I have a few days of for the sons half term, so as he decided to he wanted to go with his aunt to Southampton, I was free to go for a bike ride…………in the rain. The day did not start well, I woke up the second the alarm went off and could not go back to sleep, I had planned to stay in bed till at least 8am but got up at 7:15. I went to get my GPS out and check the route I wanted was loaded on the gps and I could not get it to switch on. This meant a change of route so instead of the New Forest and exploring new routes I would go to Moors Valley and ride some bits I have not ridden for a 12 month or so. After loading the van in the rain I decided to give the gps one last chance and it worked, so it was Burley here I come.

I had packed my rain jacket and trousers ready for the onslaught but as there was very little rain when I set off, they stayed in my bag but I was expecting to be getting them out sooner rather than later. So I was more than a little surprised about an hour later to be taking my jumper off as the sun was out and I was getting a little warm. A short while later my gloves were taken off as my hand were sweating in my gloves (first time I have worn them since last winter). The route was a shorter version of the Autumn falling leaves ride, I was trying to avoid riding some of the roads (I’m a mountain biker not a roadie) and trying some alternative paths to the wide gravel fire roads. Well some of those paths were wet, muddy and flooded, it was er, interesting. I enjoyed my 20 miles round the forest, was expecting to get absolutely soaked but never got wet (if you don’t include anything below my knees).

More riding later in the week but apparently we are shopping tomorrow……….

Due to one thing and another I never got out for an evening ride this past week so this morning ride was my first since last weekend. While I had planned to go riding today I had not decided where, when I went to bed last night I had decided on the local heath but when I got up this morning I felt I wanted to ride some where new. I remembered seeing a route on bikely web site which showed a route down to the local beach. After a quick search I found the route and downloaded it. Unfortunately it was part of a bigger route so I chopped out the section of the route I did not want and left just the section to the beach and back and then uploaded it to my GPS. I was interested in this route for two reason, one it used a couple of new section of areas that I already ride and secondly I was interested in how much of an off road ride there was to the beach. The route was not a direct route from A to B but more of a direct-ish route using all the available off road sections in between home and the beach. It turned out that from my house to the beach, along the promenade and back through Bournemouth town centre and out through Meyrick Park to the point where I crossed my outward path near Bournemouth University was 7.5miles. I guess 50% of that was off road (a mix of heathland track, path through woodland and gravel paths). At this point I decide I still wanted to do a bit more riding so I continued along the road to the local heath and took a loop around the heath and then home. Checking the GPS at home showed 18.9 mile ridden. Nothing spectacular, but interesting none the less.

While out riding this morning I pasted two new cycling attraction currently under construction but close to opening, one is the new Bournemouth cycle track at Slades Farm and the other was new cycle shop opening on the premises of an old cycle shop that closed towards the end of last year in Wallisdown.

I dismantled the rear gears and set to work on the jockey wheel, removed the seals and a good soaking in WD40, this was followed by copious amounts of gripping the bearing inner sleeve with pliers and rocking the jockey wheel backward and forwards, then blowing out with compressed air and another good soaking with WD40. After about an hour the jockey wheel was spinning freely. A good quantity of oil was dripped onto the bearing, the seal refitted and the rear gears re assembled.

Now I was ready for the off……….er no. Last night before I went to bed I quickly loaded the route onto the GPS from the PC. This morning when I came to load the route before leaving The GPS refused to load the route onto the map. I spent more time reloading the route from my PC on the GPS but nothing I did would convince the route to load onto the maps on the GPS. In the end I copied the section of the route I did not know on the map on the PC, saved it, loaded it onto the GPS and then thankfully the GPS loaded it on the the map. Now I was ready to leave, only 2.5hrs later than intended. As I left I told the wife that if I came back in within the next 10 minutes, to hide as I was likely to explode.

