AN ALTERNATIVE RIDE.......

DOWN THE HILL

Today was the last day of February and was going to be the first ride in 2012 with JD. 
The arrangements had been made and we were going to meet at the ferry for a decent ride together over the Purbeck Hills...that was the plan anyway. 
Unfortunately JD had to pull out due to a last minute appointment that he couldn't alter. 


Now I could have just carried on with the planned ride solo, but I decided to do an alternative ride and spend a little bit of time working on my hill climbing. 
Within half a minute bike ride from my home there is a hill that runs down to almost sea level. 
The local bus finishes it's route at the bottom of the hill where there is a circular turn round area for the bus. 
In the summer months the bus drops off lots of holidaymakers here for a day at the beach but at this time of year the area is more or less empty and makes a good place to work on my strength and hill technique.
It is not a huge hill only rising to 200ft  but it does present a good workout. 


I rode over to the top of the hill ....and set off on the short descent....down the hill.....

BEND AT THE BOTTOM

 around the bend as I approached the bottom of the hill where the bus turns around.........

AROUND THE TURN AROUND

AND BACK UP THE HILL

 and then I just set off back up the hill.... 
Obviously once was not enough so I completed this descent and ascent 25 times. 


The first few times I managed it without any problems, but by the time I got to number 20 things were becoming pretty tough and by the time I reached my goal for the day I have to admit I was glad to stop. 


A lot of people tell me that they are no good on hills and actively avoid them. I believe that if you hardly ever ride up hills you will never improve your hill climbing ability. 
As with all things you need to practice in order to get better at it. 
Over the years I have learned to love hills and it's practice on hills that has helped me arrive at that attitude towards them.........

A NEW WORLD RECORD....

ROBERT MARCHAND  (photo UCI)

Regular readers of this blog will be well aware that I am always looking for a new challenge......
Well I think that I have found it. However there is just one small problem....
I need to make it to 100 years old before I can make my attempt and that is a challenge in itself.


Recently Robert Marchand established a cycling world record for riders over 100 years old. 
He set the world record for the hour completing 24.251 kms during his attempt. 
The record was set at the World Cycling Centre Velodrome at Aigle in Switzerland. Robert said that he just wanted something to do for his 100th birthday....apparently he reached that grand century a couple of months ago. 
He completed the event on a standard track bike, although he said that he had not ridden on a track for over 80 years, normally preferring to ride on the road. 
The advice he was given before the start of his ride was to keep his heart rate under 110 bpm and in the main he managed to stick to this, although Robert did say that on a recent hill climb whilst out on the road he did take his heart rate up to 134 bpm  with no ill effects. 


Robert went on to say that over the last five years he hasn't done rides of more than 100kms. "There is no point in going overboard" he said.  
Apparently he doesn't smoke and he has never been much of a drinker either and his advice to both young and old is to keep on moving.........


Come to think of it I know a lot of riders a third of his age that don't ride more than 100kms at a time, if they even get to that..........................

DOES IT REALLY MATTER...?

CINELLI ...OR IS IT?

In my last post I touched on the fact that a recent common thread on a lot of cycling forums and blogs has been around the subject of 'Do you really know where your bike was made?' 
It would seem that a lot of people have expressed surprise that the bike or frame that they have  purchased might not have been manufactured in the country that they thought it had....
Surprised that they had purchased a name. 
Surprised that the bike frame they thought had been made in say Italy or USA was in fact made somewhere in Asia. 


Really? 
Did they really not have an idea that was the case? 
I mean why should the bike industry be any different to any other industry. 
In the book 'It's all about the Bike' by Robert Penn he went to the Cinelli Factory in Italy to choose the handlebars for the bike he was building....He picked his bars, but acknowledged the fact that although they were designed and then tested at Cinelli's Italian factory, they were actually made in Asia 
Does this make them any less Cinelli....I don't believe so..


Take cameras....where are so many of those made these days? 
There was a time that every Leica was made in Germany....nowadays a lot of cameras and lenses carry the Leica name but were certainly not manufactured there. 


Then there are cars.
The last time I bought a car I purchased a Peugeot....a French manufacturer with a long history....Citroen and Toyota both make very similar models and the reality is that all three are made in the same factory and that factory is in Romania...real badge engineering I call it. 


But my point here is that if you read enough photographic and motoring magazines you would have been aware of this.... 
So are people really surprised that their bike frame was not made in the USA, Italy or the UK but in say China and not only that, but in the same factory that a number of other makes are made as well?....


My last post was about the fix I get from reading cycling magazines and how my choice of bikes has been based to some extent on the reviews I read prior to my purchase......You only have to read these reviews to get a pretty good idea where your frame and components originated from..... 


But...and here is my main point...Does it really matter? 
If you have a bike that rides like a dream...does everything that you expected it to and looks pretty darn good to boot, does it really matter if the frame comes out of a factory in Asia where a number of other makes of bike frame are produced as well. 


