New bits

Just bought a bunch of bits off Facebook to get the Yess back in one piece.

I got some identical Elevn forks to the ones I have on the Dialled, I also bought an identical box seat and post and also some box chain tensioners and a box seat clamp so that I can put the Yess clamp back on the Yess.

This will mean that the Yess and the Dialled will have identical front ends so they should feel pretty much the same.

I will need to buy identical stem, bars and grips and then the bikes should be identical.

Hopefully this will mean that it will be easier swapping between the 2 bikes for training and racing.

Here is a photo of the forks.

The Seat, Clamp and Chain tensioners are being taken off of the bike below:

More bits for my bike

Had to get up early this morning and got to Crucial and buy some bits for the dialled so that it could be built up. Basically the chain tensioners that I had would not work, so I had to get some different ones I went for the profile ones that have just one hole and seem to have the longest bolts. Also most of the dialled mx24r's I saw on the internet were using them so I figured that they would work.

While I was there I decided to get a 37 tooth chain ring as well as well as better chain ring bolts. I also bought a brake cable and bolts to hold the brake to the brake mounts.

I then dropped all of the bits off to be fitted.

 Yesterday I dropped off my flat peddles and peddle washers to be fitted to the bike too.

They said that the bike should be up together next week sometime. I said there was no rush as I will not be able to ride for a couple of weeks anyway and it is better that the bike is in the shop as I will not be able to ride it 😂

My ribs are getting better but I have pain in my shoulder blade when I sit for too long and the ribs under my arm pit are still a bit sore. I will definitely have to take a couple more weeks rest I think.

More rest needed

Decided that I need another week of rest before i get back to cycling as my ribs are still sore.

I cleared out most of the stuff in my container and took it to my parents to store temporarily. I also put the spare handlebars that I had lying around onto ebay to sell. Last night I also put the old wheels from my son's bike on ebay as well.

I am still not liking the idea of selling the Yess so I think that I will keep it for now. Maybe later ion in the winter once i have got used to the dialled I will sell the Yess but for now I want to keep it to race on as I really like it.

I am just pricing up the cost of building up the Curtis and that is going to have to wait for a while as it is going to be expensive.

Weighin

Did my weigh in this morning and I am up 1 kg again from this time last week which is not the best but it is pretty good considering I was working in the office this week and I normally eat much more in the office than when I am at home.

This morning I went to my container and started emptying it out ready to give back at the end of next week. I brought my mountain bike back and I will clean it and get it ready to ride next week.

I was going to use my exercise bike but there is nowhere to put it so I am planning on doing some gentle rides on the mountain bike this week to ease back into riding in a couple of weeks when my ribs are better (if they are).

I also organised my shed so that I can fit the Dialled in it when it is ready and used the shelves that were in my container to get all the smaller stuff up off of the floor and out of the way.

Next week when I get paid I will but another set of shelves and then get everything organised properly as I still have a few more boxes to go in the shed that will not fit at the moment.

I also want to put up some hooks to hand up some more stuff to get everything up off of the floor. I also remembered that I have some more stuff to put up on ebay to sell so I will clean it up today and then put it up later this afternoon.

Really want to ride

Went to gates this morning and I am gagging to ride but I am still not ready to ride as my ribs are still really sore.

It is looking like I may have to wait a bit longer than I thought to get back on the bike. I think that the 1st of October is going to be a bit optimistic for a return to training.

I am now thinking that I may hold off until the middle of October ready for the first winter series race at Bristol tonight on the 22nd.

I am going to get my exercise bike from my container tomorrow so that I can start getting my legs moving ready to start riding again in a couple of weeks.

I have put the ice frame up for sale on the internet to see if there is any serious interest or not. I am seriously thinking of selling my Yess frame too and just keeping the Dialled until the Curtis is ready and building it up to race next season. I was talking to people today at gates and they recon that it will be worth about £250 so i am going to take some photos today and will put it on the internet as well and see if it will sell.

