Sunday 22 February 2015

Feeling deflated

Puncture time!
Yep, I had one on my ride this morning.

All things for the best, as my wife might say, because the push home put me a bit nearer my training target for walking/running for the month.

Breakfast now, then out to have a look.

But, I hear you cry, don't I have Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres?
The ones that are hard (but not impossible) to puncture?

Yes, I do.
But they are not on the bike.
I have snow tyres on at the moment - not that the snow actually happened ...
Schwalbe Marathon Winter, not Plus.

The "Plus" tyres have what Schwalbe calls "Smart Guard" - Schwalbe "Level 6" protection, with a 5mm thick (in the middle) rubber belt in the tyre,
The "Winter" tyres have only "Race Guard" - Schwalbe "Level 4" protection, with justtwo layers of nylon (no Kevlar in there!).
No doubt the lower puncture protection is an attempt to save weight - the Winter (in a 622-35C size) weighs in at 920g PER TYRE, while the Plus weigh in at 900g per tyre (remember the Winter has all those studs and stiffened sidewalls so it can run at just 2.5 bar vs the 4 bar minimum of the equivalent Plus tyre)

update will be after I had a look

And I had a look.
Hmm.
I'm suspecting stud damage to the tube, as some of the studs seem to be trying to escape into the tyre.
I though it looked a bit worn when I fitted it, so I lobbed a couple of patches on, to be on the safe side.
You look at the pics, and see what you think ...

Damage to the inde of the tyre at the end of Spring

Looks like some of the studs are
breaking through

So I lobbed some patches on to put a bit more rbber between
the tyre and the tube



A tyres stud - flat end faces inwards!

I reckon that's the cut that caused the puncture

One stud mark on the inside of the tyre seems to be just outside the patched area.
The other one seems to have chewed its way through the patch in about three weeks!
So I put a new tube in, and put my "Summer" tyre on instead - a Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

Thursday 19 February 2015

Way Back When

So, going though some files, I found this:

My great uncle, back when he was 10 or 11.
Just look at that bike.
A "proper"bike, with rod brakes, mudguards (fenders) and a luggage rack.
The rider, whom I guessing, by the collection of photos that this was with, is my great-uncle.
He died a few years back, aged 90-odd (see, cycling does make you live longer!)
Wonder what happened to the bike?

The Right Side of the Tracks

More bike parking at the station - a good sign!
I don't usually go to the local railway station.
Today was a "rotational rest day" at work (that means I work five days from a six day pattern, with different mid-week days off on different weeks).
So I went for a quick lap round town, and I popped into the station, for a look around.

As you can see by the pic at the top of the post, there is now FOUR different types of parking!

There are:

And this is supposed to be cycling?

I don't own an indoor trainer, and I don't do gym classes.
I'm much more of a fan of actually riding a "real" bike on a "real" ride.
Don't play music while I ride either.

If I want "intensity", I find a local hill, and do laps on it.
If I want "relaxed" I go slow and look at the bluebells by the roadside.

However, not everyone feels the same as me.

Some people pay good money to "play" at cycling.
Look, if you need more "intensity", whack the pretend "bike" up to a higher resistance setting, and pedal really hard - harder than you ever pedalled before.

Stop flapping your arms around.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

"Real Life" affects my training schedule?

Noticed a red lump on my leg at the weekend.
Sore, when prodded, and hard to the touch.
Hmm.

Anyway, saw the doctor this afternoon.
Preliminary diagnosis is ...
not that dramatic, really.
I'm just trying to build up a bit of suspense.
Preliminary diagnosis is Superficial Thrombophlebitis.

Remember the old "rule of thumb"?
The longer the name, the less serious it is :-)

Sunday 15 February 2015

I did my first 10K run in thirty years, and other training highlights

The title say it all :-)
I ran ten kilometres this morning!
- although "run" might be overstating it a bit - "a slow jog" might be a better way of describing it!

