Changes........

Wicker and Wood Bike....

This time of year a lot of people seem to change their bike... buying the latest models that the bike manufacturers are promoting....

I have always thought that the start of the winter is not exactly a good time to be buying a new bike unless of course you are buying a new winter bike.... 
If I am going to change a bike the springtime seems a much better time to be spending my hard earned cash on something all shiny and new...

Having said that...since my recent ride with my daughter and her family I have found myself checking out MTBs online... I'm not saying that I will actually buy one....just looking you understand....

If you are thinking about a change, forget  steel...carbon...titanium...aluminium..or even bamboo... why not go for wicker and wood.....that is what the bike in the picture above is made from.
I saw it outside of a shop in town. 

It probably won't give you the fastest or most comfortable of rides, but hey...you will be different and you certainly won't be one of the sheep following everyone else.......

Talking about changes....there are going to be some quite major ones for me over the next 18 months or so. 

First of all, after fifteen years here at 'Purple Towers' it's seems pretty likely that a move to a different location is a distinct possibility. 
I can't say when exactly, but I would expect to re-locate sometime within that 18 month time frame. 

Anne and I are already spending more time in Devon so that seems to be a favourite area for us to move to... 
More information on that as our plans develop and unfold.....

I also plan on starting a different type of adventure than some of those that I have done in recent years....This one will be with Anne...
I can't say more that that at present but I will share more on this over the coming months. 

I still intend to continue with my big annual cycling adventures and I have a number of plans for next years ride in the mix.... I just need to work out the logistics of each route before making the final decision... As soon as that decision is made I will tell you about it here......

Half Term Ride.....

As it has been my grandson's half term holidays this past week,  my daughter and her husband invited me to join them all on a day out at the Moors Valley Country Park and Forest on Wednesday......

My Daughter and her Family.....

 Moors valley is not too far from where they live so they often pop over there with their bikes and make a day of it.... 
The weather forecast was for a nice day with only a small chance of rain.. 
I must admit that I had doubts over the accuracy of the forecast, as the moment I got into my car to drive over to their house near Wimborne it started to rain, but this cleared up and by the time we were all ready to set off from their house it had all the promise of a really nice day.....

My Grandsons and their bikes...

Being a road obsessed cyclist I don't own a MTB, but I was able to borrow one from the stable of bikes my daughter and her husband have....
We had a good ride along the gravel track forest road and also on the single track that winds it's way through the Pine forest with technical bends and tight turns...nothing too difficult... but at a moderate grade it is great for the kids...as well as sixty six year old roadies..!!

Bikes taking a lunch break...

We enjoyed a really nice lunch at the picnic area near the car park, but it wasn't long before the boys wanted to get back on the bikes and ride some more.... soon we were on the single track again....
On the way back home we stopped off to take a look at the steam railway......

One of the Moors Valley Steam Locomotives....

 Moors valley has an authentic narrow gauge railway which is obviously very popular with the kids...it currently has 17 steam locos and 2 diesel versions...apparently most of these were actually built at the Moors Valley railway workshops......

A view of the station area...

All too soon our day out on the bikes was over....
The weather had remained fine and dry for us and I really enjoyed the MTB riding as it made a nice change from my road bikes.....
Looking back on it I would list it as another of those 'special days'.........

Some Days are Special..

Some days are special....yesterday was one of those days.....

Just before the weekend I had a message from Jon Joynes (one of the 10in10 riders) asking me if I would like to pop over to Somerset one day this week for a cycle ride around the area near his home town of Yeovil.
A quick glance at the weather forecast showed me that the only day worth considering looked to be the Tuesday..yesterday... all the other days of the week had predictions of precipitation over the 40% chance...
As one of my many motto's goes along the line of 'why cycle in the wet if you can ride in the dry?' our choice of day for our ride was made...as it was Jon had the whole week free of work so was as flexible as I was in choosing the driest day...and didn't we make the right choice..!!

Blue sky and strong shadows...a stunning day for a Somerset ride.

I got up yesterday morning and was greeted by bright sunshine so all bode well for a good day's riding... First though I had to drive over to Somerset..one of the four counties that is adjacent to Dorset the others being Hampshire Devon and Wiltshire. 

As I set off from home the weather was gorgeous however the moment I turned off the coast road to head inland I found myself engulfed in fog...and that was the way it stayed all the way to Yeovil.
As I arrived at Yeovil the sun seemed to break through and all looked good again.

A pretty Somerset scene on our ride..

