The 'Mountain' / A New Machine

Visited Aid in Newbury for my first cycle ride of the week. We took our mountain bikes (mine being my trusty single speed) around a route Aid had devised and called 'The Mountain'. The Mountain is essentially a big hill along a lovely stretch of road near Aid's home. Aid informed me of highest points, parachute landings and other bits of trivia surrounding this mountain. Neither Aid or I thought I would be able to beat this hill on a heavy single speed bike, but smashed I did! Ha! Not sure what the gradient was, but fair to say it was steep and one was awarded with awesome views once at the top. Following this lovely view point we cycled along road and towpath till we found a suitable place to eat - a lovely Burger King. Perfect. After much munching we cycled more road, towpath and canal - the canal had burst it's banks and the towpath was under water. Nice ride that covered about 40k.

Another reason for visiting Aid in Newbury was to convert my road bike. We visited a Specialized concept store and essentially removed all the bits and pieces from Cayo (my 'old' road bike) and placed them on a new frame. This new frame was a Specialized S-Works SL3 frame set. In addition, new bars (Easton EC70), new front tyre (Roubaix Armadillo Elite) and a saddle (Brooks Titanium Swallow) were added and 'Slinky' was born. Slinky looked awesome and after new brake blocks were fitted and her wheels trued, she felt awesome too! Plan to convert Cayo into a single speed machine (watch this space, my buddy Chris Hodge has already agreed to perform this operation).

Took Slinky out for her debut ride on Saturday. I cycled my TTT 20 route. Slinky felt like a completely new bike. The bars felt wider and further forward. Weight was noticeably reduced and it felt easier to speed up ascents. My bum felt happy but the new saddle was quite slippery. Felt a slight niggle in lower back but feel after little tweaks here and there, Slinky really will be my dream machine. Completed the TTT 20 route in an average time of 1 hour and 12 minutes. Happy days!

Cycled a total of 47 miles.