I'm having a funny August cycling wise. Holiday and Scout camp have effectively eaten away my cycling time. I'm not complaining both those things were very enjoyable, it just means in the whole of August I've got out on two wheels just six times. That's not enough for me and it's affecting my cycling, back to normal now though so things will get better.
Today's route was created by Andy P and it was pretty nice. I particularly liked the opportunity to go down the hill through Tywell for a change and it's always good to test your strength on the Brigstock bumps. Plenty of other cyclists were out and this was nowhere more obvious than in Oundle with the mass of carbon and lycra gathered at Beans cafe. I've never really understood the cafe break culture in cycling, for me it gets in the way of a good ride. It's also clear that the message about not leaning bikes on the war memorial has not been heard.
The group at Brigstock before those ghastly bumps
Out on the ride today we were joined by Bob Mitchell. For those of you who don't know, Bob built my Dad's steel bike which I now own and I stopped riding due to the stuck seat post. Arrangements have been made and that post will finally be removed. Then I'm restoring Bob the bike to it's former glory for use over the winter. Bob Mitchel's bike was a thing of beauty. He was on a mostly titanium 'lightspeed,' with carbon front and back forks. This made me think about the evolution of the bike. We currently have several materials in use for frame building. Aluminium is the most versatile and as Bob told us the easiest to work with, Steel is still around but seen as a bit retro, Carbon fibre is the go to material for pro riders and ell financed mamils, titanium is great but expensive and Bob alluded to the complicated environment this needs welding in being the issue and then there are even wooden and plastic bikes being experimented with. Personally I'm excited at the prospect of a renovated Reynolds 753 steel frame, because it really is rewarding to ride.
Anyway I did some research and found a bit of bike material history. British cycling gives a brief explanation https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/article/izn20131118-All-Cycling-Frame-Materials-0
Here's an interesting timeline http://www.ibike.org/library/history-timeline.htm this is pretty educational too https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/frames4.html
Tomorrow I'm really looking forward to another ride. SuperSam has decided that rugby is not the sport for him and he'd like to concentrate on cycling. I said we could have Dad and Sam rides on Sunday instead of rugby and he has jumped at the chance. His exact words were: "we're riding every Sunday from now on even if a dinosaur eats your bike!" The queen of cakes was puzzled how anyone could ride if a dinosaur eats their bike. The answer is simple N + 1! Anyway I'm sure that dinosaurs only ever ate bamboo framed bikes.
So I'd best recover well because tomorrow Super Sam and I will ride.
Happy Pedaling
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