42

A nearly great T-Shirt

This is a nearly great T-Shirt!

Love Me Love My Bike - Bike Hugger.

To be really great surely it ought to be "bikes" not "bike"!

Maybe we need an inclusive version which has "hpvs" (human powered vehicles - so that my trike is included).

Climbing practice

Today I was doing some training for my sponsored Coast to Coast ride. So I rode to my first meeting at 10:30am by a roundabout route looking for every hill I could find (but not just riding up and down one hill).

The bad news is that in nearly 20 miles of riding I only managed to find a total of 763 feet of climbing. That was despite going for the hilliest route I could think of that went in a very roundabout way from A to B.

This is a worry.

I am very bad at riding up hills and there are not many hills to practice on. The advice in a magazine is to find hills that take at least 5 minutes of hard climbing but there are none within 10 miles of home.

On the Coast to Coast I have 13,600 feet to climb in three days. Around here it will take me two weeks to find that many feet to climb.

Oh dear. I'll have to take some time to drive to hillier parts to get some concentrated training in - of course the time just before Easter is a terrible time to make time for cycle training when you are a minister. After Easter I do have a few days of holiday and then a 4 day course.

Meanwhile more sponsors welcome at www.justgiving.com/davewarnock

Two great British results today

British road racing is going so well at the moment. Amazing! Just from today:

1. Emma Pooley wins GP Costa Etruschi - Cycling Weekly
2. Mark Cavendish wins Milan-San Remo - Cycling Weekly see also
3. 1.  Analysis: Cavendish on his way to becoming one of the greats - Cycling Weekly
   2. Cavendish describes historic Milan-San Remo win - Cycling Weekly

Nice Bike bits

I confess that I don't use bikes in their standard specification very much - although in my defence I am not the worst offender on the planet, for that Vik is an inspiration :-)

I am constantly surprised that so many people treat a bike as a black box, something that is fixed and can't be changed. In part that is because cheap bikes are such poor value and don't last long enough to make it worth spending any money on them. Also because when you buy a cheap bike any upgrade seems expensive.

On the other hand if you buy a good bike to start with then it is going to last and last, it is going to be (much) nicer to ride and the extras won't seem so expensive (compared to the cost of the bike and also to the extra miles you will ride a nice bike).

So here are a few of my favourite upgrades of the moment.

Tyres
If you have a mountain bike and do not use it on real mountains (ie your riding is on roads and Sustrans routes) then changing the tyres can give you a huge speed and comfort boost. Equally if you ride a road bike around town then fitting larger tyres can increase comfort (and puncture resistance) greatly without a huge speed cost (eg go from 23mm to 25mm or 25mmk to 28mm if clearances allow).

For example I have just switched my Mountain Bike from Kenda Tomac Nevegal DTC Tyres to Schwalbe Marathon Cross MTB Tyres. They will be nothing like as good in deep mud or loose soil, but that is not where I spend a lot of time riding. On the road the difference is obvious in noise level and speed.

When we have used mountain bikes for general purpose use and for touring we have always put on big slicks such as Continental Ultra Gatorskin MTB Tyres they make a huge difference to speed on roads as well as having much better grip (on road) than a knobbly tyres designed for mud.

Pedals.
I much prefer riding distances with clipless pedals and shoes (ie the shoe has a cleat that clicks onto the pedal). It is more comfortable and less tiring. But around town it is a pain to have to change into cycling shoes for every ride. I have a tried a variety of pedals with a platform on one side (for "normal" shoes, crocs, flipflops etc) and SPD the other (for longer rides). Currently my favourites (by a mile) are Shimano A530 SPD Single Sided Touring Pedals.

More to come.

Bicycle Helmets - Today's Bloodletting

Been there, got the T-Shirt:

those who ride a bike without a helmet are chided by onlookers at every turn for their reckless, irresponsible behavior. Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: Bicycle Helmets - Today's Bloodletting.

It is a great post, a must read!

Target beaten but still not satisfied

I have now beaten my revised fundraising target for the Coast to Coast ride for Christians Against Poverty.

Just over £1,000 so far as you will see from the sidebar and from my Justgiving - Dave Warnock's Fundraising Page.

But please don't stop now. You will see that I have raised nearly 50% more offline than online. The offline total will continue to go up as there are many groups here that I still have to visit. So there is a lot of scope fo0r catchup here.

Plus I need at least another £40 of online donations in order to become the #1 online fundraiser for Christians Against Poverty but really I would like to beat that by considerably more.

A quiet week

This is going to be a quiet week in more ways than one.

On Monday I go on retreat (Ministers of Northampton District the Methodist Church, ). I am still planning to cycle to Launde Abbey via an assembly at Irthlingborough Infant School.

I get back sometime on Thursday.

Not just quiet because I am not here but also because I won't be taking any technology (no phone signal and it is a retreat). So no blogging (mind you it has been very erratic anyway at the moment).

I am pleased to note that in the rankings on the Christians Against Poverty fundraising page I have reached #5 (it only counts on-line donations otherwise I would be higher). As a child I thought it would be good to have a #1 hit, now is your chance to make that dream a reality. I look forward to seeing the results when I get back.