The ride was two half’s, it started as my normal Sunday ride along the river to Throop and then out to Hurn forest. Then in the middle of Hurn Forest instead of turning right I turn left which then takes me out towards Avon Heath Country Park, from there it on towards the A31 crossing the dual carriageway (via foot bridge) then on to Ashley and then on towards Moors Valley . Here I added my own little bit into the route by joining the cycle Trail about a quarter of its way round and rode that till the end of the trail (the new cycle trail is not listed on the Moors Valley web site). From there it was down to the Castleman Trail to West Moors and then over to Ferndown. By the time I came out of the tree’s near Longham I was knackered and I still had 4 miles of road to cycle to get home. It was riding across the heath at Ferndown that I realised my last mistake of the day. A part from a Camelpak full of water I had not brought any energy drink or food, this was something I forgot to do after all the other cock-ups the morning had presented me. By now my thighs (around the quads) were aching badly, fortunately it was mainly flat from Longham to my house, when there was a slight slope my thighs let me know.

When I got home I was wiped out, when I eventually got round to getting the route of the GPS I was most disappointed 29.4 miles I was robbed, where was my 30 miler!!

Not much to report on the cycling front, never went for a mid week ride, never went for a Saturday ride, only did a short ride (9.8 miles) today at Wilverley Plain in the New Forest, was mainly flat but interesting with a lot of scope for extending the route if you wanted.

No doubt the lack of riding will reflect on my weigh in tomorrow night……………I am not holding my breath.

I have uploaded the route on to GPSies.com (click on the link at the bottom of this post). I have found this site quite useful for finding routes. I have also uploaded three of my routes on to the site which can be downloaded in a variety of GPS formats.

As we headed to back towards Burley the path we were following seem to becoming less and less defined, at least the GPS was telling me we were heading in the right direction. It got to a point that I ended up following the GPS made sure we were heading in the right direction and then followed anything that looked like a path going in the right direction. We eventually found our way back to the car at 11am, thankfully beating most of the heat.

I awoke to day with less enthusiasm than normal for my Sunday morning ride, maybe it was because it was the fact I had ridden on 4 of the last 6 previous days or maybe it was I was feeling a little delicate in the crown jewels department!! Breaking in a new saddle has not helped matters either. I think the time has come to invest in some proper cycling shorts with some padding. I have held off until now as I have been trying to get down to a reasonable waist size but I think the time has come to go shopping……..

As a consequence of feeling a little delicate, I only did a short ride this morning, for the first time in months I got off the bike very carefully when I got back.

The rest of the day will be spent watching the F1 Grand Prix and hoping that anybody wins as long as it is not Vettel or Alonso. Then I will be cleaning and lubricating the Whyte later this afternoon.

Also got to empty the car at sometime today as it off for its first MOT tomorrow, 3 years old (103,000 miles). Not looking forward to the mass of answer phone messages and e-mails I will have when I start work again tomorrow although I am working from home.

Tomorrow night weigh in night so hopefully the past weeks riding will have helped, only time will tell………………

Yesterday did not start well, all I had to do was load the map from the PC to the GPS and then go out and ride in the sun. Got up looked out the bedroom window and it was raining, got down stairs to the PC and it does not recognise the GPS is plugged in, reboot the PC and nothing just sits doing nothing. Well after an hour I managed to get the PC to boot and download the map to the GPS, it has now stopped raining and is now drizzling so after dropping the wife off at work I put the bike on the car and set off.

I found a parking space in Corfe Castle just down from where the ride starts and for the next couple of miles it is all up hills, some of this was ridden and other bits were walked. No sooner had I go to the top and I was going down the other side. No sooner had I come down the other side I was up the road looking at the next climb, again some ridden some walked. Once at the top it is a nice run down past Old Harry Rocks and down into Studland. Then after a little ride around Remstone heath and forest I was back at Corfe Castle. The section of single track across Remstone heath were nice but so many of the tracks had areas of soft energy sapping sand. The bike felt great going over the rocky single tracks, I am slowly starting to get to grips with the bike.

Old Harry Rock (he is actually hidden behind the other rocks)

The GPS was very useful yesterday, having marked out the route I thought I wanted to go and then out riding realising the track I was on went a better way so being able to check that it would link up to where I wanted to go so being able to modify the route as required is great. Otherwise I think there would be a lot of riding around in circles.

