Archive for the ‘Outdoor Activities’ Category


When I got the bike out on Thursday, the back wheel was a little flat, so I topped the air up and made my way to work, the tyre stayed up to work and back, but obviously it needed investigation.

Saturday morning the tyre is completely flat, time to put the puncture repair kit to good use.

First hurdle, the set of spanners I bought has smaller and larger sizes but not the one I actually need for the wheel nuts and the “spanner” provided with the bike won’t shift them πŸ™

Quick trip to B&Q sorts that out and armed with a rudimentary knowledge I fumble my way through the process, however I can’t find the cause of the micro-puncture.

Quick jaunt along the canal again and everything seems fine…

This morning, come out at 4:30am to set off for work and the back wheel is flat again, guess I’ll have to do it all again this afternoon, till then I’m gonna have to use the car as a backup πŸ™

Did a couple of practice runs this weekend, one a nice flat route along the canal, the other a test of the route I’m planning on using up the hill to work.

I’m still finding that the slightest gradient has me gasping for air, but I’m sure that my stamina will build up in time.

On the advice of one of my work colleagues, I’ve raised my saddle and upped the pressure in the tyres. Since the bike came with none of the tools I need (such as a pump) I’ve had to pick them up over the weekend. The tyres, which felt solid to the touch were actually half the pressure they needed to be.

The adjustments seem to have made some difference, but maybe that’s just the placebo effect.

Well I got to work, so I’ve got to get back!

The intelligent route obviously didn’t work, so maybe its time to try brute force and ignorance…

The route I use when I’m driving is fairly straight, but has a climb up a hill each way.

Using a combination of ride a bit, push a bit I got up the hill, but riding the last bit tired me out a lot more than I expected.

Reaching the highest point of my route, I decided to stop for a moment to catch my breath. Coming to a stop outside the Post Office I put my leg down only to have it decide it wasn’t playing. Slowly, still sat on the bike I keeled over and was left horizontal on the grass verge, people in cars waving to me as they went past.

However, despite the pushing and lying down, I made it home in 35 minutes πŸ˜€

Put the bike together last night, so this morning I’m taking the plunge and making my first journey to work.

How hard could it be? I used to ride for miles when I was a kid.

I’d allowed an hour to get to work, about a 4 mile journey by car I elected to take a slightly longer but flatter route to work.

By the end of the street my legs were on fire, but at least I’d managed to get the infernal thing going in a straight line. The downhill bit was easy, but the first climb to the beginning of the country lane winded me within seconds!

Oh well, push the bike for a little bit and on to the flat lane. No problem until I come to one of those weird barriers they put up, only way through was to get off and push the bike through on it’s back wheel.

The next bit looked perfectly flat to me, however the bike (and my legs) obviously didn’t think so. After a couple of stops I made it to a nice downhill stretch, I knew there was a hill at the other side, but build up a bit of speed and hopefully I could get a start on it.

Oh no, some sadist has decided to put another gate right at the bottom of the dip forcing cyclists to get off and start the climb from a standstill πŸ™

I ended up walking most of the way to work, pushing the bike and took an hour and a half πŸ™

Well after 25 years I’ve decided to buy myself a bike to save some money on petrol.

The original idea was just to get to work and back, but after the usual strange conversations at work, the question was asked, how far would it be to ride from home to Australia.

The answer it turns out (minus the underwater bits and making the route interesting) is about 12,800 miles.

So, just for the hell of it, I’m going to be keeping a log of my mileage and seeing how long it takes me to cover that distance!!

A rough calculation (based on 6 mph, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week) comes out at about a year, after 17 days, I’m averaging 5.7 miles a day so more like 6 years!!!


View On Yer Bike in a larger map

(PS, the date I’ve given this post to maintain a timeline is the day I got my bike so I can add a few additional observations of my first few days)