Dave, Andy Wiggins and myself went for a really nice ride, trouble is because I dont know the area I cant really explain where we went to!
Dave did find some nice hilly bits, some incredibly rutted and dirty country road bits (Where the Merida got absolutely filthy), some off road bits (where the Merida may have picked up its Puncture), some historic WWII USAF bases (well that was the short off road bit)....
At 12:30 ish we stopped at a really nice tea room where I stuffed my face with an egg, sausage and bacon sandwich and a latte, then we changed the inner tube on my rear wheel by committee :-) Dave was suitably unimpressed with my lack of knowledge on how my wonderful travelling track pump worked (or at least how it was supposed to clamp to the valve)
Once the tube was replaced, tyre pumped up and wheel re-fitted we continued our whirlwind tour of the north.......Finally arriving back at Dave's at about 2:30 I had a nice spot of tea, showered, changed then set of back home at about 3pm.
I did find that I was powering along on the straights and down hills and was finding myself being overtaken on the uphill stretched by Andy. I think they may all be 100% right that I grind along in to high a gear which is fine for the flats and the descents but when It comes to the inclines I loose out as the workload gets to high. I must concentrate on trying to maintain a higher cadence in a lower gear(I actually think my turbo trainer session may be counter productive as I find myself cranking up the load to feel any affect at all, and no matter how high the load I overcome it with ease)
Today's ride was great fun, thank you Dave, Karen and Andy. I still have a lot to learn!
According to the Cycle computer today's ride was 51.21 miles in 3 hours 14 minutes with an average speed of 15.8 mph
The phone mount worked perfectly and the battery and diy charger fitted well in the frame mounted food box (Still leaving room for my food stash). The phone battery life is about 2 hours unassisted, it goes up to about 4 hours with a single 9 volt battery but this is not really cost effective at about £2 a battery (I will need 2-3 a day). So I have now ordered a handlebar mounted wind turbine :-) (The solar panel really didn't work out to well)
When I got home I was very tired, but set about eating (chilli that was a tadge to hot for my taste) then cleaned the grime from the Merida and re-oiled it (I re-adjusted the Handlebars down a little - Dave's Suggestion) I also tweaked the fitment of the saddle bag and re-stocked it with another new inner tube). Finally did at least some of my house hold chores.....
The RunGPS track of todays route should be available below....
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