Is it all about the bike? Is it not all about the bike? What is definitely true is that it is all about being on the bike. I’m not going to get any better if I don’t spend more time on it, now am I?
So I spent 2 hours in the saddle today, doing the usual kind of training loop, with added kinks to try and make it last longer. There was a nasty N/NW wind which was, as the weather forecast put it, chilly. To say the least. And strong enough to be really quite annoying, apart from those delirious moments when you turn a corner, the noise drops, and suddenly you’re flying. To be fair, the only time this really came together was going along the road across the Levels south of Mark, but those 3 miles, where doing 21+ miles per hour came easy, were very lovely 🙂 I even made sure to balance them out by going up Mudgeley Hill to get home. Yes, I voluntarily went up a hill again. Which I’m still doing better than going down the darn things…*grrrr*.
Now, to take a literary detour…
One of the things that I dislike about this interweb thing is how everyone leaves negative reviews about things. Not enough people are positive. So having successfully demonstrated the wondrousness of Giro Indicator helmets again, and having blogged here accordingly, I decided I would email Giro/Madison and tell them how fab they are, and point them at my blog. Well not only did they put me on their FB page and twitter about me, they were also chuffed enough with it all that they sent me a shiny new fab Saros helmet too! How cool is that?! I was speechless! Well, as close as I get to speechless anyway 😉
Today was the first time I got to wear it out, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since it arrived. It’s definitely different to the Indicator. It has no visor for starters and due to that and how it sits on my head, it barely impacts on my visual field at all – only when I look directly up which, let’s face it, I don’t do much when riding along. I found it easier to adjust the straps to get it to fit properly, and the RocLoc5 system makes it fit around my head easily, as well as feeling a bit better made than the similar system in the Indicator. It’s also slightly higher in side profile at the front, which probably explains why it’s supposed to be so good at venting – not something that I really got to appreciate today. It hasn’t got the bug catching mesh at the front that the Indicator has, but hopefully that won’t be a problem. The only real downside is that my hair, which is usually in a bun in the gap between RocLoc and helmet doesn’t fit there in the Saros so the bun has to go at the base of my neck. This is going to take a little getting used to and may be tricker once I’m no longer wearing a Buff under the helmet, but is hardly a complaint about the product! 😉
Anyway, essentially once it was on I barely felt like I was wearing it, which was a bit weird to start with as your head feels a bit nekkid, but is lovely once you get used to it. When it rained towards the end of the ride I did kinda miss the visor though, so I reckon it’s going to make the perfect summer helmet. It looks pretty cool too. Not that looks are important. Oh no. Not all. It will also co-ordinate really well with my ACG cycling top 🙂
So I now have an heir and a spare and am hoping having a spare helmet is liking having insurance – if I’ve got one, I won’t need it! *grin*
Cycling time: 2:01:03
Distance: 29.2 miles
Avs: 14.4 mph
ODO: 6840 miles
Back to the ride. Which was was not the world’s most enjoyable ride. T’was cold, very windy, very grey, quite boring, and eventually wet too. Lovely. But I did it, I didn’t wimp out and head for the gym. I did wimp out of washing the bike when I got back in though *grin*.