The definition of madness.....

is making the same mistake twice.

I spent all day, and I mean literally all day, rebuilding my Argon TT bike. I had got it back from my local bike shop who had finally managed to get the spacers off that had been welded firmly to the steerer tube with my turbo sweat. So I set aside all of yesterday in order to get it ready for today's Charlotteville 50 mile TT.

I had barely serviced the bike over the last couple of years and if had finally failed on a few fronts and needed some tlc.

• New rear brake installed.
• New front chainring installed.
• Headset bearings stripped and re-greased.
• Selcof handlebars installed and the steerer tube trimmed to neaten up.
• All new gear and brake cables installed.
• New chain
• New bar tape (obviously!)

Thankfully, Mrs Wheezy and the cat decided that I was best left to it, that conversation would be useless while I wrestled with the intricacies of the Argon's engineering. This also involved a lot of swearing and a lot of cups of tea. By 6 o' clock in the evening I'd got it sorted and after two months, I had a working bike.

All good, but there was no time to road test the bike save for checking all the indexing. I would have to test the fit of the bike in the following day's time trial at the Charlotteville CC event.

Today's event was one that's been a bit of an early season opener for me for the last couple of years. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I struggled from the off. It was really cold this morning and I never got warm. Probably on it's own, this would have been fine but I had raised my saddle a few millimetres during the rebuild and this came back and literally bit me on the bum. I ended up riding 2:06:14, which is the slowest I've ridden over 50 miles in a few seasons. The bars were comfortable but they did slip which didn't help. I was some 2 minutes down on Simon, so not a disaster but I need to get my position properly sorted before thinking about the 12 hour in a few weeks time.

If Heineken did bike rides

Summer finally arrived this weekend, well, for a few days anyway. So Sunday was the club run, the weekly training ride that’s been around since cycling clubs began. Sometimes fast and frenetic; sometimes relaxed and steady. This one was definitely in the latter category but was all the better for it. I’ve had a couple of weeks off the turbo now and I’ve really enjoyed the break from it and the slight change of focus to thinking about audax events and a longer, slower easier pace has helped me to reset a bit, so the Sunday miles were perfect to just catch up with club mates and enjoy the simple pleasure of riding my bike. With one eye on the LWL, I bulked the ride out a little beforehand but again it was a steady flat lap out to a Sunbury before meeting the rest of the group. The sunshine brought 10 of us out; we haven’t seen double figures for a while and our ride leader, Gemma took us down some country lanes that I had not been along before. I think it was one of the best group rides we’ve had in a long time. Must do more!

The next big thing.

Last minute.com

Just before I started the Amesbury Amble, I managed to get a very, very last minute place on the London-Wales-London (LWL) audax, which takes place on the first May bank holiday weekend. It seems that spending an inordinate amount of time on twitter can have its uses! I had looked at entering this a while ago but it was full, then unexpectedly 2 places became available as  some people had dropped out. Bingo! It doesn’t actually start in London and it only just about scrapes into Wales, but it’s still a full 400km audax, which will mean me being on the bike for the best part of 24 hours.

I’m really looking forward to it, but it’s going to throw up a few more challenges for me.

Night Riding and navigation- While I’ve commuted home in the dark hundreds of times, actually cycling through the night and having to navigate at the same time could be pretty tricky. It seems that I’m going to have to find a way of lighting up my Garmin so I can read it whenever I want. I have a light that attaches to my helmet that might work, but I will have to test it and see how long the battery lasts. Riding while fatigued in the dark will be an interesting one. Looking back at the Amesbury Amble, I feel confident that I could do the extra 100km without needing a nap or extended rest. Best laid plans and all that, but I think that will be fine and it seems a lot of people just ride through, unless they are riding at the lower speed range for an audax.

Nutrition and hydration- I’m going to need to be more self sufficient during the night when shops are shut, which will mean carrying more food and water with me. I think it will be prudent to have two bottles on the bike and I’m going to get a small handlebar bag for food that I can reach quickly, if I need it. I can now comfortably ride 4 hours with very little food but I don’t want to bonk with no shops open, along hill to climb and a good few hours until breakfast.

Lighting- Not surprisingly, the cheap lights that I bought for the 300 were not particularly reliable, and as I will be riding through the night I am going to need a higher quality, and therefore expensive front light. So back to the drawing board with this.

Route planning- The organiser has provided a GPX file for the whole route but I need to learn how to divide it up between the controls, without me having to draw out the whole thing.  I could do that, but it’ll take me ages.

