Remembrance Sunday Ride

Last year we had the most excellent Sunday club ride visiting local sites of significance from World War II as our way of marking Remembrance Sunday. So this year we thought it would be rude not to do it again. This time we decided to leave poppies with a shop key ring at the memorial's we visited. Once again this was a very special ride and it was a pleasure to share with a brilliant group of people.

There have been many tributes this weekend. I took part in the silence at Franklin's Gardens yesterday where the wreath was laid at the only war memorial inside a rugby ground. Then came the emotional traditional reading it was stirring stuff. Here's the reading:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Before we made it to our first stop at Chelveston we had our first puncture of the day. The weather was much improved on the day before but it had left the roads filthy with all manner of debris. It was heavy going in mud and leaves and inevitably damp bits of sharp stuff worked their way into our tyres. Graham was the first victim. As is customary we tried to be helpful but mostly took the mickey.

I wasn't the only photographer today. Rob and Phil before he left us took some nice shots. Nat sent me hers and we open up with a picture that reminds me the diet still has some work to do but hey look at that magnificent photobomb from Steve. Great place to have a puncture, I've always liked the view from here on the road between Addington and Ringstead.

Hi Neil, you wish you have a bell on your bike...

Captures the conditions well, quite arty actually Nat

Despicable Steve, more on him later!

The first memorial is in memory of the bombers stationed at Chelveston. It feels utterly bizzare to imagine that flying machines of death and destruction were regularly rumbling out of here to rain hell on Germany. Brave as those lads were I often reflect on the innocent victims helplessly being obliterated below. War is abhorrent to me. Honoring the fallen  and praying it never happens again is the reason it's so important to me to wear the poppy. Right at the start of today's ride Steve dropped one of his informative bombshells (which is highly inappropriate wording by me.) The lad knows stuff and riding through Cranford he told of the German airmen buried in Cranford churchyard who had been shot down after bombing the furnaces at Islip.

Can you spot our small tribute?

Nat checks the firmness of Graham's tyre

Next stop was the site of Kimbolton airfield where a large gathering was in progress. They invited us to join their service but we politely declined and were thanked for our poppy. There's good information about this airfield here http://www.hkrc.co.uk/historywar.asp

Neil likes to take his jacket off safely

We were respectful at the war memorials but in between we were still us. The banter flowed and silliness reached new levels. How I never fall off my bike laughing I really don't know.

The village is for local people only

Nat's request to twiddle Steve's nipples was denied!

The chimps have escaped 

The next stop was Polebrook. Now Steve always says Errol Flynn was stationed here during the war and the swashbuckling Lothario sired many local children. However wikipedia says it was Clark Gable! Amazingly there is you tube footage of the operations at Polebrook.

Nat took another shot of my poppy placing

Then she captured my comfort break behind a tree

Behind that tree I found a geocache! How ridiculous is that? I've spent ages looking for those flipping things and then I go for a whizz behind a tree and one just happens to be there! Whilst we went to the memorial Stuart was the second puncture victim of the day.

More flaccid inner tubes

The hangar at Polebrook has an inaccessible memorial so we put a poppy on the fence

I have no idea what village we were in when Stuart punctured again. It was a bit of a mystery until the eagle eyed Rob found a tiny bit of flint stuck in his tyre. Whilst they sorted it out it seemed a good opportunity to stop off at another memorial and leave a C&D Cycles CC poppy. It's a proper village too. Check out the post box and red phonebox. Meanwhile Steve discovered a dog on a roof!

There's our poppy

fixing continues

The dog on the roof picture is a disappointment...zoom in you'll see what we meant

The next part of our journey was to visit the site of the bomber crash near Lievden New Bield link. This is a detailed memorial with a lot of personal information about the young men killed. It was good to see that others had already visited.

memorial

Information board

This time last year I lost my legs at this point. It was no different this year and I started to lag behind. The brigstock bumps were horrible and the wind was starting to pick up again. Even so I was loving it. This was a great ride. Next stop was Grafton Underwood which was a massive airbase that has lots of structures remaining with some still being used by farmers. wikipedia link also some 'urbex' people have done some interesting exploring.

Group shot

Poppy placed

It's a nice memorial 

info board

At ridiculously historic Geddington I left the group to get my self home. I had to get home quick so we could get to Northampton for recovery Sunday lunch at my parents. On the way I had one poppy left so I dropped it off at the Rushton memorial. The fact somewhere so tiny has a memorial shows just how much the two world wars affected every part of our country.

there's our poppy

wider angle with Clive in shot

So that was that, a great ride and great company. Well apart from I haven't told you about Steve Duke yet. Here's his crime:

1. Rule #23//
   

   Tuck only after reaching Escape Velocity.
   You may only employ the aerodynamic tuck after you have spun out your 53 x 11; the tuck is to be engaged only when your legs can no longer keep up. Your legs make you go fast, and trying to keep your fat ass out of the wind only serves to keep you from slowing down once you reach escape velocity. Thus, the tuck is only to be employed to prevent you slowing down when your legs have wrung the top end out of your block. Tucking prematurely while descending is the antithesis of Casually Deliberate. For more on riding fast downhill see Rule #64 and Rule #85.

