Category: Kit

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Drivetrain woes

After a few issues shifting into big ring and a little chain-suck during my last race I thought perhaps that , even though the current chain hasn't done that much, I ought to replace it before things got too worn, forcing wholesale replacement of the complete drive train.
A quick test ride on the chase has left me in a quandry. I'm getting a little bit of jumping on one cog at the back. Not much, and not on a gear I use that much but still annoying. The alternative £50 on yet another cassette, and the big ring at the front is a bit worn, where to stop? particularly with at least 3 months of winter racing before the international season gets going properly when the bike needs to be in perfect condition..
I think Ill just put up with it and replace the whole lot in March, when I put the bow on a bit of a diet!

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Cleaning your Shiny Bits!

Waiting for me at the Dark and White Carsington event a few weeks ago was a goodie bag from Purple Harry’s Bike cleaning products. Purple Harry are now one of Dark and White's prize sponsors, and after contacting them they were keen for Stodge-Blog to try them out.

Bike cleaning is one of those chores you love or hate. Many riders spend, perhaps, as much time cleaning as they do riding, keeping their carbon steeds (worth possibly many thousands of pounds) shining and actually enjoying it. I am afraid I don’t fall into that camp, however after learning the hard way a few years ago, replacing drive train components left right and centre, I now try to keep particularly my mountain bikes as clean as possible.

Riding on Cannock Chase is particularly bad. Most lubes and oils pick up fine sand particles and then act as a rubbing compound on all your shiny bits, slowly trashing them. With replacement XT Rings, cassette and chain running to over £230 rrp, making these last as long as possible and spending a few pounds on good cleaning products has got to be worthwhile (as is replacing your chain at least 3 times in the life of a cassette) I don’t even want to look up how much XTR would set me back.

Last years Strathpuffer 24 was another good example. The fine sand there is even worse than on Cannock Chase. I think that one race cost me 6 sets of brake pads, a chain, a cassette and one front ring. If I had been able to clean the bike better between laps I suspect the damage would have been far less.

Before So on to Purple Harry. I cleaned my Bow in the same way I normally would post race. A quick hose off to get rid of the worst, a spray with the degreaser, a rub with a brush and then hosed everything off. I have in the past used Hope cleaner and the Purple Harry product was just as good, leaving the bike ready for a quick blast with the Maintenance spray (I have used GT85 in the past). You have to be a bit careful with the maintenance spray as it does come out very quickly in a huge cloud, but it seems to work and smells better than GT85, and with no propellants its better for the planet. I am told Purple Harry are working on a smaller bottle and spray whichFloss will help for doing the chain.

With a shiny clean mountain bike, I thought I would give my road bike a birthday. The oily grime on the road bike took a couple of goes to get off, compounded by this time the fact that the hose had frozen and I had to resort to a bucket.

This time I used the new Bike Floss, Purple Harry’s new product which is gaining quite a bit of publicity. Simply it works, and works very well, particularly on the block. A few strands of Floss will definitely be in my bike bag travelling next year.

At this point in time, outside temperatures haven’t given me enough enthusiasm to use the bike polish with the special application glove, but once it warms up and my Bow is due for a full service I'll give it a go.

Oh, and I’ve got a nice Purple mug, too. It seems to hold tea, and particularly coffee, very well!

Purple Harry’s products can be all bought online at their ebay store http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Purple-Harrys. Their cleaning bundle at £18.50 would make a great christams present for any cyclist.

http://www.purpleharry.co.uk/products

 

 

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Toasty Feet

Trying to save some cash this year I have decided not to replace my old winter riding boots (now rotten) and try over-shoes instead. I've not had good experiences in the past with overshoes. They either seem to be impossible to put on quickly, or fall off, or flap.

I decided to go for some budget ones and see how I got on without spending too much.

I've now had two rides in freezing temperatures using the SPEG over-shoes and they seem to work well. They are easy to pull on and fasten simply with a huge Velcro tab at the back, covered in reflective tape, though I've not tried them in the rain or snow yet ! 

SPEG 'Teksion' Tri-Layer Neoprene Overshoes

At only £15.00 I think I might get another pair (I even get cold feet in the garage on the turbo)!

