Over the Hills the windy way!!!

This weekend I got a pass out to go for a ride again and as the weather seemed quite nice I certainly wasn't one to turn down an opportunity to get out and put in some miles on them there hills. This time I invited a friend and fellow cyclist along Matt Gush. Now Matt lives in Hyde (all be up the posh end!) and also works in Manchester at the University. This of course means he does the A57 battle into and out of Manchester on a daily basis. He is also very competitive on Strava and can regularly be seen doing battle on the local segments, he also goes segment hunting to chalk up on his speed demon bike. A very fast and accomplished rider however in his own words "Not a great fan of the hills". Today however I would work on converting him to the dark side and introduce him to some local lumpy bits of interest.

The Route.

This would be a nice gentle warm up on a cat 4 hill that takes us up Matley Lane, from there a nice gentle descent into Stalybridge then right at the lights and out on Manchester Road through Heyrod and Mossley then up, up and up Holmfirth road as we climb out past Dove Stone reservoir. From there we head over the tops and the long descent into Holmfirth turn right along Woodhead Road Then up over the target summit for the day Holme Moss. From the summit a nice descent down to the Woodhead Pass then risk life and limb for 1/2 mile before we cross the Valley to a "safer" side and drop down into Glossop. After that its just a matter of getting back up the A57 again, a speedy section back towards Hyde then home for Tea and Medals!!!




"A cunning plan" you say. Well true! but doing it was far more fun.

After a week of talking to Matt on Strava and Facebook I think I had finally convinced him that he would really like to come out for a ride. He Rides a very nice Planet X bike that I just know he wanted to do more with than the daily trudge to work on and providing he could get a leave pass to go play too then we would be laughing!

Friday came and we had managed all leave passes done the ironing and washing up and earned many Brownie points. We had even sorted out a time (ish) and Matt let me know he was lubing up his hubs and cables in preparation. This is not a code for something a bit disgusting but in fact an essential bit of bike preparation for any sort of long ride. A well oiled machine can make all the difference.

I of course left it to the last minute but did manage to combat squeaky cleats as they were annoying me a little just on the way too and from work. So a quick squirt of the trusty old WD40 later and we were in business!

Matt turned up at my house at about 1 o'clock and without a moment to waste we sett off (leave passes of this sort do have an expiry time that is set in stone and breaking said time could be fatal!)

Immediately as we headed out on the road we could tell the wind was going to be a real factor in today's ride. The warm up planned certainly did its job as we had the wind in our faces all the way up the hill. I could certainly feel that the legs were going to love this ride plus the bike was behaving beautifully. Crisp gear changes and squeak free. I did go for a high cadence to get the legs warm but I just felt like I was gliding up the hill with minimal effort. Oh I do love my new bike!

 After a bit of a con-flab at the top we made the dirty dash out of the junction into what some people don't realise is actually a 30 limit. YES yet again the Local motorist knows better and needs to get there all that bit faster "on a Sunday", really it's Sunday whats the rush???

We did fly down the hill at the speed limit of course I do think in a way much to the surprise of some motorists when they see two cyclists keeping up with the flow of traffic with ease. The fact is both of us had to slow down in order not to  get too close or overtake. We got to the lights in Stalybridge and I found that something was not quite right with the bike for some reason! My left pedal didn't feel right and when I pulled up (as you can do with SPD's, that is what gives you twice the power of a normal bike), my foot just popped out of the clips. Nooooo! potential disaster and only about 3 miles in (if that). Thankfully I carry a full tool kit on my bike (as every real cyclist does) so I was able to sort the problem out in a jiffy! Ironically getting rid of the pedal squeak with the liberal use of WD40 had inadvertently loosed up one of the screws that holds the clips in on my pedal. with a quick bit of tightening and a hail of thanks to the gods of cycling and all thing bike related we were back off again in minutes.

Out we went along Manchester Road and got to the little village of Heyrod. Now for some reason at this point my brain came up with the song "Hey Jude" but replaced the obvious bit with Heyrod! Mental!

Besides Paul McCartney in this picture looks a bit crackers too!

So on we went with a tune in my head that I just couldn't get rid of for ages, round the bends and through Mossley then the climbing started as we pressed on to Greenfield. We got to the roundabout that signified the start of the ascent up Dove Stones. I turned to Matt at this point and with a (probably ridiculous looking as I love hills) smile on my face and just said "Are you ready for this?" at this point Matt loudly reminded me how much he really doesn't like hills and thinks I am a little on the bonkers side. Oh well! but we were going up it anyway.

