Gears and Fatigue....

 

I thought that the photos for this weeks blog post could reflect some colour. The week has been very dismal and dull weather wise so it's nice to check out some of the flowers in Anne's flower bed at the front of our pitch. We have had a good showing of colour there since early Spring and most of the flowers have been planted from seeds from the previous years flowers....

The dull weather also reflected my health this past week.... I suffered with a real deep fatigue for nearly the whole week. We are not talking just being tired here, no... what I am talking about is a total breakdown of having any energy at all.

 It's been like trying to move through wet thick cement and not being able to think straight.... I had planned to go for a ride on the Wednesday because it was due to be the better day of the week. I would have liked to have gone for my next distance and ascent target but after just cycling for only 200yds it was obvious that an easier shorter ride was all that I would be able to achieve.

 In the end I managed a 10.8 mile ride and that was the absolute maximum that I was capable of. It took me the rest of the day to recover but I was so glad that I had actually attempted to get out on the bike. It gave me a real psychological. boost to have attempted a ride ....

Talking again about bike riding It was interesting to hear that Shimano have decided to remove mechanical gearing from their top two groupsets DuraAce and Ultegra.

 In future the first tier that you will be able to obtain  a mechanical set of gearing will be 105. Now you might say why would anyone want to use mechanical gearing when the electronic gearing is so good. It is consistent with perfect gear changing at the push of a button. Perfect gear changing every time. Totally reliable and for the racers very slightly faster ... 

I have ridden a number of bikes with electronic shifting and have been blown away by how good it is. Before I bought my Focus I tried out Ultegra electronic shifting as I was unsure what to go for and it really was impressive.

 In the end I decided on the 105 mechanical set. 

Two main reasons.... 

Pushing a button works perfectly but it gives no feed back. You cannot tell what gear you are moving to as every button push feels the same. When I push the lever on a mechanical set I get a feedback in a very slight change in lever tension that I don't get with an electronic button push. Agreed it is very slight and probably only an experienced rider would be able to pick up on it but it is definitely there and seems to keep me in touch with my gear changing in a more organic way which I like.

 The other reason of course is the amount of money I saved by sticking with mechanical...... If you want the best most consistent and reliable gear changing around then you can't beat electronic but if you want to retain a more organic feel to your gear changes then it will have to be 105 in future. .......