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You may remember I mentioned that I collected two punctures on my last ride due to little slither of flint. Well I got the wife’s bike out last night to replace her chain and that also had a flat front tyre. Turned out that was a small slither of flint as well. So that was four punctures to sort out (one from an earlier ride). Well I did two last night after working on the wife’s bike, one was a right mare to find, eventually found it and repaired it. I put the wheel back on the bike and left the other two for tonight. Came down this morning and the wife’s bike has a flat front again so further investigation work to be done on that tube (yes I did check the tyre, that how I found the flint slither sticking through the tyre).

I never got chance to have a spin round the block last night on the new saddle on my bike to see how it feels and see how my knee feels as it was raining, so will have to see how it goes on Saturday. With all these punctures from last weekend I am not sure riding at the same location again this weekend is a good idea or not?

My sister dropped off her PC for me to look at last night, so what with helping my son with is homework (model of the solar system!!), PC to repair, punctures to fix and no doubt the bikes to clean and wash after the two weekend rides (one will be muddy), I also need to get a passport photo for a driving licence I am not going to have a quiet weekend.

Anyway I suppose I had better start work otherwise I won’t be able to stop work and start the weekend.

A day of two wows, the first is mine. Went out on the bike today for a proper ride and wow the bike feels like a completely difference the bike compared to the old bike. When you consider the only two (main) items that were changed was the frame and the front forks but the difference is immense. To start with the new front forks (Rock Shox Recon race single air) are a pound lighter than the old forks and they work so much better. Add that to a lighter frame it has made a great differences, peddling hard and I am lifting the front wheel (it is probably my bad technique but it certainly was not happening on the old version of the bike).

We went to the woods around Moors Valley Country Park and rode (in part) a route I found on the Internet. I downloaded the .gpx file and uploaded it into my GPS. Now this was the first real time that we had done this and I found it not as easy as I had expected. For example you reach a junction in the forest, the map you are looking at on the gps show 3 tracks and what you see in front of you is 5 tracks and trying to guess the correct one to follow, we failed on a couple and had to turn round but it was always within 50mtrs.

I also collected two punctures on the front wheel, the first I repaired checking the tyre for any offending puncture causing objects, found nothing. Fitted a new tube and cycled on for about 2 miles till I got another puncture on the front wheel, now I thought this was to much of a coincidence and took a much closer look at the tyre, I even turned the tyre inside out. I was just about to give up on checking the tyre when my finger felt something on the inside of the tyre, on closer inspection these was a very small slither of flint protruding through the inside of the tyre. Getting it out was fun and games, in the end I reverted to pushing it back through the tyre with an allen key hoping it did not break off and fortunately this worked. It was only when I pushed it back through I noticed that it had sliced one of the thread blocks as it cut into the tyre. I fitted another new tube (normally carry 4 two for each bike) and we were off, fortunately with no more punctures.

Stopped at the Welcome Centre for Moors Valley Country Park and had a tea and biscuit (it was supposed to be a chocolate muffin, purely for the energy factor, honest). Then it was a brief burst back into the woods and back to the car to end our 14.8 mile round the forest, I would of liked more distance but I am happy to have had one of my most enjoyable rides to date.

The second wow goes to Clive Chapman of Massive MTBer, have a look at his web site and decide for yourself if you think riding is doing him good?

I will leave you with a picture from todays ride, it was a glorious sunny day if a bit cold.

Yours truly fixing the first puncture