3/2 VTTA Kent Reliability Trial

About To Set Off

Peter Excels At His First Reliability Trial

With most of us having failed to become 'reliable' on the last reliability trial we thought we would try again at the VTTA Kent reliability trial. These reliability trials are such incredible value for money at only £2. This is an awful lot better than having to pay over £30 for an SRS sportive, the only difference is that the route is not signed (no problem with a gps) and you don't get any snack stops on the way round (carry your own food). Unfortunately none of the organisers could supply a gpx file for this route but myself and Peter worked together to map it out on trackslogs to turn the paper instructions into a gpx file we could follow. Peter was using one of those quite new gamin 500s, and this would be the first time he had used it to follow a gpx file course. Just like my old edge 205, it enables you to follow a 'bread crumb' path, unlike my 205 it has auto zoom which adjusts the scale of the path automatically. this worked really well and for much of the trial it was Peter at the front following the route with myself a bit further back making sure any stragglers did not miss the turn. This was Peter's first ever reliability trial and he rode very well with plenty of energy left at the end despite often being out on front with Nathan. As usual Paul Baxter has regained his fitness very quickly after his winter hibernation. Derek was cold at first but once he got going was pretty much back to his old self. Also with us was Mark on only his second reliability trial,riding by far the heaviest bike, Mark did find the last 10 miles a struggle but showed a lot of determination and kept going steadily to the end. He will find it all a lot easier on a better bike. Instead of taking out my SCR like I normally would , I was out on my Raleigh having discovered that much of the poor handling was not down to the frame but was down to a little bit of play in the headset. Having fixed that little problem and set the tyres to exactly 100 psi, it rode really well, so it has gained itself a reprieve.

Time To Refuel

Although not a very picturesque or interesting  route (quite a lot of major roads), the route was perfect for this time of year when a lot of a rider's energy is just being used to keep warm. The organisers were very friendly and asked if they could have a copy of the gpx files for next year.This time we were all classified as reliable coming in at the beginning of our predict time range. As soon as I know the date, I will add this to our google calender as we want to do this again next year.