Slick-U-Blog

Ow. Pain.

more to follow later. Right now, its time to soak in a nice bath.

*Update*

Well today I was up at 7am and started to get the car ready for the trip to Ladybower. Setting the car up was relatively easy, easier than it used to be in the 306. I still had to put the front wheel of the bike in seperately but it seems to fit better than it did in the 306. I packed all my bits and bobs and set off at 8am.

Petrol cars suck at going over snake pass, which has now been dropped from the national speed limit to a 50, as they have no torque. I had to drive almost the whole way in 3rd gear. I arrived just after 9am and setup my bike. I had arrived before Graeme, Pie and Simon so I just pottered around the car park until they turned up. After they had got set up, and my cycle computer decided to stop working (so no cycle-o-tron details today), we set off at 10am.

The first climb is a long hard slog and its no easier today than it was last year. We cycled our way around the whole place and bar a few niggles on each of our bikes, including a 4 bike synchronous failure on the steep rocky ascent we made damn good time. Simon was always pulling up the rear as he has neglected most activites over the break in cycling. Pie and myself were more or less at the same level and Graeme was ahead as expected (his 3rd time round this year). We arrived back at the car park for just shy of 12am (including a 20 minute half-way rest).

Once we had got back, we had a cornish pasty and started off home. They had put a speed camera on the snake pass after a summit on a section on the road, and I may have been caught speeding. I was doing about 55 (as it is downhill) and didn’t notice it until I approached it. Ah well, if I get fined its because I *was* speeding, so its no big deal. Still a bit of a crap tactic by the speed police.

I had a nice bath once I got home and that helped me relax.

Jesus i’ve not been out on my bike since September 25th, which is, quite frankly, disgusting.

* grabs cycle-o-tron

• Distance: 11.04 miles
• Actual Riding Time: 1:33:58
• Average: 7mph
• Maximum: 28.1mph
• Total Odo: 273.0 miles.

Once again we took it easy for Mr Thecko, he’s still getting used to this cycling long distances lark. Myself and Simon also in attendance. Simon once again just kept sodding off and not slowing down for thecko . Tsk Tsk again Simon. I think he just likes being in front for once and not the one bringing up the rear.

I made the mistake of eating McDonalds breakfast before leaving birchwood, big mistake. I felt like throwing up halfway up the first hill, pressed on regardless and felt better once I got to the top and got my breath back. The weather was simply gorgeous, lovely clear blue skies all the way round, when you were out of the sun the temp dropped to about 1 degrees celcius, in the sun it was about 8 (according to the weather forcast webpage) but it was nice. Pleasant one might say. The wind was a bit biting and I was glad I took my coat with me.

Another good day out, i’m going to have to get Mr Thecko out on his bike for a few mid-week jaunts .. but first I need to purchase some lights for my bike. Going to check out wiggle and chain reaction shortly see if I can find any I like.

* grabs the cycle-o-tron

Right, yesterday when Graeme, Danby and Glyn were supposed to be doing the CutGate Pass, myself, simon and newcomer Thecko were to do a circuit of Ladybower. We took it easy as it was Thecko’s first time around the circuit.

Cycle-o-tron details:

• Distance: 11.59 miles
• Actual Riding Time: 1:43:14
• Average: 6.7mph
• Maximum Speed: 26.1mph
• Total Odo: 262.0 miles
• Actual Time Taken: 3 hours

As I said, we took it easy for poor thecko, who while being totally knackered did complete the circuit, only getting off to push 2 or 3 times. So well done skipper, next week will be easier I promise

We have a rule, we always ride at the speed of the slowest rider, or ride in two packs if we have enough people (fasty’s and slowy’s). Simon decided he would just sod off out in front of us all the time (relishing in not actually being the slowest one for once), tsk tsk simon.

Blimey, we raced round today. I was feeling a bit pat-n-mick (two stitches, one either side :/) so I took the first half slowly. I’ve taken a few pictures and i’ll upload those shortly.

My Cycle-O-Tron seems to have picked up some strange reading from being in graeme’s car. It was fine before we left. Perhaps leaving it on the handlebars in the back of the car was a bad idea (the bike was on its handlebars in the boot). So no details today as they are garbaged According to Graeme’s cycle-o-tron we went round in about a hour which is good stuff.

*Edit* Phone didn’t save any of the photo’s I took … not one. Not impressed, testing it here works fine though. Something weird is going on.

Its not too bad. Sat downstairs on the Mac Mini listening to Aled Jones on Classic FM waiting for Graeme to show up or contact me before we go cycling.

