Week 8...3 Amigos go on a hearty ride

Not much cycling this week in terms of number of rides, dunno why just didn't fancy it too much, there was added complication which made commuting a bit tricky as i had an engagement Tuesday afternoon which i couldn't miss.

This engagement was unfortunately the celebration of the life of friend and colleague Caroline Miller. Ordinarily i wouldn't mention such an event here but Caroline was a serious cyclist and general outdoor person. Caroline was diagnosed with suffering from Motor Neurone Design (MND) just over 5 years ago, since receiving the tragic news she seriously upped the ante on her outdoor pursuits. Caroline had the Bulbar-onset version of the disease which meant that she was still able to remain physically active until relatively recently, unlike other forms where physical restrictions can be one of the identifying symptoms. Since diagnosis Caroline reputedly racked up 14 thousand miles on 2 wheels, cycling every afternoon while in the UK, across various parts of the US and many other countries, she crammed a huge amount into a tragically short life, I am very please to have had the pleasure to have known, cycled, and worked with her and she leaves behind so many life enriching examples of ambition, determination and how to enjoy yourself in the world we live in.

My own adventures were confined to a DIY/Perm 200K with cycling buddies Tim and Ron, this was to be called "The Black Cat Lunar Cycle ride" by Tim who cobbled it together from local knowledge and other audax routes, it was so called as as half distance we would be filling our tummies at "The Black Cat" cafe and as the route started and finished at Tim's house it would also start and finish with seeing Lunar, his ickle baby girl.

The route was pretty good, using some nice fast wide main roads and lots of picturesque country lanes, certainly for the first half we cycled swiftly and talked lots of rubbish as is usual. The second half was a quieter affair, my jacket potato with coronation at the black cat was massive and to be honest i wasn't hungry when i got there, so was absolutely belly stretchingly full afterwards. This was not good, i had sussed from previous rides that i need little food, often, otherwise i go into a sluggish lull, this is exactly what happened, for quite some time too.

As time went on I lagged at the back, as has been the case on many occasions :-( Ron seems to never slow or struggle and Tim has a stubborn cycling mentality that enables him to press on regardless. I realised that as we continued and i tried to stay on the back of Ron and Tim that i had only ridden "Scotty" once in the last 3 or more weeks preferring my single speed steed, which meant that i wasn't used to being double up and continuous cranking for 12 hours, which is my way of saying i was pooped, aching all down my legs and all over my back, not too much but in places i don't normally ache, hinting at being out of practise.

We went awry about 20~30K from the end but the ever resilient Ron came to the rescue, having grown up in the area, his local knowledge dodged any hills to Bromsgrove, our penultimate control and then on to Studley, our final destination. Normally we require a "Proof of Passage" at every control, myself and Ron didn't as were using GPS units to track our progress but Tim did, for this our final destination was to be the pub at the end of Tim's road. Mission accomplished, time for a drink and some chips.....and ....relax.

 

There is an aspect of this ride though which will certainly be considered a triumph... A major step forward in thermo podiatry discomfort. I am of course referring to cold feet. This has been the bain of my winter cycling, 2 hours max and my right foot in particular is pretty cold. this time though, reinforcements were deployed in the shape of hand warmers.

Many other bloggers have suggested the insertion of these in between 2 layers of socks, these bloggers have generally been residing in Scandinavia and Canada so it seemed a little extreme, however myself and fellow cold footed cyclist, Tim, gave them a try, result was splendidly warm feet for the rest of the day, it's an added cost but one worth making.....Result

In light of the above news it seems timely to plug this bike ride which i intend on entering.Please support the MNDA Night ride through the capital which your loo laa or your presence by entering it.

Target for the week: 150K

Total distance Achieved: 220K

Week 7 2013...castles and canals

No repeat week........

Didn't get around to doing anything with the brakes on my single speed, seem to be some life left in them so it got a clean and was pressed back into service Monday lunchtime for a variation of my usual lunchtime off road route, this time with trying to add some of the extra single track which i had been on many times before with other guys but could never remember how to get to, well i still didn't manage to find them properly but it was a good route just the same, although the cleaners at my work weren't impressed, i was absolutely caked in mud from head to foot, it was quite funny but i had to shower with my clothes on first which made a right mess of the shower

A new strategy was required so no cycling Tuesday

clothes washed, bike cleaned and waterproof trousers packed, game on again for Wednesday.....

