xendistar.co.uk

Housework as in tidying up this blog site…………..you did not really think I meant pushing a hoover around did you??

Just doing some basic tidying up on the site, I doubt you will see any changes as it is mainly minor little points. Biggest change is adding the gallery link in the header I am still putting off the big change or rather upgrade, moving this site onto WordPress 3.0, currently running on WordPress 2.9.2 Still quite a few people running into problems with their upgrades so I will wait a little longer till they have ironed out a few more bugs and then look at doing the upgrade. I will probably change the layout of the site at the same time (part of the upgrade process is you have to revert the site page back to the basic wordpress), seeing as the current decoration has not started peeling off the walls yet I will wait a bit longer.

The car went for its MOT, what a cock-up. The car was serviced about 6 weeks ago and I was told then that the front brake discs need changing but there was still life in the pads, but seeing as I needed to have an MOT soon they would leave doing the front brake until the MOT. So I booked the MOT for the 12th and reminded the garage that it need new front discs and pads.

Car dropped off at 8:30am, phone call 11:00am cars failed MOT on faulty rear light (bulb blown), front brakes and binding rear brakes, told them I was in no hurry for the car and would collect it at 5:00pm. Phone call from garage at 3:00pm, car has only just come back into the workshop might not be ready until late tonight, not to bothered as I had their roller skate to drive………………I mean Renault Twingo. So I said I would pick the car up sometime after midday Tuesday depending when I get a free 5 minutes to collect it. Phone call from garage Tuesday 4:00pm, car still not finished, now have to order new parts for the brakes, parts won’t be here till Wednesday, explain that I won’t be here on Wednesday either and that I need my car for a trip up country, am told that the car is currently sat in the workshop with no wheels or brakes on it. Concede I have to take the roller skate on a 280 mile round trip. Finally collected the car early Thursday morning.

Friday afternoon I get the normal customer service call I get after every visit to the garage asking if everything was OK, so I explained the above I am promised a call from the service manager. 6:15pm I get a call from the service manager, explain the whole story again, he concedes they could of handle it better but that is about as far as it goes.

Fortunately for me it is a company car so I don’t have to foot the bill for the repair, I just have to put up with the inconvenience.

Just noticed I have not posted since Sunday, well Monday night being the customary weigh in night, it was another good night for me with another loss, can’t remember how much and don’t have my book to hand. No mid week ride this week due to the weather

That is enough waffle from me, will post more on Monday……………….hopefully

The wife wanted to ride in the New Forest on Saturday so having had a plan for a modified route around Linwood I thought it would be a good time to try it out. On the normal ride around this loop it involves a section of road riding under the A31 and then up a long drag up the other side. My idea was to cross the A31 by using the animal subways (subways for the ponies and cattle to get from the forest on one side of the A31 to the other). Well this worked out OK on the first crossing but on the return vis a different subway the New Forest Ponies were using the subway as a stable. As several of the ponies had foals with them we thought it best to find an alternative route. The next subway was about 1 mile way so we followed path that ran along side the A31. It is only when you are that close to the road that you realise how noisy and how fast the traffic is. Fortunately at this subway there were only a couple of ponies at the far end so we walked through and they did not seem to be bothered. NOTE: If you ever walk\ride through one of these subways, don’t think about what you are walking\riding on, just hold your breath and walk!!

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………………

After the hills of the Purbeck’s yesterday, I am giving my legs a rest today, legs feel a bit achy and I still have the calf injury. Will be back on the bike tomorrow and Sunday.

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

Well Monday was weigh in night and normal service was resumed after last week big loss, a small gain. I was expecting it as I had fish cake a chips during the past week and with only one ride the odds were against me having another loss. But this is the bit I just don’t get it, I have stopped eating so much rubbish, apart from the normal unhealthy meals I used to eat I would tuck into biscuits, crisps, pies\pasties, cakes all as extras. But now I eat sensible healthy meals, I eat loads of fruit. I have one portion of fish cake and chips and bang my weight is up. The total weight of the fish cake and chips does not equal my weight gain so what is going on? Sometimes this weigh loss and diet are a mystery to me.

I am on holiday this week and Monday was taken up with me taking a journey to collect my new toy. I have been considering getting a full suspension bike mountain bike for several months and with the announcement of the VAT increase at the end of the year I decided that by the end of the year I would purchase one, maybe a discounted 2010 model as the 2011 models would be available by then. I had already discounted the Whyte E120 I test rode over the Purbeck’s earlier in the year as I could not justify paying the price for one regardless of how good it was. For the same reason I discounted the Orange 5, the cost and it was more bike than I could really use for my riding.

So what do you do when you are offered a bike at a very good price, ex demo, less than 12 months old and less than half price…………………..well if you are me you say yes please. I spoke to the supplier on Friday, left a deposit to hold the bike till Monday so I could drive down to East Sussex and give the bike the once over and if I am happy with it complete the purchase. Well at 11:15 Monday morning I was in St Lennards, East Sussex, by midday I was driving home the proud owner of a Whyte E120.

