This morning I got up super-early to get some leg-miles in on the static bike. I managed about 5 minutes, but realised that something was wrong. It's probably not the thing you'd expect from a static bike - it had a puncture. Yes, a puncture. On a bike that can't go anywhere.
Let me explain a little - the static bike is, in fact, an ordinary road bike which has its back wheel clamped into a device which stops the bike from going anywhere and offers some supposedly road-like resistance. It has several difficulty settings so that you can choose how taxing you want it to be. Somehow, the rear wheel had managed to get a puncture without actually being able to go anywhere.
Ultimately, we managed to work out that the tyre had gone a bit flat, so when anyone was using the bike, the "road-like resistance" was putting enough pressure on the tyre that it was causing the inner tube to bunch up around the air valve and the puncture was either caused in that process or when we re-inflated (and hence un-bunched-up) the inner tube.
Either way, I'm going inner tube shopping at lunchtime. While I'm at it, I'm going to buy some more Lycra. I've come to the conclusion I don't have enough Lycra (or, rather, I don't have enough (or, indeed, any) Lycra with padding, especially in the seat - sitting down was a bit of a challenge yesterday, after Saturday's exploits in the saddle!) Please share your thoughts on Lycra in the poll on the bottom of the page!
My goal for this week is to do a complete circuit of Finsbury Park (first attempt tomorrow morning) - if you think I can do it, please put a few quid on my Justgiving page (see the link on the right hand side) to show your support!
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