Men everywhere, and many women too, will understand this, the craving to disappear into the shed or cave to fix, tune, repair or just mess around with stuff, it is a great time killer and whole days can dissolve into a tea and biscuit fuelled ingenuity fest. After my last bivvy ride I felt I needed to make a few changes to the bike to help it....cope with my weight and make it more comfortable and durable, the first thing to go was to sort a new set of wheels, I had been running a set of 700c wheels, Hope Pro4/ SP PD8 dyne hub on Halo Vapour XC rims, a solid set of wheels, bit with me and a load on the bike, I felt a little delicate when riding, so a new set was built, Hope Pro 5 hubs on Halo Vapour 35 rims, good solid wheels with some nice 2.6 Vittoira Mezcals, a little over kill, but so is the excess weight I am carrying. Next up was the handlebars, I liked the Surly Sunrise bars but the crossbar made it difficult to run battery light on there so a set of Moto Bars from Stooge cycle was bolted into place, I run these on my fat bike and I find the sweep dead on and they are super comfy, the problem is I have now is that the stack height is a little low, I simply don't have the upper body/core strength yet to support me fully, my 2 mile loop that I am doing to get me started left me feeling pretty sore in the back and shoulder area, I am tested to soldier on with it and hope I get stronger but I feel additional exercise and a more upright stem to lift my position until I am lighter/stronger, I do need to sort some comfier grip out, the cheapo grips from an old bike are on there now and in all honesty, they are not nice at all, that and swapping to my old SDG saddle will make this a breeze to ride.
Once I have made a few more tweaks and put some more loops in I am going to start thinking about taking a trip to the trails on the Quantocks for a little fun, maybe once a month, the current plan is a month of 2-3 mile loops, see how I progress, September is then building on the longer loop and doing laps with occasional trips to a couple of car free gravel paths I know, sadly not entirely local but it means a morning out with my wife and then some lunch, make it into a treat and the chore goes away.
With Autumn and winter on the horizon, something I am excited about, I don't mind admitting it at all, I have a plan to reassemble my Genesis Croix de Fer, with the bars and wheels that were originally meant for it it would make sense to get it built again with the dynamo lights and full fenders it will be a great winter ride and bike to use for my errands around the town, I found the bike a little difficult to ride when I picked it up as it suffers from toe overlap when fenders are fitted, I know this is not always a problem, but when you are struggling with confidence as I am right now it was a no go hence the Bridge Club frame purchase, this will give me three bikes again, but they will be very different horses for courses, I might even sell my 29+ wheel set for the fat bike, food for thought but that is a million miles down the road right now.
I have all this and a million things currently running through my head, I had my annual MRI scan this month, although the results were good it did not go so straight forward, I am trying not to dwell on the day, but whet should have been a 30 min in and out rolled into nearly 90 mins and as a result I have not been in a great place and I have been struggling...a lot, I am slowly pushing past it but it is not easy, I have missed too many days work so Now I am stressed and life soon starts to snowball, my ride this week help loads and I have had loads of support from friends and loved ones which is cool, I am planning on getting out again this weekend, I think I will be dodging the rain and holiday makers, never mind, Autumn is coming John Snow, and I know I come alive then.
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