It's a bit of a ramp as you leave the round about and lot of people fail at this point. I certainly know |both Matt and I must have both thought "What am I doing here?" as we rounded the corner and began to climb. It was at this point that we came across our first pair of fellow hill climbers. The first of which looked like he wasn't enjoying it one bit and in fact sounded more like he was going to fall off his bike by the noises he was making on the way past. His buddy was the obvious hill climber as he was happily dancing his way up on his pedals and hardly seemed out of breath. By this point we had both selected a good low gear and were spinning the legs at a high cadence to keep the climbing at a good constant speed that wouldn't kill us by the time we got to the top. We had a bigger fish to fry today!!!

I as thinking about making a slight detour up one of the "Another" top 100 Hill 173 Chew Road.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

But somehow thought that Matt my just hit me with something heavy for suggesting such an absurdity especially as we were climbing one ridiculous hill and had plently more to go!

So anyway up we went spinning a good gear and  heading into a wind that seemed like it was getting stronger all the time. Just short of the summit we did stop for a bit of a breather and Matt to adjust his shoes (never cycle in uncomfortable shoes they just drive you nuts and provide unnecessary pain). It was then that Matt suggested he take the lead across the moors and over to Holme Firth. Now I have seen on the TDF and other televised cycling events when you get two (or more) cyclists riding along close together (one behind the other). The second cyclist in the line, in this case me gets to ride in the slip stream of the one in front and life is so much easier. I actually found a marked decrease in the amount of effort I had to put in to keep up with Matt, However he is a far faster cyclist than me (on the flat anyway) and soon pulled ahead leaving me fighting the wind once again. Once we started the descent though it was all out for a flying run into Holme Firth hitting our first top speed of the day at nearly 40 mph. Even with the wind!

As we got into Holme Firth I always think of "The last of the summer wine" theme tune, cue more music I have stuck in my head for the ride. "Hey Jude" was getting a bit old by this point, but non the less it is a very nice town (or at least the bit we saw was) and we turned our gaze towards the hill before us and indeed the prize we had come for...Holme Moss! It was at this point that Matt declared that he needed a drink and fancied a can of some variety or other. We pulled up at a little village shop and Matt went in for a nice can of pop. On his return we sat by the side of the road Matt drinking his pop and me with my High 5 energy drink when the local cycling club roared past in a big group. They did appear to be taking up the entire road (which would annoy me as a motorist) but they all looked very pretty and as we both said "Looks a bit gay really" (no slur meant to those of the homosexual orientation of course) and as they whizzed past on bikes worth more than most peoples family cars I bet they thought they were the bee's knees!

We set off a few minutes later making our way up the reasonably busy road, through Holme Bridge and onto the Village of Holme. It was at this point that we caught back up with the local cycling club and with much chuckling to ourselves, passed them as we headed up towards the foot of the Holme Moss climb.

As you may recall and it can be found in previous a previous blog I have written Holme Moss has in the past been part of the route for famous cycling races and next year will be the jewel in the crown for the Tour De France 2014 Grande Depart as it visits Yorkshire. I am quite sure that most of the Pro riders will hardly notice such a hill but for us mere mortals it is certainly a good leg aching lung burner. Spinning hard and grinding away we managed a good rhythm up the hill. on minute the wind in our faces the next on our backs as we rode the snaking road up and up. As the summit came into view and with only a few hundred meters to go one of the cycling clubs riders eventually caught up, of course they sliced past far too close as if to punish me for daring to pass them and then ride there hill at such a pace. However only one of the 20 odd made it past and even when we had stopped at the top for a picture or two they still had not all appeared. Just goes to show in cycling you do not need a top of the range bike with all the latest shiny gear plus matching team kit to get up (and down) hills well. It does help and would be nice but at the end of the day it's what you do with it not how expensive it is that counts!

The Top!

Just stopping for a erm! drink!

Matt |Looking a little tired

Happy to be at the top again!