To be honest the dialled is a good enough race bike for me so if I have to race it all winter it is not a big deal. At the moment it is more important that I work on improving as a rider over worrying about what bike I am riding.

Everyone says that the dialled bikes are really good race bikes so we will see.

I am going to hold off on selling the Yess for a while to make sure I like the Dialled but I am thinking the smart option for now is to sell the Yess and put my onyx/box wheels on the dialled and then sell the Yess frame, the wheels on the dialled that have not been used yet and also the cliq cranks. With all of this money will be enough to pay for the Curtis frame and make a start on building up the Curtis.

Dropped bike off to be built.

Dropped my dialled off to be built up at the local charity bike shop as I didn't feel well enough to drive today as I had my first ever migraine last night which wasn't very nice at all and I am still feeling a bit rough.

They are going to fit the bike in between jobs so it may take a bit longer than normal but as I have at least a couple of weeks until I can ride I am not bothered about how long it takes.

As I said to them it is better that the bike is with them so I can't ride it before I am ready.

Here is a picture of the brake that I bought it looks pretty much new.

I am now going back to bed to rest up as I have the day off from work so I am going to make the most of it.

Brake arrived

The brake arrived today but no one was home to collect it so I will have to go to the post office in the morning. The pedal washers arrived and were posted through the letter box so I have them already.

I went all day without fizzy drinks so pretty pleased with that although I have a massive headache from lack of sugar.

I have the day off Wednesday so I will take the dialled to Crucial to get it built up. Can't wait.

Picked up cranks

Picked up my cranks today and have just fitted them to the bike.

The bike is looking good. Once the chain ring, chain and brake are on I think it will look good. Can't wait to ride it although I think that it will be a while yet as I have re-broken some ribs at the supermarket this morning so I don't think that I will be riding any time soon.

I was sorting out my parts box this afternoon and found that I had a chain ring and chain ring bolts so I have mocked the bike up so I can see how it will look once built up.

I really like the look and can't wait for the brake and peddle washers arrive this week so I can get it built up.

I am going to go into the bike shop near my work tomorrow to book the bike in to be built up at the end of the week if possible. If not I will drop it off in Crucial in a weeks time when I am on lates again and can get there.

The chain ring that I have is a 39 tooth and usually I ride a 37 so I am going to ride a harder gearing for now to build up leg strength when riding as I don't have to be fast at the moment. As the winter progresses I will drop the gearing to a 36 on the front to work on spinning ready for the season.

I am going to still race on the 37x16 unless I find that I am slower when I time my laps.

I have made a deal with my son that we will one our sprints over the winter to see how we progress over the winter.

I forgot to say that I have dropped 1.5kgs from my last weigh in to 97.5kgs so I am moving in the right direction but I am a bit worried that I am loosing muscle not fat which is a worry.

I am also getting back to being addicted to Dr Pepper after a week of drinking it so I am stopping again tomorrow. I drank a whole 2l bottle this afternoon which is not good at all.

I am going to have to nip this in the bud before I get addicted again and undo all of the work I have put in in the last 8 months.

I am going to get the ice frame and take some pictures tomorrow after work and then get it on the internet to sell as I want to get some cash together to pay for my Curtis.

I am also going to get the old wheels from my son's bike on eBay as well to get some more cash saved up.

I am going to see if I can pop over to visit Gary at Curtis this week as well to see how my frame is coming on as he called on Friday to say that he had picked up the dropouts for my bike from the laser cutters. I can't wait to see them 😀

Built up Dialled MX24R this morning

Got up and built my Dialled MX24R up this morning it is still missing some bits but I will pick them up later today and then finish building it up tomorrow.

I am happy with how it looks and have a feeling that it will ride really well once it is all built up.

I was trying to get some new stickers but I think I like it as it is so I will leave it alone for now.

I am quite liking the chrome wheels as well and when the dxr cranks are on it I think the bike will look good.