Donate at justgiving.com/davewarnock

Alternatively if you have already sponsored me or don't want to then there are current 12 other people doing sponsored things for Christians Against Poverty on justgiving. So why not give to one of them?

Now off to pack lots of warm cycling clothes.

[Update]

Monday morning. Met office forecast is snow showers, no heavy snow. So leaving on my bike.

Will I or won't I?

Tomorrow I am going away for a few days to the Northampton District Ministers Retreat. As last year it is at Launde Abbey which is about 30 miles away.

The question is. Will I cycle there?

The aim is yes, but the weather forecast is not ideal:

Today:
A very cold and often cloudy day, with outbreaks of snow developing in many areas, and settling inland away from the coast, especially over higher ground. Strong easterly winds.

Tonight:
Cloudy with further outbreaks of snow, heavy in places with some drifting likely, especially over hills. Very cold east to northeast winds persisting.

Monday:
Remaining very cold and cloudy with further snow at times. Snow becoming more persistent and heavier later with some drifting in the fresh to strong east to northeast winds.

From BBC - Weather Centre - England - Midlands.

The weather forecast means I have changed my mind about fitting more road friendly tyres to my mountain bike, instead the knobblies look a better bet. Fortunately I can take plenty of cold weather clothes as I am using my bob yak trailer rather than a rucksack. Anyway at least it is not a headwind.

Had a practice this morning by riding to Irthlingborough to lead the morning service, came home through snow flurries. Trailer worked fine (except for the pain of stupid gates on cycle paths that require you to disconnect the trailer to go through them). It is the only way to carry much on a full suspension bike and it does make loading nice and easy (pick a bag, put it on trailer - job done).

Online fundraising scandal

I refer of course to the scandal that currently I have collected more offline sponsorship for my Coast to Coast ride for Christians Against Poverty than I have online.

The offline figure is inflated by the fact I have included the payment I am making to cover all the costs (so that every pound each sponsor gives goes directly to Christians Against poverty). However, even without that amount the offline figure is still greater than the online total.

So while I offer my grateful thanks to those who have already donated generously to the online total I want to ask what has happened to the rest of you? This is especially true as I only got the paper sponsorship form on Thursday and have only taken it to two meetings so far!

If you read anything about the economy then you will realise that the work that Christians Against Poverty are doing (to help people who can't cope with their debt and to provide training for the rest of us to avoid getting into debt at all) is more important than ever.

So reach into your wallets, visit Justgiving - Dave Warnock's Fundraising Page and donate (debit cards, credit cards and paypal all accepted).

Remember that if you are a UK taxpayer then for every £10 you give Christians Against Poverty will get £11.90 with no costs taken off for the Coast to Coast ride. I you are not a UK taxpayer then the £10 will have a small transaction fee deducted by Justgiving, but it is small and Christians Against Poverty get the help they need directly into their bank account - again your donation is not being used to paay for accomodation or anything else for the Coast to Coast ride. Any donations towards new bikes should be send directly to me :-)

Urban Assault Vehicle

Tonight I got a chance to try out my new bike. See 42: A bike for the Coast to Coast which explains how I ended up with a Giant Yukon FX2. After quickly fitting lights I took it in the back of the car (one of the nice things about a Citroen C8 is that even with 5 seats in a bike just fits nicely in the back, much easier and more secure than a boot or roof carrier) when I took oldest son to Concert Band rehearsal in Northampton.

So I got to spend 3 hours blasting around Northampton (well apart from a while in Pizza Hut having some sustenance.

First impressions are that full suspension is not needed in an urban environment (well what a surprise) and that I need to fit less knobbly tyres for use on the road (again no surprise). However, there is a sense of security that comes from riding something that does not care at all about potholes with an upright riding position and wide handlebars. I guess it is the cycling equivalent of driving a SUV. Just looking at the width of the front tyre as you go along is a amazing for someone who has been riding road bikes. It makes you feel that you have more road presence.

One other thing that I liked was the way the high handlebars meant that my (very powerful) front lights go straight into most cars. So I can aim bright (2 halogen headlights from Lumicycle) lights at either wing mirror or light up their dashboard fro them. Makes me more confident that they are going to notice me.

No idea how fast or far I went (extra mount for my Garmin edge 705 should arrive tomorrow). I am confident that it is much slower than my normal urban bike - my Pearson fixie.

As a comparison I was riding my fixie in Cambridge today. For that it is lovely as it is such a quick and nimble bike even when you are in no hurry and are just tootling along.

One of the many things I love about my fixie is the way it works in stealth mode. With a fixed gear and slick tyres it is almost silent, no clicks, clangs, bangs or any other mechanical noise (and that is on a bike that gets almost zero maintenance).

I have made a few changes to my fixie from this picture. First adding mudguards and a rack which make it more practical. Secondly, I swapped the handlebars for a "courier" style. That also meant changing to a shorter stem for comfort. I find these really comfortable as the drop was a bit low for me.

But when riding the fixie you are very aware of the quality of the road surface. It has nice wheels and 25mm high pressure tyres (largest that I can fit mudguards around) which mean you do notice terrible road surfaces a lot and need to avoid the worst bits.