Here another picture of the bike, taken on Wednesday

Raring to go while the owner takes a break

Went out for a ride on Wednesday night on the road to get a bit of practice for Sunday, 16 miles in 70 minutes which included a couple of stops, according to the gps averaged 12mph, was reasonable happy with that.

Here one of the pictures from Saturday trip to Westward Ho!

two wheeling the buggy with no hands

Look mum no hands

The rest of the photos can be found in my gallery

My only trouble on the ride was the gps, it refused to track the route I was doing, on a ride like today’s where I know the route I use it to record the distance just encase, like today I added a little extra loop into the ride. I am not sure what the problem is but I will have to investigate.

I think I have had a fairly good week this week diet wise, don’t think it is as good as last weeks but with two good rides and the possibility of going out riding again tomorrow morning before work thing are looking good. In fact they are already looking very good as I managed to fit in to two pairs of shorts today, one pair I have not worn for 2 maybe 3 years because they were to small (or should that be I was to large??) and the other pair were brand new never worn I bought them some 3 years ago and they have never fitted me. I have a wardrobe full of clothes I have bought and have never fitted, so I might end up with a whole new wardrobe this year albeit about three years behind current fashion……….

One reason for my early morning trip was so I could get back in time to watch the Formula One. I used to watch it religiously but over the years my interest has waned, it just became boring. I thought maybe this year with more teams and no re fuelling during the race it would be more interesting. But to be honest I feel the jury is still out on that one, will have to see how it goes over the next couple of races.

There was one good thing for riding when it is this cold, all the mud is frozen and some parts of this route are very muddy. As I had hoped the first sections was frozen mud, in other places the surrounding area has been trampled to death so I could get round most of nasty spots. I was not long before I was at gate 15 (or is it 16??) and the run up to the rubbish tip road. Now this is no big hill but being a fatty on two wheel it feels bigger than it is and I normally reach the top wheezing, puffing and gasping for air. But today……….I won’t say I flew up it but I rode up it with out much of a problem. There were a couple of other minor hills and I went up those without to much of a problem as well, now I’m puzzled.

I had fun negotiating a decent covered in ice and just for the added fun something had driven along the path recently and left deep ruts (to be honest this was not the only track I found this on, apparently they have been erecting fencing all across the heath so they can keep cattle on the heath to mange the vegetation, picture of cattle here) this decent leads down to a puddle of lake proportion.

The route across the heath (at least the one I ride) is normally quite short so I decided to lengthen the route, the plan was to leave the heath, ride through an wooded area close by and then rejoin the heath further round on what would be my normal route. As I headed back toward gate 15 (or 16), I turned right through the trees and came out on the track that runs up to the Pit Road. Just after the climb I turned left onto a track I have never ridden before, it was pretty much like most of the tracks on the heath, sand, gravel, clay and mud and sometimes all four types at the same time. The GPS was showing I was heading towards the main road which was roughly the direction I was going. It joined the bridle path that runs from the Crematorium, I had ridden the bottom of this in the past, a track with two lines of paving slabs (for vehicles to access a water station or something) that ends in a steep decent with a large iron gate (6″ x 6″ box section construction) across the track which leads on to the road.

A quick mile up the road and I was into Delve Woods, not an area I have been before but I followed the GPS route through the trees and then lost my directions. I eventually emerged about half way along the road I had just ridden up rather than at the starting point where I entered the woods, oh well. I headed back up Gravel Hill and then turned right into Magna Road. A mile and a bit down the road I turned off Magna Road and back along a track toward the heath again. This starts off as a nice wide track and then narrow down to fairly narrow track with a 6ft wire fence one side and a 4ft barb wire fence on the other side with trees spilling out into the path. A good 3/4 of the way down this path I came across a fallen tree blocking the path. Having made the effort to do this extra section I was not keen on turning around and going back so I climb over the fallen tree (which was propped up by the fence) complete with bike before continuing on down the path.

I now rejoined the normal route I take across the heath, the earlier decent down the iced covered track was now just water and mud as the hill faces the sun and with the sun high in the sky it was making short work of the ice.

Only done 26 miles riding this weekend, I really want to be pushing 40 miles but I just read a post from a couple of months ago where I had ridden less miles than I normally do and had had a good weight loss on the Monday weight in, well I won’t argue I could do with a good loss after the past few weeks so here hoping.