An existential crisis

Our first race back in 2013

Do I sell my TT bike?

I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Part of me knows that I will regret it, while another part knows that it will set me free from aiming to go faster, produce more power and get more aero. Of course, I would replace it with another bike; I’m not *that* stupid, but there is quite a large part of me that wants shot of the Argon, and for good.

It’s not the Argon’s fault. It’s been a brilliant first (only?) time trial bike. Comfortable, forgiving, adjustable, it’s been everything that I could wish for.

It’s more to do with what it stands for. Whenever I ride it I’m usually absolutely burying myself on some windswept dual carriageway, sucking down my own snot while attempting to get every last muscle fibre to produce power and I’m just a bit tired of doing that these days. On top of that, I can't keep up in the arms race that is time trialling. At best, I'm around the 50th percentile in any given field, so hardly pulling up trees. I've gone well under 1 hour for 25 miles and under 2 hours for 50. I feel that I have gone just about as far as I want to go with it.

So sell it, or keep it? I could keep it, put drops on it and turn it into an aero road machine, while the Van Nic becomes my tourer/Audax bike? Or, just keep it attached to the turbo while I sort out what I want to do.

 Answers on a postcard please.

Amesbury Amble 300km Audax 2018

Getting up at 4:30am is a tall order, but as I had been wide awake since 3am anyway, getting up and ready was a bit of a blessing.  I ate my usual breakfast of tea, porridge and banana before cycling the 10km to the event HQ in Raynes Park. Like time trialling, the HQ venues tend to be rather low key affairs and this was no exception. The difference was in the riders as it was a real mix of people. Mainly club riders from the Wheelers (who were putting on the event), Dunwich Dynamo, SWRC, but there was a spattering of Rapha hooligans, audaxers and privateers.  There was a simple but hearty breakfast provided but as I was yawning my head off and I had already eaten I elected to have just a coffee.


 I got chatting to a few other people, most notably a guy who had done LEL last year. The navigation and relying on my Garmin so much was obviously playing on my mind, as I quizzed him about using the route sheet. He simply said he'd never understood them and that the Garmin would be fine. I could just see myself stuck out in the wilds of Wiltshire, lost, with a broken bike, but like most times, the difference between reality and my fears was very wide.

There's no point in me describing the route in detail, except for the fact that as audax events go, it was not particularly hilly. The weather was kind, being very cool, almost cold at the start of the day before it warmed up later on, which meant that I went from being fully dressed to stripping off; a typical early spring day. Yes, I went out too fast and a large group quickly formed, with me in the middle of it. After the first control at Lasham if thinned out quite quickly and it was here that I learnt my first audax lesson. I was busting for a pee so went to the toilet and when I came back there was a long queue for food, which meant I now had to wait and would be quite late leaving the control. I noticed that LEL man had bought his food first, dumped it on the table and then went to the bogs. As a result, he ended up leaving a good 10 minutes before I did.

Just after the first control I ended up riding with Keith, who obviously seemed an experienced audax rider. We ended up pretty much riding the next 10 hours together. I was a little faster than him, particularly up hills but this was great for me as it meant I slowed a bit and stayed within myself. That said, Keith was great company and kept a steady pace going and I learnt a lot from chatting to him about different approaches to all this new type of cycling.

The long drags across the Wiltshire downs, which would have been very hard going if the wind had been up were a real pleasure and at times there was not a single sound except for the click of a Shimano freewheel and very empty roads. We went past the top secret Porton Down Government buildings and as we skirted Netheravon Airbase we saw the Red Devils freefall parachute display team practicing.

The Garmin worked brilliantly and breaking the route down into sections between controls helped to mentally break up the ride too. I topped up the Garmin at each control and this kept the battery life very high. I am sure that this would work really well for a 400km event too as I still had 60% battery life at the end. I can't see me using a route sheet again!

Over the last couple of hours, Keith was getting tired and I ended up rolling into Bracknell about 15 minutes ahead of him, soI was able to have a longer stop while waiting. He went to a local chippy instead so he had a quick stop to top up bottles before the last short leg back to Raynes Park. Much of this was roads that I know well from the KPRC rides to Windsor and Virginia Water so I could switch off a bit and just spin out gently.

When we got back the Wheelers had laid on a lovely stew, which I absolutely demolished, while the couple of other riders I finished with pushed their food around their bowls. I was ravenous. I then had to spin home ans thankfully this last little bit meant that I just crept over 200 miles for the day.

