Bike Diary

Left work early yesterday hoping to do at least 40 or so, to take advantage of a benign weather forecast that promised no more than a couple of light rain showers late afternoon. With the wind pointing downwards, a trip out east seemed to make sense – I thought I’d do the Belvoir Castle route as far as I felt like it, then turn for home after 20 miles or so.

Cold and a bit windy, but I wrapped up warm enough. I’d decided to turn back after 22 miles, but remembered that my monthly tally stood at 249 – so I pushed on a bit, to get it over the 300 mark. I turned back eventually near Wartnaby, and put the lights on not long after that.

I thought I’d evaded the light rain showers (I refer the reader to my first paragraph). I’d had a minute of drizzle and a few spots of rain on the outward leg. Nothing unttoward. But as I neared Burton on the Wolds, heavy rain descended from a pitch black sky. I guess the ground is pretty saturated at the moment, because the roads were flowing with water in no time.

The stretch between Cotes and Stanford on Soar is well-surfaced but narrow and very quiet, with some steep-ish, curvy descents. I’d had to take my glasses off because they were spattered with rain and even with a bright front light, I couldn’t see much of the road in front of me in the blackness. What I could see was flowing with water, but it was very difficult to see how deep it was at any point. Not much fun coming down a bendy flume of water in the darkness, being pelted by rain, cold, soaked through and scared to put the brakes on in case I came a cropper (and the braking surfaces were soaking wet in any case). I unclipped my shoes, tried to maintain my balance and hoped for the best. Hellish.

I was very grateful to reach Stanford, then Normanton and Zouch where at least the roads were level and I had a bit of light now and then. Not that the rest of the ride was a lot of fun, the roads were still running with water and I had a cold wind blowing through wet clothes. I gritted my teeth, cursed the weatherman and got on with it.

Took the following pic when I reached the main road near Zouch.

I was flagged down by a motorist emerging from a parked car near Belton – my rear light had stopped working. Annoying, but I had a spare. Might have been that it was low on power; modern rechargeable LED units do just turn themselves off sometimes rather than gradually growing dimmer. This one has been brilliant, I bought it at Tesco a couple of years ago and it’s comfortably bright enough to be visible from the Moon. Possibly I should have charged it up first.

Shame there’s no easy way to tell if your rear light is actually illuminated. Maybe some sort of Heath Robinson mirror arrangement would do it but it hardly seems worth it.

I gave the bike a good wipe down and thoroughly hosed the chain / gears etc with GT85 when I got back. I’ve relubed it today.

Anyway. 52.14 miles, the last 18 or so definitely hard won. That must have been, in the end, the most character building ride I’ve ever done.

301 this month, 672 to go before I hit my 4000 target. I’m sure I can do another 100 or so this month, which will leave me needing substantially less than 300 in each of the two remaining months.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2798890378

I took the afternoon off yesterday, in the hope of making the most of a day without rain and doing about 60 miles. But although it didn’t rain, the roads stayed soaking wet all day and a cold damp clung to the air long into the afternoon. I just stayed at home and watched old Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.

It turns out that today was the one I should have picked for an afternoon off work. But I left work early anyway to make up for yesterday’s disappointment a bit. Hoped to do about 40. I was going to do a long Twycrosser, but within a minute of leaving the house I decided not to do that. I headed in the general direction of Coalville, and a few minutes later had hatched a plan. I’d basically repeat Saturday’s ride, with the exception that I wouldn’t miss the proper turn to Swarkestone Bridge from Aston and end up pedalling along the ring road in Derby, which wouldn’t be a lot of fun during a weekday rush hour. Also, I’d come home the usual way from Melbourne, without going down to Swarkestone.

A bit cold, slightly blowy but otherwise quite pleasant. I took the Boardman again on its tenth consecutive run out. I knew I’d be back after dark so I took lights.