Before I leave you all, here is a very useful web site (sorry if you use it already). For those that want to plot a route for a GPS but don’t want to fork out the cost of commercial products like Memory Map, here is a free version with a very useful addition Where’s the path, click on the “OS and Google Mapping side by side”. What you actually have is an OS based 1:25000 map on the left and a corresponding Google map of the same area on the right. You can plot a route on the left screen and then export\download it for using on your GPS or you can import a route into the program from your GPS providing it supports .gpx file format (most do), have a play it is very good piece of software.

Thing 2) Never believe what is written in a book, all weather route it said?? Since when has all weather routes included thick claggy clay that stick to your tyres like the proverbial to a blanket.

Thing 3) Your wife will ride down a long muddy hill with deep ruts at speed without a problem, but give her a piece of flat trial and she will fall of the bike and land in the mud.

Thing 4) Cut price Organic Grapes are not a good deal, especially if you don’t like grapes with pips in.

Thing 5) When your wife says we don’t need any shopping, what she really means is we need to go shopping.

Thing 6) The mobile phone will stop ringing the split second you pick it up and when you phone the person back they will be trying to phone your wife (who also can’t get to answer her phone quick enough). When you eventually get through to said person phoning you they will ask you what you want!!

As you can see I have had a fun filled day, a dull overcast day dawned at least that bit of the forecast was correct. The sun did try to break through but it was never for more than 10 -15 minutes worth of sun and then an hour or so before it popped out again.

We decided to do one of the rides from a book we bought a few month ago Mountain Bike Guide Dorset by Colin Dennis. It is a small book which gives details of 33 mountain bike ride across Dorset (they do other area’s as well), these range from 5 miles to 23 mile routes listed in 4 different difficulty levels. We (I say we but it was the wife who chose) decided on route 10 Badbury Rings and Kingston Lacy. It was only a short route, with no hills of any significant and an all weather route. Well there was a couple of small hills, long drag if you like, but what made them difficult was the deep covering of wheel hugging clay based mud from the bottom to the top. At one point on the second hill I stopped half way up but was then unable to get going again as I could not get any traction. I had to push my bike a few meters up the track to where it level out slightly and start the climb again.

The wife took a nice tumble from her bike (not from her point of view though), riding past Badbury Rings itself her back wheel spun out sideways on a patch of clay throwing her to the floor. Fortunately no more damage than a bruised arm and ego. Mind you she is lucky to have made it that far, we had only just left the car park at Pamphill and ridding down the very narrow road when a car cames round the corner towards her forcing the wife to swerve into the bank where she got caught up in some large pot holes (read craters).

On the whole it was a nice ride, the mud made it difficult. When I was plotting the route out last night I thought maybe do two laps or maybe half the loop the second time round. But by the time I got back to the car I had had enough. I think if I knew what the route was like I would of been alright, I would of known what to expect.

I am out riding again tomorrow, not sure what route to do yet (might even do Badbury rings again). I am currently in two minds at the moment, I want to up my miles I do over a weekend, but I don’t want to do it to quickly encase it cause injury or slow my weight loss. I also want to get some mid week rides in, be it early morning or late evening while it is still daylight. With the day getting longer this won’t be so much of a problem, but I don’t want to do to much to quick.

A quick question, what sort of blog do you prefer, one that is a:

• Daily Blog
• Several times a week Blog
• Weekly Blog
• Once a month Blog

No particular reason just wondering

Friday’s forecast for us was rain, what we got, cloud, blue sky’s and sunshine. Today’s forecast, heavy rain shower in the morning clearing into the afternoon to give sunshine with occasional shower and light winds. Actual, damp grey cloudy morning leading to occasional sunshine, light rain shower (about 5 minutes) and winds between 18mph to 24mph.

They spend millions on satellites and we are no closer to forecasting it correctly than the guy with a rock and pampas grass in his garden. He looks out of his bedroom window first thing in the morning and concludes if the rock is wet, it is raining, if the pampas grass is swaying it is windy, if there is a shadow of the rock or pampas grass it is sunny………..you get the picture.

