Land's End to John O'Groats: trial run

Not much bloggage recently because there hasn't been much cycling to write about.

Replacing the broken spoke I got on the Dunwich Dynamo turned into replacing the entire wheel when more spokes broke whilst I was removing the gears. Rather than just replace all the broken spokes and worry that more might go on LEJoG, I figured it would be best just to replace the whole thing. It's done about 5000km, although I have to say I'm not very sure what a good wheel lifetime is.

Replacing replacing my rear wheel in turn meant changing my rear cassette since Shimano have adopted a new system in the last two years and I couldnt' simply swap my gears over. With new rear cogs on it seemed prudent to replace the chain in case it had streched. Whilst doing this and re-adjusting my gear cables I noticed that my bottom bracket was a bit loose. In the spirit of repairing stuff I got a new one and for good measure some new gear cables as well.

So one hundred and fifty quid down and a week and a bit of cycling lost, but my bike does feel a whole lot smoother now.

To make up for the lack of training I did a Land's End to John O'Groats in ales at "the biggest pub in the world" yesterday, the Great British Beer Festival. Starting in Southwest England I had a Blindman's Golden Spring, which wasn't as good as the name suggested. Forging up in to Wales I had probably one of the best ales I've had for a while, a Grog-y-Vog from the Vale of Glamorgan. After that I'm not very sure what I had, although I do remember the Scotish ale was particularly good. Photo evidence below. (It was hat day, hence, er, the hats).













Surprisingly only two people tried to "press" my hat.