Back up into the loft space to put a temporary fix over the hole the jackdaws had used as a front door. The picture shows that (happily in the past) we’ve been hosting other wildlife.
On a pretty hot Thursday morning we ran together so my wife could set a new PB (or PR as Strava would have it) on the nearby hill segment – and then I ran few laps of the old hill fort for a total of 8.65km (about 5.4 miles).
As a non-paying member of Strava it’s a bit disappointing to lose some of the functionality – I can’t now see full segment leaderboards or compare times over repeated courses – but I’ll wait to see if I miss any of it enough to want to pay for it.
Blowy weather on Friday so turbo in the evening – an unreasonably hard 21.48km (13.3m) in 45 minutes.
I thought turbos were supposed to be an easier option but cycling outside recently has confirmed my view that my turbo gives a very tough experience. Less than two weeks ago I got on the real bike and rode two and a half times that distance, faster, and (it felt) without as much effort. I’ll try to console myself with the thought that it must be good value on the training front.
Saturday was wet and blowing a gale (literally) but I got out in the afternoon and managed to miss the rain. Despite the wind blowing at about 64kph (40mph) it was really enjoyable and I ran a bit 10km (over 6 miles) in just under an hour.
A run on Sunday morning with my wife (just over 4 miles) finished a week with 4 runs (37km – 23 miles), a session on the turbo and some hard manual labour.
The new wheels, cassette, tubes, tyres and chain all arrived. I’ve assembled everything and it looks (to my mind at least) very good. The wheels came with carbon-rim-specific brake blocks but they didn’t include the brake shoes.
I’m happy (or at least prepared) to change the brake assemblies over when I change the wheels – but that doesn’t extend to swapping over the blocks in the holders every time. That means another order for a new set of brake assemblies into which I can fit the new blocks – when that arrives I’ll give the wheels an outing.
Interesting stuff this week
1. African proverb: By scaring a jackal, one can end up drinking milk.
Unless the jackal is milking the cow, I’m really not sure about this one.
2. BBC News website: Spelling bee champions share their study tips.
Just the sort of news we need to get us through this.
3. BBC News website: Travel firms adopt the brace position.
Very sorry for those involved in such tough times for the industry, but I liked the headline.
4. BBC News website: Man makes money buying his own pizza on DoorDash app.
The app was selling his pizzas cheaper than he was, and was still paying him full price for them. (Apparently bit of a loss leader ‘demand test’ by the delivery app which had no arrangement with him but, if it got a favourable response, would have approached him hoping to get him to sign up to the app service).
(an Old Man in Lycra) 
I’m thinking about signing up to pay… I read an article and came to the conclusion I’m a bit of a freeloader.
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Wait! No, you don’t change the whole brake assembly, just the pads when you ride carbon or alloy wheels. Takes two minutes! Anything more is a waste of effort.
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By just changing the pads, or blocks, you preserve the camber in the shoes and don’t have to mess around with resetting them so the front of the pad hits the brake track on the rim first.
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PS – I tried removing the pads from the holders while they were still attached to the bike but two blocks were really stiff and one of the screws was so tight it ‘circled’ the allen key so it was easier removing the whole assembly! To be honest, I might also have more difficulty in losing the four brake assemblies that I would losing just four blocks. I’ll report on how it goes.
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👍
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The assembly includes screws in through the back of the shoe to hold the pad so the change would be: remove 4assemblies from bike, remove 4 screws, replace 4 pads and then repeat to refit (and do it all again if going back to alloy rims). For a small expense I can cut that down to just replace 4 assemblies (small cost, even less effort).
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There’s a trick to getting the blocks out, but whatever works, my friend.
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My old and creaking web browser on this OS (I have four OS available on my Mac for software purposes; long and boring story) doesn’t allow me to like posts anymore, but I can still comment!
So, consider this liked!
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