Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: Wowbagger on 12 January, 2016, 09:51:21 am
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Meanwhile, in a little known corner of a planet in the outer arm of the known galaxy... Steve is off and heading NE again.
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And seems to be whipping along at ~18mph for the first hour. That Southwesterly must be pushing him along nicely. Hopefully he can make good use of it; ideally something like King's Lynn and then GY/Acle and add some extra in the evening when the wind has died down.
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There's a brisk wind blowing in London today so i imagine it will be fairly whipping across the fens. I wonder if the Acle Travelodge offers a free stay every sixth visit?
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He's a bit more West than he usually is for a Norfolk jaunt.
Maybe a plan to add some extra miles before turning East for King's Lynn and beyond.
I doubt he'd be heading towards Goole again given the Westerly winds.
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East to Thurlby. Hope he's not trying to barge in on the school to get some food...
No, MacDonalds in Bourne (at a guess from Google Maps).
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Good news.
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From Facebook:
Tonight Steve hit a pothole, about 120-miles into his ride, which has damaged his rear wheel so badly he can't ride the bike any further.
Big thanks to Andrew (from the support team) for making the 200-mile return trip with a replacement bike, at such short notice.
This delay will be a big setback for Steve - against his new January mileage plan (and the record target in general) - but he plans to fight to get these lost miles back and still meet his January target...
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:( Just seen that :(
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Oh dear!
:( :(
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no wiggle room is there, an afternoon off shouldn't be a "big setback"
sounds like either the target this month is met, or the plug is pulled?
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Pity a wheel couldn't have been rustled up from somewhere without needing a new bike.
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Rear wheels are always more problematic than front ones as less likely to find one with compatible sprockets.
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no wiggle room is there, an afternoon off shouldn't be a "big setback"
It's a big setback in terms of the day (2 hours so 30 miles lost maybe, 15% of the day or less if Steve can combine the time waiting with refeuling/resting), but not in terms of the whole attempt (30 miles out of 76076+ miles).
sounds like either the target this month is met, or the plug is pulled?
There's been nothing said along those lines, only conjecture.
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As of yesterday (11th) he was almost 100 miles down on January plan, requiring 210 days for the rest of the month, so this incident won't help meet the monthly target.
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If only he was being constantly followed by someone in, say, a camper van...
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He's going to ride through the night until tomorrow night, according to Faceache
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Steve's FBk:
Tonight Steve hit a pothole, about 120-miles into his ride, which has damaged his rear wheel so badly he can't ride the bike any further.
Big thanks to Andrew (from the support team) for making the 200-mile return trip with a replacement bike, at such short notice.
This delay will be a big setback for Steve - against his new January mileage plan (and the record target in general) - but he plans to fight to get these lost miles back and still meet his January target...
Steve Abraham Very probably not a serious problem.
Hit a pothole and my rear tyre went down.
I couldn't find the cause easily in the dark so instead of spending time investigating I fitted a new tyre with an innertube.
Had a bit of bother getting the wheel back in and when I did, the disk brake was rubbing a bit.
Decided to get going and call for help while I planned my next move.
A new wheel would also need a new chain because my transmission is shot after the recent wet weather. Plus I don't know why the rear brake is rubbing and don't want to spend time investigating in the cold and dark
Decided on taking a rest and having a meal.
Now going to go through the night and through to tomorrow night, hopefully for an early night.
I should mostly have a tailwind and the good main roads should be quiet.
Going to ride the A148 from Kings Lynn to Cromer, A149 to Yarmouth the A12 to Ipswich or Stowmarket for breakfast.
There should be hotels nearby on that route if I start to get sleepy.
Steve Abraham Rear tyre with the tube also kept going down. Probably pinched the tube when fitting it to be honest.
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Thanks for the repost Andyoxon
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Keep it going Toofy!
H
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Cold night, Icy morning, that's a tough call. Keep it safe Steve
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Press on, get the miles done tonight, finish earlier tomorrow and get some well deserved rest :thumbsup:
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I can only admire Steve's fortitude. Some say he is foolhardy. Some say that he has a diet of girders. All we know is that he's Teethgrinder, and he'll do what he thinks it takes.
Good luck Steve.
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It looks like he's stopped at Knight's Hill hotel.
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Tracker still stationary - 3.5 hours.
Not too sure how acquiring a big helping of sleep debt assists things. There are still on 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year however you cut the cake.
Riding home from work this pm the wind has got an evil sharp cold edge on it - almost first cold wind of this winter.
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Moving again.
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After 4 hours stopped. Equals a loss of at least 90km
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By no means having a dig, but the saying 'Pride comes before fall' rings a bell here. :-\
Hope all goes well for the rest of the night.
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I suppose that's one disadvantage of disc brakes: they make it harder to source a spare wheel from somewhere.
I'm concerned about this story of the chain needing to change at the same time as the wheel due to the transmission being shot. If they have the money, why not change the transmission sooner?
