Getting to a meeting - early for once!

So this happened a couple of weeks back but I have never got round to putting my experience down on this blog.

To start with let's get a few things in perspective - I have a reasonably responsible job, it is definitely a suit and tie type role (though I do seem to be able to get away without a tie nowadays more often than not). I live on the outskirts of London in the leafy burbs and work in central London.

Over the past 6 months (as anyone who reads this blog will already know- anyone? - anyone?) I have taken up commuting to work - now 95% of the time I use my bike for a journey - I use my big black expensive luxury car about twice a week now for about 10 miles in total (yet it devalues at about 5 expensive bikes a year). But what I have yet to do is to use my bike as part of my job - it has always been about getting to and from work.

Two weeks ago I had to attend an off-site meeting, it was for a very serious affair where I had to check out a deal for potential fraud (can't say much more than that now, so you can guess how it might have gone). Anyway, every time previously I have been to this off-site location for a meeting it has taken me about 80 minutes using a mixture of walking, tube and bus. But I noticed when I looked at it on my Sat Nav, that it was only 7 miles away by bike (so 14 miles all told), so I decided that as it was a wonderful day that I would use my bike instead.

I was amazed to find that, although I was already tired before I set out due to the large amount of miles (well for me at least) I had done during the week that I got to the meeting in 25 minutes. I had allowed 40 minutes for the route as I was unsure of what I would face on the way and my legs were already aching big time. The net result was that for the first time in my life I was early for a meeting (I am famous for being fashionably late). I wasn't grumpy at having been stuck on a various forms of grubby smelly public transport for an hour, and I was definitely the coolest dressed guy at the meeting (well I always think that anyway).

So here's my next mission - I will have to go out and check on a number of projects over the coming months and I have decided that as long as the weather is fine and it is not more than a 20 mile round trip (and there is somewhere safe to leave the bike) I will now try and cycle to these meetings.

One of the wonderful things about using the bike is you really get to see more of London - this is obviously limited on my commute as I basically do the same route most of the time with only small deviations - but if I use my bike for meetings then I can really get to see much more of London up close. It will also help me up my weekly mileage a bit. I think it something others should give a try to if they can.

How to make cycling popular.

I am not a political animal – I have been working either directly or indirectly with many derivations of Government for a number of years and have long since learnt that there are too many varying factors from who is in charge down to whether a local government officer was well received by his better half the night before, for me to believe that politically lobbying is at best nothing better than a lucky dip.

Instead I would prefer to focus on a few factors that we can have some say over at one level or another. These I believe are:

1) The perception of cyclists by others – especially those who are considering taking the   plunge into cycling

2) Potholes – yep that old Chestnut

3) Bike theft

I truly believe that if you could find some solutions to these three items, then the number of cyclists would increase significantly. No it would not be the total answer, yes road safety is important but I have already posted on road safety in my “Cry Freedom” post. For me, it is about accepting the risks, using your experience to deal with them and to embrace the risks and enjoy them as a part of life (I see a hundred and one health and safety managers spitting their coffee into their mugs as they read that).

If we want to get more people cycling then we need to take baby steps – as the saying goes Rome wasn’t built in a day. But let’s get those potential cyclists on the road – even if it is only on sunny days. The more cyclists that are out there – the more priority they will have when it comes to planning and road layout decision making. Really it is a simple as that – politicians make decisions based on the greater good (often, the greater good for themselves) for cycling that will be based solely on whether it will earn them more votes. We have long since gone past the days of Governments making decisions based on what is good for the people, now decisions are mostly based on opinion polls as to what will earn them more votes i.e. be perceived by the greater number of people as being good for them. The line is further fudged by the Government following Green policies as this also lets us see them as environmentally friendly and therefore we will be more likely (or not) to vote for them, this side of the argument cycling has in abundance - but it needs numbers not just common sense.

Old age is killing me.

Life is getting me down - I have just recently discovered that I am no longer in my 20's and that I am also not indestructible!

