George

Hi Chung, that's great news.
 
Yeah, we will be on the 05:30am shuttle to Bruges-FULL ROUTE-NO WIMPING OUT MR CROSS!!!!
 
Hope we can meet up but I do have a full schedule on Saturday (riding) and Sunday (touring the antique shops, in search of an antique Flemish gravy boat)
 
We should at least be able to meet up at the start and finish although myself and the Bairdinator will likely be half cut by the time "Richie Crosswinds" finishes.
 
der elk johnstone op op op bison-power op op!!!!
 
(I just made that up, it's not really Flemish)

Hi Chung, that's great news.
 
Yeah, we will be on the 05:30am shuttle to Bruges-FULL ROUTE-NO WIMPING OUT MR CROSS!!!!
 
Hope we can meet up but I do have a full schedule on Saturday (riding) and Sunday (touring the antique shops, in search of an antique Flemish gravy boat)
 
We should at least be able to meet up at the start and finish although myself and the Bairdinator will likely be half cut by the time "Richie Crosswinds" finishes.
 
der elk johnstone op op op bison-power op op!!!!
 
(I just made that up, it's not really Flemish)

Hello fellow adopted Flandrians,
 
I have some how managed to blag myself a space in Allan M's Flanders wagon come next April :-)
 
AllanM, Peter Graham, Alan Anderson (Coatbridge Clarion CC - Allan friend) & myself will be travelling by car on Thursday 31st March to Belgium via Hull - over night car ferry - to Zeabrugger - then staying 2 nights in Brugge to ride the Ronde De Vlaandaren Sportive 2016 :-)
 
George & co,
We're not sure how many of you guys are going, but I believe youse are staying in Oudenaarde (the ride finish town) so hopefully we can meet up the day before or after the ride for some "refreshments" somewhere :-)
It might be a good idea too if we can meet at the start as well, I assume you guys will be taking the organised transit to Brugge from Oudenaarde on the morning of the ride?
We'll be staying at the "Brugge Ibis Centrum Hotel" which is approx. 7-10km (I'm guessing) from the starting line.
 
Anyway, we still have plenty of time to plan/discuss, but just thought I would inform folks about our schedules.
 
Speak soon & I'll be off to polish my Flemish now :-)
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Chung, see you in the morning. Was out today & a nice wee steady run tomorrow will round the weekend off nicely. Cheers.

we could offer a great marketing opportunity, put some of their tarmac down, maybe in a 1.5- 2k circuit. call it a closed road. 
just a thought...

Echo the above. Slippery, muddy, wet, windy, magic! A bit surprised to find about 50 riders seeded and filling up the front 5 rows at the start though, but I suppose this was a championship round.
 
Folk all over the place at the start with a crash stopping us in our tracks before we hit the first mud. Three running sections which were pretty long due to the state of the course. Very few passing opportunities in the second half of the lap though as the trails are so narrow which can hold you up for a fair amount of time. Overall a great course though with a nice mix of deep mud, less deep mud and shallow mud to deal with.
 
Managed to catch up with Davie B's group on second last lap before slamming head first into a tree. Lost front brake and twisted lever. Took until said tree on final lap to catch him again just in time to see him wipe out in front of me in a track blocking classic but he got going again preventing my pass.
 
Felt a bit (okay not at all) bad as we sprinted the final 100m to the line just edging it. Sorry Davie!
 
That's my first cx race without being lapped so a definite improvement.

with the exception of the arena and the bridge runup  the course was all rideable (even by me) early in the day so you guys must have hit a wall of mud.
 
I am loving my cx and am now looking at new wheels to reduce my intrinsic suck factor. Of course the wife and children will starve but I might save 5 or 10 watts.

A bit of a late call to organise a run last night, 5 Wheelers - AllanM, Andrew D, Campbell, Peter Graham & myself went out to "enjoy" the weather with a run over the bridge for the Tak via the Kilsyth end & planned on tackling the Crow too.
 
Met up the troops on the bridge nice & early to take advantage of the better weather forecast earlier on, "hoping" it would last longer than predicted :-)
 
The Tak was nice in the sense that the road surface had been smoothly tarmac up till the car park, which made the climbing that bit more bearable. The weather started to close in while we were riding through the valley, it seemed like someone just turned the shower hose on & switched the fan setting a lot higher .......... boo!
 
So a decision was made to skip the Crow & turn right at Fintry to head for Killearn for a shorter route home & a café stop in the lovely village.
Large amount of food/drinks was consume & we left a big wet puddle on the lovely café floor (sorry to the café staff/owner) as we ventured (reluctently) back out to continue our wet pedal home.
Dissaster struck as Andrew double puncture on the way out as he rolled over a sharp drain cover, slashing his tyre wall. Fixing the damn thing was not pleasant given the fact it was blowing a gail & lashing down by this stage ......... fun!
 
Anyway, we got going again & riding through Dungoyne, then Strathblane to Milgarvin then I split with the guys to head through leafy Westend of Glasgow for home while the rest cycled back over the bridge.
I hope everyone got home without too much bother!
 
