Monday 30 August 2010

Quieter Week

A steady week of riding this week.  No big miles, just riding to work.  Our Thirsty Thursday ride was just me and Ian.  we were both tired and so we just did a gentle ride out, not quite straight to the Plough, but not our recent spins over Beacon Fell.

I seem to have a lot of Allen keys.

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I got my Pace forks back from Tim at Fork English on Wednesday. Aug-2010 052

I was a bit worried that Tim had left the steerer too long, but it was just OK.

Got them fitted to the P7 and started the final little bits of assembly.

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Came to do the pedals and found that there was no thread left on the drive side crank.  Years ago Joe had borrowed the P7 but wanted flat pedals on.  So I gave him some really nice Campag off road pedals, which he proceeded to put on the wrong side, only noticing when he couldn’t get his feet in.  Those pedals have been on ever since, kept in place only by dirt I think.  Anyway the crank is trashed.  Hopefully Karl will have a set lying around.  If not, back to retrobike I think.

Mile for the week - 92

Total miles – 3857

Not many more to get to 4000, but I am off to Switzerland tomorrow.  Hopefully back for Thirsty Thursday.

Cheers

Tim

Sunday 22 August 2010

Back to Work

After two weeks off, I’ve been back to work this last week.  Its been busy, 600 emails to respond to, that’s after I’ve filtered out the crap!

Mileage wise, its been OK.  We move buildings which adds a few hundred yards to the journey, more if I forget we’ve moved.  I rode all week, getting 68 commuting miles.

Continuing the theme for the last few weeks, we went early on Thirsty Thursday and did Beacon Fell.  This week just me, Ian and Nic.  Karl and Alison are off to the Hebrides this week touring.  It is Alison’s first proper tour and they decided to use the run out to the Plough as a full dress rehearsal.  We were  expecting a dour mood when  we got to the pub.  It had rained all evening.  But when we got there Alison was quite up beat, pleased with her performance and looking forward to their trip (!!!).  We got a soaking 30+ miles in .

Saturday evening was supposed to be the Rapha Nocturne criterium in Blackpool.  Nic and Ian both said they might go depending on the weather.  We got up to blue skies and decided to go to the Lakes walking.  As we pulled out onto the road Ian texted asking if we were going to go to the Nocturne.  We replied yes and would be at his for 7 ish, i time to see the support race, the folder race and the pro race.  He replied saying be at his for 5 and he would barbeque before hand, aiming to get there for the folder race.  We rapidly changed our plans and went for a walk over Nicky Nook. 

We rode out on the tandem to Ian’s calling in at Nic’s on the way, but they weren’t in.  We got to Ian’s about 5:15 and they plied us with wine.  We tried to get Nic and eventually he turned up sans Elizabeth at 6 ish.  They’d been to Ingleborough and struggled to get home.  Elizabeth was knackered.  Nic came on his own.  Ian’s barbeque was excellent, as were the three bottles of red.  We eventually staggered off and got to Blackpool just as the folder race finished.  By the time we’d got a spot on the barriers the Balckpool bike-hire race, using bikes from the bike hire scheme, had just about finished.  I chatted about tandems with a drunk Scottish guy, Ian talked Independent Fabrications with a guy from the Dahon stand.  Jayne and Nic got us coffees. 

The racing was very intense, eventually won by Russell Downing, who nearly lapped the field.  We rode back through the Blackpool traffic.  Jayne wasn’t happy riding at night but we eventually got out of town and headed to Lytham.  Ian and Nic stopped of at Ian’s to admire his Parlee frame that had just arrived.  Jayne and I headed home.

As we headed into Moss Side, along unlit roads, Jayne yelped, followed by a loud crunching noise behind us.  A car, coming the other way, had come round the bend on the wrong side of the road.  It missed us by quite a way, but side swiped a taxi coming up behind us.  We stopped when we heard the crunch, I thought maybe our pannier had come off.  We saw the taxi stopped in the road.  The car that had hit it didn’t stop.  We gave the taxi driver our details and made sure the 4 elderly ladies in the taxi were OK.  The driver was pretty shook up.  Jayne had reinforced her fear of riding at night!

Today we did a gentle 25 miles out to the Courtyard Cafe in Great Eccleston.  Tea Cake, coffee etc and away. 25 miles of easy pace.

Total for the week – 156

Year to date – 3765

Cheers

Tim

Sunday 15 August 2010

In Other News

It was Jamie’s 17th birthday on Saturday.  We went for a meal at Zio Carlo’s

Jamie wore one of my old suits.