Some time ago i bought a book about a ramblers walk called the "3 Castles Path" this path tracks from Windsor Castle to Winchester Castle via Odiham Castle. Well i live in sight of Windsor Castle and a work up the road from Odiham Castle, whats left of it. so i had thought i could use this path as a potential commute route off road. This route i have tracked on "Ridewithgps" and it is this route that formed the basis of Wednesday lunchtimes ride, I peddled along the roads to get on the Basingstoke Canal which then joined part of the route to the remains of Odiham Castle, it was fast and flat and pretty remote, racked up some nice miles, just right for the single speed.

Plan for Thursday was slightly more adventurous...off road commute home on my single speed. Due to the previous wet and muddy rides i made better preperations for this ride....this meant the fitting of a dreaded mudguard. I hate mudguards on mountain bikes, i dont mind crud catchers on the down tubes but the ridiculous seatpost mounted monstrosities are an abomonation and this is exactly what i fitted, it looked aweful, i felt like i had done to my bike the same as if i had taken a dog to the vets and come out with one of those plastic dishes round its neck, you know it's humiliating and you feel sorry for it.
Anyway.....I plotted the route some time ago using the Basingstoke canal going the other direction to wednesday which i have done before but i got a little lost before and ended up using the roads to get home from Mychet where i got off the Canal but not this time, GPS programmed the whole route could be discovered. It was one of the best rides ever, hardly saw anyone, really peaceful, i felt like Forest Gump wanting to just keep going, i knew i was burning the calories though as normally i can get home on a homemade flapjack, unusually i had a sandwich, flapjack and an energy gel (don't like energy gels but this one had a little split in it so it needed using) 3/4's of the way home i was getting hungry, i still had a flapjack in my pocket so all was good. It felt like a summers evening, the sunset was beautiful and the clouds were dispersing, this also meant the cold was coming. I got home with a frosty beard (yes i have a temporary beard) absolutely knackered but really chuffed, 31miles, nice.

Friday required the obligatory commute back in to work, for this is used my cyclocross, i was a tiring 28 miles but not in too bad a time.

Day off Saturday for No.2 sprogs Happy Birthday party

Sunday i needed to finish the secret ride i started last saturday. It was a nice ride but as with other secret rides they seem a bit Jekyll and Hyde, some of it challenging audax ride'esque other bits family ride along the towpaths, great if you have a cyclocross bike but otherwise it would be hard work .

Overall a good week with no repetition and lots of new roads and trails explored

Additional news this week is that i had mastered (enough) Adobe Illustrator to create my own Decals for my new frame. This is a week behind schedule but at least they are now done, i printd them out and sellotaped them on to the frame and they looked how i wanted them, quite chuffed, files to be sent offto the Decal maker H Lloyd cycles.
Next week means filing and rubbing down ready to send for paint when the graphics come back








cant get pictures on at the mo so will update later

Target for the week 120K

Total distance achieved 178K

LondonEdinburghLondon 2013

needs planning.......what shall i do....i'm doomed

Jan      2 x 100K
Feb      1 x 100K + 1 x 200K
Mar      2 x 200K
Apr       1 x 300K + 1 x 400K
May      1 x 200K + 1 x 600K
June     2 x 200K + 1 x 600K
Jul        1 x 200 then LEL

Training plan for LEL below:

2012

Week beginning Nov 26, Training begins. 60k

Week beginning Dec 3, 60k

Week beginning Dec 10, 80k

Week beginning Dec 17, 80 k

Week beginning Dec, rest and enjoy Christmas!

2013

Week beginning Jan 1, cycle 70k, then 80 following week, then 90, then 100, then 120.

Week beginning 4^th Feb cycle 90k, then 120, then 150, then 100

Week beginning March 4^th cycle 150k, then 200, then 100, then 150

Week beginning April 1^st cycle 200, then rest a week, then cycle 100, then 300, then 200

Week beginning May 6^th cycle 400, then 400, then rest a week, then cycle 200

Week beginning June 3^rd cycle 600, then 200, then 200, then 600

Week beginning June 1^st rest, then cycle 400, then 200, then 150

Then LEL!

