Garry McGivern’s Somerset bicycle tour, Friday 16th-June-2017 Staywell to Wool. 69 Miles. I had a nice early start today, with the tent packed away, bike loaded and on the road before seven o’clock. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far. I was pretty sure that the front brake was binding on the wheel. It was all okay when I left the shop yesterday. I continued to ride in the hope that it might settle down. But the more I rode, the more I could hear it, and the more it annoyed me. I ummed and ahhed whether I should just ignore it and carry on. But it was just too annoying. And why should I put up with it? I’d paid a lot of money to get Passepartout serviced.
There was nothing for it. I had to go back to the shop. The only trouble was that the shop didn’t open for another hour. So much for getting an early start! So I took a slow meandering ride back to Bridgwater.
Once back at St John Street Cycles, I explained the situation to one of the mechanics. He said it’s because I’m loaded now, and the forks have flexed. Whatever! He adjusted the brake slightly and sent me off around the block on a test ride. Everything now seemed okay. And I was back on my way before nine o’clock, not too much of a delay in the end.
I’ve been following national cycle routes again today, thinking that it would be a different route to the one I took the last time I cycled this way. It turned out that it wasn’t, and most of it I had cycled the last time I was this way! Still, at least it was mainly on traffic-free roads, which was nice. Although sometimes, it wasn’t quite as nice when the route took me completely off-road. Cycling on rough tracks is always hard going, made all the more difficult by having to open and close gates every hundred yards or so. I also got taken over some ridiculously steep hills, which you would have thought I might have remembered and avoided! But all in all, it’s been a good ride.
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Good on yer mate! You’re clocking up the miles again. I saw two comments on this post. Where are all these comments stashed?
Not that many miles but certainly more than I’ve been doing!
The comments are all somewhere on that cloud thing!
Well done Spike!! Be careful of the heat today x
It’s almost like being abroad!