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It was a typical Monday, that is about all you can say about today, just glad it is nearly over and we can move onto Tuesday. Tonight weigh-in went well, 2lb off which is quite good considering I did not ride this weekend and felt a bit unsure how thing were going to go.

I came across this over the weekend, many of you know the rides that the Likes of Evans Cycles ride itevents and Wiggles Super Series of cycling rides well I found another one Whyte Enduros They have a couple around that I may be interested later in the year.

No ride today, decided I wanted to get the Whyte put back together which I did and went for a quick test pedal up and down the road to check everything was OK, seemed very strange sitting on a full suspension bike after a few weeks off it. I then started on the Cannondale, chasing the noise in the rear derailler. It was not what I a couple of peeps had suggested, so I had a general play with both the front and rear gears then took that for a ride up and down the road and everything seemed ok, so will have to wait till I get chance to get out on the trails to see how it goes. It was damm cold outside today working on the bikes, very little sun and a stiff north westerly breeze.

Once the bike were done I watched the F1 on TV, bit disappointing to see both the Brits out of the title race now, have to hope Webber can do it next week. I think Mclaren have lost the plot since the middle of the season, they have not had the pace. It alright saying yeah we will be on the pace at the next race, but while they are playing catch up to their rivals from the last race, their rivals have moved the goal posts. In my opinion both Red Bull and Ferrari could of won the championship a few races ago. Both teams have made bad decisions on supporting their drivers which has sent the championship to a last race decider.

Not looking forward to work this week, tomorrow is an early start to drive to head office and I also have to do the same trip twice more this week. Then tomorrow to follow on from my early morning and long drive I a trip to the weigh-in scales, oh the joy!!

And before you ask the reason for the title of this post, I could not think of one!

Day started fairly well, went out for a ride this morning, had heavy rain overnight but the sun was breaking through the clouds and more white clouds were appearing all the time, no sign of the cold north west wind they had been promising, in fact I ended up taking my jumper off I was that warm. I decided to ride over the local heath (so I could play in the mud) as I only had a couple of hours available to ride. Once I got off the main road it soon became apparent that my bike was not happy at the rear, there was this definite rubbing sound from the rear gears. I could change gear up or down the cassette without a problem, it made no difference what chain ring I selected up front, there was no slipping or jumping gear and the noise was worse the lower the gear I selected on the rear. So as I rode I made some frantic adjustment with the thumb screw on the gear change but that made absolutely no difference.

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

Up early this morning as I needed to make an adjustment to the gears on the bike before I went out for a ride, so I positioned myself in the early morning sun as it was damm chilly in the shade. Not tow sure what the neighbours thought of my ticking rear Hope hub at 7:30 in the morning. Thank fully I got them sorted and was ready for the off. Well the off came a bit later in the morning (no particular reason why it just did).

Dropped the wife and son in Wimborne and I headed out to Badbury Rings . I parked in the main car park and was intending to head out toward Witchampton and then west to Long Crichel then heading back to Badbury Rings. Some of this ride I had done earlier in the year when it was quite muddy so I knew some of the trails around Badbury Rings the rest would be new. As I got the bike off the car I was beginning to wonder if shorts sleeved cycling top and short were sufficient for the day as I was shivering with the cold despite the sun shine and blue skys. Fortunately the first part of the ride is down between the hedgerows out of the wind and then a gentle climb, by the time I was at the top I was nice and warm. As I left the known bit of my ride I was one a wide bridleway but only had a very narrow cleared strip down the centre of it, by narrow I mean about 6inches. With plenty of overgrown brambles, Rose hip and stinging nettle to grab at my arms and legs it was an interesting section.

Most of the ride was made up of Bridelway and small sections of road linking bridelways together. There was one large hill up a bridelway at Long Crichel. Me and hills don’t go well together but I will call this one a draw as I had to stop three time going up it, but I did ride it all the way to the top which I was pleased with.

I was surprised by the time when I got back to the car, it had taken just over 2 hrs to do 13.9 miles, I think the problem with routes like this is I have to keep referring to the GPS to make sure I am on the right track and in the sunshine it is difficult to read, even more so when the track colour you are following is slime green which you can barely see, mental note to self slime green might look good on a 19″ monitor on your desk but it is bloody useless in the sunshine on a 3″ screen.

I took my camera with me intending to get some nice shot looking out across Cranbourne Chase, except that I forgot that I had it with me until I got back to the car and sat in the drivers seat and could feel a lump in my back. So here is the only shot of the ride looking west from Badbury Rings car park, they run point to point race around the out side of this field hence the green band around the outside of the plough middle.

Point to Point field

Picked up some new handle bar grips this afternoon for the bike, bought a set of Ergon GR2. I bought the same grips for my other bike and I sorely missed being able to grab hold the bar ends when going up hill on the Whyte. While I have the same grips on the other bike the new ones are slightly different, looks like they have remodelled them, while the shape is the same the bars ends are now rubber rather than magnesium as my old ones are. Only time will tell how if they are as good as the old ones.

Well the lesson from my last ride was quickly forgotten, went for a ride out in the New Forest this morning and left my sun glasses behind again. Started from Lyndhurst and went on an 18.2 mile loop out as far as Beaulieu Heath (I could see Fawley oil refinery a couple of miles away) and then headed back to Lyndhurst. Started in drizzly rain which then turned to muggy grey overcast skies with occasional sunshine and boy was it hot and muggy when the sun came out. I was actually glad when it clouded back over. Having left my sun glasses behind I was fortunate not to need them to keep the insect population out of my eyes as I rode round.

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