Now came the really fun part and I get the feeling that this was the bit that we were both looking forward too. A very fast descent down the hill to Woodhead Pass.  A bit of a false start for me as with my enthusiasm to get going I overcooked it a bit trying to get my chain changed up to my big ring at the front and ended up losing it off the top. But not to worry I hadn't even gone 100 meters yet and we had a long way to run! Weeeee! 

Matt Gush really did show that he is truly without fear as we descended as he accelerated away. I barely managed to keep up and looking at the speeds we were doing later on we managed the best part of 45mph. The road is far from smooth with dips and lumps. off camber corners. blind bends and high speed curves. Breathing heavily all the way, keeping low on the bike and holding on to the drops for dear life we threw ourselves down the hill. Still pedaling hard with adrenaline rushing through the veins we sped on. I felt myself get a little air on one bend as we flew along. I grasped my handlebars to keep my bike rock steady underneath me, making sure I was floating just above my saddle to allow me arms and legs to absorb the bumps. The speed was really picking up all the way down and eventually I found that I had to lightly touch my back brake. There was no way I was going to play with my front brake at this speed as to lose front end traction would have spelt earth shattering disaster for me. At this speed it would probably also mean a total end ex' and at best a long stay in the type of hotel they serve hospital food in!

The hill finally began to flatten out and we made it to the bottom in one piece. Phew! My arms and shoulders were in bits by this point but I just couldn't stop smiling as the run down was epic and really good fun!

Now of course we had to get onto Wood Head pass and to then to the relive safety of the opposite side of the valley to head over to Glossop. Getting onto the Pass is a bit of a waiting game and eventually we found a gap in traffic that allowed us to get out onto the road. The road itself is a very fast route that even though it is very small and winding, HGV's still go over it. That to me seems a bit irresponsible on the part of the drivers as the M62 was built specifically to avoid this route. Today however we didn't see any wagons but just the odd few caravans and lots of cars.

After 1/2 mile of fearing that I was about to be hit up the arse by some idiot that would probably be too busy adjusting there satnav to watch the road, we turned off to head down the south side of Torside reservoir along a very pleasant winding road. We rode past Torside sailing club that with today's wind were in full force hammering up and down the water and looking like they were loving it too!

The just the odd undulating little bump, around the "Devils Elbow", a hairpin that at speed could be deadly! the over and down into Glossop. A really nice bit of country riding and the wind was on our backs too so it felt so easy.

Once we got into Glossop it was the usual busy traffic as you would expect. We did bump into another cyclist that seemed interested in where we had just been and seemed impressed with us coming over Holme Moss too. However he did seem a bit crackers as he had no helmet on plus his bike would have made my old yellow one look new. However he certainly had it where it counted as he left us both for dead as we came out of Glossop and headed back towards the A57.

It was just a final hill that was also a very busy road too as we came up onto Mottram Moor. We both spent most of the climb passing cars as they crawled up the hill towards the lights at the top. Once through those it was a nice bit of flat to the roundabout then a gentle descent back to Hyde. It was at this point I bid farewell to my riding partner as he turned left at the roundabout and I went straight on. It is easier for Matt to get back to his house in the direction he went. I decided to have one final hard push on the descent reaching a mere 35mph but I now also (to my surprise) am the 7th place holder for fastest on that piece of road. Not bad I think! After the final bit of a climb back up to my house I finished, hot, sweating, tired, legs aching, but well and truly happy with my bike and my fitness.

In all I really do think it was a very good ride and I hope to have more like it sooner rather than later too.

Happy cycling!

The Hills are alive with the sound of PAIN!!!

Today being a lovely sunny Sunday in September I decided that I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to ride. I decided that it would also be a great chance to test my new frame setup up the hills and at speed down them!

I started by making my way up through Mottram, into Broadbottom, up to Charlesworth then over the top to Glossop and then to the stop of Snake Pass. 

The whole ride was brilliant!

I warmed up on the hill to Mottram then went for my first aim of the ride, to ride over Monks Road non stop finally putting to rest the monk monster. In all honesty the monk didn't quite have to same bite as it once did on my old frame and setup. It felt great! 

