Month: October 2009

01 Oct 2009 Barbara’s spin class then the  gym. Chance to bury yourself in the spinning class and a proverbial mile on the treadmill. Weights, rowing machine and I  was done. Proved to be a turning point as weight gain is now weight loss again.
02 Oct 2009Had planed all sorts for a free day as it turned out it was relag  a hot water tank and pick up some expensive Rokon cables from Keith at EurekaCycleSports.
Iphone addiction also features, this partially ruled out a ride a  weather warning flashed up as soon as i uploaded the app.
Picked up a Scott Addict which weighed f…..All.A nice bike but I think I need to get away from team bikes and kit.

Well under UCI weight limits.

The Toy weighs similar to it if I take off the saddlebag and the bottle or two.

Easier to hit the gym again rather than buy a new toy, hit the road and do the miles.

An Iphone is a double edged sword, too much information at times. I stopped a ride I should have done on a weather warning.
The Iphone has opened me up to the world of podcasts, Dave Gormans being good along with others.

10 Oct  Rode to the Eureka for breakfast, it was a chance to test the Nokon cables I’d spent the evening fitting.
The fiddely bit was drilling out all the Shimano fittings to pass the liner through.  Dave came in and we had a chat. Was about to leave but got talking to a chap outside who asked what the number was for. That was the start of another conversation. Etape details out on the 14th.
Bought another Aldi HRM the other day as the old one called it a day with the strap parting company from the case. The strap was starting to split too.
Had good use out of it and only 14 quid to replace.

14 Oct  Etape route is out. Finnish is on the Tourmalet with 2 ascents beforehand.  Do-able but you’d have to train before hand.  Having done one and looking at this I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t get my weight down to what it was and that means putting in a lot more effort. At some stage I’m going to knuckle down and have to get back into it.This means going out even if it is pissing down as it shouldn’t matter with the amount of gear I have.

I’ve finally upgraded the Cateye El830 lights that I have for night time rides. Output has gone up from 17-19000 Lux to 23-26000 Lux and is noticeably brighter. It wasn’t as straight forward as some of the Candlepower forum articles would suggest but did cost buttons to what I originally paid for the lights.

It would normally warrant a post of it’s own and a few night time rides will tell if it’s worked or not. It has awoken the homebrew element in me again as why pay £300+ for something that can be made for £30 or so and a bit of time.  I popped into Cyclesurgery the other day and they were still pedalling the EL530 from Cateye which I don’t rate at all.

16th Rode to the Eureka for breakfast. Had a chat with Dave  who uses GPX routing to good effect on his 705 so will look into it. Andy showed me the Garmin phone app for his Nokia which looks quite good.
Ended up doing 47 miles around the Wirral, picked up a knee injury, nothing too serious but a bit niggly when you want to have a go.
Downloaded the OS map app for the Iphone on Sunday. Full OS mapping for free.

Tickets for the World Track Champs arrrived so thats where I’m off to on the 1st November.

28 Oct Rode out to the Eureka, only to find the road blocked at 12 ish. This was a bad sign. Rode through the block to the Eureka to find that two cyclists had been hit by a truck. It turned out to be 2 Northenders, Mary and Dennis. I’ve rode with them in the past and for them to be have been hit by a truck is a gross misjustice.

The whole point of what I’ve been riding recently is not to antagonise the boxes, don’t jump lights, use a cycle path if it’s  reasonable.
That being , one of Johns CTC tailenders nearly hit me on the A5117 cyclepath as I was heading out to Cheshire Oaks for what are the worlds most expensive batteries. 2 X cr123 from Maplin, boy did I look out of place there.  Twice got told about the cycle racks where I couldn’t see the toy. Bought an Ultrafire WF-501B torch on Ebay and the batteries cost nearly as much as it.
The CTC incident, it was a ride on the grass or ride into  a pile of horse shit incident as the two tailenderders were in a different world. So much for sticking to cyclepaths.

Bumped into a chap at the Eureka that was researching a 705 so the trip home was with it routing me backwith the latest map.
It got the message eventually after a few deviations from it’s course. I’ve had mine for over a year now and had tens of thousands of visitor to the site and still learning to use the device. Still better than MemoryMap as the autorouting gives you roadnames which match up with what you see in realife. We are talking lanes here, quiet ones with next to no traffic. Quite impressed with the onboard routing once I got my way with it and it had recalculated it’s way a couple of times.

The torch blows away anything I’ve seen for the size. A Mini Maglite is a mere candle in comparison, the 3w Tesco torch falls way behind too. Yet to try it out on the road but it looks good at first glance. Trouble is that I know there are some P7 900 lumen beasties out there for not much more. Sourced on Ebay for under £20 from a UK seller.