Either way, 10K is 10K.
I had set myself a target of getting a 10K run in at least once a month from February onwards, and here I am having done it already :-)

Wednesday 11 February 2015

What do I Need to go Randonneuring?

Easy answer - a bike :-)

But beyond that, I've been thinking about what I need to do a bit of randonneuring this year (2015).

I've never done any "official" randonneuring/audax before, but I did the London to Brighton Bike Ride last year on a 25kg Pashley Mailstar, as well as an Imperial Century (100 miles, 161 km) on Mermaid, so I am LOT fitter than I was this time last year!

Sunday 8 February 2015

My First Half-Century of 2015 - and I did it on snow tyres!




Still some traces of snow and ice up in Wendover Woods - good job I've got snow tyres on!
 Out for my Sunday morning training cycle, I did my first half-century for 2015.

So a nice, flat, few laps around an easy route?

I think not :-)

As I have mentioned before, I am training for this year's London to Brighton Bike Ride, and THAT course has a few hills on it ... so I need to train on some hills!

I am currently running snow tyres on Mermaid, having fitted them last Tuesday, and although they don't slow me down as much as some folks claim (especially when you pump them up to maximum recommended pressure), they do add an element of "resistance training".

Lance Armstrong and Strava

Mr Armstrong, now seen as a "drug cheat" by all but the most willfully blind, is apparently spending his time on Strava.

While some well-intentioned and high-minded folks may say things about how that is unfair to "clean" athletes, lets just have a little look for a moment at what Strava is compared to the UCI (the "supreme" regulatory body for cycling)

Tuesday 3 February 2015

The advantage of having a heavy plain-gauge steel bike

I discovered a neat little trick at work.

We have a rear "automatic" gate that rises when vehicles exit.
A while back a new sensor mechanism was fitted in the road.
It is a bit like the induction sensors in traffic lights (signals).

Anyway, there are two sensor area in the tarmac (asphalt) just inside the gate.
Being designed for motor vehicles, pushbikes don't cause a big enough effect to set it off.
Cyclists, when exiting, have to go round the side and lean through the railings to set off the "outside" sensor, which is "passcard" operated, rather than "automatic", then come back round again. And the spacing between the railings is not exactly generous either - so it is a bit of a delicate double-jointed affair.

Want to bet that bikes can't open that gate :-)

The problem with punctures ...

You will probably know by now that I am a Schwalbe Marathon Plus fan. A good, but heavy, puncture-resistant tyre.

No doubt you will have seen posts on various forums where riders are reporting that a particular tyre is particularly prone to punctures or is particularly puncture-resistant.

How do these various tales (including my own) measure up when treated as "scientific data"?

I find there are four main problem areas:

Sunday 1 February 2015

Cheap Bike in the Chilterns (again!)

Mermaid up near the cafe in Wendover Woods on my first decent ride of the year.
Finally found the time to take Mermaid up into the Chilterns for the first time this year.
Last weekend it was my tax return that took up my time, the weekend before that it was IT issues (resulting from the BIOS upgrade I did to the mobo - the success of my work is demostrated by the fact that I am using that very computer to write this!)
No excuses this time, though, and off I went:
Up the "short" route, past Green Park, then through Wendover Woods to the cafe.
Just a quick loop up to the point where the "old" A41 crosses the "new" A41, then home again.

The elevation chart for the ride - the highest point is 277m, up near the cafe.

First snow of the year

It snowed Friday night, so when I got up saturday morning, there was a bit of snow about.
Not much, really, just about an inch (2cm).
Rather soft stuff, too.

This year's weight and training progress

Those of you who read my posts will know that I am looking to lose a bit of weight this year and also that I am training for the London to Brighton ride in late June.

So, with January over, how am I doing?

Well, as you can see by the graphic at the top of the page, while I might try to convince myself that there is a slight weight loss over the period 1st January to 1st February, the case is hardly convincing :-)

So how am I doing for distance and climbing?
Well, the figures are now in!