Addendum

As a tedious (the 'bores' bit of RantingCycleBores isn't there just for looks) update to my earlier post, I eventually decided which wheelset I would buy.

The picture on the left may have slightly given the game away; I chose a pair of Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels.

Initially, my interest in the Fulcrums was piqued by the arrival of a 'buy our stuff' e-mail from Ribble. They were selling Fulcrum Racing 1 wheelsets for £520GBP (delivered) and that seemed like a good deal. Most other stockists appear to be looking for around £675GBP for them, which doesn't necessarily include delivery. So, off I went to investigate them (and another three wheelsets) further and find out if they'd be suitable for me. Thanks to the customary Google Shopping search, I discovered a German shop called H&S Bike-Discount selling them for 539.90€. After a quick currency conversion, that turned out to be (even adding 2€ for DHL/Deutsche Post delivery instead of DPD) around £450GBP.

As a tightwad, I couldn't let an offer like that pass me up and ordered the wheelset on Tuesday morning. On Thursday afternoon, the wheels were on my bike. That's a splendid delivery time. I'm impressed. Plenty of companies within the UK don't deliver as quickly.

Although I'm tempted, I haven't been out on the bike to try the wheels yet. I'd been for cycles the two days prior to receiving the wheels and don't want to risk fatiguing my dodgy knee. It hasn't given me any real bother yet this year but I'm not going to push my luck with it. I'll keep on with the ice pack compression, Biofreeze, stretching, light resistance work etc. and hope to turn it into a beast of a knee.

Fingers crossed (that'll make braking difficult) the wheels will be everything I hope for and more.

Crosswinds? They were bloody furious

Forgive the awful cliched joke I titled this post with. In fact, revel in it. It's all downhill (and not in the good cycling downhill way) from there.

Unsurprisingly (as most of my posts start this way) I was out for a scoot (again, not anything fecal) on my bicycle today and this time found myself thinking a lot about crosswinds. It wasn't particularly windy but enough to bring them to my attention. Plus, they'd been talking about crosswinds on ITV4's Vuelta coverage and Paul Kimmage mentioned about them in the bit of Rough Ride (so far an upbeat piece of chirpy light reading and chuckles if ever there was one) I was reading last night. I was prone to crosswind thoughts. 'So get to the point' I hear you cry. Yes, you're right.

Thinking about crosswinds and suffering a little bit of them today, I wondered why they're so annoying. I cycle alone most of the time so it's not like I'm missing out on shelter in the bunch. I'd have thought, using my basic abilities, a wind coming from the side wouldn't make much difference to one's forward motion. It seems I'd have thought wrong. Why does a perpendicular breeze make it more difficult to move forwards? I mean, it's not as bad as an out and out headwind but it's far from pleasant. Am I being an idiot by not knowing? Probably.

In other gibberish, I'm pleased with the way my dodgy right knee has been behaving. I went up (by my standards) a couple of reasonable climbs today. They were quite different from one another too; one was a longer consistent drag and the other was pretty steep (up to about 16/17% at times, which made me feel like walking). It was a good test for my knee and it appears to have passed. That Talar Made 'Compression Cold Therapy - Knee' ice pack seems to have been doing its job. Even asides from it, in general, I've been taking better care of my wonky knee. I've been rubbing anti-inflammatory gels into it, stretching it more fastidiously than I might have in the past, making sure I don't kneel on it too much and lots of little things like that. It appears to be paying off. Here's hoping it continues with its good behaviour.

Do you remember me slabbering on (a few posts ago) about sticking Elite bottle cages on my Sab Alicudi? No? Don't worry about it. Well, I've got a pair of Elite 'Custom Race' bottle cages and the Elite logo on them (which is kind of rubbery) got quite grimy very quickly. I thought I'd give something a go before heading out today and, to my pleasant surprise, it cleaned them up well. It was, simply, to clean them with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Ha! In your face people who think Europeans don't own toothbrushes or toothpaste. Obviously I'd advise using an old toothbrush (or one bought specifically) for such purposes.

While on the subject of the Elite 'Custom Race' cages, I'd advise people to make sure their bottle is fully pushed into place when using them. It slides in a bit and seems to meet some resistance but takes another push to get it into the desired position. I've accidentally put it into the 'first' position a few times. It hasn't caused any problems but I'd guess it holds the bottles less satisfactorily and slippage could occur. Don't come crying to me when that happens.

ADDENDUM: After writing the main piece of this post I (although it was fairly spotless when I got it home as it had been dry) cleaned my bicycle. That in and of itself isn't anything peculiar for me. However, this time, I cleaned the tyres. Is that a step too far? Am I on a slippery slope?

Talar Made

After a few months of using a Lidl ice pack stuffed into an Endura kneewarmer, I decided to upgrade to a Talar Made 'Compression Cold Therapy - Knee' ice pack about a week ago.

After waiting Amazon's customary 'couple of days' for delivery, I was excited (no, I'm not joking) when my new ice pack arrived and I got the opportunity to try it out. Almost immediately upon returning from one of my usual short cycles, I whipped the new Talar Made ice pack out of the freezer (where I left it, having removed the pump section first as instructed), attached it to my troubled knee, fitted the pump on and pumped it up to compress and freeze my stinky joint into submission.

On first impressions (I've only used it about three or four times) it's great. As you might expect, it's a world of difference from shoving a wee basic pack into a kneewarmer. I didn't think the compression would help as much as it does. Upon further thought, it's kind of obvious that cooling and compressing potential inflammation would be a good combination. It's not, however, something my little mind thought of.

In summary, I'd recommend it to anyone who has similar problems (mine seem to relate mainly to around the patellar tendon). It will be £30 GBP extremely well spent if it continues being as effective as it has so far.

Should there be any revelations to add from further usage (either positive or negative) I'll likely stick it on at the end of this.