   

Steve is obsessed with getting into a tuck on downhills. On one point he was doing it on a flat piece of road, A heinous crime Steve, consider yourself told ;)

I had so many other ideas for this blog but without researching the role of bikes in wars or looking up more history to do with remembrance Sunday I just feel I got enough for one blog. So that's it.

Happy pedalling

Rule#9 Badass or Buffoons?

Sometimes I wonder if we take the rules a little too seriously. I said to my wife this morning: "have you seen the weather?" She replied: "here we go...rule one!" with more than a hint of sarcasm. She wasn't calling me a wimp she was more preparing to mock me for the fact I was pointing out just how badass I thought I was for venturing out on such a day Me being me, I made sure she understood that rule 1 was in fact 'its always about the bike,' rule 5 is to 'harden the f*** up,' and that she might indeed mean rule #9. The next enquiry was why I was, on such a badass day, venturing out in shorts and and a short sleeved jersey. I told her it wasn't cold and I would wear my almost showerproof jacket and besides my feet were already sweating in my seal skinz socks. As it turned out that was more than enough on this bizarrely mild November day.

1. Rule #9//
   

   If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
   Fair-weather riding is a luxury reserved for Sunday afternoons and wide boulevards. Those who ride in foul weather – be it cold, wet, or inordinately hot – are members of a special club of riders who, on the morning of a big ride, pull back the curtain to check the weather and, upon seeing rain falling from the skies, allow a wry smile to spread across their face. This is a rider who loves the work.

   

The turn out at the shop was the lowest it's been in months. I could've predicted who'd be there for today's ride and frankly they're lucky I didn't assess any of them because I'm sure we're all detain-able for riding in that sort of weather. I also knew who'd stay safely tucked up in bed, you know who you are and we will ridicule you relentlessly for having more sense than us.

The lycra loonies gather

So how bad was this weather? Well it was perhaps the wettest day I've ridden in for a very long time. At times it was heavy rain. Also the wind was fierce at times especially for Andy on his aero Boardman with those exquisite Zipp wheels. Happily my bog standard mavic aksiums provide little resistance to side winds and also have more in the way of stopping power in the wet. Still I know which wheels I'd prefer! Anyway back to the weather...East Farndon Hill which is hard enough for a downhill specialist like me was brutal as it had a headwind today and to make matters worse it was during the time that the wind decided to really turn up! Did it ruin the ride? Of course not, we're nut jobs remember! We embraced the stupidity of the situation, laughed in the face of the gale and just got on with enjoying ourselves.

You're probably wondering at this point why I haven't started as usual with my strava link showing today's route...erm there may have been an epic fail. Despite having three pieces of technology capable of recording my ride I seem to have to forgotten to start any of: my phone, my Garmin Virb or my Cateye stealth. So here's a screen grab of Andy's ride instead. Strava fail...doh!

It was wet

autumnal scenes

Farndon Hill made much more challenging by a head wind!

Now for an update on our fallen comrade Andy Pendred. It's come to light that there may be a good reason he's keeping schtum about the nature of his accident. He was allegedly being very negligent at the time and an undisclosed source has uncovered that Andy has a new obsession in that he's discovered the twitter page https://twitter.com/selfieonbike. Now this particular twitter feed or whatever you call them really is quite distracting especially the regular hashtag #needsomeonetoride. If you check your twitter feed whilst riding your bike, accidents will happen. So no matter how tempting it's best to keep your hands on the bars!

an example of the gratuitous sexism not approved of by this blogger and for research purposes only...

Oh OK I'm making that last bit up we still don't know what happened I just thought I'd cheer the old boy up. We're missing him on the club rides but I doubt that's anything compared to how much he's missing his bike whilst he recovers.

OK just a quickie today. The dogs need walking and then I'm off to the Saints, it's the memorial game with poppy wreath laying and the minute's silence which is always a bit special. I can't wait for tomorrow's ride though as we trail behind Big Steve and visit the former airfields of Northamptonshire which served us during WWII.

Happy Pedaling!

Halloween ride goes a little off course...

Ok so my Strava minus my detour from and back to home shows the route we followed on this morning's club ride. However the screen grab below shows the route that Andy Brown created and led superbly on his 1 in 4 turn as the banter bunch leader!

