Posts will be limited until the end of October I’m in the middle of moving back to Bebington and the house needs sorting in rather a big way. I need to find room for 5 bikes or get rid of one or two.
I’ve only been able to get a 26 mile ride in for September which is pathetic.
Another batch of cycling magazines has been despatched to the recycling bin with whats left under the bed to follow.
14 Oct Apart from a ride out to the Eureka last week I’ve still not got out on the bike. Picked up a knee problem too, spending too much time on the floor working on the new shower installation. It pained me to throw away another batch of Cycle Sport, ProCyling, Cycle, Cycling Weekly and even the quaint Arrivee from the last 2 years away. Pick up most of the news off the net now along with the Realpeloton podcasts which is good to listen too on the way home from work.
Found a Dragon Oil Share certificate in the clean up from 1997. Rang up the new registrars in Dublin to see if it was still valid which it was. My first trade is now a 12 bagger. Pity some of the others haven’t gone the same way. Logging onto the account after a few years out of it I was surprised to see so many delisted having sold out to private equity buyouts.
The move is going OK with the shower tray going in shortly, but been given the run around by B&Q about wardrobe delivery dates. Now 2 weeks overdue and I’ve 2 binbags of cycling clothing to store. The plan being to ease myself back into it over the winter, lack of kit won’t be an issue.
Move is now complete with just the small matter of getting the bikes back.
Tour route is out with a super tough Etape. Was going to try a ride tomorrow but the broadband and cable is getting put in.
The Cateye lights look like the are up to the job for the night rides, the P4 led upgrade doing the job. A fair chunk of the price of fancy lights being the Li-Ion batteries and charger.
The move is complete, not without a few problems, mainly space and where to put all the stuff I’ve acquired.
I can see why B & Q are rated one of the worst online retailers, I’ve been waiting nearly 2 months for a pair of wardrobes, being fobbed off with delivery dates that come and go each week. Found stuff in the move that I’d forgotten I had like a yellow jersey sign by Dave Zabriskie with the tags on it, $129.99. A George Hincappie brand jersey in small, what was I thinking bidding on that.
During the move I found a Bontrager front wheel with a cracked front hub that I can’t explain how it happened as the spokes are undamaged. A Magic Shine light has been ordered from Dealextreme for the night rides. Another review of the Cateye EL530 in Cycling plus gave it 7 but said it wasn’t meant for fast riding on unlit roads. This bloody light cost me a pair of rims after hitting a pothole last year.
Managed to get out to the Eureka on Wednesday for a windy 19 miles, it felt good to be back on the bike after the layoff but the form has suffered as I haven’t any.
Looking to get back into things with an Ice Cream farm ride or two.
They should rename Cycling Weekly, Sportive Weekly as this weeks star letter was a chap overjoyed at paying £32 along with 3000 others to do the Blenheim Palace ride. I don’t know what you got for completing it but it couldn’t be worth £32, that’s a £96,000 take for the day.
Back to tiling the shower to clear some floor space for the turbo trainer.
Managed to get a 50 mile round Wirral ride in on Saturday with a stop at the Eureka then going on to see Keith at Eureka Cycle Sports to order an Edge 800. While I was there he showed me Bryton sport 50 GPS which he is being asked to try. Has a lot of the features of the 705 but for £180. The catch is there is not a method of planning a route yet, the website doesn’t support riders uploads yet,with a bit of luck you could use your Garmin HRM and Cadence Sensors as it uses ANT transfer.
To cut a long story short Edge 800 is out on 3 November in the UK exclusivly to Madison the Shimano importers. This means the prices aren’t going to be competitive as stock is going to be in short supply.
The difference between an Edge 705 and 800 is that you can download your custom OS maps. Ordnance Survey has released 1:50,000 data in the public domain. SJ block which is the northwest is about 900MB. Something to play around with in the future.
Ride wise I’ve had a bleak couple of months but thing are set to improve. I’ve had to throw out a pile of magazines about 10 feet high that must have cost between £1-2000. At £4 for mags and £2.75 for the comic times 52 it mounts up over the years. With the clocks going back, night time riding is going to be part of the plan. I’ve ordered a set of Magic Shines from Hong Kong but whether I get them before Xmas is debatable given the recent air freight bombing atempts.
Just read the Times supplement which says you can get a ride only entry for the Etape(s) now 2 off them from ASO for 75 and 90 Euro.
Frank Kinlan's Blog 