Back home I am left to my own devices as the family go off to do some shopping. With everything assembled and a quick run through the gears and everything seemed to be OK. A quick spin down the road and back revealed otherwise. The chain would not lift off the inner ring and on to the middle ring, it would either end up sucking it self between the chain stay and chain ring or just sit half way rattling across the teeth of the chain rings. No amount of adjusting the front dérailleur made any different, so I loaded the bike up and headed over to Cyclefix to see if they can resolve the issue so I can at least go for a ride.

Diagnoses came down to two possible faults, the small inner chain ring was worn and holding the chain or the middle chain ring was incompatible in some way. The only way to resolve this was to fit a new one of each (one at a time) to see if this resolved the problem. I could leave my bike and it would be ready late afternoon or I could do it myself in the shop using the spare bike stand, I took the later option. I soon had the crank out and in bits fitted the new small chain ring and then re assembled the crank. A quick test on the bike stand showed it was changing ok so I took the bike for a ride around the doctor surgery car park next store. The changing from small to middle chain rings was now working. So yet another chain ring was purchased, all in all an expensive morning and the bike is now sporting three new chain rings and a new chain.

Here is a picture of the old and new chain rings (sorry not a very good picture)

The old chain ring is the top one and if you look carefully you can see the wear compared to the new one behind

Here another reason I had to change the chain ring

Bent tooth

After all that I never had time to go for a ride this afternoon so the bike is now ready for tomorrow mornings ride

I had decided to ride a short loop from Badbury Rings to Long Crichel and back, while I was doing that my wife and son would start of riding with me but would then turn off and do a short loop round the fields and back to the car park at Badbury Ring. All the paths they were riding were very wide and quite smooth farm tracks with the last part riding along side the road on the wide grass verge.

Things did not start off well for the wife, we had stopped on a hill (after about half a mile) where the son had got stuck with his gears and ground to a halt, after manually changing them for him and then giving him a quick push start up the hill he was away and made it to the top. As I remounted my bike and started pedalling I heard some shouts from behind me followed by arghh and then laughter, on looking back I saw my wife laying on the ground with the bike on top of her laughing her head off. Apparently she wobbled when she started pedalling and then just keeled over.

When we got to the split I went over all the instructions with my wife and son again as they had never ridden on their own before, bid them farewell and rode off down my trail wondering when the first phone call would come asking for help. Thankfully that call never came.

My ride was pretty much uneventful, quite muddy in places with my third puncture in three rides coming about two thirds of the way round. This time the culprit was a Slime inner tube (the Dr Sludge tubes having been consigned to the rubbish bin) that I had stuck a patch on after getting a hole in the tube which was to big for the latex slime to repair. The patch I had put on the tyre had lifted and the slime was oussing out (as was the air).

Once I had replaced the tube I carried on back to the car park at Badbury Rings where I found my wife and son playing Angry Bird on their phone. I found out that they had not ridden up the grass verge as it was too heavy going (and I would agree with that, it was hard going) so they had rode the half mile or so on the road carefully, I was quite impressed. Their little ride was just over 5 miles while mine was just under 14 miles.

The replacement parcel from Chain Reaction Cycles for my lost parcel turned up, must say they were very good about it no arguing about it. To be honest it has been a bit of a quiet week, four trips for work this week all had early starts so I ended up having early nights to ensure I got some sleep. My intended mid week ride this past week never happened, school visit and acting as the family taxi put pay to that. Not sure where I am riding tomorrow yet, fancy something different than the normal Throop loop so I think I will go and investigate my list of saved rides and see what I have not ridden for a while.

Last night after returning from collecting my bike from CycleFix after having a new headset fitted I found a large nail hanging out the side of the rear tyre of the van and leaking air. It was 5:30pm as I franticly called a couple of tyre centers to see if I could get it fixed. In the end, nobody had a tyre on the shelf but I was able to get the spare fitted but now I am running about with no spare tyre until they can get a replacement.

Due to one thing and another I never got out for an evening ride this past week so this morning ride was my first since last weekend. While I had planned to go riding today I had not decided where, when I went to bed last night I had decided on the local heath but when I got up this morning I felt I wanted to ride some where new. I remembered seeing a route on bikely web site which showed a route down to the local beach. After a quick search I found the route and downloaded it. Unfortunately it was part of a bigger route so I chopped out the section of the route I did not want and left just the section to the beach and back and then uploaded it to my GPS. I was interested in this route for two reason, one it used a couple of new section of areas that I already ride and secondly I was interested in how much of an off road ride there was to the beach. The route was not a direct route from A to B but more of a direct-ish route using all the available off road sections in between home and the beach. It turned out that from my house to the beach, along the promenade and back through Bournemouth town centre and out through Meyrick Park to the point where I crossed my outward path near Bournemouth University was 7.5miles. I guess 50% of that was off road (a mix of heathland track, path through woodland and gravel paths). At this point I decide I still wanted to do a bit more riding so I continued along the road to the local heath and took a loop around the heath and then home. Checking the GPS at home showed 18.9 mile ridden. Nothing spectacular, but interesting none the less.

