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Some cracking riding around there, but also a lot of rain.
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I've got one of these rings in the same finish, been great. GLWS!
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Personal highlights of the trip's riding have to be:
Dyfi Forest climb out of Aberllefenni. Beautiful & quiet, winding up the valley past a few slate mines. Felt really remote. A few good kickers, but plenty of nice gentle bits where you could recover & take in the scenery.
Stwlan dam climb out of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Consistently steep closed road climb up to a little reservoir, with nine hairpins! Racing down again I was reminded of that swoopy mojo you get into descending a windy col, fab.
Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech, which may or may not be the steepest road in the world. Either which way, it's bloody wild how that road ramps. A little bit annoyed my Strava didn't stop properly at the top when I went to buy a postcard. Ah well.
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Pink bar tape is popping, but doesn't handle the rigours of dirty post-puncture hands very well. My fault for going touring on a patched tube. Glam photos from our questionably four-starred hotel in Barmouth last week.
Little tour of Wales was fab. A complete mixed bag in terms of weather - never been wetter on the bike in the Peaks & never been hotter on the bike (in the UK) in north Wales. Some fantastic climbs - lots of inspiration from the top 100 climbs books - & generally great roads - really pleasantly surprised how much better the roads surfaces than around home. It was a nice change hotelling it & being able to pack light (still took too much) & knowing that no matter how wet or sweaty we got, we'd be able to get comfy in the evening. Maybe I'm getting soft.
@Tor managed to get up some tough grades on her Aurelius, but when we got back she's been shopping - a drivechain overhaul to the same range as I have on my Ritchey. Think she was jealous of my comparative spinning on the 20% ramps of Long Mountain climb.
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Sadly (but not for all), the blue GravelKing SKs are pretty shredded, so having to retyre (heh) them. Just stuck some Continental Contact IIs I used to have on the Croix de Fer on as we're going touring down next week.
Realised that the year is slipping away, I've got shedloads of leave & probably no plans to go away in September as we'd hoped. So booked in a last minute mini tour in Wales next week. Since camp sites with communal facilities are a bit iffy in the current coronavirus climate, I've opted for the cheapest hotels we can find around. Something to look forward to, not ridden in Wales since I went to university there & was one of only two people in Aberystwyth who rode fixed gear.
Anyway, spent the afternoon swapping tyres between four bikes. It's a faff, but each one is a five minute job, so can squeeze it in while waiting for builds to run.
Oh, & ordered some pink bar tape for the Ritchey. All black is a bit boring.
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Got the Suzue ProMax hubs rebuilt onto some Kinlin ADHN by Woodrup. Pretty pleased with them, they spin lovely again (were in need of a service) & match the look I was after. Plus the rims are pretty wide, so the 25mm Gatorskin measures up as 27mm, nice.
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Do we need a hhsmxb thread?
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Rowdy. What's the case for a custom carbon fork? I guess it could be lighter without needing to be built with a disc brake mount.
Leeds/Manchester.