Friday Snippet

In case you missed this Radio5 Live interview with Dave Brailsford earlier in the month
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/15576351.stm
Talks about the Olympics and track test event and recent team performances ....

2012 Diary Date - local Sportive

Sportivephoto will run it's first Sportive next year on 1st April 2012 .

The event, run in conjunction with UK Cycling Events, will start and finish at the Hollycombe Steam Museum near Liphook and provide distance choices of 50 and 71 miles.

Routes will take in many of our area's best routes including the newly finished cycle path over the Devils' Punchbowl at Hindhead (maybe we won't need our own vehicle escort through there as we experienced on a recent thursday run)

An added bonus will be loads of free Sportivephoto picture downloads after the event.

Entries are already open on the event website which has more details http://www.southernspringclassic.co.uk

More group ride etiquette..

Has Sky's Michael Barry been reading own Ken Ruffell's posts?

http://michaelbarry.ca/2011/11/the-group-ride-2/

Quick Gorrick Crowthorne report

Ian Franklin reports from the latest Gorrick:

"Fine afternoon with damp but reasonably firm ground. Craig O'neill 4th and Mark taylor 10th in open men. Dave Creegan 4th and george Crouch 10th in sports Jo Munden First in Womens Expert, she never looked threatened finishing 9 mins clear!.
Both Dave C And Mark T said they found the tree roots difficult/unnerving.

There may be other Meudon riders hidden in the results!"

Ian

http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=188CrowthorneWood13/11/2011#Open%20Male

Winter tire, tube and brake maintenance

Some tips and advice from Ian Franklin:

TYRES/TUBES
No one gets punctures deliberately but It's not much fun for everyone standing around in the cold or rain while it gets mended. With increased rain washing debris onto the road the risk of punctures increases. Take a little time to go round your tyres after each ride and dig out flints etc with a fine point. Sometimes a deep gash happens - Park tools do an emergency tyre boot - 3 for £5.00 - which gets you home and invariably saves scrapping the tyre. The boot is designed for MTB tyres but can be cut in half for a road tyre. Should you have a second flat on the ride self adhesive patches are now available which are quicker than the glue type.
Spare inner tubes. With deeper section rims becoming more common make sure the valve is long enough. A short (32mm) valve often doesn't allow you to connect a pump or CO2 cartidge correctly on a lot of rims. Carry a 60mm valved tube and you can cope with everything. If you are on a MTB check the valve type, you can get away with a presta valve on a schrader (car) valve rim but not the other way round.
You can repair tubes at home. But often there is a second hole which gets missed. Once repaired put it in a spare tyre/rim, pump it up and check it stays up for a couple of days. You then know you have a good spare.
CO2 cartridges are pricey but pump the tyre up to 100 psi plus in no time minimising hanging around............ but carry a small pump as back up

BRAKES
Blocks/Rims Inspect your rims and brake blocks regularly. Grit and aluminium gets embedded in the soft rubber and can destroy a rim quite quickly. Remove the wheels and using a fine point dig the foreign bodies out. Keep an eye on the rim braking surface, if it is starting to go hollow/convex ask your bike shop if it is safe to use. Thin rims get weak and increase the risk of the tyre pressure literally blowing the rim apart with disasterous consequences.
Calipers Without mudguards calipers receive a lot of road crap, grit, salt etc. Look carefully at the caliper and you will see it comprises three sections. Starting from the frame side, look carefully between the first and second sections. You may be able to see a thin washer, this carries about 10 pin head sized bearings. It's quite common for this to seize up. Push some rag under the brake, drop some oil on the washer and operate the brake a few times. This should help keep it working smoothly. Sometimes it's better to remove the wheel and push and pull the brakes in and out until they open up fully without any assistance.

Avoid Cycle Kingdom 50% sale

With VC Meudon members not overly concerned with style matters, they might want to think about avoiding Cycle Kingdom this week as it will probably be very busy with members of other more vain fashion obsessed clubs taking advantage of the 50% (!) off all new season Assoss and Castelli winter kit.

Chalk chase and track day coming soon....

Coming soon: the VC Meudon MTB Chalk Chase series…event 1: Sunday November 20th “Fast, Flat,Frensham”…Leave Seale Tea rooms 10.00, ….event 2 “Mr Wilsons Xmas special”…during the Xmas break, date to be confirmed.

New Year track session…the VC Meudon trackies are arranging a track session at an indoor track near you; suitable for all riders, rental bikes will be available…more details soon.

Winter break - sort your bikes out

Thought I'd kick off a bit of a series on bike maintenance for the winter lull and maybe spark a debate or two - please comment. What about our Specialized gurus Dr Nick and Dr Mark contributing a video or two?