At Jon's house I got myself sorted out..removed my bike from the back of my personal Tonka toy (4x4) and we set off...
I have cycled through parts of Somerset in the past but not much in this particular area so it was nice to have a cycling buddy show me one of his regular routes....

As we rode along we both remarked on what a truly stunning day it was... It was one of those Autumnal days that are really special where everything seems to have come together to create a  perfect day.....

Nice weather and not much traffic...perfect!

We headed north of Yeovil on a truly lovely cycling loop...there was not a great deal of traffic even on the few sections of main road that we rode on ...most of the route though seemed to use the country lanes that Somerset has an abundance of making for a very nice relaxed ride..

One of the villages that we went through was Kingsbury Episcopi...over twenty years ago some friends of mine lived in Church cottage there and cycling through the village brought back lots of happy memories of my visits and time spent there all those years ago.....

Jon's Dad with the Mercian...A great winter project..

Jon had organised our coffee and cake stop at his parents house...
It was really nice to meet Jon's parents who had organised both chocolate cake and  jam doughnuts..my two favourites....
We all sat outside chatting and enjoying the warm autumn sunshine and talking about everything under the sun including caravans..classic cars and of course bikes.

Jon's Dad showed me an old Mercian bike that he has.... it would make a first class winter restoration project... 
Although it has surface rust to the frame the bike looks solid and intact and it would be wonderful to see it fully restored... 

The problem is though, that his Dad has a number of other objects of  desire that are good restoration projects.  Like most restorers it is hard deciding which project to start on next... Caravan...Car..Bike..??

Surface rust only on the Mercian

All too soon it was time to head off and continue with our bike ride.....

As we headed back towards Yeovil we were able to reflect on what a perfect day's ride we had enjoyed...how lucky we had been with the weather....how enjoyable the route had been....how good it was to get out on the bikes and ride with a friend....

Before I knew it, the ride was over and I was loading the bike into the vehicle and then heading back home to Dorset....

One last view of the old Mercian

Today when I woke up I was greeted by rain lashing down and strong winds and it looks as if those forecast predictions of rain were absolutely spot on....

As I said at the beginning of this blog post...
Some days are special.....yesterday was one of those days....

Berghaus - Forty Marathons in Forty Days...

THE ULTIMATE TRAIL INFOGRAPHIC..

I've always been up for a bit of a challenge as regular visitors to this blog will be well aware, but here is one that I personally won't be attempting....

1000 miles is an impressive distance to run by any stretch of the imagination...
To do it in 40 days across the high route of the Great Himalaya Trail is an incredible achievement...  but that is exactly what Berghaus athlete Phillipe Gatta  is attempting to do, setting the fastest known time for the route.

Here are some of the stats from Phillipe's expedition in an Infographic to help give it a sense of scale........

Il Lombardia....'The race of the falling leaves'.

Fallen leaves on one of my own cycling routes...

Yesterday was the Il Lombardia...which is one of my favourite one day classic races...In fact the race and everything connected with it was the inspiration for the 10 in 10 ride that I did way back in June this year.....
The Lombardia is known as the 'Race of the Falling Leaves' due to the time of year that it is held....

The top four places in this years race were:-
 1st Joaquin RODRIGUEZ  (Esp)     Team.. KAT
 2nd Alejandro VALVERDE (Esp)    Team..MOV
 3rd  Rafal MAJKA  (Pol)                  Team..TST
 4th Dan MARTIN  (Irl)                    Team..GRS

While trawling the net sometime ago I found a very interesting series on 'Roads to Ride' over at 'The Inner Ring'  blog website.....
It is a series about riding the famous roads/hills in cycling.....it looks at the routes....history..including race history, as well as what it feels like to ride. It also looks at travel and access to the road/climb and finishes with a brief summary....

Well worth checking out in my opinion...

The first in the series was Alpe d'Huez and the second was The Ghisallo the signature ride of the Il Lombardia...
 If you've not seen it go and take a look by clicking on this BUTTON 

At the end of the piece on the Ghisallo there is a list of links to the other iconic 'Roads to Ride' in the series..
The Inner Ring really is a blog worth following.....

Riding into Autumn.....

For me...this time of the year is one of the best for getting out on the bike for a ride.
Most of the visitors to the area have now gone home and the roads have become a lot quieter and more bike friendly. It's also a lot cooler now making the temperature better suited for cycling...

I started the week with a 38 mile spin on Monday morning on my own followed by an afternoon of bike cleaning... I get a lot of pleasure in making sure that my bikes are always cleaned and prepared before every ride and if done regularly it never needs to be a major operation....

The Felt cleaned and prepped ready for Tuesdays ride.

