Today's Ride
- Thread starter FairfaxPat
- Start date
Sm@alite
Senior Retro Guru
I was wrong though , it's New York isn't it ..
Apologies .
Hot and dusty here on our ride this morning. My friend Rob on the steep off-road descent off the north side of Ditchling Beacon and me hanging out on Paine's Twitten in Lewes. It's Paine as in revolutionary Tom Paine who lived in Lewes, and twitten is the local name for the steep alleyways that crisscross the town.
MarinMartin
Marin Fan
Today was my first big challenge of the year. The 50 mile Cornish Alpine Challenge. 4500+ft of climbing over normally inaccessible challenging offroad areas. (I dont know how War Horse survived without any problems as it was tough).
For years I've dreamed of achieving this but health meant I've always struggled to even do the 25 mile route. Today I achieved that dream despite only getting 2 hours sleep last night, struggling with the heat and being in pain. There were moments I felt like giving up but I wanted this badly.
Today was also the 5 year anniversary of my friend Fran's passing so I'm glad I didn't give up as I wanted to do something special for him (as well as the 24hr for charity in 2 weeks)
For years I've dreamed of achieving this but health meant I've always struggled to even do the 25 mile route. Today I achieved that dream despite only getting 2 hours sleep last night, struggling with the heat and being in pain. There were moments I felt like giving up but I wanted this badly.
Today was also the 5 year anniversary of my friend Fran's passing so I'm glad I didn't give up as I wanted to do something special for him (as well as the 24hr for charity in 2 weeks)
CassidyAce
Senior Retro Guru
Feeling a little tired, I went for some perfectly pleasant pootling through the countryside. 20-something miles of pottering along and soaking in the tranquillity at a lackadaisical pace. Except when, to my surprise, I overtook a roadie on a Pinarello who was managing to potter and pootle at an even more leisurely speed than me. 
Relaxed coffee ride to the office this morning.
As rain was forecast, nobody was out in the forest. I was lucky and apart from about 20 drops it stayed dry.
"It's all downhill from here."
You lied to me Boris!
Heavy bikes go downhill fast....weeeee!!!!
I wish you all a nice start into the week!
As rain was forecast, nobody was out in the forest. I was lucky and apart from about 20 drops it stayed dry.
"It's all downhill from here."
You lied to me Boris!
Heavy bikes go downhill fast....weeeee!!!!I wish you all a nice start into the week!
Today the weather returned somewhat to the normal English summer, "Sunny with a chance of showers". No showers down here yet but it's definitely breezy, all the nicer for it and the very pleasant 22c.
Last Thursday I pulled a grubby looking Bianchi Sanremo out of my garage. As detailed here, I spent most of last week stripping and cleaning, and yesterday I finished the rebuild but did not get the chance to ride until today.
A quick ride gave me some useful feedback, this was my first ride on a Bianchi and my first experience of Campagnolo Mirage. The former was a pleasant experience, the latter a bit more of a mixed bag. Overall the ride was very smooth, the frame felt very compliant and quite lively for something purporting to be a touring bike. The Avid Shorty 6 cantis and the 3x crankset certainly fit the touring bill but this bike felt like no packhorse.
Returning to the matter of the Mirage groupset though, everything was hunky dory apart from my unfamiliarity with the Campag shifters. The small lever under the brake lever and the thumb button took a little getting used to on the RH side but on the left it felt totally alien. The LH shifter acted more like a friction shifter with clicks, if you understand my drift. I'm sure with a bit of practice it would become easier but it felt quite strange to be in a no man's land, somewhere between friction and indexed shifting. It did make trimming the front mech quite easy though.
As I knew when I started the build, this bike is a little too small for me, I have the seat post beyond the max insertion limit mark in the photos and it is still 2cm too short for me. I will try a longer post to see how that feels, I do like it and would almost certainly keep it if it fitted, if only to have an Italian Stallion in the stable.
Last Thursday I pulled a grubby looking Bianchi Sanremo out of my garage. As detailed here, I spent most of last week stripping and cleaning, and yesterday I finished the rebuild but did not get the chance to ride until today.
I picked this up from the New Forest Bike Project a month ago and its sat in the garage until now and I need to decide what to do with it.
Good points:
It has a steel frame
It's a Bianchi in Celeste paint
It has a full Campagnolo groupset except brakes which are Avid 6 cantis
It has massive tyres clearances
Bad Points:
The paint is terrible, I have never seen so many rust pits
The groupset is Mirage
I will strip it down and see what needs doing.
Good points:
It has a steel frame
It's a Bianchi in Celeste paint
It has a full Campagnolo groupset except brakes which are Avid 6 cantis
It has massive tyres clearances
Bad Points:
The paint is terrible, I have never seen so many rust pits
The groupset is Mirage
I will strip it down and see what needs doing.
A quick ride gave me some useful feedback, this was my first ride on a Bianchi and my first experience of Campagnolo Mirage. The former was a pleasant experience, the latter a bit more of a mixed bag. Overall the ride was very smooth, the frame felt very compliant and quite lively for something purporting to be a touring bike. The Avid Shorty 6 cantis and the 3x crankset certainly fit the touring bill but this bike felt like no packhorse.
Returning to the matter of the Mirage groupset though, everything was hunky dory apart from my unfamiliarity with the Campag shifters. The small lever under the brake lever and the thumb button took a little getting used to on the RH side but on the left it felt totally alien. The LH shifter acted more like a friction shifter with clicks, if you understand my drift. I'm sure with a bit of practice it would become easier but it felt quite strange to be in a no man's land, somewhere between friction and indexed shifting. It did make trimming the front mech quite easy though.
As I knew when I started the build, this bike is a little too small for me, I have the seat post beyond the max insertion limit mark in the photos and it is still 2cm too short for me. I will try a longer post to see how that feels, I do like it and would almost certainly keep it if it fitted, if only to have an Italian Stallion in the stable.
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