Hanging Mist & A Relaxed (Short) Ride

New Car

Have taken delivery of a new old car.  Amazingly it has almost double the power of my old old car (which is only 50-odd cc smaller in capacity) and achieves 55mpg on a long run, 46mpg running around.  Incredible.  Surprising thing was that the main dealer who supplied the vehicle i) didn't tell us that it only passed it's MOT on an advisory and ii) didn't notice that the rear tyres were fitted backwards, despite a "thorough PDI"... yes well.  Have just bought a scanner / photo printer.  It's good.  Expect some very old photos to appear in the gallery soon.  New job is interesting and cool.  Very challenging though.

Overdue News - Shock Wanted...

Have been enjoying the car on the miserable days and the (motor)bike on the fine ones for the last few weeks. I am very lucky to have such a great commute; when I need good fuel economy or the weather's bad I can sit at 80mph on the main roads, but on nice days I can blast to the same destination on brilliant windy lanes. Problems are that the bike desperately needs a new shock and the car needs an oil change. Interestingly, I tested my new Garmin Edge 305 as a datalogger the other week on a rideout. Simply left it on all day. Got home and had a speed / position / distance plot on Google Earth in a matter of moments. Brilliant. Next time I'm going to wear the HRM strap, so I can see the anxiety build with the average speed ;-)

News from blustery Cambs

Changeable weather means that riding has been mostly off-road on the MTB. Loving the estate car, I can leave my bike and my kit in the back and seize opportunities when they arise. Regarding my 650C commuting monster (still taking suggestions for a name), I am waiting for the frame alterations to get going. Should move on a bit more quickly when the racing season is over.

My wheels for the road bike have also had a change. After the rear hub of my Mavic Classics -- birth > death wheel review coming later – broke a few weeks ago, I have relaced the front hub to a new Open Pro, and replaced the rear hub with a Dura-Ace 7700 unit with a Ti freewheel. I am lucky enough that this is my 2nd string set of wheels. The first are Dura-Ace 28s (rare) on Open Pros. Mmmm. Looking forward to using my Spinergy wheel again as soon as I can eat fewer cakes.

PS > Exciting news. Garmin Edge 305 on the way; I realised that 2nd hand prices have put this cool device into the non-GPS bike computer price bracket. Got the HRM and CAD version. Good enough for David Millar, good enough for me.