Delayed New Years Day Hike - Stanhope Common

 

Well after days of rain, wind and cold the weather has changed but just for 8 hours- no rain, some wind and still cold but who cares. We all went for a drive up to Stanhope- Durham Dales Centre and parked up. We went out and did our usual hiking loop over the moors / common. The ground is completely saturated with standing water / ice every where. The wooded section was ankle deep in clarts as per normal during the winter. The river was flowing that high the stepping stones at the ford were covered today. All in 5.40miles in 1hr 54 mins with 580ft of climbing. We called in past the paper shop & the Coop at the end for some goodies and I put the kettle on back at the car. Enjoy and hopefully more soon but not tomorrow as the forecast is for 24 hours solid rain again! 

NEW YEARS DAY - Fresh Goods Sunday - Quaxar Iris Ultralight disc brake rotor 6 hole 160mm

 

Following on from last weeks Fresh Goods Sunday replacing the disc brake pads on my Trek Procaliber I have also swapped the disc brake rotors. 

Again there was nothing wrong with the standard Shimano rotors that come with the bike from the factory but after a few rides I knew I would never need a 180mm rotor up front. My riding and braking style is far too gentle for anything bigger than the minimum 160mm. So after looking for the same model rotor in 160mm it was working out nearly as cheap to replace both rotors with some lightweight versions. I have used various models of lightweight discs in my past on numerous bikes and never had any problems with them. I always buy them from XC Racer shop as they normally have a good selection. This time I opted for the Quaxar model. They come in 140, 160 and 180mm 6 bolt versions. They all come with bolts which are reasonable quality but not as good as Shimano bolts and weighed the same. Swapping them over is simple enough, needed a 5mm and 6mm allen key to remove my wheels then a T25 driver to undo the 6 bolts and remove the old disc. I then cleaned the hub areas and placed the new discs in place, then screwed the 6 bolts in place and nipped them up. Now over the years when swapping rotors and refitting the wheels 8 of 10 times they rub in the caliper when refitting the wheels. The rear one was perfect with no scrubbing so no adjustment was required. 

On the front with dropping down 20mm in size I had to remove the adaptor and bolts as they were too long. I had a spare pair of standard bolts so swapped over the dished washers etc and bolted the caliper straight to the fork, adjusted the alignment of the caliper so the disc was not rubbing and the job was a good’un. In the process of swapping the rear rotor and down sizing and swapping the front I saved around 155g. 

So far so good with the rotors, they are not noisy and does not feel like I have lost any braking power but I havent exactly took them down an Alpine descent either! Time will time how they last but going buy other similar discs in the past they should be spot on. I could have saved a few more grams if I also swapped the rotor bolts but no budget for that at the mo. 

RRP £17.95 each and I paid £17.05 from XC Racer Shop inc 48hr p&p, you get 5% discount if you order 3 or more items in the same order. 

XC Racer / Manufacturers blurb - 

QUAXAR IRIS ULTRALIGHT DISC BRAKE ROTOR 160MM 67G!

Lose weight on a critical part of the bike, the wheel.  

We've been racing with it and it's excellent. Very similar to the Ashima Ai2 rotor.

High grade 410 Stainless Steel.

Excellent heat dissipation in both wet & dry conditions.

High friction co-efficient for maximum stopping power.

Comes with 6 decent BLACK torx bolts.

We have 180mm & 140mm in silver also.

The Quaxar brand is a new player in the braking and cable arena. 

New Years Day - ride back from Sedgefield Park Run + Fresh Goodies - Assos socks & Cracked CC Edt 31 Magazine

 

Yesterday Angus did the Park Run at Hamsterley Forest and I was going to go through for a ride but it was too wet and cold. Today after he had been to the gym he was going to Sedgefield Park Run  so I said I would pop my bike in the back of his van and have a ride back. The forecast was dry but it started raining on the way down but cleared up by the time we got there. There must have been a big rain shower down there as the roads had a 1/4" of standing water on them not to mention all the rain through the night. There was loads piling into the car park for the run so I headed off back home. I should have took my Cannondale Synapse Neo as it has full winter guards fitted. The spray was unreal and I was getting wet. The big downtube on the Creo saves a lot of spray from the front wheel but I only have a standard Ass Saver on the rear and does not offer much protection. The roads were reasonably quite but I hit every set of traffic lights on red coming back, very stop / start which  I don't like. It was pretty much a direct route back so was 14 miles on the nose with 800ft of climbing in 50 mins, ave speed 16.6mph. Below are a couple of snaps, I only stopped in Durham on North road. 

After getting changed into some dry warm clothing the sun decided to pop out for a short while so I washed, dried, oiled and fettled four bikes- ready for more road, gravel and off road action. Enjoy and hopefully more soon- 

Also when I was down in Harrogate I bought a new pair of Assos Summer socks which match my Assos mtb SS jersey. These will only come out when its bone dry and no mud! 

I picked up the latest copy of Cranked CC magazine Edt 31 from WH Smiths yesterday. Just need to find the time and spend a few hours getting a start on it. 

Forecast looking a lot better tomorrow so we are planning on doing our New Years day hike a day latter.