My interest in the weather today was based on the fact that it was supposed to be a good day today and a lousy day tomorrow. We almost did not ride today because the weather looked so miserable when we got up. But as we were being told that Sunday was likely to be a day of heavy rain and strong winds then I wanted to make the most of riding Saturday. Thankfully for us (the wife and thee) the forecasted rain this morning never turned up, the wind put in an un-welcome appearance and boy was it warm (when out of the wind). The only rain we saw was at 14:15 this afternoon as we were about to drive off from the New Forest.

The ride its self was not to bad a lot of standing water, must remember to keep my mouth shut when going down hill at speed, track water does not taste nice. We decided to do a shorten Linwood Loop in the New Forest. We started at the bottom of the South Oakley Inclosure (east of Burley), ride up to the Canadian War Memorial, then out towards the A31 going under the dual carriageway and then turning off towards Broomy Lodge and the Broomy Inclosure, then on to Linwood and the Red Shoot pub. We stopped at the pub for a nice sandwich and a drink, no it was coke in fact…….. and very nice it was to.
It was here that we had a problem, the battery in the GPS expired and the map of the route was in the car. I had only done this route once but fortunately remembered the directions to get us up onto Bratley Plain than back to the road under the A31 and back toward the War Memorial. Normally from here we would carry on past the War Memorial down toward the deer sanctuary and back to the car park where we started. But the short loop mean we go back down the track we came up on through the South Oakley Inclosure to the car park for a little under 17 miles with a few large hills (well they are to us).

Thankfully there was no problems with either bike this ride. If there is a chance I will ride tomorrow if not I will spend the day giving the bike a good clean.

If I thought my GPS problem were over no chance, I set the route up on the GPS and clicked follow, this was OK for about the first 1000mtrs, I found that I could not scroll the screen, did not matter what I did the screen would not scroll and then I lost the follow option. Switch the GPS off, turn back on reload route, select follow and we are of again. This was not to be the last of the GPS problems.

But now I had a squeak, not from the GPS but from my front disc brake. Now this was doubly annoying as I thought I had sorted this problem out on Wednesday night, a quick adjustment and then a quick whiz round the block to check (and test the rear brakes as I changed the pads), not a sound everything seemed OK. Not now, after about another half mile I had had enough of the hamster wheel impersonations, jumped off the bike and set to work adjusting the calliper again. Thankfully this time it worked without a problem, we could now ride without my front wheel impersonating a hamster wheel.

We had now gone about a mile and a half when the wife shouts at me that her rear end does not feel right, at this point I declined the urge to comment as the problem was clearly visible………….a flat tyre. So once again we pulled over and I replaced the tube. After a short interval we are on our way again.

As I had put some new pads on the rear in the week I was making the most of any downhill section to shoot off downhill at speed and then whack the brakes on to heat the pads up, the wife asks me if I am having problems fortunately the answer was no. We finished the remainder of the loop with out a problem.

Th next 5 or so miles almost go with out a problem. I find that my water bottle is contaminated, the water tastes bloody awful, so I end up sharing the wife’s water bottle. By now we are at the far end of our route where I decide that we are going to have a little excursion off into the undergrowth as I have spotted what looks like a nice dirt track. It is now that the GPS come back to annoy me. As I had been following a route I had not noticed it had not been laying a track (as the route already on the map would hide my track) but this little excursion into the undergrowth revealed that the GPS was not tracking my route. Now this is annoying for two reason, one by having a track I have a good note of the total distance we travelled and secondly I will not have a record of this route to use in the future. By now I was beginning to give up the will to live. The dirt I found was not to bad, we were unable to follow the map exactly as the track shown on the map went into a mud pool but our little excursion brought us out half way along the route we would of been on had we followed our route and where the map showed the track would of rejoined the route.

