Sexy new bike!

I have got a new bike!

Allow me to introduce you to Raffa-

Raffa

Racing Division? I think I will be the weak link!

Raffa is a 2013 Wilier Izoard XP with a carbon fibre monocoque frame, Fulcrum racing 5 wheels and a mix of  Simano Ultegra and Wilier componentry.

Wilier Triestina is an Italian company with over 100 years of cycle manufacture history. They currently provide bikes for Team Lampre (easily identifiable with their blue and pink kit) in the pro peleton.

Raffa, being an Italian bike, is named for my wife's favourite Italian, Raffaele De Vita who plays on the wing for our football team, Swindon Town FC.

I picked up Raffa on Saturday morning and have not yet had the opportunity to ride him. Hopefully the weather will hold out this weekend and I can get some miles in to perfect the set up.

I'm so looking forward to it

Riding with The Fear

What is The Fear?

Well, for me, The fear is that feeling if impending doom you get for no rational reason when you set out on a ride. I get episodes of The Fear on occasions and some of these occasions are as reliable as the seasons. They are this reliable because they coincide with the seasons, or at least the changing of the clocks.

Up to the day the clocks go back to signal the start of Winter, I am riding to work at dawn and home in daylight. The clocks going back an hour generally means that I am riding to work in daylight and home at dusk. It is the dusk bit that brings on The Fear. I might be riding in a hi vis jacket and lit up like a part of a Roy Nearey vision with that classic 70’s 5 note riff playing in the background on a Moog synthesiser but, I know from my driving experience that as the light starts to fail, it takes some time for the car lights to overcome the gloom enough for a driver to see clearly enough.

In addition to the gloom situation is the Weather. As autumn (fall to you left pondians) progresses, the conditions outside result in everything being coated in dew and moisture. This early season slick on the roads can be quite greasy meaning that negotiating routes where I was previously able to throw my bike through bends with abandon, I have to remember to ease off and take it slower else I hit a slick patch causing me to crash and burn. To add insult to injury, the moisture, mixes with the falling leaves which are then macerated by passing vehicles shod with Mr Dunlop or Mr Goodyear’s finest, resulting in a chutney that coats the road and forms a nice, slick carpet to catch two wheelers unaware.

There is also the onset of the early season frosts. This freezes the aforementioned moisture coating on the windscreens and other glass on the cars on the road. Responsible motorists clear this before they drive off to work or to take little Johnny or Jenny to school but, not all motorists are responsible. Sometimes they only have time to take out a credit card, clear a credit card sized slot in the frost before they drive off, barley able to see the end of their bonnet (hood) let alone see me in my Roy Nearey vision mode. This frost also has a habit of turning wet roads into ice rinks.

There are things you can do to combat The Fear though.

Know your routes. My regular route has a section of road, a little dip with a slight turn which has a distinct camber. The apex of this turn is at the bottom of the dip and is regularly wet with runoff from the garden adjacent. I know to be wary when approaching the wet patch.

The best thing you can do about The Fear though is to just ride. I have experienced episodes of The Fear for many a year. I ain’t dead yet!

Movember and DopeGate

A couple of things today.

1.
Today is 1st November. For the last few years, this date has seen the launch of Movember.

I have decided that I will grow a V for Vendetta style Mo and beard as seen on the mask from the film.

Careful shaving starts now.

2.
DopeGate.

I have been taking my time and carefully considering the case put forward by USADA against Lance Armstrong.

Prior to the release of their evidence against him, I considered myself a believer, not thinking that he had partaken in any form of doping. I had believed that he had achieved the results he had through hard work and phenomenal athletic ability.

I now find myself feeling duped and deceived. The case against Lance seems to be strong. Not only that he doped, but that he also orchestrated a programme of systematic doping amongst his team in order that they were able to lead him to his results.

To dope or conspire with a team to run a doping programme is inexcusable. It is cheating. Not only has Lance dashed my beliefs in his honesty, he has involved others that I looked up to as sportsmen of character- George Hincapie, Dave Zabriski, Bobby Julich. I was stunned by the revelations.

I should have known better however. The clues were there. Tyler Hamilton. Floyd Landis. I should have seen it coming. I didn't however.

As a result of the revelations I had another consideration to make. My LiveStrong band-

I have been wearing the band since about 2005. I bought it to support the LiveStrong foundation that Lance set up to support the fight against cancer. A very noble cause. I realised however, that my continued wearing of the band was more a sign of my respect for Lance Armstrong and his sporting achievements.

This respect has gone so, with the help of these-

I did this-

Not much of a response I know but, I don't feel quite so dirty now.