As you can see those routes are a little different...oops! The issue was no one actually led the fast group. We were frankly making it up as we went along. I had the route in my head in terms of villages but didn't know the roads around Cranoe etc. So when I saw a signpost for the next village in my memory I took the turn. The only person who'd uploaded to Garmin said we'd gone wrong but it was a nice road so we just kept going. It'll be fine we thought. Then we got a bit stuck so we ended up going to Great Bowden, which was lovely and back round to Ashley that way. Not the route but still very nice!

Gathering at the shop

The most capable leader in the club

1. Rule #47//

   Drink Tripels, don’t ride triples.
   Cycling and beer are so intertwined we may never understand the full relationship. Beer is a recovery drink, an elixir for post-ride trash talking and a just plain excellent thing to pour down the neck. We train to drink so don’t fool around. Drink quality beer from real breweries. If it is brewed with rice instead of malted barley or requires a lime, you are off the path. Know your bittering units like you know your gear length. Life is short, don’t waste it on piss beer.

   

Having had a month off the beer for sober October has  been really good for me. However I started three days early with the plan to finish on the 28th due to a party I went to last night and to  recondition myself to booze I had a few beers on Thursday. So this morning I was feeling a tad delicate and very nearly didn't ride. It was foggy outside but of greater concern was the fogginess in my head. However a good bike ride remains the most effective hangover cure I know and 40+ miles of quality pedaling sorted me right out. As did the splendid company of my favourite lycra loonies. As I type this I'm tucking into a craft ale Tripel of my own creation. It's a 9% beast and will not improve my cycling one bit - it is nice though!

As usual Big Steve disappears into the distance

It's a bikie not a selfie

and there's the other beautiful people

Oh right lets go back the way we came then...

Oh come on Great Bowden is lovely

Fast group at Stoke Albany

Back to the ride; look we had a blast! Yes we went wrong in places but this was a highly enjoyable ride. We will need to think up another name for the groups though because the fast group is not short on banter. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bull in a field near Ashley. He was a magnificent beast, fully equipped so to speak and a source of great excitement. Soon after that we had some riding excitement as mud on the road on Ashley hill led to those of us with too much power having some hairy wheel spins.

All that autumnal action means my choice of steed today was spot on. I really wouldn't want to be out on my Propel in those conditions. Clive is a faithful servant, we've done some special rides together and now as my dedicated winter/commuter bike he still gets the job done. However he was filthy when I got home. Cleaning your bike is a good habit to be in. A quick soapy water wash down, chain degrease, spray and wipe down with GT85 and chain lube takes about ten  minutes. That ten minutes is worth every second because as we know a clean bike is a faster bike.

Dirty Clive

Clean Clive

A big shout out need s to go to our great cycling mate Andy Pendred who has had a crash and broken his leg in France. Andy has had a phenomenal year on the bike with D2D our 200 mile club ride actually being just a small part of his adventures as mentioned in this blog quite a few times. Andy has done nearly 6000 miles on his bikes this year and has also taken his career as a signwriter and turned it towards custom stickers for our bikes. If you're not sure what I'm saying, he's an all round good bloke. Here's his Strava profile https://www.strava.com/athletes/2044033 we all wish him a speedy recovery.

Right I've blogged three times this week already, there's nothing more to say other than thanks to my ride companions today, thanks to Andy Brown for creating the route and thanks to Andy Ferguson for creating this great bike club.

Happy Pedaling

Fineshade and Wakerley Great Wood with SuperSam

It wasn't the nicest of days yesterday but I'm pleased to say we got some quality father and son time in and enjoyed some excellent off road cycling. First up we went to Fineshade woods. I've covered this before but for a reminder here's the link to their website http://www.forestry.gov.uk/toplodge. Run by the forestry commission, this excellent facility is about 15 minutes north of Corby. It's the perfect place to take kids cycling with well maintained tracks plus a number of 'skills loops,' for kids wanting more challenge. To be fair it's good fun for adults too. Here's a video.




The rain held off enough to enjoy a good ride, some traditional climbing and a well deserved hot chocolate. Sam rates the cafe at Fineshade as the best of all our Country Parks. I have to say the peanut butter brownie I had with my coffee was pretty special.

Great climbing area

Franz having a rest

Treehouse selfie

He's too cool for skool

The cyclist's reward

Because parts of Fineshade are under maintenance our ride was a little shorter than usual and we missed Sam's favourite skills loop with the rocks. So as we drove away I said to Sam: "shall we go over the road?" Apprehensive at first, Sam agreed to go for a look at the Scar Tree Trail at Wakerley Great Wood. It's about a minute drive from Fineshade or you could just ride from one to the other. We got there and Sam decided to give it a go. 

