8.04.2024 88km for new bars.

 ~o~

  Monday 8th 46F/8C. Up at 5.30. Still 66F/19C indoors without the stove being lit.

 7.20 Only a little cloud and the sun has risen.

 7.40 Time for a walk.

 8.20 Returned from a walk to the lanes. I was tempted by the field tracks but they were puddled and the soil was wet and sticky. The traffic was quite heavy. Slightly cool on my hands but I could feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek. 

 Brooks B67 in the lowered position on the dropper post. Note how curved the saddle appears. 

 8.45 I feel the need for a ride in the sunshine. The winds are light and southerly. I am tempted by the coastal lanes going north.  

 15.15 60F/15C. Returned from an 88km/55mile ride. I was saddle sore almost from the start despite wearing my best bibs and bare legs. [Padded cycling shorts with braces.]  After reaching my goal I came back by another way. 

 I visited a bike shop first but they had no suitable handlebars in stock. Lindebjerg were kind enough to sell me some handlebars from their electric bike range. These bars have sharper angles and more rise than my present bars. So I am hoping they will be more comfortable. I am already using the shortest, high rise stem available. I am almost upright on the bike but my hands and wrists still hurt. 

 The new handlebars propped on top of the originals.
 To show the much sharper bends and higher rise.

 Years ago I had a Scott mountain bike. It cost me £5 equivalent from a flea market. It was all aluminum but still weighed a ton! Even then I had wrist pain from the nearly straight bars. I never rode it very far. 

 All of my cycling life I have rested my hands on the hoods of racing bikes. Where the support was parallel to the machine. Not at right angles. The new bars are more swept back at the outer ends. Hopefully this will help.

 Lindebjerg's speciality is electric, mobility, micro-cars for the elderly and disabled. With e-bikes and scooters also in their range. They seem to be thriving. All of the staff, who passed me. While I was waiting for the young chap to come back. Spoke politely and offered help. They should train supermarket and big shed store staff. 

 The Lindebjerg building was incredibly smart and vast and they have showrooms in many Danish cities. They were enjoying a get-together around a hot dog van in the car park. To celebrate their 12th anniversary. They all seemed cheerful. The young man who was helping me even went off to quickly find a vernier caliper. To ensure the bars were the same sizes as my originals! That is real service!👍

 I deliberately stopped on each hour of the ride. To eat a sub-micro, Corny chocolate bar and drink a small carton of apple juice. If the packaging of the sub-micro, Corny bar gets any bigger, relative to the microscopic contents, they will have to provide a guide dog. Each bag is 1/3 longer than the bar!

 The lack of wind was enough to halt the wind turbines. Yet I still felt I was fighting a strong headwind all the way. There and back. It started sunny but became progressively more cloudy. Until it was fully overcast. I was comfortably warm in a racing jersey over a thermal vest. Under my Endura rain jacket. I had taken thermal long-johns and a jumper. Just in case. Now I am back at home it is 66F in the room but I feel cold. So I have put on fleece trousers and warm jumper.

The batteries had to be swapped as I neared home. The first had fallen to 20% charge. From memory, I think I managed around 75km/46miles on the first with 100% charge. That was 47% in Tour mode. To try and extend the range.  About the same amount in Sport mode and the rest in Turbo. Average speed was 23kph. 

 I saw lots of blokes on racing bikes out training. All of them ignored my wave. Perhaps they couldn't see me through their [expensive] dark glasses? I was overtaken by a streamlined trike. I was cruising at 30kph but they soon left me far behind! Later I was being chased by a mobility, three wheeler micro car. It followed me up a long, steep hill as I pedaled furiously in Turbo mode. As soon as we crested the hill I pulled off into a lay-bye. To let him pass. He was able to travel at twice my speed downhill. He gave me a wave and grinned as he passed.

 I shopped for groceries on the way back. When I came out of the supermarket the Nyon head unit would not turn on! Without the active display there is no assistance. An extra form of security. After fiddling for a few minutes I gave up and pedaled slowly away uphill in a low gear. Heading for home at a walking pace. After a few meters it switched itself back on. So then I had full assistance to get home. 

 Imagine if that had occurred far from home! Rather than the 10km/7 miles to the next shopping village. Even that distance would have been exhausting without power! There are some nasty hills on the way home.

 Dinner was bake beans on toast. Followed by supermarket, own label tomato soup and a bread roll. The soup was much better than the usual, overpriced Heinz. The own label beans as awful as they have always been. Under-cooked and chewy with watery sauce. Made badly in Italy.

 

  ~o~

7.04.2024 Contec saddle frame critique continued.

 ~o~

  Sunday 7th 53F/12C. Very heavily overcast and a very wet morning. A northeasterly going stream should slide away after 10am. Threat of sunshine later. Up at 6.20 after a quiet night.

This is the text directly copied from Contec's own website describing its "Exclusive Touring Men's" saddle:

"Harmonious suspension at the saddle end with 2 built-in springs ensures comfortable sitting. The springs effectively dampen every impact.  

Furthermore, the rails made of chromium-molybdenum steel offer secure and comfortable support. The high-quality alloy ensures that the rails remain impact and crack-resistant. 

The saddle does not require a plain seatpost clamp, it is suitable for use with a modern seatposts, in which the post and the clamp form a single unit.

The assembly of the saddle and post is more durable with modern seatposts than with multi-part clamps. This fulfills a further aspect in terms of high-quality seating comfort: A permanently vibration-resistant saddle angle." 

