The weather was glorious today, so it was lucky I managed to get out for a short shake-down ride to Hathersage and back. Thanks to
@KermitGKona88 I have some new chainrings to replace the old ones. In addition to the dodgy-looking casting of the small ring, they were actually both considerably bent, so I decided to change both.
All in all, it's a lovely ride, just as I remembered, so thankfully that wasn't just rose-tinted memories on my part. It feels nice and lively, but at the same time with no twitchiness, despite being on the small side for me. The gears are nice and smooth, and the brakes are decent enough in terms of stopping power, which I was wondering (well, slightly worried to be honest) about as I've never used centre-pull brakes before. I wouldn't say they feel powerful, but they're not too vague-feeling, either. The only downside is that the front brake does really squeal when braking more heavily. It's not really possible to toe-in these brakes so the only thing I can think of is maybe new brake pads, which might mean v-brake ones given the design of the Mafacs? They won't look as nice, but would hopefully be kinder on the ears...
Here are few shots from Surprise View looking down the Hope Valley.
A closer photo of the front cable going through the stem - thanks again to
@Midlife and
@chickendrumsticks for their help with this.
Thankfully I'm not doing too badly on that front, though I generally feel I could do with losing a few kgs here and there (mainly around the middle!). I do sometimes imagine if I had started cycling more seriously when I was younger and properly skinny...
