Commute, commute, commute

Nothing that exciting about today's cycling. I ride to work and back. I could've gone out tonight but instead, as I'm getting out on Friday and Saturday and going to Franklins Gardens to see the Saints on Sunday I felt I ought to be a good husband and father and get some housework done. I have got stuff to discuss though.

The first relates to the sign above. Every day this week I have passed this sign encouraging drivers to think bike. Now this message originally related to our motorcycle cousins but as the Lycra loonie numbers have swelled I'd like to think they mean bike in every sense of the word. With that in mind it saddens me to report there was an incident for one of riders last night with a lorry going home from vroom Wednesday. Poor Jonesy took a torrent of abuse from a trucker and was intimidated out of the way. That's not on. I wish he'd rang the 'how's my driving,' number on the back of the lorry.

My second topic goes back to a conversation I was having on vroom last night. I love Clive, my Forme Longcliffe 2.0, it's the perfect bike for me due to being quite quick but also comfortable on long rides.  It's sales description is: 

"The perfect machine for any cyclist looking for a serious bit of kit to improve their fitness and get their endorphin kick! The Longcliffe 2.0 is also ideal for the experienced cyclist looking for a training bike with the best balance of high quality componentry without the need to fork out for the usual upgrades. In addition to triple butted AL7005 tubing we also feature a custom factory built Mavic Aksium wheelset and Shimano 105 transmission system."

Now that's all great but there's just one thing that nags me. The compact chainring 50/34 is great for the hills but I'm a downhill specialist and I feel I'm a gear light. Since switching from my steel framed triple, Bob (a lovely bike but built for my Dad whose 6ft 6" and I'm only 5ft 11 and 32/33rds,) there are segments I just can't beat. My belief is that's down to Bob having a triple chainring of 52/42/30. There's the problem right there...I'm now cycling with a bunch of blokes constantly talking about their bits of kit. A couple of years ago if you'd asked me about my gears I'd say they're shimano something or other (it was tiagra,) and I've got 27, three chain rings and 9 on the back, I didn't know what size but now I know it was 25-12. Now I'm acutely aware I'm running 105 10 speed 24-12. I'm looking at options Di2, Dura Ace, Ultegra etc. Here's my plan that I've got by doing way too much reading. 11 speed on the back and keep the compact. 50-11 being a bigger gear than 52-12 so I get a bit more umph but keep the compact for climbing. Now the options for this start at Di2 and having looked at some online retailers (for price purposes only Andy and Chris, I observe rule #58 support your local bike shop,) I think £1700 for the group set on an £900 bike is really a bit silly. There's an option at 105 though and I think this is what I'll do. Now the process starts proper. I have to talk to everyone about it. People will tell me that campagnola and SRAM do 11speed set ups. Others will say just change the chain rings. It will go on for ages and I'll change my mind a million times. It seems that if the number of bikes you need is n+1 where n is the number of bikes you already have then the bits on your bike that need upgrading are n+infinity where n is the number of bits you've changed already. As my long suffering wife remarked:"why did you get that bike if it wasn't what you needed?" It's not that simple dear (although it probably is!)

vroom Wednesday suits you sir

So on a glorious evening we happy few of the less popular but just as rewarding C&DCYCLES vroom Wednesday, the clubs faster ride, set out on another two wheeled adventure. It all started as it was meant to go on with Big Steve Major the last to arrive greeting us the only way he knows: "evening bellends!"

The route was a bit different for us heading towards Moulton on the outskirts of Northampton and the back along the A5199 through Chapel Brampton, Spratton and Creaton before heading to Naseby. The hill into Naseby is in my opinion the best climb in Northants. 

The banter had been flowing and I appeared to be stuck in a character from the fast show when I noticed an irritation on my face. So it was to howls of derision from my fellow vroomers that I announced in a slightly effeminate and camp way:
"Ooh I have helmet rash, it's quite irritating!"
The lads insisted this should be in the blog tonight, so there you go as promised it's in!