While out riding this morning I pasted two new cycling attraction currently under construction but close to opening, one is the new Bournemouth cycle track at Slades Farm and the other was new cycle shop opening on the premises of an old cycle shop that closed towards the end of last year in Wallisdown.

Went for a couple of rides at the weekend, the ride on Saturday was not until late afternoon as I had to replace the bearings in the headset which a local bike shop had cocked up. Not impressed when I found out what the cause of the problem was. I should of gone back to the shop but I just don’t have the enthusiasm to argue with them, better of sorting out the problem myself, avoiding the shop and getting on with life.

The ride was a bit of a disaster as I started to suffer from chain suck, not the best thing to happen in the middle of the forest in the pitch black, so I cut the ride short and headed for home, still managed around 16 miles. That is the last ride on the Canondale now until the bottom bracket and crank are replaced. Sundays ride was out in the New Forest, my legs were feeling a bit heavy from the ride the night before, added to that the mud I found in places, it was hard work. Did not help when I took a wrong turn and ended up having to walk through a bog, still managed 17.6 miles.

Back at the beginning of the year I found that I needed to get a new chain for the Cannondale as it had reached end of life according to my chain checker . Well the chain arrived and last weekend as I was preparing the Whyte after the weekends ride ready for this weekends ride, I thought I should check the chain. A quick measure revealed the chain was well past its best. I was not impressed with my own lack of checking the chain, after all it is basic maintenance, I have no excuse for not checking it. I ordered a new chain and ensured it would be with me in time for me to fit before this Saturdays ride.

The chain arrived a couple of days later so after changing the Whyte’s tyre’s for the mud tyre’s from the Cannondale (with the rain we have had over the past few days it was going to be muddy). I then set about fitting the new chain. A quick test ride up and down the road to ensure everything was working well revealed the gears were not working right, the chain was jumping as I applied any heavy pressure to the peddles in the mid range gears and on the middle chain ring. After much searching I was unable to spot where the problem was, I asked some biking mates for some information and while the information was useful I was not able to pin point where the problem was with any certainty, cassette or chain rings. It to damm expensive to just keep ordering replacement parts until I resolve the problem and not only that it was now late in the week and to get any parts and fit them on the bike be for Saturday. As I wanted to ride the Whyte on Saturday, I decided to put the old chain back on and ride with it, to be honest there were no problems with the gear changing using the old chain and another 24 miles was not going to damage the problem component much more.

After the ride I headed back to Cyclefix who had a look at the bike and pointed the finger of experience at the cassette, while the cassette teeth were still square you could see the burred edges on the leading edge of the teeth. See *picture below (this is not my cassette but show what I mean)

This really show how important it is to have a regular and thorough maintenance schedule for your bike. As it stand now, both my bikes are out of action (the Cannondale need some minor work done on it but has no chain or tyres fitted at the moment) and I will (hopefully) spend a couple of evenings and next Saturday sorting them out before I can ride again.

A new Cassette is on order and will be fitted is due course, hopefully this will resolve the problem. I should say that the gears worked perfectly during the ride despite the large amounts of mud they collected.

While I was prepping the bike ready for the ride on Saturday, I also added a bottle holder, one problem with the Whyte is, it only has one bottle holder location in probably the worst place possible, on the front face of down tube at the bottom by the bottom bracket, right for all the muck from the front wheel to spray the bottle with all the crud of the track. So I got myself one of these bottle mounts ignore the carbon bottle cage in the picture, I used a standard bottle cage. It was ok in use but I think might turn the bracket up the other way so it points downwards as with a bottle sat in the cage it sits a bit high (if you want to hang of the back of the bike). Before anybody says anything about mud coming off the back wheel I have a crud catcher on the rear which limits a lot of the mud but yes it does collect a little. I will post some pictures once I have turned the bracket over.

*the picture came from this blog

The past week has been a week I would prefer to forget, got really stressed out on Wednesday and saw the diet go out the window. I have had so little sleep this past week, I go to bed at the normal time. Then I will drop of the sleep quickly and then suddenly wake up and then lay there for a couple of hours trying to get back to sleep or just lay there for a couple of hours trying to sleep. Then I wake up around 4 or 5am in the morning and then I am awake then until I get up. I felt so rough when I got up Thursday morning, I woke up with a stinking headache, the wimp inside inside me called in sick for the day. So I got my day off this week just not the way I wanted.

