After my recent foray into long ( ish ) distance riding two Sundays ago I fancied beating myself up a bit more.
The post read “The Heathens CC is an informal cycling club that meets up at 9am on the first Sunday of the month outside the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. They generally keep to a 15mph average and are out for about 4 hours with a cafe stop. Anyone is welcome as long as they can keep up”.
So yesterday morning I joined them for an easy cycle to Warwick and back.
To be honest I was a little nervous as I pretty much knew for sure I would be the only person riding a track bike and I was spot on. Doug had his Ribble, Rob on his carbon Trek, Ade’s full carbon Cervelo, Tom on his unbadged Aluminium piece and Kris on his latest acquisition, the Lovely steel Rourke. All of these cats had multiple gearing systems, all of these cats had mechanical braking devices and all of these cats had the ability to stop pedaling whilst in motion. All of the previously mentioned information did not however deter me as on this particular Sunday morning I was up for pounding!
At approximately 9.10am we headed out along the Alcester road towards the Maypole and the Hollywood bypass and we got on our way.
After going through Wythall and passing Earlswood it dawned on me “This really isn’t so bad” I was keeping up with these guys quite easily but… people say about fixed wheel riding “isn’t it hard going up hills?” the answer is this ( as Lee quite rightly had as his tagline on Birmingham Fixed ) descending is far, far worse than ascending. On the uphills I found myself sometimes over taking my gear changing friends as ( with enough grunt and determination ) I could just maintain my cadence and mash on up them hills while they were busy changing down their gears to aid in spinning. So no it isn’t hard going up hills.
Descending. Oh my god descending. As these guys were sitting on their saddles, effortlessly freewheeling down the hills like they were passengers on their own bikes I was gripping my bars so hard it turned my arms into vibrating sticks of meat and spinning the sh*t out of my Shimano bottom bracket like I have never spun it before. It felt like I was pedaling to stay alive, like I was a small child being chased by a hungry Rhinocerous! Did I also mention the slight danger of cars pulling out of side roads at the bottom of said hills? In fact Let’s not even go there.
Apart from the downhills the flat and uphills were absolutely fine although a freewheel and maybe a few gears would have been great, perhaps they would have given me the opportunity to take in the scenery a little better and enjoy the ride more. Not that I didn’t enjoy it it was in fact fantastic fun and I will certainly do it again and probably next Sunday.
So we all safely made it to Warwick and back ( taking into account the long deserved food stop ) in a little under four hours with an average speed of 16.5mph and a total distance of 42 miles.
Upon returning home my thighs ached and my knees felt like they were 10 years older than the rest of my body but they are now repaired and my thighs have recovered.
So people the next thing on my shopping list is not an NJS certified frame, nor is it a set of ‘New old stock’ Dura Ace track hubs. It is a geared road bike, because track bikes are brilliant and endless fun on the streets of Birmingham but there really is no place for them ( in my opinion ) on country lanes miles away from where you reside. Maybe that is a little strong considering what MASH SF just did? OK I will rephrase it: When riding with folks who have freewheels you will have more fun if your bike has a freewheel too.
Another thing on my list is a decent pair of padded shorts as the ones I own are, simply put… Crap. I would have been better off sitting my bare cheeks on a saddle covered in chilli flakes the chaffing was so bad. Jesus! Only half way there and my scrotum was numb from the p*ss poor barrier between them and the saddle. That will teach me not to buy £9.99 cycling shorts from Halfords.
There we have it. Summer missions are great but they will be greater once I get my ‘racer’ and once I hook my posterior up with a pair of proper shorts.
Tags: ascending, cadence, descending, freewheels, pista, road, track
April 6, 2009 at 9:01 am |
Hey Blacksmile, I urge you to stick with the long rides on the fixed but man, make sure you have some brakes to help with those hills. I will try and make it along for a Heathens ride, sounds nice.
Vistaed
April 6, 2009 at 4:13 pm |
ditto what vistaed says. i do pretty similar routes on mine. it’s doable and pain=gain. saying that, i think i’ll join these guys’ next ride on my new geared road bike if/when i can get the stupid stem out of the steerer tube.
April 7, 2009 at 1:56 pm |
You must be mad! Can you take your feet off and let the pedals spin? I saw someone doing this on video of an alleycat in New York, i’ve no idea how they get their feet back on without breaking their legs though. I think it’s the one with Guns n’ Roses soundtrack here http://www.digave.com/videos/
Would the Heathens CC find it useful to have a group on http://www.birminghamcyclist.com?
LS
April 10, 2009 at 1:38 pm |
[...] many bikes and bits but the lure of a 40% discount is drawing me towards a geared road bike ( see “Going up is easy” ). All I have to do now is choose one! Given the fact that I am terribly fickle this decision [...]