Author: james

Didn’t think I was going to ride a bike today but the forecast improved enough to allow a window of decent weather in the afternoon. Wasn’t sure what to do really .. I did sort of an odd combination of a trip up towards Donington, but only as far as Tonge. Back down through Lount and back to the main road to Ashby. Went along that (not pleasant, busy traffic) for 3km or so then left to Packington.

I planned to do a Twycrosser from there but the weather was a bit rubbish. Not wet but slightly damp, and getting colder. Actually I’d been a bit too warm an hour earlier. So I cut it short by taking a left homeward through Swepstone from Snarestone.

Only 44.87 km but considering the conditions, enough. Quite enjoyed it but I wouldn’t have enjoyed another half hour. Back about 13 minutes after sunset, but I didn’t need lights.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13424411408

Following the mishap I described a couple of post back in which my Planet X’s hanger got bent, I’ve bought a hanger alignment tool. I just went for the cheapest one I could find (on eBay) but it seems nicely manufactured. I may only ever use it once.

It turns out that the Planet X’s saddle got chewed up in the same mishap. I bought a new one off Amazon. It was only £10, about 1/5 of the cost of the Prologo saddle it’s replacing. But again it seems well-made and comfy, and it even has green trim to go with the frame. And a gap down the middle, which the old saddle didn’t have. Which if nothing else will make it easier to get at the forward allen bolt that secures it to the seat post.

A cold, overcast day. Having clocked up a reasonable km count this month, and having got a fondo in, I thought 55k would be enough. I’d normally consider 34 miles (a typical Twycrosser distance) to be an acceptable bog-standard ride distance, before I metricated myself. And it’s close enough.

I knew I wanted to go roughly south because of the wind direction, but set off without a clear idea of the route. I was going to start by going down through Ellistown but rather than approach it via Ibstock as I usually do, I started off down Standard Hill. I avoid this usually (and I haven’t done it for at least a year) because it involves a steep climb.

Anyway I survived the climb, then took my occasional detour after Ellistown, along Beveridge Lane – past the big warehouses and depots, then back to the usual route via West Lane. Nicely surfaced along there, not too busy. Just easy kilometres really.

After Bagworth, rather than heading down to Kirkby Mallory à la usual southbound route, I went down to Newtown Unthank and across to Kirby Muxloe, on the very outskirts of Leicester. Idly pootled both ways along Ratby Lane for a bit and came back the same way, except that I detoured along Heath Road / Wood Road, and didn’t detour along Beveridge Lane.

I was particularly interested to come back via Standard Hill because it was resurfaced a couple of years ago on the left side as you approach Ravenstone – making it unusable for cycling. They managed somehow to make the road surface ripply, and the last time I tried it, well over a year ago I think, I was nearly bounced off the bike coming down the hill. Now to be fair I could have applied the brakes to slow down, but I don’t like to do that. It wastes kinetic energy and brake pad material.

But I had an inkling that Standard Hill had been resurfaced again in recent months, so I gave it another go and happily – it has. I was able to whoosh down the hill toward the village without incident. I’m happy about that because there are only five ways to return to the village, so I like to have the full set.

Back on 46.46 km, not as many as I intended but it was really cold out there – my fingers were icy, even in thick gloves. So I think I’ve done my bit.

Listened to footy coverage on 5 Live.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13388606993

I like to do at least one fondo every calendar month; a sort of mandatory self-imposed target. And I was a little concerned that I’d let half the month slip away without getting it done for January 2025 – mainly due to dismal weather. Don’t think I’d left it so late for years.

And the weather was pretty dismal today as well, but I was determined to get a 100km ride in. So I did.

I’d hoped to set off at about 1000, which would see me back before sunset. But the view out of the window was not encouraging, when I got up. Thick fog. So made sure I had lights, and set off a bit later at 1038.

I’d decided on the southbound route. Cold and murky for the first hour or so, but nice once the sun came out and chased away the fog. Conditions warmed up nicely, I had to take off a layer after the first couple of hours.

I took the bypass round Earl Shilton and approached Stoney Stanton from the west. Fortunate that I did, because when I got to the crossroads there I noticed that my usual approach had been blocked off – the whole width of the road was being resurfaced.

I crossed the border into Northamptonshire after about 54 km. Pootled past the gliding club (nothing happening today) then came back the same way – except that I came up into Ibstock along the A47 rather than the usual considerably quieter route through Bagworth and Ellistown. I only did this to get home a bit quicker but it was definitely a mistake. Busy with traffic and quite unpleasant, especially in the dark.

Listened mostly to 5 Live. Much discussion about the impending (or not) ceasefire agreement between the two usual belligerents in the Middle East.

Back on 107.45, 426 done this month. I don’t feel as if I’ve done that much distance this year so far, but surprisingly 426 is a record for Jan 16th. A little more than 2km ahead of this time last year.

Oh, and although I don’t do imperial measurements now, for what it’s worth I’ve now done 50,026 miles since Jan 15.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13372517863

My firm intention was to do a fondo over to Eastwell and back today. Sure, it was going to be very cold. But the wind speed was forecast to be very low and it was going to be sunny all day.