That stretch between Aston and Swarkestone is really nice, especially in the late afternoon. I’d like to incorporate it into my rides more often but it’s not really possible to get to it from the east without going over a busy, large roundabout over the A50.

When I got to Swarkestone, I decided to pedal along the road to Willington for a bit, and come back. Really quite a pleasant, flat stretch even though it’s notionally an A road. I actually went all the way to Willington before coming back. Turned on the basic lights at a farm gate somewhere near Twyford not long after sunset then after crossing the bridge, added a head torch and the proper tarmac-melter LED torch on the handlebar. The head torch is great for checking the bike computer, watch, gear indicators. Not easy to pair one with a helmet, but I was wearing a woolly hat.

Took the following pic near Twyford.

Properly dark by the time I got to Melbourne. I took the following pic just south of there opposite a pub. Beautiful view of a low Moon over the lights of Coalville, a few miles in the distance, about a mile from home.

Disposed of another mouse body in the garage before setting off. Another very clean kill. That’s about 18 since I started my Rodent Final Solution extermination initiative.

My knees were a bit painful throughout the ride. I have a suspicion that not cycling for a few days (in this case due to weather) makes them worse. They feel a bit sore now. That’s just the way it is now. Perhaps I should start using the turbo trainer again when it’s raining to keep the joints moving.

Annoyingly I didn’t remember to start the GPS watch until I’d gone 1.04 miles. I’ll just leave the track as it is on Strava, but I have of course done the maths for my spreadsheet – and that’s 249 for October so far. I’d like to think I can get another 150 or so in this month. Perhaps a 50+ miler on Sunday, though it’s likely to be cold.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2794194476

A decent day yesterday, with no rain expected until after sunset and the roads mostly dried out from the previous day’s precipitation. I was on call, but wanted to do 40 or 50. I set off with the general plan of going north of base for a bit, then to the south, then home. The usual strategy for doing a reasonable distance while minimising the risk of being too far from home if I got a call. But I didn’t have a specific route in mind.

Went up to Belton to start, then since I was feeling fairly relaxed about the prospect of getting a call, continued on east along Ashby Road. Turned left toward Diseworth with the thought of maybe going across to Melbourne from there, but decided to press further north to Castle Donington. I decided to go right through Donington to the A50 roundabout, where I’d take a left through Shardlow, Aston and Weston, to Swarkestone Bridge then back down through Melbourne.

So anyway I pedalled through Donington and Shardlow – nice to be cycling through Shardlow again, I used to drive that way to work 30 years ago. I took the left to Aston but missed the turn to Swarkestone Bridge, because I ended up back on Shardlow Road again. At this point, sentimentality and nostalgia overcame my fear of being called, and I decided to continue on up to Derby, take the ring road to Allenton then turn left at the “Spider” roundabout as it’s known to Derby folk, and come south to Swarkestone Bridge that way. This was especially nostalgic because one day in 1990, I cycled home to Markfield from my place of work in Derby, and I took the same route to Swarkestone Bridge. That’s about the only aspect of that route I remember, unfortunately. I’d dearly love to know how I got to Markfield from there, but apart from tiny snippets of fading memories, there’s no way for me to know.

Must admit I did feel slightly disconcerted cycling around Derby while on call. It’s not even the nearest city. But I got away with it.

Anyway. I came the usual way down from Melbourne until I got to Rempstone Road, then I cut across Farmtown with the intention of joining the Twycross route, or one version of it, at Packington. From there I’d do the southern leg of the route. I was slightly wary of coming through Farmtown as there’s a stretch through the woods there that I expected to be a bit muddy. It was a bit. But I have a theory, untested and not carefully considered, that a bit of mud on your tyres protects them from the road and stops them wearing out.

I got as far as Snarestone though, and decided I’d turn left for the caff at the Alpaca farm. I was served with a coffee and a scone with jam by a delectably plump young wench. I’d actually ordered clotted cream as well, but they didn’t have any. She didn’t offer a refund for the cream. I’m sure she would have if I’d pressed the matter. But I just let it slide.

