Category Archives: Rides

A Gentle #Oct100 Opener

By 6 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , ,

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Last week I could have realistically hit my Sep100 target.  I had four days to go and a hittable target of 15 miles per day to get there.  But then things went awry: my Tuesday night long ride went west, for a number of reasons I won’t bore you with here.  So…. I failed.  this is despite the generous encouragement of £75 worth of charitable pledges from readers of this blog.  So, I’m sorry guys and gals but I’ll make it up to you somehow.

A Better Beginning For October

On a fine Saturday afternoon, I was gifted a couple of hours of “Me Time” so I took ’em!  I mapped out a loop to Tandle Hills and wasted some time converting kml to gpx so I could stick the track into my phone GPS app.  If you ever wanna do that, this little web-based app was what I used.  Geekiness over, out I went.

The ride was more pleasant than I’d expected.  A couple of short-cuts, found whilst mapping on the laptop, helped a lot and the climbs were more gentle than I thought they’d be.  It was muddy off the roads, but hey, mud = good.  That’s why I ride a mountain bike.

(hit the photos for a proper view, they’re a bit tall for these thumbnails)

I was in a rush to get back home after a short break at the rather great cafe at Tandle Hills, so I rushed home along Oldham/Rochdale Road to the canal, then a quick burst back homewards along the towpath to finish.  10.6 miles done and a decent enough start to the month’s challenge.  There’s a link to the October 100 spreadsheet in the little box to the right, so get yourself signed up and enjoy your month’s riding!

The map’s here if you want a look. 🙂

Wet and Wild Wales Weekend, Bouncing Boats In Bala

By 9 commentsRides, Tat, ,

The weekend before last, we had FUN !

I turned 40 round about this time last year, give or take a week.  I know, you can’t believe it right? I don’t look a day over 50.  Aaaanyway, my Other Half invested in a Red Letter Day for me, white water rafting.  With this, I was very very happy 🙂

Last weekend was the day I chose to enjoy my experience.  The two of us packed up a bag each, a bike each and left our troubles at home on Saturday morning.  We drove to Bala, to find our B&B, Cwmtylo, about 3 miles outside Bala and within striking distance of the rafting centre.  Cwmtylo is a 400 year-old farmhouse and family home to Dylan and Craig.  I’ll be honest, it’s not the easiest place in the world to find, even by Welsh standards.  But it’s worth the drive and it’s only 10 minutes from the main A-road that passes Bala Lake – unless you take a wrong turn, in which case you’re way into murderer country (in your mind).  Cwmtylo is still a working farm.  In fact, Dylan only made the place into a B&B in response to the local tourist board’s appeal in 2009 for more B&B beds.

The Water Cycle

After leaving our bags at the B&B and enjoying Dylan’s cuppa with a nice cherry bakewell, we drove down to Bala Leisure Centre and parked the car for a few hours.  Unhooking the bikes, we got ourselves wrapped up against the Welsh wetness, which was drizzling slowly from the grey skies.  But, as Clive says, there’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothes.  We had the right clothes.

Eleven or so miles and some fantastic views later, we’d circumnavigated Bala Lake and we’d loved the undulations along the eastern bank.  From that side, away from the A-road which skirts the west side of the lake, the views of Snowdonia are simply stunning.  If you ever find yourself in Wales with an hour or two to kill, I recommend you try it.  It’s not a hard ride by any means, and if your legs aren’t up to a few little hills, they’re easily short enough to trudge up and roll down!

Dr Dre’s Place

Nobody was looking, so we got changed in the Leisure Centre car park.  A quick scoot into town and we found Plas-Y-Dre restaurant, which translates as Dr Dre’s Place. Coool!  We had a steak each and I treated myself to a cake of cheese for dessert, along with a nice pint of Brains.

Dr Dre didn’t put in an appearance, but I bet you never see Ramsay when you go to his restaurants either.

White Water Rafting

We slept like logs.  We got up when the alarm went off.  Dylan made us breakfast.  It was delicious. 🙂

Half an hour later, I was signing in at Canolfan Tryweryn, the UK’s first rafting centre.  The other red-letter-dayers and I stood out like buddhist monks at a beard & ponytail contest.  We congregated together for safety and to avoid being drawn into white water conversations we couldn’t hope to add value to.

Once the embarrassment of being the funny-looking normos out of our comfort zones wore off, the secondary embarrassment of borrowed wetsuits was foisted upon us.  But, then the fun started 🙂 !

