All things considered, I shouldn't have had any particular worries about not completing the Pedal for Scotland ride, after all I've done that sort of distance plenty of times before. And I did it again on August 27th.
A very early start for me: 6am! I arrived at the railway station in town just after 7am and stood around waiting for the others in my team to turn up. I was doing the event with four other people from my work, at least one of whom was fitter than me, and we intended to stay as a team through the ride. There was a bit of waiting and faffing about with hundreds of cyclists needing to get their bikes into the fleet of lorries, the Stealthmachine went first into one of them so that it would be well protected during the journey, with two sides smooth panel van to two sides bits of other bike. The train journey was uneventful, save having to sit on the floor for most of it because it was so busy. Then it was out into Glasgow and to find our bikes.
There was a route guide in the PfS entry pack and it mostly made sense. I'd followed the route on Google Maps, then cross-referenced it on Google Earth in case any of the road junctions weren't quite as the mapping suggested. Then I'd gone a bit silly and made a scrolling guide out of Lego and attached it to my handlebars. As we rode out of George Square and past the start line, I heard the commentator saying into his microphone, "She's even got satellite tracking on that bike!" Well, I was on a recumbent after all, I already looked unusual!
The pace was relaxed with so many cyclists on the road, and while we had no intention of breaking records, even we found ourselves overtaking people. One tends to forget that for every full-on, lycra clad cyclist with carbon wheels and no luggage who overtook us, there was probably another cyclist who only went out when the weather was good and never rode more than two miles. So while 50 miles isn't to be sniffed at even for me, there are a lot of people for whom this was a real personal challenge. After less than an hour's riding was the first rest stop, so we decided to stop anyway. They were giving away free bananas and chocolate wafers for a start! I hadn't seen any other recumbent bikes so far, and wondered if there were any given the amount of glances mine attracted back in Glasgow, but I spotted a grey Speedmachine, of all bikes, and had to park next to it. I had a brief chat with the owner whose name I forget, but then a man rolled up on a blue trike and it was one of the guys who'd tried out my Windcheetah as part of his buying research with Laid Back. I forget his name too.
Duly refilled and warmed-down, we set out again to pass through Airdrie and east towards Avonbridge where the next stop was. That was a church where they were serving cake and other yummy food, though I ended up chatting to the trike owner again for a while, and then once the others in my team reassembled and we'd decided it was time to move on, they went round one side of the building with their bikes, I went the other, and promptly lost them! I'd assumed I'd got to the road first and waited for them. And waited, and waited. Then I decided to head on up the hill and waited for them again at the top. Eventually I decided that so many cyclists had gone past that they would be miles ahead, so I rejoined the throng and for a change put my foot down (so to speak). With a bit of a tail wind I was flying, and overtook many people who'd passed me ten minutes earlier. After a long downhill and some wonderful corners, I caught my team up, as they were waiting for me! As a complete group once more, we soon arrived in Linlithgow for the lunch stop. Pootling into the playground David called me over; I knew he and Mark were doing the ride on their recumbents but I didn't know when they'd started. So I chatted to them for a while and returned to my group. N returned from the dinnerhall with tubs of hot pasta so we sat in the sun having a jolly nice lunch.
From Linlithgow we pressed on through Winchburgh and Kirkliston, rejoining the usual route back into Edinburgh, with which I'm very familiar. I took the opportunity to have some fun on the long straight, but waited for everyone at the flyover near Cramond Brig, and from there it was a gentle ride along through Barnton and onto the old railway path again and into the park next to Murrayfield Stadium. Smiles all round and a bit of hugging and we joined the long queue to 'deregister' with the organisers. One by one we dispersed and I met up again with David and Mark, and located Kevin who'd also done the ride. We carried on talking about everything and nothing really, and eventually decided to head home as the temperature was dropping a bit. I still had a few miles of uphill to do, and my legs were quite tired. But I made it home, dropped myself into a chair and had a cup of tea.
I covered about 57 miles altogether, on a bike I dared not weigh! I also raised £135 for Leukaemia Research, and I think that made it all worthwhile. I shall probably be doing Pedal for Scotland next year as well.
