Addiscum Lee, get your shit sorted out!

I am going to take some photos of the new bike to show you guys what I’m riding.

Cheers.

It was at Phoenix Rider Training, in Croydon. Middle of nowhere basically. I thought Id be clever and cycle there. Turns out I had the wrong postcode and turned up bang on time at the owner’s house some 6 miles away from the CBT training ground. So I had to cycle a further 6 miles to get to where I was meant to be, got absolutely soaked on the way (no idea how my iphone survived, I was using it to direct myself to the right place). I turned up at the training ground 45 mins late, and luckily all I’d missed was some talk about how to make sure that you buy a helmet which has passed safety protocols.

The day itself was very enjoyable, the trainer lady had told me that I naturally had some skills on the bike (presumably the transferable skills from cycling which I have been doing a hell of a lot of recently). We got stuck into some training (emergency stops, controlled stops, gear changes, junctions and major to minor road transition).

After that we got out on the road and the ride was totally awesome! The trainer liked my central road position, although she had to remind me to slow down a bit in the 20MPH zones. She had us doing some emergency stops as well as training on a roundabout (how to use our indicators, etc.). It was on the roundabout that I got chased by a tiny dog and wasnt sure whether to speed away from it or stop. Beeping at it didnt work. In the end I stopped and despite my fears did not have my ankles bitten by it.

To conclude, the trainer lady said that she won’t forget our training in a hurry! And I was awarded a shiny CBT certificate. And I got the whole thing on groupon so it only cost me around £70 or so.

The friendly motorcycle trainers come recommended by yours truly and their site can be found at either http://www.teachmetoride.co.uk/ or http://www.phoenixtrainingonline.co.uk/

Arriving at the platform, the first train that I could have boarded was so full that I had to stand back whilst some people quarreled about squeezing their way onto it and decided that I’d be civilised and wait for the next train. The next train wasn’t too far behind, around 7 minutes; however when it arrived, as well as being full to the brim, was promptly de-trained (fancy train jargon for “everybody get the hell off”), which proved tons of fun, as there was barely enough room on the platform to hold the hordes that populated the train not 2 minutes previous. Needless to say, it resulted in a very unpleasant journey into work as well as me being 30 mins late for work.

I think I’ll be taking the bike again from now on!

P.S. I am looking at this new site: (macrocephalous autohagiographer) which has some funny sentences to offer for one’s delectation!

I went to jitsu yesterday; and it was a great and rather enjoyable session. My back didn’t hurt anywhere near as badly as I feared, neither during the session, nor the morning after. Various other muscles are in pain from the workout, however!

CS7, from what I can tell (and I should probably google this to confirm) pretty much runs along the Northern Line. This is quite handy, as my friend FOCA lives in Colliers Wood. From my place in Finsbury Park; I had to cycle 22km to get there. It was quite fun – and I mean this both literally and sarcasitcally. I mean it literally because I quite enjoyed the feeling of cycling for so long and that I was covering quite a decent distance. The stretch of the CS7 from Elephant&Castle to roughly Balham is nice, abutted by parks and fountains. It was a real pleasure to cycle. I mean it figuratively/sarcastically because when I cycled past Balham on CS7, the road became quite hostile; both in terms that the cars would not leave any gap on the road for me (yes, they were firmly planted/driving in the cycle lane) and also the pedestrians would also spend quite a lot of time walking out onto, or just blatantly on the cycle lane. I have never used my brakes so much; it’s just lucky that my brakes are set up quite well!

So, the reason that I was going down to FOCA’s house in the first place is because the shifter and the rear derailleur that originally came with my Dawes XC 1.0 (yes, it is a beginner mountain bike) are complete and utter trollop-fodder! I have completely and utterly no idea why Shimano makes their Tourney range of rear derailleurs. I have got nothing but negative things to say about that derailleur; having have had to live with it for two years; and at no point during those did it work properly. It was time for a change; and of course I was willing to spend a few “bucks” for an improved bicycle part and get a mid or high end replacement rear derailleur. Alas, I was restricted by the fact that my bike only has 7 sprockets; and Shimano make only 2 different rear derailleurs for 7-sprocket casette/cogset. These are either the Satan-squatted-and-let-out-a-loaf a.k.a. Tourney and the Acera. A replacement Tourney wouldn’t have done much good (not to mention that I am never touching one again, not even with a 40 foot pole); and so obviously I went for an Acera. I can attest that the Tourney and the Acera are worlds apart in terms of performance, look, AND smell

FOCA was nice enough to carry out all the technical aspects of changing over both the shifter and the derailleur. Another improvement that we carried out was to degrease the chain, sprockets and chainrings. As a solvent, we used diesel, which is both readily available and good value for money as well. I can attest that degreasing a chain makes it look all shiny and brand new, not to mention that the shifting becomes a hell of a lot smoother. Indeed, cycling home was a complete and utter joy. For one, the bike had become a hell of a lot more responsive; and the rolling resistance had decreased considerably. Up until then I attributed the tyre type to be the biggest factor affecting rolling resistance; but on Sunday I learned that the negative effect of a dirty chain on rolling resistance is not to be underestimated. Secondly, due to the combined effect of degreasing the chain, and new derailleur and shifter made shifting a complete and utter dream (vis, slobozit din paradis). Having have used the inferior Tourney for two years, I was used to needing about 3 clicks to get the rear derailleur to change sprockets at all; and even then, it would jump 3 gears at a time, as opposed to changing from one to another nicely. I would then have to click back a couple clicks to get the gear I actually wanted (for somewhat obvious reasons the shifter managed to shift downwards well but not up). Hence, cycling home and having the gears respond every time I pressed the trigger was a complete and utter novelty for me, and a welcome one at that! Despite the fact that by the end of the journey home I was tired as hell (the longest bike ride ever, for me) and it becoming painfully obvious that I need to invest in some padded cycling shorts for long bike rides, I was definitely a happy, happy bunny!

Thanks, FOCA!

So, the past few weeks have been very interesting; both at work and in other spheres of life. I am not going to go into it at the moment; as it would take too long!

But I do have quite a few Tarantula spiderlings that I have recently acquired. I love those little critters, despite their bland look (they are not mature and hence do not display bright colouration). I will update this site as well as my other project sites with pictures of the little buggers soon!

Cheers all.

I prepared for the journey quite diligently last night; I packed my riding glasses, various bike locks (including my sold secure silver Kryptonite series 2 D-lock), a full change of clothes, etc. One thing I neglected to remember about bike riding is that it gets really quite cold due to wind chill. So despite the fact that I was wearing a T-shirt, a wooly jumper and a hi vis, I was still quite cold. It wasn’t all that bad however, as before long I was in central London, locking my bike up outside my gym. I went to the gym and had a good old shower and changed into my work attire and went to work.

Pukka! (as they say).