Looks nice against the back drop of the gazebo

Apart from a couple of minor little marks on the carbon frame it looks brand new, the tyres still has those little bits of rubber you get on new tyres. Unfortunately it was to late for me to go for a ride yesterday so first ride was this morning. I decided to ride over the local heath as it would give me some sort of bench mark as I know what the terrain is like on my other bike. I was not disappointed, it felt nice not to have my saddle pummelling my butt on some of the down hill sections. I am still trying to get to grips with the settings.

Ironic as it seems, Monday a fellow riders announced he was selling his old Orange 5 and for quite a bit less than I paid for the Whyte and yes, had I seen the Orange first I would of bought it!

Unfortunately buying the bike came at a price, the wife sent me an e-mail with a web address and the words Order This!! what could I say she let me buy the bike (and it was a lot cheaper than the bike).

Well I have not done much riding this week, my evening ride never happened. I like to ride before I eat which means I normally go out as soon as I finish work (if I am working from home) or as soon as I come in. Last week just could not get it together so never went out riding. Saturdays ride never happened, the wife woke up feeling ill, got up and then went back to bed and my stomach did not feel to good first thing Saturday morning so the excuse fairy won that day. So it was a case of having to go out today, we had a route planned which I got from the Mountain Bike Guide Dorset book. A simple 17 mile ride around the fields of Cranborne Chase (route 12 if you have the book).

We left early this morning as we have done over the past few weeks to beat the heat and eventually left the car park at 7:45am. Our first problem appeared a couple of miles in, we could not find the turning. Fortunately a dog walker appeared and showed us exactly where it was, saying it was overgrown would be an understatement, we had ridden past it 4 times and stop next to it to check the route. Below is a picture of the wife pushing her bike out the far end of the path on the back wheel after I had cleared a bit of a path having ridden through it

There is a flymo in here somewhere!!

Thankfully it was only a short path of about 150ft long but arguing with 4ft high stinging nettles made you know who owned the path…………….it was not us. Unfortunately this was not to be our last encounter with the Triffids.

Unfortunately we lost the Bridle way and spent several minutes riding around a field until we worked out we should be in the next field over. Having climbed over a wobbly gate and skirted around the cows we found our way back onto the bridle way and into the next field but not before I had hit the deck twice. First time I stopped and forgetting I had raised the seat went to put my foot down only to realise I had stopped on uneven ground and my foot could not reach the floor. Having picked myself up we were on our way again until the wife decides to stop in the middle of the little track and as I pass her the end grip of my handle bar got hooked onto the elastic cords on the back of her rucksack, this eventually pull the handles bars round and before I know what is going on, I am on the deck……….again.

We left the field of green wheat (or maybe barley) field at the strangely named “Squirrel Corner”, not a squirrel to be seen anywhere. After a few 100yds of tarmac we were on to an old drove trail heading for Gussage Hill (after a mistaken detour down the roman road). This is where we met the Triffids again, fortunately they were not 6ft tall this time but 4ft grass, stinging nettles and thistle plants do make it difficult to ride along the path not to mention hide the ditch at the side of the path. We had just under a mile and a half of this, I was glad to get out the other side, my shins and fingers were stinging from all the nettle attacks.

The next section was mostly tarmac again as we headed for Six Penny Hadley, I love that village name. After a quick malt loaf refill we hit the bridles ways again heading toward Pentridge, just before we hit the main road we came across two alpaca’s in a field (large back garden), so I took a quick picture as our son and daughter would not believe us if we told them.

Judging by the state of his coat he had recently had a hair cut. When we got the the large hill at Pentdridge I decided to walk which was just as well as we had to play dodge the milk tanker as it reversed its way up the bridle path to collect the milk. Once at the top we made our way through another field of green wheat, dodged a couple of chickens, navigated around a heard of cows then we were on the downwards run back to Cranbourne. About a mile from the village we met two Lama’s and their owners going for a walk (sorry no picture). Apparently they were getting them used to surrounding fields and life etc. as they were being trained up for Trekking duties locally and Scotland.

We eventually made it back to the car park at Cranbourne, just under 5 hours and 17.4 miles after starting. It was certainly one of our longest rides timewise and certainly the most challenging. Would I ride it again? Yes but I would have to choose the time carefully, winter and many of the tracks are to muddy, summer and they are very overgrown.

While planning this route I came across many interesting village and area names, here are a few of the others that we past on our way round:

Monkton Up Wimborne
Toby’s Bottom
Ackling Dyke
Water Lake Bottom
Bowldish Pond

Tomorrow is weigh in night, I am not holding my breath as this week what with the lack of riding and I have not been a good boy eating wise this past week.