A messy bike picture as I start to get machines properly functional for the summer months. I'm doing the London to Brighton again in June and am thinking about which bike I will use.
I've been riding the aluminium hybrid which has good pumped up tyres, sharp brakes and my own patent gears using combined SRAM Doubletap road and mountain parts. It's the same bike I use with the turbo and doesn't normally get long runs on the road.
The summer carbon bike is functional too. Although ready for action, it will benefit from a quick once-over on the bike stand.
I'm actually torn between the speedy well-maintained Focus Cayo for L2B and trying it with my in-need-of-attention mountain bike. The lightweight Cayo got suitable Oohs and Aahs from my fellow cyclists in Brighton last year, but might not be the best choice. My experience from last year was that the route can be quite slow, with quite a lot of standing around. The mountain bike has crazy low gearing and platform pedals which, given the amount of standing around, might be better so long as it has some slick tyres.
I'll have to consider this, as well some more hill practice. Unlike my companions from last year, I wasn't able to get up Ditchling Beacon without a pause. Some would say it was the extreme choked road conditions, but I'll also admit to a lack of puff before I reached the top. They all bought triumphal T-shirts, but that's one I don't have.
Meanwhile, I'm still quietly clocking miles, this year at 1,491 miles according to my Garmin readout. My rolling year average is still around 4,400 miles although that is about to plummet when May 2014 drops out of the averages.
Still, I'm on track for my personal Bronze(74%), Silver(49%) and Gold(37%) for 2015.
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