Well, when I got up, I changed my mind. Looked rather frosty out there. But I set off at about 1100, thinking I’d do maybe 50k or so.

The road surface looked a bit precarious (icy in other words) over the first few hundred metres, but fine once I hit a well-travelled road. I wasn’t too concerned about the surface I was pedalling along, but it was Baltic out there. My fingers were painfully cold after a couple of km, even in my thickest gloves. I genuinely considered turning back and if I’d known the conditions were going to be as cold as that, I wouldn’t even have set off.

But I had set off. So I pressed on. And after about an hour, with the sun out and the air temperature having climbed a bit, I’d started to enjoy myself slightly. I still wasn’t going to do 100km, though. I’d set off too late for that and I had the uncomfortable thought that changing an inner tube with icy fingers would be a nightmare, if I got a puncture.

By the time I came to the junction with East Road, I’d decided I was going to turn back soon. So I took the left along there to do something a bit different. After another km or so I came to another junction with a left turn I’d never tried before. So I went along there. Quite a nice road. Well surfaced and quiet.

And I was gliding along quite happily in the sunshine when I noticed a car in the ditch, with two police officers in attendance, about 80 metres up ahead. In the same instant the bike gave way under me, and it and I both collided with the road. We both slid spectacularly along the ground for about three metres, like aggressively propelled curling stones.

Fair play to the two police officers, a young man who looked unsettlingly like Harry Maguire and a young blonde woman. They came running the second they heard the bike clatter against the tarmac and saw what had happened, but I already had a hand raised to indicate that I was OK, I think before I’d even slid to a stop. I think the sheer frictionlessness of the road surface, despite having caused the incident, had prevented an injury. Nearly all of the kinetic energy inherent from the momentum of the bike was expended on sliding along the road.

I took stock. The two coppers were creditably attentive but I assured them I was fine. The bike (my Planet X) looked alright as well. For a moment I thought I’d buggered the rear mech (again, I only replaced it last year) because the chain was hanging loose but once I’d threaded it back onto a chainring it was clear that it was working properly.

The road surface didn’t even look icy, or frosty. But it had a very thin, transparent layer of ice that was incredibly slippery. My clothes weren’t even scuffed. My bum does have a bruise but apart from that I’m unscathed. I realised when I changed into the easiest cog at the back that the bike didn’t completely get away with it – the rear pulley rattled against the spokes like a ruler dragged along a set of railings. All the other gears are fine, and it was even changing up and down nicely. But the rear hanger is slightly bent inward. Just enough to shift the indexing by exactly one place, possibly. In any case I made a mental note not to resort to the granny gear on the way home.

I think I just need to bend the hanger back into alignment. Probably the best approach is to take it right off and straighten it in a vice or something, rather than pulling on the mech. I’ll think about that when the garage is a bit warmer.

No more mishaps on the way back. I came a slightly longer way back after Belton, only because I thought the roads stood a better chance of being clear.

Back on 67.81 km. Be careful out there. 243 km this month now.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13317322460

Very nearly ten years ago, I performed the first ride of my regular cycling habit. I wrote a brief summary on the old Counterparts messageboard, below. Fortunately it remains the only time I’ve been bitten by a dog on a cycling excursion.

So for today’s ride, I thought it might be fun to repeat the one I did ten years ago as part of a longer ride. I only did about 12km on that cold day in 2015, and I wanted to do at least 60 today. I won’t be able to cycle on Thursday due to another commitment, so I decided to make this one my tenth anniversary ride.

I can’t actually remember the route I took for the whole ride ten years ago to be honest. This was a while before I signed up to Strava, or started using GPS equipment. I could probably work it out. But I do know that I went through Swannington and along a small road called Limby Hall Lane. From Coleorton I went along a narrow lane to Farm Town. On my very occasional cycling trips before my habit kicked in in earnest, I usually went that way. I don’t now. But I did today.

Except that as I climbed the hill towards Farm Town, I felt the back wheel spin freely. Ice. I stopped and checked the road under me. Looked OK, I thought I’d passed the icy patch, but when I put my foot on the pedal to set off, no resistance. Again, the back wheel was spinning on a very slippery thin film of ice. I definitely wasn’t going to make much uphill progress on that, so I just turned back down to Coleorton. Very carefully.

From there, up to Rempstone Road, down to the Tesco roundabout at Ashby and along Corkscrew Lane to Packington, from where I basically did a Twycrosser.

I stopped at the Packington village shop to get a sandwich and a mince pie. The lady behind the counter wanted to know if I did my own bike repairs. Mostly, I told her. But she wasn’t put off. Her son has just opened a bike shop in Ashby so she gave me his card.

There’s a general flood warning in effect for Leicestershire today but I wasn’t really inconvenienced. I went down the Dad’s Army route for a bit. I couldn’t turn left along Spon Lane because it was flooded, with the fields either side transformed into temporary lakes. But that was fine. I kept on to Polesworth instead. I was met by a flood there as well, but I was about to turn back anyway.

