Punctures :-(

Last Monday I got two punctures in 500 yds. It seems that my front tyre had a slit in it, so when the tyre compressed on the road the slit would open up and the inner tube would squeeze into the gap, then when the tyre rolled onwards the slit closed up chomping bits out of the inner tube.

I effected a temporary fix by putting a puncture repair patch on the inside of the tyre.

I have now replaced tge tyre with a new Schwalbe Marathon which are meant to be puncture proof, I hope.

The puncture proof Specialized Armadillo on my racer 700x23 has done well so far (about 600 miles of puncture free cycling) although a small nail did find it's way through the protection to give me one puncture.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Trigger's Bike

Just replaced the frame on my old mountain bike (used for commuting), with a new Dawes Watoga frame, and as a consequence also needed to replace: -

• The brakes - the old Canter Lever brakes wouldn't work on the rear, as there was no centre-pull for the system, so I've had to replace those with Vee Brakes.
• The front dérailleur - the old one was bottom pull only, and the routing on the new frame required a top-pull system.
• Bottom bracket - I couldn't extract the old one from the previous frame.
• The seat-post - the old seat post was way too narrow for the new frame, which accepts a big 31.2mm diameter seat post.

Incidentally, I had some difficulty measuring the seat post hole until I worked out that by rolling up a sheet of paper, inserting that into the hole and letting it unfurl; I could then draw a line all the way around the top of the hole. Measuring the length of the line with the paper flat gave me a length of 98mm, dividing this by pi gave me my 31.2. I checked that 31.4 should be 98.6mm and 31.0 should be 97.3mm and then rechecked the lengths.

Previously replaced on the bicycle are the following: -

• Headset bearings - after the steering ground to a halt (lots of leaning around corners for a while there).
• Front forks - after the headset was replaced I had too much rise for the previous forks.
• Both wheels - after discovering splits in the rims.
• Chain set - can't remember why I did this.
• Pedals - upgraded from plastic things to SPD pedals.
• Chain and Cassette - I got through three chains & two cassettes last year.
• Tyres - On my second set of tyres this year.
• Rear Dérailleur - The old one had worn very badly.

So all that remains from the original now is: -

• The handlebars & grips
• The saddle
• The bell

I'm thinking about changing the saddle next :-)

Cycling

I returned to cycling (last year) after about a 14 year absence, and now cycle commute to work every day, and have brought a mountain bike for the weekends.

Well this weekend's plan was to go on the Cambridge Carbon Footprint picnic, but plans were thwarted by some misinformation as to the start time :-(. We ended up cycling into Cambridge and a bit further to try and find them, this wasn't helped by a puncture on the way.

We arrived at 10:30 (the time we were told), but unfortunately the group left at 10:00.

Luckily we had another cycle ride planned for Sunday, and ha a very enjoyable ride to Grantchester and a pub meal in the Red Lion with some ex work colleagues (the company went into liquidation last year). It was nice to catch up with them all and some of us enjoyed a walk alongside the Cam afterwards.

On the route home we took a detour along the new guided bus-way, and saw a "little owl" on a fence post near the Oakington section.

All in all I think we racked up 52 miles over the weekend, which when added to my normal weekly commute came to 152 miles this week.

Next weekend is more likely not to involve much cycling