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Re: 9th April 2008 Diary Entry by justal.
adam - 10-4-2008 at 19:47

On 9th April 2008, justal wrote:

quote:
Mt. Biking: Anglers Retreat
Wind Direction: N/A
Wind Stength: N/A
Surf / Sea State: N/A
Air Temperature: 2¬?C
Sea Temperature: N/A
Weather: Clear

Night ride with Dave, Martyn and Bernd.

We met on the forest tracks to the south of Moel y Llyn not far from Llyn Nantycagl and took the track towards Angler's Retreat then headed off right down through the forest to the mines and then took the forest road along Afon Lluestgota then towards the ford at Lluest grafia. Across the ford and then along MX tracks towards the deep gulley that take you along the track across the western side of Foel Grafiua on the Mach 3 route.

We followed this route aros to Pen y Darren and down 'The Chute'. Partway down I had a flat and Martin had a couple too. We stopped to fix these and I noticed that my broken spoke on my rear wheel had now resulted in a buckled wheel and my brake pads had worn out and the retaining spring was broken. No option but to abort the ride and head back. So I removed the brake discs, pushed the bike to the top of the Chute and headed back past Llyn Penrhaeadr to the cars, with only a front brake.

A nice ride, with some snow still on the ground in the trees and a nice clear night. Shame about the mechanical issues, but these things happen I guess.


Eventful ride then??!

Are you going to have a go replacing the spoke and truing yourself or leaving it to the experts? Or is it a real mess! For your brakes don't chuck the old pads out too early as you may want them to protect the pistons if you need to push them back in when fitting some new ones (if the pads are right down it'll be a tight fit with new pads so sometimes need to persuade them!).

Somehow I managed to lose one of my rear pads on my last ride - couldn't have put them back in properly I guess after stripping it and cleaning, got some new ones today to fit!

justal - 11-4-2008 at 07:14

Think I'll leave it to the experts to true the wheel... I used to practice truing wheels on an old wheel but never really got it down to a fine art so I'll let the guys at Summit cycles do it for me... I'll get them to sort out them brakes whilst they're at it too as they'll have something to push the piston back in.

I guess these things happen. It was bound to be this week as well as I'd already ordered a new sail, mast extension, harness lines and was in the process of sorting out my broken booms... An expensive week.!...

Maybe I should clean and service my bike a little more often though!

Al.