The remainder of the ride back to the car was rather uneventful (compared to the earlier parts). As our ride had been a bit short I decided that I would check out another little dirt track that I had spotted earlier on the little loop. So I left the wife at the car and headed back up the trial, I soon found the entrance into the trees that I was looking for, I was soon to regret finding this little track. This little track through the tree (imagine a pine tree plantations with the tree all neatly planted in lines) was like dodgems with the trees and up hill with the narrow track winding it way between the trees with only a couple of inches to spare and what was worse, I was stuck in high gear. There was no straight section of track I just could not get any speed to change down on the front chain ring. I came to a mud pool where I got off the bike and pushed my way through as there was no way I could ride through it, I carried on pushing up the hill on the other side, I reached the top of the hill wheezing like an unfit 50 year old (mmm, I fit that description). I am almost certain that this route should be ridden from the top where I was to the bottom where I started, there was no way I was going to try I now. I wanted a drink but only had my contaminated bottle with me. I set off down the track, it was only after about half a mile that I checked the GPS and found I was heading in the wrong direction. So a quick about turn and I kept an eye on the GPS to ensure I was going in the right direction almost to the point where I missed the corner and nearly went in to a ditch, the sooner I get back to the car the better I was going to be. I soon found the main road and made my way on to the tarmac and headed the short three quarters of a mile ride back to the car.

We loaded the bikes onto the car and headed for home, both bikes needed a good chain clean so that’s was my next job as soon as we got in. The wife hosed the bikes off while I got the cleaning kit and bike stand ready. As I am cleaning the bikes my stomach is aching, but I ignore it and carry on cleaning the bikes, then putting all the kit away while I let the bikes drip dry. I head inside for a clean up of myself some clean cloths……………………….AND THE LOO!! I spend the next hour trying to eat dinner and ignore my somersaulting stomach. Thankfully as I only had a couple of mouth full of water the iffy stomach disappeared as quickly as it arrived. It was at this point that I notice it is pouring with rain and both bikes are sat out side drying, well at least that was the intention, so I then have to sit in the rain oil-ling the chain

I guess the only good thing that came out of the ride today was the fact that I did not break anything on the bike, apart from that I think I might forget this Saturdays ride!!

Unusually the wife decided to come for a ride this morning, she normally only does one ride over the weekend and she rode with me yesterday. So we decided to try somewhere new, well there was me scratching my head exactly where, the terrain and the distance late last night, the wife comes up with these idea but then leaves it to me to fill in the blanks. Anyway eventually settled on Wareham Forest after I found a route on-line and then modified it slightly.

I had intended an early-ish morning start, but we awoke a little bleary eyed after the daughter who was (supposed to be) staying at a friends overnight, but after (the friend) had an asthma attack and a visit to A&E, woke me at 3:00am this morning to let me know she was home and not staying at her friends, so kind of her!!

After a breakfast of scrambled egg on toast we soon on our way towards Wareham, we soon found a lay-by to park-in and were soon kitted up and pedalling of in to the distance. After several false starts trying to find the correct bridleway (the imported gps route did not overlay exactly on my gps map) we were travelling along bridleway and woodland paths I never even knew existed. We had to cut one section of the ride out as it showed up as marsh land on the map and looking down the trail it was certainly living up to its name. It was also starting to spot with rain so we decided to head back a different way and pick up the path we came in on. By the time we had returned to the car the sun was shining brightly overhead, sods law. We had notched up 14 miles, there was only one hill the wife could not master and to be fair it had me wheezing a bit, well a lot at the top. We both agreed that we will work out a new route around the forest which will include a new parking\starting spot.

It is weigh in night tomorrow night, I feel good about this past week, which is no measure of anything but I hope the 34.9 miles from this weekends riding add up to a good loss (Tim crosses his fingers)

Please sponsor me on the Bristish Heart Foundation Dorset Bike Ride

Back home I finished getting ready, I picked my rucksack up and it weighted a ton, I carry spare inner tubes, pump, puncture repair kit, multi tool, air shock pump, latex glove, knee support and I had the gel seat cover from yesterday (when I changed the saddle I did not put it back on but carried it yesterday just encase). I decided that I got through yesterday without the need for it so I would be alright to leave at home. Three miles into the ride and my butt is aching (like it did the first time you got back in the saddle after years of not riding), I was wishing that I had the gel seat cover with me, next time I will leave it in there for a bit longer. After a few more miles my butt subsided into a dull ache. So to make up for the lack of pain my knee started to ache. It was only when I got back later that I realised I had not made any changes to the saddle height like I mentioned yesterday, so that on my list of jobs for the next ride.

