Not sure whether I’m coming down with something, or it’s just the lingering effects of the blood donation, but running has felt really tiring for the past week or so, and my heart rate has been through the roof at what ought to have been an easy pace. I did get a chance for a refreshing dip in the sea before cycling home after Tuesday’s training session though.
The front brake on my old yellow bike (not to be confused with my new yellow bike) had been making an annoying noise, and I wondered whether it was related to the wheel being a fraction out of true after I replaced the spoke as part of the process of getting it back on the road. I took the excuse to switch the wheels for the Shimano ones from the other bike, that I’d replaced with carbon ones. In the process of doing that, I found that the spring on the front caliper (a nearly new Ultegra unit) wasn’t working, and the arm that the cable pulls basically just flaps around. I’m not really sure what’s going on there, but for now I’ve put the Tektro calipers that originally came with the bike back on.
I rode the (new yellow) commuter to work for the first time on Wednesday, having received the cheap DI-2 charging cable I’d order from AliExpress and charged the shifter battery up. Everything seemed to work fine, but on the way home it stopped changing gear, leaving me to pedal the last couple of miles in a low gear. Fortunately there was a massive headwind, so I wouldn’t exactly have been zipping along anyway. I assumed it hadn’t charged properly, but after I got home it seemed to work fine, so maybe a loose cable or something. I can’t help thinking a normal gear cable would be less hassle.
The correct sized spokes for the wheels I’m building for the Grinduro arrived (second time lucky), and I’ve got the wheels loosely laced up now. Just the difficult bit of tensioning them all up and getting the wheels true and correctly dished to go!
Last week my bread machine paddle seized up. I had a dig around in the garage to find my previous machine in the hope of cannibalising the bearing assembly from the pan, but it turns out they’ve changed the design. I managed to find one online for a bit less than Panasonic were charging, and now it’s fitted and all working well again. In the interim I tried baking a loaf the traditional way, with a tin in the oven, but it sunk horribly and I ended up breaking it up and putting it on the garage roof for the gulls. I’m not sure quite why I can make pizza, baguettes, naans and bread rolls and they’re always fine, but whenever I try a loaf it’s a disaster. I did make the dough in the mixer instead of kneading it by hand, so maybe that’s the problem.
Having completed my latest Buffy rewatch, I’ve now started on Veronica Mars. I’ve never seen it before, but it keeps getting praised on all the Buffy podcasts I’ve listened to (SlayerFest ’98 this time), so I thought I’d give it a go. Really enjoying it so far, although it took me a while to be able to tell any of the rich white boys apart.