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How was your cycle commute?

I agree. Astonishing bright red sky at dawn today. Made Bredon Hill look like it was on Mars.
 
My front wheel rim developed a crack last night, thankfully a small one and it happened close to home while I was on a side street. But I noticed it immediately as a rhythmic "lump" in the smooth running of the wheel. If the front one's gone, I should probably get both replaced. In fact, I should probably get the whole bike properly serviced. It's only had my own tender care and the odd spot fix at the shop in the last 4 years. A strip and rebuild would do it a world of good.
 
cyling southwards (in london) at about 11am was hard going.
I nearly came to a stand still, whilst crossing blackfriars bridge due to a strong gust.
 
My favourite trick is changing onto the big sprocket too early on a downhill and throwing it over the top - I swear I actually tied it in a knot once. I've got good at stopping pedalling soon enough.
Mind you I now get the bike on the stand once a week and have the high and low screws adjusted with anal precision.
I'm about to bite the bullet and cough up £20 for the correct bottom bracket to sort out the chain dropping off the granny gear problem - it might also be kinder to my chains due to me living almost entirely on the middle front cog even on hills.
 
I had mine get jammed between the smallest cog and frame on the first day of my summer ride last year, seemed to get in a knot in the derailieur too, at least 15mins at the roadside trying to figure it out and free it. It actually damaged the cog (bent a tooth outwards) and after a lot of jumping I had to ride in the next gear down for most of the rest of the day - with some gentle use on downhills initially it eventually 'wore back in'. Could also have been a factor in the break of my back axle the next day, come to think of it.
 
Just as I'm all set to order my new bottom bracket, the change to the granny starts behaving itself - either I've developed the knack or it's the cold making the cable lube sticky - I may well have used grease....

But in any case I find I can get the bare component without bolts for a tenner instead of £20 ..

I only changed it in the first place so I could use a cheap riveted crankset that I almost immediately stripped the threads on ...
The original one has maybe 15000 miles on it and noticeable play, so I won't be putting it back on.

I see that the cheap cranksets are back down to £15 - the price I just paid for a new middle chainring...
 
Not sure why but I was out of the saddle for most of the ride home this evening. Pretty nippy for an old chap like me.
 
Finally got round to sticking a new chain and cassette on my bike and giving the rest of the drivetrain a scrub in the parts washer at work and now the chain is making a godawful noise on the middle ring, bah. Thought I'd got it in time but it'll have to have a new one. Had to order it as it's an ancient 5-arm one. Will have to ride around on the big ring til then.
 
Dexter Deadwood said:
Using the Department for Transport's STATS19 data, this map shows you where over 19,000 reported cycling casualties took place across Britain in 2012, including the speed limit of the road they were on and the police force in charge.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/dat...16/interactive-map-britain-cycling-casualties
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the point of the map is other than to show where there is more people more roads (i.e. cities) there are more incidents.
 
My transmission was as rough as hell coming home last night so one of my new SRAM chains has just gone on.
The Shimano was almost dry in spite of my usual over-enthusiastic lubing last week with winter lube and very little rain.

I think I may go back to Finishline for when I need wet lube.
The Prolink is handy for doing the cleaning.
 
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