It has certainly been interesting of late with conversations with various bike shop owners and their 'advice' which just translates into 'buy this bike!' - ha!
A few days ago I test rode a Liv Avail SL road bike, it was 'nice' and had potential.
Afterward, I drove over to Birmingham's Specialized Concept Store to test ride a couple of different sized Allez road bikes as I am inbetween sizes. The Allez was number one on my list of potential bikes as a few weeks ago I was blown away with the paint job on the Red Hook edition on display at Evan's Cycles in the city centre - embrace the vividness!
The advice at the Concept Store was second to none, the assistant was top notch and I ended up test riding both sizes around a very spacious car park for 15 mins each. I tried the 52 in the Red Hook edition and the 54 in acid red which is an awesome shocking red/orange colour - I loved the colour(s) of both bikes!
The 54 was the better match for me as it was closer to my Klanker the 3rd setup.
I didn't order from the Concept Store in the end as they were out of stock in the 54 Red Hook, so I ordered from Evans instead, on top of that they are doing their trade an old bike for money off a new bike deal so I bought a kids balance bike for £25 from Argos and traded it in for £100 off my new bike!
It's win win really, I get money off my new klanker and some underprivileged kid(s) get a new bike to play with.
Today I drove into town to collect 'Klanker the Fourth' aka 'Splash o' Colour'
The guy at Evans commented it was a nice bike... 2 minutes after leaving the store a passer by commented 'That's a colourful bike isn't it? Really nice bike!'.. a few minutes later I was walking past a dude in office dress with a phone to his ear... noticed he was looking at the bike as I walked past so I half turned my head and saw that he didn't take his eyes off it!
Was quite surprised it got attention within the first 5 minutes of owning it!
After a bit of alteration - narrower bars, slightly shorter stem and my usual ladies saddle it shall be fine and dandy. 😀
Out for a shortish one with Bob today - the summer is turning out to be a right sizzler with temperatures rising to over 30 degrees for the next few weeks, so a shorter route is required to get back before it gets overly hot!
Today we embarked on a 35 mile round trip to The Cowshed cafe at Wooten Warwen via what I call Ye Olde Yew Tree route - a route we regularly took when we I used to lead Bike Club West Midlands rides.
I haven't been road bike shopping as of yet so I have put slicks on my mountain bike to use on road rides for the time being.
At The Cowshed I chose an eccles cake which turned out to be delish! Bob had a slice of victoria sponge.
On the way back we stopped for ice cream at Earlswood Craft Centre, it had been a while since I last had an ice cream there.
By the end of the ride I had gelled rather well with the mountain bike on the road.
Myself and Bob's first crack at Velothon Wales today! Much excitement abound!
The forcast is set to rise to over 30 degrees after midday and don't fancy my chances of getting around the whole course - I tend not to do well with heat!
If I managed at least 50 miles I would be happy.
Referencing my previous post with my trusty Klanker the 3rd being half inched two weeks ago I hired a Trek Lexa from On Your Bike in Birmingham... the bike turned out to be a unridable heap of sh*t together with goddam awful plastic test pedals! (seriously!!) ðŸ˜
On the 6 mile ride down from Premier Inn to the Velo start the seat post steadily decided to lower itself down to balance bike height, no matter how hard we tightened the seatpost clamp the seat would slowly lower itself as I was riding...
We arrived at the Velo Expo and headed to the mechanics tent - the mechanic couldn't do anything for it and didn't have a spare clamp, he did however direct us to a bike shop across the road.
We arrived at the bike shop to find the mechanic not in - booo! At this point I gave up but Bob didn't, another rider mentioned to us that there is a bike hire tent at the expo.
We find the bike hire tent and the mechanic there hired a bike out to us with only minutes to spare! He even fitted SPD pedals at my request and on top of that he gave me a deluxe road bike for the price of a standard road bike - both he and Bob saved my day yippee! 😃
The bike was a man's carbon Radial bike with 105 on it. The handlbars were slightly too wide and was slightly too long in the reach department however it was still very ridable, I would have requested to flip the steam but we were literally out of time. The saddle however, was a razor sharp hard contraption.
We rolled into the back of our pen as the last of the riders were rolling out... phew! 😌
The first 15 minutes of riding we were right at the back with all the support vans following us... felt quite cool!
After that we gradually started moving up the field, I was a gingerly cautious with the bike for the first hour due it being unfamiliar, I made sure to keep my distance to any riders infront.
At the first water station I caught up with Bob, quick top up and away we go again.
The ride and route was absolutely marvellous, loved riding through the occasional water sprinklers with the crowd cheering us on!
As midday was approaching I ascended up a long hill, half way up there was a flat bit but then it soon went back to the long haul again, the temperature was rising rapidly so got off and walked half way up the second section - I wasn't planning on knackering myself up on this one.
Hmmm... yes.... when I remounted the bike I did myself some damage and fell onto the saddle due to foot not being clipped in properly - IT HURT!!! 😢
Every time I remounted the saddle there on after I let out a groan! 😟
I arrived at the first feed station at Tallybont-on-Usk where Bob had been waiting approx 10 minutes, at this point my thoughts turned to how much further would I be going until retiring as it was over 30 degrees from there on.
Fuel and water taken on and away we go again.
With urban landscape left behind we rode into beautiful Welsh countryside, I made a quick stop to decant water from my water bottle into my hydration backpack and Bob carried on ahead.
It soon got to the point where the sun was blazing right onto me with no shadows to ride under - I was 100% exposed and soon felt like riding through an oven, at this point I knew I wasn't going too much further...
Just around a bend there was a few marshals and a support van so decided best to stop there and then rather than go further and wait up under a tree... good job I did! Turns out that I nabbed the last spot on that particular van and all other support vans on the route were full - a lot of people were retiring due to the heat and anyone waiting at roadside had at least a few hours wait for a support van to pick them up!
I had done 47 miles, happy with that! 😃
A hour and a half later I was dropped off at Velo Expo.
I exchanged the good hire bike back for the crap hire bike and found a shady spot under a tree to sit and wait for Bob. I daren't drink too much while waiting as I didn't want to go to the toilet and leave another bike at risk of being stolen!!
A hour and half later I received a text from Bob to say he was about, we soon found each other - Bob completed yippee!!! 😄
We both agreed it had been a fab day out and must return next year, we then had a celebratory Magnum!
We will definately be back next year, next time on my own bike... Velothon Wales we have unfinished business!
And what better way to end a fab day out than a 3 course pub meal - hurrah!
