Fun fun fun

Thanks for the offer M... I'm starting to think of doing what Simon
does and use it as the permanent security for home, buying a smaller
one for the bike - the Magnum is really heavy!

WHAT?!?!?!?

view, reveal thread, reads previous posts

phew.

I was persuaded into cycling, so then persuaded my better half to try
the route to my parents (I thought it about 10 miles away, turns out to
be more like 8). I knew I was capable of the distance, but the terrain
was a slight concern - uphill all the way there to varying degrees, with
virtually no let-up - as were some of the roads/traffic combinations.

In the event it went really well, despite me having major headache with
cycle computer whilst at parents and losing all the settings in the
process of getting back it's ability to tell me what gear I'm in (very
necessary feature of it).

Need to instill in parents the idea that when a cyclist says 'ooh it's
traditional to have cake, you can be our cake stop' that generally means
they need refuelling with more than just one slice ;-)

Got the urge to raise the saddle so next time out should be a little
easier on the knees. Managed to spin more, and managed to cycle up a
small and not as steep as I thought hill whilst still keeping the
cadence up nice and high, which I've not managed before (I run out of
gears and the rpm is waaaay too low normally).

Need to get better at stopping and getting started again quick at
traffic lights, wished I had just one toestrap fitted, I'd be able to
just pull the pedal up if I had, yet not have the panic of having to
remove other foot from pedal on stopping. Need to signal, still relying
on following t'other half and him doing the signalling for the both of
us. Need to learn to change down sprockets and brake at the same time
(should be possible in theory, but in practice I can't quite get the
fingers to do what they need to do to make it work).

Cycled down a hill I'd balked at before (down hills are scary). Cycled
almost all the way up it on the return, which I'd never managed before.
Cycled a long steady gentleish gradient that got steeper at the end
(why do hills always do that?) - that was a relatively narrow country
road, fairly well used by traffic as the alternative is a 40mph and this
is a NSL, and wasn't bothered overly by the traffic.

Bounced over a very nasty trench badly filled in across the road, so no
avoiding of it, and discovered bike wheels are a lot stronger than I
thought (no sign of rim distortion though I've not pinged spokes yet,
and no snakebite puncture either) - and managed not to wobble enough to
fall off bike. Managed an extended downhill gradient (gentle) at around
20mph average (previously this was Scary).

For some reason didn't feel quite so 'as one with the bike' but putting
that down to mixing with traffic and being more tense from that, so
hopefully that'll improve. Was led around the dreaded one-way system in
the middle of Purley and wasn't splatted, so that was a major
acheivement too.

Returned hot and tired but not exhausted, and rather pleased with myself
- relieved that the NSL road was actually fairly pleasant and not
resembling something you'd find at Alton Towers, and a bit amazed that I
was actually capable of cycling to my parents and back and only being
defeated by one hill in the entire ride (and that was only a 50% defeat!)


Velvet

Velvet in opined the following...
I was persuaded into cycling, so then persuaded my better half to try
the route to my parents (I thought it about 10 miles away, turns out to
be more like 8). I knew I was capable of the distance, but the terrain
was a slight concern - uphill all the way there to varying degrees, with
virtually no let-up - as were some of the roads/traffic combinations.

In the event it went really well, despite me having major headache with
cycle computer whilst at parents and losing all the settings in the
process of getting back it's ability to tell me what gear I'm in (very
necessary feature of it).

Need to instill in parents the idea that when a cyclist says 'ooh it's
traditional to have cake, you can be our cake stop' that generally means
they need refuelling with more than just one slice ;-)

Got the urge to raise the saddle so next time out should be a little
easier on the knees. Managed to spin more, and managed to cycle up a
small and not as steep as I thought hill whilst still keeping the
cadence up nice and high, which I've not managed before (I run out of
gears and the rpm is waaaay too low normally).

Need to get better at stopping and getting started again quick at
traffic lights, wished I had just one toestrap fitted, I'd be able to
just pull the pedal up if I had, yet not have the panic of having to
remove other foot from pedal on stopping. Need to signal, still relying
on following t'other half and him doing the signalling for the both of
us. Need to learn to change down sprockets and brake at the same time
(should be possible in theory, but in practice I can't quite get the
fingers to do what they need to do to make it work).

Cycled down a hill I'd balked at before (down hills are scary). Cycled
almost all the way up it on the return, which I'd never managed before.
Cycled a long steady gentleish gradient that got steeper at the end
(why do hills always do that?) - that was a relatively narrow country
road, fairly well used by traffic as the alternative is a 40mph and this
is a NSL, and wasn't bothered overly by the traffic.

Bounced over a very nasty trench badly filled in across the road, so no
avoiding of it, and discovered bike wheels are a lot stronger than I
thought (no sign of rim distortion though I've not pinged spokes yet,
and no snakebite puncture either) - and managed not to wobble enough to
fall off bike. Managed an extended downhill gradient (gentle) at around
20mph average (previously this was Scary).

