Not so mierda Merida

Not as Mierda as I thought. A friend offered a full bike at a crazy price so who was I to say no...yet another bike to add to the growing quiver in the garage.
Merida cross in a 58 ( my size so it fits better than my Hiver)
noname wheels, Tiagra throughout, gobi saddle , ritchy seatpin, Omega cranks. CR720 Brakes .. so no slouch really.

My plans were to strip it down, rebuild my Surly and sell the Merida frame on Ebay. It didn't work like that .. I rode it alongside my son to school one morning,
Its Tiagra shifting worked well, gearing was reasonable and even the awful ali fork wasn't as bad as I feared.
the brake shudder is horrible so far as it actually shakes mud off but as a reasonable bike for a great price I am rather chuffed with it. Its a bit heavier than my Focus and the steering is a lot slower than any of my cross bikes. did I mention that brake judder?.
I figure I will ride it hard, put it away wet and when it gets rough I will just strip it and assimilate it into the Focus pit bike.

Walk of shame

Ahh the joys of  training on tubs...

the walk of shame.... Only twice in my entire cycling career have I ever irretrievably broken down. The first of these was many years ago, when I broke freewheel up at the top of Winchester Hill. ten minutes of rapidly cooling hands before I rang the (ex)mrs to come collect me.

So to this weekend.
Smugly training on tubulars, I know its a risk, but Manor Farm is gravelly more than rooty. Didn't prevent me from picking up a tiny side wall slice that just nicked the inner.
Sealant couldn't touch it so it was a long walk home for me.

April Stats

So April has come and gone...I am well into training now and I had found a pretty good rhythm.
Two days hard followed by one day off. Ease off the double headers with a single run each week. This has seen a steady rise in CTL and I had been feeling pretty good.

Unfortunately a few late (!) nights Roller Racing sort of knocked me off balance and coming into May I am suffering with a bit of an achey knee and feeling quite underpowered.When I do use the powermeter normalised power is around 20 watts down on expected. I could pass it off as intentional 3 weeks on one off but that would be bullshit.
...Riding...
So 401 miles ridden. Wednesday Skills has been a bit on and off but I have tried to be consistent.
29 hours in the saddle.
Stravas been quiet.. I lost a few more KOMs but haven't really gone out to retake or get any new ones... That's for May.

Kit.
Bought a set of wheels/tubulars for training on. initial rides... oooo plush.
Bought a new bike.(Merida).. intending to strip it, but have instead ended up riding it more than any other of my bikes.
The power meter seems to be eating batteries and at the moment is still not much better than a glorified Speedo. I still haven't done an FTP test, or calibrated it, so to be honest its a bit of a waste...I think I would have been better off buying a decent set of race wheels.


Bad news that my regular lunchtime off road partner has to work away in the week, leaving me to my own devices on the local trails. This is a bit of a blow as Chris regularly gives me a good kicking ... Another negative thing is that it seems that running really messes me up..knees and hips seem to get it the worst and it really messes with riding for a day or two after,
despite these niggles , overall I am pretty happy with April.
May is on the way only 5 weeks until the first race of the summer cross season. I should be starting to fly by now....
Mays plans are to ..
 do shorter and more frequent runs. ( twice a week perhaps)then hill intervals.
300 miles but short tight intervals and accelerations in prep for Junes Summer CX start.( more loops down my woods.
more off road hammering ( less road work). Its drying out, so take advantage.

Damn Gobis

After years of messing around with different perches, I finally settled (!) on the Arione. Trouble is , they have a known problem in that the crack across the base. I cracked my last Arione last year : http://haywil.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/damn-ariones.html

They are a bit steep , especially with my less than glamorous remounts so I replaced it with a Gobi.
The Gobi seems a bit stronger, as its built for the hammering of Mountain biking,  but it seems that my lardy 77Kg is to much for these as well. .Another one bites the dust , with a loud crack and a perceptible slump on my jolly commute last week. Thats six in all ( only these three left in the garage.)
All of my bikes ( except my track bike) have fizik Gobis. So lets have a sweepstake on which bike next.
Lemond Sarthe, Merida cross, Hiver Cross, Focus AX cross.