C&DCC Saturday Social Ride 8th November 2014

It always is and always will be my favourite ride of the week. It's not the quickest or the longest but it's where the club started and I feel we should never lose sight of that. The route is one people have seen before, taking in the monster that is East Farndon Hill and was created by Jonesy.



Andy toddled off with the speed freaks and I led the social group with Jonesy as my tail gunner. I'm not sure how it was for the quicks but my group were superb. It certainly had more leaders than the two of us which really helps.

Andy and his special name badge

Back at the death star we were treated royally. Firstly the bikes were watched by the shop lads to prevent any thefts. Then a combo of Jonesy and Mrs Smith provided us with a plethora of very good cakes. More of this and Mrs Lindsley's crown of Queen of Cakes might slip. On that I informed Rich that Guinness cake had been made but not for him, he said publicly he would put on a brave face but would probably weep in private later.

Cake by Martin and Mrs Smith

The trouble with providing a video is you kind of know about the ride. So for interest I'm going to review some of my new kit. First of all I have a pair of seal skin waterproof socks. I think they're fantastic and certainly when paired with my overshoes it's very comfortable. It's also made me take the tape off the ventilation on my shoes which has added to the comfort. On a day like today that was all very welcome. So £25 is a lot for a pair of socks but these are a lot more than a pair of socks.

My other bit of kit is the Garmin Virb Elite camera. I like it a lot. Right now I have it on the handlebar mount, meaning it can be a bit bouncy at times or if I'm swerving around you'll get a bit seasick, I do like the functionality of it being on the bars though. I'll be interested to see Rob's chest mounted Go Pro footage for comparison. I did tease him at the shop about 'tit cam,' but it's all in good fun. I don't really want to start a Garmin v Go Pro war! One of the good things about the Virb is the chunky buttons making it easy to use even in gloves. So far so good. I hope others are enjoying the videos. I'm enjoying putting them together.

Not my actual camera - it can't take pictures of itself

Right well Steve has a special remembrance ride planned for tomorrow. Im looking forward to that, especially as there's still plenty of cake to refuel on.

Happy Pedaling

Camera issues sorted plus some news from the world of cycling

Big news I've resolved IT issues and can post videos. Here's footage from last weekend's club rides.

Two big pieces of news both from the cycling weekly website:

Cycling boosts economy  cycling weekly

Dani King crashes http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/dani-king-injured-pothole-crash-wales-143462

Franz second pre work adventure

Flipping freezing would be my early assessment this morning after a few weeks of indecisive weather we had a proper frost. My cycling sartorial elegance was disgarded for every bit of cold weather clobber I could find.  Winter bib tights plus mtb shorts, winter Jersey, medium weight rain jacket, full finger gloves and my buff as an ear warmer.

I really like my gloves.  They look as though they shouldn't be warm but the comfort gel warms up as you ride meaning you get warm but ventilated hands. I've never successful discovered if this is by design or just a happy coincidence. All I know is I will be sad when they're worn out.

It may have been cold but it was also beautiful. There's something lovely about a sunny frosty morning. I find it induces a very happy mood. Well it does on a bike. All the car commuters continued to look miserable as sin.

stunning

So my two routes were a little different to yesterday and thankfully without incident which was lucky because I took the wrong spares kit and only had 700c tubes which don't exactly fit. Not that it mattered because I also forgot my pump! Anyway no repeat of yesterday's drama. 

On the way home I used the track from Glendon to Rushton with my way once again lit up beautifully by my superb light. This was a different surface for my new 29er with a rutted track and then grass. It was great fun. I love this new bike.

This track is one I used to bring Sam down on the bike seat to look at the trains. Then he'd nod off on the way home and I'd end up tipping him back up the right way by leaning the opposite way on the bike. Here's some nostalgic pics of the way we used to do it.

That's the bike seat but it's Niamh not Sam at Center Parcs

Go Super Sam

Center Parcs again...sorry for my irresponsible boardman attitude to helmets!

Love this pic of Lee and Sam

So this is Sam on the Glendon to Rushton track

I hope no one minds the trip down memory lane!

Happy pedalling

Franz first flight plus voodoo attack!

Me today

Today should have been a wonderous day and in many ways it was but also it was a day to hide under the duvet because somebody somewhere was sticking pins in a Richard shaped voodoo doll!