I just headed home from there, through Swepstone and Heather. It was an enjoyable run out, nice to visit Derby again. But these contrived “orbital” routes don’t feel like a proper long ride, and I decided I’d do something else with my Saturday afternoon rather than chasing miles for its own sake. I’m fairly confident of hitting my target for the year now.

Home on 48.07 miles. 205 done this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2782629893

I was going to do 50 or so after work tomorrow night; a nice little night-time adventure illuminated by bike lights. But the weather forecast this morning told me that I wasn’t going to do that.

So, with dry weather on the cards this afternoon at least, I thought I’d leave early today and do a Twycrosser. I’d normally give my knees a day off the day following a ride, but I only did 18.6 yesterday and only planned to do about 25 today.

Nice weather for it, not too blowy and not cold. Conditions very dry. I would have taken the X probably but wanted to check the accuracy of the new wireless bike computer on the Boardman now I’ve calibrated it.

A fairly standard route of intermediate length. Nice run out. Stopped to take a pic between Sheepy and Sibson.

The bike computer did good. It recorded the track at about 27.46 miles, compared to the phone’s 27.40. Nonetheless I should be able to get it a bit more accurate. One thing I do like about these Chinese touch screen units is that you can set the wheel circumference in mm.

It’s currently set to 2126mm, so I need to set it to 27.40 / 27.46 * 2126 = 2121 (rounding to the nearest mm).

https://www.strava.com/activities/2775705490

That’s 8 in a row on the Boardman now.

157 this month, decent progress so far. The weather looks mostly iffy for a while, though.

Hoped to do 20 or so after work, but while I was at Tesco an hour or so before I intended to set off, the rain came down in bucketloads. That seemed to be the end of that idea, but I returned home, three miles from there, to dry roads and sunny skies.

Interesting how micro-climate-ish it is around here. I’m sure my native Teesside is nothing like that.

Careful scrutiny of the rainfall radar told me that if I stayed to the south of Ashby I’d avoid rain or wet roads. And that was always the intention anyway, so I set off on a Twycrosser at about 4:30pm. The forecast threatened a shower at 6pm-ish. As things turned out, that didn’t happen but I took the Boardman anyway.

Left the house quite quickly, so as to make the best of the remaining daylight hours – both of them – and forgot to bring the new bike computer out with me. I’d had it in the house to calibrate it. No biggie, but it meant that I didn’t have a record of the distance done until I’d finished. Was recording the track on my phone.

Since I was trying to keep it short, I took the lovely Bilstone Road to, er, Bilstone from Twycross, then Barton Lane.  Beautifully quiet crossing the little hump back bridges between the fields. I didn’t see another road user the whole way from Twycross to Barton.

Cool and rather blowy, but not enough to spoil the fun.

Quite a few pheasants (or is it grouse?) around, some of them dead.

Thought I’d have ended up on about 22 miles on returning home but nope, 18.6. There are so many permutations of the Twycross route that it’s impossible to memorise the distances. Getting a bit dim as I returned home, a few minutes after the Sun went down. Nice view of the two-thirds Moon, even before sunset.

More on Thursday I hope, when the weather is slated to be rather mild temperature-wise (15 degrees in the afternoon), but rather windy. But I can’t go too far, I’m on call again.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2773154623

I’m not really a wine person but I’ve developed a taste for red recently and had, arguably, a glass too many before retiring last night. Despite this I felt OK this morning when I woke up at about 6:30. I pondered getting up and setting off to Lincolnshire and back there and then, but fell asleep again for a couple of hours.

Got up at about 9:30 and set off at about 10:10. The roads were still a bit puddly here and there outside and I wanted to test my new bike computer, so I took the Boardman.

