Combing my hair….

Taken a while to edit this video. Stage One of the folding bike LEJOG: Land’s End to Bristol with quite a few unplanned diversions on the way

I think I knew this already – but I am grateful to Planet X for helping me confirm my obsessive nature.

If this video doesn’t make you want to load up the paniers and pedal off, I don’t know what will.

Video by Blanche from the Vimeo World Cycle Group

Thanks Greg for alerting me to this one, I am sure Chris Hoy will be watching with interest

Just about ready to ready off to Lands End for this year’s Folding Bike Challenge. This handlebar shot shows:

• Non-matching brakes – following an emergency replacement of the front (LHS) set up following the SLX caliper starting to leak oil onto the rotor
• Handlebar mount for GoPro camera
• Rixen Kaul stem mount for map holder
• Cat Eye computer with nearly 1899 miles on the clock

Just got to spend a day on the train to the start now.

Fabulous video – almost makes me want to take part in four years time. But then the video is only 14 minutes long, unlike the event…

For the last week I have been getting used to the Tout Terrain Metropolitan which I have got from Bikefix. I got the bike as part of my search for the ultimate commuter – by which I mean a bike I can ride 52 weeks a year when I am doing my short commute. [My short commute is 8 miles daily using bike-train-bike] The bike has a number of features which lend it regular commuting:

• An internal hub gear – in this case an Alfine 11 speed
• A hub dynamo
• Hydraulic disc brakes
• Fitted mudguards and plenty of clearance

However the two features which specifically attracted me to the Metropolitan are an integrated rear rack and even more importantly, a Gates carbon belt drive.

I have made a number of immediate modifications to the bike. I am unlikely to use the integrated stand so I removed it, together with the Tubus Racktime clamps as I already had an Altura rack. That saved a grams. I then swapped out the rather broad Selle Royal saddle Read the rest of this entry »

I’m grateful to John Bibby for alerting me to this video. I like the idea of microadventures. It strikes me as a great way to combine the challenge of an adventure without all the expense and environmental impact of long-haul flights etc. It may be a sign of advancing age but I have never been convinced that a gap year in New Zealand represents more of a challenge than a month’s Inter-railing and what this shows is that the challenge can be found even closer to home. That said, I think that there was probably a lot more planning that went into this trip than the video reveals – crossing the sounds in an inflatable boat is probably only advisable at certain points in the tides for example.

Here’s how to microadventure

Thanks to the Digital Flaneur for the photo from Lisbon, where the temperature is such that one must pay serious attention to the hydration strategy. Bizarrely the second thing I noticed is that the forks and the frame are from different bikes, necessitating different brakes.

I love climbing hills, but sometimes you just want to potter along on the flat, putting very little effort in and shooting the breeze. For Sheffield cyclists that means only one thing – go east! Lincolnshire is flat and the quickest way to get there from Sheffield is to take the train to Lincoln. Takes just over an hour, £17 return, it is just a pity there are no direct services on a Sunday morning. Run by Northern Rail there is a notional limit of two bikes on any train. Julia and I had no trouble getting on, although we did notice that on our outbound journey there were seven bikes on the train at one point.

Arriving in Lincoln it is best to cross the road outside the station on foot and exit the town using the Water Rail Way. This segregated cycle track takes you along the River Witham for 10 miles to Bardney, where the former station has been converted into a cafe and heritage centre. From there it is pretty much a flat southerly route along the river, largely on quiet country roads until a further cycle track takes you into Boston where we found another cafe and watched the world go by.

Exiting Boston to the south is more tricky and involves crossing the river on a major road before cycling along the side of the port. A very welcome but rather narrow cycle track tacks you over Fosdyke Bridge alongside the fast and furious A17. We stayed in Holbeach at the very friendly Elloe Lodge where the owners happily locked our bikes away for the night and didn’t mind us clunking across their wooden floors in our cycling shoes. A hot shower, a walk around and a curry and the best night’s sleep possible followed in rapid succession.

We were then faced with the question; what do you do when you wake up with 60 miles to ride and it is pouring down? The answer, start pedalling and keep pedalling, all the while planning to stop in Bardney for some fish and chips.

Two days, 115 miles, no hills except the climb back to the house in Sheffield. What’s not to like?