I'm not sure how we came up with the plan for tonight. It is however quite similar for my plan for Good Friday so, sorry about that. Also in the Spring evening sunshine the views were spectacular, especially the low sun over Hollowell reservoir. Unfortunately as this was vroom Wednesday there was no time to get many pictures.

I'm pleased with my ride tonight. Lots of PRs and some new targets for segment chasing. Also Lee knows how much I love the Wednesday ride so she's come up with a plan where I can go every week not just in school holidays. She's a special lady my wife. As I've said before I'm very lucky.

The weather looks good for a few more days so there's plenty more rides to come. I can't wait.

Happy Peddaling

roundheads and cavaliers

I've planned this ride for quite some time and the inspiration for it is really quite remarkable. On previous rides I've talked about Northants role in WWII and bits of hidden history. Well this is bigger than that. Because a few miles from my house the decisive battle in the English Civil War took place.

Luckily for me I rode to work again today so I was able to finish at 5 and get straight out for a couple of hours. I spent the day looking after other peoples mental health and then I got the sort of therapy I need. Two wheels and country lanes. Perfect.

It's bizarre to think that this chunk of rural middle England, bisected by the A14 was the site of such an important battle. This part of the country is so rural that between Great Oxendon and Clipston I was on a gated road (that's a road with a gate they they shut off when there's livestock in the field,) and I was having to dodge sheep and lambs. It's now all pretty villages, farms, oil seed rape fields, sheep and cattle. In 1645 it was erm...just like that apparently! So when the Royalist forces marched south from Leicester under Prince Rupert's command to engage the New Model Army led by Sir Thomas Fairfax advancing North from Oxford, I presume the good folks of Northants hid in their barns until the silly buggers had finished their squabble.

This battle was a big deal. Long before the American War of independence, or Monsieur Guillotine won humane psychopath of the year in the French Revolution, our MPs, mostly Protestant, decided our King, a despicable Catholic wastrel, had to go. We invented chopping kings heads off and republics and all that. However after the Parliamentarian leader Cromwell turned out to be a despicable tyrant, banning dancing and Christmas and treating the Irish so appallingly that his place in history ranks along side Pol Pot or hitler. So we went back to having a King. We just don't let them make the rules and stuff so everyone stays happy. Anyway in terms of modern democracy people point to this bit of history and like to selectively remember old potato face Cromwell for the good things he did and ignore he was the 'all Britain biggest git' winner two years running. So that explains his statue outside the Houses of Parliament (my history is sketchy but I think he tried to ban that too!)

Rightly Northants is proud of this piece of history. It's well marked with lots of informative signs. The viewing platforms are a nice feature and I guess they're sort of set at 'view from a horse,' height. There's even a campsite for the Sealed Knot, the English Civil War reenactment society. They meet regularly and I've even been held up on a ride once as they marched down the road.

The sealed knot

Sign for Prince Rupert's view, in Northants we have brown signs whoever decided that wants shooting

Authentic civil war bike rack

Explanatory sign pointing out some stuff

The view looking directly at the village of Naseby and Thomas Fairfax who was looking this way!

What it says on the sign

If you expand this it's readable

So is this

The church at Marston Trussell where bad stuff happened

More info

Explanation of the slaughter at pudding bag end

On one website I've read about a different slaughter at this pretty church. The Royalist baggage train was caught here and a group of cooks were apparently slaughtered, totally against the rules of war. Yes that's right whilst perfectly sane religious men, all believing God was on their side hacked chunks out of each other, blasted each other with muskets and impaled each other on massive wooden pikes there was an atrocity. This one shows how messed up these times were. The two theories are the soldiers mistook Welsh cooks for Irish and therefore it was perfectly ok to kill them or they wanted to rape the cooks who defended themselves with knives and of course were asking to get stabbed to death.

