Spinning

Last night, Kirby Girl and I went spinning at our local leisure centre. It was our first time doing spinning and it was really tough. I found it much tougher going than any cycling I've done to date. As I cycle purely for leisure, that's not terribly surprising but that does include wheezing my way through a couple of reasonably fast paced club runs (which I didn't enjoy much either).

For me to really push myself hard on a bike is akin to some sort of punishment or torture. Could it be simply because I'm a bit lazy? Maybe, but I know it displays the exercise side of cycling isn't the main reason I do it.

From about twenty minutes into the (hour long) class, I started clock watching and couldn't wait for it to finish. My wearing stupidly thinly soled shoes didn't help my cause much either as my feet were smarting away like nobody's business. Additionally, I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast (the class started at 6pm), forgot to bring any fluid with me, found the toestraps on the pedals held my feet too far into them and the music comprised of a load of techno butchering of old pop songs I liked eg. A-Ha's 'Take On Me' and an Ultravox song which I can't remember right now. Oh, and Alice Cooper's 'Poison' (which I used to think was dead 'heavy metal' when I was about eleven) had a techno version of it in there too. All the classics.

Anyway, I was pleased to discover Kirby Girl enjoyed herself and got a lot more from it than I did (and didn't get the sore knee and headache I got). We've been talking about it a bit since then (we really don't get out anything like enough) and reckon we can do something similar-ish but more suited to us at home, with turbo trainers. As the class was costing us a combined £8-40GBP per session, getting another cheap turbo trainer (at about £80GBP) and making up our own exercise routines to music we actually like seems like a pretty good idea. Plus, if we actually get off our arses and read it, we could use a book we once bought to show us how to use our heart rate monitors for a bit of indoor healthiness.

Today, I was talking to a local shop proprietor about turbo trainers (as we'll be buying one from him) and he warned me they can bugger up parts of bikes if you're not careful, or so he's heard at any rate. Apparently, the usual lack of gear changing on a turbo trainer leads to individual cogs and chainwheels getting more wear than they should and can even, therefore, end up stretching/wearing chains a bit more quickly than normal road usage might. From experience, I know it's a bugger on rear tyres but I'm sure we can get round that okay.

I reckon I'll get a rusty old Peugeot road bike I once bought for the grand sum of either £10GBP or £12GBP and make it turbo trainer worthy. All it should take initially is some new bar tape, a new inner tube and a different saddle (which is fortunate as I've got a spare saddle). I can use the SPD pedals from my supposed winter bike for the time being, and an old tyre I wouldn't use on a roadworthy bike. My only worry is whether its old wheels will clamp into a turbo trainer. I might end up having to get a new rear wheel built for the purpose and, whilst I know a man who does so cheaply and well, it's still an expense I could do without. Additionally, where the hell am I going to get a hub with a quick release and a five speed (maybe six) cassette on it in this day and age? Jeez, I hope the wheel fits into the bloody turbo trainer. If it doesn't, I'll have to risk my winter bike on it (which would be a lot less hassle).

Enough of my rantings. Thanks for reading and I'll be sure to post how I get on with my prospective indoor turbo training (if that's the right name for it).

How manly I am!

Armed with only a cassette lockring tool, an oil distributor remover chain bit for a car and a couple of parts from a socket set, I managed to remove an old Shimano cassette and replace it with a new one.

Although that may all sound terribly straightforward and simple to a normal person, I was sure it wouldn't be to me. Imagine my amazement when I discovered the physical act of changing over the actual cassettes is as easy as it should be (or was this time anyway). Thankfully, it seems impossible to get the sprockets in the wrong position as there is a kind of key groove on the freehub body and this means the sprockets can only go on one way. Super!

Something I didn't realise about Shimano cassettes is they do have some individual sprockets and spacers, rather than being one big solid block of cogs. I had been told Campagnolo cassettes (if that's the correct term for Campagnolo's version of the sprocket cluster at the rear) are made up of individual cogs ie. if you have a nine speed cassette, it's made up of nine cogs, eight spacers and a lockring. I had thought Shimano's cassettes consisted of a solid block with just one free cog and the lockring ie. a nine speed Shimano cassette would have had eight cogs all together in one block, no spacers, one little cog and a lockring. Well, I thought wrong! On the cassette I took off (and the cassette I put on) there seemed to be a block of five gears all together and then the other four were free cogs with their appropriate spacers. Oh, and there was a lockring of course. It's a fairly mundane thing to be mentioning but I'm nerdy enough to have been interested by it.