 I had made arrangements to meet up with Si Chapman and Jon Joynes on Tuesday for an afternoon spin... It had been a good few weeks since I had ridden with either of these guys. It was a couple of weeks after the end of the 10in10 ride that I last rode out with Si and it was in Italy during the 10in10 itself that Jon and I had been riding together.....

The Bikes taking a coffee break...

 I was really looking forward to meeting up with these fellas..... It's always great to meet up with mates for a ride and at this time of year I find the rides more enjoyable than ever....on top of that Si lives in a village in North Dorset surrounded by some great cycling country, although for this ride we had all agreed it was going to be a nice steady and flattish ride.....

Si and Jon taking a coffee break....

 Si had a bit of a cold and as none of us has been doing big distance rides lately an easier ride with a coffee and cake stop seemed appropriate... Anyway as Jon proved during our 10in10 ride back in June, his cycling ability depends very much on having sufficient cake intake so a cake stop was an absolute must.....
A ride with friends is always enjoyable with no pressure to reach targets or goals.... Si had come up with a really enjoyable route meandering as it did around the Dorset countryside. With only 1755 feet of ascent shown on the Garmin at the end of the 30 odd miles we completed, it was pretty flat (for Dorset) as well... It was an afternoon well spent and I look forward to my next opportunity to ride with these guys again......

Gareth Morns...Literally our first ride together in years....

Wednesday morning found me out on the bike again.....this time I was meeting up with Gareth Morns at the Sandbanks chain ferry for a ride over the Purbecks...

Now Gareth and I have not been out for a bike ride together for years.....and I really do mean years.....
Gareth was one of our 'Rev Pro Team'  who rode with me on the LEJOG ride we did to raise money for the Dorset Kidney Fund back in 2008....We are both pretty certain that was the last time that we actually cycled together...the years really do seem to fly by....!!
Gareth was responsible back then for getting me interested in cycling again after I'd had a break of about twenty years, so he has a lot to answer for..!!
Unfortunately with work commitments and a young family, it is not so easy these days for Gareth to fit the cycling in around a busy life but I hope that it won't be so long before our next ride together...
Gareth is a very capable cyclist and it was a pleasure to ride with him again this week......

So there we have it....riding into autumn and catching up with cycling friends.... there is not much better way to spend your time..........

Back to normal........

Well now that we are well and truly into September things are getting back to normal here at Purple Towers....
As I have mentioned before on this blog..the summer months are not really my favourite time of year, mainly because of how busy it seems to get on the local roads with the influx of visitors to the area. 

Looking back on the year, the winter seemed to hang on for ever...however we were lucky when we had our training camp back in early May. 
The weather up till then had been very cold, but for that week the temperature shot up and we had nice sunny days for our rides.. 
Following that week the weather went back to being cold again...indeed I remember the day we set off on the #10in10 ride it was bitterly cold and the ride through the Netherlands the next day wasn't much better either. 
Since then the summer weather finally arrived and we have had some absolutely stunning weather down here on the Dorset coast. 
Just checkout this picture taken from the end of our road only nine days ago........

Bournemouth beach close to Alum Chine

A beautiful sunny day and a busy beach.....Just a few days later and most of the visitors had gone, the children had gone back to school and the weather had taken on a really autumnal feel.

As I look out of my window as I type this I can see a very grey looking sea and it has started to rain. It is almost as if when August was finished and September started, a switch was thrown and nature just changed gear.....

Talking about changing gear....that is what I have done.
I have been getting back to more riding again.....

Throughout August I started back with regular use of the static bike.....I found that this bit of equipment had been a real boon for my training earlier in the year when the weather wasn't good and I was well pleased with the results that I got by using it for my preparation for the #10in10 ride.
It enabled me to focus my training on various aspects of my cycling in a way that 'going out for a ride' doesn't really allow you to do. I certainly intend to continue to factor it in to my training  programme over the coming winter.

Unfortunately at the end of August I was using the static bike and had programmed it for a very 'hilly' route. As the resistance increased as it racked up the gradient, there was a 'bang' and all the resistance disappeared. 
After investigation I found that the cable that runs from a servo motor to the resistance magnet had snapped...... I contacted the suppliers and I must say that they were first class.....within a few days the cable had been replaced and I was back training again... The suppliers told me that they had not had that happen before, so hopefully it's something that I won't experience again.

Since then I have also managed to get out on the Tifosi and the Felt as well, so hopefully everything will now get back to normal.
I hope to see some of you out on the roads around the Purbecks over the coming months......