Thanks Lance, for nothing.

Fettling is fun!

Recently, as I was riding home, I heard a bit of a twang from the environs of the rear wheel on G G G G Granville as I was riding home. This was soon followed by a regular fluctuation in resistance to my efforts towards forward momentum. I surmised a broken spoke and a glance at the rear wheel as it exhibited a slight ‘Pringle’ effect confirmed my suspicions. I had a spoke at home which I thought would suffice but it turned out the break was on the non drive side. The spoke I had was a drive side spoke so about 4mm too short!


Yesterday I fettled the new, correct length spoke onto G G G G Granville’s rear wheel. After refitting the wheel and doing a bit of truing, I discovered that the rim had split around a different spoke hole to the one I had been fettling- ‘doh!

Moral to this story is check the rim before fannying around with wheel related stuffs.

As a result I had to search the Dungeon Dimensions (the sheds and the garage) until I found a rear wheel that would accept the cassette from G G G G Granville’s dead wheel.

This turned out to be the rear salvaged from Knuckles when he was killet by the delivery van that reversed into me a couple of years ago (G G G G Granville was his replacement).

The dish on the Knuckles wheel is different to that on G G G G Granville’s so I had to do a bit of messing with brakes. It is also a slightly narrower profile (Knuckles was a Saracen road bike with 23mm tyres) so the 32mm Marathon+ took a bit of fitting (no profanity and my thumbs are fine!).

It got me to work this morning.

I love fettling!

Winter is coming- dig out your lights!

This morning 'twas bright and chilly with mist hanging in the air over the meadows as I rode to work.

It was the first morning I arrived at work with a silver sheen on my gloves and the front of my knee warmers. I finished my ride with my glasses perched on the end of my nose as the lenses had covered in dew, there was dew dripping from the front of my helmet and, when I got undressed for my shower, the front of my thighs were Ferrari red.

Summer has gone.  

This means that the nights are drawing in and, the last weekend of the month sees the clocks going back an hour. Accordingly, when I set my clock for 6:00 a.m. the first morning after, it will effectively be 5:00 a.m. and still dark outside when I hit the road.  The time has come to dig out the 'see' lights and make sure they are charged up and serviceable.  

I categorise lights two ways - 'see' lights and 'be seen' lights.

'See' lights are the hi powered retina frying 'Frikkin Lazers' that turn night into day and allow caution to the wind midnight descents of hills.

'Be seen' lights are the flashing LED units that I have switched on as the light fails, even in built up areas with street lighting.  

A pair of 'be seen' lights stay on my commuter bike all year round (one front, one rear) as I never know when I am going to be late off and need to advertise my position. I also find that, in the summer with the routes I use, even after full dark, I can just about see where I am going to make a slow pootle home feasible.

As winter draws in however, the darkness seems to be deeper so 'see' lights are a must.   Another factor to bear in mind as autumn and winter progress is the impact of cruddy weather on your visibility. As a result, I try to make sure that the single front and rear 'be seen' lights that I use in the summer are backed up by at least another front 'be seen' light.

For me, the second front 'be seen' light is an Exposure JoyStick on a helmet mount. I use the high level mount because, as far as I am concerned, this raises a flashing light out of the background noise of car lights and increases the likelihood of being seen.   I also have a Knog Frog permanently fitted to my helmet as a stand by light in case either of my other front 'be seens' fails.

I love Knog stuff as it is well thought out and quirky in design. I saw recently here that they have upgraded their 'Blinder' lights with some quite powerful units. I would love to get my hands on some of these to give them a try.  

So, don't forget, dig out your lights and make sure they are fit for purpose this winter.

Ryder Cup

I am not  golfer and don't really enjoy watching it but do sometimes get a bit engrossed in the Ryder Cup, probably because it is a team game.

The 2012 edition?

Wow! Just Wow!

Well done Europe.

The Marathon Plus has been fitted!

The only issue I had was a minute or two of Laurel and Hardy inspired comedy gold. The tyre I removed was a 700x28 Continental Contact. I replaced it with a 700x32 M+. The carcass on this tyre is quite stiff so, the problem was getting the first bead to stay inside the rim at the start of fitting the second bead. It kept popping out in the manner of the comedy films of old where Stan Laurel would be trying to close drawers of a cabinet and every time he closed one, a second would pop open. In the end I resorted to a couple of toe straps postioned at ten to two around the rim just to cinch the bead in place. The rest of the bead rolled in with little effort and no profanity.

Here's to many miles of trouble free riding on that new baby!