Cycling

[jman]

Anyone else do much cycling??

I'm a bit of an amateur cyclist.. I bought a Saracen Urban Cross 1 hybrid bike last year, bit of a low-end bike, cost me just under £300 which was a pretty good deal I though.. current RRP is still £370. 

But I was driving around a bit of an old banger car at that time and wanted a bike to do the 10 mile round trip to work each day when it was sunny (funnily enough, the bike cost more than the car)... I started using the free MapMyRide app to keep track of all the rides I've done and in the 3 months after I bought the bike.., I racked up 500 miles on it.. which I thought wasn't too bad.. it paid off £100 off the bike in petrol money and I lost nearly 2 stone in weight doing it too.  I stopped cycling after I got back from holiday last year though as I bought a shiny new car and found it a real struggle to get started on it again.

Anyway, I signed up to do the London to Brighton charity bike ride in June this year.. 56 miles I think it is.. the most I've done non-stop is only 22 miles.. so I started training this weekend as I know it will take a while to up my fitness again.. did 8 miles on Saturday and doing the 10 mile round trek to work today and probably again later in the week.. I tell you, the worst part of cycling again is getting used to the saddle.. I've got a gel cushion.. but even with that its bloody uncomfortable.. my ass feels like I've been stuck in a Mexican prison with Pedro who likes it when you drop the soap - if you catch my drift!

[Late]

Good on you, mate.
I think the commute is the best time to squeeze it in. Wish I worked within cycling distance, as I could definitely do with the exercise and the petrol savings (unfortunately I have a 28 mile commute). As it is,  the last bike I was on was a local soak called Angie, and that was about fifteen years ago.

[harv]

Way too dangerous to ride a bike in London...you're a braver man than me jman

Can't believe there are so many bad drivers in London. If anyone's having trouble passing their test just pop on over here and take it. There was a girl I used to work with, Nikky, who couldn't drive to save her life and she passed first time. After she passed her test we were on our lunch break and went for a drive to get something to eat and she hit a few wing mirrors going past parked cars lol

[jman]

It's not the cars that I'll need to watch out for in the L2B bike ride.. its the other cyclists.. there are usually around 30k cyclists that do it each year.. my boss did it last year and some silly cow drove into him and wrote off his bike.. which cost around £700.. he obviously couldn't finish the race either. 

They cone everything off though and once you are out of London (you start in Clapham Common) its pretty much all back roads until you get to Brighton.. which culminates in first going up Ditchling Beacon hill.. a mile long hill that goes up to around 813ft above sea level - and then coming down the other side to the finish.  I am doing it with a very experienced cyclist though.. (he's done route 66 on a bike!!).. so I have a few training/pub sessions with him in the next few months to get me ready for it.

[ipfreely]

Yeah saddle soreness can be a real bitch! Usually wears off after a couple of weeks as you probably know.  I'm hoping to start again after minor knee surgery in April - want to cycle to the TdF stages in Yorkshire come the summer.

[jman]

Was having a really good commute this morning until some dickhead spoiled it 

So 4 guys, crossing a road diagonally in front of me.. judging by my speed and the angle and pace they were crossing the road, I could see from a distance that we might cross paths... now I'm on the road, I have right of way to pedestrians.. they should stop.. they don't... so the first 3 just make it across, at this point, I have had to pull out into the road only very slightly to ensure I didn't hit them.. but the 4th guy just stops bang right in front of me (I'm unsure if he did it on purpose because he could of made it if he had upped his pace, or there wouldn't be a problem if he stopped a second earlier).. so I have to fucking swerve out the way, across the road (thankfully no cars were overtaking me) to avoid this ignorant cunt.. and he has the gall to say to me I should "watch where I'm fucking going"    Sorry, but you are a WANKER son!!

Generally I don't have many problems riding on the road, although I wish they would implement some kind of cycling infrastructure in Reading.. there's absolutely no cycle lanes I can use on my way to work - it often feels quite dangerous which is a shame.

Even when I use back-roads.. I'm still not safe apparently.. doing a leisurely ride when it was sunny the other weekend.. was doing about 20mph at the time as I was going downhill and went past a lady and child walking a dog.. and the dog tries to attack me as I'm going past.. it properly goes for my leg, but I just raise my knees and the dog hits my pedal instead (haha).. and whimpers... the dog is on a lead, so the lady is not completely at fault and to be fair she apologised.. but if your walking a dog.. make sure you can actually fucking walk it !!!