Now I've just to replace the chain (which should be easy enough as it's a SRAM chain with a Powerlink, so I don't even have to worry too much about rivets once I've got the old chain off) and get frustrated when I fiddle about with the derailleur, can't get it to work properly and end up taking it into a shop anyway.

Still, I'll continue feeling all macho and manly. I even had a bit of greasy oily dirt on my hands for about half a minute. I'll be smoking a pipe next. You don't get much more manly than that. Well, I guess it depends on the pipe but that's another matter altogether.

By the way, sorry about the crappy blurriness of my photo in this post. I'm a shaky nervous little man indeed. As you might guess, it's a photograph of my new cassette. Strangely, it looks a bit rusty in the photo but, thankfully, that's not the case in real life. It looks lovely and new and clean and must never ever be used.

Granny wheels

Whilst out cycling yesterday, I was thinking about how some 'macho' people like to tut (and sometimes suck air through their teeth whilst shaking their heads) and put down the whole premise of having a third chainwheel (aka 'granny wheel') on one's road bike.

Such people seem to use the term 'granny wheel' or 'granny ring' as a little bit of a patronising put down. This is where my thinking came in...

I liked both my grannies, so it's not really a terribly offensive name for a bicycle part. If anything, it's quite endearing. Had the third chainwheel been called a 'Hitler ring' or something along those lines, it might be more of a worry. Anyway, that's what I was thinking when I should have been concentrating on all the thorny hedge clippings all over the road. To think, I still managed to avoid a puncture regardless. Those Continental Duraskins they stuck on my bike must have magical properties, or maybe I've been pretty fortunate.

Kraftwerk cycle tops

Whilst, I knew it was possible to get Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Rolling Stones cycle jerseys, from Primal Wear, I have just discovered Kraftwerk 'Autobahn' and 'Tour de France' (among others) cycle jerseys are also available for purchase.

If you're interested in them, please click here. Through the findings of my brief internet search for information on these jerseys, it seems the 'Tour de France' jersey is of standard road cycling style, ie. slightly longer back and elasticated waist and sleeve hems. However, it would appear they're quite large sized (apparently the size large top has a 42" chest, for example) for cycle jerseys.

It would seem the 'Autobahn' tops are more of a mountain bike cut, with no elastication and are a little bigger still (size large, apparently, with a 44" chest measurement). Unfortunately, I was too lazy to try to find out any information on the other cycle jersey(s) there.

I'll probably not get one myself but I thought it might be of interest to any Kraftwerk fans, particularly with their cycling links.

Rude cyclist

This is a bit of a nothing post really. It's just to mention that, when Kirby Girl and I were out for a cycle yesterday, some twat on a bike seemed to be trying to prove something by attempting to race past us really close to us. As it happened, I was turning off before he could get past me anyway, so he didn't get his pathetic ego boost from that (although I'm certain he could have passed me easily enough had I been going straight on).

As is the norm, we both said hello to this person (me twice, being the glutton for punishment I am) . Neither of us received even a grunt as a response. Obviously it's up to him whether he wants to acknowledge people or not but it's more than a bit rude simply to ignore people who are being friendly to you. This is where people always make arguments like:

• 'Maybe he was concentrating so much on his cycling he didn't notice you'
  As arguments go, this is bollocks. If he was so caught up in his cycling he couldn't notice anything around him, it's not very clever to go on the roads where he's likely to get run over
  
  
• 'Why should he say hello? You don't say hello to everyone in a car'
  It's true that I don't say hello to everyone in a car but, then again, they wouldn't hear me and there are so many cars on the road, it would be implausible to acknowledge every motorist. Besides, people tend to cycle as an interest whereas they usually drive as a means to get somewhere. Not many people list 'driving' among their hobbies and I would guess groups of people who do probably acknowledge one another's existence when they meet
  
  
• 'Maybe he was too tired to speak'
  If he's training to the point where he is incapable of speech, he ought to be a bit more careful. If he can't speak, chances are he can't breathe properly either and he'll do himself an injury. Besides, you don't need to speak to nod your head in acknowledgement
  

Other than being hard of hearing/seeing (I nodded too), I can't see any excuse for anyone snubbing another friendly person. I guess it's just that 'rude idiot' attitude some people have and, as I keep reminding myself, they've done me no harm by not saying 'Hello' and will probably live out the rest of their lives being stupid, rude and unhappy. So I like to believe anyway, not that I'm a bitter type of person of course (or a huffy little so and so).