Got the bike to the cycle shop in the week, but not Cyclefix, I think the guy who runs it must be either on holiday or ill as everytime I have phoned it has gone to answer phone. I have not had chance to even go past the shop to check. So I had to get the bike to another shop, decide to go to BikeLab who did a good job getting my suspension bearings sorted out. While doing the spoke they even spotted my rear brake pads were non existent and put a new pair of pads on for me, not sure how I had missed them getting so badly worn.

Will take the bike out tomorrow in icy the cold, have to be up early tomorrow as the son is doing his grammar school entrance exam and I have a choice, go for a bike ride or spend 5 hours in a shopping centre with lots of other shoppers??………………………BIKE RIDE it is then!!. Thinking of going round Badbury Rings way, I have two routes I can do, not sure which one I will choose, maybe a mix of the two!

Well I have to get my kit ready for tomorrow so I am out of here

The ride this morning was a hard slog, my legs were still suffering from yesterdays ride and with mud everywhere it was a slog, I did my normal Throop loop and tried a couple of new paths particularly in Ramsdown Forest as the normal route will be under water, so I have now opted for a winter route and will wait till the drier months to arrive next year before I get back to the summer route. Apart from the slog through the mud and the spoke it was uneventful.

Tomorrow night is weigh-in night, the week has been so-so food wise so will have to see what the scales say. Hopefully I have a day off this coming week so will try and get a ride in somewhere, depending on the weather.

By now I was well into the heath and decided to try a path I had not tried before and this lead off on to a very narrow single track section and at one stage through a deep man-made almost trench like section, my pedal at the top of the stroke were about level with the top of the trench and as this was uphill I was not keen of pushing the it with the noise from the rear so I walked up the trench pushing my bike looking a bit like the hunch back of Notre Dame with me on top of the trench bent over pushing my bike up the trench.

As I reached the far end of the heath apart from the noise, the gears were behaving so I decided on my normal route which involved going up a few slopes. The bike performed well as did its riders, the gears remained solid and I managed to clear a steep section of hill that I have never been able to clear in one go before, the dog walker at the top thought I was having a heart attack when I got to the top but hey I did it.

As I rounded the far end of the heath after riding around the tip and with the noise still emanating from the rear (no worse or quieter than when I noticed it) I decided not to push my luck and decided to head for home. This is where I had an argument with a bus, there is a section of road with a slight down hill bias through a residential area which I normally ride flat out. With cars parked on the opposite side of the road in meant the on coming bus was on my side of the road, not a problem normally except that this bus was closer to the kerb on my side the road than he was to the car parked on the his side, when I say closer I mean about 3ft gap my side and a 6ft gap his side, he eventually pulled over a bit but I don’t enjoy playing chicken with a bus!

After I got back home I had to go into town and collect my two suspension arms from the local bike shop. They had sent then back to the Whyte distributors to be checked over. When I collected the suspension arms I found 8 new bearings had been fitted and best bit of all, FOC (even though I never bought the the bike from them). My thanks have to go to ATB Sales the Whyte distributor and Bike Lab. Will spend part of tomorrow sorting out the Cannondale gears (been given some things to check) and starting to put the Whyte back together.

On my return from the bike shop I became a couch potato watching the England v New Zealand rugby, then the F1 qualifying, and then the Ireland v South Africa rugby match. Tomorrow afternoon it will be F1 from Brazil

While we were out I popped into the LBS to find out what was happening with my suspension bearings, apparently the two carriers and the bearings have been send back to the distributor for them to give them the once over. Out of the 8 bearings the shop recommended 5 to be changed. Will have to see what the distributors have to say next week.

Well if I can’t ride I will have to go for a walk, got to get some exercise some how

While we were at the LBS yesterday I got the my son to sit on a 24″ wheeled kids bike, which is did very easily, so easy in fact that the Martin from the shop wheeled out a 26″ wheeled bike for him to try, putting the seat right down he was able to climb on no problem, in fact the seat would have to go up a bit so that he could pedal properly, everything was going alright until Martin said he was actually sitting on a girls bikes!! dear son could not get off quick enough………. At least we know now that he could get onto a small framed 26″ wheeled bike.

In the afternoon I sorted out the Cannondales rear gears (trouble getting the low gears) so I would have at least one bike to ride. Then I was out for a test ride, it would only be a short ride as it was 4:00pm when I left. I put my riding shorts on (as opposed to my leggings) and was surprised by how warm it was as I did a small loop along the river and around Throop. It was cold in the shade but nice and warm in the sun, wished I had gone out earlier for a longer ride.

Hopefully my new light will turn up this week, it is the UK somewhere, just got to wait for Parcel Farce to deliver it.

