Kings Newnham Church

Or at least it was until most of it was demolished in 1795. Now it is part of a farm. It looks a lot more atmospheric in mid-winter.

I'm going to be a cycling bore for a bit. Actually worse than that, I'm going to be a Brompton bore. I've had my near bottom of the range 3spd model for 12 years now and we've been through a lot together. The recent spell of commuting though has brought us both close to the limit. The mixture of carrying a heavy load, and a busy main road with long steep hills has been quite hard work at times. OK, to be honest there's been a couple of times when I've nearly come to a standstill.

Obviously the problem can't be with my underlying fitness. So I thought of two obvious solutions.

Number 1: Be a real wimp and fit a low ratio 44t chainring
Number 2: Ring fence some of this year's bonus for a 2spd titanium Brommie

Then I thought it through. The issue seemed to be that on steep hills with a heavy load it becomes increasingly difficult to put any power down, maintain any rhythm, or to get out of the saddle.

And then it struck me that not being quite as light as I was, and carrying an awful lot of weight for my commute I was probably beyond the limit for the normal rear suspension elastomer. So I've just fitted the new style firm version.]

Has it made a difference? Hard to tell yet, on today's ride I was making too many stops for photography and adjustments. Psychologically it seemed to, but who knows.