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Some Milestones

I passed some milestones this week.  Last week ended just short of 3500 miles and I hoped to quickly overcome that milestone.  The week started poorly, with rainy weather.  We were pretty tired from the weekend’s activities and had a gentle ride Monday.

for Tuesday we had arranged to meet Ian and Catherine for a trip out to Beacon Fell, with a further loop out over the Trough if we felt like it.  This would be Catherine’s longest rides for a long time, due to a recurring back problem.  We got out to Beacon Fell without too much trouble.  Jayne and Catherine decided to head home for a 35 mile ride.  Ian and I would press on to Chipping and back through the Trough and over Boundary Hill.  We decided we would stop at Dunsop Bridge for lunch, but when we got there they were only serving drinks and cakes, no bacon butties etc.  We decided to head on to Marshaw and the tea wagon there.  Unfortunately that meant we faced Boundary Hill on a full stomach of Bacon & Egg Buttie and a mug of tea.  We survived an flogged on into a tremendous head wind for a 60 mile round trip.

Thirsty Thursday was a short trip out to the Burley Arms on the tandem.  Karl, Ian and Nic were all away.  After another short spin on Friday, it was time to get ready for the Beer Tasting!  This is a semi regular event where a number of work colleagues get together at our house.  We have half a dozen belgian beers, gradually increasing in strength, with tasting notes and pizza and garlic bread.  This time round only John, Chuckie, Mike and Andy were free, plus me, Jayne and my sister Jane.  It rained, so we couldn’t sit out round the Chiminea, but a good night was had.  The schedule was: Bruges Zot,6%;Witcap Tripel, 7.5%; St Bernardus Pater, 8%; Maredsous Tripel, 10%; Rochefort 10, 11.3%; Skaldis, 12%.  We also managed to get the chiminea going as well.

Saturday, a bit hung over, we headed out to the rather excellent Courtyard cafe in Great Eccleston.  Paninis and coffee saw us on our way to 25 miles. 

Today we headed out to Scorton, going over Wyre and a flat route.  The weather was the best we’ve had all my two week holiday.  We rode out to the Barn cafe before heading back to meet Karl and Alison at the Villa for a pint.

As well as topping 3500 miles in total, we also topped 1000 miles on the tandem.  Jayne probably has a bout 1800 miles under her belt for the year, pretty good!

Miles for the week – 186

Total for the year  -   3609

Cheers

Tim

Monday 9 August 2010

Back to Big Miles

For me anyway.

I’ve been on holiday this week.  The weather hasn’t been great but we’ve got out for a few rides.  Monday Jayne and I rode out to Beacon Fell.  Beacon Fell is a small fell about 18 miles from home.  At nearly 900 feet, it isn’t a huge climb, but that is from sea level and most of the height gain is in the last few steep miles.  A 35 mile round trip

Tuesday we went walking.  Wednesday we went to the Weird Fish on the solo’s and Thursday out to Bonds on the tandem.  Thursday evening was our regular Thirsty Thursday ride, but we extended again out to Beacon Fell.  This time I was on the Hewitt and fared much better on the 40+mph descent.

Friday I went mountain biking with Ian, only my 6th or 7th mtb ride this year.  We had planned on doing Garburn, but the rain was heavy and the cloud layer very low.  We did the normal Stavely/Kentmere route.  Fortunately Wheelbase has free showers so we got warm and clean before coffee and cake in Wilf’s.

Saturday was supposed to be the Rapha nocturne in Blackpool, but it had been cancelled.  However people had arranged to come up for the weekend and we planned a longer ride.  In the end 11 of us set out for Beacon Fell and onward to Oakenclough an the Trough.  Unfortunately Steve broke a spoke coming over Oakenclough.  Pete was on his longest ride ever, predicting 50+ miles before he got home and he agreed to guide Steve back to Lytham.  The rest of us set off over Boundary Hill and bacon butties in Dunsop Bridge.  Then home via Little Bowland and Chipping.  We were pretty tired when we got home. 65 miles for me, up to 80 for the Lytham contingent.

Nic and Elizabeth put on a fantastic barbeque on Saturday evening.  We rode down on the old tandem, leaving it there for Nic and Elizabeth to try.

Sunday was another mountain bike trip, up to Grizedale with Simon, Catherine, Karl and Alison.  Some of the Saturday gang said they might come, but never materialised.  It was a good hard ride, with some of the nicest weather for ages.  I was pretty pleased with how I rode, but could feel my thighs burning, particularly on the rocky down hill sections.  20 miles

So my mileage for this week was:

Tandem – 35 miles

Mountain Bike – 34 miles

Road bike – 159 miles

Total for the week -  228 miles

Year to date – 3423 miles

Given a bit of decent weather, I should top 3500 by the end of this week.

Cheers

Tim