Been looking at my road bike recently. Its looking a bit tired and worn out and a bit bland. Its never been a real looker but its a good bike and at only 17.5lbs its light and nibble to ride. In fairness its having a hard life, its been dragged through winter and the terrible salted roads and daily hammered hard along my route to work. If it could talk it would probably look at me with pitiful eyes and tell me help it.So that's the plan. Like some make over program my bike is getting a budget change. A good start will be to clean it. Yeah I know, guilty of even the basics but often after work it gets wheeled into the shed and forgotten about. I'm tired I want to do other things..........its a valid excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Anyway as you can see I've purchased a pair of very yellow Michelin Pro3 tires which look great and will add a splash of colour. It'll match the decals on the frame, which are yellow and white. The tires were something of a bargain as they were £15 cheaper per tire than normal. So a good saving. To finish the beautification I have matching yellow Easton bar tape and also some white Goodridge brake cables. Lovely.......not really looking forward to taping my bars though. Total faff.
Next month (or the one after) I shall be getting a new chain (mine is seriously over stretched) and new cassette as well. All I shall get after will be some white gear cables then that it done. I'll then be more proud to take a picture and show you all!!!
Other things this week was the Hamsterley 1-2-1 which is basically a two day event. The first day is a cross country race and on the next day you have to do a downhill race with your times on the day added together. Fastest person wins. Only one bike for the two days is allowed so there was a good range of bikes on show for the event. I didn't take part although I was tempted. Looking at the downhill course and how well people were riding it, I was probably wise to avoid it. I may have held my own in the xc race but would have more likely wrapped my body around a tree and remained there till an air ambulance rescued.
Here's a glimpse of the days event.
looks fun doesn't it? Maybe next year.........yes that's right next year.......I'll ask if they need help with marshalls!
Well I've also been occupied with watching snippets of the Vuelta. Its been hotly contested at the front between Cobo and Froome. Bradley Wiggins since my last post has lost his red jersey to Cobo and has fallen over a minute and a half behind. Which sucks. However Chris Froome (pretenda brit) is only 13 seconds down so he could still snatch it. He tried so hard the other day winning a great stage with an awesome gutsy ride but it was still not enough to shake his rival. Its probably not possible now but hey ho that's racing for you. Next time guys when you race up a big steep git of a hill take a leaf out of Cobos book and use easier gearing on your bike rather than labouring over your bike like a three legged dog!
oh and yes Mark Cavendish will be racing in the Tour of Britain.......and no I still won't be able to go see him race.
Well Its the weekend now and so hopefully I'm going to get some riding done. About bloomin time too.
Happy Riding
Jez
