Luckily I am able to come storming back with news from my cycling life, where I messed up buying a new wheel for the mountain bike, learnt a bit about the new rear axle standards that have crept in while I wasn't really paying attention. I then returned the wheel and spent a little more on a whole wheelset which turned up and allowed me to spend a pleasant evening switching cassettes, tyres and brake rotors.
I had had the foresight to get a new rotor and it turned out to be long overdue as the rear rotor I removed had been significantly worn, as you can hopefully see here?
As ever my policy on bike maintenance has been to allow stuff to wear beyond all reasonable levels and then finally replace it.
Obviously in order to check this all out I wanted a ride that would bed it all in. I headed up to Redbridge to smash out some laps and make sure everything was working well. This scientific testing revealed that the wheels were definitely ok. I'm not sure I'm qualified to pick out the subtle differences, but mainly I go by the idea that if I forget about something new as I'm riding then it's all good.
Here you can also conveniently see exactly where I popped over to the cafe, and the precise bit of the carpark I parked in. With these added details I imagine you feel more included in the trip?
The broader news about cycling has been focussed on the tragic deaths of five people on bikes. There are various responses and surveys that are calling on the authorities to improve conditions on London streets for cyclists, and for Boris Johnson to back up his ideas of forming a Cycling London with something more than rhetoric. Three of the deaths were on or near Cycle Superhighway two, and Peter Walker from the Guardian demonstrates what it's really like:
Elsewhere Lance Armstrong has unfortunately also been all over the news as the new leadership of the UCI wants him to come clean about any dealings he had with them in the past. Inevitably he hopes to see some flexibility on his lifetime ban, but the feeling seems to be that he will, rightly in my opinion, remain banned.
My weekend has also featured some literature with the final issue of Privateer falling through my (largely metaphorical) letterbox, and my beginning of Rob Ellingworth's book, Project Rainbow, on the fascinating structure built to put Cavendish into the rainbow stripes in Copenhagen. I'll report further as I read more.
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