Isle of Man End 2 End

off road mountain bike carnage

http://manxe2e.org/event

Date:

Sunday 8th September

Idea:

Long weekend in Isle of Man

3 days cycling perhaps

Main event is End 2 End on the sunday, a 75km, 1500m climb, mountain bike race

loads of other off road and road routes including perhaps a lap of the TT course on a road which used to be an event back in the day

This could potentially be a family trip/holiday as well

September is potentially sunny

Access to a 6 seater long wheelbase Sprinter van could prove useful for carrying us and family and bikes to my favourite place in the world

costs to consider:

ferry crossing

accomodation...if just blokes, then bunkhouse could be a good option

fuel and food

cost of entry to race

lots to plan for this one

Coast 2 Coast

Idea:

Coast 2 Coast roughly from whitehaven to sunderland on and off road

Distance works out to be about 150 miles

This assuming a road route which deviates roughly accordinging the info on this link

http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk/off-road-sections/

which means about 20 miles of full on off road plus bridleways etc

this keeps the speed up and the entertainment high at nice intervals without it turning into an expedition

Halfway point is approx 76 miles in at a place called Garrigill, a tiny village by all accounts which has a pub and a couple of B&B's, this could be a suitable overnight stop point

this B&B has a 3 person room for £26 and they do pack lunches for £4+

http://www.bridgeview.org.uk/

Potential timeline

Friday evening 

travel from windsor to studley to Penrith

(100 miles windsor to Studley 2hrs)

(200 miles Studley to Penrith 3hrs)

Whats at Penrith?

Friends from church who might let us stay the night and leave a vehicle outside their house

Saturday

Cycle to Penrith train station

Train leaves at 8:07am to arrive at Whitehaven 9:40am (cost is currently £14:50)

Faff about for a bit and touch wheels in sea at Whitehaven

Set off at 10:30am latest

Cycle for 12hrs on and off with food stops 

22:30 arrive in Garrigill (76 miles) earlier if possible

faff about a bit, pint in pub

23:00 bed

Sunday

05:00 wakey wakey

faff about a bit

05:30 set off

Cycle for 12hrs on and off with food stops

17:30 arrive at Tynemouth Castle perhaps

Faff about for a bit and touch wheels in sea

either

cycle from Tynemouth to newcastle approx 10 miles

or

get on the metro which leaves at 17:25 and arrive at newcastle station at 17:57

 

last train from newcastle to Penrith is 18:10 which arrives at Penrith 20:21 (cost is currently £21:50)

either 

enjoy a little bit of hospitality from church friends and a meal in the pub next door and go home in the morning 

or

quick shower if possible and get on the road to get back to studley by midnight

alternative options include:

driving to start on the saturday morning (like BearBones 200)

wild camping on saturday night (like we were going to on BearBones 200)

driving back to Studley on sunday night (like we did on BearBones 200)

I think 1/2 day off on Friday and 1/2 day off on Monday and take a bit longer

Costs are: 

£36 trains

£26 divided by 2 or 3 for accomodation

£50 approx divided by 2 or 3 for diesel 

£? food should be similar to 2 x 200K audax

£62 + food total approx cost per person assuming 3

Question is......Can 75 miles be done with some off road on a loaded mountain bike in 12 hrs each day?

Route information:

info here

http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk/off-road-sections/

I already have all the books required and can therefore get the tried and tested GPX files

Food required:

??????????????

Equipment List:

?????????????

Dates:

i'm thinking June, good training ride for LEL even though no points awarded for RRtY

Week 6 2013...singled out

Single speed

Having ridden so little last week I was determined to get back on it this week with a vengeance

Don’t know why but I had no interest in getting on my road bike, the idea just repulsed me, so on Monday morning I loaded my single speed in the mota’ with the intention of a lunchtime blast.

What a blast it was, I am lovin’ riding my single speed, so much so that I racked up 4 lunchtime rides and a night ride on Thursday with a chap from work, all in the woods behind my office, added excitement was to be had by all the army bods on exercises, so much gunfire was to be heard and land rovers to dodge, such fun!

It certainly is a work out and even in such a short space of time I seem to be developing muscles in my arms which look decidedly odd, I was thinking Van-Damme biceps and triceps but no, muscles popping out the sides of my arms, just lucky I guess

I was getting faster and faster on the usual single track bits, spending less time in the saddle and more out of the saddle, peddling hard. 

The down side to this was the realisation that as much as I might like to kid myself that old skool V brakes are still good enough, after all it used to be, they are not, single digit braking afforded by nice hydraulics means I can hold on better and just feather the brakes if need be. Brakes were kind of on or off and after a weeks use, the brake blocks were seriously worn down again, v brakes were going to be an expensive option if keep wearing them out this quick. I must concede therefore that the Avid Juicy 7’s which were going to find their way onto eBay are going to find their way back on to the evo.

Another discovery of “retro” riding was that rigid forks are quite scary but lots of fun, again there is a downside which I will have to keep an eye on, I have limited use of some of my fingers on my right hand, this I have experienced many times in the past from riding old “vibey” motorcycles, i don’t know why it happens only that it is caused by excessive vibration. Moderation may be required in the deployment of the single speed, I’ll be gutted if I have to put suspension forks back on as well, which of course I do have cos I haven’t gotten around to putting my Fox Talas 32’s on ebay either.

