A ride less ordinary
Adventure Biking & the art of Going Slow & Getting lost
Faffage!
My new rear cassette arrived and I put it onto my spare wheel and replaced my bikes rear wheel with the spare one. The whole thing was a faff, partly because I had to deflate my 28 mm tyres to get them through the brake blocks. I attached the bike to the trainer (which is an art that I am still learning) and started test ride number 3, only there was something seriously wrong. I couldn’t get a watts readout higher than about 50 watts, no matter what force I put on the pedals. I didn’t get it. Was it just beginners luck with the previous wheel? I took the bike out and gave it a spin down the road to check that the spare wheel was okay, and it was.
I fiddled about for an age to no avail. In my repeated efforts to get the rear wheel safely into the mount, I ended up giving myself a blood blister and nearly breaking the brandy glasses in my drinks cabinet (such a first world problem!). I felt totally deflated, but I rarely concede defeat, so left it for another day.
I spent the evening googling the pros and cons of using the same tire for the trainer as for outside use, therefore negating the faffage of changing the back wheel in and out all the time. I convinced myself that using a separate tire was probably un-necessary. ‘Shredding’ your back tire is a very manly thing to do, and I’m not a man! I concluded that if your works-outs were long and hard, and you had a delicate pair of racing tires on your bike, then ‘shredding’ them is probably much more of a possibility. I am so not in any of those categories that I don’t think I need to worry, but I could learn otherwise. I’m keeping my eye out for rubber on the roller and bits of rubber on the floor around the back wheel.
Summary of trials, tribulations & delights:
- My spare rear wheel refused to generate any power when attached to the trainer, casting doubt on the consistency of the previous two sessions.
- I learnt not to attempt to attach the bike to the trainer in close proximity to the drinks cabinet.
- Still could not establish any data links from my phone.
A ride less ordinary 