Test

I thought this test was quite interesting. You might not agree (and remember it's designed for those who cycle on the left side of the road) but here (as in click on the link) it is anyway.

Oh, there was another wee test too but it wasn't anything like as good as the first one I mentioned and seemed to be more about making a point and dispelling myths than anything.

Specialized's kerayzee bike range

A friend of mine (and you can choose to believe I don't have any friends if you wish) sent me an e-mail tonight with a link to information about these prototype bicycles Specialized seems to be behind. You may already know all about them, have seen them before a dozen times and not be interested whatsoever but they were new to me and I thought I would share them with you. I didn't include the link my friend sent me as it had rude pictures of naughty ladies on it and all the links of the bike images seemed to take one to bawdy websites but there's relevant information on the bikes here.










It seems all but the turquoise/aquamarine bike are mountain bikes (whatever one of those is. I've heard of them but can't say I've ever seen one) and the turquoise/aquamarine bike is a road bike.










Some of them appear a bit flimsy to me but I'm guessing the bigwigs in the bike design department have a bit more knowledge than me when it comes to making bicycles and probably a little more information than some photos they've looked at on the internet too.














Oh, incidentally, I hope you like my spelling of 'crazy' as 'kerayzee' for the title of this post. It's always very classy to get a bit of 80's metal spelling in whenever possible. Additionally, while I'm wittering anyway, I hope the format of this post works and you haven't got the images appearing over text and everything looking a bit random.

Not exactly Sherlock Holmes

This post is mainly a little note to show how poor my skills of observation are.

As you'll know, if you've read my other posts, I got a new bike about six weeks ago. Since getting it, I've been cleaning it fairly religiously and generally obsessing in my usual manner. Although I've been fairly thorough doing this, it was only a couple of days ago I realised the bike's groupset is not Campagnolo Veloce throughout, as I had thought, but rather has a Centaur front derailleur.

With my utter lack of knowledge on Campagnolo groupsets, I had no idea if this was a good or bad thing but I'm pleased to discover it's the group up from Veloce and, therefore, a little bonus for me. I know it's not groundbreaking news which brings about world peace but it's a little boon for me and made me smile.

Tedious bicycle cleaning post

Just when you thought my posts couldn't get any more mundane, here's one all about cleaning my bicycle.

Now I've got a bicycle which is a bit better than I've been used to (although still not up to the standards of many many many bicycles), I thought I may as well try to keep it approaching the category of clean. I've been researching (ie. annoying people by asking them loads of repetitive questions) what is the best/most popular method for keeping one's bicycle(s) clean. In particular, I was interested in how people keep their chains and cassettes clean. I've been okay with the rest up until now.

To cut things down a bit, I've had it recommended to me that I use paraffin to soak my chain in and a fifty-fifty mix of petrol and diesel (along with a paintbrush for application) for cleaning the cassette. As we didn't have any petrol, I took off my chain (after the kind gentleman proprietor of the establishment I bought my bike in told me it had a powerlink type of link) and left it soaking in a little tub of diesel for a couple of hours. I would have left it overnight but I need my bike first thing tomorrow morning and don't fancy getting up any earlier than I have to already.

I also used pure diesel to brush around the cassette and chainwheels and I can see why it's probably better watered down a bit with petrol. The consistency (or viscosity, if you prefer) of the diesel is such that it hangs around after it has done its job a bit more than one may like. Presumably the petrol makes it considerably easier to get rid of at the end. Nonetheless, get rid of it I did (or so I hope) and my bicycle is much cleaner than it was. Oh, just to mention, I was a bit of a tool and didn't take off my rear wheel to brush the cassette. As you would imagine, this led to some diesel/filth mix dripping onto my wheel rim and tyre. I think I've cleaned it up properly. I'll know when I try to use my rear brakes anyway.