To put it briefly, for your experience you get 4 runs down the white water in the space of 2 hours, interspersed with mini-bus trips back to the head of the run which is just down from a massive sluice gate from the local reservior.  The instructors are massively helpful – and I’m sure the ladies would find them massively handsome too.  You know, fit.

If you ever get the chance to do the rafting thing, just do it.  Don’t think about it.  The cycling was brilliant, too.  Happy days.

Tell ’em Phill sent you! 🙂

Beginner Bike Tweaks: Bar Ends on Grip Shifts

By 2 commentsRides, , , ,

You might have read this post before – It was first published in February 2010 and it’s just had a brief update in September 2011. 😉

Why Fit Bar Ends?

My boy has a 24″ Mountain Bike. Ever since he knew he was getting it, he made it clear he wanted some bar ends like his Dad’s to help pull the thing up hills and rest his weary wrists on the bouncy trails.

I know bar ends are a love or hate thing. Frankly I’m not going to discuss it.  I love them. With crappy sore hands like mine, anything that helps you move your hands around the bars makes it easier to keep riding.  They’re also a boon on steep easy descents, where they help you to get down low into the bike and eek a few more mph onto your maximum reading for the day.  Simple!

How’s It Done?

It’s easy, really.  Grip shifts look pretty unmovable, but really they’re just slipped onto the handlebars and screwed into place.  So grab a cross-headed screwdriver, some allen keys, a little elbow grease and your new bar ends … then get stuck in.

The first job is to loosen the collars of the brake levers and the Gripshift mechanisms.  The Gripshifts have a screw concealed which, once you’ve loosened it, allow the units to be easily slipped along the handlebars.  Use the depth of your new bar ends as a guide so you know how far to move them inwards along.  Then tighten them a little.

Using a good craft knife, cut the end of the rubber grips.  Don’t overdo it, you can always take a little more off; you can’t put any back!  Then use your elbow grease to move the rubber grip along the handlebar, to make room for your shiny new bar ends.

Attach the bar ends, being careful to get the angle right.  If you’re using a stand to hold your bike, now’s the moment to take it off and sit astride the bike to get the angles right.  Tighten up the bar ends, then the Gripshift units and brake levers.

You’re done!  You can now pull your bike up big hills and lean right down on those fast descents.  You can’t, however, use the brakes without a swift alteration of your hand position.  This fact is sort of important.

As an added bonus, your grips don’t get busted when leant against walls or scraped (accidentally of course, Joby) against passing cars.

If you end up in Accident and Emergency, don’t tell ’em Phill sent ya! 😉

#August150 Round Up. Great Cycling You Lot.

By 14 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , , ,

August 150 Is Done!

I’m amazed how quickly August passed by.  The holidays certainly helped: there’s something about being at home or away with the kids that makes time fly.  It’s been a fun month though.  Anyway, you’re not reading for that, you want the round-up, right?

Well, here we go:

  • 41 – the number of people on the sheet
  • 35 – the number who posted some mileage – very impressive!
  • 23 – the number who rode more than 150 miles! Wow 🙂

Special mentions go to the following people:

  • John Berry, for being first to complete AND for topping 1,000 miles in the month.  That’s an average of over 33 miles every day.  Is this a man or a machine?  Follow his blog, why don’t you?
  • Louise K, for being the first girly to hit the 150, and for doing it on an adventure riding the Liverpool-Leeds canal.  That’s exactly the type of thing I was thinking way back in the June100 days: enjoying the bike and increasing the miles 🙂 Read about her adventures more on her blog, too.
  • The Le Tower To Tower riders (Emma, Dave, Anthony and Chrisplus a couple of other guys who aren’t in the challenge) who finished the month hitting around 100 miles each day – along with smashing the September target too – on their ride between the Blackpool and Eiffel towers.  Awesome work, you lot.

Have a look at the full spreadsheet here.  With an average of over 213 miles per person, I’m chuffed to be associated with this stuff.

It’s September, And That Means The Sep100 !

I asked for some quick feedback on twitter, and enough people responded positively.  So, I set up the Sep100 spreadsheet to keep the challenge rolling 🙂

What’s Changed?

Thanks to input from Lisa, Austin and others, I’ve added a column for stationary miles.  Now as far as I can see, the definition “stationary” kinda means they’re not miles, but I’ll leave that argument for another day.  So if you’re turbo training or the weather turns nasty, you can still clock up some activity.

Lisa also suggested a TT league, but due to time and technical issues I’ve simply added “best 5 mile” and “best 10 mile” columns.  Just time your best 5 and 10 mile splits, record them somewhere and stick them into the sheet.  It’s just another excuse to compete (and no doubt something Lisa plans to win)!

