

 

 

 

well later never happened last wednesday. 

it didnt happen thursday either.

 

so Friday i got out, nice ride out.

 

then saturday morning was a bit nicer..

 

and today was a fun one. i couldve done with 4 hrs more sleep, but it was an enjoyable pedal. 

avg speed was up a bit too, which i put down to dropping a couple of sprockets and getting ip outa the saddle for a 500m "sprint" to the top of the bypass hill. felt that in the thighs...

tuesday morning was very tired so i noped out.

last night was horrific. spud jr woke up at 155am.. couldnt settle, he got a bottle at 225am.. swmbo took over at 310am. i took over again at 420am. i got back to sleep at 515am..... 

lets just say i wasnt in the mood for pedalling at 630am...

 

but i got out earlier on about quarter past 8 and had a nice 16k lap. 

gave it as much up the long hill as i could. hoping for a decent night kip now...

decent kip was had 😁

1 hour ago, mac11irl said:

decent kip was had 😁

We need a Yay emoji thingy. 

1 hour ago, UndertheRadar said:

We need a Yay emoji thingy. 

i would suggest a fist bump, but it may be misconstrued as a punch

 

26 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

i would suggest a fist bump, but it may be misconstrued as a punch

 

It’d be grand. Some folks need both. 

another few days of terrible broken sleep and eveni gs too busy to get out...

managed it this morning.. felt it in legs after the few days off

 

well, i slept okay, until swmbo woke up at 6. shes had a sinus issue the last 3 days (not covid, been tested..) 

so has been waking up to blow her nose frequently.. 

i got up at 630, and off i went. 

i bent the lockdown regulations a bit though.. needed a route change so went the river route, which exceeds my 5k limit by a little bit. was nice though, had a race with a Heron on the return leg, he won... 

 

18.6km route, i can make it a 20 tomorrow morning

 

 

nice little pedal this morning. 

Well done. Lovely looking day here, but it would skin you outside. Went out with the dog and thought I was going to lose some bits before I got back. Bikes staying in the garage. 🥶

got up and out yesterday morning, and this morning. 

 

same riverside route as the last few days, with a spin through town centre to bump up to the full 20km.

 

nice enjoyable trips

 

yesterday

 

today

 

turning point Bridge yesterday morning

so swmbo went back to classroom yesterday, and i took the day off as a "transition day" to the new routine.

so i went a short loop - 16k - to be back for prepping spud sr for school too. 

same today, though i slept a bit ****e last night, woke up for no reason around 4, for a good half hr. definitely felt the reduced sleep in my legs.  

 

yesterday

 

today, i also got stuck behind a bin lorry that couldnt overtake a street sweeper coming through town, which then cost me a clean slot tgrough a roundabout and then stuck at traffic lights. 

 

i think its just bèing one of those annoying days!!

3 in a row...

cold... and fog so thick it was beading on the outside of my jacket and dripping off my helmet 😬

got caught at the traffic lights again this morning, twice.

 

anyway, hopefully get a decent trip tomorrow morning, then im on site friday and saturday with a 8am start friday and 630am start saturday...

and then 630am starts fri and sat next week, and the following week..

 

ugh. 

not a great week... got out for a 16k lap on thursday. 

 

ended up late getting out yesterday morning, and had to drop sr to school before hoofing it to a worksite. so it was a short lap 12k. but to toughen it up a bit o threw a short hill climb section section into it. it was nice, so i may extend the hill climb route to the longer alternative lap as a new route. start climb training...

 

 

and ive just reslised thst the much sterper climb is actually less total climb than going the whole way up the bypass on my 16k route ...

 

****

 

 

today was a 630am leaving the house start to get to site and watch the boats in the estuary.

my quads are knackered.... decided to do a climby challenge for a change.

 

 

had to get off and walky pushy the last 800m of the ascent... good god its steep!

31mins to get up there, i was home in 11...

 

 

 

worth it for the view...

A proper old school bike like mine! In fact not even old school by my standards, its the newest bike I have ever owned, when I was a bike mad teenager my father gave me a bike that was owned by a Canadian drifter who was working in his factory before moving on, it was probably 30 years old with rod pull brakes etc, me and my friends thought it hilarious, had never seen anything so old and called it a tramps bike because the guy had been rough sleeping to save money.