Although I've always kept my frame and all the non-moving parts clean on my bicycles, I had only scratched the surface of cleaning the cassette, chainwheels and chain (I had used one of those little chain cleaners on the chain before but it wasn't as good as steeping it). Now I'm enlightened, I hope to keep a clean and healthier selection of bikes.

Funnily enough, having one clean bicycle now makes me want to go and clean the other couple of bikes I own and Kirby Girl's. Let the cleanliness obsession begin...

Uh-oh

Keep your fingers crossed for me please. I'm not an especially adept kind of fellow when it comes to, well, much. Nonetheless, I'm foolish enough to give things a go and hope they come out right. Well, I'll do it when it's not my stuff anyway.

Kirby Girl's bicycle was in need of a new chain (we're very slovenly when it comes to changing chains and need a good slapping for it) and I thought I may as well order a chain and replace it myself. Of course, it's only replacing a chain. Even I couldn't possibly get that wrong, could I? One SRAM/Sedis/Sachs chain, from Geoffrey Butler Cycles, later and I discovered I could indeed bugger up even the most simple of processes. For starters, getting the old (filthy) chain off was tougher than I imagined. I remember splitting a link and taking a chain off last year being so much easier than it was with Kirby Girl's bike. After lots of lining up my little chainbreaker and a hell of an amount of force, the rivet eventually popped out to the extent I could take the offensive old chain apart and remove it from the bicycle.

At this point (not really knowing what I was doing) I thought lining the two chains up against one another would be a good idea. That way, I could take a few links off the new chain so they were of around the same length. I was a little confused at this juncture as the old chain and new chain didn't seem to match up completely link for link. Assuming this was from the old chain stretching a little, I rounded down a link with the new chain and (after losing a fight with the tensioning arm, or whatever the hell you call it) put it on Kirby Girl's bicycle. Spinning the pedal (she's missing a crank at the moment as she needs a replacement), everything seemed fine but changing gears wasn't quite what it should be.

I'm hopeful it's only a matter of a little derailleur adjustment here and there but that's not something I'm experienced in (other than screwing up and having to bring it into the shop anyway). It's something which should be simple enough for even me to be able to do but I reckon I'll have a go on some dodgy old bikes we hardly use before trying it on our main bicycles.

So, there finishes the overlong and drab tale of my chain replacing. Can someone please assure me I've done the right thing? If I haven't, eeek!

The power of positive thinking

I entitled this post as I did not simply to namecheck a NoMeansNo EP (and I know it's a name they took from some book or t'other) but rather because I have come to the conclusion one's thoughts, perceptions and opinions are exceptionally important when it comes to cycling.

First and foremost, it's highly important you enjoy cycling and really have to do so if you want to get all the positive elements possible from it. You can force yourself to do, not liking it, for health benefits or for the pleasure of competition but you would be much better off choosing to do something you enjoy instead. There are so many physical activities and competitive activities, it makes cycling purely for health or competition a bit of a hollow activity. Needless to say, it's the individual's choice if he or she wishes to partake in an activity simply to beat others or to get healthier.

I was reading an interview with Chris Boardman recently where he was quoted as saying he never actually enjoyed cycling and did it because he was able to beat other people and, at the time, that made him feel good. In this interview, it quoted him telling them how he hasn't been on a bicycle for years and primarily jogs for fitness and pleasure now. To me, if the interview was accurate, it's really sad to see someone (no matter how good/bad/indifferent that person was/is in ability) put so much time and effort into something which didn't create any pleasure. It also made me think Chris Boardman might not have been the best choice to co-host ITV's Tour de France coverage but that's besides the point. Now back to my original point...

Assuming one does like cycling, I feel positive thought and self-belief are of paramount importance as far as longevity and enjoyment goes. I don't mean this simply for people who are racing but also for those who (like myself) cycle purely recreationally. Using myself as an example of what I'm, so poorly, trying to say: At the start of this year, I think the longest cycle I had ever done was 64 miles. At that point in time I wouldn't have even humoured the idea of cycling over 100 miles in one go. To me, that seemed to be something far fitter cyclists than me did and was a completely unassailable figure. In reality, of course, it was my perception of that '100 miles' being so huge which made it seem impossible to me. When I actually came to do it, I discovered it was entirely plausible and within my capabilities. If I hadn't been so busy overthinking and second-guessing myself, I would probably have found I could do it quite some time ago. Unfortunately, I'm a worrier and tend to assume I can't do things rather than say 'Why not give it a go and see how it turns out?'. Thankfully, I seem to be turning that around and coaxing myself into the latter train of thought but that's another topic for another post.