It's my legs that have made this all abundantly clear to me. Last week I rode into work every day, I went at a reasonable speed but nothing too crazy. I had the intention of going on a longer ride today (Sunday) but I can't, my legs are really aching. Yesterday they seemed fine but today they are no co-operating with life on any level. Hence the reason for typing something into the blog for no-one to read (edit post typed on Sunday but added to blog on Wednesday).

The only thing I can sensibly ascertain from this, is that I am old. I know I can get better with more exercise and that there are people out there 30 to 40 years older than me still cycling. But the truth is that in the old days it took me a couple of months to get to a good level of fitness - now it is going to take about a year to make such a gain, all in all it is rather depressing and it will require patience and dedication (both of which I do not have in abundance).

I really am tired of people going past me on hills, on which, I perform a long way below the average. I have put a reasonable amount of time into improving my strength and endurance - but I really would like to see some gains in my hill cycling ability from all this effort by now, so far I seem to have improved not a jot.

Whilst I am at it (talking crud on my blog that is) - I just re-read the sub title of this blog and I fear that the "tongue in cheek" part has been severely lacking in recent posts (was it really there before)? Maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man as well now?

General cycling things on the web last weekend.

Often I trawl through all the cycling blogs, but sometimes more interesting things can be found in the general press. So with this in mind I searched through the Telegraph online newspaper on cycling and came across a couple of articles that, I thought, were worth a comment.

First of all - "Celebrities on Bikes" 

To be honest I am still uncertain as to who half these people are - but I will put this down to my lack of "coolness" or it could be down to the fact that I am not in the habit of watching reality TV. Also I have to ask myself - are these people really that fashionable.

What I like most about this article though is that it promotes the "casual clothing" look of cycling. I am as guilty as much of the rest of us - I wear tight fitting clothes and whilst not wearing Spandex pants on the outside, I do have them hidden under my shorts. I actually think that one of the main barriers to getting people back on bikes, is that it is seen as too macho - if you are middle aged with quite a large spread, you are not going to want to be in the mix with a bunch of "athletes" in spandex. To me this is as much a barrier to getting people onto bikes as lack of bike lanes. In the context of this argument, I would also like to say that I tend to sweat like a recently arrested Bangkok hooker when I am riding my bike and I would hate for that sweat to be on my everyday clothes - but maybe there is a balance to be found - certainly on weekend rides. The other reason for spandex pants is these razor blade saddles - the idea of cycling for more than 10 minutes without some padding in my pants induces even more sweating in me! But what choice do I have? Guess I will have to have a big comfortable weekend saddle.


Second link is to the "Naked Cyclist Serenade the Queen" - no pictures allowed here!

This is just awful in my opinion, way to go guys – yes you did bring attention to cycling in the city etc. but you have also made cyclist look silly and created an even greater gulf between cyclist and those thinking of taking it up. I agree with the point they are trying to raise but why do it in such a hippy / naturist way – and please to God – make sure you clean your saddles before you go for another ride.

The Politics of Cycling



Me first - No me first



What we have here, is two Russian MAMBO’s - how could I pass up such a photo opportunity!

If the two most powerful men in Russia take time to get out on their bikes, then it has to be a reasonable thing? They are for sure, not  what most people would assume to be your average tree hugging hippies on bikes.

A couple of things have come to my mind whilst I was viewing this:

1) Thank God they did not go down the Lycra / Spandex route – I think that would have been too much to bear.

2) The second is a far more important and political comment. There is a lot of discussion currently as to whether these two will run against each other in a Presidential race in 10 months time. But now I know for sure the Presidential race will be not be happening.