 

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Lichfield City Cycling Club

I've been busy in the evenings this week putting together a new website for my cycling club, Lichfield City. As you might be able to see from the site, we have just secured a very high profile new sponsor, hence the new site.
Now after the creative juices have flowed, comes the boring part of transferring all the content across from the old site, and getting all the functions to work…..

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Map Boards

I've been meaning to do this for a while: to bring together links to all the major mapboard manufacturers. I also intend to add to the page some homegrown designs which riders are happy for people to copy. See the menu above under other stuff.
If anyone wants to send me some details of a board I've missed, please do! mark@stodgell.co.uk

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Chocolate that counts as 1 of your 5 a day !

A little parcel arrived from one of my sponsors yesterday – Eat Nakd. As one of their brand ambassadors I have been sent some of their new flavours of gluten free Eat Nakd bars to try: Cocoa Delight, Berry Delight and Cocoa Mint.

I am not greedy enough to try all three in one sitting but can confirm that the cocoa delight bar sits very nicely next to my mid morning coffee. It’s very chocolaty and gooey but somehow counts as one of your 5 a day – result!

There are several Eat Nakd brand ambassadors from all areas of adventure sport. We all feature on Eat Nakd’s website with little profiles describing us and our antics.
http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/ourabassadors.aspx

Eat Nakd bars are available direct at http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/store/new-products/default.aspx or at some supermarkets and wholefood shops.

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Crapato Bicyclo !

I needed to keep the training up on my weeks family holiday in Brittany unlike last year when I was on my post season break. I tried to add a bike to our Flybe flights from Southampton but after 15 mins waiting on a 25ppm phone line and getting no answer I decided to try and hire one (with Flybe you can’t add a bike at the time of booking it seems). Given that France is a nation of cyclists and this region famous for its cycle touring, this proved more difficult than I thought. Many emails before I arrived eventually got me a general holiday equipment ‘location’ in Morgat to try but no email address.

I was disappointed to find on the day of our arrival Camaret Sur Mer that the tourist info office had not told me about a 50km MTB or ‘VTT’ race starting at the local SuperU that day. I jealously watched the riders come in past our gite on the way into the finish feeling frustrated I had not known that the French use the term VTT when I had been googling MTB!

The next day I took the car to Morgat and a very helpful hire shop owner kitted me out with the best town bike he had, though explaining it was the end of the season and it needed a bit of a service. He changed the seat for something slightly more sporty (a decision I was later to regret) and gave it the once over as I watched from a cafe on the other side of the square.

 

Over the next 5 days the bike and I enjoyed many kilometres of cliff top rides together as I discovered that this budget town model was in fact loaded with many high end features. The bottom bracket has a very advanced built in power meter, which gives a series of warning creaks on each down stroke as you reach maximum power. It also has a speed sensor built in that gives you feed back via a wobble if you reach speeds in excess of 40 km per hour. Good for me too was the way that it turns left much better than right, perfectly balanced for negotiating French roundabouts and the way the seat was designed in such a way that it became slowly more uncomfortable after 40 mins of riding enabling me not to need a watch to know when it was time to head for home.

Crapato Bicyclo – the name of the hire shop, priceless!

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London TFL Barclays hire bikes

I had a chance to see the new TFL Barclays bikes when I visited Pozzoni’s London office today. Just outside Euston station is a shiny row of the new bikes in their special stands. I knew before setting off I wouldn’t be able to use them today as you currently have to register, become a member and receive a key before you can hire them. Apparently ad hoc hires will be possible though in the future from the consoles situated at each of the bike stations.

The bicycles look very sturdy, with good mudguards, and the front rack with bungee looked like it would easily take my laptop bag. Coming up out of the tube at Barbican there was another row of bikes, so next time I need to get organised and do the journey by bike. However on my return to Euston I was glad I was on the tube as it was just chucking it down with rain. It will be interesting to see how popular they are when the weather is not so kind.
Perhaps a London charity MTBO using the hire bikes should be organised when the London City orienteering race is on next year ?

Lots more info at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808.aspx