Sunday, August 13, 2006

A week on the bike.

Another milestone falls - a week on the bike, or 168 hours to be precise. At this rate I will have ridden nearly 6,000 km by the end of the year and will have spent the equivalent of 12 days in the saddle. It is nearly time to start thinking about next year's goals. I have a feeling I might be aiming for 10,000km. Or 12,000. Why not?

A lazy weekend doing maintenance on the bikes and cranking out a slow 20km on the track to get the fixie set up perfectly. The final annoying creak has been identified and ruthlessly eliminated. (It was an undertightened crank arm). A silent bike means a happy rider.

I'm slowly getting closer to the time when I might have all four bikes on the road at the same time. The Surly and the track bike are now in perfect working order. The road bike needs its back wheel rebuilt (of course) before the Bunches Down the Bay 150km on Saturday, so I'm off to buy the spokes in the morning. The MTB needs its front brake fixed. If I achieve nothing else this month, I will have all my bikes working at once!

The problem then becomes which bike to ride. The Surly and the road bike both vie for my affections on the long rides: they're both great fun to ride, but the road bike has a slight edge on speed and the Surly lower gears in the hills and is ever so slightly more comfortable. I feel like I'm cheating on one when I wheel the other from the shed.

3,684km so far this year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always feel a great target for the annual kilometres cycled is the average annual distance driven in Aus = 15,000km.

CC

David Killick said...

Ok, I'll add it to the list of things I'm giving some careful consideration - like a certain ride through the French countryside.