How could two men, especially Mr Putin who is a self-professed “Alpha Male”, sit there riding side by side and it not turn into a race? If you ever wanted an example of how cycling can give you political divination then use this picture. It is simply just not possible for two men on bikes not to turn it into a race – unless of course one of them is under strict orders to let the other go over the metaphorical finish line first. Therefore we can assume that Medvedev is trained like a Pavlov dog to follow his leader no matter what provocation and allow Mr Putin to win, it is one thing to give up on being President of an oil and mineral rich country but a much greater thing to allow someone to beat you on a bike. Therefore I can comfortable predict that Mr Putin will be the next President of Russia (again) and remember you heard it here first.

Just because it's Friday - Pot Holes

Nothing major - just the average road that makes life unsafe.

I thought I would go against the general feel good end of the week and post a serious link on Pot Holes (I think you might have guessed by now, these things really get my goat).

It drives me insane that I am paying more and more Council Tax and yet the roads seem to get worse and worse, and my bins now get collected only twice a week, why oh why wont those Muppets in the Council take pot holes seriously - they would rather demand more money for their over inflated pensions than have money spent on saving people's lives. To summarise my feelings about them - "What a bunch of twats".

Read this link for the real pain behind potholes.

Oh and have a good weekend.

A First Time for Everything.

Since owning my bike I have done about 1,500 miles through the potholes and broken glass on the streets of London and thanks to my “Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite” tyres, I have yet to have a puncture.

As I was cycling home, I was thinking about an article I had read on “Cycling Info” about a guy who had the same tyre as me and how he had yet to have a puncture in a year (except one when he had a 1 inch nail go straight into the tyre). All in all I was feeling pretty proud of myself that I had (by luck as they came as standard with the bike) got an excellent set of tyres adorning my bike. I kid you not, at the exact moment I was thinking this, there was an almighty bang (OK maybe not military scale big bang but still big enough) and my bike started to act differently.

I had gone over a one inch rusty nail and it had gone straight in – this nail was big enough to take out the tyre of a bus (oh why hadn’t it – or better yet a taxi). So I got off the bike turned it over and at last got to use my trusty saddle bag kit.

I am not one for messing around trying to find a leak and then sticking a patch on it. In my saddle bag I carry

1)      2 tyre levers

2)      A new inner tube

3)      A small gas cylinder with a simple valve

4)      £10

5)      The Garage door opener

6)    Two Alan keys

After flipping the bike over it took about 1 minute to half remove the tyre. I pulled the old inner tube out – releasing the quick release wheel out, I didn’t need to take the wheel off I just lifted it slightly to make a small gap to slip the inner tube out of the frame. Reversed the process to put the new inner tube in, slipped the one half of the tyre back onto the wheel, took out the gas canister which inflated the tyre with great ease and no leakage in about 5 seconds.

I then threw the old inner tube into the bin with the empty gas canister and put the other bits in my now much emptier saddle bag – all in all this process took about 6 minutes, and this for someone who has not fixed a puncture in about 30 years. I was really impressed with how simple the whole process had been – I will list below the products I used at the end of this post.

The only two things that I will do differently next time? Firstly I will not expect other cyclist to stop and offer help (I do this myself when I see someone in difficulty) and secondly I am going to put a couple of thin latex gloves into my saddle pack so I can keep my hands clean and not rely on spitting on a tissue to wipe / half clean my hands.

This was the star of the day (Bontranger Air Rush) - it is really small and light (most of the space is taken by the cartridge, the value is minature) it worked really well it was so easy to use it was ridiculous. Replacement cartridges cost about £5 for two Bontrangers or £12 for 6 innovations ones). 

You need small items that you can cram them all into your saddle pack (I use a 75cc one). If you don't have them all in one place you can be certain you will forget one thing when you actually need them and end up stranded.

I do have a pump at home and I used this to inflate my tires when they lose air – the Co2 cartridge is only there for travel punctures.

This is why everything needs to be compact. Depending on your bike you will be limited to the size of saddle pack you can have. I had to have a medium sized one because any bigger and I wouldn’t be able to attach my rear mud guard to my seat post when I need it. The small one is just pointless unless you want to take a puncture repair kit and Co2 pump. As you can see from above I am able to get everything I need in the mid-sized saddle bag. The tag at the back is handy as I cable tie my rear light to it.

