Another great club ride

Another day another ride and even better another chance to use my beautiful Giant Propel. Today's route was designed by Justin Smith and was available for all the club to see all week on both Garmin and Strava. I loved it as soon as I saw it. I knew we'd have the fun of a great descent in Desborough Road Drop, that lovely fast road into Loddington and that triple set of climbs from Loddington to Broughton through Cransley.

We had one incident on a narrow road where a lady in a mini with an identity crisis took up the whole road. This caused the whole bunch to concertina and ending up with Danny landing on the verge. The only apparent damage was a scratched quick release and Danny got a bit of a prickle on the bottom.

My own performance remains variable. I'm fine on the flat but nowhere near as strong as the other quick riders on the hills. Danny again questioned my seat position and when I stopped to check I'd dropped 40mm from where I'd set it. The difference when I reset the height was a bit obvious. Back at the shop I asked Andy to check it as I'm inexperienced with carbon frames and seat posts. No quibbles or qualms as usual he sorted it out for me.

In the shop we had the usual tea, cake and banter. We also discussed our remembrance ride. Last year Steve put a great route together which I blogged about here: 

http://richardscyclingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/steve-super-sunday-smashing-remembrance.html
We really do need to do that ride again, it was one of the best!

The other thing I had my eye on was a pair of winter boots. The northwave boots in the shop are £120 which sounds a bit steep until you think about it. These boots will last years and remove the need for overshoes. In fact as I understand it they perform much better than overshoes in terms of keeping feet warm and dry. Here's some cheeky chaps demonstrating these great products. It's definitely the way I intend to go but after getting my dream bike maybe not this year.

The rest of my cycling week has been commuting. For that I use my old road bike and carry work kit in a rucksack. I really noticed the difference up Bunker Hill on the way to the shop this morning and it makes me wonder how much good my commute does. For starters I'm much slower, especially on the homeward leg. It's only five miles then I mostly sit on my arse for 8 hours before riding home tried from the trials and tribulations of life in the NHS. I'm thinking of adding a couple of turbo trainer sessions so I can get some more focused training in.

As per usual commute time has been thinking time and following my nostalgic ponderings last week I've gone back to some of the horrors of the 80's the first is poignant as gloomy days set in but I doubt very much any of you will follow this advice too closely. For those who remember I give you the 'Get yourself seen,' campaign.

Now some of our club riders may watch the next video and wonder what the flip yellow pages are and why anyone would need them. Well kids this was life before Google and we had to look things up in books. How life has changed. Hilariously the kid in the advert is also called Richard. As you know from last week my Dad really did buy me a bike in secret but as a fellow roadie he would pour scorn on this kid's Dad.

I found loads more videos but there's just one more I want to bring you. Especially as I wasted 29 minutes of my life watching the top ten things that are must have inventions for cyclists. This was really just a kickstarter promo. Maybe the brake lights were of use but three different ways to turn your bike into an electric bike can't appeal to cyclists like us. Anyway here's the last thing I want to show you as it's an up to date public service video.




Food for thought isn't it!

Happy Pedaling