[Late]

...the dog hits my pedal instead (haha).. /quote]

lol. I can hear the "clack" of it's jaw snapping shut as the pedal whacks it now.

[jman]

Perfect weather for cycling recently.. been doing 4x10 miles for the past 2 weeks now and will continue for the next couple.. much fitter than I was.. am planning to do a non-stop 30 mile bike ride in the next week or so now as I only have 3 weeks and 6 days left before the L2B bike ride.  I've planned the route out, although I probably need to get my bike serviced before I do it.

I'm not really doing the L2B bike ride to raise loads of cash for charity.. it was merely set as a challenge/goal for myself this year and to ensure that I don't stop cycling as I do enjoy it and the weight loss is a nice side extra, but the early morning rises each day (6am) do get a bit long in the tooth after a while - especially when the weather isn't great - with this I have no choice but to train.. I set up my justgiving site properly last week and I do intend to get the sponsorship forms out to people at work within the next week or so - I hate badgering people for donations though.. I've done a few charity events in the past 2 years and raised a couple of hundred quid - so I'm not too worried about how many people donate.. but its nice to have a few donations to make you feel like the effort is for something worthwhile.

So here's my sponser page link if you want to donate (excuse the stupid wording - just an in-joke with the guy I'm doing it with) - you can donate as little or as much as you want - its all appreciated.

[jman]

Got my London - Brighton ride tomorrow, did a 35 miler last weekend, didn't feel too knackered at the end of it, but I did have a nice nap afterwards lol...

Bikes been serviced, I'm ready - got myself new bike kit (shirt and shorts) and looking forward to it.. (except that I might miss one or two World cup games)..  9am start - reckon it will take 6 hours - cant really go out drinking tonight for the England game if I want to be fresh for tomorrow 

[harv]

Well, Doctor Harv says: Because beer dehydrates the body a little you need to drink as much as possible to counter the effect. If you go out tonight to watch the football you need to drink twice as much as you would normally to properly prepare your body for tomorrow.

 

[Late]

Good luck tomorrow, Kieran.

Watch out for loonies, and play it safe!

[jman]

Cheers chaps 

Getting picked up at 6:30am, so it'll literally be bed straight after the match, will definitely be having a few beers after the bike ride don't worry Harv 

[harv]

What you need to do is drink alcohol before, during and after the bike ride. You should get someone to drive alongside you and hand you a cold can of lager. Quite easy to ride your bike one handed.

[jman]

Well I did it.. started at 09:06am.. passed the finish line at around 17:45pm.. lol.. 8hrs and 40 minutes.. an absolutely fucking ridiculous amount of people doing it... at least 42,000... it took 2 hours to just do the first 9 miles and get out of London - it was so frustrating. We took a 30 minute break across the day (beer/fag breaks).. and my trip computer showed actual cycling time at the end was 5hrs and 45 minutes.. which meant we got stuck (and in a lot of places had to walk our bikes to continue - because of the mass of people) for 2hrs 25 minutes!!

This is a picture of the first hill we went up.. it wasn't that steep nor was it very long, but you can see what I mean when I said it was busy.. as soon as you got to the top, everyone was cycling again.. so the queues were literally down to people who couldn't do the climbs - although there were 2 serious accidents yesterday which had a bad knock-on effect also.



Got back home at 11:30pm because of some really nice long delays on the M25 too.. all in all, I feel totally fucked today and glad I took the day off work! 

Would like to do another lengthy bike ride again - but certainly not doing this one again.. the ride was picturesque and nice.. but it was absolutely manic and way too many people - the one thing I did like were the hundreds of people who just sat outside their houses all day cheering the bikers on.. I know you get it with the London marathon - wasn't expecting it with this though.. the end was great - we got stopped at some traffic lights before the run-in.. I was at the front, so burst from the pack and there were thousands of people just cheering/clapping everyone on - of course I got the biggest whoop because I was at the front of that particular pack    My missus said she saw someone stack it on the run-in - was doing some stupid celebration and went head-over-heels and ended up with the bike on top of him.. he was alright, so it was good to laugh.

[Late]

Damn but that's a long day! Glad you made it through unscathed mate