This picture sums up the glamour of this morning’s ride so far. I re-oiled the chain after yesterday’s drenching but still had a very annoying squeak on the back wheel. I put it down to the lubrication in the wheel itself being washed away along with the chain oil. It was annoying me so much that I purposefully stopped outside a garage to examine it. My plan worked; the guy who ran the place came out with some heavier duty oil than I have for the chain. But the noise continued. Until that is I cleaned the rubber flap at the bottom of the rear mudguard; it had become so clogged up with gunk from the road yesterday that it was preventing the wheel from rotating smoothly. One stress down…
The rain has stopped for the timebeing but I’m sure it is just toying with me. As for the road surface…. still horrendous at times. I’ll be posting a letter of complaint into the transport ministry in Rome later.
It might get better, especially if I move away from the SS2. It becomes a dual carriageway just north of the Lago di Bracciano so rather than battle the Roman cars and lorries at that stage, I’ll take the P493 that passes to the west of the lake itself. This then rejoins the SS2 nearer Rome after the dual carriageway section has finished.
On the back of Marcello’s Facebook comment about the Tiber Cycleroute, I am, unfortunately going to give it a miss which is a great pity. What a fantastic way it would have been to arrive in one of the great centres of civilisation. It looks as though it is not to be.