Progress report

Since I started out on Xmas eve I've managed at least 30km a day. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but given my state of fitness and the load, it's been pretty tiring!

Today was bad, as there are high winds across Lincolnshire (up to 47km/h according to the BBC). My direction of travel meant that it was alternately a cross wind and a head wind. The head wind slowed me down to around 13km/h but the cross winds were worse.

About halfway along my route the terrain changes from the rolling small hills of the south end of the Wolds with hedges and trees along the roads to the fens. The fens are practically obstruction-free (there's the odd tree or house) so the wind was at full strength when it met the road.

Once I'd been blown clear off the road once, I decided against going the remaining 15km!

I think this might be it for my ride this year as tomorrow is looking windy as well.

Last minute Xmas preparations - ride tomorrow!

Took the Fuego and (unladen) trailer out for a 30km test ride yesterday.

One thing I learnt was that the stretch of off-road shared use path out towards Bingham is not nearly wide enough for passing, frequently obstructed and the points at which are you're redirected into the recessed bus stops are not suitable for a three metre bike+trailer. Looks like I'll have to mainly stick to the road!

Also, the rough treatment that the trailer received mostly ruined the Cat Eye mount at the back, stripping out the notches that hold the light in place around the mount axle (this is what allows you to adjust the light angle up and down). I'll need to get a replacement for mounting the Volt50 to my (upright) saddle again and for the time being I've glued the broken mount in place.

Tomorrow's the day! Hope to set off at 10 and be there by 2. If the weather looks too bad I'll call the whole thing off and try to go for longer rides in January instead.

Xmas preparations

I've got the trainer tyre off of the Fuego now ready for some rides before I set off on Christmas eve.

My trailer has also already been modified to take a Cat Eye Volt50. This involved drilling a couple of holes into the end of the base:

Angling it down at the ground should prevent it dazzling anybody behind me and it's bright enough for the patch of light to be seen from a good distance.

Carry Freedom Y-Frame Large

After various recommendations and a demo by David Gardiner, I decided to try using a trailer instead of pannier racks this year. Also, I had to return something large to someone on the other side of town, so enter the Carry Freedom Y Frame with its large capacity and superb build quality (which you do pay for, at circa £200 delivered).

That's a 100*80*50cm chest of drawers and fairly heavy. Thoughts on the trip after the break...

Volt 50 on Fuego and storage switcharound

Just put the trainer tyre on my Fuego to get some training in and to try and figure out what's up with my knee, despite the time constraints of the overtime at work. In order to fit the trainer and bike on the floor this means I've had to move the Brompton onto the wall hook. From the desk it appears to float eerily:

More after the jump.

Endura Stealth Lite Biblongs & Cat Eye Volt 50

One (probably) last post on new Endura gear! Replacing my waterproof trousers is the last bit I needed to do to be more recumbent friendly in the winter. Complementing this was a Seal Skinz Belgian style cap, which is also ostensibly waterproof and very warm.

It turns out I'm less fat than I thought I was, fitting into the large rather than the extra large. It was about 6 or 7 degrees today (light wind, sunshine, no rain) so I went out for a test ride on the Brompton after I'd made my purchases.

(video and pictures after the jump)

Endura Deluge Gloves

Carrying on with the Endura theme, I got myself a pair of Deluge gloves to replace my old, no-longer-waterproof Gore gloves (seeing a pattern here?)

My hands get very cold in the winter, so in the past I've used a pair of Pearl Izumi Lobster mitts, which are fantastically warm, but not waterproof as I found out to my regret on last year's Christmas ride.

Tomorrow should give me a good chance to test them, as it'll be both cold and wet while I'm out, according to the forecast.

Endura Stealth Jacket

Hammerhead got funded and met the stretch goal!

I visited Edinburgh recently for a film festival and got to catch up with David from Laid Back Bikes as well as pay a visit to the local bike shops.

Riding in the rain and Hammerhead

So I've bitten the bullet and funded Hammerhead. They're pretty close to their goal with 10 days to go at the time of writing. One thing to be aware of is the $20 shipping charge outside of the US, which it would have been nice if they'd mentioned on the front page!

Here's hoping it succeeds so I can have a play with it.