One of the monuments, a closer picture would be better but I wasnt riding up there or walking up in cleats

The bigger monument on the site of the windmill at Naseby

It's quite good to do a compare and contrast of the two views

The victorious geezer

Handy map

Authentic English Civil War chilli con carne almost exactly what cyclists ate to recover in 1645

Frankly the whole thing seems a bit mad doesn't it and some of you might be thinking: "enough of this history nonsense tell us about the ride!" Well it was fabulous. The site is like a bowl surrounded by typical rolling hills. It's a combination of ups, downs, flat bits and rollers. I loved it but I would wouldn't I? If your wondering how I managed to get PRs whilst only having a 13mph average, well it's the scenery isn't it. That and stopping for pictures. 

Happy pedalling

a near miss with super sam and ninja niamh

Without trying to sound too dramatic Sam, Niamh and I are lucky to be alive. It should have been very safe. We were crossing the A43 using the pedestrian crossings designed specifically for cyclists to access Weekley Woods. The light takes an age from the traffic light going red to the green cyclist to tell you it's safe. As that happened today I said ok kids and we started to move, out of the corner of my eye a black BMW with no intention of stopping screamed towards the crossing. I yelled stop and luckily the kids did as the oblivious driver went straight through the red light. Other vehicles stared on in horror and then waved us over after the lights has changed green for them. Had that car hit one of us we were dead. I do hope whatever they were rushing to was worth one of our lives. I called the police later but unfortunately there was no camera coverage so nothing can be done. 

Once the fright had quietened we actually had a nice ride. It's a road ride from our house up to Glendon then cycle track to and through Weekley. It's nicely laid out and a good place to ride. On the way back we took the bridle path from Glendon to a Rushton. That's a nice trail ride with some downhills to provide a bit of fun. Coming out of Rushton Sam proved the new bike is working for him.

Despite the scare I would recommend this ride to anyone. Just remember not everyone cares about your safety so trust yourself and no one else.

Action shot on the good track at Weekley Woods

Bridle Path from Glendon

Approaching Rushton

Gran Fondo 4th Time Lucky

The plan for today was to join the C&DCYCLES shop ride and if I felt up to it, to make up the difference and complete the April 130km/80miles Gran Fondo. That plan succeeded but only with the help of some special people.

Firstly as a husband and father of 3 I realise that my time does not belong to me, it belongs to my family. Without my wife's support I wouldn't be able to ride as often as I do and I certainly wouldn't have a spare 6 hours to take on a Strava challenge.

Secondly I didn't even know if my bike would be fit to ride. The crunchy noise made me think the bearings in the head set were at best dry and more likely to be damaged. Andy at C&DCYCLES assured me if I got there early he'd have me all sorted by the 8:45 ride start time. He was true to his word. My worst fears were confirmed as Andy removed my forks with the frantic energy of a granny one number short of a full house. The bearings were indeed shot. Five minutes later new bearings were fitted and greased and Clive's steering was returned to it's former glory. I have no idea what they'll charge me for that job because it wasn't Andy's priority. He puts his customers and the club first and for that we should all be very grateful. I know I am! Whatever the cost it'll be worth every penny.





The bit to the right of Kettering was the shop ride and what a ride. I have no idea what we were all on this morning because that's the fastest Saturday ride I've been on. Vroom Wednesday on a Saturday some people have said. We were led again by Big Steve Major with Andy the magnificent mechanic taking the rear or 'tail gunner' as we say.

Outside the shop at the start

If the pace was high the banter was of equal quality. I have been asked by my son, what we talk about on rides. Well often it's bikes and cycling, sometimes it's sport and sometimes there's a smattering of smut. One such conversation involving the use of power tools in an adult movie took an interesting turn as we hypothesised whether Makita or de Walt would be the porn stars cordless tool of choice. Big Steve put us straight, it has to be de Walt apparently!

Quick stop at the Church in Clopton

For no reason other than we're both silly billies, Nathan I started racing on the hill heading back to Thrapston. He even went round the roundabout at the top to make sure he could overtake me again. That's not really acceptable behaviour for a shop ride but as it was a tallest dwarf contest and everyone was riding so well I'm not sure anyone else noticed. Finally as we realised we were just knackering ourselves we agreed on an honourable draw. Unfortunately for Nathan I have no honour and claimed the day by jumping him whilst he was having a chat on my favourite Warkton to Stamford Rd climb. All that stupidity did me good because I have PRs on segments where I normally struggle.