September 03, 2006
August 19, 2006
Countdown
My preparation for Pedal for Scotland has so far involved riding more miles on my way home from work each day; about three times as many actually. I also went on a sort of training ride with the people from work with whom I'm doing the event, and that came to about 46 miles altogether. I rode the little Helios for that, and I was very uncomfortable after 30 miles or so. I think it might have been as much the baggy shorts I was wearing over my lycra shorts, as the saddle on the bike which is not bad as saddles go, but it's not a Flite. When I was in Brighton and London three weeks ago, riding around the latter with Charlotte from ACF, I did about 40 miles on the first day and 20 the next, and managed ok, but the comfort issues remained. So, I think that I'll bring the Stealthmachine to Glasgow and ride that. I've found that if I jump between bikes day to day or maybe week to week, my legs never really get in tune with whatever I'm riding and my performance suffers. So it's been pretty much the Stealthmachine for all my activities so far, until this past week when I managed to hurt both my legs by riding too enthusiastically / aggressively / hard / fast / etc. Recuperating by riding my very lightest bike, the Helios, has probably put me out of shape again! But my legs are feeling better.
The good news is that the seatpost on the Helios, despite the bike being folded and unfolded a lot during the weekend down south, has remained blissfully silent. The bad news is that the new creak is still there and I simply cannot work out where it's coming from.
With my weekends of late being swallowed up with other things, I haven't done much of the promotional and fun stuff. I missed out on the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade for one thing: I really wanted to join in this time around and boost the recumbent numbers. I missed out on the Tallbikes while they were in Edinburgh because I was at work. I missed out putting in a presence at the TryCycling stand in the Meadows on Fringe Sunday too.
But I went on the latest Laid Back ride at the weekend, where we had a good showing of the silly bikes, Kevin on his Fujin, David on his trusty Focus and his wee one on a Bevo, Martin on a hired Nazca, me on Speedy - and Graeme on his Speedy, having come all the way from somewhere near the border. It's been about two years since I had the chance to ride with another Windcheetah rider, Liz at Cyclefest and Mark at the EIHPF. With the numbers on bikes and the split of abilities, I led "the Spud Crew" [2] out of the city and to Heriot-Watt university and to Johnsburn for lunch. I hadn't led a group before (even just three people), and I was nervous. I rode probably rather faster than I ought to have done, but I was afraid of holding the fast guys up! Still, it was fun to blast along for a while, while David led the less experienced riders in his group. Lunch was good as ever at the Inn, and us fast ones rode a circuitous route back to Heriot-Watt while the others went more directly. Graeme left in town, and Kevin and I went to the Meadows to see what was happening. A lot was happening but no TryCycling and no Tallbikes, so we went our separate ways. My total for that ride was about 35 miles. Next time I shall try to eat mid-morning to stop me going wobbly just after lunchtime.
[2] Spud, as in SPD pedals. You could tell the fast recumbenteers because they were all riding clipless.
Surely I've done some modifications too? I'm afraid so. This time it was necessary however; the rear gear lever on Speedy was quite old and although it's indexed, it was getting rather vague and it would slip out of one gear and into the next by itself. So I finally bought some new levers and while I was at it, a replacement rear derailleur. The original one of course had been put in the bin after it went very wobbly, and the replacement was only temporary since it was bent, apparently. And of course, you can't have a machine like a Windcheetah with cheap components, can you? So I've put a second-hand Shimano XTR unit on and the gear changing is feeling much better. So, just the rear wheel to retrue now!
The good news is that the seatpost on the Helios, despite the bike being folded and unfolded a lot during the weekend down south, has remained blissfully silent. The bad news is that the new creak is still there and I simply cannot work out where it's coming from.
With my weekends of late being swallowed up with other things, I haven't done much of the promotional and fun stuff. I missed out on the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade for one thing: I really wanted to join in this time around and boost the recumbent numbers. I missed out on the Tallbikes while they were in Edinburgh because I was at work. I missed out putting in a presence at the TryCycling stand in the Meadows on Fringe Sunday too.
