Upper Thames Downer#

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:28:20 +0000

An uncomfortably long time - comprising, in part, an uncomfortable long time - between the attempt and the writeup of my first go at a 200km Audax. It was all going great until about 70km, at which point I descended a steep hill and rounded the bend at the bottom on a nice wide line, only to see one of the group I was riding with take a slightly tighter line and slide out across my path. Managed to avoid him, but only by means of a sideways jinking-too-tight maneouvre that made me crash. Damage to bike: bent gear hanger, small dent in top tube, munged headset bearings. Damage to me: gouge out of my elbow, bruised knee. Further damage to bike occured a few km later when I changed down not realising the gear hanger was bent, heard spoke pinging noises and came to an abrupt halt with half the rear mech wrapped in the back wheel. This, I felt, comprised enough of an excuse to retire from the field with honour intact, so I walked to nearest village, taxi to nearest train station, and home. Pity, really, it was a very nice ride up to that point ,and at 25km/h including control stops a respectably fast one too.

I found the next day that the crash had stirred up my chronic groin strain thingy (some adductor-related muscle/tendon problem probably caused by vigorous T-stopping when cold) to the extent that walking hurt. I found out the following Thursday when Condor had had a look at the bike (wait, this is the good news coming up now) that the dent in the top tube was not serious enough to worry about i.e. I didn't break my new frame on its first outing. And not only did they fix all the bits I'd broken in the crash, but they also finished the bits I'd never quite got round to when building it in the first place (crimpy end things on gear and brake cables, handlebar end plugs) and somehow, I know not how, managed to apply sufficient force to the plug in the end of the steerer tube that it's actually doing a useful job. So, nice one Condor.

Since then I tried skating once, but (see groin, above) it hurt - and stopping hurt double, therefore I (1) am waiting until that calms down a bit, then (2) will go and see a physio in the hope of getting some useful exercises for it before I resume. In the meantime, London->Hertford->Cambridge on the bike last Saturday, first third on my own at reasonable pace, second two thirds accompanying skaters at "if I had known we would go this slowly I'd have worn shoe covers" pace. It was cold and wet and somewhat lacking in traction for users of small plastic wheels, so progress was not fast.

In something of a "we appear to have come full circle" moment, I recently did what I should have done last spring: researched Shimano/Campagnolo combinations properly. A Campag 10 speed shifter pulls the same length of cable on each click as a Shimano 8 speed mech/cassette expects to be pulled to shift one sprocket, so as soon as my latest Parker order arrives I'll be in a position to put the winter bike back together using pretty much all the original parts that I took off it in the first place. Plus, I rather suspect, a rack and mudguards, just to make sure it's unfashionable enough to not be a theft magnet. Maybe even panniers. Still, now I have a fastish bike as well I don't feel compelled to worry about the compromise.