 Strangely, it does not mention the nicks at every saddle frame bend. Caused by the dies of the wire frame bending machine. Making it highly prone to breakage many miles from home! As happened to me. So that the saddle made a loud knocking noise and rocked sideways with each turn of the pedals. The frame had broken at the saddle nose. Fortunately, for me, it was the under-frame which snapped and not the seatpost support frame. 

 The easiest way to break hard, spring wire is to dent it. The dent causes a local stress point. Repeated flexure will then snap the wire at the dent. There is no need to cut right through the hard material. Which cannot be cut with a normal hacksaw. Only grinding or a disk cutter will penetrate the hard surface. Piano wire is a common springy wire used for making models. It exhibits the same qualities as Contec's spring wire, saddle frame. 

 10.25 It stopped raining round 10am and now the sun is trying to break through. I might have a ride into town.

 13.30 60F/15.6C. Sunshine and gales. Returning from a ride into town. 30km/19miles. It was a struggle going there into the headwind. The cycle lane was completely flooded but i  didn't need to go that way. 

 It was almost as bad coming back with a cross wind. My way was blocked by flooding on a narrow lane. I started into the water but quickly ran out of forward motion. It was much deeper than I had guessed. So I had to pedal to keep going. My right foot went right under the water and then the left! It was bløødy cold! Fortunately I was on my way back by then. The B67 saddle needs to be tipped slightly more nose up.  

 The greenhouse is showing 100F/38C despite the wind whistling through the gaps. So I have opened the internal windows to warm the house. I shall have to fit the shade nets soon but can guarantee it will be warm and sunny again for ages if I do.

 Dinner was salad. No tomatoes. I forgot to buy more. The 14+ minutes of boiling the eggs was slightly too much. They were fine but 12 minutes is the gold yolk standard.

  ~o~

6.04.24 60km and saddle dismantling.

 ~o~

  Saturday 6th 46F/8C. Light SW winds until after lunch.

 7.30 Overcast but brightening. It should remain dry. With some sunshine possible later. Up at 6.30 after a reasonable night. I shall go for a walk soon. Morning brightness, when available, is just as important as the exercise. Roaming in quiet, green spaces is another bonus.   

 8.15. 49F/9C. The sun is trying to break through but with little success. I saw two pairs of yellowhammers before I'd left the drive. Not much to report after that. Except for all the attention seeking skylarks. 

 I walked to the lanes. Becoming too hot in a thin fleece jacket and jumper. While my hands remained cold. The large puddles had returned to the fields after more heavy rain. Though not on the scale of Australia. Where they had all 7"/18cm of April rain in one day. It did not end well.

 9.20 Sunshine! Too good to waste! Where am I going today?

 15.00 61F/16C. Rode to see my friend. 60km/37miles. There was occasional sunshine and it was mild. I had to remove my jumper on the way and swap batteries on the way back. Lots of flooding in the fields. Huge puddles and streams across the rural lanes. I rode through water over 10cm/4" deep at one point. Keeping to the crown to minimize the water depth. 

 Becoming more breezy and cloudier later. A flying beetle managed to get past my hearing aid and into my ear. I stopped several times thinking my hearing aid was dislodged. Then it started tickling even worse. So I removed my helmet, sunglasses and hearing aid. After which I managed to hook the beetle out with my little finger. How did it get past the silicone dome in my ear?

 Safely back at home I dismantled both saddles. The Contec "Exclusive Touring" and the Brooks B67. The springs were the same width apart but there were differences. The Contec leather top is at least 10mm longer. The screws and the springs were different sizes too. I could have used the B67 frame on the Contec leather top but decided it wasn't worth the risk of trouble far from home. 

 I have to say that the Contec seemed far better made and designed overall. Though was obviously a close copy of the B67. One screw [or nut] on the Brooks was cross threaded. Making it impossible to tighten or loosen. Brooks use a square shank, coach bolt, to grip the last coil of the spring. Which quickly failed. I had to resort to a woodworking clamp to hold the head of the bolt still while I worked on the nut. The Contec uses slightly smaller diameter crews with serrated lock nuts. It was much easier to dismantle. 

BUT: As mentioned previously: My Contec saddle has sharp nicks at every bend of the wire frame. Making it highly susceptible to local fracture or even work hardening. All it needed was for the bending tool dies to be gently radiused. This glaring cock-up was clearly beyond the copyist's understanding of the Brooks 19th century technology. Which uses completely worn out machines from the steam driven era. So that it's machine bending dies are all worn out enough not to nick the bends even if they tried. While Contec's built in obsolescence is probably due to nepotism. 

 Or the factory sweeper being put in charge of design and production. That's not really fair. Many a factory sweeper would know far better at a glance. But would never be listened to by an elitist or crooked management bent on copying an existing product.

 No qualified engineer could possibly have let this major production fault pass first inspection. Let alone leave the sweat shop. 

 If further examples of bend nicking exist then all Contec saddles are clearly unfit for purpose. "Unmerchantisable goods" I think they used to call it. Back in the last century in Gravely Blighted. Which is against UK consumer law. 

 Sadly, Denmark has no consumer protection. So I can't just go to the Local Trading Standards Office for learned advice. Had Contec answered my email, about the broken frame, I might not have been so harsh. 

 Any company, which fails to support its shoddy products, is clearly little more than a bunch of crooks. Strictly IMO of course. I wonder if I should upload a video to YouTube? To show the faulty construction of my £90/105€ + £10 postage, Contec saddle. What they used to call "a nice little earner!" 

 Dinner was fish fingers and chips.

 

  ~o~