Most purplexing

Well this is very peculiar, I’ve not been riding all week, not eaten any more, or any less than I usually do, but i’ve lost 4lbs and i’m now down to 14st 2lbs!!

That means i’ve met another one of my targets! YAY..

My cold has pretty much gone, so i’ll be out on my bike tomorrow night.  I’ve now got the new forks setup with the correct air pressure and will give them a good test ride.

I’ve also decided to buy a set of DX Bastid lights. I originally ordered some about 3 weeks ago, but they were waiting for supplier for ages and I cancelled the order.. A day later they were back in stock, so i’ve re-ordered and saved £1 in the process thanks to the pound slightly strengthening against the dollar!!

I’ll do a nice big review of the lights when I get them!!

new parts and my first ride in a while

My replacement forks arrived on Monday, a week later than I’d hoped for. THANKS ROYAL MAIL!! My existing forks were Post Mount, whereas the new ones are IS mount. I managed to get a Shimano IS to Post Mount adapter from Wiggle and fitted the brake caliper onto the forks.

It took about 10 minutes to figure out which way up it went, but I managed it!! Some tweeking is needed as the rotor is running very close to the edge of the caliper.

The finished article!! Removal of the forks was fairly uneventful, I managed to stick the evily sharp knife from my trail took into my thumb and coat everything with blood at one point, but once a plaster was in place I carried on. Removal of the bottom race from the old forks took ages, until I had a brain wave and used a wood chisel to get into the gap between the crown and the bearing carrier.  Fitting on the new fork was easy and the bearings were in good condition, considering the weather and conditions I normally ride in.  Apologies for the quality of the picture, but it was in a poorly lit garage and taken with my phone’s camera.

I decided to do my normal short route, but in reverse as I really, really, really did not want to do the climb up rooley moor road in the pouring rain and after 3 weeks without a ride.

Just under 4  miles, with 453ft of ascent in 43 minutes. Not bad, but room for improvement. What surprised me the most was that I managed to do all of it with 1 stop, which was to let a couple of cars past on Woodhouse Lane.  Conditions were interesting to say the least, with deep standing water around the gates on Shawfield Lane bridlepath  (Sealskin socks are on the xmas list now) and torrential water running all across Woodhouse lane in places.

A picture of some of the torrential rainwater!

As for the forks, they’re 1.5lbs lighter than the old ones, which is very noticeable when riding. They’re quite soft, when out of the saddle on climbs, but I suspect they’re not setup for 200lbs of rider leaning over them. They have much more useable travel than the Rock Shox forks that were previously fitted and also soak up the bumps much better.

A disappointing end to the month

September was looking to be a good month for me, plenty of riding and i’d also started running too (sorry gaz!). But due to me being a total numpty and forgetting to unlock my forks before descending down some bridlepath I managed to completely and utterly destroy the damping/lockout circuitry in my forks.

Admittedly, they were only Rockshox Darts, but they did the job (to a point). They are now incredibly dangerous to ride on as they return back to their original height rather randomly.

So, I decided to upgrade via eBay and i’ve bought some Marzocchi MX Comp Air forks, 100mm travel again, approx 1.5lbs lighter than the existing forks, and in good condition.

Bought and paid for them on the 20th September and they’ve still not arrived (today or tomorrow is the reply).. So i’ve missed out on 1 weeks riding and i’m not happy