Frank Kinlan's Blog

Saturday:  Called in at Vita who put this rather nice set of wheels on. Got to admit they do look nice. Phil got knocked off his bike last week by the Thatch but luckily the Reynolds carbon wheel held up despite him loosing two teeth.

The shop ride had just got back in and I’ve got to admit they do look quite good in the shop jerseys.

Sunday: Trip to Llandudno with the grandkids. Lashed out on a bucket and spade along with a fishing net. He’s not going to catch anything with that I said. Well the proof is in the pudding, the grandsons first catch, a tiny fish and a shrimp.

Headed back to Chester to pick up a Park cable cutter from the Bike Factory. A heady £37 but what a revelation. Been 51 years on the planet and am only just getting some things. The right tool for the right job is one of them, I’ve been cutting cables with hacksaws even an angle grinder but this is so simple it’s a must.
The reason a shifter upgrade to 6700 Ultegra. I’ve not been too impressed by some of the  installations, cable guides causing them to rub the frame on the larger headsets. Standard cables too long  for the bike on display.  I’d want this level of detail on any bike even a £500 one never mind what I’m willing to pay.

The things you need to know when changing Shimano Ultegra  groupsets.
A front double mech and lever 6600 is not compatible with a 6700 mech and lever, as there is an extra 1 mm distance between the 2 chainrings.  Shimano 6703 seems OK  on 6603 front chainrings. 10 speed rear seems fine.

Vita Due Sportive link added.

Monday: New levers fitted and bar s taped up. Went out for a ride and it looked really clean.
Probably going to do Liverpool-Chester-Liverpool next Sunday.
Tuesday: Kitchen to sort out, did the rounds of those still in business. B+Q carrying too much stock of stuff nobody wants, might want to see me Saturday, Magnet couldn’t get off their arses so no sale there.
Called in at Wickes who are selling off the display including the appliances.
Picked up £1600 worth of oven and hob for £350. Pure chance, grab it when you can. Looks like my Tour is going to be in Eurosport HD at this rate.

Vita Due Sportive consider giving it a go as it is in aid of a good cause, Claire House. Also had some rather good goodies up for grabs including a signed Steve Cummings jersey, two bikes , helmets  and so on.

Wednesday:  Spent the last week or so wondering whether to purchase a bike on the Cycle to work scheme but finally opting to refurbish the Carbitubo. A trip to C and G finishes last week had me scouring the internet for some original stickers.  More when I get back from the Eureka.
A really pleasent day in the end possibly spoilt by having an extra layer on. Bumped in to Dave at the Cafe followed up by Ray who was on his 3rd 100 of the week. That’s 35 hundreds this year with his record of 620 miles in one week, for the record he’s 71. Called in at Ness Gardens where things have changed a bit since I last called in.
Most obvious is that it is now all waitress service, which is fine if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands. I headed for the fridge thinking I was barging into a wedding reception ( as there are notices about them) and got a smile while paying for an orange juice. It looks great, whether it could cope with a big group is another matter.
Parkgate next for a water stop, passed by a CTC group who were stopping at the public toilets. These must be one of the worst public toilets around, they’d been far better off calling in at one of the pubs on the front.
Next stop was Vita in Irby where I loitered a bit too long as it meant cutting out a few miles from the ride.
As it was a shortened ride I headed out to Greasby and then Frankby via the lanes. All was going well until a slug of cars passed me in the lanes with a Gunform van nearly squeezing me out by overtaking me on a bend with traffic coming the other way. Good job he had cleared the junction by the time I’d got there because road rage works two ways. Boy it was close, probably only six inches of clearance, need a helmet camera.
Next stop was Vale Park for a Coke then along the front to Woodside and then home for what turned out to be 42 miles.
Thursday: Morning spinning class , painting and decorating and an evening spinning class.
Friday: Glorius day, 25 Deg C tempered by the fact that 2 spinning classes does take it out of you and a headwind is still a headwind no matter how good the weather. Rode out to the Eureka for lunch, spent too much time in good company yapping and taking in the sun and headed home. Had double booked spinning classes at the Oval and West Kirby so cancelled the Oval one online as the bikes are not as good as the old ones at West Kirby.
Only 7 turned up with 4 blokes in the class which is unusual as we are normally well outnumbered.  By the look of things they were all in the beer gardens.
Saturday: Took the grandkids out with Paul which ended up at the Ice Cream Farm. Fitted new chain to the Trek in preperation for the Bob Clift Memorial ride next Sunday.
Sunday: A final check of the bike before heading out had me taking out another link of the chain. Then I found out I’ve only been using 9 gears out of 10 because of the poor cable adjustment not shifting onto the 10th cog. Got to grips with the B+ adjustment too. There is a fine line that I’ve crossed by going for 28 on the rear and an ultra low of 26 on the front granny ring.
Took it out to the Eureka for a shakedown ride as I’m still getting ghost shifts while under load. The only thing I can put this down to is wear in the pivot of the rear mech.  Not too happy with the Nokon cables either, they look great but any movement of the outer alters the cable length and cause a ghost shift. Plus they creak like crazy and drive you nuts.
Painted the shower room door when I got back and booked into West Kirby for a spinning class as watching paint dry is a bit pointless.