I am going to hang the Yess in my parent's garage for most of the winter. I will take it over today so that it is out of the way.

When the brake arrives next week I will take the dialled in to Crucial to be built up properly and make sure it is 100% ready for the hard winter it has coming. I think I will get the headset bearings changed while I am at it as the ones that came with the frame are a bit grindy which I don't like at all.

Also if the bike is in Crucial I will not be tempted to ride it and mess up my ribs before they are healed.

I took a couple of photos of the Yess before I broke it down for the winter so that I can look at them when I miss it 😂

This is the last time that it will be in this configuration for as I am going to start adding new pieces ready for next season.

Winter Training 2017

I have worked out the following outline for my winter training:

Winter training 2017

Fitness (Monday, Wednesday and Fridays)

Body weight circuit followed by stretching

Basketball (Wednesdays when on earlies and Sundays)

Bike Skills (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Sprints

Manuals

Bunny hops

Wheelies

Track Skills

Full speed laps (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)

Pump Laps (Tuesday and Thursday)

Gates (Saturday)

Races (One Sunday per Month at Bristol) Other Sundays are rest days or play days.

Shifts:

Earlies

When I am on earlies there will be no time to go to the track so I will just do Bike Skills in the evenings. My early weeks I tend to do much less training and use it as kind of rest weeks compared to the weeks that I am on lates. I plan to try and get up early and do my fitness before work as I can get up at 5:30 am and do the fitness (probably without the stretching) before I go to work. This will leave evenings to do at least an hour of Bike skills after work. Alos I will play basketball

Lates

When I am on lates I have time to do the track training and also the fitness. On my lates weeks I will swap the skills sessions for track sessions although I plan to still do Sprints as Pump laps are much less tiring on the legs than full laps so I will be OK to sprint after pump sessions.  

I will now start planning the specific details of each part of the training in order to get ready to start next month if my ribs are better by then. 

Wheels arrived

My wheels arrived today and they look really good. They are definately brand new and never been used. The engagement seems pretty good too and they seem pretty much the same as the bombshell wheel set I sold with the S&M Speedwagon which were excellent wheels.

I have been mulling over what to do with the Yess and I have decided that I want to keep it as I really like it so I am back to selling the Ice frame and building up the Dialled bike again with the front end of the Yess. I bought a second hand Shimano dxr brake set off of Facebook today so I will have a brake system so it will make it much easier to swap the bits over to the dialled when I want to use it.

I am going to leave the cliq cranks on the Yess too and use the second hand Shimano dxr 175mm cranks that I bought off of Facebook at the weekend which are at a friend's house and he is going to bring them over tomorrow.

I will then need a chain ring chain ring bolts and a seat clamp to be able to build up the dialled as my training bike with flat peddles on it for winter training.

Over the next couple of months I will slowly build up the Yess with new forks, stem, bars, grips and seat and then it will be complete again by the start of next year.

I will put the money from the ice frames towards the Curtis frame when it is ready then slowly build up the Curtis next year as I want to build it up right with onyx hubs, disk brake and top of the line but it's.

I have been updating my bike check blog and so far this year I have had 6 bikes 7 if you count the Ice frame that I am not even going to build up. By the end of the year this will be 8 bikes as I will get the Curtis frame as well. I am not planning on getting any more bikes for a good few years after this. I plan to keep a minimum of the Yess and the Curtis and depending on how I like the Dialled I will keep it too. I am guessing that I will stay with the 3 bikes as I really regret selling my Dialled Staystrong 20" and really enjoyed riding it so I can't see the 24" being any less enjoyable to ride.
If the worst comes to the worst the dialled can be used as a pump track/park bike and I can keep the Yess and the Curtis for racing on the track. Once all 3 bikes are built up I will only spend money on bikes when something needs changing. Like I said earlier I want to spend the rest of this year and next year focusing on saving money not spending it.

