March 13 2008

A combination of being rather off-colour and atrocious bad weather have prevented me from doing very much on the bike for a couple of weeks. I have just ridden into town a couple of times more or less between gales. I have very little to record therefore but there are a few bits and pieces.

Concerning the sprung front forks first of all. Being conscious of my weight I have these fully tightened. They still have plenty of spring despite this, and if I press down on the handlebars they give quite readily and return noticeably more slowly. It's very obvious that they are well dampened in some way and are far from being a simple spring. When riding however I really cannot say that I noticed them having any affect. I haven't ridden over any obviously poor surfaces so perhaps this is not surprising, but I don't seem to notice any difference from any other bicycle that I've ridden. I did try riding gently down a low pavement curb and then I thought that I could feel a definite softening of the impact, but of course I was looking for this and may have imagined even that. So far then I have very little to say about the forks.

Every time I get on the bike I am amazed yet again at how superbly well the front wheel is built. I have never before had a front wheel in which no slightest wobble of any sort can be detected. But really this front wheel rotates like a fine gramophone turn table would once have rotated. Derby cycles have obviously fully mastered, what I suppose is still rather an art, of spoking bicycle wheels.

I am also still astonished at how smoothly the bike rolls. When I first read Flecc's review I didn't quite understand what he meant about the bike being free rolling. Surely a bike either has free bearings or it doesn't have them I thought. But how wrong I was. Of course my weight represents quite a bit of inertia but even taking this into account it is astonishing how far the bike will roll with no imput on a flat road. Again I have never known anything like it. I had no idea how much difference various tires could make in this respect. The perfectly smooth contact surface of the fitted tires obviously does make a very large difference - one which on a long ride must represent a considerable saving of effort.