Last night was weight-in night and to my surprise I lost 1.5lbs, I was really expecting another gain because of my eating habits from last week. Obviously somewhere along the lines I must of got my eating right, really need to crack on and get it right again this week. and get into a new number (16st something as opposed to 17st something). Think I will make some more chicken noodle soup today.

As I finish writing this guess what has just arrived in the post…………………..my new light!!

It seems as though everybody is moving to using the WordPress blogging software, you can either go to WordPress.com for WordPress to host the blog for you or WordPress.org for the software to host the blog yourself (you will need a hosting package from an Internet service provider if you want to do it yourself). Three of the sites I follow Massive MTBer, Welsh Cyclist and Lezz (the moon walking bear) (there is probably more) have recently moved over to WordPress (not sure who using hosted or self hosting). I have been using WordPress for around 8 months now and once you have your feet under the table it is so simple to use.

Todays entertainment, well today started early about 6am in fact when I bashed the alarm clock for going off when I am on holiday. When I eventually dragged myself out of bed it was *issing down, option one early morning ride out the window. The daughter was working this evening so we stayed local today and drove to Poole and then walked down to the old town, along the quay and around the shopping centre, funny while we were out it never rained.

I had to go the the local bike shop this afternoon which is over the other side of Bournemouth so once we were all back in the car I headed for the other side of Bournemouth. About half way along to the shop my daughter tells me that she need to catch the early bus to get to work on time and with going to the shop and the wife wanting to do some more shopping for one item (make note) she would miss her bus and be late for work, so I had to turn round and head back towards home, oh hum.

A quick visit to the cycle shop (a long visit can get expensive) and I was on my way out the door but this caught my eye Team Sky Replica road bike, it looks lovely but look at the price !!!

Anyway as I mentioned earlier the wife wanted to go to one shop for one item, why then did we come out with 8 items, if I had gone into the bike shop for one item and come out with 8……….well either I would not have got out the shop door alive or told not to come home!!

When we got home, the daughter was still there, apparently lunch took longer to cook and she will get a later bus!!

As the rain had cleared off I decide to finish the bike clean I gave up on on Sunday due to the rain, got the bike out the shed and it started to rain again, I just can’t win. The bike is now already for the off tomorrow, the GPS has the map and route downloaded ready. I have done part of tomorrows route in the past but that involved driving some 8 miles to a country pub, starting and finishing the ride there. Tomorrow I will be riding from home. A little apprehensive over my back but a little peddle down the road tonight seemed to be OK.

And finally (a curve ball), how many 50 years olds do you know that like Pendulum?? Currently listening to Pendulum Live at the Brixton Academy, already listen to their latest Album (there showing my age, CD), Immersion

While most of the ride was flat I was concerned that I really struggled on the little upward slopes, the only thing I can think of is that I never locked out the rear shock and that was because I never viewed any of the slopes as a hill or would cause me a problem.

I rode on my own this morning as the wife is sidelined on doctors orders. Having spent many weeks perfecting the art of falling of her bike and landing on her knee, it seem as thought the knee has now called time on this. She has to go for an X-ray and maybe an MRI Scan and wait for an appointment from Orthopaedic department to see what is wrong with the knee. My suggestion of fitting a couple of grease nipple either side of the knee did not go down to well…………

I had the Whyte into CycleFix, nothing was wrong with the bike apart from an annoying squeak, but I wanted a qualified once overs as the limited warranty I had on the bike runs out next week. Thankfully they found nothing wrong and sorted the annoying squeak as well.

Decided that I am going to change the way this blog looks, also going to add a new section, you will have to pop back and see what the section will be about as I am not saying. I don’t have any particular theme in mind for the site yet, I will spend some time looking for a new theme I like and testing it to see what it looks like so you may find the site is changing on a regular basis over the next few weeks.

I want to congratulate Clive at Massive MTBer on hitting the 5 stone weight loss marker, well done mate your an inspiration to all us large cyclist.

As for the title of this blog, I could not come up with a title, simple

It seems as though the battery dropped a cell and I needed a new battery, the AA man had a nice little computer jobby to test the battery and tell him I needed a new battery (it also told him the type of battery, the current age of the battery and a lot more as well). This was where the fun started, first he had to get the old one out which was no mean feat, then he has to get authority to fit a new one which he had on the van………….at least he thought he did. He had two batteries in the van, one the correct size but with a lower ampage, one with the correct ampage but to big to fit the in the space for the battery. The AA are supposed to have 24hr call out with UniPart so if they need a part they can get hold of it. Local Unipart depot is 5 minutes drive up the road from me. So he phones Unipart and the call went straight to (mobile) answer the phone, he waited for about 20 minutes and tried several more times but it was always the same, just kept going to answer phone.

