Fitness for life's adventures
My (secondhand) Kinesis came in a well-looked after condition and was fitted with Frogs cantilever brakes and TRP brake pads. Those have been fine as I made my first steps into the murky world of ‘cross racing, but in the last couple of races (with some more aggressive hills and corners) I’ve found the brakes …
The hood on my Kinesis’ right hand SRAM brake lever started to tear a few weeks back and by last week was clearly not going to last much longer, so needed replacing. The Kinesis is now proudly wearing brand new bright red SRAM doubletap hoods in place of the old black ones. They were suprisingly …
In 2013 Shimano updated their Sora groupset from version 3400 to 3500 and at last those thumb-shifters have gone… but Shimano Sora is still 9-speed, so how much better is it? I’d suggest that it’s a quantum leap forward in capability. The Shimano Sora sits near the bottom of their range of road groupsets, and …
Louis (age 13) has properly adopted my Cannondale and it was clear a few weeks back that I needed to get some better tyres for the winter – the Cannondale had the summer Vittoria Rubino Pros fitted and I’ve never been a fan of those once the weather turns cold and damp, and the roads …
Vittoria’s Rubino has been my ‘go to’ summer tyre for quite a few years now. They have a good heritage and are well made, but are always competitively priced. On the road during the summer the Rubino’s are supple, providing a good level of grip and a comfortable ride. More importantly, in my experience, with …
It may well fly in the face of any Velominiati rule, but my new saddle is a thing of beauty. My Cannondale had had a Selle Italia SLR Gel-flow on it, and for most of my riding (one to three hours around Malmesbury) it was better than my Brookes Swift… the Brookes only really came …
I love SRAM, I really really do… their appearance on the market was just the ticket for all those folk who felt that Shimano offered a wide range of disposable (albeit clean-running) components. For most road riders Campagnolo has always been the goal, the nirvana around which a dream bike would be built… but for …
These are those key touch-points… the points at which and the bike become one. All bikes come with the touch-points that the manufacturer thinks will suit you best (some bikes don’t come with pedals? – Ed), but you’re different to your mate. So assuming that the bikes fits and the moving bits are all working …
All this wet weather has had a negative impact on our cycling. Even going for a ride when it hasn’t been raining has met with puddles and wet mud, so the bike and clothes invariably gets covered in cack – and much as I like to keep the bike running well, having to do a …
I’ve always suffered with numbness in the hands during an extended ride and have tried to solve the problem with a variety of different gloves, with mixed results. However, a looking 4-hour XC race in November (2013) meant trying a new tact. Suprisingly, the set-up that’s worked best to date has been some simple On-One …