Went over to Exmoor on my day off today and had a near disaster as 30 mins into my ride I noticed half my chainring bolts had fallen out and the remainder were about to join them in the undergrowth. I retreated to Minehead and was directed to Pompy Cycles.
He fished out and sold me some short bolts for a single chainring, lent me tools and I was back riding in no time. It was all my own fault using washers which made my bolts work loose. 🙄 Cheers Pompy. 😀
[url= http://www.pompyscycles.co.uk/ ]Pompy Cycles of Minehead Clicky[/url]
Spend 4 hours thrashing around North Hill and Selworthy Beacon on my newly singlespeeded HT. I'm just getting used to the one gear thing so the hills felt brutal. Lovely speedy singletrack and big but slightly misty views:
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I reckon Periwinkles cottage in Selworthy is the ultimate cake stop. But is it jam on cream or vice versa?
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Apart from my chainring bolt stupidity, the new singlespeeding lashup worked perfectly with no skipping or dropping and just a slight whirr from the tensioner. The bike don't half feel clean without two and quarter pounds of gear equipment on it. I feel pretty trashed tho.
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A tad cheeky those first two pics? 😉
I was out that way on Saturday - twas lovely
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😳
I go gently round that bit as there are often elderly couples on the seats quietly contemplating - death probably - who wont appreciate a cyclist ripping past. There were some today and I stopped for a little chat about the views and the mist. If they were grumpy about me being there they didn't show it (thankfully). It's such a cracking trail I just cant resist it. I'm also itching to explore the steep trails in Allerford Woods, but gather it's considered very off piste. So I'll have to go either at the crack of sparrows or late evening.
Yes I have to admit to doing that cheeky bit a few times as its good at speed!
Give us a shout if you want showing around some of the off piste bits.
naughty, naughty. The last person the warden caught riding that trail had his bike thrown over the edge 🙂
The scone on the left looks so wrong 🙄
Woohoo - I've got lucky and have been able the dump the DMR chain tensioner.
I was having some problems with it (not well made IMO) when I thought: "Hang on, if I take off the power link plus another link and then use a joining pin, that might be the right length". I was worried it would be too tight, but tried it anyway and - hey presto - it works perfectly without any binding or slipping. Silent running and another few tens of grammes saved. Pity I wasted my ££ on the crappy tensioner; hey ho.
Fair play buzz, theres some proper steep round there!
How will you tension it once the drivetrain has worn in a little?
How will you tension it once the drivetrain has worn in a little?
I climbed out of Selworthy Combe - now I often run out of gas somewhere on the grassy bit near the top. This time I managed to get to the bottom of the grassy bit before running out of forward motion. Riding back up the road from Minehead was OK with a couple of rests. Another climb up was done in 100m sections with me slumping over the bars and gasping lots (so what's new).
Err dunno. Don't you normally chuck a chain when it's about 2mm stretched? Given that it's quite a short chain, I may chuck it after 1mm which might be in the ball park for tension anyway. I haven't binned the tensioner but I'm not impressed with it. The spring deforms too easily and parts that should be steel are soft ally and get chewed too easily.
Me and Rich will be doing training laps tomorrow at Burrington Combe on the Mendips from 09:30 in case anyone's out up there - say hello.
Training laps? Sounds a bit serious!
Not for me mind. Rich signed up for the Afan Monster (I applied too late) but hasn't done much MTB recently as he's been concentrating on running and triathlon. So he asked me to join him while he thrashes out loops and finds his mojo - a loop not unlike the clic but all offroad and some more interesting bits in the wood are planned.