Day 258

Got up early and took Rosie and Cleo to Morgans Hill for a walk (We are looking after Cleo over Christmas for a friend).

We saw a few Deer (Monkjack) at the bottom of the Hill

After the walk I finally got round to shifting an old fridge and freezer to the household recycling centre, its only taken about a year!

After lunch I went for a nice 30 mile ride on the Merida, I cycled Chippenham -> Devizes -> Avebury -> Calne -> Chippenham (Route Here...)

Although very cold (0.6 deg C) the wind had changed direction and dropped a little (ENE 11 mph) and the ride was very enjoyable, even the A361 had some quiet stretches.

The stretch shown in the photo is slightly down hill, but was into wind, I found that cycling sat more upright I was maintaining around 15.5 mph, when I dropped down onto the drop handlebars with no more effort the speed increased to 17.5 mph (I will definitely have to get used to cycling using the drop handlebars!)

I was very happy with today's ride, I cycled up some quite tough hills and I must say that at least one of them seemed easier on the Merida, I will still have to get used to the gear changes, I am still not quite getting it right when changing the front chain ring up/down, I either end up in to easy a gear or worse to tough a gear! and end up loosing my momentum going up a hill.

As it was such a clear crisp day I took a few more photies of the cold Wiltshire countryside.


When I got back home I gave the bike a wipe down with a damp cloth, there was still some road salt in evidence on the roads :-( I will definitely NOT be taking the new bike out again when there is ANY salt in evidence!

The cycle computer showed 29.12 miles in 1 hour 53 min with an average speed of 15.4 mph