For some reason didn't feel quite so 'as one with the bike' but putting
that down to mixing with traffic and being more tense from that, so
hopefully that'll improve. Was led around the dreaded one-way system in
the middle of Purley and wasn't splatted, so that was a major
acheivement too.

Returned hot and tired but not exhausted, and rather pleased with myself
- relieved that the NSL road was actually fairly pleasant and not
resembling something you'd find at Alton Towers, and a bit amazed that I
was actually capable of cycling to my parents and back and only being
defeated by one hill in the entire ride (and that was only a 50% defeat!)

Glad you enjoyed the ride. With regard to down hills, the ride I was
posting about includes a wonderful downhill section of rural road.
According to the speedo (When I dared take my eyes off the road!) I was
at 44.7mph. At that speed I hit three recessed drain covers and swore
like a trooper as I was convinced my front wheel was about to turn crisp
shaped. Despite this, both I and the bike survived although I was mildy
disappointed to find that the speedo claimed a maximum of 44.0mph
afterwards. One day I intend to break 45mph on that hill.

Jon

Glad you enjoyed the ride. Keep it up!

Cheers, helen s


--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
**$om $

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

Jon Senior wrote:
Anyone else managed to take advantage of the lovely weather?

Better that we had Saturday's weather /on/ Saturday and that of March 21st
on that day rather than the other way round... Spent an hour belting around
Thruxton on Saturday which was all good clean fun except for my inability to
arrange for Mr. Fleming's handlebars to fall off during the final sprint.
Bah!

--

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
================================================== =========
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
================================================== =========

Jon Senior jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk wrote in message .. .

Glad you enjoyed the ride. With regard to down hills, the ride I was
posting about includes a wonderful downhill section of rural road.
According to the speedo (When I dared take my eyes off the road!) I was
at 44.7mph. At that speed I hit three recessed drain covers and swore
like a trooper as I was convinced my front wheel was about to turn crisp
shaped.

A Pringled wheel at that speed could spoil your entire day. :-(

--
Dave...

Velvet wrote in message ...

In the event it went really well, despite me having major headache with
cycle computer whilst at parents and losing all the settings in the
process of getting back it's ability to tell me what gear I'm in (very
necessary feature of it).

The Flightdeck? An excellent computer with the ability to give you
virtual cadence; I really like mine. Did you sort it out before the
ride back? I can't bear to have something like that not working
properly. I'd rather put it in my pocket than have to look at it
giving strange readings.

Need to instill in parents the idea that when a cyclist says 'ooh it's
traditional to have cake, you can be our cake stop' that generally means
they need refuelling with more than just one slice ;-)

The aged p's definitely need re-educating on that score.

Returned hot and tired but not exhausted, and rather pleased with myself
- relieved that the NSL road was actually fairly pleasant and not
resembling something you'd find at Alton Towers, and a bit amazed that I
was actually capable of cycling to my parents and back and only being
defeated by one hill in the entire ride (and that was only a 50% defeat!)

Well done, that woman! It sounds as though you just need to get more
rides like this in so you can begin to relax a bit more on the bike.
Then it really will be fun.

--
Dave...

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 21:33:16 +0100, david wrote:


I ordered one from Wiggle - I was expecting some form of device for it
to be carried on the bike, but there wasn't one. How are you carrying
it?

Either bungeed to the rack, or sling it in a pannier.

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:06:18 +0100, MSeries wrote:


Thats pretty much what I do. On day rides I usually don't bother taking
any kind of lock. I rarely leave the bike unattended, when I do its
either in a very quiet village or at a out of town garage which are
usually quiet also. I rarely go into cafes or pubs when I'm cycling.

I think that would be a good topic for a thread.
Cycle friendly cafes and pubs.

Dave Kahn wrote:


The Flightdeck? An excellent computer with the ability to give you
virtual cadence; I really like mine. Did you sort it out before the
ride back? I can't bear to have something like that not working
properly. I'd rather put it in my pocket than have to look at it
giving strange readings.

I was miffed, definitely, cos I'd been interested in my experiments with
keeping the cadence much higher (I tend to cycle somewhere between
70-80rpm and find keeping it 80-90rpm which would undoubtably be better
for my knees AND prevent running out of gears on hills really quite
difficult). But I was willing to forgo any hope of cadence (though did
stick in the rough wheel size) since I ended up accidentally defaulting
the entire thing, thus losing the gear teeth settings and odometer etc.
As long as it showed me gears, I was happy - speed, cadence, distance
etc, though nice to know, aren't essentials to enable me to ride without
coming a cropper through mis-selecting the wrong gear, or attempting to
select one that doesn't actually exist ;-)


Well done, that woman! It sounds as though you just need to get more
rides like this in so you can begin to relax a bit more on the bike.
Then it really will be fun.


Ta :-) Yes, I love cycling, I'm just a bit nervous still, but it's
improving all the time, and I'm constantly amazed at the distance I can
do provided the terrain is fairly un-hilly (or at least long slow climbs
not up/down/up/down).

Velvet