And today I did......

[jackosbournesnr]

Took my new-build for its first loaded ride today. The bike has been built specifically for doing an End to End in May.

Build thread viewtopic.php?f=21&t=380684

Grabbed four 2 litre bottles of sparkling water, whatever tools were lying about, half a dozen inner tubes, a hoodie and a bag full of bar tape to create both weight and bulk and flung it all into two rear panniers. Just over 14kg in total between the two bags


Deliberately put all the weight at the back to test handling, which it seemed to cope with nicely. I have a bar bag to go on which will help balance things. A tool bottle will take some of the heavier tools I'm taking and will go on a third cage mount on the underside of the downtube, so weight distribution on the ride itself should be pretty good.

Did 20 miles with 350m of climbing up and over Eaglesham Moor in the harder direction. Almost all of the climbing was into the wind, so I'm quite happy with the 13mph average.

I have 7 weeks of training time left thanks to injury and weather... 40 miler tomorrow.

 

[The History Man]

Careful with the bar bag. Better to have low slung front panniers for stability. You can get disc specific racks that are very light and do the job nicely.

 

[jackosbournesnr]

It'll only have a couple kilos in it at most.

14kg it at the back is way more than I'll be taking for real. It's also got a stainless steel rack on at the moment which weighs much more than the alloy version waiting to go on for the ride.

I commute with panniers on another bike and I'm very used to being rear heavy...

 

[RobMac]

Re:

I just noticed via Strava that my times are improving, to early to say though :?

 

[clubby]

Re: Re:

I just noticed via Strava that my times are improving, to early to say though :?

To be fair, they couldnae really have got any worse. :twisted:

 

[jimo746]

Re: Re:

I just noticed via Strava that my times are improving, to early to say though :?

I'm not sure that being 1st to the ice cream shop could be considered an improvement...

 

[RobMac]

Re:

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys :mrgreen:

 

[keithyr]

Re: Re:

I just noticed via Strava that my times are improving, to early to say though :?

Yeve put yer clock forward a week early eh?

 

[clubby]

Re: Re:

I just noticed via Strava that my times are improving, to early to say though :?

Yeve put yer clock forward a week early eh?

Has to be contender for post of the year!

 

[clubby]

Frustrating ride at Pitmedden. Enjoyed it but just couldn't find any flow. First time on full suss and flat pedals since November and struggling to adjust to the change from hard tail. With the plus tyres, the way to get the most out of the hardtail is to keep your weight back and let the big tyre and fork deal with the trail as it comes. Completely the opposite to how the Santa Cruz needs ridden. Once I started standing more and working the front, things improved but scary how lazy my riding style has become.
I knew I was badly in need of miles, but skills are needing a serious sharpen as well.