It says 'Historic Church' that way so that must be the modern church in the background

No slip ups at Barratt's corner

Back at the shop there was tea, coffee and cake washed down with lashings more banter. I went easy on Andy though because he's my hero today. (There Andy is that enough mentions!)

So off I toddled on my erm...tod! I really didn't have a plan but left Kettering on the A43 heading to Geddington, from there I went through Newton up to Great Oakley. As this Gran Fondo was about testing yourself I decided to go right at Great Oakley rather than go to Pipewell via the Southern Gateway.

These are the challenge instructions:

"For this Challenge, deviate from your normal routes and go after something more adventurous. Optimize for suffering and exploration, not comfort and convenience. Share stories from your fondo using the hashtag #fondoday. "

I didn't mean to end up on an industrial estate in Corby

I hadn't been that way before and now I know why. It just took me on a loop to rejoin the A43 and head into Corby at the euro hub. Not a route I'd recommend because it's a fast busy road with lots of lorries. That's the opposite of what I'm looking for. It didn't really float my boat riding round the industrial estate near Rockingham Motor Speedway either. 

I love this feature in Lyddington

Finally I left Corby and headed to Gretton, then Lyddington and round Eyebrook Reservoir via the Stoke Dry hill. I'd only been up that climb before and for me it's quite a test so I felt it needed my downhill skills unleashing on it. The only problem with that was the hill out of Lyddington is just as beastly and I shamefully dropped to granny ring. The picture of Eyebrook does not capture how spectacular the view was at Stoke Dry. 

The view across Eyebrook Reservoir

At this point I was still making it up as I went along with Ashley being my next vague target and then check the distance to plan the rest of my ride. Due to the disaster of Gran Fondo 2 where my technology gave up at 79 miles I took no chances. In the bike mount was my old Sony Xperia (awful phone don't get one,) and in my back pocket was the best smartphone I've owned, the Samsung Galaxy S4mini (iPhone users please don't bang on about how good your phone is, I'm a Samsung man now and it's unlikely to change.) the Sony gave up as I entered Ashley on just under 70 miles. So it was with dread I reached into my jersey pocket to check the Samsung. I shouldn't have worried, despite Strava running for 5 hours with all other apps on the go it was only down to 50% and it's still got some charge now! 

10 miles to go then. What shall I do? At that point the remnants of my scarcely seen common sense abandoned me...I know, Middleton then Rocky Hill. Fondo says I must suffer so suffer I did! A few moments later I was in the middle of the Rockingham Wheelers time trial. I got some bemused looks but lads just because you're on a £3k TT bike don't look down your nose at me. Your poo smells too! 

Yes mind out we can be foolish

Middleton Hill was hard but I was pleased because after all those miles there was no signs of cramp. Then I chucked my chain and the act of bending over to get it back on caused my right quads to lock up. A few big stretches and I was back on and before I knew in the foot slopes of the castle topped beast we know as Rocky Hill. Straight to granny but in the middle of my cogs, I clicked gradually up to the 24 as the climb progressed and then just hung on. I loved it. The pain was exhilarating. Look it's not the alps, it's not even the Pennines but for round here it's as hard as it gets. If you want an idea how steep it is there's a field on the left as you climb littered with cheap plastic sledges. You can just imagine on snow days the kids of Corby legging it down poundland to buy a sledge (not sure how much they cost,) and then having two or three goes before their McDonald's fuelled Xbox trained legs gave up and abandoning their purchase in the knowledge they'll get another one next year.

I've said before the disappointing thing about Rocky Hill is that it ends up on a fast road in an urban area but busy traffic negotiated I headed towards Pipewell. I checked Strava and at 124km I was sure I had enough in case there was a distance reduction when I finished. 

There was one last piece of excitement before I got home. A buzzard in the road noticed me at the last  minute and nonchalantly flapped off, it then got a bit panicky as I drew level with him. Those moments are made for a go pro camera, I really need to get one.