Wrapped up warm, no overshoes but I had tights on and three layers on top. Felt a bit cold for the first hour or two but as anticipated the temperature improved and I was comfortable by midday. I listened to a couple of hours of the Beatles bio audiobook, then switched to 5 Live for football coverage. Surprised to hear Tottenham getting tonked by Brighton.

I was slightly concerned to see a flood warning sign on a road leading off my route near Stanford on Soar but apart from minor puddles I wasn’t troubled by water.

Really nice to reacquaint myself with the last stretch of the road to Belvoir Castle and Woolsthorpe, where I crossed the border into Lincolnshire before turning back. I stopped at the Belvoir Castle caff a few minutes after turning for home. I hadn’t expected it to be open at this time of year so that was a very pleasant surprise. It’s changed quite a bit since I was last there, now Café Allez! with tables and chairs inside and a closed-off seating area outside. You can no longer get sandwiches or pasties there though, sadly. The best I could do for a lunch main course was a large packet of crisps, possibly the first packet of crisps I’ve had this year. I also had a scone with jam, an excellent Americano and a Fruit Shoot to top up my bidon. I must say that the guy who served me is the single most polite shop or cafe assistant I’ve ever encountered, possibly to the point of being obsequious or irritating. Better than being rude though, I guess.

Noticed that they have a strirrup pump on hand for cyclist patrons as well. Nice touch. I actually put cleat covers on at the caff, first time I’ve used them and they do make walking around a fair bit easier. I’ve had them a couple of years and never bothered to use them (even though I’ve taken them with me in a backpack more than once).

Seemed to be facing a bit of a headwind on the way back as well as there, which I hadn’t expected. The occasional wind turbine I encountered seemed to suggest that it was cutting across at an angle. But it wasn’t too troublesome in either direction.

Very happy to hit the 70 mile mark, as the nearly-70 I’d done four weeks ago had given me a bit of pain to the left knee, and I didn’t experience that today. For sure they both felt a bit tender after 60 or so but nothing debilitating or of concern. Of course, I do miss the days when I didn’t spare my knees the slightest thought while out on a ride, but this time last year I was giving myself a setback if I did more than 25. So I’m encouraged.

It’s been a good day. First ride of more than 70 miles distance since April 2018. October Fondo done. I’ve now done all of Leicestershire’s neighbouring counties in 2019. And very happy to have done Belvoir Castle and back again as it’s one of the classic longer rides in my repertoire, and one I missed.

I tidied up the track in a GPS editor to remove the parts recorded while clogging around the caff, walking to farm gates at wee spots etc. This claimed to knock off half a mile, which can’t be right! But I’ll go with it anyway.

The new bike computer did OK. Needs calibrating, but I’ll do the maths later.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2765407421

76.25 miles, 111 this month – not bad for 5 days in. But the weather for the coming week looks none too promising.

Took the afternoon off work with the intention of doing a run out to Stafford Bingley Hall and back, about 74 miles. I’d chosen this particular destination for several reasons: first, I’d have a tailwind on the way back. Second, I should mostly have the sun behind me both ways, and third: as a sort of ceremonial pilgrimage in the memory of two brilliant gigs, 40 years ago last week.

Very nice day for it on the face of it – clear blue skies, sunny, not that blowy and surprisingly, not that cold although I’d wrapped up very warm, with tights and overshoes on.

Spent twenty minutes this morning preparing in-flight snacks, fitting an eTrex mount to the Boardman (usually it lives on the X) and pumping up the tyres to spec. I set off at about 12:20.  I expected the roads to be wet here and there due to the amount of rain over the last few days.

Mostly the roads were bone dry, but here and there on lower ground I did encounter water running over the road in front of me; no more than a few mm deep I guess. No biggie, I just slowed down so as not to fling too much of it up into the cables, chain etc and continued on.

Until I got to a road junction near Croxall, where the crossing was about a foot deep in water. I snapped a moody pic that underexposed slightly:

You can’t gauge the depth of the water from the image, but cars and vans going through it were more than half a wheel deep.

