Early Learnings

One of the joys of cycling is the huge amount of equipment that goes with it, and the many unwritten rules and conventions that create the culture. Obviously the first thing I did was take a trip to my a local bike shop to break some of the rules.

I bought myself some proper clipless shoes, a new cycling jersey and a saddle bag (Rule #29). I had some baggy MTB shorts (Rule #18), a helmet (with visor Rule#35), gloves, lights and tools already.

My first few rides were pretty simple affairs, under 20 miles,  but they certainly ironed out a few kinks. I was getting a puncture on every single ride which I originally put down to old inner tubes perishing while being sat deflated for 3 years. Replacing the tubes didn't really help though and I was getting fed up getting super greasy changing tyres at the side of the road.

A quick chat with the hugely useful Cycling UK community on Google+ directed me towards some excellent Continental Grand Prix 4 Season tyres which have been brilliant, no punctures or slips. I also purchased a proper track pump and realised I had been seriously under inflating my tyres which might also have been contributing to the punctures.

Looked clean but the filth kept returning

Next up was some proper bike cleaning. The chain lube had dried out and become a paste with the dust that had settled. I tried hot soapy water and that didn't work. Next I bought some proper degreaser and that made things a lot better, but there was still a lot of muck coming out of the chain. In the end I went old school and put the whole chain into a jar of white spirits. This worked really well and is going to be my first choice from now on. This was made far easier with the addition of a slip link into my chain.

Perhaps the biggest fear of new cyclists is around clipless pedals and the risk of falling over at every single junction. I was quite used to having baskets on my pedals and not putting my feet down while riding so I actually found this quite easy at first. I went for a very forgiving setup on the Keo Look pedals and I never had much of a problem unclipping... until I stopped on a steep hill, tried to get started again and missed the pedal, ending up sprawled across a country road.

From that experience (and the twisted ankle that went with it) I learned to not stop on hills and also how to change the rear cassette on a bike. Quite a simple job with the right tools and the new 12-27t 9 speed cassette has made the hills a bit easier than the original 12-25t. I was originally tempted to go larger but this would have required a new derailleur and also would have broken Rule #5.

Having 27 teeth on the rear cassette (blue) gave an extra bit of
leverage for the hills compared to the 25 (orange) but widened
the gap between gears.

With the new gear ratios in place I started to find hills a little easier, and increasing fitness made 15-20 mile rides pretty easy. Now it was time to start cranking up the distance. Ben had a plan for an 80 mile ride and I had very little time to train.