Today's ride was a miserable wet mess. My aging Gore-Tex paclite is now basically dead and gone, as is my hat made of the same material and my gloves lines with it. Last Christmas my big trip was a complete washout from start to finish, I thought that my waterproofs at least lasted a couple of hours in those conditions, but they seem to have deteriorated in the meantime.

So I'm after a new jacket, hat, gloves and longs this year. I think I'm going to plump for the 'nuclear option' for jackets, the Rapha Hardshell (I can now smell smoke, wallet probably just burst into flames) and a set of Endura Stealth waterproof longs. My Berghaus trousers are still waterproof I think, but they have a wide ankle that will let water in on the recumbent and also get caught on the derailleur stem.

Going to be an expensive winter!

Longer Christmas Prep Ride: Return of the Recumbent - with added turn-by-turn

After a week of shame, I returned to Lincolnshire to fetch my bike:


I tried a different route enabled by the BikeHub app on my phone which does route planning and offers turn-by-turn navigation. This had mixed results. Most of the time it really helped navigating little villages and unnamed links on a route with far too many turns to memorise (well, for me).

Longer Christmas prep ride

As I mentioned previously, there's another location I usually visit come Christmas time on my bike which is almost 100km from door to door.

Emboldened by my previous 70k effort I thought I'd just go for it and set off a couple of weeks after (this last Saturday the 28th).


This one didn't end so well! The weather was lovely, almost 20 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately there was a 15km/h easterly wind, which did help to keep me cool but was in my face for the entire journey (it wasn't a round trip, so I didn't get the payback of riding with the wind in the second half). I was also slightly more heavily laden with overnight luggage and a larger amount of water. Thank goodness for the more aerodynamic recumbent profile.

I was slower than I expected but felt ok until I hit the last 30k, where pains in my hip and knee started to manifest. I plodded on to the destination after a brief stop to extend the boom another two centimetres. When I arrived I genuinely had trouble standing up. My thighs and glutes had basically melted.

I think it was a decent effort distance wise, but I really need to up my game to do the same route in winter with luggage. I'm also going to investigate the local Specialized store to see if they can do a bike fit, as I suspect that my asymmetric pains (left knee, right hip) may be due to different leg length or flexibility.

It's rather humiliating having to leave a bike and limp home on public transport. Thankfully my old mum didn't mind locking it in her garage until I man up and return to collect it.

Abus lock on a Brompton

I saw a great idea on a Brompton dealer website while I was looking for a front wheel, so I've basically stolen it. You get one of those Abus folding locks and attach it to the frame behind the swing arm, which has a conveniently sized gap for one. Even more conveniently, I already had that type of lock!

This does involve inverting the clip for the swing arm so that the lever points upwards, but this is pretty easy. Result with the swing arm down:

Christmas prep ride

For the last three years I've tried to cycle to my relatives in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire for my Christmas visit (two successes, one hideous frozen near-death failure). Getting there usually involves one 72km ride (or a 100km ride, depending where I go first) followed by a bunch of eerily consistent 32km rides between places on different days. By the last day I'm usually totally ruined and somewhat frosty.

This will be the first year on the recumbent; so I thought I'd try an unladen test ride of the shorter first leg:

Derailleur cable switch

The derailleur cable on the Fuego was getting a bit frayed. I don't know how old it was when I bought it (three years, max, I think) but it was due for renewal:

Bleeding all over the shop

The rear brake on my Boardman was playing up, so I ordered a cheap bleed kit from a company I'd never heard of called Cyclonix. It was about a tenner, compared to £40 SRP for the official Avid kit or £20 a brake to have them bled/adjusted by Evans (having decided to try myself, I didn't check my other local shops).

Cannock Chase failure & bike stand

I paid a visit to Cannock Chase today with among others the evil blogger of Gecko Cycling. My arm is still recovering so I lent my MTB to a colleague for the day and went out myself on the blue trail with my Fuego.

En route to where I was going to be picked up I noticed (late, as usual) that my left cleat had become twisted on the shoe and had twisted the angle from a nice comfortable toe-out to slightly toe-in. I guess this was due to my exclusively putting my left foot down when I stop, on that long ride with Andy the previous week. I cannot believe I didn't notice this at the time, it explains the knee pain perfectly, as that completely vanished when I reseated the cleat.