Once I had run over the top I went for the next part of my test, a speedy run down to Glossop. I managed to push it reasonably hard but not too hard! I am not that crackers that I would push a bike that I built myself too hard. I did hit just over 44mph. My bike felt great and so did my legs. I wasn't dying this time due to bad gearing and the only thing I did have to worry about was keeping hydrated as it really wasn't cool today. I headed off up Snake Pass. I noticed an unmarked police car had pulled over some motorcyclists at the foot of the pass. It looked like things were busy as I made my way up the road. I stuck to the white line all the way up. I just maintained a good high cadence in a low gear and sailed my way up the hill. It wasn't the fastest assent ever but it really felt good. Once I did get to the top I stopped and made a quick video (see below) after that it was again rapid descent time this time however with a bit of a headwind.

I really pushed it to get down the 3.2 miles as fast as possible. I really enjoyed the run down too. I didn't touch my brakes once right until the last bend where I bottled it. Well it is a 90 degree left turn so I didn't really want to kebab myself on my first run out. After that it was just a slow trudge through Glossop's legendary traffic (it really is that slow) and then the climb back up to Hyde with a run down the unbelievably pot holed Matley Lane.

The whole run took me just short of 2 hours and earned me a record 32 Strava cups!!! I was quite surprised when I got home and checked that out myself in all honesty. 

The bike handled like a dream and cornered really well too. I was thinking that sometimes I may have been a little close to the edge but I really think now that I could have done more and pushed harder. 

Lessons learnt from this ride:-

1. Attack everything!!!

2. I really need a longer  derailiure hanger as the one I currently have fitted wont allow me to engage my big cassette ring while I am on my lower chain ring. I don't know if I will be able to get hold of one though. 

3. Some small fine tuning of the front derailiure as I can feel/hear it catching the chain still when I drop down to the bottom ring. 

4. Attack everything!!!       

In all though I really did enjoy today's training ride out and look forward to the next one. Until then however I feel it will be the same dull commute to work. However I really don't mind that as I am still riding a really nice bike!

Happy cycling! :)

The proof is in the pudding!!!

This week I have been looking after the kids in a single parent kind of fashion for the week.

Not that I am a single parent but my wife is away down near London on a work related management course for the week. This has of course meant that I have to do all the jobs I normally do around the house plus everything that Lynne usually does too, No mean feet and it's been tiring I can tell you!

Today was the day this week that our youngest has her swimming lesson...

I know what you are thinking, what has this got to do with cycling of any kind at all.

Well as it goes because I had to take said youngest to her lesson I took the morning off work. I then dropped her at the child minders in Hyde and came home before heading to work at 12.00.

Today I did think that as a bit of an experiment I would take the car to see how long it really would take me to get too and from work.

I did as I would normally by heading into Hyde then instead of going down the A57 I instead headed down the M67 that runs parallel with the A57. At the end of the motorway I rejoined the A57 and proceeded to follow my exact route i take on my bike daily.

Of course being midday the traffic was flowing and fairly light so in theory my journey by car should be a lot faster. In actual fact the drive took me 45 minutes (not 28 as Google maps says) and cost me half a days parking (£9). By the time I got to my desk and logged on to my computer I was looking at just short of 1 hour (about 55 minutes). My conclusion to the journey in was even though I took the "faster" motorway route, it in fact cost me more and took longer than it would have done if I had gone by bike.

One of the whole reasons I did go by car was to get home sooner as I knew the girls would be getting dropped off between 5.45 and 6.00. I left the office bang on 4.30 (any later would have meant I went over the 4 hours and cost me £16 instead of £9 parking, makes me sick really) and headed out back down the A57 to get home.

TRAFFIC!!!

It was absolute madness. I thought it was bad when I was on my bike but in the car it was even worse!! People don't give each other a single inch of room and it would seem in rush hour traffic rights of way no longer apply, red lights are just a pretty piece of street furniture, yellow boxes look nice with cars parked in them and double yellow lines tell you how close you are to the pavement as you park up to go do whatever!
Pedestrians also have a death wish in Manchester. I saw adults leading children across a busy main road only meters from a crossing that would have stopped traffic so they could cross safely. Clearly common sense just doesn't apply to those who partake in day to day activities like this and they wonder why they then have accidents!

Anyway the drive home was a bit stressful, I did take the M67 (again, not very fuel efficient) and after more a little over an hour I again made it home.
This is again in comparison to the same journey by my "slower" mode of transport using my road bike. a journey that as I can even prove using Strava takes me about 40 minutes on average, depending on how tired I am and what the traffic/weather is like. as you can guess it doesn't cost me anything in parking for my bike and I certainly don't use any petrol either. I think I probably used about £8 worth of petrol today going in and out of Manchester, plus the £9 in parking (which would have been £16 if I stayed for the full day).