I will build up the dialled tomorrow without a brake until the one I bought today arrives then it will be my daily winter bike for the next 5-6 months. I am really looking forwards to riding it after staring at it every day for the past 2 months!

I have been looking at how to store my Yess for the winter and I think that I am going to try and get a bike box and some bubble wrap to store it is and then put it in the roof of my parents garage out of the way. As I said earlier I am going to leave the cranks, back wheel and brake on the bike so if I want to race it it is all dialled and ready to just put the seat and front end back on it and off we go.

More bike decisions

Although I really love the Yess I have decided that I am going to put the new wheels that arrive tomorrow onto it and also the 180mm DXR cranks I have for sale and then sell the Yess as a complete. Once it is sold I will buy the rest of the pieces that I need to finish the Dialled and also add the Box/Onyx rims that I have on the Yess at the moment and the cliq cranks. It makes sense to sell the Yess now as it is still new and there is no point leaving it lying in my garage for the winter. Also if I really miss the Yess I can get another frame next year and sell the dialled.

Once I Sell the Yess I will have enough cash to finish the Dialled and also pay for the Curtis frame when it is ready.

I will only need stem, bars, grips, seat, clamp and brake system to complete the bike. I want to get box bars and stem so I may dip a bit more into the money than I am planning at the moment but there you go :-)

I am also going to sell the Ice Frame as I am not going to have the money to build it up now as I will have the Curtis to build and I can put the money into my van fund.

This will leave me with the dialled and the Curtis to train and race on which should be fine. Also as I am not racing Nationals now next year I don't need such an expensive bike to be competitive as I would at nationals.

Got the Yess back

So happy. I have picked up my Yess today. The wheels are now both straight and the front wheel has a new rim.

Looking at the old rim it broke along the join so was kind of a defect really. Just unlucky that it was the point of impact of the crash I guess.

I had a quick ride on the bike from my car to my Son's school as I didn't want to leave the bike in the car and it was a mistake. My ribs are really sore again. I am definitely not going to race at the weekend now.

 I will start taking the front of the bike, the seat, cranks and the brake off of the Yess tomorrow and build up the dialled ready to get it fully built up when the wheels arrive on Friday.

Bike news

Go a call from Crucial today to say that my Yess is ready to pick up so I will pop in tomorrow morning and pick it up.

I also got an email from the guy who I bought the new wheels for my dialled mx24r to say they should be with me on Friday.

I have just noticed that I haven't put up a photo of the dialled bike so here is one:

Also here is a photo of my broken front rim.

Tomorrow I am going to take some photos of the Yess and do a bike check before I take the bits off of it and build up the dialled mx24r. I am then going to take the Yess to my parents house to store it until I need to build it up to race at the end of October for the first Bristol winter series.

I handed in notice on my container at the weekend as well so I need to get some space cleared in my Parent's garage to store all of the stuff in the container.

Depressed

I have come to the conclusion that I can't race at the SW champs on Saturday and I am gutted!

I have been rethinking my strategy for the rest of the year and I have decided that I am going to take the rest of the month off to make sure that my ribs are fully healed and then go straight into heavy training for next season's regionals. I am also going to use it as a cheat month where I will drink fizzy drinks and eat crap to get it out of my system ready to eat better over the winter.

I also bought batteries for my scales today as the battery ran out last week and I haven't got around to buying a replacement until today.


Over the winter I am only going to commit to the Bristol winter series and maybe do a couple of deep south races at tracks I like and I will save as much money as possible until the end of the year.

I am just arranging to clear out my container to save me more money now that I only have one complete bike at the moment. I am trying to get some space cleared in my parent's garage to store the Yess and the ice frame for now until I need them and I will get the Dialled built up fully once my wheels and cranks arrive.

Over the winter I am going to ride flats to get used to them again and also to learn to peddle efficiently.

I am going to split my training  into 3 areas:

1. Bike Skills.
2. Fitness and conditioning.
3. Track skills.

Skills will be working on the base skills off of the track. This includes bunny hops, manuals, wheelies and sprints.

