Sunset spin

So I got home from work, looked at the beautiful weather and said: "mind if I go for a spin darling?" No not at all she said and even better my tea would be in the microwave to warm up on my return. A proper post ride meal of toad in the hole, mash, carrots, peas, sweet corn and gravy! Life is good!

The weather wasn't my only motivation. The night before I'd swapped my front tyre. Clive came supplied with Kenda Kriterium tyres and I've had more punctures than I've had rear derailleurs (for those of you not following I got this bike in August and I'm already on my third shimano 105 rear mech, they're not crap I keep crashing on ice.) I was going to buy a 23 mm gatorskin, my tyre of choice but already having a 25mm on my triple I just put that on instead. I'd already replaced the rear kenda which also punctured frequently with a 23mm gator so you can all mock me for the mismatch but I doubt it's the cycling equivalent of mixing crossplys with radials (if you're not a child of the 70s ask your Dad.)

Now gatorskins split opinion and you either love them or hate them. It's not quite campagnola v Shimano for an Italian but it still gets heated on roadie forums. For me they stick on bends even in the wet, rarely puncture and don't break the bank. I would like to upgrade at some stage to GP 4 seasons, another continental tyre, but that's for another day.

So how did the gator perform on Clive? I'd read that 25mm might be the better choice for the heavier rider and it certainly felt like that to me. I'm no expert but I felt the gator rolled better and given that tyre was on my triple for two years without a single flat I felt more confident. Job done I'd say.

Another bonus is it's getting warm. I went out in shorts, with no leg warmers, no overshoes and cycling mitts instead of full fingered gloves. It felt wonderful.

This was a race against the setting sun that I had no intention of winning so I fitted Clive with my trusty one23 extreme bright light. What a piece of kit it is. I had it on flashing mode and the effect on any reflective surface was brilliant, road signs lit up like Christmas trees. If you couldn't see me coming a trip to specsavers is in order.

A lovely ride was crowned on my return by flocks of birds doing that impressive swirling cloud display thing. No idea what it's called, it just looks great. I didn't get a picture but you can see what I mean here Ooh it's called murmuration

A lovely ride and cheers Mrs Lindsley, dinner was very nice!

Sun getting low

Now its gone

Look its the moon