A lap of the Isle Of Wight

Hi all,

I'm feeling pretty good. Pretty knackered but pretty good.

One of the rides on my bike bucket list has been the Isle Of Wight. I've cycled down to the south coast near where I live many times and always looked out to the Island wondering what its like over there.

Now, I know.

It's hilly.

I live in Hampshire. It's lovely. It's lovely and mostly flat. It's a bit hilly to the North, but other than that it's fine. What I didn't expect was the scale of the hills over there. It's Devon style hills. Real hills. The north of the island is fairly flat, with rolling, gentle, undulants. As you go clockwise towards the south of the Island, all of a sudden you find the horizon is above you. A long way above you.

I set off with the local CTC group, who are a great bunch of people. the 9 of us set off at a gentle pace had a few laughs and a few breaks. We stopped at a fantastic tea room which you can see in the pictures below. If you are in the area give it a try. We lost a member of the group there as they found it hard going. They headed back North to the ferry. The rest of us carried on.

We got to about half way round (after Black Gang Chine) and we seperated into 2 groups. I tried to keep up with the fast group but I admit that after the hill, I was shot. I had a break and some sweets and waited for the slower group. I'm glad I did as it was great fun. Such a laugh.

I had a couple of issues where I ate too much or drank too little, but nothing major.

One thing that I will remember though. The roads are smooth. It looks like they've just been resurfaced for the most part. Also taking real, proper corners at 35mph on nothing but a small bit of tin is really exciting. I loved every second of downhill.

I won't be doing this ride again until next year as it was pretty tough. I need to do longer rides more regularly to get up to fitness for this sort of thing.

Pictures and Strava below:

Thanks for reading,

Strava fever

Hi all,

A few weeks ago I made a decision. Not a big one, but one that helped my cycling immensely.

I used to record my every ride, every commute. But the constant disappointment of not getting a trophy for a top 3 ride when I thought I had done well started affecting how I was riding. I would push too hard. I wouldn't enjoy my ride, I just had to ride faster.

So I made the decision to stop recording everything. It's been a few weeks now and the pressure has been released. I can relax more. I can take my time. I don't look down at my garmin and push myself to get another km/h out of my legs, or try to get the average speed to click up a tenth.

That leads me onto today.

Haha!

So not having got any top 3 or PB's in a while on my commute, I thought I'd take my road bike, as normally I take my commuter Halfords Carrera Crossfire 1.

I feel like I cheated. There is no way my poor Carrera is going to match that. It's far too heavy. But it feels like I've cheated myself. Yes I did it, but it was cheeky.

Now I'm going to keep my Strava times for my adventures and big rides. Its just not worth the stress.

In the meantime, I'm going to celebrate my KOM and being disappointed I tried too hard on the Water Lane run so I was knackered for the sprint finish.


Thanks for reading

Cheap bike challenge? Matley Wood Hampshire

Hi all,

So recently I bought myself a bike to trash. A Rockrider 340 from Decathlon. Tiny 26" wheels, Tourney gear set, the usual really. It does have an aluminium frame though so...yay?

Anyhew. I thought I'd take it out for a spin with some mates to see how it'd do compared to some "real" offroad bikes. To put it simply it was outclassed. Everywhere.

On gravel, even though I changed out the stock tyres for mud tyres there was no grip. The  800mm suspension refused to push the front wheel back into the ground. It shock absorbance was also terrible, but I'm glad I wore my gloves. It meant that even at low speed, while my friends were cornering at a lowly 12mph they could make the corner. I had to slow down and had very little confidence.

Eventually we made it to the most fun part of the ride, Matley Wood in the New Forest in Hampshire. I've not been down there before, but there are many natural dips making it a good pump track and I actually managed to get some air on my bike a couple of times. It would have been so much easier with larger tyres and less weight!

Anyway. this is my handlebar view of what happened. If you don't catch the audio it's basically my friends warning me it's about to get exciting for a bike that cost £150 with stupid wheels!

Here's the vid:



I did do a speed test on tarmac in case people are interested. Bouncing up and down in the seat in the hardest gear at 27mph. Not too shabby. I wouldn't go that fast offroad though. Jebus.

Here's the strava:

thanks for reading,

Strava KOMs don't last long...

Hi all,

For those who don't know what Stava is, it's a ride logging website. It also has things called segments. These are bits of road or trail, normally uphill or technical and the challenge is to navigate it as quickly as possible. The fastest riders get things call KOMs (or QOMs) "Kings Of the Mountain" (or Queens).

I've noticed that over time I was getting faster, and I held the top 3 times in quite a few of my commute segments. Then I realised a couple were in my grasp.

These are tough segments. Bad entries meaning you can't carry speed into them and bad exits meaning you may have to break. As the roads are narrow chances are you will hit traffic, or the roads are in such a state that if you're forced offline you lose time and speed very easily.

Then one day, on the way home, I noticed something.

No headwind.
No leg fatigue.
Not feeling heavy.
Bike feels good.

So I went for it and nailed both KOMs. Boom! Really happy! They don't last long though. I don't hold them any more. For the sake of a few seconds over a mile. The guy who holds the top spot must have had a perfect run.