Fat lip

I started the day excited about my first ride on my new Focus 29er I've named Franz. Well he's German isn't he? Franz came with standard pedals and I like to ride SPD-M on an off road bike. I had a set of these on my old road bike that I use for turbo training so I decided to put them on Franz. In the process of doing this my inner chimp engaged in forcing down as hard as possible whilst placing my head in the way of a spanner most likely to come flying off the pedal. The result was I smashed myself in the face with a pedal spanner. Yeah it hurt a bit but hey rule #5 I got over it. I also managed to convince the Queen of Cakes she'd punched me in her sleep. So this will check if she reads my blog or just pretends and clicks like. As you can see the voodoo dude has just stuck a pin in my head because Lee will kill me when she reads this!

Franz

Front shot

Anyway you'll see from my routes I had some off road adventures to spice up my commute. I don't even know what the off road bit of my morning ride route is called. It's the bit round the back of the Glendon Industrial estate where the council have made a bit of an effort to create a useable public space. It's pretty good for round here but unfortunately I've been to Australia so I'm no longer easily impressed. It was great to get off road on Franz. The massive 29" wheels are a bit weird to start with but once you get rolling you build momentum very quickly. I loved it and arrived at work with a ridiculous grin. On the way into Kettering I saw Andy in the C&D Cycles van and a hearty wave was exchanged. Life felt splendid despite a numb face.

As part of my work day I was invited up to St.Mary's hospital to advise on facilities for cyclists. I got that honour by enquiring about facilities due to our imminent move and possibly because I'm a rare cyclist in a predominantly car based workforce. 

My ride home was in the dark but no matter I had my trusty One23 extreme bright. I decided to have a quick spin around Weekly Woods which isn't a massive detour and a combination of the new bike and a well lit ride in the woods was just brilliant. I loved it so given the chance of a bit more off road from Glendon to Rushton I decided it was better if I got home and saved that for another day. 

Then it happened. Front flat. I'd punctured on the first day out on a new bike. More voodoo. Those big wheels are really unpleasant when the air goes. I pulled into Glendon Hall driveway to get off the road and fix the problem. The first thing I discovered was that Continental Race King tyres are not easy to get off! At one point my tyre lever pinged off and I had to crawl round the undergrowth to find it. Finally once the tyre was off I located the source of the problem. A massive set of thorns had punctured the tyre in three places. Getting the tyre back on was less of a problem and then I went to put the wheel on. At this point my skewer fell out! Well that's a new one on me. Once again I'm crawling around on the floor trying to find a black nut in the dark which I may have trodden on and pushed it into the grass! Thankfully I found it, put it all back together and rode home. As a consequence of a loss of confidence I spent the rest of the ride convinced the back tyre was going down too. It wasn't at all!

So how do I feel now? I love the bike. I hate punctures and I especially dislike sorting things out in the dark even with my super nova of a bike light. You may also be wondering where all the footage from my new camera is? Well unless I get a new PC you won't be seeing that anytime soon. Please Mr voodoo stop sticking the pins in!

Happy pedalling

This ride we were mostly getting wet!

Top of Rushton Hill

So the plan today was to do some serious hills but from the start this looked in peril...I woke this morning to a downpour which was overwhelming my guttering. There was also a fierce wind making the clouds move so quickly they looked like they were on fast forward! I checked my favourite weather resource and frankly it looked like things wouldn't change all morning. For those of you who haven't found it this is a great weather resource: Pits-ford Hall Weather Station. We had some chat via messenger and as things brightened up a bit I decided to go for it also Steve reminded me of rules #5 & #9 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

Challenge number two then intervened. Having lovingly cleaned, degreased and oiled Clive yesterday I was surprised to discover a rear flat. I did my best at fixing this quickly but there was no way of being on time for the ride. Some frantic messaging and it was agreed I could meet the others at Rushton rather than the shop. So at the top of a very leafy autumnal looking  Rushton hill I met our leader, Steve, Chris B and newbie Steve. We happy few were the keepers of the cog prepared to battle elements and gravity.

The wet roads and leaves made for some nervy downhills. We did make it to the infamous Neville Holt in one piece and what a great hill. Even Steve dropped out of big ring, I didn't even know his bike had a granny gear! More on that later. I'm really hoping when I resolve the IT issues I have some great footage of that climb. From there we went to Dry Stoke another smashing climb and then the rain came again! 

It was torrential and we made the decision to get homeby the shortest route. At this point Steve announced his three disappointments of the day:

1. Neil Hickford is to blame for the downpour

2. The use of granny gear

3. Making a sensible decision to head for home

However it was the right decision, because after we made it things got worse. Riding through Corby was horrible as half the road was a stream meaning we had to stay wide. The cars didn't seem to allow for this, they came past at pace and we got puddle splashed a few times. We did home safely though so as the kids say, live to fight another day live to fight again!

