Dave's Sunday Ride.

Earlier this week Dave Vaughan told me that he was going to get rid of his MBK as he wasn't getting on with the riding position and the gears were giving him problems on the hills. He part exchanged it for a used Specialized Globe Hybrid- a good bike for general use and the odd bit of lightweight touring.

Dave has told me that he is keen to come on next year's Normandy touring trip so with that in mind he decided to come out with Jason and I today on our Sunday morning legspinner. Total mileage was 32 miles and this was taken at steady pace. Jason had not been on a bike for a few weeks and I am still having some quite major health issues so we decided that a nice steady tempo would be the order of the day.

Dave rode really well. He managed to maintain the steady pace and at no time did he drop very far behind us. The truth is that being the 'broom wagon' driver on the team's last two endurance events was not enough for Dave. He wanted to be in amongst the action- today Dave proved that he was up to the challenge.

Dave told me that today was the furthest that he had ridden for about 40 years- not bad for a two hundred year old man eh !! Only joking Dave...!

All Dave needs to do now is make an attempt on the 'Hill of Death' and then he will be a fully paid up member of Team 219.

One Year Ago.

One year ago I was busy cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats .The memory of the wet weather and the pain of it all as well as all the high spots of the trip still stays with me.
A few nights ago I went over to a friend's house because he had asked for advice on the journey as he is about to attempt it with his brother.

Ian Heritage and his brother Derek will set out from Lands End on the morning of Monday 21st September. They plan to cover about 60/70 miles a day. Ian is not a cyclist- indeed when the decision to attempt the ride was made he did not even own a bicycle. When John Donoghue of Team 219 bought his 'Revolution Touring' bike he sold his 'Scott Sub' to Ian and that is the bike that Ian will be using for this trip. So the bike has already done the LEJOG route once- not that that will make the trip any easier for Ian.

The Heritage brothers are riding the route for charity. BLESMA is the British Limbless Ex ServiceMens Association. Every time you see yet another coffin arrive back in this country containing one of our Servicemen there are probably half a dozen or more other Servicemen and Women coming back injured and a high number of these have lost limbs.
Ian has a close connection to this charity as on the 7th of November 2004 his son Neil lost both his legs whilst in action in Iraq.

I plan to cycle up to North Somerset and meet up with them both towards the end of their West Country section. I will be taking some pictures and hope to post them on this blog as well as giving you an update of their progress.

Please support Ian and David in their attempt to complete this ride.
The charity they are doing it in aid of (BLESMA) is very worthwhile and is something which is very topical with the conflict in Afghanistan continuing.

You can support them and their chosen charity by going to www.justgiving.com/heritagecycle
where you can read more about Ian Derek and Neil and also more information about BLESMA.

A Discount at the Brothel !!

I think that most of the advantages of riding a bike are well known-but here is one that is probably not so well publicised.

I have just read in a magazine that the Maison d'Envie brothel in Berlin is offering a discount of 5 euros to all customers who arrive on a bike. This discount is from their standard charge of 70 euros.

Thomas Goetz-the proprietor says ''It's good for business, it's good for the environment and it's also good for the girls''.

I don't quite understand his last point about it being good for the girls unless he means that due to their exertions on the bike most of the customers now just fall asleep!

Well done Andy.....

I was pleased to see that the ASDA C.E.O. Andy Bond finished his LEJOG in the ten days that he had set in which to complete the ride.

The purpose of the ride was twofold- first the aim of the ride was to raise money through the Asda Pedal Power campaign for 'Bike Club'-this is the new project set up by the CTC and two youth charities to help more children and young people to experience the benefits of cycling.
Pedal Power has managed to raise in excess of £1.2 million which is a terrific achievement.

The other purpose of the ride was to advertise the fact that Asda are now selling bikes. These are being sold on a 'not for profit' basis.
These bikes come in a box and customers have to assemble it themselves and they are branded as British Eagle Bikes. The adult bikes sell for £70.00 and the childrens version is £50.00

What make of bike did Andy Bond use for his ride-was it a 'British Eagle' ?
NO..... Andy chose to ride a 'Giant' road bike.

Says it all really......!!

Backpackers Club (Dorset Group) Weekend meet.

I really enjoyed this weekend-it was just great to get out and spend a couple of nights in a tent again. Since the accident I think that I have suffered withdrawal symptoms due to not being in the outdoors often enough.

The walking on the Saturday I found tough and it showed me how much further I have to go before I regain my normal level of fitness- even the camping itself had its difficulties but these I managed to overcome.

We had a poor turn out for a club group meet with only seven of us attending- Tony Wilson had travelled from Nottingham and he arrived with Lynette. Graham Faithfull attended with his six year old son Caleb and Mike and Chris McEnnerney arrived just as it had got dark on the Friday evening. Interestingly two people who had e-mailed me for details regarding the site/pub/walk distance etc..etc... failed to show. One of them did e-mail me again to let me know that they would not be attending after all- but not until I had already set out for the site so I didn't get the message until my return home.
But hey-who cares! I arrange these meets for club members but I would enjoy it even if no one was to show up. It will probably happen one day-I will arrange a weekend meet and I will be the only one there- not much different to a solo backpack really.

Now the next thing I must do is to sort out the purchase of one of those Neo Air Thermarest mattresses................!!

Something else to buy!

One of the good things about these Backpackers Club weekend meets is catching up with friends and chatting about new kit. Mike showed me his recent purchase- a thermarest neo air mattress. I had not seen one before and it seems a big leap forward from my old standard thermarest. Lighter- packs smaller and more comfort. Mike let me use his for anafternoon doze and it was great- i now want one ! The picture shows the neo air next to my standard thermarest prior to my doze. Colour is a bit bright (yellow) which is its only fault- unless you like bright yellow .

Dorset group static camping weekend.

This is the first time that i have been camping since my cycling accident. I am spending time at the Sisters Grimm camp site with other members of the Backpackers Club. I have already had an argument with one of the Sisters over the rip off price of ten pounds a night for a single backpacker. She eventually reduced it to eight pounds which is still too high for the facilities here but it is a nice spot to camp. Lets hope the weather stays kind to us.