Getting towards my previous points, I've additionally given much thought to some of the elder statesmen of cycling I know. For example, I've been out many times with a fellow of 78 who manages to cover somewhere around 12000 miles per annum by bicycle, including excursions over the French Alps within the last couple of years. I've wondered how he manages to keep himself going so impressively well and I'm sure it's because he's got a generally positive outlook in life and has never questioned whether or not he could do something, just gone ahead and done it.

Without meaning to cut off this rambling post rather abruptly, my conclusion is that trying things, not overthinking everything and making sure you enjoy activities you partake in will lead to a longer, healthier and vastly more fulfilling life than the other options out there. I know you could say that's completely obvious but it took me long enough to catch on and how many of us really do it?

Lies! Damn lies!

What a bunch of bloody liars those weather forecasters are! Every day, I check seven weather forecasts and each and every one of the buggers claimed today was to be sunny with a very remote possibility of extremely light rain. Fool that I am, I believed this and decided to head out for an Antrim Glens based cycle* today (as you can see from my plans, below). About six miles into my cycle, it started drizzling on me. 'Oh' I thought 'That'll be the tiny bit of drizzle which was possible'. Twat! I should have nipped off to cover immediately as it started urinating down on me within the next minute.

I did get to cover, waited for a while and the rain didn't seem to let up so I tried to cadge a lift home. I was unsuccessful doing so and that ended up being a blessing as the rain stopped whilst I was on the phone. After that, I decided to change my planned route (there were very unpleasant looking clouds in the direction I had proposed going) and keep going for a little run. I mean, I was going to have to clean my bike and my clothes anyway so why not make it at least close to being worthwhile?

Despite the forecasts, I spent the rest of my cycle having to avoid a number of big greyish black clouds. I was able to do this pretty well (ie. luckily) and kept to a kind of tunnel of dryness, only getting a little light rain on me. This is kind of heading towards the main point in my post today. I'm normally very regimented about where I'm cycling but the weather today meant I couldn't be, unless I wanted to get soaked (which I didn't as I hate getting wet even more than a cat does).

Although it led to me having a shorter and less picturesque cycle than I had proposed, it was really better for me than if everything had gone according to my plans. Rather than my usual rushing off home and moaning about the weather (which I've done the latter part of anyway), it was good to be less anal and realise a setback doesn't mean everything has turned to poo poo. Without meaning to sound completely full of it, it was quite liberating for me to make up my route as it went along and not stick to a designated path I had already worked out. Why, I even cycled along a couple of roads I had never been on before just to see where they led. Although this might be normal behaviour for those non-retentive mentallers among us, it was unusual for me and rather enjoyable. I'll have to do this again, heading out for a cycle with no chosen prior route and destination.

* = I had already decided to wuss out of my seven glens and cut it down to four. Maybe the weather was punishing me for being such a lightweight? Maybe not. I'm not that paranoid.

Weight until the rain stops

What a clever pun that title is. I must be some sort of undiscovered genius. Anyway, I'm a bit miffed as the weather has been pissy for the last few days, I've been sniffly and it's meant I've not been out on my bike much in the past week or so. As a result, I've started to put on weight.

So far, I've gone up about four pounds in weight and I can really feel the difference. I'm never particularly slim but have gone from 'just over eleven and a half/just under eleven and three quarters' stones to, more or less, twelve stones dead on. If I was eleven stones and thirteen pounds, it wouldn't stick out so much but reaching the landmark of twelve stones has got me a bit worried.

Having been a fat child and teenager, it's not something I want to go through again and I'm getting a little paranoid about it now. I'm not about to make myself puke my dinner up or anything like that but it's not good to see weight go on when I know it's just useless fat. All I can do is watch what I'm eating a bit more carefully (ie. don't keep cutting off slices of cheese and eating them when I'm making a sandwich, don't spread butter so thick you can't see the bread through it etc.) and cycle for a bit longer when I get the opportunity.