Hills are pretty tough. Gravelly hills are magnitudes worse, especially as I wasn't properly set up for off-road. The front tyre is still the Schwalbe Kojak that David had fitted when he owned it. I think it would have gripped better if I had a Marathon Plus or a Marathon Supreme fitted (like I have the rear). I've read that Fuegos are pretty decent off the road, but I'll not try it again for a while myself.

I couldn't manage the entire loop and in fact gave up when I slipped on some gravel and landed again on my bad arm. I switched to the roads after that and played around a bit before I returned to the cafe. There are some nice hills around there.

I took the seat off of the Fuego to fit it back in Stan's car and when I got home tried to fit it in my Park Tools PCS-9 without the seat on. It just about works, which is good. The seat isn't hard to remove really and having the bike in a stand is brilliant for working with wheels and the drive train.

Bad year for trail riding

About a year ago I was riding The Kitchener Trail at Sherwood Pines and had an unlucky fall onto my elbow, which broke on impact. A couple of hours later I was having this swanky accessory fitted to hold the tip of my olecranon onto the rest of the bone:

This put me out of commission entirely for six weeks and prevented me from riding the trails again for months afterwards; though this was partly because I felt strong enough to go out around January time and the weather was hideous for months after! I have been to Sherwood since and suffered no accidents.

Strava test!

Testing testing... Can anyone see this?

Light 'er up!

I was planning this weekend to take the train to Lincoln, then ride along a stretch of The Water Railway route and finish off on the road to where my mum lives for a visit. Unfortunately a train derailed this week and ruined the track, so no trains are going that way for a week.

As the plan was to ride a lot of B roads, many with hedges and sharp turns, I ordered a flag mount to make my recumbent a bit more visible to the mad boyracers and motorcyclists who seem to think that slowing down for blind corners is a courtesy too far.

The mount I got was the type that fits on the rear axle of the bike. It comes pre-drilled with three holes which I guess are to allow you to bolt the mount in place through rack/mudguard eyelets.

These weren't quite big enough, so out came the cylindrical file (I also had to lop off a bit of a corner because of the derailleur, but have no photo of that):

Because the pole is so long and one of the attachments is pretty heavy, I felt it'd be safer if it were attached at two points for stability. The seat is suspended however, so it'd need to be able to flex. I added an elastic band around the rack and threaded the pole through the strap ring of the bag to give it some extra stability:

That red thing on the pole is the result of my thinking ahead to winter or when the weather is poor; I added a strip light. This was too heavy towards the top of the flag pole, so I mounted it above head-height. It should complement the existing rear light.

Here's a video of it in action (during a test phase, when it was much higher):

Learning to ride a recumbent

I bought my Nazca Fuego used from a specialist shop in Edinburgh called Laid Back Bikes operated by one David Gardiner. It took a few laps of the little road outside his shop to be able to start at all but eventually I got the very basics.

Schlepping it home on the train to Nottingham was not even slightly fun, nor was pushing it the remaining mile to my flat, but the next day I managed to take it to the nearby Park Estate which is fairly quiet and has a good layout for cycling.

I was still very unsteady by this point, as you can see here:

I've since learnt to stay upright more consistently and can set off confidently now. My turning circle is still really wide and my fitness is pretty poor, so there's a long way to go before I master it!

Trying new shoes and SPDs

I've used a combination of SPD and Crank Bros. cleats for a while now, both in a beaten old pair of Specialized Tahoe shoes.

I get a bit of toe cramp/pain when riding the recumbent so I looked around for some advice. Can't remember exactly where I got it, but I read that you should go with light, stiff shoes with adjustable straps when riding recumbent. Sticking with the same brand I plumped for a pair of Specialized Sport MTB shoes as they were stiff, light, had tread (need to put your foot down when you stop) and three straps across the instep, arch and toes as well as a generous toe box. Also, they were on sale :)

I decided to ditch the Crank Bros. in the end. I like the way they clip in and out and have greater (sprung) float than SPD, but the cleats wear out too quickly and the pedals don't have spanner grooves making them a pain to remove; so when I bent one of the arms on my eggbeaters that was the end!

Spending a while in the turbo trainer helped me make small adjustments and test them consistently and safely with no distractions. Having the straps loose at the top and bottom but tight in the middle (after warming up to let the feet expand) worked well. No pain in the right foot but a little in the left after about an hour.

