My first off on the Allez

I've ridden this corner 100 times. Easy. It's under the cover of trees, So always on the wrong side of damp.

It rained last night with wind gusting up to 40mph.

This corner is at the bottom of a slight decent, so can be approached quite quickly, especially when you decide to approach sitting on the wheel of a car. Too fast.

It was 100% my fault, I knew instantly, when on the corner that I was about to go down as I was going way too fast. I was in too deep at this point and BOOM, down I went.

Initial thoughts 'Don't let the bike get damaged' I didn't, it was in between my legs so I held it up as best I could, just the pedal and rear wheel QR got scratched, ow and my butt. 'Watch for the accessories', didn't want my Garmin or lights pinging off and ending up under the wheel of a car. They didn't. 'Crap, I'm wearing my new shorts', These wore well. Zero damage as far as I can tell.

So all in all, quite a nice, safe crash, in the grand scheme of things. Thankfully, there were no cars on this corner during or immediately after my crash, which was nice.

So its a badge of honour crash. Completely of my own doing and completely avoidable. Funny thing hindsight. I wanted to carry the speed, I wanted to hit the corner hard, I just picked the wrong corner on the wrong day. Chuffed my bike is fine.

It is Cycle to Work Day after all, so I managed a decent selfie, after the off obviously. Love it!

My First 10k bike

Now I've had a few bikes.....

These are only my bikes post 2012, when I found Strava. Their was a Tricross that I used for a few years that got me into commuting, none of its mileage is shown here. But as the saying goes 'If it ain't on strava, it never happened', so I have no clue how many miles I racked up on that thing.

When I started commuting, I would put a star sticker on my cross bar when I'd cycled 100 consecutive days. This was working week only, not including weekends but I had access to a car at the time, so consecutive days ridden to work felt like it needed rewarding and a sticker on the frame it was.

I got bored of this idea when I'd gotten 2 stickers on the crossbar and sold the bike. Then came the Cannondale and numerous single speeds, the Giant, a brief fling with a Raleigh and here we are. I only have one bike now. This makes me both angry and sad but I have no where to put a second bike.

I only have the Allez. I did want a cross bike and I had one in the Raleigh, in hindsight, this would be a better option for winter but as a single 'year round' bike, it was just too heavy and too slow. Summer would come and roadie's would just pass me with ease. Don't get me started on electric bikes......I'm still trying to find the funny side of that.

So to my Allez. Great little bike, its already done one winter and will be my trusty steed through the next few I'm sure, after all, bikes are supposed to be ridden, their is no point being delicate about them. The only upgrades I've made are saddle, wheels, brake pads, that's it. It's a break fix bike.

Anyway, it's now done 8500 miles and it made me think, this could be my first 10k bike. How exciting is that?! Ok, not overly but its a milestone. The closest i've gotten so far is 9304 on my old Langster. I do love a single speed. I didn't realise i'd done so many miles on that, it was literally my go too bike just because it was so damn easy and reliable.

Screw it. I'm always looking at new bikes. Always wanting something additional to what I already have but 3 kids and a wedding round the corner, it's just not doable. So the Allez IS my bike of choice and it WILL be my first 10k bike.

I might even get it a sticker for the crossbar to celebrate our time together. It's probably worthy of more to be fair, carrying my sorry ass about for 10,000 miles is no easy task. I might get drunk, possibly even clean the bike. Whhhooopp

Jockey Wheels, who knew!

I've changed numerous cassettes, numerous chains, one or two chain rings.....

Now I've had a few bikes in my time, MTB and Road, done some serious miles on some, not so much on others. Ok so i've done a fair bit of mileage on Single Speeds, which in this case doesn't really help. (This isn't all my bikes, just those post 2012 when I found Strava, I'm very indecisive, nothing hangs about too long)

I have never, ever changed a set of jockey wheels. Not sure why. Never quite sure I've known the worth of it.

I recently had a chain/cassette swapped out by my LBS. The bike was in there for something else, which ironically couldn't be done, so I thought they might as well do the chain/cassette while the bike was there otherwise it would have been a pointless journey. I got the bike back and the shifting was slick as expected, sadly this was only in the outer chainring, in the granny ring, it was a different story altogether.

I couldn't get the bike to stay in gear. Now I had two issues with this, one, the bike shop hadn't told me to expect this, which is crap and two, I clearly couldn't ride with a bike like this. I felt quite let down that my bike had been given back to me in this state. I mean, it wasn't even mentioned. The bike was fine when I dropped it off.

So I called the LBS and arranged to take it back. They apologised, which is fine, that's all I needed. They set to work on seeing what the issue was. The initial 'has this bike been in an accident' threw me a touch, it hadn't, and clearly not since they last saw it.

Anyway, after a bit of 'this mech might be bent' we decided that swapping out the jockey wheels was the best option. They had none at the shop, bit odd, simplest of jobs, I'd have thought that would be a stock must. I had some mind, at home, obvs.

They made my bike rideable until I was in a position to swap out the jockey wheels, so then we set about talking through the new range of Whyte MTB's, which are incredible. Missing the point slightly though. I do love a bike shop full of new bikes, its a thing of beauty. Sadly I don't have £3500 for a new bike.

Swapped out the jockey wheels with a bud at work today, it was very simple, literally removed the rear wheel. Held the mech and replaced both wheels, without even taking the chain off.

WHAT a difference. Honestly. From a jumping, jiggering rear mech, to a crisp, smooth shift (after a bit of mech altering). The pair of Shimano 105 OE jockey wheels £6.50 from Merlin cycles what a bargain. I don't know why I've never done this. I've literally not even thought of it as a fix. I've even had a rear mech replaced previously. Fool!

Apparently, the rear mech should last the duration of the bikes life. Minus any accident. It's really opened my eyes to the function of these two small wheels. I mean, they are subject to the same wear the chain/cassette go through, so why I've never changed them is beyond me.

It's made me think about spending money on them the next time I need to replace them, so to this Ceramic Speed..... If you're going to upgrade, then do it properly.