What I most like about this saddle pack is that it has a clip at the top so you can release it very quickly and with no effort from the underside of the saddle and additionally it has a Velcro strap at the front to further stop it from falling off – or being grabbed from you at the traffic lights. I cannot stress enough how size matters (oooer) with all this.

I don’t know there are a hundred and one of these tyre levers on the market, all I can say is that this one worked and didn’t bend. One addition I would have liked to have seen would be a way to use it to pull the offending nail from the tyre (that was quite a pull). I only needed two tyre levers to do the job on my bike. I was carrying 3 before but now I have reduced this to two (more space now in saddle pack). These tyre levers also clip together which keeps them neat and tidy in the pack.

It is cold and raining – you have a puncture – do you really want to spend 10 minutes hunting for a little hole in your inner tube? Or maybe it is a split in the inner tube or a very large hole, no patch is going to fix this and you are stranded! So keep it simple and guarantee you can get moving again by carrying a spare inner tube instead. It is just so much faster to rip out the old one and slip a new one in, they cost about £5 so they aren’t going to break the bank.

As a side point I used to carry a Bontranger inner tube – my new one is a Specialized. The Specialized one appears to take about 20% less space, just thought you might want to know as half of the saddle pack space is taken up by the inner tube.

O.K. the picture was a bit pointless! But it is not such a bad idea to carry a spare bit of cash in the saddle pack. Maybe you have a serious breakdown and need to be collected – at least you can sit in the pub and have a drink whilst you wait. Maybe you get a double puncture and need a second inner tube, the list is endless.

The only difficulty is trying to forget you have the cash there so you don’t spend it before you actually need it.

I just carry a couple of the these – the two most commonly used – one for the seat post and one for my shoe clips (they also fit a few other things). These take no space at all, so it makes sense to have them there just in case.

Other than the above you may also need to carry a spanner(s) to remove you wheel. I have quick release wheels so it is not necessary but add these if you don’t.

P.S. if you see a fellow cyclist in difficulty – stop and help them – we are supposed to be a community.

Weather App for iPhone

Let take two given facts:

 1) When cycling, or more correctly before setting out on a ride. Knowing what the weather is going to be like is very important, the last thing you want is for halfway through a sunny cycle ride, is for the skies to darken and the rain to come pouring down and soaking you to the skin, or even worse to be carrying a whole bunch of waterproofs in your backpack and for it not to rain – you have just carried all that clutter around for miles only not to use it!

 2) The Met Office is bordering on criminal in how accurate it is. There was a time a few years ago that I used to take an umbrella when they said it was going to be sunny and visa-versa. To be honest, despite having access to enough computing power to send everyone to Britain to the moon and back they are still awful at predicting the weather. I think they must be more concerned about predicting global warming temperature rises in 50 years time, I would personally be more happy if they could get tomorrow mornings temperature right for the next morning in their nightly weather update.

Just a quick post about an excellent link.

This is not a long post but I thought I should share this link with you - it is quite a long post but it makes a very interesting point about making cycling more accessible to the majority of people - I think it raises an excellent point by looking at the situation from a slightly different perspective

Have a read if you have a moment.

Cry Freedom!

I have been trying to analyse this new addiction of mine. To be honest if you would have asked me a year ago I would have stated that the majority of cyclists were tree hugging hippies. This  view was often driven by the fact that the majority of the cyclist I interacted with were basically tree hugging hippies – or more precisely the middle class, pretentious environmentalists  who viewed the world in a diametrical opposed way to me and often with little desire or mental capability to take a balanced view. To be honest I had zero desire to be associated with such a group of people or to be considered in any way similar to them.