But I went on the latest Laid Back ride at the weekend, where we had a good showing of the silly bikes, Kevin on his Fujin, David on his trusty Focus and his wee one on a Bevo, Martin on a hired Nazca, me on Speedy - and Graeme on his Speedy, having come all the way from somewhere near the border. It's been about two years since I had the chance to ride with another Windcheetah rider, Liz at Cyclefest and Mark at the EIHPF. With the numbers on bikes and the split of abilities, I led "the Spud Crew" [2] out of the city and to Heriot-Watt university and to Johnsburn for lunch. I hadn't led a group before (even just three people), and I was nervous. I rode probably rather faster than I ought to have done, but I was afraid of holding the fast guys up! Still, it was fun to blast along for a while, while David led the less experienced riders in his group. Lunch was good as ever at the Inn, and us fast ones rode a circuitous route back to Heriot-Watt while the others went more directly. Graeme left in town, and Kevin and I went to the Meadows to see what was happening. A lot was happening but no TryCycling and no Tallbikes, so we went our separate ways. My total for that ride was about 35 miles. Next time I shall try to eat mid-morning to stop me going wobbly just after lunchtime.
[2] Spud, as in SPD pedals. You could tell the fast recumbenteers because they were all riding clipless.
Surely I've done some modifications too? I'm afraid so. This time it was necessary however; the rear gear lever on Speedy was quite old and although it's indexed, it was getting rather vague and it would slip out of one gear and into the next by itself. So I finally bought some new levers and while I was at it, a replacement rear derailleur. The original one of course had been put in the bin after it went very wobbly, and the replacement was only temporary since it was bent, apparently. And of course, you can't have a machine like a Windcheetah with cheap components, can you? So I've put a second-hand Shimano XTR unit on and the gear changing is feeling much better. So, just the rear wheel to retrue now!
July 12, 2006
This land is mine
All mine! Except that there's nothing to which you can lock your bike: no Sheffield stands, no wheelbenders, not even a raggedy old fencepost. Quite what the manager's expectation of visiting cyclists is, I don't know, except perhaps to wait for them to start looking around for a hidden Candid Camera. This is a beautifully converted car parking space at the Wetherby Whaler, a fish and chip restaurant on the outskirts of York. I don't imagine they get many cyclists turning up, considering that the restaurant is just off the rather busy A1237. I suppose one could park a velomobile in the space, or perhaps a group of cyclists could create a mass tangle of bicycles all locked to each other. There is a plus side, the fish and chips at this place is really good.It's early days but I've done a fair few miles on the Helios with its new tyres, and I can tell the difference over the Stelvios already. They're a wee bit more grippy and they definitely ride tarmac better. What their longevity is like remains to be seen, but they're standard equipment on current Windcheetahs so I'm hoping for good things. I'm also suddenly enjoying the Helios all over again and I'm having a minor crisis: the Stealthmachine is by far and away the most comfortable bike I've ridden, ever, but the Helios is such a fun little bike and if I can sort out my comfort in cycling shorts, I might yet ride it for Pedal for Scotland after all.
One other reason for this enthusiasm is that, fingers crossed, I've sorted the incessant creak-creak-creak of the seatpost as I pedal. I resolved, once and for all, to check everything that could be a factor: the saddle clamp bolts, both seatposts, the shim into which the seatpost fits, the frame tube into which the shim fits. I looked at the wear pattern on each component, I looked for any major or minor surface defects and sanded them smooth, I cleaned everything with white spirit and greased everything except the seatpost-shim inferface. Well something worked anyway. The commute the next day saw the seatpost making no sounds at all, but an entirely new creaking sound developed from another part of the bike! I think this might be the infamous Re-bar joint, but I thought I'd fixed that months ago. So, more tinkering required then.
July 06, 2006
Between the wheels
It's been a fun-filled few weeks on the bike front. I've been busy mending things (again), reading things, meeting people, and hey, even becoming a star of the big screen. Kind of, anyway.
What galvanised me into repair mode was that I was planning to attend the York Cycle Show this year and this time I had a choice of two recumbents to ride on the day. Well, I would once I'd properly sorted the problems Speedy was having, so I was on the phone to AVD a few times to ask about bearings and kingpins. The upshot was that the DIY approach didn't sound all that difficult and would avoid me having to bring the trike down to Manchester, so I got some parts and DIYed. Out went the old metal steering bushings, in went new nylon ones, out went the tired drum brake internals, in went shiny new bits from ICE. Then I set to retrueing the front wheels which wasn't an easy job at all - the spokes hadn't been touched in at least three years. But the wheels were soon better. I made an extra layer for the seat cushion then discovered I'd run out of sticky velcro to attach it... I also repaired a mucky but good rear derailleur to substitute for the lovely and still shiny but very worn out Deore XT unit. The gear changing was becoming very imprecise and it turned out the derailleur pivots had gone wobbly, so I stole all the good bits from it and put them into the replacement derailleur. Speedy was now almost done, only needing such luxuries as a new gear lever and some tweaking of the steering joint.
