Whilst on the trainer, recently, I noticed what at first I thought was a buckled chainwheel but which on closer inspections turned out to be a worn bottom bracket.
I had a look at removing the bottom bracket bearing but didn’t have the right tools to do this. I needed a local bike repairer.
A quick Google brought up The Old Bike Shed just a couple of miles away. This was on Monday and it could be looked at on Wednesday. Fair enough.
Tuesday, after my workout, I removed the bike from the turbo trainer. I removed the front wheel and chain to make it easier to transport and work on. I also took the opportunity to clean the rear cassette and chain.
Wednesday morning, I deposited what was left of the bike at the bike shed. Matthew, the owner, explained that to get the correct sized bottom bracket, he would have to remove the old one as the sizes are marked on the inside. If he didn’t have one in stock he’d have to order one – a couple of days.
For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, we were looking after young Loki which involved a trip to Dobbie’s Garden Centre. Loki had a great time on the playground and in the restaurant demolishing a lemon meringue tart.
Returning from the garden centre, Matthew called to say that he’d removed the old bracket but would have to order a new one. No problem.
The only downside was that I’d be bike less for my workout the following day.
Solution – I’d have to dust down my other bike.
A while back, I was cycling to work, in Digbeth, most days but one day, on the way home, a school kid, oblivious to the world, playing on her phone, walked out in front of me resulting in a broken brake/shifter on the bike and a cracked rib on me. You can read the full details HERE.
So first job was to replace the control lever.
It was a bit fiddly involving rerouting the gear and brake cables, some adjustments and then re-taping the handlebars.
The tyres were pumped up and the bike wiped down ready to go out into the real world.
As I could use the turbo on Thursday, I decided to ride the recently repaired gravel bike to, of all places, The Griffin. The back of the car was rearranged to make room for the bike on our return journey.
I chose a route through Coleshill along the, presently closed to cars, Birmingham Road then towards Maxstoke finishing off along Shawbury Lane.
Not the most straightforward way but hopefully with less traffic and a bit better scenery. It also included a couple of rises including one of over 10%. Should make it interesting.
It felt great to be back in the saddle and riding in the great outdoors. The ride went well and the bike performed with only a slight noise from the front derailleur not moving far enough across – something I’ll need to attend to.
I arrived at The Griffin about twenty five minutes ahead of schedule so, after locking up my trusty stead, I went inside and awaited Sue’s arrival with a pint of Jaipur.
Friday and I was out and about using my bus pass, this time with a caching trip to Rugeley. During the day, Matthew called saying that my bike was ready for collection. I explained that I was out and about and we agreed that I could pick it up on Saturday. The total cost – thirty quid.
On Saturday morning I collected the bike then, back home, reconnected the chain, front wheel and virtual shifter buttons.
The buttons, I have moved from the right brake lever to the handlebar stem. let’s see how that works.
I did my workout without a hitch but as the workouts are in ERG mode I never go the chance to try the buttons.
I’ll probably try an easy free ride on Sunday to see how the buttons work in their new position.
I’ll also have to have more rides IRL (in real life).
ERG MODE is a setting in training platforms such as Zwift or MyWhoosh that fixes your power output by automatically adjusting your resistance to match your cadence.
Power is a calculation of torque (how hard you’re pressing on the pedals) multiplied by cadence (how fast they are turning). ERG mode uses the two in tandem to ensure you hit the prescribed power output.
As an example, if a MyWHoosh workout requires you to hold 100 watts, the resistance will automatically increase if your cadence drops, or decrease if your cadence increases, in order to keep you at 100 watts.