30 days of biking Day 20.

I had a great pedal over to Edgbaston Tunnel this morning via NCR5 and the towpath. 20 miles in all and keeps me on track for pedalling every day in April.

The tunnel.

The ride was quite chilly in the pre dawn light but I soon warmed up.

The towpath pedal home yesterday was a good indication that the fair weather pedallers now think Spring is here. I’ve never seen so many cyclists down the cut in the time I’ve been using it to commute. It’s very annoying as I’m the fastest on the canal and always overtaking. “Excuse me please!”

B = N + 1.

The equation B = N+1 applies to all of us cyclists, where:

• B = Number of bikes required
• N = Number of bikes owned

A couple of days ago I said I’d be getting a new bike after the interminably long wait for my Company to get it’s act together with the Ride to Work Scheme.

The temptation to get an all singing all dancing Full Suspension MTB was pretty fierce as was the desire to get a better road bike. But logic took over and I had to admit that my MTB and my road bike were perfectly adequate for the type of riding I do.

What I needed was a dedicated commuting bike that would cope with the worst an English Winter, road dirt and towpath shite could throw at it. It also meant wifey could have her Specialized Rockhopper back. And it meant I’d be getting my money’s worth as it would be the bike that gets used the most.

There were quite a few bikes I looked at, my favourite was this one by Milk Bikes. I had a pretty good email exchange with the founder Mark who couldn’t have been more helpful and accomodating and was very seriously considering getting one, but then I couldn’t justify the price tag even though it was good value for what you get, because the happenings at home had stepped in and I realised we needed the money for other stuff. Damn my conscience!

I would seriously recommend you talk to Mark at Milk Bikes if you are in the market for his vision of the ideal commuter. It’s a vision I whole heartedly agree with by the way.

So the nearest spec I could find to the Milk Bike was a Charge Mixer 8 from Charge Bikes which I mentioned a while back. The main difference is the fact the Mixer has chain drive where the Milk has my preferred belt drive. But I can get the Mixer converted over time. I know some local frame welders who will create a split in the frame for the belt and any number of LBSs would gladly do the conversion for me.

So here it is:

And the Spec:

And the Geometry:

I’ll be fitting my Brooks saddle, my bar ends and various ancilliaries for commuting and I’ll be getting the lads at Northfield Cycles to fit some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres at point of sale.

Richard has already ordered it and I’ll be picking it up in around 3 to 4 weeks when the voucher comes through. Not before time. I’ll actually have a proper winterised commuter bike in time for the onslaught that’ll begin around November! Not that I’m wishing Summer away before it’s begun you understand.

Counting down…

Easter approaches, a 4 day week here, then 4 days off. That seems a reasonable rate of exchange to me!

Back on the canal commute today, the road bike gets a rest after 2 or 3 weeks of putting up with me. I’m in shorts and T-Shirt too which is pretty good.

Still on track with the 30 Days of biking, although the pedal with Dan yesterday was a very short pedal as he’d got one on him! They all count though.

Here’s a video about 30 days of biking by @aaronthestrong for team Loving the bike who I’m pedalling for this April. He’s used some of my footage around the lanes by Bartley Green Reservoir which is pretty cool, and my dawn shot of Frankley Beeches. It appears I’m the only non North American pedalling for them.

I’ll be talking about my Cycle to work scheme bike tomorrow. Oh, and there is now content on “My Bikes” page.

Sunday…Rest

Off for a walk with the hounds, Roast Pork for dinner, bimble around the block with Dan on the bikes. Sorted.

At last!

Had some good news yesterday, at long last my Cycle to Work scheme paper work has been done. It’s only taken my company 7 months to get around to it! This means I can bimble over to Northfield Cycles for a chat with Richard and Neil! I’m at the waiting for my certificate stage.

How exciting!

More on this in due course.

Punctures.

I know I’m tempting fate and it will probably annoy the Puncture Fairy, but I’m going to discuss…shhhh…Punctures. Do you think she heard?

As you all may (or may not) remember I’ve had my share. The worst occasion was a whole 7, yes seven punctures on one  MTB ride along the Clent Hills. But I’ve had them regularly on my MTB commuter along the roads and canal towpaths over time.

I can deal with punctures no problem, on a MTB ride or a road cycle on my Giant Defy 2 they are just part of cycling’s rich tapestry, something to become proficient at repairing, taking the time out to relax while you fix them and generally enjoy the ambience of being outside.

It’s on a commute that you can do without them. That’s when they become a pain and in my experience they happen in the dark, wind and rain. Add on the time factor for added pressure and well, you can just hear the PF laughing her little head off!

Obviously Sod’s Law go hand in hand with the Puncture Fairy. That is if you’re not prepped it will definately happen, or if you are prepped it will happen at the worst time.

I am always prepped. It’s my OCD I think! Or my military trained anal attention to detail. Whatever, I never go on a bike ride without the proper kit.

My Puncture Fairy repellant kit consists of:

2 inner tubes

Puncture repair kit

3 steel tyre levers

Good quality pump

The above kit is a cure rather prevention.

Now here is where I’m really pushing my luck with her. Read this bit quietly and don’t tell anyone.

I can only go on my experiences but since this blog entry here I have not had any punctures on my commuter MTB. If you read that blog you’ll see why.

Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres I did a bit research back when I was plauged with punctures on my commute and decided that I’d chance those tyres. I’d read about Slime, and other preventative products but finally on the advice of my LBS Red Kite Cycles who run both Road and MTB racing teams that Schwalbe was the way forward.