The next upgrade might be a pair of Speedplay Frog pedals as they have a wide (20 degree) free float unlike SPD (5 degree) and are reputed to be the pedal of choice for recumbents.

Bad junction

The last part of my short commute to work involves my stopping at a set of lights and walking my bike along a short pavement to the office. This involves crossing a badly designed road that splits off of Canal Street via a curved junction. This encourages drivers to tear down Canal Street and take the corner at speed, unaware that there is a pedestrian crossing a few metres down the road.

Today someone was driving a large blue people-carrier down Canal Street as I was about to cross. I looked and saw that he wasn't indicating so I stepped out. He turned at speed, deciding to indicate after the fact. I was already in the road by this point so he braked, then stared at me while I finished crossing, then screeched past me beeping his horn.

That junction is badly designed. It should be at a right angle to force motorists to slow down before they take it.

Better storage picture & speed sensor on recumbent

Since Stan whinged about it so much (I'll bet you've never heard so much misogyny and swearing from a northern physicist) here's a better image of my storage setup:

Since I've pretty much recovered from my arm operation I've swapped the trainer tyre for the Marathon Supreme on the recumbent, ready for riding tomorrow and/or at the weekend. I also found time to put the speed sensor back on the rear fork:

It's actually a speed + cadence sensor, but the recumbent setup prevents it from doing both jobs at once as the cranks are more than a metre away from the rear wheel. The cadence sensor is housed in the main body of the unit and the speed sensor on the arm. On a traditional upright bike there is overlap between the cranks and the wheel; not so on a recumbent or on a Brompton (16" wheels) for that matter.

Returning briefly to storage I used to hang my recumbent in my hallway when I had a cross bike (since sold) in the bedroom. I'm pretty sure I was testing the tolerances of the hoist as the recumbent is very heavy and guests told me that they feared to walk underneath it:

Brompton storage & seat post modification

The hooks at the maximum width on the bike stand are practically perfect for hanging a Brompton like so:

The left hook fits neatly into the arch where the top tube and seat tube are supported by a short down tube. They're so small when folded that you could store about 4 of them on a single rack if you had enough hooks (why would anyone have four though?)

Also on the Brompton, I installed a Cane Creek Thudbuster ST (from the USA via eBay) to make riding on the cratered moonscape of Lincolnshire's roads a bit easier on the rear. That's also a pretty unusual saddle, an ISM from Trybike:

The Thudbuster is good at smoothing out buzz and bumps especially with the Brompton's already decent rear elastomer suspension. Not cheap though at around £150 from Wiggle and I needed to add a fair amount of weight by installing it into the existing Brompton seat post. It emulates the standard telescopic seatpost in this regard.

Bikes and Storage

I live in a small city-centre flat and have three bikes. They (and their storage) are pictured below (apologies for the poor lighting, took the picture on my phone):

It's a little hard to see but they comprise a Boardman full-sus mountain bike that I use on trails when I can get to them; a Brompton for commuting to work and journeys involving public transport and finally a recumbent that I hope to use for long journeys and weekend riding.

My flat has two bedrooms one of which I either let or keep for guests and no other storage, so all of these bikes hang up in my bedroom.

If you're interested, the 'bent is on a standard wall hook that you can get from most bike shops (it's a Delta Leonardo I think, ~£10). The stand is a Topeak Dual Touch that I got from Wiggle (~£125) and is mounted against one of my roof beams. This setup works well as my ceilings are pretty high, about 3.15 metres and I'm strong enough to lift the top bike in and out. On that note, the recumbent is the hardest to lift in and out as it weighs at least 17kg. Ouch!

I'll go into further detail about the bikes themselves eventually.

First Post

Cycling is one of my favourite hobbies so I thought I'd start a blog about it like my friend who blogs at http://geckocycling.blogspot.co.uk/. Hopefully mine will be less ranty, unless I've been crossed by another van-driving nutter that day :)

I'm not competitive or even particularly fit, I usually ride slowly for medium distances so I'm probably going to concentrate on my recumbent bike, maintenance and equipment rather than anything relating to racing. There will also be the odd moan about cycling infrastructure where I live and where I tend to ride.

I may also post off-topic stuff about my other hobbies.