Early Sunday Morning Bishop loop with Jane - Very windy & sunny

Yesterday we did not manage to get out on the bikes due to the very heavy rain showers, took one of our cars for its mot and Arran started his driving lessons, finally!
So today the forecast was for wall to wall sun but 45+mph wind yet again. This was not going to stop me and Jane from getting out so we decided to do our Bishop loop as most of the route is sort of somewhat sheltered from the wind. We headed off and picked up the railway from Broompark to Brawns Den were we turned off left and headed off to and under the viaduct. From there the back way to Tudhoe village via Croxdale and out at Spenny. A quick spin through Spenny to pick up the line to Bishop. Once at Bishop we parked up in the market place to decide if we dare go for breakfast anywhere. Fifhteas Vintage Tearoom was open early and looked quiet, looked through Spoons window and there was no one in the front room so we decided on Spoons or it was a takeaway from Greggs. After a butty and drink we jumped back on the bikes and crossed the very windy viaduct before picking up the old railway line back to Broompark. There was not many people out and about but we seen Barry Kipling twice enjoying the wind and sun. All in 23 miles in 1hr 49mins with 1400ft of climbing.
Today was the first ride on the new DT Swiss wheelset. More on this in Fresh Goods Sunday at 4pm today. Below are some sunny snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

DT Swiss HGC 1400 Hybrid Spline Road Boost Carbon Wheelset - Specialized Creo SL

Well after many months of looking I have finally found some carbon wheels that fit the Specialized Creo SL. In fact I have found three wheel sets all manufactured by DT Swiss that have road boost  / spline spec'd hubs.
These are the are the HGC 1400 Hybrid Spline 700c models, 42mm deep rim x 24mm internal rim width. They also come in a 650b version, same hubs / same section rim just in 27.5" format. The part I did not like is the eye watering rrp £1835! The 650b version is the same rrp and so is the deeper 47mm but narrower 19mm road version wheels HEC 1400 Hybrid Spline 700c.
Again shop around, the cheapest I could find in the UK was from Cycle Solutions £1560 but they had a long led in time. Bike Discount de are around £1330 (but out of stock at the time of writing this) and the 650b £1305 (in stock at the time of writing this).
I could not find much info in the UK about road boost wheels / fitting etc and the info I did find was mixed. Some shops said the front wheel will need re dishing, then some people from abroad said they fit straight from the box. I was not going to take a chance that the wheels a, did not fit or b, needed re dishing so I contacted a few local cycle shops and see if they could order in a pair / fit them to the bike and make sure they fitted and or needed re dishing. Some shops never come back to me considering Madison the UK importer had stock.
Anyway after a few chase up calls / messages I finally got sorted with Mark Mather and Simon from The Bike Rack Yarm. After ordering they arrived 3 days later so dropped the bike down and tried them in. Well they do fit straight from the box. Just make sure you order 110mm x 12mm for the front and 148mm x 12mm for the rear.
I have never ran a pair of wheels with such a big internal rim width and it looks massive! Once home I swapped over the rotors, cassette, tyre (fitted a new one to the rear) set them up tubeless and popped them onto the bike. I had to re adjust the rear mech indexing as it was slightly out with the different manufacturer of hubs and she is ready to rock n roll, well that's once it stops raining! I will do a more detailed blog on my Fresh Goods Sunday inc weights etc but for now below are a couple of snaps of the wheels fitted to the bike.

Some new recent Fresh Goodies that have landed

I did have an Ass Saver guard on my Creo Sl at one point but either I must have removed it and put it somewhere safe or it fell off somewhere as I could not find it. So I bought this replacement for when the going starts to get a little sloppy. They have tweaked the design over the years and made little improvements but it still does not feel that secure when fitted to my Brooks saddle! Time will tell I suppose.

 

Then I ordered another Sram Quickview mount for my Garmin. I thought I ordered the shorter MTB version but the road length landed. I sent that back as I already have four of them in my spares tube! Must sell a couple next time ebay have there £1 listing! Talking of Ebay I found a mtb version going cheap so that landed this week and I fitted to the Salsa Beargrease Carbon.

 

Next up as you might have noticed I have a cut in the Gravelking tyre on the rear of the Creo which is now plugged for the second time but I also noticed that the tread in the middle is getting very low so ordered up another tyre. The one on the Creo has done 1200 miles and the motor has played it part in ripping off the tread! I checked back through my records and I have paid less for this one, under £25 inc p&p than what I did over 6 months ago.

 

More on these over the coming weeks / months in my Fresh Goods Sunday Blogs

An early morning spin down to Durham, Maiden Castle, Houghall Woods n back on the Cube E mtb

Todays very early morning ride was a short spin down to Durham city centre, out to Maiden Castle, a loop around Houghall woods, up the trod then back to Durham then back home via Frankland / dog kennels loop. All in just under 16miles in 1hr 17 mins with just under 800ft of climbing. I decided to take the beast - Cube E mtb out for a change. What a difference the Bosch motor / battery is compared to the Spec Creo. The bike also weighs a ton though and you cannot half notice that as well. The trails are still reasonably dry and fast going. There was quite a few other cyclists, dog walkers, walkers and runners out and about this morning. It started off lovely and sunny but within a few miles it clouded over. The sun did try several times after that to come back through but without much success. The main thing was the wind has finally gone and I mean gone there was not even a breeze. What a difference the wind makes to cycling, I hate it apart from a good tailwind! Anyway below are a few snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

The new Trans Pennine train

Just caught a fish jumping in the air when I took this photo of the Cathedral

River banks have finally been strimmed back

The path to Maiden Castle is still not finished, going to be tarmac with street lighting