I'm afraid it seems the best of the year's weather may be behind us and, as such, it's important to get full use of it when it does come. If the forecasts are even vaguely remote, tomorrow should be pretty good and I should use it for a semi-decent run. I reckon I'll try to cover seven of the nine Glens of Antrim. I'll leave out Glenshesk and Glentaisie, not simply because they've got silly sounding names (if that was the case, I wouldn't even consider Glenballyeamon) but rather due to their being a bit more out of the way and a pain in the arse to get to if I want to make it home the same day, especially before the rush hour. This proposed run should burn off a few calories for me. According to BikeJournal's calorie calculator, I burned off just under six thousand calories doing a run covering all nine glens last Saturday. If it's even vaguely accurate (which I'm not sure about as it only takes speed, distance and weight into consideration), I reckon I must be on for a few thousand tomorrow, even at my slow speeds. Hoorah!

Violence against cyclists in Australia

From the little I've read about it, it seems there is a lot of bad feeling between motorists and cyclists in Australia at the moment. As far as I can tell (and please correct me if I'm wrong) it's not entirely uncommon for people to deliberately take physical action against cyclists; pedestrians pushing them over or motorists proactively running into them. Amazingly, people seem to think this might have some kind of link with the Australian women's road racing team horrors in Germany. With it being fairly prominent (or maybe not as much as would have been hoped) in the press, the suggestion is it has aroused a lot of comment relating to cycling on the roads of Australia in general.

Whilst things here have their tensions and dangers, I'm pleased to say it hasn't escalated to that level (yet anyway).

Maybe what I'm reading about are isolated and rare cases, brought into the spotlight because they're so shocking and unbelievable? I certainly hope this is the case but fear it may not be.

I recall mentioning to someone vaguely recently (I can't remember who but seem to think it was someone cycling with me) about how Australia must be a lovely place to cycle as there is so much coastline to go round. His response was that it's a really dangerous country to cycle in, because of the way drivers treat cyclists, and he wouldn't recommend doing so there. Needless to say, the opinion of one person isn't enough to damn a whole country but it popped into my head whilst I was writing about this and I thought it worth a mention.

I would welcome any objective information about what's going on between cyclists and non-cyclists on the other side of the planet. Obviously it's hard to remain objective about something where one's life or the lives of people one cares about are threatened, so it's difficult to know quite how 'down the middle' some information may be. It appears, however, cfsmtb manages to keep things pretty reasonable on her blog and doesn't fire off into angry tirades (no matter how tempting these must be). For some reasonably objective and some less objective comments, please have a look here also.

Something I wonder about is why people are so quick to call themselves 'a motorist', 'a cyclist', 'a non-cyclist' or any such term. Presumably most cyclists also drive, so what does that make them? Are they sometimes 'a cyclist' and sometimes 'a motorist'? I suppose, by definition, that's exactly what they are but it's not some sort of overriding label which defines who you are, as some people seem to imagine. Aren't we all different things at different times? If so, can't we accept others may wish to carry on doing different things from us? Why is there this overriding need to interfere or cause people who differ from us harm? Surely, so long as they're not harming anyone else (either directly or indirectly) who doesn't want to be harmed, what's the problem?

Scots trip - 3Ply Stagliano's view on it

You'll have read (or at least vaguely skimmed over) where I've mentioned about Kirby Girl and myself popping off to Scotland for a few days last week, on our bikes. Not to avoid the expected, I shall now commence a bit of a rant about my thoughts on it.

I've been looking forward to going away overnight with my bike for ages. Well, for about two years anyway and that's pretty much since I got into cycling after ignoring it for so long. For about the last year, I've been planning to get away somewhere and always trying to coax Kirby Girl into it. Despite 'penciling in' trips last year, we didn't get away anywhere and it's only last week we've got off our arses, loaded up the bikes (more my bike than anything and not loaded terribly heavily) and gone away. Even at that, it was only a couple of nights staying in Scotland but it was a good tester for (hopefully) longer and more regular future trips.

Thankfully I had no problems to speak of with my new bike. The only thing which was causing a bit of bother is the chain tensioner (if that's the right name for the bit where the jockey wheels live) seems to be poinging off the spokes a bit when it's in its absolute bottom gear. I reckon that's just a matter of adjusting a little screw, to control how far the rear derailleur moves. I'm glad I can get the man in the shop I bought it from to do that as I would make a complete pig's ear of it and probably end up losing the use of many gears over the head of it.