To be honest, I really enjoyed the wet & wind, I've said it before but there's a certain deep satisfaction cycling in the rain (as long as it's not freezing cold) it cleanse my soul (not that it's dirty in the first place mind) :-). With a decent "GoreTex" water proof, I was dry apart from my leg & feet, very much bearable for me.
It's the car passing in the wet which caused the ear annoying noise that I find really off putting, why do people want to drive in the rain anyway? :-)
 
However, it was a fantastic ride despite the weather & thanks to all for the wheels to follow today, I'm super glad I went out this morning!
 
Back home with 130km on my Garmin, I love Scottish weather! Now I'm going for a hot bath & then to bed! :-)
 
Thanks for reading .............
 
Cheers & catch youse on the road
 
Chung

Sorry guys not going to make it got an issue with my back wheel (admitedly it is the same problem i had last week and it didnt stop me going out then )

All, please see below, I received this from Dave Moss at TLI Cycling. May well be of ineterst to some,
 
For the last three years I have organised a week long supported tour of some of best cycling routes in Scotland. I'm taking expressions of interest for our 4th annual cycle tour of Scotland, June 11th to 17th. Being fully supported, this may appeal to anyone wanting to tour with a lightweight bike without the hassle of carrying all your luggage, having accommodation sorted for you and meals cooked for you have a hard days ride. You also befit from a route selected by a fellow cyclist who knows the best way to get round Scotland on a bike. Starting and finishing in Stirling, the 2016 tour takes us through the Grampian Mountains, across to Fort William and onto Mull via the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula visiting Iona before returning to Stirling via Loch Awe. Fully supported with baggage transfer, on ride snacks and van support, high carb meals prepared by our own cooks and great company make this a fantastic cycling experience. see www.tearfundcycling.btck.co.uk for details. I just charge the actual costs of the tour, all the support staff are volunteers. I then ask you to raise funds for the charity Tearfund. ( www.tearfund.org ) Dave Moss Regional Secretary Scotland

Had to wash mud off of mud before I could get to the mud on my bike... Both me and bike hosed down before going in the house. That was madness tonight. Loved it!

Great fun, love that route to Houston! Somehow I manged to get stung by nettles on my face! tingly

well you know what happens when you put big boys, toys, adrenaline and mud together .....
 
Great fun
 
 

Unlikely to make this now was going to fancy dress party Saturday night.
 
Thought of dressing up as a cyclist but my kits too wee for me now.

The Ronde veterans aren't really selling this well. At all.

Hi George, I echo Davie. Not an original thought in my head. For the lh crank to fall off the bolts would have to be very loose, then the safety catch falls out then the preload plastic bolt would have to be forced off the axle. I suspect something went wrong in installation.  Maybe even buy a torque wrench. your preload bolt must be stripped/bent so suggest you get another.
 
Main message from maintenance night was that Shimano et al. have very clever engineers so we might as well follow their fitting instructions (all online) to the letter. Plastic bolt is a good example. I feel daft when I get round to actually reading the fitting instructions and realise how much time/watts/money I could have saved by doing it properly. Of course you learn a lot more by stripping threads, wrecking frames and Pringling wheels yourself but that is not really the point.

George,
 
I suspect the preload bolt is designed to be rather "tragic" to prevent people "horsing" it up. So more design intent than crap design. It is sufficiently engineered to preload to the point your cranks will not freely turn.
 
You should achieve torque to the required settings no problem but make sure you tighten both in sequence a bit at a time, also ensure that the safety catch is located correctly - this catch should effectively stop the cranks coming off even if the bolts loosen.
 
I like the design and find the maintainability a vast improvement v's Campag.

I don't have any real experience of Hollowtech (though I bet lots of other folk on here do.) Could it just be that the pinch bolts haven't been torqued properly? From what I can see online they're meant to be torqued to 12-15nM, which is a lot for a bolt of that size. If you were to tighten them without a torque wrench I think there's a real risk that you'd leave them loose.
 
My Campag Ultra Torque cranks are secured with one bolt which holds the two crank arms together. Even when it's properly torqued it's prone to working loose unless you use threadlock on it.

Tightening the pinch bolts and the preload bolt in the wrong order is another possible cause of the problem you're having. The preload bolt needs to be tightened first.

Iain, if you up your game 30% I'll ride with you next year.

Martin, that's the pertinent info I was waiting on.

Just ride up that wee hill across from Dooleys.
 
500 times.

george what have you signed me up for and why did i let you talk me into this? never done cobbles before, anyone know any in the area where i can at least practice falling off?

My advice is keep hydrated. Jupiter is good for volume, Leffe when you're warmed up, and La Chouffe for when you get serious about things. As Greg says use metal cages and squeeze them to keep your bottles in tight.
 
Other than that just tighten up the bolts on your road bike and go. Flanders cobbles are mostly uphill, so you're not going that fast to worry (unlike Roubaix).  For the one downhill section and the 2 or 3 flat sections keep the power on so you don't lose your chain. Gets them over quicker too.
 
Now the important stuff. You will want frites, sausages and beer at the end, but they don't take cash at the bar. Buy tokens from the wee kiosk and use these to get your grub. 

You urny invited. My liver couldn't take another battering