In the end he fitted the lower ampage battery and we were on our way by 15:00, not bad, an hour and a quarter from time of reporting the problem till I was on the move.

Unfortunately that put pay to my afternoon plans, I was going to take the wife out to a cycle shop she has not been to before to look at some bikes (dropping a few hints not that she needs reminding…….) but as wifey needed to pick up some bits for Sunday dinner and it was 15:00 it was off to the shopping centre and the bike shop will have to wait for another week.

Went out for my normal Sunday ride this morning at 7:30 and it was cold, the sun that was out and shinning when I got up at 6:30 but was now hiding behind a blanket of grey cloud. It took a good 40 minutes before I could feel any heat in my arms. I did my normal loop along the river from Northbourne to the weir at Throop, then across the fields towards Hurn Court School, then I dive off into the woods (not sure of the name) and cycle across the woods until I get to the Avon Causeway Road and cross that on to Sopley Common. I exit Sopley common near the rear entrance to Hurn Airport Industrial area and cycle along the road to Hurn Forest. I zig-zag my way across the forest for 6 miles and exit at Oakdene caravan park. Here I take a narrow footpath which I have now renamed Stinging nettle alley, on my left I have a 6ft high wire mesh fence that has been pushed into the footpath in places. The path is about a handle bars width and on my right are trees and bushes along with stinging nettles, brambles and common weeds all over the place. This leads down to a bridge over the Moor River (read stream). From here I take the short path to East Parley Common. I head across the common until I meet the Hurn road and then take the road back toward Hurn airport main entrance before turning off for Merritown and heading across the fields toward the weir at Throop. Then I just follow the path back along the river and home, nice little 27 mile round trip. The return along the river is normally quite busy with dog walkers, seemed extra busy along there today with fishermen, think it might be the start of the fishing season.

The new rear wheel and tyre behaved itself but I will need to pop the bike into the repair shop to get the gears re-indexed as they are not quite right, it seem to be on a gear higher on the cassette than it is registering on the indicator, the front needs adjusting as it is rubbing on the pickup arm when on the large chain ring and on the granny ring anything lower than 4 and it jumps. Now I know it is not to difficult to do but with all the gear problems I have had I want it sorted and running correctly before I brave it and have ago myself. Its not bad they have lasted since I had the major repair in mid March.

Tomorrow is weigh in might, watch this space…………….

We went out to Moor Valley and had a little play on some of the single tracks they have out there. Had an enjoyable morning until I hit a large tree root (at least I think it was a tree root, it was buried in long grass) after running wide on a corner. I was only 50mtr from the car so I carried on back to the car. Inspecting the rear wheel back at the car I noticed that the sidewall covering of the rear tyre was peeling off. I don’t know if this was a consequence of the tree root or not but it meant I needed a new tyre. I had already decided to fit the new rear wheel this weekend as the play in the freehub on the existing wheel was relating to 3/16″ off side to side movement at the top of the wheel. Now I just needed to buy a new tyre, not the best way to end an enjoyable 13 mile ride (maybe 13 miles is unlucky??)

We shot off home, dropped all the bike gear off, had a wash and brush up, grabbed a bite to eat and then off to collect our son from the daughter who had gone for a hair cut and to do some shopping (as teenage girls do) so she could go to work. Well since we had left Moor Valley there had been text message bouncing back between the wife and daughter about when and where we were going to meet to collect the son. We eventually meet her outside work (Sainsbury Local) at 1:00pm and her comment was “now your early I will have to start work early!!” she only been going on about how we must be back early so she can go to work……………………once the boy was in the car I just drove off otherwise there would of been an unpleasant exchange of words.

We visited the LBS and bought a Maxi Larsen TT tyre, as this is only the second tyre I have bought (the first being a set of mud tyres) I am not to sure how these will perform so we will have to see. After a bit more shopping it was home to fit the new wheel. An hour later the bike is sporting a new rear wheel, tyre, cassette and chain, a quick spin up and down the road confirmed that the gears are working OK. Will have to wait until tomorrow to see how it all performs.

On the home front the light at the end of the tunnel is still on and the door is still open but there is still a little way to go before life can return to normal but at least all the signs are looking positive. Work is going to be a little hectic over the next couple of weeks with new data links going live and PC and laptops to prepare before a certain date, I have to fit a weeks holiday in before the school holidays at the end of July. I took the car to the tyre centre yesterday as it had a slow leak in the rear near side tyre and came out with two new tyres on the rear. The car still has to go to the paint shop to repair the bump it had a couple of weeks ago (if the insurance company ever come back to me) and I need to get the brakes sorted and an MOT organised for the car before the end of July.