So, where was I? Oh yes, Scotland and our couple of days there. Everything started off marvellously and Kirby Girl seemed to be enjoying herself greatly (partly as I was lugging everything about, I imagine). However, things took a bit of a down-turn when we got to the lovely Mull of Galloway. Kirby Girl appeared to be really bothered by the quality (or lack thereof) of the road there. It's one of those skinny little roads with passing points for vehicles to pull in and let others past and the surface has grass growing on it, potholes a-go-go and a fair sprinkling of loose stone lying around. As I've mentioned before, Kirby Girl had a spill in some loose stone near our home a month or two ago. Although she didn't get hurt badly (just a few cuts and grazes), I think this has shaken her up and the mere sight of loose stone on a road causes a bit of panic in her. She's a perfectly good cyclist and has no reason to fear things like this to the extent she does but, alas, sometimes logic isn't enough to overcome such self-destructive emotions.

From the Mull of Galloway on (throughout the whole three days), I felt Kirby Girl couldn't get entirely at ease whilst cycling. Even off the bike, I thought she was a bit uneasy about the prospect of having to get back on at some point. It's a real shame for her as I'm sure it greatly limited her enjoyment of our excursion and it really didn't have to as she's more than capable of any cycling we did or had planned to do. When she was cycling without this hanging over her head, she appeared to be enjoying herself greatly and very positive about the whole cycling holiday premise. It's sad to see someone enjoy themselves less than they might, simply because of some problem they feel is beyond their control. On a completely selfish level, it cut into my enjoyment of our trip too. Obviously I wanted Kirby Girl to have a great time, get really enthused about it and hardly be able to wait to get away again.

Oh, I thought Wigtown was a bit disappointing. It claims to be the Scottish 'town of books' but the bookshops were primarily a bit grubby and unappealing looking and the town in general was a bit minging. There was a butterfly farm nearby but we didn't get to go into it as it was close to tea time when we were passing it. Maybe some other time...

Holiday in Scotland

Well, we have returned from Scotland, in one piece - other than my usual cuts and bruises on my legs which I seem to accumulate while out on the bike.

We did quite a bit of mileage on the first day - 69 in total, which is more than I have ever done. I was pretty exhausted by the time we reached Portpatrick. We went from Cairnryan down to the Mull of Galloway (see the picture on the left) and up to Portpatrick. The scenery was spectacular and the day was only spoiled by my downhill fears rearing their ugly heads. This is so frustrating for both of us and was disappointing when I had, I thought, been going pretty well. I did recover though and made it the final 15 or so miles to Portpatrick.

The second day started with nerves for me, both due to my worrying that I would be too tired to cycle very far and that I would get into another panic. However (having thrown up my nice breakfast) we set out and were met with some pretty daunting hills, which I had to walk up. I did get a hug from a lovely dog though. Once past these hills things got a bit easier and I think in general I did okay. I especially enjoyed the parts on the way to Wigtown from Glenluce - there was a bit of a long climb, but it was very pretty and worth the effort. Apart from a bad start, I think the second day went well and Newton Stewart turned out to be a pleasant place to stay.

The third day wasn't as good weather-wise. The first part of the journey out of Newton Stewart was along a lovely path and I enjoyed it, however this was when the weather turned a bit nasty - rainy and cold. Barrhill was our next stop and not a great place. At this point we got the train to Stranraer as the weather was fairly miserable. The rain added to my downhill phobia quite a bit and I had a bit of a panic. Very annoying as it was a good road. I feel disappointed in myself.

All in all, I felt like my fears and worries overcame me too much on our trip. It turned out I could cycle around 150 miles in 3 days, I just wish I could beat my phobias and all my cycling experiences could be positive.

Phobias, fears and frustrations.

Hello! Without wishing my first post to be too negative I thought I'd write about my "cycling fears," mostly in the hope that it might help to alleviate them by getting them out in the open, as it were. I should point out that I do in general enjoy cycling, but these (desperately trying to think of another word for fear) ... Phobias, I suppose, do tend to make me nervous. So, in no particular order, I present my fearfulest fears.