I guess it wouldn’t be the first time that I have gone on a crusade to prove that progression had been made for the sake of progression, I really am seeing the benefit of these developments, but I’m hanging on to the single speed drive train, that’s as cool as 10 dead bears

That was the working week…

Plan for Saturday was get up early and do another secret ride based on the routes which the bloke gave me who is writing a book, well Saturday started with getting up later than I wanted but I went anyway.

 

Scotty the Cyclocross was dragged out for this one.

To start the route first I had to get to the start, the route though goes almost past my house so it meant doing the first 8 miles in reverse to get to the start, this was really nice, followed the jubilee river until hooking up with a cycle network route and then back onto some tow paths before getting to the start, which was a secret train station, of course it’s only secret to you cos I aint tellin’ ya which one it was. On arrival I then turned round and cycled back again, as I got nearer to the vicinity of my home I can almost hear the kettle boiling and tastes the digestives being dunked in my tea….the nearer I got the more rain fell and guess what happened….i bailed, went home and had a cuppa, it was a nice cup of tea and although we didn’t have any digestives I could remember the taste of my virtual one, half hour previous.

I had planned to pick up this ride again on Sunday but it was really naff weather so I didn’t bother, not that I am a fair weather rider but I had done alright this week so reckoned I deserved a day off

The week was finished off with a visit to my cycling buddy Tim to see his new baby "Lunar" and what a little sweety she was too.

Target for the week: 90K

Total distance achieved : 92.3K

Week 5 2013..... It's all about the bike

All about the bike indeed.......

.....not just any bike....THE bike

Back in July 2012 i enrolled on a course at Downland cycles in Canterbury to build my very own bicycle frame.

I deliberated much over the months on what i would build, getting caught up in the 29er mountain bike craze for a while then when thoughts came of entering LEL 2013 that set the theme of the frame build...it would be an audax bike but with disc brakes. i also opted to build my own forks so that i didn't stuff up the geometry by putting an aftermarket fork on.

Saturday was the first day, it started really well, lots of stuff about health and safety and running through how to safely turn the bottles on and off etc etc. chopped up some bits of metal for welding at a later date, then Martyn the teacher explained about the tubes selected for my bike.....Columbus Spirit no less, equivalent to Reynolds 853 but some say better, i was well chuffed, although i reckoned my bank balance wasn't going to be so happy about it.

Was taught how to use a lug holder for preparing the lugs  and the dremel for grinding stuff, it was all very cool, getting my hands dirty again :-)

Day 2 (Sunday) starting with a bit of geometry sorting and then  almost straight into welding the practice pieces for brazing lugs....now i like to think of myself as being at least a bit mechanically minded but by the end of the week i couldn't tell you whether what i was doing was welding or brazing or what, all i can tell you is that i seem to be good enough to get the silvery bits (steel) to attach to each other with the goldy looking stuff (bronze) or champagne stuff (silver). The quality of my whatever my joining method was was good enough to get most of the front triangle together...progression :-)

Day 3 (Monday) I had progressed well and was offered lots of praise at all the right moments to keep the motivation up, so much so that i was permitted to run the brake hose internally through the top tube, very very cool. I had thought that given the shot time of the course that this frame would be function focused rather than form, this was to be the first feature which would change this thinking and would make it quite a special looking machine.

Got this all done, top tube fillet welded in and got the chain stays prepped for brazing.

Day 4 (Tuesday) checking the alignment of my back end was the first job!!!! next up was cutting and facing the headtube, this should have been relatively simple but the bronze in the weld was meaning the facing tool was really struggling so this took ages longer than it should of :-( Loads of other odds and ends to be done today like 'braze-ons' for cable stops etc, tidied up the internal cable routing but was concerned that my seat stays were not started and the frame was supposed to be finished tomorrow.

Day 5 (Wednesday) Last day for frame AAAaaarrrgggghhhh.................Martyn and Bryan (the other teacher and owner of the shop) casually asked me how i wanted the seat stays to look/terminate at the top by the seat post, the options were between a variety of "eyes" or mitre them in, i casually responded, i think I'd like to mitre them in to match the other fillet welding, well let me tell you, this is no casual affair, i had previously seen Sam (the other chap i was doing the course with) sort the top of his seat stays out in what seemed like about 1/2 an hour, I'm sure Sam would disagree, anyway the mitreing of my seat stays took me nearly all day, the last part of the day being to actually weld them in, i felt well and truly in the crap!, end of day 5, frame not finished, Bryan however wasn't concerned and reassured me that we had loads of time to finish it off and get the forks done the next day on the "fork" day, i have to say though the seat stays look the absolute dogs bollox IMHO and i am really pleased with the result and that is what will endure, not the stress of getting behind.

