No great surprise really given
my love of ‘cross inspired bikes and escaping metalled roads on them. Yes, I’m
leaning toward an endurance event, similar to the dirty reiver https://www.dirtyreiver.co.uk/ . I
pondered this, while exploring some long forgotten lanes-the sort just wide
enough for a very small car and zero wriggle room.
Shod with those 30mm Vee
rubber, ‘cross inspired fixed and I took the centre-strip-an impacted mound of
mud, silt and grit in our stride, albeit at a more cautious 15mph-in case a
John Deere, or similar behemoth be winding uphill.
At 105psi or so, they’re
really quite capable on softer surfaces, though more of a tyre that give a
taste of gravel, rather than something I’d deliberately set out to tackle a big
event with. Neither, for that matter, is a fixed gear of 79 inches but it was
perfectly manageable in these contexts.
Hmm, I feel another reconfiguration
coming on. Received wisdom says a gear of 63 inches is optimal for trail biased
fixed gear fun but I’m erring on the taller end of 60. We are talking a 700c
build and I don’t want to be spinning myself into another dimension, or whipping
the wheel around when I come to long stretches of metalled road.
The MK2 Ilpompino’s frame and
Kinesis cross fork permits tyres up to 32 and 42mm respectively, without
clearance hassles but ideally, a gravel build’s rear triangle will entertain
38mm with room to spare but we’ll see.
Talking of frames, Seven Day
Cyclist has a feature on refinishing aluminium alloy, complete with a step by
step renovation of a Specialized https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/aluminium-frame-refurbishment
Back in 2008 I toyed with
going the two speed Sturmey Archer route. Frankly, though it has some obvious
appeal, especially in the scenarios outlined here, in practice the system was
short-lived first time round. It also adds unnecessary cost and complication to
proceedings.
Some, scrappy, note pad
doodling points towards a 19tooth sprocket. I’d like a decent CNC machined
unit. Cheaper elliptical types with bevelled teeth hail from the days when
racers would retire an old road frameset from competitive duties and convert it
to fixed for winter training.
These sprockets compensate for
chain-line imperfections and certainly have their place but below par for a
purpose build. Ideally, I’d have another EAI Gold Medal premium (CNC machined
unit with straight cut teeth).
A truly beautiful piece of
precision engineering but to my knowledge, 18 teeth is tops. More likely that I
will opt for a cheaper but extremely cheerful Halo, which is also CNC machined,
offered in the magical 19. Think that’s a done deal, for now at least…
Generally speaking, living in
a house completely devoid of heat during the winter of 1992, coupled with 30
winters on two wheels has left me with a high tolerance for cold.
That said; I’ve been taken
aback by how chilly April and May have been-psychologically, I’m anticipating
15-18 degrees and on many morning’s its barely crept to 7 degrees, less when
wind chill is factored in.
For the most part, I’ve been
comfortable enough wearing mitts, as has Steve https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/santini-micro-mesh-gel-mitt but on Wednesday, I resurrected these
full-finger Endura Strike from my gloves drawer.
Revisiting them 8 years in,
I’m still impressed by the standards of warmth and wicking. Even in relatively
mild temperatures they wick much better than padding density and overall design
might suggest. I’ve added Respro retroreflective stickers to accentuate hand
signals on dark nights and unlit roads.
Elsewhere, I was called in to
cover an event the Indian Community Centre in Coventry on Saturday. I’d also like
to take this opportunity to introduce some creative wrapping and card making
services from Dolly Blue-Blue.
Like what you see? Don’t be
shy, get in touch and I’ll pass your enquiry over.
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