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I suppose that's one disadvantage of disc brakes: they make it harder to source a spare wheel from somewhere.
I'm concerned about this story of the chain needing to change at the same time as the wheel due to the transmission being shot. If they have the money, why not change the transmission sooner?
Because as my Bike Butler will tell you once you start cranking out the miles and my mileage is high by most people's standards but stupidly small compared to Steve's, bike maintainance becomes seriously high. I spread 19,000 miles over 6 machines last year and have caused serious wear to two that aren't on 11 spd race kit.
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In the scale of things, it's a minor incident in a year long challenge, and Steve has had precious few of those (notwithstanding the moped incident). Tubeless plus discs has served him well - I suspect he would have had far more lost-time incidents with tubes, and gone through many more rims/brake pads at awkward points had he not had discs.
The main issue for me is that he simply isn't getting the miles in in a sensible timeframe. Perhaps his physiology just isn't suited to it, who knows.
What is in no doubt is his mental fortitude - yesterday night was a foul one to be out cycling in anybody's book, but on he goes. Amazing.
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<SNIP>Perhaps his physiology just isn't suited to it, who knows.
What is in no doubt is his mental fortitude - yesterday night was a foul one to be out cycling in anybody's book, but on he goes. Amazing.
Nobody should question Steve's determination.
It is a little unfair to suggest Steve's physiology is unsuited to riding fast enough. Steve has, on more than one occasion, ridden close to 450 miles unpaced within 24 hours (further than Tommy!). To do that required averaging at least 20 mph for many hours on end. The problem for this attempt is that Steve has not shown that sort of speed for over a year now.
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Because as my Bike Butler will tell you once you start cranking out the miles and my mileage is high by most people's standards but stupidly small compared to Steve's, bike maintainance becomes seriously high.
not really, I've found if you run everything together, it all wears the same, so if your not always changing out cassettes/chains/rings when checkers tell you they are worn then they go on for a long time, i recently changed from 10 speed SRAM Red to 11 Speed Dura Ace - the Red had done 14,000km on the same rings/cassette/chain/cables/bb30 bearings including through winter, barely maintained other than a wipe down and an oil for the chain
ok 14,000km in the scheme of things is 6 weeks riding for Steve, but I'm a believer that if you tinker too much you can cause yourself greater wear and increased cost
essentially though in steves position, considering you can get a complete Ultegra grouspet for sub 400 and 105 for sub 300, id just be replacing the lot once a month, with 3 bikes in circulation, it should be easy enough to always have a "new" bike ready to go, although of course it being 100+ miles away yesterday didn't help, it does throw up the question of shorter more repetitive local loops so he's never far from help, either that or have the 3 bikes all ready to go strategically placed in high mileage areas
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A one-off after 13 months and 70,000 miles of riding! By any measure the equipment is working well from a reliability point of view and so not worth changing maintenance procedures or storing bikes up-country.
Glad Steve didn't do a Light Brigade style all-nighter and wipe himself out for the next day. I'm sure that was the adrenaline talking but back on the bike, he thought better of it
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...of course it being 100+ miles away yesterday didn't help, it does throw up the question of shorter more repetitive local loops so he's never far from help...
;D What a brilliant idea! It's amazing that no-one's ever suggested anything like that before! ;)
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;D What a brilliant idea! It's amazing that no-one's ever suggested anything like that before!
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;D
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...of course it being 100+ miles away yesterday didn't help, it does throw up the question of shorter more repetitive local loops so he's never far from help...
;D What a brilliant idea! It's amazing that no-one's ever suggested anything like that before! ;)
That could be the reason why the LeMans 24hr motor race goes round a loop of tarmac.
Now if it was the Paris-Dakar, there's a half dozen support trucks ahead of the competitor, full of spare parts.
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On a short circuit it is much, much easier to make the spectators pay to get in.
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As of yesterday (11th) he was almost 100 miles down on January plan, requiring 210 days for the rest of the month, so this incident won't help meet the monthly target.
Adding days to the month - a brilliant plan! ;)
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On a short circuit it is much, much easier to make the spectators pay to get in.
Short circuits need fewer TV cameras too
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Short circuits need fewer TV cameras too
Short circuits need electricians.
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I was going to put Closed Circuits but thought with TV that might cause confusion.
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Adding days to the month - a brilliant plan! ;)
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I remember when January had 59 days one year (a very harsh month it was ) for the purposes of RRTY
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Not sure whether I'm detecting some schadenfreude in this thread... ??? Did I hear someone volunteering to hire a campervan and follow Steve around 24/7/365? ;)
If he was having trouble getting the wheel seated in the dropout (most likely cause of disc rub) then gears and/or rim brakes might have misbehaved also. I think a bike swap was the right call.
Although I think things are hanging in the balance, and suspect his best chance isa period of recuperation and a restart ("3rd time lucky" perhaps?) I still wish Steve all the best with this attempt. :thumbsup: