Month: February 2017

Downs followed by Stamner Singletrack

Booked a day’s holiday for today, so had planned to ride.

I wasn’t sure of the route right up to the last minute.. I’m not appreciating having to spend 1.5 hours washing the bike after each ride, hence having done a few road rides recently.. but I’m getting a bit bored of them.

I considered the Downs Link Trail as a compromise, but was pretty sure that would result in just as much washing of the bike as proper off roading.

So in for a penny, in for a pound – I decided on off-road. I rode up to Mill Hill, over to Devils Dyke, and followed the South Downs Way to Ditchling Beacon.

From there, I rode down the Beacon road, specifically looking for the entrance to the Stamner Woods, which the Trailforks app reliably informed me, was on this road.

It was my first venture on the Singletrack here, and I had an absolute hoot. It was pretty hairy going due to the mud, and I had a few near misses.. the day (and possibly my life, but at least my collarbone) was saved by my Rock Shox Reverb dropper post, which I purchased for my Kitsune as a Christmas pressie to myself last year. It’s just epic being able to get the saddle out of the way.. if you don’t have one, believe all of the ‘Top 10 ways to improve your riding’ posts / YouTube videos that are all over the web.

There were several points where I’ve regularly ridden past the Singletrack on the fire road, not even realising it was there.. needless to say, that won’t be happening again! Looking forward to taking some more-week days off in the Summer when it dries out, and discovering the rest of it!

After Stamner I rode down Lewes Road to the seafront and smashed it home from there.

Distance: 29.4m

Time: 3:03:00

Avg. Speed: 9.6mph

Strava Trophies: 28 including 7 PBs

More cleaning / rust removal solution..

I only dismantled the front brakes for cleaning (along with various other bits), leaving the rears in situ.

So as I’d used all of the Cider Vinegar on the parts cleaned thus far, I tried my luck in the town centre whilst at work to see if I could find any more, to do the back brakes.

Couldn’t find any cider vinegar, but did find some white wine vinegar.. so I’ll be trying that tomorrow.

Bike parts cleaning update..

Rescued the bits from the vinegar before work this morning, by emptying the container.

Didn’t get a chance to then clean / dry then until after work.

Big improvement all round.. the small bolts and washers showed the best improvement, but the brake arms did well too.

Started the process of fitting it all back together, and only realised there was a spring in the brake lever when it fell out. Took a while, and the dismantling of the other brake lever, to work out its orientation, but got there in the end. I booked a day’s holiday tomorrow, for a big ride and some more tinkering!

After:

Component cleaning..

Bought a few things for the new bike today. Firstly, Halfords for a new socket set. Some of the cross-head screws holding on the panniers are *tight*, and I couldn’t get enough torque with a screwdriver. 

Secondly, Tesco for some Cider Vinegar. I bought three bottles initially.

After getting home, I smashed out a quick ride on the Kitsune, out along the coast to the east for ten miles, and ten miles back (20.5 according to Strava). Average was 16mph, with 28 Strava trophies, including 7 PBs.

I then started stripping the Raleigh.. I didn’t have too much time, so to start with, I’ve gone with dismantling the front v-brakes, one or two other bolts, the chain and the rear derailleur. 

At the time of writing, the parts have been in the vinegar for around two hours, and I’ll be leaving them overnight.

Here are the parts in their container, which is a four pint milk bottle with the top cut off – this provided a large enough space to fit the derailleur, whilst not needing too much vinegar to fill it.