42 Bikes

So after the preparation this morning came the ride.

It turned out to be very windy. In fact very very windy. Mostly a side wind which was not very pleasant with a large bag on the front VO Porteur Rack. However, at times it was a head wind which felt like hitting a brick wall. At one point I found myself pedalling hard downhill in order to reach the amazing speed of 12 mph. When I looked at the Met Office weather app it predicted gusts of 40mph. Fortunately, apart from some light rain in the wind it stayed pretty dry.

Anyway here are some pictures of the bike at approximately half way (my recently added spoke reflectors show up quite well):

You can see the route on both Strava and Garmin Connect.

So 854 feet climbed, an average moving speed of 9.9mph and about 14 miles ridden. I am quite ok with that as I was not rushing and it includes a longish climb up to Tilton on the Hill as well as a steep one just before Launde Abbey. I use 1st gear although without feeling as if I was at the limit and the wind was against me at the time.

For this type of ride the front panniers would have been nicer to ride with but the Mountain Equipment bag is much more convenient and larger (a 20 litre one would fit better on the rack).

As expected no problems or issues with the bike.