I did my normal ride along the river at Throop, out past Hurn Airport into Hurn Forest, down past Oakdene Caravan Park and then onto Parley Common. This route bring me back onto the Hurn Airport road but I normally go in the opposite direction and head for home. But wanting to add a few more miles to my route I headed back toward Hurn Airport and then back down towards the river at Throop. When you cross the river by the weir there are two way you can go, my outward ride I took the route down past Hurn Court school, so on my return I went the other way (which is my normal way) down across the fields at the back of Merritown. To say it was muddy was an understatement at one stage the forks were rubbing the mud on the front wheel (I have fairly narrow tyres). By the time I got home I knew I had done a long distance but I did not know how far, once I had regained some composure I hooked up the GPS to the PC and imported the route so that I could check the distance (I probably can do that on the GPS but I wanted the route on the PC anyway), 21 miles!! My longest single ride to date and I am well chuffed, this give me a total of 35 miles for the weekend

We went to the woods around Moors Valley Country Park and rode (in part) a route I found on the Internet. I downloaded the .gpx file and uploaded it into my GPS. Now this was the first real time that we had done this and I found it not as easy as I had expected. For example you reach a junction in the forest, the map you are looking at on the gps show 3 tracks and what you see in front of you is 5 tracks and trying to guess the correct one to follow, we failed on a couple and had to turn round but it was always within 50mtrs.

I also collected two punctures on the front wheel, the first I repaired checking the tyre for any offending puncture causing objects, found nothing. Fitted a new tube and cycled on for about 2 miles till I got another puncture on the front wheel, now I thought this was to much of a coincidence and took a much closer look at the tyre, I even turned the tyre inside out. I was just about to give up on checking the tyre when my finger felt something on the inside of the tyre, on closer inspection these was a very small slither of flint protruding through the inside of the tyre. Getting it out was fun and games, in the end I reverted to pushing it back through the tyre with an allen key hoping it did not break off and fortunately this worked. It was only when I pushed it back through I noticed that it had sliced one of the thread blocks as it cut into the tyre. I fitted another new tube (normally carry 4 two for each bike) and we were off, fortunately with no more punctures.

Stopped at the Welcome Centre for Moors Valley Country Park and had a tea and biscuit (it was supposed to be a chocolate muffin, purely for the energy factor, honest). Then it was a brief burst back into the woods and back to the car to end our 14.8 mile round the forest, I would of liked more distance but I am happy to have had one of my most enjoyable rides to date.

The second wow goes to Clive Chapman of Massive MTBer, have a look at his web site and decide for yourself if you think riding is doing him good?

I will leave you with a picture from todays ride, it was a glorious sunny day if a bit cold.

Yours truly fixing the first puncture

As I mentioned in an earlier post the bike went to the LBS on Tuesday for a frame swap, I was expecting it back on Thursday but got told it was rebuilt but they wanted to road test it based on the rebuild and the problems I have had with it. I was out of the office for much of Friday and intend to call the LBS late in the day if I had not heard anything. So 5:00pm comes and go and I am still munching my way through my mountain of work e-mails, just answer this one and I will give the LBS a call I think to myself. One e-mail became two phones calls as they do and the next thing I know it is 6:00 and I have an e-mail asking me to call them tomorrow (Saturday at 9:30am).

So I called the LBS this morning and everything is done, bikes is working well, come and collect it. So I head of to the LBS and collect the bike. The bike is now sporting a new American Cannondale F2 frame (mine was a UK spec F5 which is not longer available), a new set of front air forks (which I supplied), a new cassette, new chain rings(3), a new chain and a pair of front brake pads. I am more than happy and head home to get my cycling bits and go for a ride.