Back home in the usual Twycrosser manner, or one of them. I dropped off some unwanted books at the public lending library at Sibson (a repurposed phone box). Been meaning to do that for a long time.

It was supposed to be a dry day, with a chance of a shower at about 1330. In reality, I had a prolonged snow shower quite early on, then a couple of hours later, sharp hailstones clattering my face in troubling quantities for about ten minutes. Really painful. But the sun was mostly out in the afternoon. Quite pleasant out there when it was.

I note that I entered Warwickshire along the road to Polesworth, so that’s two neighbouring counties ticked off (I did Nottinghamshire on Saturday).

Back on 69.96 km, can’t say it was the most enjoyable ride overall, but I’m glad to have marked my 10th anniversary with a run out.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13291048378

According to the BBC site it was going to be 1C all day, and overcast. I thought I might tolerate about 40 km or so. Set off to do a bit of the eastbound route at about 1130.

Definitely was cold out there but not quite as bad as I expected. The wind was light and that makes a positive difference.

At Rempstone, after 25km I took a left for Costock. Just thought I’d improvise a different route home. Turned left again for East Leake, then dipped down to Stanford, which is on a familiar version of the eastbound route. Came back the longer way after Zouch, through Long Whatton and Diseworth – partly to extend my distance a bit, partly because I’ve done the route back through Belton so many times that it feels a bit of a slog.

Back on 59.43 km and I’m quite satisfied with that. Given the conditions – my fingers and toes were icy over the last 15 km – I think I’ve gone above and beyond there.

Listened to footy talk on 5 Live.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13265120623

The temperature stood at a rather unaccommodating 1C when I set off, and I thought I’d probably tolerate about 35 – 40 km at most. But it was a sunny day and actually pretty comfortable out there.

I did a fairly standard Twycrosser, with the slight variation that I detoured through Nailstone on the way back up.

Really lovely out there. I could have set off earlier and done a fondo. Ah well! It’s a half-decent start to the 2025 campaign.

I listened to Suella Braverman, sitting in for James O’Brexit on LBC.

Saw a helicopter on the de-facto helipad near Measham so I stopped and took a pic. I looked up the registration number; according to FlightRadar24 it visited Brize Norton a couple of hours later.

Back on 45.81 km, I want to do at least 550 this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13246885650

2024 is over as you’re no doubt already aware. I’d have to say it was a pretty good cycling year, for me. The highlight was definitely breaking my distance record in June (323.88 km, to Sutton Bridge and back). Lovely long day out on a bike. I retired (or at least stopped working indefinitely) at the end of that month, which obviously gave me more time for cycling in the second half of the month.

I broke my yearly distance record (it now stands at 10621 km). I did 46 fondos in 2024 including 9 in October.

My ride frequency seems to be pretty consistent over the last few years. It mainly depends on weather conditions and holidays. I rode a bike 124 times in 2024 compared to 127 the year before, and 120 the year before that.

As the following graph shows, cycling took a bit of a hit in September. Mainly because I was abroad for a couple of weeks but I think the weather was a bit rubbish as well.

I pie-charted my bike distances, as follows:

The Cannondale didn’t get much of a look in because it needed setting up, but I did sort it out just before the end of the summer so it should get used a lot more in 2025. Once again the first Boardman was used more than any other bike, very nearly a quarter of all rides. But I lean on the Planet X in the non-summer months more than I used to.

So, for 2025 – once again my targets are pretty modest. At least one fondo every month, to a minimum of 30. Definitely want to do Wales and back again, and East Lincs and back one long day in the summer. But not necessarily by a 324 km route. I said I’d do Newark and back in 2024, and I didn’t. Must do that this year, the last time was in 2021.

I’ll do at least 7500 km.

I shall visit all of Leicestershire’s neighbouring counties in 2025 (although I’d probably do that anyway without thinking about it).

And I must find some new territory to explore. Perhaps a new county, one I haven’t done before. Essex, maybe? The very north-western corner might be doable.

I’ve now completed ten years of regular cycling – and I’ve been looking over my statistics. Every ride I’ve done since January 2015 has been documented in a spreadsheet – date, distance, which bike.

I’ve done 80,082 km in that time (49,761 miles), over 1530 rides. Very roughly, 7% of the time I’ve been awake in the last ten years has been spent propelling a bicycle.

Greatest distance cycled in a month: 1302km, August 2016. Shortest monthly distance: 29km, December 2018. I’d injured my knees.

Longest ride: 324 km, June 20th this year. Shortest: 8.24 km, July 15th, 2018.

The following graph shows number of rides per year – I had a bit of a manic cycling habit by 2016. I was going cycling most lunchtimes weather permitting and most of those 303 rides are less than 30km.

Since my knee injury in 2018, my average ride distance has increased steadily (next graph). For sure, early retirement at the end of June this year has helped to improve the 2024 statistic (85.65 km).

The last graph shows the total distance in km for each of the last ten years. 2024 was a personal record year (10,621 km or 6600 miles).