Back in the saddle again

After the rather large effort which was the Bicycle Queensland Wilson HTM Brisbane to the Gold Coast Cycle Challenge (seen here via Nokia SportsTracker), I took a bit of time off to be less cycle-y. Also wanted to get a chunk of time together to give my steed a service, especially the brakes. So it was only today that I got back on the bike.

Yes, rather slack, and rather lazy of me.

I’ll live.

I’d put the knobblies back on because I planned to ride up to the top of Bowman Place (higher than the top of Mt Ommaney Drive) and then ride down the southern side, which is all bush. Sadly, not to be. The southern side is massively overgrown with some really thick vine-like stuff with thorns. I’d have had to crawl underneath if I’d been walking – riding was out of the question. Got back to Bowman Place, kicked up a gear or two going down towards the boat ramp, then kept up a decent pace going all the way up to Sumners Rd and home just before the rain started.

So, 16.7km in 56 minutes at an average of 17.9km/h. Not too bad really since that includes the scrabbling around in undergrowth as well as the actual ascent of Mt Ommaney itself. Since that was one of my goals from before the B/GC100, I was delighted at just how easy it was to get up there.

Yes, I was panting and pretty stuffed at the top, but I recovered very quickly.

Also, what used to be a real killer of an end – the last climb up to Sumners Road – just wasn’t. So, I still need to get my brakes fixed up properly, they’re just not quite right yet, still not one-finger control. I also need to adjust my rear derailleur – sometimes it just doesn’t shift from 4-5 or 6-7, very annoying.

I also need to spend more time off the roads, and boy oh boy, the difference in cornering with the knobblies (cf the slicks) was quite strange. Sigh. Want Road Bike. Sigh. Just going to have to keep on riding, no matter what I’ve got.