I will leave you with this little film clip Click here if it does not play , right click on the link and select save as and once downloaded play it from your PC. Hope you enjoy it.

Last Monday weigh in did not go well a small gain and still stagnated around the same weight now for the past couple of months. Not two sure how tomorrow is going to go as I have had a mixed week, had an Indian on Friday night (wife birthday).

Having got the wheel to the Cyclefix on Monday for two new spokes and got the wheel back later that day I was hoping to get a couple of rides in during the week. But due to one thing or another It never happened until I took the day off on Friday. I went for a ride around Moors Valley, found a couple of nice short single track runs and some stroppy workmen laying a water main……….”can’t cross here mate”. I will need to sit down at some point and work all those little single track runs into a nice long ride and hopefully Mr Stroppy will have gone. I also had a visit from the puncture fairy which arrived at exactly the same point I was going to take a break so that was handy, it was also very close to the same area I had a previous puncture again in the rear wheel, never found what caused the puncture. I ended the day with 17.4 miles on the clock.

For Saturday it was a ride with the wife and I had decided to stay local and try some new areas which I thought I might be able to add to existing routes to make them longer. Basically it turned out to be a waste of time, we found one path that had recently been cleared as it must have been fully overgrown judging but the roots and stems (which were still growing in the middle of the track). Give it another couple of weeks and nature will have reclaimed the path again. Other paths I wanted to try just seemed not to exist so pretty much rode 10 miles of tarmac for a 14.5 mile ride.

Sunday morning dawned and as I ventured into the shed to get the bike out I noticed that I had had another visit from the puncture fairy and it was the rear wheel again. This time I found the cause, a large thorn stuck in the tyre. Once fixed I was on my way to do my normal Sunday loop. Only thing to report is I can’t wait to get my new knee pads (see below) to arrive, not to protect my knees if I fall off but they do a good job of protecting my legs from the stinging nettles and brambles that are encroaching onto some of the narrow paths I ride, my shins are still stinging now. Apart from my stinging shins, my knee are aching a bit which I guess is to do with the 26 miles I did today for a total 58 miles over the last three days.

In regards to my knee pads I mentioned above I bought some a couple of months ago and they had like a nylon backed foam with hole in to aid breathing\ventilation around the sides and front. Well in the pair I had these areas had started to tear so I sent them back and got a full refund. I have ordered another style of knee pads but I am still waiting for them to arrive.

Got the enjoyable job of driving up to head office tomorrow so it an early night and an early morning, oh joy………………..

Saturday we get up early (as we are going to Studland riding again and we want to beat the heat and the crowds heading for the beach), as I walk into the room where the computer lives all I can hear is this metronome like squeak squeak squeak squeak. Turns out that my other external USB drive that hold my pictures (about 38000 or there about’s) was non functioning, no attempts to get it back to life so I left it till I had come back from our ride.

After a 30 minute drive to The Banks Arms at Studland it was off the trace the route from my first visit to Studland (the bike demo where my legs gave up the ghost). This was going to be a more gentle ride as the wife is not a fast riders. Well the start of the ride started out on the same tracks as that first ride but after about a mile or so we were heading along track I did not recognise. We found some a nice single tracks and as we met three other groups of riders on the same section it obvious they think it s a good trail as well. To my embarrassment I fell off twice, both on the same section of trail and last one I ended up sat on a bramble bush that was trying to get friendly with my butt To my defence it was quite steep deep sandy trail that I was trying to go down, don’t think I will be trying that trail again somehow.

Once we had done our small loop we headed up to Old Harry Rock, by now the sun was up and warming up nicely so after a short break at Old Harry we headed back to the car park and home, I had a external hard drive to revive and a bike service and clean (the wife’s bike, I was only going to wash the mud off mine and service it on Sunday after my next ride).

Once the service and bike cleaning was over it was over to more pressing matters, the hard disk. It did not take long to realise that the hard drive had popped its silicones chip and left this mortal world for silicone heaven. So it was off to the shop for a new hard drive, I was soon the owner of a new 1.5TB Seagate external USB drive. After a quick play with the wiring (four computers, two monitors, two laptops, two printers, network switch and scanner means the electrical wiring is interesting………..) and the drive was up and running but by now it was time to start thinking about the evening BBQ so further configuration would have to wait.

The BBQ went well and after watching the Speedway Grand Prix it was time for all things computers, well it would of been except I caught the end of another programme and then it was 10:30 and I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny and I wanted to stay in bed, the alarm went off and so did the three snoozes that I set but still I remained firmly under the quilt. I eventually heard my daughter getting ready for work so decided it was time to get up. In the end my daughter left for work as I was still getting ready, I normally wake her to get her up for work as I leave for my ride.