Conditioning will be basic physical conditioning so bodyweight exercises and stretching basically.

Track skills will be putting the training all together on the track. This will involve training as I have been all year with a mixture of full speed laps, pump laps and breaking the track down into parts to improve performance on each faze of the track. It will also include jumping which needs to be a big focus for the winter to get my jumping up to a level that I need it to be by the start of next season so that I am not having to slow down for that one big jump on most tracks that is the difference of me keeping up with the fast guys.

I have set myself the goal of jumping the second jump at bath by my birthday in January so I have October, November and December to get there.

I want to start to ride some different tracks as well over the winter as at the moment I am getting good on Bath and Bristol as I ride there a lot but I need to get used to other tracks too.

When I am on days I plan to start to try and go to Burnham on Tuesday and Thursdays as it is a really technical track and will help a lot in my progression and it also has a really big second jump on the first straight which I basically just hit and hold on at the moment but I need to jump to be competitive next year. They also have the fastest gate of all the local tracks which is a bonus and floodlights.

I then want to go to a different track each weekend although we are limited to the number of track as only a handful are actually open tracks. On a positive note I like all of the open tracks so it

Off of pain killers

The ribs are getting better. I have only been taking pain killers before I sleep for the last 2 days which is better. I have however had to sleep with 2 pillows under my left arm to stop it dropping down and hurting due to my body weight being on it.

Bike-wise I popped into Crucial on Saturday afternoon and looked at my front rim and I have got them to replace the front rim with a new Box rim exactly the same as the one that broke for now I am planning to get new rims and spokes for next season anyway so I will stay with the box for the winter.

I bought some dxr 175mm cranks off of facebook on Friday night which should arrive this week and then Yesterday I won a new set of training wheels off of e-bay which also should be here soon.

Photos of the cranks are below:

The cranks look a bit scratched but in pretty good condition. I will see how they are when they get here and then decide if I will get them dipped to look like carbon fibre or leave them as they are. I am not going to use them now as I am going to build up the Dialled with the cliq cranks that are on my Yess at the moment.

The description of the wheels was:

These excess 351 wheels and hubs are brand new ,built up but never used ,tyres are used but excellent, it has a 16 tooth cog From the photos they look brand new too.

For the time being I am going to build up the Dialled with the new wheels, and then take the cranks off of the Yess as well as the forks stem and bars and also the brake. I will buy a new seat clamp for the dialled and then it will be complete as I have a new kmc chain waiting to go on the bike already.

I will then put the dxr's onto the Yess with my clip peddles and then next month I will add a new brake, chain ring and bolts and then when I want to use it I just need to move the forks, bars, stem and seat over and it is ready to go.

I am thinking that by doing this I can use the Dialled bike most of the time and when I race or want to play on the Yess I can quickly swap over the front end and seat and I am away. No need to mess with sorting out brakes and chains which is a pain. It also means that both bikes will be as close to the same as possible.

I want to stop spending money on my bikes until at the earliest the end of the year so that I can start paying off my credit cards and also get some money saved up in the bank. The idea is to have saved enough to buy a van for next season.

I am still thinking if I am going to sell the Ice Frame and possibly the Yess Frame and stay with just the Dialled and the Curtis or if I am going to keep all of them and build up the ICE and Curtis bikes slowly next year. I will see how well I save money until the end of the year and also how I like the Dialled frame before deciding.

I am still debating whether I will race the Dirty South Series this winter or if I save money ready for next season.

I also want to have enough money saved up to pay for hotels for every regional race next year so that I can stay near each track and not have to go home after practice on the Saturday and drive back on the Sunday as the races where I stayed I did much better than when I had to get up early and drive to the race on the Sunday morning.

I think I am going to leave Nationals for another year so that I can get more money saved up to before I start racing.

