It was a very lean week last week. Just 102kms for the week. Life got in the way a little, but my Sunday long ride was cut short by mechanical problems that I will explain in a bit.
I was up early Sunday morning to get the bride off on her way to Europe. One of the things she said in the morning was to get out early as it was nice and calm. Good thinking 99. By the time I got my self organised with lunch, water etc, it was 9AM. Where is the bike computer? I looked everywhere. God almighty, don’t tell me I have just lost my brand new Edge 800! 15 minutes later I find it in the bottom of my backpack. Phew.
So off I went. 50m into the ride I nearly hit a pole. 🙂
Close call.
It must be a strange site to see a fat bloke riding around with a camera on top of his helmet.
Look at that!
Well, I realised as soon as I headed South that the calm morning had turned into a howling southerly. Joy Joy. I was about 15 minutes into the ride and struggling a bit when I looked down at the speedo. The helmet cam even caught me doing it. 6.66kms on the speedo.
6.66
Oooh, the number of the devil. I should have just turned around and gone home. Left onto the Calalla Bay turn off and into the head wind again. This photo shows you the joys of country riding at times. It was captured near the crest of a hill. Thankfully the cars gave me plenty of room.
Some shoulder.
It is a lumpy old run along Forrest Road to the highway, but an enjoyable ride with a reasonable shoulder to ride on. Just before I got the the highway I had a moment when the right side pedal seemed to develop a click. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I crossed the highway and had a bit of a hill to roll down. The pedal then really seemed to lock up on the upside of the revolution. It forced my foot forward just before I stopped pedalling. Felt a bit of a twinge behind the knee, but it seemed to be moving ok again, so I continued. Then, about 50m before I stopped for my 1 hour break, it happened again. I pulled up and had a look. There was a definate problem with the pedal. It seemed to be catching at one part of the revolution. I had a sandwich and thought about what I should do.
First break. Pedal problems.
A creek.
I decided after a 5 minute break to tackle Nowra Hill and see how it was going after that. So off I went up a climb that I am actually starting to enjoy. It is a great challenge trying to beat my best time going up there.
The Climb
I was 7 seconds off my best time, woth a VAM approaching 900. Not bad for a fat bloke. The bad news, as soon as I was soft pedalling, the pedal locked again. This was my response.
Bugger this, I'm outta here.
Yep, U-turn and head for home. I wasn’t even a quarter of the way through the planned ride. Damn it.
It was a pretty uneventful ride home. I was dark at the bike for playing up. I managed it on the way home by pedalling hard most of the time. By the time I got home I had only done 56kms. A long way short of the 125kms I had planned. Oh well, best to get this sorted out now, than haflway around the bay ride.
I am now contemplating going from the SPD pedal system to the SPD-SL road bike system. I have the pedals in the shed, so it just means a pair of new shoes. Decisions, decisions.