 

I bet when the kids see me now on my newest ever bike they laugh just as much and say the same thing

 

A very steep hill that I have taken 3 times this week on various length routes defeated me once and I had to push the bike up it, I had  hit 50km just before it, the very next day still tired from the 62km ride I hit it again after 22km and had no real problem riding up it.

Edited 26 April, 20215 yr by J.R.

aye, its a heavy bike... and about 30yrs old

 

it was mothballed for a very long time.. its still wearing its factory front tyre!! original deraileur, chain, and brake set up. mud guards and twist shifters are new.

My Dawes Switchback is 29 years old, I sold my Emelle racer for it, new inner tubes, tyres but only every decade, new chain & then new rear gearset, one STI changer recently which cost me more than the bike did but it is precious to me, probably one set of brake blocks, everything else original.

 

This week I finally resolved the problem of the stripped thread on the headstock that has had me leaning forward to retighten the head bearings every time that I go on a bumpy trail for many years, well at least I hope its resolved, it was a bodge involving removing the washer to gain 2 undamaged threads and some Loctite.

visibly raining up the cross hill when i went this morning.

so.. 

set a new pb on the 20k riverside route. wouldve been a littke quicker too except i got stuck behind a garda van going through town and couldnt safely go round them, and then got stuck at traffic lights... wouldve made it through on the first green if the squad hadnt been mooching along all feckin slow 

 

panorama overview of the entire borough area

 

 

 

the stile is where the gate is at the bottom of the final trail to the top. i made it the whole to the gate this morning! 4mins faster to the top than monday mornings first ever attempt. . 26m 48sec.

 

met a guy walking back down at the stile

"did you cycle the whole way up?"

yeah, fkin tough!

"jaysus fair play to ya, you look fresh enough after it."

i fairly well dont feel fresh!

"are  you goin all the way?"

yup, ill push the bike from here, the trail is too rocky to pedal it, then roll the whole way down

 

"haha, good man, enjoy the last bit to the top"

 

 

home, but dropped back down on the other approach route, to see what thats like. looks to be a 15% gradient.. the whole way up!!! sod that.not a hope of keeping moving on it.

 

tackled the bigger hill at 715am.

i thought...

 

The Guardians of the Glen allowed me to reach the summit.

 

thats the view back to the Cross. i came over from there. 

 

then i got home, proud as **** of myself. until i stopped strava, and looked at the map.

the proper summit is another 100m climb over another 800m.

 

dammit. get it the next day

 

 

 

Your shifting issue Mac - is the cable too tight? As in, now you can get first, do you need to slacken the cable off a bit to let it drop to seventh? (then re-tighten - I like to state the obvious!)

 

I also had it once where the actual cause was the derailleur not being perfectly parallel to the chain line.  A few seconds with a pair of stillsons and all was tickety boo.

 

Gaz

ill need to re check, but i tightened, loosened, fiddled.. got nowhere

 

ill give it another go later today if i have time. given the move toward hill climbing anyway, its not going to be a major inconvenience for a while to figure it out.

I read some details of your problem on another thread, if I have understood correctly you have "slippage" on the smallest rear sprocket (ie the highest gear) is that when you are really standing on the pedals? Is it more of a jump one tooth at periodic intervals?

 

If so then its something that I experienced after replacing the chain, a new chain on a worn sprocket, and its the top gear sprocket that gets the most wear, will "hook up" and have one link looped outside and not engaged, hard to describe but when it leaves the sprocket your pedals jump forward as the slack is taken up.

 

When I looked really carefully I could see it happening, it was only when I was really standing out of the saddle and driving my quads hard. I was sceptical that replacing the rear chainset would cure it and it was very difficult to find one for my vintage bike, I did get one at a good price and it resolved the problem.

 

If its continuous slippage then its a worn out chain and possibly sprocket as well, be aware that changing just the chain might result in the new problem that I had.

 

Apologies if I have misunderstood your problem, I assumed that you would have no problems adjusting the derailleur stops, cables etc.