Bliss really. Listening to Vivaldi, Brahms and Rachmaninov (amongst others) gives me an inner calmness.

Should be a good outing today, Myself, Graeme, Simon, Glyn and Kyle should be showing up. Mr Danby is “Busy” in some way, i’m sure i’ll discover later. Not sure if Cat is coming though but i’ll hazard a guess she’s not.

Last time I was out on my bike was the trip to rochdale and its not been cleaned since i’ll just have to hope its all working as planned. I’ll check my tyre pressures before I go but thats pretty much it. To be honest I think we’re at a stage where if anything “non major” breaks in the field we can deal with it. Graeme and Glyn both have new bottom brackets on their bikes, I think they have suffered from premature bottom bracket restoration but graeme says his was fubar so i’ll have to assume it was. BB’s should not need replacing after 300 – 400 miles though, mind you graeme did smack his into the floor when he came off at delamere that time. My bottom bracket creaks a bit but i’m not replacing mine just yet because a) I can’t afford it and b) my bottom brackets on all my bikes has always creaked, I don’t think they are built for “men of my carriage” i’ll get graeme and glyn to have a go on my bike today to see if they feel it should be replaced or not.

Right time to do a few check on the old bike such a tyre pressures and the like before graeme either contacts me or arrives. I’m thinking of taking my camera but I might just take some on the Sony Ericsson as I dunno if I cba taking a full camera.

Well, it has been 4 weeks (may 30th) since I was last on my bike, far far too long.

We went to ladybower today, just myself, graeme (who was feeling under the weather) and simon (including his new pedals). Mr hinch took it slower than usual due to his feeling unwell but the pace was adequate for all involved. We had a nice long rest at the halfway point and a burger when we got back to the fairholmes car park (thanks for the burger).

Cycle-O-Tron details:

• Distance: 12.6 miles
• Time: 1:15:33
• Average: 10.0mph
• Max Speed: 32.3mph
• Total Odo: 155.3 miles

Got home, washed the bike to get rid of the dirty crappy smell it picked up going through a puddle, that well may not have been a murky brown pudddle if you get my meaning… I had a bath myself (for the same reason, it splashed up onto my leg) and then had some tea from the JinTao, which was fecking delicious.

Looking forward to a quiet night.

Attendee’s Today:

• Myself
• Glyn
• Graeme

Back again to ladybower. On monday we (myself and graeme) did the course in about 2 hours 20 minutes, today we did the same course in 1 hour 50 minutes, a 30 minute reduction. Although we were tired at the end we were not exhausted, we pushed harder than usual, we tried to keep the rest stops down to sensible times (10 minutes at the half way point etc). I think we can still shave time off the 1:50, when we can do the 1hour 30′s around it, then i know i’ve regained most of my previous fitness. Glyn should be able to hit that time limit easily as he has a higher fitness level than both myself and graeme. For us two it will be a harder slog but i’m sure we’ll both keep trying.

Quite chuffed with today, feel good.

Mr Hinchliffe has put up photo’s taken by various members of our cycling parties on his gallery, click on Link-o-Blog on the right hand menu bar and take a look.

I had to say how glorious the weather was didn’t I. It started off so nice, myself and Graeme arrived at LadyBower car park and the sun was shining. We set off at a nice pace, taking it easy, as we got about a quarter of the way round the skies opened and it rained. It was a quick shower (ten minutes) but it was enough to get me soaked, I was wearing my usual cycling stuff which included a t-shirt and shorts. We reached the halfway point and it had cleared up again. Off we set for the home stretch and all was going quite well, we approached the last stretch, the downhill. We went down and as we did the sun went away and it started Thundering and Lightning by the time we had reached the bottom and the cars.

I got doubley soaked, we washed out bike quickly, got them stowed away and then got our rewards. I got a cheeseburger and some chicken soup .

The course is 12.8 miles long (give or take a few tenths of a mile), since I got the new bike i’ve done a total of 34 miles now. Thats 34 miles since thursday.

I’m going to be cycling to work all next week and also on my lunch break. Here’s hoping I keep my exercise going.

Once again, myself and graeme are off to where it all began. LadyBower. Looks like it will just be myself and graeme going but it should still be fun. This will be my bikes first real test, delamere is a flat forumla one circuit compared to ladybower.

I cleaned my chain last night, lube’d the chain and deraileurs. I’m all set. Need to load the car up so all I need to load will be the bike rack itself and then the bike. I’ll start that about 10:30. The weather here is glorious at the moment, clear blue skies, sunshine and a nice warm breeze.

I hope it stays like this.