Today was really a bike day of two halves. And honestly, I’m going to have to keep this short because the second half was painful. It’s genuinely uncomfortable to type.
Ok, so the gist is, I finished work early today to make up for last week. Excellent news as it was a lovely sunny day.
After my puncture, and on the advice of a very knowledgable cycling friend, I ordered two Continental GP5000 replacement tyres from Amazon. Having checked around, I seemed to get a decent deal on them – £31.60 each, whereas everywhere else had them for minimum £36 without delivery.
The kicker? Well, they would be coming from Barcelona. I didn’t know that at the point of ordering, but that’s what ended up happening.
They were due on Sunday as best I understood it. That was last Sunday… until I looked more closely, and realised it actually said Sunday 28th – aka this Sunday. Sad times, and a fail on my part.
Anyway, as I’ve been busy on Amazon buying PC bits, I’ve been on the site pretty much all day this week refreshing my orders, waiting to see when things are coming. And lo-and-behold, when I woke up this morning, I got the nice surprise of being told the tyres were out for delivery today – not Sunday.
Now, sadly, they didn’t get here in time for my ride. And that’s actually not such a bad thing, as we shall soon see.
Originally they were due to arrive between 13:45 and 15:45. Later in the day that delivery time slipped till 14:45-16:45, and at about 15:15, I gave up and decided to risk it on my repaired tyre.
So today’s ride was taken easy – partly because of the tyre issue, but partly because I’ve done my workouts for the week days this week.
Of course, the tyres showed up not 5 minutes after I’d left. But it didn’t matter.
The ride itself was a chilled one. I just pootled around, didn’t push myself much, just enjoyed being in the fresh air, in my bib shorts for the first time so far this year. What a treat. Still had to wear the jacket though.
Anyway, this is all turning out longer than my thumbs can bare.
When I got home I set about replacing both tyres. That was about 16:30, and I’m just done now… at 19:10!
Oh my god, my poor, poor thumbs.
That was hard as all heck.
There were two videos that really helped:
And then when it got to the really painful point at the end, this one:
Basically I am fully aware I have soft hands that are designed purely for computer work. I pride myself on them. Lovely, soft hands.
Not right now though. My thumbs feel callused. Brutal. Absolutely brutal.
Fortunately the second one was easier than the first – down to about 30 minutes whereas the first took about an hour. I stopped for tea in between.
My god.
Anyway, it’s done. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow – not a right lot to see to be fair. Just … well, tyres. Not the most interesting thing in the world. Bloody important ones though.
Right, that was much longer than my thumbs appreciated. I’m off for a beer.
