Show us what you did today, thread

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Sounds pretty small to me. That top tube is and inch shorter than the one on my Santa Cruz and I'm only 175cm tall. Admittedly, that's with a 50cm stem but still.

Dyna, you may be desperate to get the frame running but you'll need to accept that it'll never be comfortable. You can bodge any fix you like but it'll never fit you properly.

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So today I bought some Manitou rigid forks



The usual story of the elastomers deteriorating with age.

Anyway, the chap I bought them from said "come into the workshop, theyre in here.... "
He only had a double garage size workshop full of woodworking equipment and machinery :shock: apparently that was his main "job", but when that was quiet he renovated old woodworking machinery, and next door was another workshop full of fully restored machinery and others in a sorry state needing refurbished.
It really was quite impressive, the refurbished ones looked like new, amazing really when some of them must have been 30+ years old.

I did wonder though why a man who clearly had the skills to strip down and refurbish all manner of machinery didn't bother investigating why a pair of old suspension forks didn't work :? I guess it just didn't interest him, too busy with the woodworking.

Well at least now I have some forks that I can use the purple Ultimate Machine Co crown on

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Did the "Struggle" Sportive event today, 108 miles around the roads and lanes of the Yorkshire Dales, starting and finishing in Harrogate and taking in 5 of the biggest climbs in the area.
My preparation was.... crap. Had a cold midweek and was still full of snotters, hadn't ridden a bike in the last week either. Great prep for a long ride! :facepalm:

At about the 15mile point I was seriously considering quitting. I felt like crap, clearing my nose every two minutes, and everyone was merrily wafting past me as I "struggled" on.... oh the irony!
I decided I'd ride to the first feed station at 30 miles and decide then. But my morale was boosted when I actually passed another rider, who looked like he was having a worse day than me

Feed station one arrived and I felt "ok", so decided to continue, besides, turning back would mean a 30 mile ride, added to the 30 I'd already done, I might as well just ride the full distance!

There followed many miles of country lanes and 20% climbs, it was a case of sit and spin the cranks and look at the views to take my mind off the pain. The descents were great though, properly quick, think I cooked my front disc rotor... oops!!

Miles 70 to 90 were tough, I had to deliberately take it slow on the climbs and freewheel every bit of downhill on order to save energy.
the last big climb was at 90 miles and as we made our way up it people were dropping like flies, must have been more people walking than riding. Bloody roadies! I rode up it and got a burst of energy once at the top, the last few miles flew by and I actually felt pretty good all the way to the finish

I think I'm done with Sportives for this year though. I've a charity bike ride of 67 miles to do in July (67 miles? Piece of cake ), but nothing else planned after that.

The GT Grade I used was flawless as usual, I just used an Alpkit Fuel Pod on the top tube for tools and energy gels, everything else went in Jersey pockets.

Pics.... (I would have taken more but I was suffering too much to bother).

Well done there. Thats sounding like a monumental slog

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Good effort Jim, what's your saddle?

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RobMac":3lyv4ko1 said:

Good effort Jim, what's your saddle?

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Its just a Selle Italia X1 Flow, a cheapy saddle really but it suits me.

Dyna, at times it felt like a slog!

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Nice one Jim. Would you recommend it? Nice bit of the country.

Very well done Jimo! Major effort especially if you weren't feeling up to it.

Jamie

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kaiser":yrzh70uh said:

Nice one Jim. Would you recommend it? Nice bit of the country.

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You're right, it's a lovely bit of the country to ride (road or off-road).
Some of the hills are absolute bastids though
To be honest, as I was riding around I was thinking "I could probably just ride this route another day and stop off at cafes (lots on the route) to get food/water".
There wasn't as much banter between folk as there was on the Dirty Reiver (off-road), most seemed to be riding in groups, either cycling clubs or mates, so there weren't many solo riders like me, and roadies can be a miserable lot at the best of times
It was well organised and signposted etc. But I just think for what you pay, you might as well just ride the route yourself.
This was a short notice entry for me, a guy on the Singletrack forum was selling his entry as he couldn't make it, he very generously didn't want paying for it, instead I paid the entry fee value to the JustGiving page set up for the family of Mike Hall, so it went to a good cause in the end.

Today I went out to check the SSEC 2017 course on my trusty 1x1.

As usual I am easily diverted, so when I got to the top of the 200m climb, I kept going until I reached the Fyrish monument at 450m.

A very tough climb on a singlespeed. I think I'm going to regret it tomorrow...