Amazingly, as I write this, I have no major aches or pains at all. I got a little sore in my right shoulder on the bike but this soon wore off. The bike was fine although I need a new front chainring, but no mechanicals or punctures which considering some of the rural roads I was on, is a bit of a miracle.

A great ride and a great day.

Final bits n' bobs

Always the way that I start to dismantle my bike to 'fix' something almost immediately before I need it for an important event. The creaking in my headset came back yesterday, so I bit the bullet and decided to strip it down. It was as dry as a snake's backside. I'm pretty sure that I will need a new cartridge bearing and forks but without the time to order them and get them installed a good clean and then packing out with fresh grease will have to do. Mrs Wheezy was thrilled about turning the dining room into a bicycle workshop.

I gave the Van Nic a thorough clean and put new brake blocks on; heck, I even cleaned the mudguards. So here she is in full audax trim. The front light that was an £8 Amazon purchase, although heavy is very powerful and as it's powered by AAA batteries I don't have to worry about recharging. I'm carrying spare batteries but unless I get hopelessly lost I shouldn't really need it except in the early evening. The Alpkit dry bag is carrying everything; I've even put my pump and spare tubes in there so I don't have to carry them in my jersey. It has a little bit of a wobble despite much swearing and strap tightening, but other than that it's pretty neat. I did a ride to Windsor yesterday to check the Garmin and whether it charged ok from the battery pack and that was all good.

Rear view shows how neat the Alpkit stores. I've added a few reflectors on the rear mudguard; two small rear back-up lights above the rear brake with my main rear light still to go on. Belts and braces.

Only thing left to so is to have a quick shake down ride this evening just to check for any last minute problems, and then I'm good to go tomorrow.

Audax Kit

I've started getting all the bits and bobs I'm going to take on the audax with me. To be honest, this is overkill as I regularly do 80-100 mile rides with little more than a couple of spare tubes, a bottle and a cash point card, but with longer events on the horizon it seems prudent to pack for a longer event and see how this works for me.

Gilet / lightweight top / lucky DW snood / base layer / 2 tubes (plus 1 in a back pocket) / tyre levers (plus one in back pocket) / multitool / spare link / puncture repair kit / ibuprofen / spare front light / charger and mini-usb lead / cable ties / cafe lock / waterproof case for my phone. Also not in the picture I have packed my waterproof jacket which packs fairly small.

Still a few bits needed - pack of AAA spare batteries / front light which can velcro to my helmet for when it gets dark to read my Garmin. This shouldn't be an issue for the Amesbury Amble, but will be for longer events. Also need to organise a way of carrying some spare chain lube / chamois cream / sun cream.

So I've bagged it all up as follows. All my clothes except my waterproof jacket is in the Wimbledon bag. The top tube bag contains the charger pack, lock, phone. There's not really any room for food but I will carry bars and sarnies in my back pockets, as I have always done. The blue bag contains all my spare tubes and levers. The green bag contains the multi-tool / spare links / ibuprofen / cable ties.

All that comfortably fits into the Alpkit bag and there's still room for me to put my mini pump and leggings in there. I'm going to sort out how best to attach it under the seat on Friday, but tomorrow I've got a long ride planned with Simon so I will check that the Garmin 800 charges ok from the charge pack.

Which way?

Gurning

I think riding this audax is going to be a baptism of fire, not so much in the miles that I'm going to cover but the navigation that will be required. I've taken some advice from a few facebook and forum groups and rather than trying to upload the whole ride as one file to my Garmin 800, I've broken it down into the 5 sections between controls which has taken me a few hours but hopefully will make it a lot less stressful on the road. This makes the file sizes smaller and should (hopefully) stop my Garmin having a meltdown. I've tried to get my head around the route while I've been copying them using Garmin Connect but it's a very long way with hundreds of junctions. The route card is gobbledygook. I've been told that once you're on the road it makes a lot more sense and I'm sure that it's just a skill that needs learning and practice. I am also hopeful of being able to follow a wheel or two through the hard bits (yes, cheating).

Answers on a postcard, please.

Yesterday was the KPRC Open 10. My TT bike is still un-serviceable (I ordered the wrong rear replacement brake and I'm waiting another week for a new one). So I ended up riding on the Van Nic in full commuter trim. It was also a dog of a day with a block headwind on the way out and added to that, my chain slipped off at the start and my pump fell out my pocket at halfway. By that time I well and truly gave up but I bulked it out to do a solid 80 miles after eating my own bodyweight in Cornish pasties all week on a family holiday. Time to get back on it.