I thought briefly of plotting a different route from there to Bingley but assumed I’d most likely just hit the same problem again. I’d have added some unwanted distance, anyway. Didn’t want to try more than 75 for now. So I decided simply to give up, and turn for home.

Took the same route back until I got to Measham, just 5 or 6 miles from home. Then I took a different road, to join the time-honoured Twycross route. I’d had the idea of tacking on a Twycrosser to end up on 50 miles or so. But when I got to Snarestone I just took a left for home. My failure to do a run out to Stafford had taken the wind out of my sails. What was potentially a really enjoyable run out had been ruined by weather; not in the present but over the previous few days.

I did feel slightly guilty going straight back. It was a nice day, the roads were dry enough near home and I’m sure I could have got round the Twycross route without difficulty. Furthermore the weather looks iffy for the next couple of days.

Anyway. I stopped at the Alpaca farm tearoom at Snarestone and had a coffee and a scone with jam in the garden there. One of the staff – one of the owners I think, actually – came over and struck up a conversation about my handlebar tape, wanting to know where I’d got it. She explained that she had white tape on her own bike, and it had become grubby very quickly. The perennial problem with white bar tape, of course. I don’t even know why it exists. I told her that I’d changed mine for exactly the same reason and directed her to Amazon, where I’d got mine quite cheaply.

Home on 34.81 miles which isn’t a bad start for the month, I guess. This month’s target, adjusted for the new yearly target of 4,000 miles, is 362.

Nice to go out west for a change; I don’t go that way so often. A few times over the last few years when I’ve been out on a bike and listening to the radio, news has broken about the death of some celebrity or well-known figure. Mohammed Ali, Prince, Victoria Wood for example. Today it was Peter Sissons’ turn, sadly. For some reason – well, it must just be coincidence – this only ever happens when I’m cycling over west of Ashby which is actually not very often. I’m a rational person, but it seems a bit spooky.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2757355981

I’m afraid my optimism about the bike computer and its new magnet was a bit premature, it did drop out for about .8 of a mile. I noticed this when I glanced down and it was showing 0mph. I suppose I’ll just buy a new one.

According to the forecast, temperatures will pick up a bit on Saturday and it probably won’t rain. However, the wind will be blowing from the east. If that holds true I’ll do Lincolnshire and back, all being well.

The bike computer on the Boardman had developed a bad habit, taking a few hundred yards before noticing that the front wheel was spinning when setting off, or after stopping for a while. I’ve had that one for over ten years actually so not a bad innings, but I hoped that a new magnet would fix it. I had a spare, and fitted it yesterday.

So i took it for a quick lunch time spin today, to see if the problem had been solved. Looks like it is working properly now; no dropouts. Curious that a magnet weakened by corrosion would start working after a few hundred metres fairly consistently. I can only guess that the current induced in the sensor literally warms it up slightly, and makes it more sensitive.

Stupidly forgot to start the GPS watch until I’d already done 0.19 miles, but I accounted for that on the spreadsheet. The Strava totals are still exaggerated anyway due to various errors.

Really nice out there – a few puddles here and there but the roads are mostly dry, it was warm enough for bare legs and the sun was out. Rain due over this afternoon but I was back in plenty of time. I did a sort of extended version of the old ‘Packington Pentagon’, albeit I was making it up as I went along. Not sure I’ve ever done the stretch between Packington and Snarestone in that direction, but that apart it was all familiar stuff.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2751763198

13.68 miles which brings the September total to 396 miles.

With only 724 miles needed to reach my yearly target of 3750 and three months to go, it would be rude not to readjust it to 4000. So I’ve done that.

The weather forecast for today has been very changeable over the last couple of days. Yesterday morning it looked like I could get 50+ miles in before the arrival of rain in the evening. Early this morning it looked like rain all day. It did rain this morning quite a bit but by 3pm, the forecast was telling me I had a few hours to get a ride in without rain.

