feeling cr@p on your bike? trust your intuition!

pneumatic

Went out today for a long ride (what a cracking day for cycling!). After a few kms, I was not getting anywhere towards blowing away the cobwebs, just labouring along feeling as though the rear brakes were on.

Then I hit a headwind and found myself grinding along, feeling rubbish. Gave myself a good talking to and pressed on.

After 50k, I pulled in for a food stop (village shop). It was only then that I noticed, whilst parking the bike, that the rear brake WAS on! Broken spoke, wobbly rim, brake hard onto the rim once every revolution. With the wind in my ears, I never heard a thing.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Mind you, having extracted the remains of the spoke, slackened the brake and turned around so the wind was behind, I became super-athletic for the ride home!

iain_j

I've had plenty of days when I've felt like that and checked for brakes rubbing/tight hub/any other excuse, and had no such luck

SCR Pedro

pneumatic wrote:

...something about wind...

Aye, bloody Fife eh? If it isn't raining then it's blowing a gale. My 'sheltered' route can often see me on the 39 ring and halfway up the cassette :roll:

Pedro

nwallace

Dunnoh, what happened in Fife, I am sure that before the summer with the heavy afternoon showers 4/5 years ago there has never been a day with wind below 10mph here.

Seeing the sun from the odd window in Ninewells, I wished it was this week I booked off not next.

Niall

pneumatic

SCR Pedro wrote:

pneumatic wrote:

...something about wind...

Aye, bloody Fife eh? If it isn't raining then it's blowing a gale. My 'sheltered' route can often see me on the 39 ring and halfway up the cassette :roll:

Pedro

Do you mean that there are places in these islands where you can cycle without worrying about the wind? :shock: I'm moving there!

Tuesday, the wind was from the East, bringing seagulls inland, so I planned a run out to Crieff with the zephir on my tail. But I had to postpone.

Wednesday, I set out on my planned run only to find it had gone to the South West (i.e. in my face) and doubled in strength. I went anyway (see above).

Today, not a breath. Everything is still.

I have become like an ancient mariner when it comes to cycling around here, gazing at the skies, sniffing the air to try and divine the mood of the weather.

shockedsoshocked

At the cafe at the end of a club run recently one of my club mates asked me to spin the rear wheel. He'd noticed it was rubbing against the brake and the mud guard during the ride but waited till the end to tell me

I felt like I was flying on the way home from the cafe.

pneumatic

Maybe there's a market for resistance training hubs.
:idea:
"Not enough bonk for your honk? Hit the wall in record time with our new headwind z90 resistance hub. 3 settings: drag, haul and brick in the face. Only 199.99 from all good bike shops (i.e. not available from Dave Hinde)"

However, I won't be buying one! 8)

synchronicity

I once cycled up Mt Teide with a crazy local named "Murphy" around 2006 when I was really fit. He rides up there almost every single day. I kept with him the whole way and was feeling pretty good with myself. Anyway, when we got to the top, he looked over my bike and proceeded to offer me €1 for one of my yellow presta valve caps (not two mind you, cause he said that his front one was a transparent one ... you lot can try to figure it out... :? )
And that's when he looked at his rear brake caliper, which turned out to be rubbing the rim quite substantially the whole time up a 2000m climb! :shock: :shock: