Trip to Nice

A couple of fellow riders from my cycling club, the Dulwich Paragon mentioned they were heading off to Nice, and would anybody like to join them - so I did!

We spent three days in fine-but-cold weather cycling in the mountains, averaging around 2000M of elevation per day:



Full photo album here

Big Snow in London!

Well, the MET service gave us plenty of warning, so we all knew what to expect. It started snowing yesterday afternoon, and when I woke up this morning it was two inches deep on my balcony. Everything down below was liberally covered as well:


I made my way downstairs and off to work. Fortunately the snow was all dry powder so it was not slippery underfoot. Traffic was moving ok on the roads too. I got to Bermondsey tube station just in time to catch the last train before they suspended the Jubilee line:


At Canary Wharf station the snowdrifts were even deeper. Not many people had made it to Canary Wharf as most of the London transport mechanisms were out of action. No buses, severely restricted tube & rail services, few taxis. About two thirds of the office ended up working from home:


On the way back from work I nipped into the church yard next to my building. Lots of foot-deep snowdrifts. Cars were encrusted with a foor or two, and snowmen (and snowwomen) abounded:


And back up on my balcony there was sufficient powder to make some high-quality snowballs:



It's not over yet either. It's forecast to be wet overnight, and much of today's powder will probably turn to ice...

Overhaul

Over the Xmas/NY break I upgraded my old road bike with a new groupset (all of the mechanical bits: shifters/brakes, derailleurs, crankset, cassette, chain, and cables). The old groupset was 9-speed, and the new one is 10-speed, which means I can now easily swap wheels with my race bike and my time-trial bike as all of them are now 10-speed.

I started by unscrewing, unbolting, disassembling and removing the old groupset. I had done a fair bit of bike maintenance before but I had never removed a bottom bracket (the crankshaft assembly). Once removed, I cleaned up the old groupset, and given that it was still perfectly operable I sold it on to another club member for use on a commuter bike:


Removing the old bottom bracket and installing the new one turned out to be not particularly difficult after all. The most time consuming part was figuring out which tools I needed to unscrew the old and screw in the new. Buying the tools and doing it myself turned out to be cheaper than paying a bike shop to do it for me! The new crankshaft is hollow and you can see right through it:


Setting up the derailleurs was something I already had plenty of experience with and didn't present any difficulties. However, I had never cut a chain to length before. After a bit of experimentation with the highest and lowest gears I figured out how many links the chain needed to have, and I used my chain breaker tool to remove the surplus links and install it onto the bike:


The bar wrap turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself. It's only the second time I've done it but I reckon I've learned how to do it properly. The new shifters allowed me to route the cables down the handlebars, making for a very tidy appearance:


I took it out for it's first spin today. I carried a bunch of tools with me in case I needed to make adjustments, but it turned out not to need any. Gear shifting was perfect: positive and fast, even under power. This will now be my main bike for winter & wet-weather training, as if I'm going to slide & crash I'd rather do so with an aluminium frame than with the carbon frame of my race bike

Dover

I finally caved in and bought a bicycle GPS, a Garmin Edge 705. In retrospect I should have bought one earlier in the summer, as it really does takes all the hassle out of navigation. I will now be able to go on many interesting cross-country jaunts that I had put off due to the hassle of preparing navigation notes.

I broke it in on a ride down to Dover. I set it to keep me off major roads, and it took me on very quiet back-country lanes, and sometimes I didn't see a car for half an hour. The downside of staying off the main roads was that it was very very hilly. The 110 km route had more vertical elevation gain than some 100-mile rides I have done. Ouch.

Things I saw from my balcony

I was watching the Olympic athletics when I noticed something unusual whirring through the sky. Grabbed the camera, and took some snaps:



Apparently you can go for a flight on it, to see London from the air.

New bike! (yes another one)

But haven't I just bought a new bike, you ask? Yes, but that was a road bike (and it's lovely). This one is a completely different type of beast - a Time Trial machine. It's made for one thing only, going very fast in a straight line. It's not good up steep or long hills, or around twisty bits, but over a flat or gently undulating course no road bike can come close.

It's a Planet X Stealth Pro Carbon. It's the same frame Cadel Evans rode in the final 2007 Tour de France Time Trial to a podium finish.

Everything about it is designed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency. The tubes of the frame are aerofoil shaped, and so are the seat post, handlebars and forks. The riding position puts me completely flat, presenting as small as possible a profile to the wind.

The wheels are deep section, that is they have an extended rim that helps reduce drag from the spokes. Additionally, the rear wheel is faired into the frame to further minimise drag.

Next likely purchase: a pointy helmet!