The Scar Tree Trail is one of the best off road trails in the county. It's not Cannock Chase or anything particularly extreme but it is another step up for a 10 year old like Sam. At one point he missed a bend and had a nasty crash. He smashed his cadooberries into his handlebar stem and got thorns in his fingers. I thought 'uh-oh' that's the end of that then...but it wasn't. Sam had a drink, gathered himself and then got right back on it. I can't tell you how proud I was of him. Better still he was proud with himself too. This morning the first thing he asked was can we go back to Wakerley today? Sadly the answer to that is no but, we're definitely going again. Here's a link for the Scar Tree Trail http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/englandnorthamptonshirerockinghamforestwakerleygreatwoodwakerleywoodcarparkscartreetrail

Of all the cycling I do, nothing gives me greater pleasure than watching Sam progress. Long after we got home were still talking about our day and after a much needed bath he even picked out a cycling related t-shirt. Awesome little man!

Happy Pedaling!

Wednesday vroom night ride

This was a rare opportunity for me on two counts. Firstly I can make very few Wednesday evening club rides and secondly because it's very nearly November this was a proper night ride in the dark. Five hardy souls met at the shop for the ride and as usual the banter flowed from the off. the Major led us on one of his 'it's in my head routes,' Frank, Stuart P, Clive and I tried to keep up. After a day of mostly rain it really cleared up and turned into a lovely evening, it seemed a shame to start in the dark because we had a couple of hours of brilliant autumnal sunshine before dusk set in. There was no way I was risking my 'best,' bike on damp, leafy roads in the dark so my choice of bike for the evening was also Clive. Everyone else felt the same as there was a distinct lack of carbon on show and the odd mudguard. Frank was the only rider brave enough for shorts but even that hardy hobbit had the winter jersey on.

It's very different riding at night and I'm impressed that my virb can take pictures and video footage even though the quality isn't what you get in daylight. I like the lights, I love the way our reflective bits of kit move in the dark and it's a real shame I didn't get a shot of some of the shadows we cast with the impressive array of front lights. At one point it looked like cycling giant shadows were following us along the hedgerows.

Despite being on my 'slow' bike I was really quite quick in places, not big Steve quick but more than respectable for a mere mortal like me. Anytime my average is over 16 makes me happy and the hatful of PR's is very satisfying. Speed wasn't always advisable though as you know, it's dark so the dodgy bits of road are harder to see at times.

The video is only 17 seconds long and gives a real impression of the shadows, lights and reflectors.

If you've never really ridden in the dark, it's not something to fear. You just need the right kit. There's been a lot of forum and social media chat recently about cyclists getting into trouble with the police for not having lights or reflectors. Most of our road bikes are illegal because we don't tend to have the white reflector on the front, the red reflector on the back and our clipless pedals don't come with amber reflectors. So are we all just one chance encounter with the old bill away from a fine? Well the common opinion is probably not. My set up with the one23 extreme bright front light and knog blinder rear light means I'm pretty hard to miss. Add to that my shoes have reflective details, if  they're under my overshoes, those also have reflective detail and my winter tights also have reflective detail. If you've ever driven behind a cyclist with quality gear on you'll know those reflective bits can be quite mesmerising so the only risk to the cyclist is that drivers could get hypnotised by moving parts.

I've had this week off to spend half term with the kids, not that they're very interested in me. I did say to SuperSam about a trip to Fineshade. His reply was: "maybe later in the week!" I'll see if he's up for it today. That's what gave me the opportunity to Vroom and also it's given me a chance to catch up with my favourite cycling you tubers GCN. If you've never watched check out the latest version of the GCN show.

In that video they discuss the progress of Kurt Searvogel and yet another person planning an assault on the year world record starting on January 1st. No mention of local(ish) hero Steve Abrahams whose own year record was wrecked by a run in with a scooter. The Milton Keynes based rider has recovered well and is now back on track to tackle the record in a year even if it is not now one calendar year. I still remain amazed that he was doing 100 miles a day with one leg on a modified recumbent during his recovery! Check out more on his website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/ there's also links to follow on social media. I've also mentioned Kasja Tylen who is attempting the same record for Women. Here's her website http://www.ayearinthesaddle.com/ and as I've previosuly mentioned she will be in Market Harborough on January 15th. Kasja has been encountering some UK style car abuse because she chose not to use a cycle path. I don't blame her, they're not brilliant are they? Checkout the chat at the bottom of the page. You'll notice a handsome lycra loonie with time on his hands is the first to reply!

Happy Pedaling

On this morning's ride in the pouring rain, a driver feels it necessary to wind down the window of his car and shout at...
Posted by A Year in the Saddle - Kajsa's 2016 Cycling WR Attempt on Wednesday, 28 October 2015