If you want to join the club, just hit the sheet and email me at the address shown there.  Simple!

Enjoy your September Cycling, everyone 🙂

Ride Success, Technology Fail – Weekend #August150 Miles

By 7 commentsCycling Challenges, Reviews, Rides, , , , , ,

When the weekend began, I thought I still had an outside chance of achieving the August150 target, so I mapped a 20+ mile ride with a bit of a challenge thrown in: a nice, big hill.  I rode out of Rochdale through Whitworth to Bacup, then over Sharney Ford to Todmorden and back home along Rochdale Canal, the National Cycle Network’s Route 66.

Ride Success!

The slow climb from Rochdale to the top of Britannia (about 8 miles?) was okay.  None of it gets steep and it’s just a case of keeping the legs turning and not getting too bored.  The scenery isn’t nice until you get to Facit where you discover that there is, in fact, a Fudge Village there.  A whole Village, of Fudge? I kid you not.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture but I’m diabetic so I didn’t stop. Sod you lot who can eat what you like 😉

There’s a nice quick drop into Bacup centre then before turning right into a helluva hill.  I admit, I got off twice on the way up and walked a bit.  As I was getting back in the saddle after my second breather, a girl on a yellow bike wearing cutoff jeans, with her mp3 player wired into her ears, pedalled past me slowly but purposefully and in a much higher gear than I was spinning.  If that was you, good on yer!  It’s a good job I don’t have any illusions of masculine superiority, that’s all I can say.  I’d have sulked right then!

Then…. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

The drop down into Todmorden is brilliant!  A nice wide, fairly gravel-free, very steep tarmac road all the way down the hill.  Without a turn of the pedals I hurtled towards Tod, collecting flies on my grinning teeth and with tears being blown from my eyes into my ears.  What fun!  Oh, and I passed the girl who’d pedalled past me earlier.  Did I mention how fearless boys are on bikes, compared to girls? 😉

From Tod, the ride home was a leisurely affair, with the grin plastered firmly on face until my gadj let me down.

Technology Fail

Fail 1:  Solar Battery. A few weeks ago I bought a solar battery from dealextreme.  Now, I know that their stuff is a bit shonky, but I’d tested this thing once by putting it on the windowsill for a bit, then attaching it to my phone and I definitely witnessed it giving life to my phone’s battery.  Definitely.

About 2 miles back towards Rochdale, I noticed my phone was running low.  At 20% battery my GPS automatically switches off, so I pulled the solar backup from my pocket, connected the usb cable and plugged it in.  Nothing. Wiggled the connections.  Nothing. Swore. Still nothing.  Shonky far eastern piece of poo.

Fail 2:  Phone Handlebar Mount. This is the 2nd time my HTC HD2 phone mount from Mobile Fun has broken.  Last time it was the bit that cradles the actual phone that gave in, and full credit to Mobile Fun for replacing it despite not being able to find a paper-trail for my purchase.

This time, I was bobbling along a short stretch of cobbles on the towpath when the main mount fell apart.  It turns out that a bolt is moulded into the mount and not enough plastic covers it, so the bolt wobbled its way out of the assembly under repeated … erm .. use.  Yes, use: just normal riding a bike.  So I’m not happy and I’m not sure how I’m going to attach my phone from now on.  I can’t replace the unit now that I know the design is flawed, because the next time my phone parts company with my bike it might not land on a friendly surface.  Shonky far eastern piece of poo (2).  Until I’ve devised and engineered a marvellous new mount contraption, it’s going to have to stay in my pocket and I won’t be able to see how I’m doing on the fly.

Not ideal.

All I can say is: thank goodness it didn’t fail at 38mph on the descent into Todmorden.  Yep, 38mph, my all-time fastest record so far, woop woop!  I am chuffed about that despite the gadget failures.

I have no full  stats since my phone gps tracker did indeed shut down at about 16 miles, but I rode 22.88 miles in total (completed map on this link) and achieved a maximum speed of 38.3 mph.

I didn’t mention my new Daypack at all, did I?  I picked it up from Go Outdoors for £22.50 which was an absolute bargain, in my opinion.  I wore it for the first time on this ride and although I needed to fiddle with it a bit for fit comfort, it was great. Comfy, easy to drink from and felt light on my back.  It’s got a 2 litre bladder plus a bit more storage for gubbins and a nice little drop-your-helmet-here bit for when you’re walking about (which I didn’t, so I don’t know if that bit works well yet).  I’ll review it a bit more when I’ve used it again, perhaps.

With some luck, I’ll get a few miles in tonight but the August150 is looking a long way away for me! 🙁

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