For a change I decided to do my ride the loop in reverse, the only part I did not do was the Sopley woods section as there were two big hills that I would have to walk up so I passed on them, only lost about 1.5 miles. Towards the end of the ride (when I am on the road heading for home) I noticed the back end of the bike moving around, so I made a mental note to investigate during the afternoon service. Due to my late start I made it back in time to have an early lunch before I started on the bike service.

One of the first things I check for when I put the bike up on the stand is broken spokes, well this week I was not to be disappointed, two broken rear spoke on the rear wheel (hence the wobble), I was not impressed. I have only just ordered a new rear wheel for the bike as I a little bit of play in the free wheel hub and being a cheap wheel it is not serviceable. I still intend to run the current wheel for a while long till either the chain and cassette expire of the free wheel hub expires. I purchased the new wheel as it was on offer so knowing I was going to need a new wheel I ordered one. SO I stripped the wheel down ready for a trip to the LBS tomorrow to get the spokes replaced and the wheel straighten more expense I could do with out.

I has been an expensive few days, just hope the coming week is not so demanding.

Primera (the LBS running the event) had set up shop under a large Marquee next to the pub (was to be very handy later in the day). Sun, Marin, Whyte, Cannondale and Specailized were represented with around 28 bikes in total to test ride. Once the formalities of signing disclaimer and fitting pedals was done we were ready for the off, this is where my problems started.

I had chosen to test a Whyte 120XT, this is a full carbon frame, 120mm travel, full suspension bike. This was to be my first ride on a full suspension bike.

With two lads from the shop acting as guide and chaperone for us (there was easily in excess of £15000 worth of bikes we were riding) and 6 riders we set off at a brisk pace determined to put these bikes through their paces, unfortunately unless it is downhill and the wind behind me I am not a fast rider. In short within the first 2 miles my legs had expired and I was well off the back of the pack although they did wait for me at each gate. I was given the option to take a slightly easier route over a hill which I took so me and one of the shop lads headed off one way and the rest went the other way. Well the hill was not steep just long and drawn out with much of it covered in sandy soil and I have to say that I walked the bike for a fair bit of it. Eventually we reached the top and rejoined the rest of riders, I tried to apologise for my slowness (I felt like an unfit pratt) but everybody waved it off so I shut up.

We were soon heading off down hill, now I have never ridden on the Purbecks so knew nothing of what the track held for me. So it was with blind faith in the bike that I was throwing myself down this narrow single trail at speed as though I knew every twist, turn and root on the trail. It goes without saying something was going to happen, fortunately it was only minor, I clipped one of the ruts which threw the handle bars into a gorse bush and I managed to whack the middle finger on my left hand on the bush. Think I must have bruised it because it don’t have hurt. Finally as I got to the bottom of the hill I had a muddy puddle to negotiate, as I went through the mud it pulled the front wheel to the left and as the bike veered to the left I lost my balance and parted company with the bike, now I really felt like a prat. I remounted and we our way back to the pub.

When I got back to the pub I realised that I had not thought about the bike as I was riding, it dawned on me that I had missed the saddle hammering my butt over the bumpy stuff. I realised that I knew very little about the bikes capabilities and yet I was happy to throw it down the narrow single track not knowing what was in front of me and I did not know if or how the bike would handle it. When I was riding some of the more technical bits it coped very well. I think the fact that it handled everything that I threw (literally) at it, seem to show that it is a very capable bike.

I had intended to have another couple of rides on some of the other bikes but due to the results of my first ride I decided that this would not be a good idea. I felt pretty peeved of with this but I knew I had not really tested the bike on my first ride as I had spent most of my time trying to keep up, another ride would of only been the same. I think had I done the route on my bike I would not of been any faster but I would of ridden more of it.

By now the weather had closed in and the forecast wind and rained had made an appearance, so I decided it was the ideal time to leave. As I said my goodbyes Alex (Primera boss) offered me the chance to take a bike on a days test which hopefully I will do later in the year.

Below are a few pictures before we left and the Marquee that was being used.

Primera new shop at the Banks Arms

Some of the bikes available to test

Not only bikes on test

Me getting familiar with my steed

Group shot just before the off

The first part of the ride was nothing exciting, we followed a new path which was a wide gravel and found it brought us out onto one of our normal trails. Only interesting parts was we found the local free style jump area, so we be going back to play with that later.

The wife had her obligatory fall of the bike, she learnt that you can’t lean forward going down a steep bank and apply the front brake sharply, when you do it results in a face plant. Fortunately the only damage was superficial and some bruises.

Still a few muddy bits about on the heath

We were soon finished on the heath and heading to Delve woods, which is basically a wooded area which is part of the heath but on the other side of the road. Now I know the first half of the route but I don’t know the end bit so it always a guess the route through the trees after the half way mark. I found the stream this time so like all kids I had to have a play in the water.

