Boardman Bike - brake upgrade

 

I've been thinking about doing this for a while and the recent rides over gravel trails and steep descents spurred me on to do it.  The brakes on the Boardman where Avid BB5 which dont have a particularly good reputation for effectiveness as they are regarded as entry level single sided cable operated brakes.  I got on with them but you had to be cautious in descending and give yourself plenty of braking time.  However I  I found that after nearly every ride I needed to adjust them to keep them at peak effectiveness.  I was probably ultra conscious of doing this as a cycling friend had these brakes on his bike and  going down a steep hill, failed to slow down enough and crashed resulting in a broken collar bone, which took ages to heal.  

We oldies dont bounce so well.  

So I bit the bullet and upgraded to TRP Spyres, which although still cable operated have dual pistons so the pads are operated evenly on both sides.

Old brakes

New brakes

They were easy to fit as they were just a straight replacement.

I took it for a test ride as the pads need to bed in before they are really effective and so far they feel good but the test is always on a good ride.  

On the way back I pass the rugby field and saw this in the distance, initially I though they were birds as we do get Fieldfares flocks here but its a bit early for them, so I had to take a walk over.

They were toadstools, Inkcaps 

Ink caps and I think',Shaggy mane inkcaps.

Clydach Vale Country Park

 

A recent ride was to Clydach Vale Country Park, which is just outside Tonypandy. 

Its a beautiful spot with great scenery but for some reason there are no signposts directing you to it.  Why I dont know, do the Council want it kept solely for the locals.....who knows.?

I'm not sure how this cross got onto the mountain side but its been there for a few years now and judging by its whiteness it gets renewed regularly.

Yes it started to rain on the way home.

 And on the way home I pass a local brewery, Treforest Brewery, on an industrial estate so in order to help the economy in these dire times I bought a couple of bottles to take home.

About time

 

Yes it's about time I posted as its two months since the last post.

All credit to other bloggers who have kept posting during this pandemic as I have enjoyed reading your blogs because I just lost the will to write  / post something.  Mainly because most days are just groundhog days and I had lost the motivation to go and do something that would generate a post.  I did do this once took my camera along to record only to find that when I got home there was a fault with the SD card and lost all the pictures.

We are again in lockdown as is most of South Wales, but this time its more restrictive than previously  as we are confined to the county, the only upside is that there is not the panic buying like before.  From a cycling viewpoint its good and bad , bad because most of the club members live in and around Cardiff but good that there are four of us in Rhondda Cynon Taf [RCT] so we are a splinter group!  Also RCT is a large  county with lots of suitable trails and roads.

One ride I did which was memorable because it was different, it was a gravel ride along the Forestry trails.  As you can see we kept mostly with the county boundary [black line] apart from one little bit.

There was one 7 mile climb, gaining 300m and peaking out at 590m,  and although long with that gradient gain it was, luckily, a gentle incline.  Well worth it if only for the views on a lovely day.

Some great boys toys along the way !

From what I have read a lot are having trouble with the new version of Blogger, but it will just take a bit of time to get used to it.

All the best.