It must have been the weather as the class was packed, I’m just getting to grips with online booking which got me a bike at the last minute. Most must have been expecting Barbara, who rang in with a sickie. Instead we had Kirsty, well you wouldn’t want to meet her in the day job but it was a bloody good spinning class, hard.
Tried  “Back to Start” on the Edge 800 on the way home. No direction or routing, just a blue line to follow on the map. Means staying on the map screen all the way home, which is a bit pointless as you wouldn’t be lost.

Two Weeks posts to cover this week. Had a setback with the VW Polo leaking water from the heater matrix. A dealer repair would have cost a fortune as it would have involved removing the dash probably draining the AirCon. As it was it took the best part of 3 riding days to fix.  The last 2 repairs have been with modified parts to what was fitted originally so it’s happening to a lot of them.
Monday: Tex’s spin class at the Oval then started on the car.
Tuesday: More work on the car and another spin class.
Wednesday: Car sorted no leaks, a trip up to Vita and then Beckys spin class at the Oval. The online booking system is showing most classes fully booked but when I went down in the hope of a no show, there were 4 unused bikes.
Sorted the Colnago Carbitubo out for Thursdays ride after seeing the BBC4 program about the chap who went to see all the bike bits made for his new bike.
Not a bad program but why would you buy a pair of wheels from the States?
The plan is to get the bike equiped with Campagnolo along with a new set of wheels. Can’t have an Iconic Italian bike with Shimano on it.
Thursday: Watched the program again before it got deleted from the Iplayer and headed to see Colin Brick about Campy stuff.
Got a mile from the shop and heard the ping of a spoke go. Didn’t think much of it at the time.
Headed out towards Seacombe and the prom on a really nice riding day. Met Janet and company at Vale Park putting up Sustrans signs. Must get my entry in for the Bob Clift Memorial ride which clashes with the Bikeathon.

If you need to ask the price you can’t afford it, just short of £9K. That’s without DI2 too. True race position, just look at the seat to bar drop.

Monday: Work, a trip to see a dermatologist followed by a spinning class at the Oval.
Tuesday: Tex,s morning spin class, sorted the Garmin out by deleting the faulty .fit file. Not a problem with Garminconnect but it was a problem with TrainingCentre. Weights for about 15 mins bits around the house and a bit of cycling on on Eurosport. Booked Beckies 7 oclock class as the 6 oclock class was full. There were only 5 of us  in it. I felt a bit flat for this one. Bought a new pair of  Asics trainers to replace the Mizunohos. Not as stiff as the Mizunohos in the spinning class but it’s a start.
Wednesday: Decided to swap a ride day for a day working on the house. Watched the cycling and also downloaded the latest RealPeloton podcast which deserves a link. Carbon Stem in the post from China for silly money, the postage costing more. Finally found a use for Workouts in the Edge 800, logging a spinning class.  Shows Heartrate, Calories and Time which is all you need.
Thursday:
A windy ride out to the Eureka via Eastham and Cheshire Oaks Cycles. I’d started out going to the Oval to get my pin number for the Invigorate card only to find the computers down again.  It was quite pleasant going through Port Sunlight with quiet roads being the norm after rush hour and the school run.Walked through the door of the Eureka only to be told I was the first cyclist in, I had thought it was shut seeing no bikes outside. Use it or loose it.