They certainly work as advertised as I have been MTB commuter puncture free since July 5th 2010. That is both off road, towpath and on the road.

Here’s the downer though. They come at a cost in ride quality. I wouldn’t fit them to my road bike or my full suspension MTB. They are very heavy and you do notice them, where other tyres are just fit and forget.

So, in conclusion, if you want puncture free commutes where repairing the tyre and tube is just too inconveniant, then they’re the way forward. But if ride quality and a svelte rolling feel is important to you then you’d better have a the right kit with you!

Thanks to Steve over at the There and back again Blog for the idea for this missive.

Overslept big style!

I’m working from home today and tomorrow. That means I get up at my normal time and do a pedal. This morning I was going to do a 20 miler to Edgbaston tunnel and back via the canal and NCR5. The operative word there being “was.”

My head hit the pillow last night, next thing I know it’s 0715hrs. I must have been tired, or as wifey said “you obviously needed it!” Whatever, I’ll do a quick spin around the block later to keep on with the 30 days of biking challenge.

Yesterday’s pedal home was against a right old headwind. It also contained a few incidents, while not life threatening as such, certainly gives you some idea as to how much consideration some motorists give cyclists. I’ll let this short video demonstrate far better than I can describe.

On the subject of safety, after the Topsoil wagon incident last week which was the first non contact incident I’ve had that truly scared me, I realised that if I’d have been crushed under its wheels no one would have a scooby who I was. I don’t carry my wallet with me as I don’t carry money, (other than some small change) as I can’t trust myself to not get crap food. So consequently I haven’t any ID.

I brought this from Amazon so I’m always identifiable. It’s a self adhesive label/container type thing that you stick to your lid and carries a small piece of paper that has your ID, address, medical info, contact details and Next of Kin info on it. A brilliant idea. Now I can go out on my bike and get killed with impunity safe in the knowledge that my loved ones will be informed post haste.

This is what it looks like on my lid.

And a close up.

The little kit comes with various other little reflective stickers that you can sprinkle liberally over your lid for even better visibility. What I would say is to use some little alcohol wipes or similar to clean your lid before you stick the stuff onto your lid. I’m sure the adhesive is sufficient, but better to be safe than sorry.

I’d recommend them to anyone.

Focus, intensity & other stuff I could be better at.

Just how hard is it to stay focused, to keep the intensity up, to stay on track?

Bloody difficult. It hasn’t yet, but I can feel my focus starting to slip. I’ve been full on since Christmas, pedalling, excercising and being super disciplined with the grub. This has resulted in a stone dropped since then.

But now I can feel myself wanting to ease up. I want the extra hour in bed. I’m taking my commutes a bit easier, my excercise at home intensity has dropped off and worst of all I can feel the peck peck peck of the bad food Woodpecker tapping at my conciousness. I haven’t relented, yet. But I am feeling very…I don’t know how to describe it…Not on it maybe?

I’ll still be pedalling every day, still doing my workouts and still being good with the grub, but at the moment it’s hard to stay focused. I could do with a month off but I can’t. I’d hate to throw away what I’ve achieved since Christmas just because I’m a lazy whinging bastard who can’t be arsed. All I’m doing at the moment is counting the days to the weekend when I ease up the pedalling, have a couple of beers and chill.

Maybe the manic happenings at home is having an effect, hopefully that’ll be put to bed in a couple of weeks and I can move on, that might be it…

A photo from this morning just about sums up my mood at the moment.

Tuesday…’nuff said…

If you’re a regular around these parts then you’ll probably know that my least favourite day is Tuesday. Today was a good example of why I’ve never quite got to grips with them. I woke up on time, but just didn’t want to move. The reality of the working week hit home as it always does on a Tuesday and persuaded me to roll over and go back to sleep. So half an hour later when I woke up again late for work I had to drag myself metaphorically kicking and screaming out of bed and onto my bike in a rush. I don’t do rushing. I like a pre prepped easy leisurely start and to arrive everywhere I go in good time. I’m the sad bloke that would rather arrive an hour early than be 5 minutes late. A fatal flaw I know, but that’s me.

I got my bike out the garage, noticed the clear skies and started to cheer up a bit. It was pretty nippy due to the clear skies, but even in shorts and T-Shirt I knew I’d warm up with the climb over Frankley Beeches 5 minutes into my pedal to work.

This was the sight that greeted me near the top.

A pretty impressive pre dawn silhouette of the famous (famous around Birmingham that is) Beech trees themselves.

The rest of pedal in got rid of the traditional Tuesday slough of despond and I only have to negotiate the rest of the day to have another Devil Day behind me.

Going back to last Friday’s missive where I sorted a fellow cyclists chain out, I was very pleased to see that Jon took the time to comment on the blog yesterdayand let me know that he got to work ok, which was damned decent of him! Thanks for doing that Jon, always nice to know the outcome of a situation. Glad you bike will get sorted too!

Day 11, 30 days of biking.

I’ve still pedalled every day this month, ok, the small pedals have been small pedals around the block, but having to get on your bike everyday is getting to be a habit and a giggle. It seems silly, that the small pedals are the most difficult ones. Cramming them in to an already hectic weekend schedule is a problem, but so far so good.

The Monday to Friday pedals are a doddle, I have to do them to get to work. Here is this morning’s photo, a very crappy one taken while pedalling through Bearwood. As I said on Facebook, worth publishing for the comedy value.

A first this year, I’m in shorts and minus my headover (buff), it was still a bit too chilly to lose the Helly Hansen base layer though. A sunny pedal home is predicted by the met boys.