As I said the proof is in the pudding!!!

I can understand people not wanting to cycle in as carrying two kids on a bike to school can't be easy. However the likes of www.practicalcycles.com give a great range of real solutions for transporting all sorts of things like children or freight. In the Manchester area it would be a great idea as it is fairly flat (until you get over to the east where the Peaks begin) and once the council actually sort out the infrastructure hopefully cycling will be seen as a far more viable option for adults and children alike. Certainly both the companies I have worked for in the past few years that I have got back into cycling have always provided things like showers and changing facilities. For those that don't (and there must be a few) there are things like the city center cycle parking that have secure bike storage as well as lockers, showers and even a cycle repair workshop. Sounds great and I do keep meaning to go around and have a look. Maybe one day next week I will.

For now however I am sticking with parking my bike at work and riding the 90 odd miles per week commute saving myself in the region of £120 per week or £480 per month! If you look at it from an annual basis of working 45 weeks a year (that's to take into account holidays plus days off sick etc, so a low end average), by cycling to work I am saving roughly £5,400 per year! why do people drive to work???

Cycling to work tomorrow as you can guess then fingers crossed a I may even get out at the weekend too! you never know

Happy cycling :)

The King is dead!!! Long live the king!

Well not so much the king but you'll see what I mean.

For those of you that follow my blog you will know that I was due to take part in the Manchester 100 at the start of September. This is indeed correct, however as I always do before an long ride (especially ones of 100 miles) I tend to give my bike a bit of a service in an effort to correct any niggling problems I have been finding over the past few weeks etc.

This time was no different however I had decided to do something about that darn bottom bracket!

Whist on holiday the week before the ride I got on eBay, purchased a nice looking second hand bottom bracket and chain set. Plus I even bought a new big ring rear cassette to help me up the hills.

Saturday came around and after arriving home from holiday and helping out with all the unpacking and washing I was finally able to get down to the job of changing a major component on my bike.

I was easily able to do the usual ,remove the chain and get dirt everywhere etc.

When it came to removing the left hand crank first I was a little worried!

I had previously tried to remove the left crank using a crank-puller tool and had stupidly crossed the threads and now found that every time I tried to use the tool on this side again all it did was strip out more thread! eventually I decided (as I was replacing the crank and bottom bracket) it was going to have to be "Hammer Time!" (M C Hammer music goes through my head! Love the 80's).

Much bashing swearing and more bashing occurred until eventually the crank came free and I was happy again! Ah! a sigh of relief, now the rest of the job is simple! As I removed the left hand bottom bracket cup with no real issue, alarm bells should have been ringing. Anyway I was able to remove the bottom bracket and found the bearings inside had turned into a rusty looking mush. Evidently the high mileage in all weather has had a great toll on my bike and besides which, it was an old part when I first bought it so really I should have looked after it better.

Anyway, next came the easy task of removing the drive side cup!! Erm! when I say easy, it should have been.

Let me just take you back a minute to the last time I fitted the bottom bracket to my bike. About 2 years ago after purchasing a rusty old Marin Larkspur frame I built it up into what would become my bike.

This is what my bike looked like eventually

The Marin frame was a bit knackered and rusty so I sent it to my cousin Edward to get it powder coated in yellow so it ended up looking like new and I was happy to have a new looking bike.

When the bike came back indeed it was new looking and well coated allover, the only problem with the all over effect was it had also coated the threads in the bottom bracket housing and the rear derailleur mount. Thankfully my dad being an engineer was able to get a "tap" to clean out these threads almost fully. The rear derailleur mount wasn't a real problem. The bottom bracket was though as it required a very large tool to cut it, and one side even has to turn the wrong way too!Much swearing and stress but eventually we got the thing together.

Now it came to taking it apart after a little over 2500 miles of riding in the past 2 years it just wasn't going to budge! Then disaster strikes, the teeth the tool grips onto gave way and all broke off leaving me with a metal cup that I couldn't grip in anyway. Arrgh! much more hammering and sweating as I was supposed to be riding 100 miles in the next 12 hours I eventually had to concede defeat and realised that my bike experiment had this time not gone as well as one would have hoped!!!

The offending item!