Here's the strava link:

Leap to Lepe

Hi all,

This weekend was really busy so the only time I had was a couple of hours on Sunday morning.

I love riding to the waterside, or to the sea at least, so my route of choice has to be Lepe. There's a great coffee shop down there that sells good coffee and ice cream so it's all to the fair. There is a nice 30 mile loop from Totton to Lepe going down through Eling, Marchwood and Hardley and back through Beaulieu and Longdown onto the "Green Route".

I put my camera on my bike for the first time in a while, so I've grabbed stills from the video. I might process it later but nothing cool happened. It may serve as some evidence for the local council to fix the bloody roads though *fume*.

The weather was pleasant enough. A tiny bit of drizzle before I left, but otherwise dry and sunny in parts.

Pictures and what's left of Strava after my Garmin stopped being weird:

Thanks for reading,

Wiggle Spring Sportive 2016

Hi all,

So this year I decided to do my first event. I was fairly nervous to be honest having not done anything like the distance required before but I was certain I could do the distance.

The problem with these events is actually time. If I do this event again I'll keep my average moving speed, but cut my breaks down. Now I've done a few big rides I know what I'm capable of.

The bigger drain on this ride was the wind. It was horrendous. A really strong headwind most of the way round.

I met a friend of mine on the start line, which meant I had a ride buddy. We cleared the first 30 miles quickly, but I really needed him for the last 25 miles. I got huge cramp. Sorry, that's not big enough.

I got HUGE cramp.

Both legs.

It didn't even play nicely. It cramped at extension and reflexion. At one point I had to jump off my bike and lie on the grass for a bit. Eventually it gave way and I could jump back on for a mile or so. It really tested me.

Saying all that, it was good fun. Pretty cool stuff. I met some nice people, I got overtaken by a really old gentleman making a noise like a steam train. I couldn't keep up with him!

I will do the one later this year, but I'll definitely do the spring one next year.

Photos and Strava below:

I don't know who this guy is. 

New MTB. A spin around my home town.

Hi all,

So you buy a new MTB and you want to take it for a spin. So I did. I did a lap of my home town.

This is what I love about cycling, you can go pretty much anywhere, do pretty much anything. The miles quickly add up and start making no sense at all. I left home with the bike, my phone and a drink and basically explored all the paths I hadn't explored yet. Awesome fun, and I was only out for a couple of hours.

Photos below:

It's pretty cool I have all this on my doorstep. I'm a lucky guy!

Thanks for reading,

Bournemouth bounce

Hi all,

In 2015 a friend and I tried to get to Bournemouth and back. Considering that neither of us had really trained for that distance it went surprisingly well. This year, I thought I'd give it a go again. I did it on my own this time as said friend was unavailable.

I packed my usual kit then hit the road.

I took a different route out to last year. I'm still not too happy about going down the A35, especially on the way back. Such a horrible road. I'll look for something a lot better next time.

Anyhew, about an hour and 50 mins later I arrived in Bournemouth. Nice. Good speed. Unfortunately after an hour dossing around on the beach my right knee decided it wasn't going to work properly any more. 30 miles on a shanked knee is not a good thing. Ah well. I made it home in pretty good time considering and I did manage to get an ice cream at the beach which is the most important thing.

Photo's and strava below:

Thanks for reading

Close call with some new cyclists

Hi all,

I'm only posting this because it was a very odd situation and both the car driver and I shared a look as we passed. So there I was, coming home from another hard day at work, hoping that another commute would take place with not a lot going on when all of a sudden...



What I meant to say was:

"The first thing about cycling on a road is to be very predictable. If the car driver knows what you are going to do, they can plan for you. It's safer. Always stick to the left hand side of the road unless signage says otherwise."

What I actually said was:
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?!?"

Basically they got spooked because they were holding up a car while going around the lorry. The woman then decided to freak out and bail into my cycle lane, while her partner tried to decide between gutter and following her and basically putting himself right in front of the car.

If you are in this position just chill. Signal left. Pull in. Stop. Take a breath. Then move on. Don't do the above, it's plain silly.

Thanks for reading,

Stockbridge struggle - April

Hi all,

Stockbridge. Stockbridge, Stockbridge. I have a love hate relationship with this route. I've done it 3 times and every time has been a bitch. The first time, my legs really weren't up to it as I'd only just started riding. The second time, I was with 2 people on roadies and I pushed far too hard on my 20kg commuter to keep up with them.

This time, I was on my own. I could ride at my own pace. Surely this time the ride would be better?
Surely this time I'd be sorted?

Nope.

I ran out of water about 10 miles from the end. I hit the wall horribly. No energy left and no water.
I phoned my wife, and I was going to beg pathetically for a pick up, but then she said that there was an ice cream parlour nearby.

I dragged my sorry ass the next 2 miles and got to the shop. "Home-made" ice cream. Real Coffee. OMG so good. I stayed there until the stars went from my eyes, and I could walk without my head fizzing and headed home as nice and gently as I could. I'm going to try it again soon!

I will crack this ride!

Pictures and Strava below:

Thanks for reading,