AA for Bikes?

I've often wondered if such a thing exists and then this morning I found business card for Bike-Ade outside my office. He only covers Central London, but it sounds a good idea nonetheless.

I hope I can fix most minor problems myself, and if anything more serious happens I'd probably just walk to a station, but I'll keep the card anyway, just in case.

First Big Ride on the New Bike

I've finally taken advantage of the good weather to take the new bike out for a (long) spin. I found the Ten Thames Bridges 100k route on Bikely and augmented it with an extra 50k between Herne Hill and the start of the route in Windsor.

The section from home to Windsor took in lots of West London, including much of Heathrow Airport. Whilst low on rutal charm, I have to admit to finding the environs of Heathrow oddly fascinating; all the low rise, anonymous business parks interspersed with 1930s suburban houses long since seperated from their demolished neighbours. Not to mention the constant stream of jets overhead - I soon passed the time playing guess the destination based on my (hazy) knowledge of airline tail logos.

The Ten Thames Bridges route itself was pretty lovely; lots of Home Counties greenery and obviously a number of bridges varying from the fairly imposing Marlow Suspension Bridge to a thin, no-cycling walkway across Mill End Weir. The latter was actually a highlight, despite having to get off and push, as you felt a lot closer to the water, with the Thames rushing, crystal-clear below. Having said that I'm not sure I'd get out the picnic chairs halfway across as one elderley couple had done.

Using just a printed out Bikely map for the route wasn't great (translation: massive navigation fail!). In future I think I'll create some kind of prompt sheet, complete with distances between turnings. There's nothing better at bringing down your average speed than having to ride up a hill that you're not 100% sure is on the route. At one point in the afternoon my nav was so off I had to turn on the GPS funcitonality of my Nokia N95 to work out which way I'd veered off the route proper.

The bike seemed perfectly up to the distance and in particular the Brooks saddle was a revelation. No sore undercarriage the next day. The Carradice saddle bag was also up to the task, storing plenty. However it's definitely from a "gentler" age of cycling - no ability to quickly remove and attach it when parked up outside a newsagents in the dodgy part of town.

Having convinced myself 150k is do-able, I think the next step is to maybe do an audax of a similar length. I've been eyeing up these two - Ruislip 205k and Luton and Herts 150k. Has anyone ridden either of them before?

I was pretty exhausted by the end, but sitting at Datchett station aftewards having a lucozade and salt-and-vinegar Discos, I was pretty pleased with a good day's riding.



(aerial pic of Marlow Suspension bridge courtesy of/stolen from http://www.marlowtown.co.uk/)

10% off Rapha

Promotional code I picked up at the Smithfields Nocturne:
SMTH2009
gets you 10% off on their site.

Although that still leaves them a little dearer than Halfords.

Valid at http://www.rapha.cc/ until the 20th

Penny Farthings and Bike Week

Last Sunday I caught the tail end of the Veteran Cycle Club's annual event at the Herne Hill Velodrome. It has to be said, there's something pretty awesome about seeing a Penny Farthing "racing" around the a bike track against other cycles from antiquity (I'd tell you what they were, but I haven't a clue - a velocipede? Solid tyred bike? No idea!). Unfortunately we only got there for the very end, so I think we'll have to return next year, but it does look they put on other events

Loads of bike events coming up this week (being Bike Week and all), but a few which have caught my eye are:

• Bike and Kite Festival - Blackheath, tomorrow and Sunday
• Southwark Cyclists Film Festival - Shortwave Cinema, Bermondsey, Monday evening - showing shorts plus Breaking Away. Email barrymasonuk@googlemail.com for details
• Greenfest - Furnival Gardens, Hammersmith, Sunday - not just bikes but general hippy-dippery
• Free breakfasts for cyclists - (Camden, Tower Hamlets, Hackney. Plus many others)

Bike Tubes

One good thing that might come out of this - the LCC organised some "Bike Tubes" today, where they led a number of groups of cyclists into central-London from pre-arranged locations (Ravenscourt Park, Finsbury Park...).

I couldn't see from the site whether they are repeating this tomorrow, but they do say they'll be running more Bike Tubes in future, even if there's no disruption. Sounds like a good introduction to commuting into London to me.

Mayhem On The Roads Today

As you may know, there's a tube-strike today. Rather than use it as an opportunity to "work from home", Londoners seems to have decided to battle in anyway possible, with the streets already rammed at 7:15. Here's your I-Spy cut-out-and-keep guide to the strike

• Red-faced tube workers manning picket line outside a station (10 pts)
• Commuter shouting at red-faced tube workers (20 pts)
• Twelve people trying to hail the same taxi at once (20 pts)
• Pedestrian walking out in front of you because their head is buried in their A-Z as they attempt to work out how to get to their office (50 pts)
• Cyclist, riding a bike that hasn't been used since the late 80s and certainly not in rush-hour London, wobbling across three lanes of traffic in an alarming fashion (100 pts)
• Company director, in flash car, equally un-used to rush-hour traffic, cutting up the novice cyclists in order to try and grab the last parking spot (100 pts)

It'll be an interesting couple of days.

Back On The Road

Finally, my Evans voucher arrived and I popped over to the store to pick up the new steel stead. With hindsight, I should have perhaps got the voucher for a bigger amount, as it's not often you get the opportunity to buy what you want in a bike shop, effectively at half-price with six months to pay it off. In the end I contented myself with a new lock and some SPD pedals.

I've also added a Brook's B-17 saddle, as per Purple Traveller's advice. Bit early to tell yet, although I'm sure we'll be very happy together. If nothing else, I think it makes the bike look a lot nicer (you may remember I wasn't sold it's appearance) and it complements the ace, Carradice Barley saddlebag I've bought.

After 4 months or so, off the road, I have to admit I'd forgotten the sheer joy of cycling, even if it was on a clogged up, drizzly Euston Road. I'll take it out for a proper spin over the next few weeks and let you know how it is.

Still Waiting For Evans Ride2Work Voucher

Apparently they've received the payment from my company, but not the form. Obviously, it's too much to expect Evans to email/phone my company and ask where the form is. Oh well, duplicate form on it's way now. It's like living through an enforced No Bike Week

On a more positive note, yesterday proffered an unexpectedly, nerve-wracking end to the Giro, with race leader Dennis Menchov falling off his bike in the final kilometre of the Time Trial around Rome. Some pretty sharpish bike changing by his team car, and the decent buffer he'd built up saved the Giro from a pretty unfortunate end in it's centenary year.