I got home, checked the Strava as 134km, clicked save and held my breath. It stayed at 134. Yes I'd done it. That's not my longest ride but I honestly can't think of one I've enjoyed more. What a great day on the bike.

Happy Pedalling!

Commuting

Not impressive at all but important to blog this. Twice this week I've been lucky enough to bike to work. It's only five miles and has been dry so this little spin really is a pleasure. At least 50% of it is countryside so that's nice too.

There's more to it than that though. Last week the UK was in the grip of horrendous air pollution caused by a combination of Sahara dust, light winds and fossil fuel emissions. A vast amount of that is down to motor vehicles. If all of us ride to work when we can (I don't usually get the opportunity due to having to drive kids to school in Kettering,) then it will make a difference to our environment. The government recognises this and many people, like me benefit from Ride to Work Schemes.  So I find it bewildering when I read that not everyone benefits even in the government as detailed in this article from Bike radar.  You can see all the benefits of cycling to work here Cycle to Work Alliance.

So can cycling save the penguins, reduce greenhouse gases, clean up our air and make us all healthier, wealthier and wiser? This Report says yes. Another article from the same report expands on  Denmark leading the way. Finally this is my favourite article  60 benefits of bike commuting.

Happy pedalling

Super Sam's first spin on his new ride

The trusty 20" wheel 7 speed Scott that served us so well

The new 24" 18 speed Cuda

Super Sam looks the part

Houston we have a problem

Well it's the end of an era as Sam, the third and youngest of our children to use the Scott radical 2000 moves on to a bigger bike. Thanks to Grandad Big Dave who purchased the original for Joe now 16 and 6ft and a lot, Sam has his shiny new ride with new features such as a triple chainring and adjustable suspension. We went for this Cuda on advice from Chris at C&DCYCLES who advised us against a 'bigger brand' because apparently they're all in reality very similar bikes built in the same four factories in Taiwan. I have to say on first inspection I'm impressed with the build quality of the Cuda and the look of the bike. Time will tell as they say and to chuck in another metaphor, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. However this bike performs it will have to go some to achieve the status of the little Scott. On that I'm proud to say there is a new home for our legendary bike as Martin Jones from C&DCYCLES club is going to take it for his kids. That feels right to me. I hope the Jones kids get the same joy from it as the Lindsleys did.

For me it's really important to encourage kids in sport. Our eldest, Joe, loves his football and their sister Niamh is a real sporting all rounder. Sam is probably the least competitive of the kids but he really is motivated towards his cycling. For me as a cyclist I feel I have a moral responsibility to encourage my kids to ride, it's good for them, it's good for our economy and it's good for the planet. Here's some extra stuff on getting kids into bikes:

One of my favourite cycling sites is Road cc, I follow them on Facebook and everyday they run a story that catches my eye. Today they ran a piece on 4 year old twins who already excell on BMX, show your kids, if that doesn't get them on their bikes nothing will! click this link! http://youtu.be/nrKMWfI81C4 and because I like to credit my original source Road cc

There's a number of initiatives to get more kids cycling, I've put some links below:

Change4life

Sustrans

All party commission on physical activity

Sky Ride

British Heart Foundation

Tonight's spin was cut short by a mechanical on orange. The sidewall on my rear tyre ruptured. Totally my fault the wheel has a slight buckle and the tyre rubs on the brake block. I stopped to sort it out when the lovely Claire Moore rode up on a splendid Trek demo bike she was trying out. Always good to catch up with bike friends and she said she was working on her pace and hoped to be back on a C&DCYCLES shop ride soon. I hope she meant that as it would be good to see her back with the club and also because we need to encourage as many ladies as possible to get out on bikes. The truth is Claire that you were quicker when you first came out and got slower as it got colder. I have a feeling by the summer you'll be more than a match for us mamils.

Back to our ride. The slime in my tyres saved the day and we were able to do a bit more. The original plan was also a bit ambitious as Sam gets used to a bigger bike with more gears. I swapped the tyre on Orange but perhaps should use the spare hybrid until that wheel is taken care of by a professional.  Whatever I ride I cant wait for another adventure with Super Sam.

Happy peddaling