Progress Log, Week 7: Winter riding.

Here are the stats for week 7:

19/02/2013
10hr 43min cycling
165.1 miles
My weight: 181.9lb
Weekly weight loss/gain: -0.6 lb
21.0 lb to go. My weight goal is 160.9 lb

Well, there's still progress: the miles go on and the pounds (well, fractions of pounds) come off. I dropped below thirteen stone for the first time in a while (12 st 13.9 lb does count as 'below'!), so that's a milestone of sorts. I'll be happier when it gets below twelve, though.

Ipswich BC Reliability Ride 2013

Following last week's sportive, my brother and I had a go at the 100k reliability ride hosted by Ipswich Bicycle Club. The course looked promising, taking in some nice roads between Woodbridge and Framlingham and the weather forecast hinted at clear skies and wintery sunshine. Unhappily the sun only lasted for a short while into the ride, to be replaced by fog, rendering most of the ride cold and damp.
We signed up to complete the ride in four hours and joined the 'steady pace' group, which we were urged to join if we didn't want to try to have to hang on to the fast guys who would be setting off a little later. I should have taken note of the flat stomachs and shaved legs on display at the start, because we were dropped on the second climb of the day and rode the course in a group of two. After singing the praises of my Garmin 200's navigational capabilities, I hadn't realised that it is not obvious which road to take where the course joins a loop. It wasn't until I noticed a backwards facing arrow on the display that I realised we were riding the course in reverse. Oh well, we shared the same route but just had a different perspective to everyone else. I guess it was a touch of the Eric Morecambe's*: the right roads, but not necessarily in the correct order!
Still, the cake at the end was welcome and it was a good preparation for my own club, VC Revolution's sportive next weekend. Let's hope the weather's better!

My Summer bike is now my Winter bike (temporarily)

The right hand gear mechanism on my Roberts finally lost its ability to index properly a couple of weeks ago, caused by breakage of the spring carrier component, a known weakness of the 1999 model Record Ergo lever. Happily, the part is available and was sourced from the US, as tracking down Campagnolo spare parts from UK shops is hard work. Unhappily, the part has been delayed in customs, so I've been using my Burls titanium bike (described in an earlier post) in the meantime.
Apart from lacking mudguards, it has actually proven to be better suited to winter use than the Roberts in a number of ways:

Compact chainset

If your're lean and fit, the 52/39 chainset and 12-25 cassette of the Roberts will give a good range of gears for fast road work. If you're not, and that includes me, you'll struggle with the relatively high bottom gear on steep climbs. The Burls has a compact 50/34 chainset and with the same range cassette, gives a crucial couple of lower gears, making getting the miles in much more pleasant. The high gears are a touch lower, but not significantly so, and it takes a bit of getting used to as you spend more time in the big ring and need to adjust to having a bigger gap on the front change, but even so, I would heartily recommend one of these if you don't road race.

Titanium frame/black anodised components

The Ti frame and black anodised components on the Burls resist the blasting of salt and grit much better than the steel frame and polished components on the Roberts. I've been careful to wash the bike after rides, but even so, there are no signs of corrosion anywhere. As well as resisting corrosion, the titanium really does have a wonderful ride over East Anglia's minor roads, which are now in an even more shocking state than I remarked on in an earlier post.

Veloflex Roubaix tubular tyres

I love these tyres, they're fast rolling, supple and resist punctures very well. I've no punctures as yet this winter, despite any amount of gravel washed into the road, together with thorns from hedge-cutting.

*I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order (E. Morecambe)