The pedal home last night was brilliant, no Birmingham City Centre, no grid lock through Selly Oak, just the peace and tranquility of towpath pedalling with no ice. I don't know if this gave me a psychological boost but I was out of the saddle stamping all the way up Cock Hill for the first time ever in about 3rd gear I think. Normally I'm sat grinding away in first gear (all big ring by the way).
Even better was the pedal in this morning, I was half expecting to wake up to snow as we have had about 3" forecast, but happily none of the white stuff was around so up and at them! Obviously setting out about 0530hrs means traffic is minimal but there seemed to be even less around this morning, maybe everyone saw the forecast last night and decided to jack this morning. Whatever the reason I'll take it. I got on the cut at Selly Oak as usual and never saw a soul all the way to Smethwick, just me, my bike and my thoughts. Wonderful!
Below is a piece of footage showing a typical Birmingham cycle lane. It's like this every evening. As I point out in the video, the parking at the hospital is abysmal, I know having been a patient there on a few Rugby related matters. So I can't blame them when you have to get broken people in to the place you need to be as close as possible. Still crap though.
Maybe make the central reservation of the dual carriageway a car park?
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Its worth trying to avoid using the large chainring with the larger sprockets of the cassette. It causes the chain to run at an angle, which highly increases wear.
ReplyDeleteIf you measure 12 links of the chain they should measure 12" exactly on a new chain. A worn chain will have stretched and will measure more.
I think they are allowed to park where they are parked unfortunately - broken white line and no yellow lines :(
ReplyDeleteBut glad your getting your mojo back
Red, ta for the info, pure laziness on my part, can't be arsed to change the front gears.
ReplyDeleteJoby, it's been a while since I swatted up on my Highway Code. Must have another nose at it. Dunno about getting my mojo back, I just enjoy non road pedalling more. Unless, shock horror probe, I'm actually getting fitter!
LOL - I'm only saying "I think" because I had a heated debate with a man training to be a copper on youtube who was commenting on a guy pulled over on a single yellow in a dotted cycle lane :)
ReplyDelete(It was a private heated debate BTW - and he was a cyclist too).
And every time you pedal your getting fitter - so there's no shock horror there.
Red is right, you need to avoid that combination of gears (as well as small/small).
ReplyDeleteBut I disagree with Red about measuring chains, far too faffy so get one of these instead:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5784
Change the chain before it reads 1% wear and you should get maximum life out of everything else.
Another great gadget for prolonging chain cassette wear by good cleaning is:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=40764
Oh, I'm 99% sure that Joby is right. It's a broken white line so purely advisory and they may cross it (or even park there) as long as it is safe to do so.
ReplyDelete