Now I am not talking here about the political and business ramifications of production. What I am talking about here is riding a bike. 
I am a cyclist....I have a passion for riding bikes.....Yes I love the history of cycling and bike production, but we are where we are and it is 2012. 
I think that it is far to easy to get caught up in 'hardware' discussions such as Shimano, Sram or Campagnolo and the coffee and cake stop wouldn't be complete without these rider discussions, but when all is said and done the real point to cycling is riding your bike.... Wherever it comes from...


There is an awful lot of brand snobbery around cycling and a lot of that can be fun, but in my opinion in the great scheme of things it really doesn't matter. What does matter is getting on whatever bike you have wherever it comes from and riding it.......I mean, if you don't ride your bike you can't call yourself a cyclist and riding your bike is what really matters......

Dan O over at Yo Eddy!! wrote a good post on this subject recently with some good links. If you didn't see it pop over and have a look now...........
http://yoeddy.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-made-your-bike.html

TIME FOR A FIX...

MY REGULAR FIX

I have to come clean....every so often  I need a regular fix. No, not that sort of fix...the fix I'm referring to is cycling magazines. 
I subscribe to a couple of monthly magazines..then there is the bi-monthly magazine which comes as part of my membership of the Cyclists Touring Club and then on top of that I buy Cycling Weekly now and again just to keep up to date with the more sporting side of cycling. 
I also buy Pro-Cycling every so often again to keep in touch with the pro side of the cycling world, so all in all quite a few magazines pass through the doors of Purple Towers.... Oh..I forgot to mention a couple of small  occasional magazines from local cycling clubs...yes a lot of reading matter.


 So what is it that I enjoy so much about magazines...I mean I still read books and as I sit here writing this blog post I have a whole bookcase full of books behind me, a good third of them are cycling related...but there is something different about a magazine....it is so easy to read. 
I can read a bit and put it down and when I pick it up again just dive straight in without having to refresh my memory on the 'story so far'. 
I don't have to make a commitment to reading a magazine in the same way that I do when I read a book. 


Over the years I have learned so much about cycling from the various magazine that I have read. Regular write ups and reviews of the latest bikes have always been a favourite of mine and I have used them as the basis for each bike choice that I have made over the past few years. There is no way that I can test most of the new bikes that hit the shops each year but cycling magazine writers can. Each of the three bikes that I currently own was obtained after I had read reports on them in various magazines. If a number of various independent reports are all saying the same thing about a bike then it is usually the case. It has certainly worked for me anyway.... 


Then we have the advice regarding training and how to improve in various disciplines....always useful and always interesting. Readers letter pages...new components..new kit... even the adverts... I love it all.
Just look at the cover of the copy of 'Cycling Plus' shown in the photo above.. 
'Think Yourself Faster'  - 'Nail Every Climb'  - 'Superbikes-Dream machines ridden and rated!' just three of the articles in that one edition. 


Reading this kind of stuff really does help to ignite your enthusiasm and keep it burning on a month by month basis....well it does for me. 
On top of that it can also help to build your overall knowledge of the whole cycling scene....one of the reasons that I have been just a little surprised by some of the threads on various bike forums concerning the subject 'Where do you think your bike was made?' 
Did people really not know? Why should bikes be any different to any other product in this 'globalized trading' world we now live in...?
But I digress....I will save that for another post.. 


About this time of the month I start to feel a real pleasurable anticipation as the latest magazines are about to be delivered ...talking of which I have just heard a magazine flop through my letterbox and onto the mat...Time for a fix......

WORLD CYCLE RACING - GRAND TOUR STARTED

The World Cycle Racing - Grand Tour has now started. 
The riders set off yesterday morning from Greenwich Park in London and each rider immediately got into their  chosen route. 


There have been a variety of approaches to this race in terms of styles..bikes and equipment. Touring bike, Hybrid or Sports bike...they were all there at the start. 
Some of the riders are carrying a full touring set of kit others are travelling very obviously as light as they can. 
It will certainly be interesting to see how this race pans out over the forthcoming weeks....


I will be riding in France and then riding Edinburgh to Portsmouth during April and May and the WCR Grand Tour will still be going on ! Puts the whole thing into perspective I think.


 Don't forget, you can follow all the riders progress by going to the WCR Grand Tour web page....I have a link at the bottom of my links column in the side bar of this blog......


Also in London....


Also in London this weekend we have had the Track Cycling World Cup Classics staged at the new Olympic Velodrome. 


I would have loved to have been able to attend this event but unfortunately was unable to do so. 
I  have had to settle for watching this on television and gripping stuff it's been too.
The best track riders in the world were there and it's good to see where the various riders and teams are at this point in the run up to the Olympics later in the year......


The velodrome itself looks absolutely fantastic....Pity I didn't get any tickets for the Olympic Track Cycling at this super new venue. Like lot's of fans I applied for tickets and again like lots of fans I didn't get one, so it looks like I will be watching that at home too.....


............and my riding....


My own riding has still been going well. 
Since the beginning of the year I have managed to ride an average of 240 miles a week. This is usually made up of four days of 60 miles give or take a bit. 


I have decided that I will ease back a few miles on my weekly mileage as I don't want to overcook things too early in the year. If I was to manage somewhere in the region of an average of 180 miles a week for the rest of the year I would still hit my 10,000 miles target. 