I also had to attend to the little Helios because having built a nice new wheel, the miles I then put on it resulted in some of the spokes loosening up, some a little, some a lot! I perhaps hadn't tensioned the wheel enough the first time, so I spent an hour or two redoing it. Then not long after while hot-footing it across town to the garage where my car was having its MOT, I had a puncture. No biggie, but really not the best time for it to happen! I had it mended in short order and was on my way again. After attending to MOT matters I was heading over to David's house to attend to some bike matters, and got another puncture! Not only that, the sidewall of the tyre had blown apart. I had the inner tube fixed again quickly and then set to mending the tyre with a big patch which had been languishing in my repair kit for months. I ordered some new tyres that evening - Continental Grand Prix, rather than the Stelvios which have been getting a trifle annoying with their inconsistent reliability. While I was buying tyres, I chanced across a copy of Encycleopedia - from 1995 - which for £1 was too good value a piece of history not to buy.
Two events were happening on the weekend of the 24th-25th of June. One was the York show, the other was the Bicycle Film Festival. It was an idea David had, I think, to produce a short film of recumbent riders in Edinburgh, having fun and being generally enthusiastic and offbeat. Well, he asked if I was interested and I couldn't really pass up a chance like that could I? So on a very wet morning we gathered in town and went for a coffee until the rain stopped. Then the four of us, David, George the cameraman, Stuart (from the Rannoch ride last year) and I headed out for a day's filming. What a lot of fun! Take after take, round and round and round the roundabouts, swooping and swapping sides, up and down the roads (which were conveniently closed for another event). Several days of (probably frantic) editing by David and George and the video made it to the Film Festival just in time!
I didn't see the showing, of course, because I was busy driving down to York. With the Stealthmachine hugging the back of my car I cruised the 200-odd miles to the same B&B I stayed in three years before when I first went to the York show. I brought the bike this time because although Speedy was ready to go, the garage at the guest house didn't have room! Nor would my friend's little shed when I was to stay with her afterwards. So on the Sunday I rode the five miles to the event, bought myself a programme and started to get acquainted with the layout. I rode around the campsite, the cafe tent, the First Aid tent, the children's try-out bit, and ended up at the BHPC tent where I met "wobbly" John, who recognised me from Cyclefest and previous York shows. I chatted to him for a while, then went off in search of other people I knew, and ended up back at the BHPC where I met Andhar the Wheel from Aberdeen, with his little Edinburgh-born Aerobike recumbent. I made my way into the trade arena and pottered around, said hello to Peter Eland at his Velovision stand, and shortly after that, bumped into fellow forummers Tony, Alex and Joan, from ACF. We chatted for some time, then Joan and I went off to eat lunch. The rest of my afternoon was spent at Joan's tent while we disassembled it, then Tony came back and we sat talking for another hour or so. They later headed off to the railway station and I headed back to the B&B, the five miles going by very quickly indeed with a bit of a tailwind. And that was that really, not a bad day at all.
A brief few days off the bike and back home I went on another Laid Back ride with Stuart and prospective recumbenteer Mark. Having been thundered and rained on on the way out, we only went as far as Balerno for lunch. Uncharacteristically, I had spicy chicken and pasta for lunch - which was dead good actually - then we headed back in via my old stomping ground of Heriot-Watt university and its environs. I got home and with about two minutes to spare, the heavens opened again. Nevertheless it was a nice warm-up at 22 miles for me. I'm planning to do the Pedal For Scotland ride next month, given that I'm not in shape for this year's Dun Run. It's only 50-odd miles rather than 115, so shouldn't be very difficult.