Since the roads were wet, I decided to take the hybrid. Once I got to the garage though I realised that I hadn’t brought non-cleaty shoes with me – I often forget that the hybrid has civvie pedals now. I certainly wasn’t going to do a Twycross in the Crocs that I use as temporary footwear between the house and the garage, where I keep my cycling shoes – so I decided to take the Boardman instead.

Twenty minutes after I set off, and against the best advice of the Met Office, the rain came down by the bucketload. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but left me thoroughly soaked.

Curiously, a few minutes after the rain stopped, I turned south onto Ashby Rd at Snarestone and the road went from soaking wet to bone dry in the space of a few feet. A heavy blob of rain must have passed over, just clipping Snarestone. It must have been possible to have stood on Ashby Road, remaining perfectly dry while watching the rain coming down a few yards away. Fascinating.

Just checked the rainfall radar for the time the rain came down and yep, it looks like that’s exactly what happened.

The roads were quite dry for the next 15 miles until the southern approach to Heather, which is roughly level with Snarestone. So the rain blob would have been travelling pretty much exactly eastwards, which makes sense of course. I was quite pleased to have taken the Boardman in the end.

I gave a celebratory fist pump as I chested the imaginary 3,000 mile finishing tape between Sheepy and Sibson. Since the roads were dry enough at that point and my clothes had dried off a bit I decided to extend the ride a bit by taking Barton Lane across to Barton in the Beans rather than coming straight up through Shackerstone. I love Barton Lane. So quiet and secluded, yet decently surfaced and some nice scenery as well.

Not an entirely enjoyable ride; my feet were a bit damp for the remainder of the ride after the downpour. My gloves were cold and damp as well, but I stuffed them into a bottle cage for part of the ride and made do with bare hands.

Pleased to have got a Saturday Twycross in, especially with footy on 5 Live, albeit Alan Pardew isn’t my favourite match summariser. A bit of a Saturday tradition.

The bike computer on the Boardman has developed a bad habit recently – it takes a few hundred yards before it notices that the front wheel is spinning when setting off, or after stopping for a while. I’ve had that one for over ten years actually so not a bad innings, but maybe a new magnet will fix it. I do have a spare somewhere, I’ll have a good look for it tomorrow.

23.72 miles done today and that’s 3,013 this year, 382 this month. Looking at the weather forecast, the September campaign may well be over.

I’m currently aiming for 3,750 this year and my monthly targets are based on that. Certainly it looks almost easy now, but could I possibly reach 4,000? Depends on the weather, I think. I do have some holiday still to take and of course there are some public holidays near the end of December, so perhaps it’s doable.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2747076306

The weather forecast encouraged me to believe I could go for a long lunch break ride without getting rained on. I decided on a Twycrosser, predictably.

Quite sunny and almost warm when I set off, but ten minutes later I was pedalling through moderate rain. Only for ten minutes, though, and not too heavy. The roads became markedly wetter as I approached Twycross, suggesting that the rain had been a lot heavier there. But after I took the road to Sheepy, the surface was completely dry. The rain must have just edged Twycross.

I did get showered on a couple of times after that but the last few miles were warm, sunny, and without rain albeit the roads were a bit damp.

I’d meant to do about 22 but ended up doing 27.15, returning to my desk half an hour later than I’d intended. But I got away with it.

I tried the new bottle I bought in London, even though the colour clashes shockingly with the red frame of the Boardman. Apart from being very light it’s also highly ergonomic – it slips in and out of the bottle cage very easily, by virtue no doubt of being a thinner and more malleable plastic – and the nozzle is very easy to operate. My only slight misgiving is that it might not be too secure in the cage.

Anyway. That’s 359 done this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2741622143

I’d been hoping to do a 70+ miler on Saturday but the forecast is now for rain from mid-afternoon continuing right into Sunday. So it’ll be a shorter ride than that to finish off the September campaign, unless they change their minds again.