The planned Edinburgh to Portsmouth ride will give me about 550 miles in that week alone and the couple of weeks easy touring in France should give me 700+  so at the moment the pressure has eased a little. 
I am riding well but I feel that there is lots of room for improvement and I will continue to work on that. Hills, both ascending and descending, is an area of my riding that I am  working hard at. Starting next month I should get back on a regular weekly ride with JD and that is always good for a laugh but I don't know how much serious riding we will get done.........  

NAKED.......

FIONA'S NAKED BOTTOM BRACKET

At this time of year I don't ride my carbon bike Fiona (The Felt). I tend to reserve this bike for the period from late spring through to early autumn......days when the chances of  rain..... mud..... salt.... grit..etc are low. 
It's my best bike and  I spent a lot when I bought it so I can't see myself spending that much again on a bike....particularly now I  am retired. I like to keep it in pristine condition and that gives me almost as much pleasure as the hours I do spend riding it during the summer months..... 


Most of the winter miles I ride tend to be spread between the Tifosi and the Revolution...... although for most daily riding the Tifosi is my bike of choice.......The mudguards (fenders) mean that I can ride the bike year round and I don't have to spend hours cleaning the bike after each ride. 


I have never really understood why a lot of riders are happy to ride a bike without mudguards throughout the winter. Muck sprays up everywhere...all over the bike and all over the rider. 
As I ride on the road only- I find that a lot of grease and oil is picked up off the road and trying to remove the marks that are left down the back of expensive cycling jerseys and other cycling kit can be a difficult task no matter what 'magic cleaner' you choose to use. 


Obviously there are no mudguards on the Felt....and if it happens to rain during a sportive or some other time that I am riding the bike, then that's the way it is and I have to put up with it. I think that I would be spending hours cleaning the bike let alone cycle clothing if I rode it throughout the winter period as well. 
No, for me Fiona is a special bike reserved for special days and special events........ 


I have posted a picture of Fiona's naked carbon bottom bracket area above.....
I would not normally display a picture of Fiona's more intimate areas but this shot is for Jeff over at http://theflattire.blogspot.com/
He is looking to buy a new frame....he has talked about the possibility of buying a carbon frame but he's not been giving too much away on his final choice of  material or anything else come to that. So I thought that I would give him a bit of excitement and a little reminder of the beauty of naked carbon. 


Naked carbon bike porn....don't you just love it..?

A BUSY WEEK......

VIEW OVER POOLE HARBOUR

This past week has been a busy week...... 
Although the weather has been very cold for most of the time I have still managed to put in more miles and I have also felt pretty good doing it. 
All of my riding has been solo...the last time I rode with anyone else, was a few weeks ago when I did the short 30 mile loop with my son-in-law Scott. 


One of the positives of riding solo of course is that the pace you ride is your pace. 
No sprinting for that road sign because everyone else is....and no riding faster or slower than your fitness or training schedule dictates... 


I have been able to stick very closely to my training programme and I am sure that it is paying dividends.  I think that my level of cycling is in a good place right now and I am able to see some improvements in a number of areas...
Let's hope that I can continue to build on this throughout the rest of the winter........ 


On Thursday night I went to the monthly 'Gear & Beer' night of the Dorset Group of the Backpackers Club. 
The idea is that we spend half an hour or so in the Bournemouth Cotswold Outdoor Store drooling over some of the latest outdoor kit before settling into a nearby pub for a pint or two of some amber nectar and a good old jaw bashing, supposedly planning future backpacking trips and putting the world to rights....and we certainly did that. 
If you notice some improvements in your world anytime soon it's sure to be due to all the discussions we had about the state of the world....

DAVE (THE BROOM WAGON) VAUGHAN ON THE FERRY TO SPAIN FOR ROCK2UK

A good part of my week has been spent on planning future trips and events.....
I don't know how I managed to do anything when I was working, because there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to these days (Oh, the problems of retirement)....trying to fit it all into the year planner has been proving to be a real problem. 


One spot of good news concerns the Edinburgh to Portsmouth ride that JD conned talked me into doing. 
Dave (The Broom Wagon) Vaughan has agreed to support us for the entire event. 
This means that there is no requirement for us to do this ride on the touring bikes. 
With Dave giving us vehicle back up we will not need to carry tents and other gear and we will be able to ride on lighter bikes. 
JD intends riding his Specialized  Secteur Comp and my plan is to use the Tifosi Audax Classic. 


Now you might think that Dave is looking pretty glum in the photo above that was taken on route to Santander, but I can assure you that there are occasions that he manages to break into a smile....
Like on the ROCK2UK  ride back from Gibraltar last September.... 
Due to work commitments he could only support us for the first few days but he was laughing his head off as he climbed back into the vehicle when he left us in the middle of nowhere in Spain........ 


Truth is that it is great news that he will be supporting us on this latest mini adventure and I am sure that a lot more fun will be had with his involvement.


We will be starting this ride leaving Edinburgh at 09.30 on Saturday 26th May....I will let you know more details of the ride a few days before we set off.