Next Dave The Mayor comes in and we have a chat with Ann about other Cafes, banned riders riders on forums etc etc.

Dave has signed up for the Saturday Vita rides and this is what he is going to be up against, Sean,s new toy. In the light of the shop it looked a bit pink I kid you not.
Some really nice touches to it. Getting urged to go on the rides to give Sean a bit of competition. If it’s anything like the test rides it’ll be totally bonkers.

It’s really funny watching people come into the shop not realising what a decent bike costs. Some good deals on Kuota and Eddy Merx.  The shop is unusual that you can try the bikes out. It does pay off as they packed me off with two Fizik saddles last week after trying the fitting system.  Ended up with the one with a bit more padding but still saving 125 gramms over the Bontrager one. My backside is still getting used to it but it does offer support on the sit bones.

Morrisons again on the return leg with no local resident trying to take me out this week.  Back on the Hoylake front the wind had dropped and it’s turning out to be a nice quiet ride. Called in at Europa Pools to get my pin as Louises spinning class was forming a queue outside the room. It was mentioned in Beckies class that we would be doing 8 sets of 8 to Sandstorm by Darude and not by me.

As I’ve returned to spinning again I noticed a lot of newcomers trying the classes again. For God,s sake take your first one easy, your not competing agianst me or the rest of the class. Just aim to finish the class. If someone in the class is doing 140mph they are spinning a wacking big flywheel with no resistance and gaining nothing.
Conversly there will be other women in the class that have been doing it for over 10 years. Tex,s classes are known for being hard and that applies to the circuits too.  He’ll come around and stick some tension in if your not doing any work.
Bring water and a towel.
Chestpresses, there is a knack, if you whang 5 kg up and down on a weight machine thinking it’s doing you any good think again. This is a reduced bodyweight manouvre that needs some strength, you won’t expecting to be doing pressups in a spinning classs but they are part of the routine especially in the women led classes.

I didn’t win a nice Colnago on Ebay with the bike going for £979 against my bid of £25.
Friday: Tex,s spinning class at the Oval, now booked online. Looks like Barbara,s classes at West Kirby are fully booked up. A trip to Vals allotment had the poly tunnels wrecked by yesterdays wind. Took the Mini  back to Bathers for the puncture repair. Thank god I specified normal tyres and not runflats.
A trip around Birkenhead had me come out of Smiths with four magazine.
Then it was off to Europa Pools for Sheila,s spinning class. Sweated loads in this one for 400 odd calories worth. Shower then home.
An upload from the Garmin edge 800 had me doing 144.8 mph on yesterdays ride due to a fault with the cadence sensor.
Saturday: Work, but should be a good day for the Vita cycle ride.
Clicked on this link and found my Colnago Carbitubo in the top 100 and looking at the silly money some of it is fetching it might be worth rebuilding.
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/cyclepediacontents.html

Removed Daves dead link  to his Garmin basemap renaming so might have to do a page on that too. The Shwinn spinning bikes at Europa Pools are  a lot harder on you than the Precor bikes at the Oval. More robust too.

Just  found links from other sites about maps etc.  My current best advice is for a 705 use City Navigator on SD . For a Garmin Edge 800 , is buy  the OS map bundle. On NO account buy the old DVD version which is sitting on a lot of shelves, it is NOT the same as an OS map.
Updates are on the way, if something is not looking right post a comment and I’ll get back to you.