I'm not dying!!!

Blood tests back - all normal!! Huge relief. Now to concentrate on Mountain Biking - a short half hour 5 miler tonight on Tarmac just to get the legs working again. At the moment it feels OK, if not better for it. Saturday maybe squeeze another in.

I said I'd be in the forests by the end of the month. That didn't happen. Perhaps I was optimistic. I could say I'd have done it if I hadn't hurt my legs and feet, but that was partly due to pushing too hard. Without pushing I'd have been further behind. So maybe next month for Afan Argoed.

Fantasy MTBing

Leg still bothering me, but getting better. Doc said I may need stiffer soled shoes - that'll be SPDs then!! Even my Doc says I should buy bits for my bike!! Whoop!!

Stuck in the house - decided to do some fantasy mountain biking instead (bit like fantasy footie!!). Had an idea many moons ago about doing the annual charity Gower Bike Ride but with an alternative route taking in a load of off-road trails. Never brought it to fruition. Thought I'd revisit the idea.

It's quite difficult to pull legal off road routes such as bridleways, byways and county roads into a set route without going miles off course. That got me eyeing up the footpaths and open common land enviously - there's a body of thought that we should be allowed on some of this land anyway - http://www.ridetoroam.org/ . I also started pulling in urban routes (e.g. a path through a housing estate down a steep hill - the path has a number of short flights of steps - could be interesting on an MTB!!) It would appear that the National Trust are pro-MTB, so anything on NT land is fair game - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-activities/w-activities-cycling/w-activities-cycling-good_practice.htm . By the time I'd done it turns out to be a tad harder than I thought - instead of the 29 road miles of the bike ride this would be nearly 60 miles with some tough off-road sections, can't see me doing it this year - maybe next?....

Hmm

Doc says I've got to take it a little easier. He thinks my body's eating it's own muscles! Well done body for finding them!! Might not do much this weekend. Blood tests Monday.

Good lights and good tyres make all the difference

The Electron lights are looking good. OK enough to downhill steep singletrack. You have to back off on wider faster gravel tracks as they don't quite get the reach for higher speeds. However, it makes fast wide boring tracks a bit more interesting!! The big problem is navigating on open moorland if you're trying to follow a trial interlaced with alternative meandering tracks and sheep trails - without being able to see the distance - that gets tricky.

It was an 11 mile ride (subject to confirming the calibration of my bike computer). The tyres were brilliant - my downhills more confident, I could pedal out of mud holes and slippery climbs were navigable. I'll inspect them for perishing in the daylight, but hopefully it was a good decision. Think I tried too hard last night - I did myself in last night and now feel like an RTA victim!! Something don't feel right :-(

Got shot of the Marigold Acnes, now I've got my fingers crossed!

My pal came up trumps with an unused Panaracer Smoke and a part worn Ritchley today. So now I have tyres which at least look like they can hack it! However, they both date back 4 years. The Panaracer was a little rigid which suggests it's past it's best. And the rubber flashing around the bead was like a razor, hopefully it won't puncture! The Ritchley was actually perishing! A quick inspection of my old bike shows the Panaracer Dart on it was in better condition than both tyres, in spite of it's 10 year or so vintage. So I now have 2 tyres that look the biz or are they about to disintegrate on me?

So far, so good for the new lights

By pedalling fast I managed to squeeze an 8 miler between work and tea! Surprised myself with some good climbs.

The Electron lights worked out well. Much brighter than the old ones. They were good enough for fast rocky downhilling. Hopefully they'll still be good after their 1st full charge.

Saturday's ride

Saturday's ride

The Lights are back!!

Well, the replacement Electron lights are here!!! In record time! Well done Chain Reaction Cycles on that score. You wouldn't think they were in N.Ireland. I'll get them charged and tried out in the week.

Had a good quality ride today - 8 miles of well chosen Bridleways. Finished on the coastal path, but won't do that again - to many people to run over, and they'd have been in the right if they'd got iffy with me - after all it is a footpath!! On the downside, finished up with a double puncture (curse those Marigold Acne's, that Scott dare to call tyres!!) Never mind I'll dig out my puncture repair kit. Glad I kept it these last 15 years. Crap! The vulcanising rubber solution vulcanised!! Oh, well a mile walk to the road and ring for a lift. Still, I enjoyed. Photos to follow....