Happy pudlling

Andy's Amazing Adventure

Ok, I'm really pleased to announce its time for another guest blog and this one is an absolute smasher. Without further ado I'll hand you over to Andy Pendred:

http://www.strava.com/activities/212350031

After reluctantly taking up cycling three years ago to accompany my son on rides, I've gone from struggling up each & every hill to becoming hooked & actually enjoying hills -  although I still struggle up many! I started cycling with the C & D crew in January & found it hard to keep up but slowly & surely over the year I've progressed & can now hang on with the faster group & the Wednesday Vroomers. I've found the C & D riders to be a great welcoming bunch & I felt it was high time to get a club jersey. It turned out that the first time I wore it was on holiday in the Jura mountains, France & one of , if not the best ride I've done.

The ride started in the 'Petit Ecosse' lake area with the sun shining but quite cool with a grass frost. The scenery was stunning with ash,beech & pine forests just turning golden autumnal colours. The rest of the scenery is made up of towering rock faces & meadows with 'Milka' cows.

After climbing for a bit you then descend into Mouthe where you cross the border into Switzerland - thankfully no border guards on duty as I realised I'd got no passport with me! I then climbed steadily up to about 4200ft looking forward to the descent to Vallorbe but some dark clouds loomed ahead & I was soon enveloped in cold cloud so on went the rain jacket & lights. The one thing I had noticed in France was the quality of the roads - even these small mountain roads were better than English ones & the Swiss ones better still.

I had planned on a café stop at Lac de Joux but with the cloud still hanging around I pushed on to Vallorbe for a hot chocolate & cake fix. It was then more climbing  back into France through a manned customs post who waved me through. As I climbed out of the valley the cloud disappeared and I was back to warm sunshine, meadows and cowbells clanking everywhere. Next up was the climb to Mont D'or summit 4736ft and this was a corker of a climb. The climb itself is just under 4 miles with some of the gradients being 19 and 20 % with the steepest parts being near the top when my legs had had enough. I was determined not to walk any of it but had to stop a few times to get my breath but I did get there - to a round of applause from an old  guy who proceeded to talk very rapidly to me in French whilst I was slumped over my handlebars trying to breathe. I think he said what a great bloke I was coming over & conquering this mountain in the name of C & D Cycles. He then put his hand on my chest, obviously detected a pulse, said 'bon' & let me carry my bike the last 300m over the rocky ground to the summit !

On reaching the summit the view was breathtaking, above the clouds was a 360 degree view taking in the forests & lakes of the Jura round to the cloud covered Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc and the Alps beyond. After a rest it was a pretty rapid descent and then back to base through another mix of forest,meadows and rocks accompanied by sunshine all the way.

It was a brilliant day, my only regret being it was a solo ride, it was one of those you want to share.

A couple of years ago I could never have imagined doing a ride like this, I hope anyone just starting out who reads this far will realise anyone can do it.

Me again. I have nothing to add other than chapeau Andy!

Happy pedalling

Super Saturday Shop/club ride

Ok so I have a new toy in my garmin Virb elite camera. I think I have some great footage from today's ride but unfortunately our home PC is still running on XP and it's not compatible. So you'll have to wait. As I type I'm upgrading the PC. It's not a quick job!

I'm also enjoying a beer after a month off due to:

So one wheat beer in I'm hammered! Blogging in this merry state will present a challenge!

Right...so Andy 'Lord Vader' Ferguson, the c&dcycles shop manager and the man who conceived our wonderful club led the social/banter/beginner ride today. I was his tail gunner and I have to say apart from one challenge I think we made a great team. We have the same ethos and values when it comes to this ride: safety, togetherness, fun. Therefore it worked. We also understand the need to communicate.

On the ride today were some newbies; Wendy and Steve and I think they did great. Riding in a group is difficult especially learning the calls and signals. It was obvious that their confidence grew on the ride.

We had a couple of issues out on the route. One rider started to struggle and wants us to leave her. We don't do that! Rule one is no one gets left behind. Rule two is always observe rule one. Unfortunately we were so busy following rule one that we accidentally forgot rule one! That led to me and Andy heading back to find someone. However alls well that ends well and we found our missing man!

That's it for today! I need to sort the IT issues and tomorrow I have a big Steve challenge of. Epic proportions.

Happy pedalling