I took a ride over to Harby Hill yesterday to watch the Leicester Forest CC riders take part in the Melton Olympic hill climb. I rode the 70km round trip on the On-One, hub-geared, titanium prototype that I’ve never really got on with. The hub makes the bike really heavy and when you add a load of camera gear, it felt as heavy as the bike I rode to Poland. For some reason, the shifting has never been quite right either. I could spend time getting it set up, only for it to ‘adjust itself’ a few miles later.
On the way back yesterday, as I was out of the saddle climbing up into Rothley, it shifted and threw me over the bars.
I rode the rest of the way home grumpily nursing my bruises, cursing the bike and the hole it had ripped in my lovely Rapha socks. Within minutes of getting home the bike was in the workstand and several kilos of back wheel were removed and cast into a dark corner of the shed.
When a couple of final items arrive from Chain Reaction (in the blink of an eye usually), the bike will be reborn as a singlespeed cyclocrosser with 29er (carbon rimmed) wheels…
Yesterday’s ride, and my commute in this morning have taken me to 8789km (5462 miles) for the year so far. In 2008, I rode 10,006km and it dawned on me yesterday that maybe I could achieve this milestone again.
I’ll let you know…
Barnaby Nutt 