Roy Scheider 10/11/32 - 10/2/08

Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies.

Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain.

For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston.

And so nevermore shall we see you again.

Grr!

No lights = no rides. Missing it. Not had a ride since Monday. This means no chance to test my 20 mile ride out. Too dark by the time I get home. Saturday and Sunday coming perhaps I'll do it then. Can't wait!

Anyone buying a Scott Aspect 45, budget for a new set of tyres and chuck the bundled ones straight in the bin (unless you like tyre treads that resemble acne!!) Hopefully will get my hands on a pair of second hand Panaracers next week. Wonder if I'll stop falling off so often!!?

The lights are going back.

Even after a full charge the lights are yellow and under powered. What's more the battery low light comes on straight away and the charging light is intermittent.

Anyone who reads this and is thinking of Electron lights or buying from Chain Reaction Cycles - watch this space!

One for Dean!

See? Wherever I go I find mud! This was a tough ride, thought I'd done 5 miles, computer said 10. I didn't believe it , but when I got the map out I saw it was correct!

Dropped the old Vetta computer on Friday as I took it off the bike and it reset itself loosing all my settings. That and the fact that it's got wires all over the place = time for a new one. So on Saturday I picked up a lock for the bike and a new Cateye computer. It was £25 and it's cordless, unfortunately it doesn't calculate average speed, but I can live without that.

The new lock commits me to the idea of cycling to work. I was going to test run my route again today - but was just too knackered. I'm not going to test run it on a weekday, so it has to wait till next weekend. I'll test out the principle of a 20 mile route one night in the week, up the cycle path.

The city lights at night!

Most of my rides so far have been around the same area. Each time I've returned covered in mud. Tonight I was determined to have a less muddy ride. However once again the tracks I picked deteriorated into swamps!! :(

Nice shot of my Scott in the dark.

Have lights, will night ride!!

Got my new Electron lights. Got to say they don't seem as bright as the old BLTs but they should do the job for now. Not sure if the battery is getting to full capacity.

My Land Rover

How remiss of me? Not putting a decent picture of my Land Rover on here. This was taken 15 months ago at a rally where I had my first shot as a stage manager.

A Decision, maybe?

After much agonising I think the old BLTs will be out the window. I had them connected up to a 6V battery charger and they were great. They're 10W and 2W bulbs. Electron are making a light that is based on the lighter NiMH battery with a 10W/5W combination and it's about £50 - That should suit me to the ground. It's not worth me trying to cobble together a new power supply for the BLTs - I'd end up saving myself £10-20. If I can get a pic of BLTs lit up I will.

Road rash!! Ouch!!

Tested part of my intended route to work today. Fell on a slimy tarmac path :( Ouch!! On the plus side the run was pretty good - did 7 out of the 10 miles that it is to work, so am happy :) That meant it was a 14 miler in total - far better than I could have imagined at this stage in the my return to "The Wall"!

Another day, another ride!!

5 miles this time. Reckon I'll be in the forests by the end of the month :)

It was a tough 5 miles, fell off numerous times. Got lost and it sleeted on me!

Guess what this means?

My first 'proper' bike ride in Lord knows how long!! It was getting dark so I didn't have long, so I picked an easy route along the river - somewhere I knew from walking the dog. I knew it'd be muddy but at least it'd be flat. I'd forgotten HOW muddy and how many streams the path traverses!! That's where my lack of fitness shows - 15 years ago I'd have ridden through them, tonight I had to get off :(

THEN, I start running out of daylight! Which leads to me getting lost in the woods! Which results in the decision to cross the river where it looks flat and shallow - WRONG!! Now with very wet feet I start back along the tarmac bike path. I'm not too knackered so I choose a wide road loop back, which involves a hill. Did I say I wasn't too knackered?!

Moral of this is I got to sort some lights. Probably do another ride tomorrow, though :)

Well, there's good news and bad.

The battery's out. What a struggle!! The weapons of choice were a serrated kitchen knife to hack away at the expanded foam and a wine bottle !! to push out the battery. The battery is made by GS Batteries of Japan - model PE6V4A. Nobody seems to make them anymore, the main problem being it's size - 45mm x 50mm x 120mm. Can't find one much under 60mm. BUM:(