Posts Tagged ‘Bicycles’
New tyre day – Schwalbe Marathon Winter 240 spikes
Posted by: Yant Martin-Keyte in Bicycles on January 31st, 2010
Schwalbe Marathon Winter Studded Tyres
Yesterday was a new tyre day, this one was slightly more exciting than normal as it was my first set of studded tyres. They have been a long time coming, in December of 2008 I fell on black ice riding to work and started looking at studded tyres then. At the time neither of the bikes I owned would take any width over 28mm and I’ve yet to find studded tyres thinner than 35mm. So it was one of the motivating factors in choosing the Ridley Crossbow to gain clearance for wider tyres and guards and give me a strong all weather bike. Now like all good intentions they got swept away by the travails of life. So come the heavy snow and ice early this winter I was still studless and all the shops that sell them were rapidly running out of stock. So after much searching I found stock of the Schwalbe’s at Star Bike in Germany.
Now I had originally wanted the Nokian Haka’s but Peter White’s information suggested the Schwalbe’s would suit my needs just as well. But of course they went out of stock just as I ordered, so two weeks later they arrived. First impressions, the tyres weren’t as heavy as I expected them to be. Removing the Vittoria cross tyres of my wheels I did notice that they were half the weight of the Schwalbe’s. The tyres went on the rims fine with no tightness and I remembered to check for rotation arrows, all though the chevron tread pattern seems to go in the opposite direction to what would seem logical for grip but after further rumination it seems designed to shed snow easily.
Having fitted them I was pleased to see that there is plenty of clearance all around the tyres front and rear.
Tyre clearance
Venturing out to the clear roads round my house the first thing I noticed is the weight of the tyres relative to the light cross tyres, they drag like they’ve punctured. At this stage I was running them at 65psi (min is 34psi max 85psi) so a little more air will let them run faster. The studs were not as noisy as I was expecting, they sound like you are riding on pea gravel. so not too irritating Heading further out into the Chiltern hills there was small patches of ice which the tyres rolled over with no mishap. At this stage I was taking it very easy and not accelerating hard or throwing it into corners. As I headed down the quiet country lanes the patches of ice turned into sheets which I cracked as I rode over with full traction. It is a very bizarre experience to ride over surfaces that easily when I would have hardly dare to walk on them let alone ride normally. The first few large patches of sheet ice were heart in mouthe experiences, but after a few times it just became normal if slightly surreal. It will be interesting to see how the tyres peform over time and on snowier surfaces, whatch this spacfor updates.
Quick Ridley Crossbow update
Posted by: Yant Martin-Keyte in Bicycles on September 9th, 2009
It’s been long past the four month point were I promised a review of how the Crossbow has fared. With work getting in the way I’ve not had enough time to do as much ridding or writing as I would have liked and do justice to the bike.
As I’m going to be giving the bike a good work out in the next six weeks over the hills of Exmoor and an actual race I’m going to reserve a full review till then. In the time I’ve had it I can say nothing has broken, the cables have stretched as you would expect and I’ve not had to remove the tyres. as I’ve not had a p******* in that time.
Changes I’ve made to the bike so far are SPD’s, Brooks saddle and a rack for contact point comfort and commuting. Last week I finally got round to fitting the 34tooth inner ring I had mentioned, a much easier job than I envisioned as there was no need to remove the chainset. The FSA 34t was out of stock so I’ve gone with a Stronglight ring, which seems fine, although the OCD in me is dismayed at the mismatching silverness of the ring. More importantly how does it ride? Good in a word, smooth shifts, no extra noise and as you would expect slighter lower gearing helps spin more up the hills and spread the gears. I’m pleased to have it for the hills. I’ve forgone swapping out the 12-25 cassette for a 12-27 as the gains really don’t seem to justify the out lay on a cassette which only seems available in Ultegra.
Now I have to get back to bicycle tour planning, can anyone recommend a good bicycle friendly youth hostel or B&B in Newquay?
“MUDDY HELL”
Posted by: Yant Martin-Keyte in Bicycles on August 24th, 2009
Rollapaluza Halloween Cyclocross
After much shilly shalling I’ve finally signed up for my first cross race. The lack of a race within easy public transport distance and my abysmal fitness have been my excuses for not putting my Ridley Crossbow to good use till now. So I will be rolling it out at the Muddy Hell event being put on by the Rollapaluza guys this Halloween.
So in an attempt to better the results of my last racing outing (DNF in the Hell of the North West Alley Cat) I’ve decided to do some training. Having never raced cyclocross, or done the whole jump on jump of thing I thought I should endeavour to do some research into technique. Now looking on the internet video’s like this one always come up and give me the heebie jeebies with all the crashing. But I dug a little deeper and found a series of video’s with some great training tips. So later this week I’ll be getting out and falling over on some soft grass practicing the whole off on thing.
Slow Sunny Cook Sunday – Spanish Sausage Caserole
Posted by: Yant Martin-Keyte in Food on May 24th, 2009
With the sun shining on England its not the time to be slow cooking in a hot kitchen you might think. Well yes, so inspired by the Mediterranean weather I knocked up a quick one pot dish before hitting the road for a hard bike stewing in the heat while my food did the same.
I came home toasted to a nice unctuous pot of lovely stew and the final hour of today’s Giro stage on the telly, each exciting in there own way.
So what went in the pot? First some paprika packed pork sausages were browned off in there own fat. Then in some olive oil a whole roughly chopped onion sweated with some diced chorizo and bacon. When this was soft in went eight cloves of chopped garlic, diced red peppers, a couple of chili’s and a table spoon of hot smokey Spanish paprika. Cooked down for five minutes I then added a tin of crushed tomatoes, a good glass of red wine, a tin of butter beans, sliced carrots, diced potatoes and some stock to finish.
It’s actually far to hot to the dish for tonight’s warm evening, but it will make a perfect lunch this week when normalcy kicks in too the English summer and it goes back to grey drizzle. Now I’m of to sit in the garden, drink Sicilian lemonade and pretend I’m by the Mediterranean.