Playing in the water

Playing in the water again

Ready for the splash

Once I dragged myself away from the water we found the route to the road and headed back toward the heath (via a different entry point, the part we leave is down a steep hill). The wife decided she had had enough and headed for home I decided that I would also head for home via the heath as I wanted to add a few miles to my riding, I like to get between 15 and 20 miles in on a Saturday. Tried a couple of other new trails on the way back, one was downhill through loose sand, that was fun at speed!! I eventually made it home for a round trip of 16.5 miles.

Tomorrow I am off to a Demo day where I have two test rides booked on full suspension bikes, will let you know how that goes tomorrow, providing rain does stop play.

We went to Devon for a for a prior engagement, normally we go to the Ho! (as it is affectionately called in this house) at this time of the year as it normally the last Kite flying meeting on the beach before the summer restriction come into force. But as I am now left the sport and sold most of my equipment I was there just to say hello and good bye to some friend and take a few pictures of the days event. Will try and post a couple of pictures later.

Unfortunately the days events were not that great, there just was not enough wind. But the flyers were thankful for what they got as the forecast had been around 2mph. The beach itself was very rippled and large areas of soft sand, so you either found yourself stuck in the soft sand or you were knocking your fillings out over the rippled surface.

It am sorry to be leaving the sport but I just can’t justify having all the equipment and not using it, there just not the facilities around where I live to fly, to many weekends have been ruined by lack of wind, to strong wind or in the wrong direction.

By the time I got back home last night I did not have the energy to put my mountain bike back together again. As mentioned in my last post I was looking at the rear hub for the source of the clicking noise. Well things had not progressed well during the week, everything from the daughter only picking up one ball bearing instead of 18, to having a bag of bearings of two different sizes, down to not having the right inner tubes for the road tyres (more on that later). I had collected the wheels and tubes from the local bike shop before leaving for Devon on Saturday morning with the intention of fitting everything back on the bike Saturday night.

So 7am this morning I found myself sat in the garden (in a sunny spot) putting the wheels and chain back on my bike ready for a Sunday ride. As next weekend I am doing the sponsored bike ride (see the link at the bottom of the page) I had fitted some road tyres to the bike (hence the new tubes and my bike now looking very odd) and decided we would do a road ride.

We had intended to leave nice and early but I ended up watching the end of the Formula 1 race from China, seem as though I missed a lot of the action which happened in the first few laps. Don’t know what it is but I find something is missing from the racing now a days.

So when we eventually left home we headed for the New Forest. We had opted for a route starting and finishing just down the road from Burley village (free parking), no great distance as wifey can’t mange anything too long. All in all it was a nice ride, we choose the same weekend as Wiggle’s had one of their road rides running. Fortunately they were going in the opposite direction to us, saw everything from the old Raliegh bike to the super sleek high spec carbons racers and everything in between.

We stopped at Homesley tea room for a sandwich and refreshments (the wife was complaining) and very nice it was too. The wife did not fall off the bike this week which is quite unusual although she was nearly in collision with a donkey!

Tomorrow nights is the dreaded weigh in night, not sure what I will be like as I have been up and down like a yo-yo these past few weeks, all I know is there will be a weight!!

Everything was going fine, got up nice and early raring to go, weather was cool, clear but over cast, got on the bike and crunch, grind, bang, I had no gears, well I did but the bike could not make up it minds which one I wanted. I had been attacked by the mid night gremlins.

Now as usual in an attack of the midnight gremlins the bike was perfect when I put it away last weekend, I had given the chain and gears a good degrease and re oil on the Saturday, rode on the Sunday with out a problem and now to a grinding a halt on Friday.

So I came back home having only managed about half a mile in 15 minutes, I am hoping to get it over to my local bike shop Cyclefix first thing this morning to get it fixed so that I can still ride it over the weekend (have a ride planned for Saturday).

I will update this later today when I know the damage……………..

Update

The bike is fixed and the piggy bank is empty………………..

Turns out there was a lot of play on the front dérailleur lift arm pivot pin (hope that makes sense) so I had to have a new front dérailleur fitted, a new middle chain ring, the old one was slightly buckled, I knew about this as it is a design fault (it is a basic chain ring set) with this type, although it had been working ok. I also had to have a new chain as the problems this morning managed to twist several links of the chain.

So this week I have lost a lot of pounds, unfortunately they are not off my body but out of my pocket!

The thing I don’t get is that when I put the bike away on Sunday it was working perfectly, there was no hint of a problem when I had been riding, so how did it appear so quickly, ok I guess the pivot pin had been wearing for sometime but how does it go from working to not working while standing in the shed?