 So with a heavy heart I watch my Strava feed the following day to see all the fellow cyclist I follow ride around and completing the route in some very respectable times!!

So I now had to replace my bike frame with a new one asap or I would be riding the hybrid to work for ever! The hybrid is o.k. but my goodness its heavy and slow in comparison to my road bike. even the steel framed old girl.

So! after much searching and a mega stroke of luck with my mum giving me some money as a present, I finally ordered a new bike frame. Not an old second hand eBay special (even though I did get this one off eBay, but straight from the manufacturers) but a brand new only just made still in the box frame, very exciting!!!

Finally last Wednesday it arrived!

I bid on bought a Dolan bike directly from them using eBay.

The eBay page didn't even describe how good this frame really is. I was expecting a heavy, badly put together totally alloy frame with all the bits being a bit rough around the edges!

What I got was...

A really well made polished frame that is extremely light, very well put together and even better has great things like carbon forks!! The weight saving will make all the difference on the hills.

So come Friday night I loaded it into the car and with a leave pass to go and play I headed off up to my mate Matt Gush's house (he also builds bikes and knows what he is doing far better than I do) to build this baby up!

I had beforehand realised a few things:-
 1. My current brakes wouldn't fit, so I had to purchase some more (they arrived on Thursday)
 2. The steer tube would need to be cut to the right length and star washer fitted.
 3. I had better get this right or I would be up poo river without propulsion!!!


After arriving and disgorging many bike bits, tools, nappies (the wife's contribution!) a cycling related DVD (Cycling dreams, great DVD, worth watching) and beer! we then set too building the bike.

Matt took a great leap and set too cutting the steer tuber to the right length. I was worried about this myself as getting that wrong would really cock things up and I trusted he knew what he was doing. I screwed in the new bottom bracket (not that I have had much luck with those recently!) and then we set about fitting the star nut into the steer tube. This even involved consulting a "Manual!". To our surprise all it said was use a special tool to do it, or just hit it with a hammer until it goes in! We of course opted for option "B" with almost disastrous consequences! it didn't go in straight the first time. We resorted to much tapping to get it in the right direction with me hoping that this wasn't yet another fatal bike error!!! Eventually though we got it in and I then got on with doing things like fitting the brakes.

Fitting the brakes after much stress!

After that progress was rapid with the wheel going on, the front and rear derailleurs, the seat post and saddle, plus all the little bits that make up a bike. but then came the wiring!!!

All starting to take shape

Now much to my surprise but really it shouldn't have been in the 25 years since my Marin was built frames have changed shape a little bit and in fact got shorter. This did mean that my cables were long enough which was one worry, but also strangely the cable outer's didn't quite reach in all cases. Thankfully Matt and I are quite resourceful and between the two of us were able to remove the shorter hoses and replace them with longer ones that fit correctly.

Eventually after blood, sweet and swearing lots (yes I cut my thumb open too) we had a bike that looked ace!!!

Tada! The finished article

So next came the test ride. Now I was very confident that we had done a very good job in putting this bike together and I also knew that without Matt's help I wouldn't have been able to do it either. So I let Matt ride it first as a way to thank him for all his help, I think he just took this as a "Your the crash test dummy pal!!" approach but cracked on anyway and took the new girl for a quick spin up the road!

Matt comes back from a quick spin!

When he returned he had a big smile on his face that told me everything, This was indeed a very fast, very light bike that we had put together and it was going to be a joy to ride! So I went up the road myself too. Bit of a risk in the dark with no lights or helmet but it was still great fun and she certainly does live up to the superb reviews given to her by the likes of bike radar etc.

New home for a new girl

Now I just can't wait to have my first run out on my bike. Hopefully a nice little leisure ride around the local area to get used to the way she handles (and just because I love cycling), but more than likely the Monday morning commute to work down the A57 into Manchester center. As Matt so nicely put it though, I now have to get personal records on at least 20 Strava segments to justify getting a new bike! Hmm a challenge I feel!

Coming soon I will be taking part in what will be the final sportive of the year ,the national trust "Hidden Peak" sportive from Bakewell. Its only 80 miles but I think by looking at the route map here about 78 of those miles are up some chuffin steep hills!

I can't wait!

I will let you know what goes on anyway and any suggestions as to what to call the new girl please let me know!

Cheers and Happy cycling

The old girl