The reasons for me taking up cycling I have already gone into in depth and there is little point in revisiting them, but there is a new element I have never taken the time to write about – this is my near addiction to needing to cycle as often as possible. Sometimes when I am too unwell to work I still go in just to use the bike.

Now I do know that I have always had a high propensity to become addicted to exercise -  hence all my shoulder injuries etc. But that I don’t believe is the whole story. Elements in this new addiction include

I care not a jot for the saving the planet – me riding a bike is not going to save the world from global warning – let’s not have the argument about whether global warming exists here. I don’t like hugging trees but I do respect that there needs to be a balance in nature.

Just feeling alive each day – to do a little exercise really sharpens the mind and make the body respond, when I say to my body “run up those steps” it actually does it.

Getting away from the bugs – I seem to be very attractive to any cold / Flu virus doing the rounds at any given. Now if someone wants to be a hero and come into work with a cold and then make the rest of the office unwell then there is very little you can do about it (other than given the nickname of lurgy machine and blame them in no uncertain terms when you catch the cold off them, and hope they get the hint). But I think the majority of cold and flu I got was from being stuck cheek to cheek with thousands of other people on a hot and humid train. Nowadays the amount of colds etc. that I get has more than halved.

Get away from the train – I can tell you how much I hated travelling on the train – late trains / cancelled trains – trains running a few minutes late and therefore connections being missed and many long, cold and boring hours waiting on platforms.

FREEDOM – this I believe is the main cause of my addiction – this goes beyond the ability to leave the office at a time of my choosing and not when I need to leave to get a train. It is all about; I choose my route into work, I choose the speed I want to travel at, I choose how many risks I want to take. No longer do I have to obey pointless red lights, I don’t take silly risks, I have been driving for 25 years (without any road crashes in the last 15 years – and that wasn’t my fault) and I am able to evaluate risks – I don’t need some highway engineer to tell me how to ride. Mostly (despite my best efforts) I am not able to get a speeding ticket on my bike. If there is a red light and I am turning left I will go through it normally, if there is a pedestrian crossing with no-one on it (turned on by some passing idiot) I don’t have to wait there like a car with my all incriminating number plate, I just go. Yes I know there is a slight increase in my chances of an accident with the way I ride, but it is minimal and it is a lot less than your average courier or less experienced drivers who are now cycling into work.

The point is – it’s my choice – I don’t have to follow the rules of the nanny state. This is the freedom I love – I am tired of countless rules affecting every element of life. I have no issues with those that are in place to make us act in a civilised way and to make life generally more acceptable to society – but I have a major problem with all those rules that assume I am an idiot and cannot look after myself and I need a handbook written by some dull witted civil servant with less life experience than a May Fly.

You know I hear continually about people not taking up cycling because of the danger on the roads blah blah blah – if I have learnt anything in my many years of life, it is this. Life is full of risks, don’t run away from them, embrace the risk, control it and most of all enjoy them – if you have not taken up cycling into work or for fun because you are afraid, then just do it (I have heard that somewhere before). Believe in yourself – you don’t need the Government to make things safe for you – use your wits and ability to manage risk. If a route has a dangerous roundabout or too much traffic – then use an alternative, if you don’t know or are unsure at a junction or lights , then take your time. You are a fool to miss out on all the freedom the cycling can give you – if you are afraid of that risk, then go to another blog because really you won’t learn anything here.  

Only downside to this new freedom? Well I have to remember there are rules when I get in my car.

Oh and whilst I am at it - here is a link to something more sensible "top ten reasons to commute by bike"

Getting Wet.

It was raining quite hard this morning but my ever trusty German weather App (hmm I should do a review on it – after all weather is an important factor in cycling) said that the rain would stop this afternoon. I decided to cycle in as I knew I would regret sitting on a train  going home with a bunch of people still damp and smelly from the morning rain.