Thrill gone

Swapped my Thrill last night for a brand new Ice Fast F-118 frame. It is really nice but has been put away to build up later once I have paid my credit card off.

I have decided that I am going to retire the Yess for the winter too and build up the Dialled bikes mx24r that I have to use over the winter while I get back into shape after my broken ribs. I am going to do the SW champs next weekend on my Yess and then get the parts moved over to the Dialled the week after.

I will then use the dialled for the next few months and then go back to the Yess early next year or build up the Ice or Curtis I am not sure yet.

The dialled should be an excellent winter bike as it should be a bit more forgiving than the Yess which is good as I want to hone my manuals and jumping over the winter so a chrome frame will be better. It will hopefully also allow my ribs to heal a bit better as well as there should be less vibration due to the chrome.

The dialled also has exactly the same top tube length as my Curtis will have so it will be a good way to ease into using the Curtis.

I am trying to get some cheaper wheels to use over the winter too so that I can keep my onyx wheels just for racing so they don't get totally thrashed with all the mud and wet over the winter.

My ribs are getting much better although I have been coughing and sneezing a lot over the last couple of days which isn't fun and is not helping too much.

I am hoping that they will be healed by next weekend but I am not sure if they will be or not. I am a bit worried as I have not been able to breath very well over the last few days which may mean that my lung got punctured or is infected either way it's not good. If it gets any worse I will have to go to the doctor and get it checked out.

Weigh in

Did a weigh in this morning and I am 97.95kgs so down 0.1 from my last weigh in.

Pretty happy as it is the first time that I am under 98kgs for at least 2 years so I am moving in the right direction.

My ribs seem to be getting worse instead of better I guess in part because I have been driving the last couple of days and loading bikes into and out of the car!

Last night I actually woke up a few times in pain. And I had to take some ibuprofen for the pain to get back to sleep. Luckily I have stopped taking the ibuprofen during the day so I was able to take it.

Yesterday we went to Crucial and dropped off my bike to be fixed from the crash and to pick up my son's bike which had had his new answer ti wheels put on. The new wheels on his bike have probably halved the weight of the bike as the original DK wheels were really heavy. He was really happy but didn't really try at gates again as his finger is still hurting a bit I think.

I am still wanting to race at the SW champs in 2 weekends time but I will have to see if I can or not nearer the time. I am going to take it really easy from now until then to heal as much as possible by the race.

Bike decisions

I have been thinking about what I want to do with my bikes over the winter.

I have decided that for the moment I need to stay on the Yess so that I get used to it for next season so at the moment I think I am going to store the dialled and ice frames then next year when I replace the parts on the Yess I will build up the dialled with the bits from the Yess. I will then build up the ice and then after that the Curtis.

The Ice and the Curtis can be displayed as kind of art as they are really good looking frames so they will not be thrown in a cupboard somewhere.

I had a look at my Yess yesterday and the bars are a bit more battered and the back wheel is really buckled from the crash so I am dropping it off at Crucial tomorrow morning when I pick up my son's bike from having his new wheels put on.

I really need to stop spending for a while to get my overdraft down and also save money to buy a van next year

I am still deciding if I will do nationals next year but from a financial standpoint I think it is better to wait another year. It also makes sense from a experience standpoint as I need to improve my manuals a lot and also learn to jump before I can compete at a National level so one more year riding regionals makes sense.

Once my ribs are healed I want to get a bit more serious about my training by doing circuit training 3 times a week with stretching afterwards and I also need to do a lot more conditioning to get my weight down more. I have done pretty well I have lost 5kgs this year so far so not too bad but I want to lose a lot of weight by next season so I will also need to do a couple of long bike rides this winter.

I also need to get back into regular sprint sessions as well as training my manuals which I have not really trained too much off of the track and it shows. I am planning to do manual training with my sprint training so that in between sprints I am practicing manuals as a kind of active rest.

As I can't ride at the moment I am currently working out a training schedule to follow for the winter. I will add it here once I have it pretty much finalised.