Hi Pete,
Great post - only just seen this as I've off the grid for the last month or so and am only now going through the posts I have missed.
We are doing the ride for Cardiac Risk in the Young/AEDdonate in order to raise funds for public accessible defibrillators to be placed out in the community. As many of you will be aware we unfortunately lost my brother-in-law around 18months ago so this is a significant fund-raising event for myself and the wife. She is joining us for the ride, along with my sister. Quite a number of the AEDdonate charity team have also signed up with us and will be riding the course with us whilst carrying full oxygen kits and defibs!
We've got up to about half distance pretty easily so far - riding along the canals from the centre of Brum (took the train in) back home again. I have been using my mountain bike but I took my trusty Burner out a few days ago and put some serious road miles on it to see how it felt.
To be honest I was shocked at the low gearing but the bike I am building for the ride will be much higher geared to get me down the road a little more efficiently, plus I've fitted the longest cranks I could get my hands on as well (Hanabishi 180). I was also shocked at how much I ached all over the following morning so I am going to fit a taller seat post to my L2B build.
I am using my newly unearthed Birmingham WHEELS Pro on the day, and the build is pretty much there now. Just the brakes to bolt on and it's done. I am going to change the seat post from a Shimano Dx to a taller UNI graphite based on my experience on my last ride out. I have gone for Tech 2 levers to keep them out of my way for the majority of the ride also. Rims are skinnies with unusual Carlisle Aggressor R/A tyres which have a semi-slick feel to hopefully lessen rolling resistance... Saddle is a modern black and red padded mountain bike effort.
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I've also picked up a vintage race lid too
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