Cold Weather, Replacement Cassette And Pedals

It has been very cold! I managed to do a steady 90mins on my way home on Monday and last night a further 160mins. Water bottle froze on both occasions and I had to be very selective about the lanes I chose to ride on, the narrower ones were just too icy with the remnants of Sunday night's snow. Last night I managed 40mins of sweet spot at 92% (whilst riding back and forth along a 6 mile stretch of road) before I had to put my wind proof jacket on and I just couldn't get my legs going after that. I ended up averaging 80% overall so it was a useful aerobic ride.

I had to change my chain last week and the new one just wouldn't mesh with the 12/23T cassette that I have had on for a long time. I've fitted a 15/25T in its place. That gives me the closest ratios over 9 sprockets and will be much better for sub-threshold workouts where I like to keep cadence around 100rpm.

Phil gave me a good pointer last week too. I fitted some new Look Keo black (zero float) cleats to my shoes and they were squeaking rather badly. He had done the same and noticed that he had more float than he expected. Changing his pedals corrected the problem. I've been using some cheap Keo pedals and I swapped mine too. It's made a real difference, once again my feet feel secure and the squeaking has been eradicated. I hadn't given pedal wear any thought but at the end of the day they are only injection moulded plastic. There must be a lot of abrasive grit that gets constantly scrubbed across the pedal and cleat mating surfaces and results in sloppy engagement.