1. Standing on the pedals.
   
   To folk who are keen cyclists this may seem strange, but I do have difficulty with it. I think a major reason for all my worries is that I never really cycled as a child and so never got to not forget how to ride a bike. I have made some steps recently to overcome this problem and do believe that it's not a major concern - it's more something that will make my cycling easier rather than a safety issue. I shall, I'm sure, be able to overcome this with some practice.
2. Using the drops.
   This is something that I never really do. On the occasions when I have I think I just felt a bit like I was tipping forward or something - not very logical, I know. Like the standing up, issue I would think that this one could be overcome with practice.
   
3. Going downhill.
   Now to most normal folk, going downhill is a lovely gift from above, to me, especially lately for some reason, it has often been a fearful ride into hell, with me desperately clinging onto the brakes for dear life. I really don't know where the fear has come from. I've never been especially one for flying down hill at top speed, but it seems like since I had a bit of a spill on some loose stone, I've been almost phobic about it. As soon as I feel like I'm not really controlling the bike I start to panic. This one has a me at a bit of a loss as to how to beat it, as sometimes I can be fine, while at other moments the panic can almost overcome me and I end up stopping and walking the bike. It's very frustrating for me and Mr 3Ply and has spoilt quite a few cycles for us. It's so strange that I'll happily go along on the flat at towards 20 miles an hours (not for long admittedly!) and yet at half that speed downhill - where I would probably take no longer to stop if I had to - I feel the fear. Gosh I can be a loon at times - and not in a nice way.
   
   Well there we go - now that I've aired my dirty laundry in public I shall go. Any hints on overcoming illogical behaviour are greatly appreciated.
   

PunctureRepairKit

For those of you who may not be aware, I run a little website called PunctureRepairKit. It doesn't get much web traffic (probably something akin to this blog) but I've just spent an hour or two 'separating the wheat from the chaff' and revamping its aesthetics. Please let me know what you think (you can write a comment below this post to let me know). I'm quite the nerd but not much of a web maestro, so don't expect it to be outstanding/decent/anything less than pish.

Even despite my lack of belief in my web abilities, I would still like PunctureRepairKit to perform some useful service and would appreciate any input relating to it. In particular, it would be great if anyone could contact me with some cycle routes from where they live. The grand total of two cycle routes on it currently isn't particularly extensive, especially as they both start off in the same little County Antrim town. Any help there would be immensely appreciated.

Bag bother

As I've probably wittered about earlier, I was away cycling for three days with Kirby Girl last week. It's the first time I've ever been away overnight with a bicycle and hope it is the start of many such journeys to come. That's hardly relevant to my little grump here and I'm sure I'll go into more tedious detail about our excursion in future posts. The reason I'm writing this post is because...

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was using Karrimor Aquator panniers on my bike. Whilst I found these panniers generally to be excellent (although I've only got two other cheap sets of panniers to compare them with), I managed to lose one of the little 'disc locks' on the first day. For those not familiar with these 'disc locks', Karrimor uses a system whereby one attaches a little plastic disc (the flat of which faces outwards) to each side of one's pannier rack. The back of the bag has a shaped plastic area with slots which this disc can slide into and this holds the bottom of the bag firm, thus stopping it wobbling about. That's the principle anyway but it isn't so good if one of them drops off. I'm willing to accept that was likely my fault for not screwing it on properly and no manufacturing problem. However, it seems impossible to get a replacement without buying a set of panniers. I phoned the phone number listed on the Karrimor website but the nice fellow there told me they don't deal with Karrimor produce any longer and the company itself is rather 'in limbo'.

There's a warning for you, to be careful if you're thinking of buying any Karrimor panniers at the moment. Despite all that, I have to say I didn't notice an awful lot of difference from not having the 'disc lock'. I guess the right pannier probably made an annoying tapping noise a bit more than the left but I never felt it was insecure or thought it created any kinds of problems. Maybe you shouldn't give a damn about getting replacement parts at all.

Quick hello

This is simply a little post to say I've not forgotten about writing in this blog and it hasn't 'died'. I've just been away for a few days and busy doing other things for the last week or so and haven't got writing anything. If you're someone who reads this blog, please keep on checking and there should be some more witterings in the near future. Thanks.