What galvanised me into repair mode was that I was planning to attend the York Cycle Show this year and this time I had a choice of two recumbents to ride on the day. Well, I would once I'd properly sorted the problems Speedy was having, so I was on the phone to AVD a few times to ask about bearings and kingpins. The upshot was that the DIY approach didn't sound all that difficult and would avoid me having to bring the trike down to Manchester, so I got some parts and DIYed. Out went the old metal steering bushings, in went new nylon ones, out went the tired drum brake internals, in went shiny new bits from ICE. Then I set to retrueing the front wheels which wasn't an easy job at all - the spokes hadn't been touched in at least three years. But the wheels were soon better. I made an extra layer for the seat cushion then discovered I'd run out of sticky velcro to attach it... I also repaired a mucky but good rear derailleur to substitute for the lovely and still shiny but very worn out Deore XT unit. The gear changing was becoming very imprecise and it turned out the derailleur pivots had gone wobbly, so I stole all the good bits from it and put them into the replacement derailleur. Speedy was now almost done, only needing such luxuries as a new gear lever and some tweaking of the steering joint.
I also had to attend to the little Helios because having built a nice new wheel, the miles I then put on it resulted in some of the spokes loosening up, some a little, some a lot! I perhaps hadn't tensioned the wheel enough the first time, so I spent an hour or two redoing it. Then not long after while hot-footing it across town to the garage where my car was having its MOT, I had a puncture. No biggie, but really not the best time for it to happen! I had it mended in short order and was on my way again. After attending to MOT matters I was heading over to David's house to attend to some bike matters, and got another puncture! Not only that, the sidewall of the tyre had blown apart. I had the inner tube fixed again quickly and then set to mending the tyre with a big patch which had been languishing in my repair kit for months. I ordered some new tyres that evening - Continental Grand Prix, rather than the Stelvios which have been getting a trifle annoying with their inconsistent reliability. While I was buying tyres, I chanced across a copy of Encycleopedia - from 1995 - which for £1 was too good value a piece of history not to buy.
Two events were happening on the weekend of the 24th-25th of June. One was the York show, the other was the Bicycle Film Festival. It was an idea David had, I think, to produce a short film of recumbent riders in Edinburgh, having fun and being generally enthusiastic and offbeat. Well, he asked if I was interested and I couldn't really pass up a chance like that could I? So on a very wet morning we gathered in town and went for a coffee until the rain stopped. Then the four of us, David, George the cameraman, Stuart (from the Rannoch ride last year) and I headed out for a day's filming. What a lot of fun! Take after take, round and round and round the roundabouts, swooping and swapping sides, up and down the roads (which were conveniently closed for another event). Several days of (probably frantic) editing by David and George and the video made it to the Film Festival just in time!
I didn't see the showing, of course, because I was busy driving down to York. With the Stealthmachine hugging the back of my car I cruised the 200-odd miles to the same B&B I stayed in three years before when I first went to the York show. I brought the bike this time because although Speedy was ready to go, the garage at the guest house didn't have room! Nor would my friend's little shed when I was to stay with her afterwards. So on the Sunday I rode the five miles to the event, bought myself a programme and started to get acquainted with the layout. I rode around the campsite, the cafe tent, the First Aid tent, the children's try-out bit, and ended up at the BHPC tent where I met "wobbly" John, who recognised me from Cyclefest and previous York shows. I chatted to him for a while, then went off in search of other people I knew, and ended up back at the BHPC where I met Andhar the Wheel from Aberdeen, with his little Edinburgh-born Aerobike recumbent. I made my way into the trade arena and pottered around, said hello to Peter Eland at his Velovision stand, and shortly after that, bumped into fellow forummers Tony, Alex and Joan, from ACF. We chatted for some time, then Joan and I went off to eat lunch. The rest of my afternoon was spent at Joan's tent while we disassembled it, then Tony came back and we sat talking for another hour or so. They later headed off to the railway station and I headed back to the B&B, the five miles going by very quickly indeed with a bit of a tailwind. And that was that really, not a bad day at all.
A brief few days off the bike and back home I went on another Laid Back ride with Stuart and prospective recumbenteer Mark. Having been thundered and rained on on the way out, we only went as far as Balerno for lunch. Uncharacteristically, I had spicy chicken and pasta for lunch - which was dead good actually - then we headed back in via my old stomping ground of Heriot-Watt university and its environs. I got home and with about two minutes to spare, the heavens opened again. Nevertheless it was a nice warm-up at 22 miles for me. I'm planning to do the Pedal For Scotland ride next month, given that I'm not in shape for this year's Dun Run. It's only 50-odd miles rather than 115, so shouldn't be very difficult.
July 05, 2006
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