We had decided to try a new route but as it is close to a river and with all the rain we have had this week we did not know whether it would be flooded and did not want to drive 20 miles to find it un-rideable. So we decided on a different route. So I spend the next hour trying to get the new route downloaded to the GPS, in the end I gave up in frustration as it now heading towards midday. So we load the car and head for Burley the New Forest. After having a quick spin around the car park I decided that the front forks are to soft and I would add some air to the front forks. But there is a problem, I can’t get any air into the forks, after much trying I give up and decide to ride (forks locked out) back to the village and try the bike shop there (they hire out bikes etc.) to see if they can help, unfortunately they don’t have an air shock pump. So I have to ride back to the car then load the car and drive back to the LBS (not the one that did the frame swap but a different one as they did not supply the forks).

I got back to the LBS and a quick check revealed that the shock pump I bought from flea bay was *ucked. After passing the LBS my credit card details I am the owner of a working shock pump. It is now to late in the day to head back to the New Forest so we head for a local woods which we have never tried but know there are routes through the woods. We start off by going the wrong way and end up dragging the bikes up a very steep hill only to reach the top and find that there are no routes accept for the way we have just come up, riding down the hill was fun though.

At the bottom of the hill there is a little ditch\stream to get over, I had no problem clearing it, wife has a go and ends up in a heap on the floor. Turns out she has hurt her ankle and can’t ride any more so it is back to the car, load up and go home. I managed about 2 miles riding today, not what I wanted

Now I am in two minds at the fact I put weight on, on the one hand it was Christmas and I was not going to starve myself by avoiding all the nice Christmas goodies that were on hand but on the other it was a little more than I had hoped (but nowhere as bad as last years). What has not helped is the fact that I broke my bike and I was unable to ride yesterday or today (more of that later). So this coming week I am going to try to eat sensibly and avoid the sweets, chocolates and cakes etc. which are still hanging around from Christmas and do a bit more riding.

I managed to get a bike ride in on Christmas eve which was a bonus but it did include falling off at walking pace on black ice, I now have a lovely cut on my knee. Managed to get another ride in on Boxing day morning with the wife trying out a new route. Went out for a ride on Sunday on my own, the ride can only be described as a mud fest which included trying to ride up a track where the front wheel disappeared up to the axle in mud. On recovering my bike the pedals and wheel were covered in black gloopy mud. It was also interesting trying ride a cross a field where I was pedalling and not going anywhere, the front wheel stuck in the mud and the rear just spinning.

It was during the cleaning of the bike after the Sunday mud fest that I found a broken spoke on the rear wheel. It was not there on Saturday when I cleaned the bike so it must of happened during the mud fest ride. Not wanting to further damage the wheel any-more I decided not to ride yesterday, but I did do a 5 mile walk instead, lets just say is easier to cycle 5 miles than it is to walk.

I dropped the bike off at the local shop this morning and they quickly replaced the spoke for me so hopefully I will out again tomorrow and Thursday weather permitting. I want to get some miles under my belt not only because of my diet but I want to do an organised ride in 11 days time so I want to make sure I can do more than the advertised 15 miles as it will be in an area I have never ridden and apparently it will include a few hills!!

The GPS and mapping software has been proving useful, part of Saturday’s route came from looking on the OS map and worked very well apart from a river crossing, there was a bridge but it was the 2 foot deep water you had to cross to get on the bridge which proved a problem, result was wet cold feet. Sunday mud fest was another local route I found on the web and with the help of the GPS I was able to check I was going to correct direction, would be handy if they could tell you when the route was flooded with water though…………..

I am slowly getting used to the GPS, the total lack of manuals has not really helped as not only am I learning how to use a GPS and it terminology I am also learning how to use this particular GPS and the mapping software that comes with it. I am not saying that the GPS or the software is rubbish, quite the opposite. I have found the Memory Map Adventurer 2800 and the Memory Map software very good once I learn how to use it.

My next target is not to undo all my hard work over Christmas, last years was a disaster, so this year I don’t intend going down that route again. Apart from eating sensibly I am going to cycle as much as I can over the holiday period to help counter the festive indulgence, the only day I won’t be riding is Christmas day.

My ride distance is getting longer, I am now starting to do a couple of laps of the route I use over local heath to get the distance. Problem is I get bored doing the same lap twice, so I am trying to find two different routes that I can do. I also intend to do some exploring over the holiday period, try and find some new routes and areas to ride. Might even venture a little further afield to see what I can find.