So off I set – this time I wore my “Altura Nightvision” waterproof top and my cycle helmet – I really do wear it when conditions are slightly more risky. Boy, was I really glad I did decide to cycle in. About 2 miles into my ride I was overtaken by a single speeder, you know the type, about 20 years younger than me with calf muscles the size of my thighs. I decided I would ride with him – there was no doubting he was fitter than me and obviously a lot younger and I would imagine had ridden solidly for the last few years (I think he probably came out of his mother on a tricycle) but he was obviously hampered by no gears, though I think if his bike had been any lighter a slight breeze would have carried away.
 

Let those muscles ache.

In an attempt to push myself a little harder – I have decided to ignore sage advice and cycle through muscle ache.

Normally my routine would be as follows: Gym on a Sunday (sometimes) then cycle Monday (if the gym didn’t wear me out totally) and Tuesday into work, Wednesday take the train. Thursday and Friday cycle into work again. The reason being that after two days of fairly hard riding my muscles need time to repair (see earlier posts on this) so the break keeps me fresh. Now maybe it is old age but my body seems to have settled into this routine and cycling for 5 days in a row is no closer a target than it was 1 month ago.

Pot Holes Part Deux

So as I cycled in this morning – it was a nice day – sunny but with a chill in the air so I didn’t get too hot. I had gone for a longer ride yesterday 18 miles in one go, now this may not seem like a lot to many of you but normally I cycle 22 miles a day into and back from work, but to do 18 miles in one go was longer than I normally do and I had chosen a route that included a killer hill in the 2^nd to last mile. I didn’t want to push it too hard on the distance because I knew I had a week of cycling into work ahead of me.

Anyway I digress, I was feeling no ill effects from the ride yesterday and was rolling into work at a reasonable nick. As I approached some red lights at a cross road (and yes I do stop at red lights like this) it was time for me to unclip me left foot to stop and rest – just as I was trying to unclip I hit a pothole, this totally screwed up everything, my foot “bounced” back into the clip and mild panic ensued. Fortunately yesterday I had been practising getting my right foot unclipped (I normally only bother doing this when I am stopping to get off the bike) and this practise paid off, I was just able to get my right foot out in time, stopping me from doing a comedy dismount and crashing down sideways on the car to my right or the pavement to my left – either way my shoulder was not looking forward to another bashing.

Thinking of buying a lock - then stop and read this.

Saw this very interesting site about a “man in his shed” who has designed a new lock.

I have moaned on this site before about locks – they are heavy and expensive. You end up having to buy a lock (if you want insurance) that cost upwards of £70 and seems to weigh as much as the bike itself - what does this lock achieve, well if you are lucky it will stop a thief with a pair of bolt cutters for about 10 seconds (wonder if you get the cost of the lock back with your insurance claim)?

So “man in his shed” has come up with a new design, it is made of titanium and it is a flat bar (you will need to go to the site to see why this is an advantage). Because of how it is built, the lock is much lighter and stronger than any others out there – it also is easy to attached to your bike without the need for expensive additional attachment bits and does not get in the way like current locks, all in all the design is elegant and practical.

Comments or lack of

As I travel this interweb seeing various sites on cycling etc. I am left pondering one question – why do they get comments and I don’t?

I don’t think it is because I am not controversial enough – to be honest my tongue in cheek style is hardly politically correct – but no response.

OK topics – apart from my personal observations I think I tend to post on relevant topics – but no response

How about my poor English (I really should proof read before I post but well it just takes too long) – but still no snotty comments on my poor Engrish.

In-depth, pointless but sometimes useful reviews – still no feedback on preferred alternatives.

Lack of readership – well it’s a vicious circle here. Poor articles = low number of readers – so basically this is a non-point as we end up going back to the points above.

Links – well if I read something that I think is useful I post a link but I suppose we go back to low readership which equates to poor link usage from this site.

Maybe there are no other Mambos out there – hmmm I seem to pass many of them on the road (maybe they are out there all day and cannot get on a PC)?

So what should I do? I tell you what why don’t you comment below and let me know (ahh trickery that’s a new one).