Day 6 (Thursday) the final day for forks and frame.

Today i had a get the Brake bridge cut and fitted, mudguard mounts on, cut, face and slot seat tube, loads of clean up and then the fork. all of the above was fitted in around the forks......but there was more, because i was fitting disc brakes an extra brace had to be made and fitted, same problem on the forks, i was slightly envious of Sam and was really feeling the pressure, he had the fork to do and he wasn't fitting mudguards, i seemed to have little bits and bobs coming out of my ears, this meant everything was a rush and inevitably mistakes would be made...and they were but correctable. The forks went quite well although some serious "calibrating" had to be done after the disc mount was added :-(. some frame checking and some cutting and facing done and it was all over.....feeeewww, time check 9:00pm Bryan had stayed on to finish it with me and it basically was finished...lots of clean up to do at home and i didn't get to drill the forks for the rim brake mount, again i could do this at home.....i was exhausted and a bit fed up when i left but as i drove home and thought about the last 6 days and what i had achieved i grinned more and more...i had made my own disc brake audax bike with internal cable routing to ride LEL 2013 on, proper chuffed, not many people can lay claim to such a thing :-)))))))

With regards to actual cycling...a bit of a disaster, i did cycle to the shop from the park and ride car park which meant i did a grand total of....wait for it.....drum roll........9 miles, yep, 9 whole miles or 15K, yer that sounds better.

Target distance 120K

Total distance achieved 15K

Week 4 2013.... Snow Time

To commute or not commute……..

Not commute

Despite having snow tyres I wasn’t keen on the whole commute to work thing this week, the temperatures were so cold and despite significant surfing of the tinterweb I was still didn’t have a good option for keeping my toes warm

I knew this meant it was to be a tricky week to get my training miles in

Day…Monday, weapon of choice….Evo single speed, destination….woods at the back of my work. My Evo had already proven itself in the snow so I was really looking forward to a blast around the woods and I wasn’t disappointed, the sky was blue, the snow was perfect, it felt like being in the Snowboarding in Alps, I was disappointed to not have my Gopro with me as it was just stunning. I followed my usual route but noticed someone elses tracks at times so deviated occasionally for the better. The ride was only an hour but a really good one that I shall remember for a long time.

Tuesday was a chance to repeat Monday but with the inclusion of the afore mentioned GoPro, sadly the cloud was back and I couldn’t be bothered to faff about so I just went out and retraced the same route. It great fun, knowing how the terrain was meant I could pick up the pace, but it was pretty tiring, single speed offroad is a work out on a dry sunny day, let alone in the snow. Got back to the bike sheds and gave the bike a quick checkover and bash the snow off, only to find that my brakes were down to the metal…..downer!

Wednesday was to be a road day on account of the knackered brakes issue, time to really test the snow capability of “Scotty’s” tyres. Went out to do my road loop, haven’t done it for quite a while, it’s a lovely ride through hampshires country lanes, these are sometimes a bit grubby due to farm equipment use so I didn’t know what to expect. It was pretty hairy, the tyres were fanatastic, no loss of grip in a straight line no matter how hard I tried, I was impressed, got a bit tricky though when snow and slush were deeper because of the amount mass of the stuff I was trying to “plough” through, bit like riding through sand, not the tyres fault, just physics. This meant a great deal of concentration was needed on some of the roads, the farm used country lanes were a bit naff too, worse than I thought they might be. Overall I completed the route but didn’t enjoy it.

The rest of the week was to be made up by a couple of walks, something I do not do, so it made a change and walking to the bike shop was one of the chosen destinations to get new brake blocks for evo.

It occurred to me that as mountain bike miles are often considered to be like riding twice as many road miles, therefore I thought I might be able to tenuously justify a completed training week……If I convert exercise completed into time instead of mileage and convert that back to road miles I might just be in…..so ….my commute is normally about 2hours, give or take, and its about 28 miles, so 14mph, this week I have done 2 hours on single speed, 1 hour on scotty  and walked for 1 ½ hours so that’s 4 ½ hours so that equates to 63 miles…105K….sounds plausible

Saturday and Sunday were not be cycling days as I would be on my Frame Building course….exciting or WHAT

I shall log the full frame and forks journey at a later date

For now….

This is how it starts

Target mileage 100K

Total distance achieved 105K (theoretical)