It has been a long time coming, but hopefully this time, I can class myself as a biker again. Mountain biker that is, I've never stopped riding the powered variety, as seen on the other half of the website. What has influenced me to make this change you ask?
It all started between Christmas and New Year 2020, when Teapotone aka Bruce Smart, encouraged his followers to use the hashtag #Trimteapot on our exercise posts to encourage him to keep up with his get fit campaign. I was already planning to start again on the 1st of January, little by little with extended dog walks at first and then moving into cycling and maybe running as things developed.
All went well and within a couple of months, I was back out on my MTB, on the road, doing a 12km daily route. Something wasn't quite right though, as before I started to lose confidence in my bike, it didn't handle quite how I wanted it to. This has been an ongoing trend since I fell off it some 7 years ago breaking my collar bone in the process, it never felt quite right after that.
This time though I was determined to find the cause of the issue rather than give up again. Out with the spanners and Allen keys, I stripped a few bits off for inspection, all seemed ok, I then checked the frame by attaching metre long pieces of aluminium at various points, this is when I found the frame was twisted. I couldn't remember landing on it when I fell off, however, I woke up in a daze and remember very little of what actually happened.
Then came that hard part, New Frame or New Bike. It was quite an easy decision, in the end, me being a tight Yorkshireman and all, after a few days I found a store, STK4 Bikes, with a suitable frame in stock at a great price and ordered it and a few other pieces from elsewhere and waited for there arrival.
Over the next week, new bars, stem, headset and frame arrived and I pencilled in some time to perform the transplant, this all went well until I realised I had ordered a headset suitable for the old frame, not the new one. Back online and a suitable part was dispatched, from the UK this time so it took a week or so. Eventually, after a few busy weeks turned into a couple of months, I finished the transplant and had a "new" bike to ride.
Old frame Sunn Season 4, New Frame MMR Woki
At first, it seemed a bit strange, but I had gone for different geometry and a frame suitable for 27.5" wheels but am currently still using 26", so I wasn't expecting smooth sailing. Surprisingly though after a short shakedown run, I headed out on a training run and love it, it seems to fit better and certainly climbs better, maybe it's just me, who knows. This mornings route took in a bit more offroad, on a trail I have only walked previously and all went well.
Hopefully, therefore, after a few years of waywardness, I can finally get back to a semi-regular routine, watch this space. I even joined Strava, where you can follow what I am doing.
