2012's final blog (thank f**k for that)

1385 miles, now that is a long way.

1385 miles, that's the difference between my 2011 mileage of 3832 and my 2012 mileage of 5217

I started commuting to work on my road bike on the 28th of March 2011. Since then and to this day I have ridden a total of 9049 miles, DAMN that's a long way. Most of my ridden miles have been commuting miles, ironically October was the month I rode the most and August the least, seems I prefer to ride cold than warm. I certainly seem to be consistently faster when the temperature drops.

What of my 2012 goals? Hmmn, didn't really achieve what I set out too, It's the last day of the year and I still haven't ridden a century ride and I certainly ain't doing it now! My longest ride to date, that is in my life ever, is the 84 miles completed at the Meon Valley Riser. For 2013 I again hope to do a 100 mile ride, It's not that I don't believe I can, I know I can it's just the idea of cycling for potentially 7 hours or more, not particularly attractive that idea....maybe just the once then.

I've signed up for the 2013 Wiggle Up and Downs Sportive, ok so again not 100 miles but it's close enough at 96 and more to the point it's not flat, so more of a challenge right? Still not joined a club, I find the schedule of clubs a little hard to adhere too, I wanna ride when I wanna ride, not at 10am every Sunday, although I may have to change that attitude if I want to stop myself going insane over longer distance.

Thank god for having 2 bikes, if I hadn't then I'd have simply stopped riding in September this year when I realised I was riding on a cracked rim, queue a quick cassette/wheel change and I was back on the tarmac. I've gone through 1 set of wheels, 1 set of mudguards, 1 cassette, 1 chain, a handful of tyres and numerous inner tubes, not to mention the consistently snapping plastic tyre levers (really must buy metal levers next time).

I drunk a lot in 2012, not extravagantly but every weekend and in hindsight, probably just enough to keep me away from the bike at weekends. I'll be giving up the booze in the new year so I hope to see more weekend mileage and that ever elusive 100 mile ride come my way soon. Just the one last blow out to go.....Ow and I really must have a go at a club hilly challenge, really fancy that.....

Fear of the Dark

Why is it, when I'm alone and surrounded by darkness my mind thinks 'ow tell you what we haven't thought about in a while, Ghosts....and maybe Zombies'

                                                           Park entrance.

I've recently changed my route home through Windsor Great Park, previously I rode on the main roads through the park, although unlit, the cars driving past brought enough light to see me through the park. Now I have changed my route, I cycle directly through the park itself. Being a 'park' there is clearly no street lights, no traffic and no movement. I do cycle past a residential community in the park but again there is no artificial lighting other than the houses themselves, I'm fairly certain they don't give a shit who is cycling by and whether that cyclist can see.

                                                         Through gates in to the darkness (thats the entrance to a gated compound lit ahead)

Now I do have a bike light, it works and its actually very bright 300 lumens to be precise, but shit me its dark in that park.....

                                                         My light while moving

But why ow why when alone in the dark does my mind start to wonder.....every noise is magnified, every movement increased, eyes everywhere but I see nothing. Only the beam of light in front of me. I look behind me, see nothing, trees act as a canopy hiding the moon.  I approach a darkened crossroads, I know its there as I've done the route 100 times but I can barely make it out now. I see movement all around me, trees swaying, leaves blowing across the road. I look back again, image someones there, following me, I quicken my pace and a chill goes down my spine. I'm riding in the centre of the road waiting to see something familiar.......fuck I need to get a grip.

Ride through the darkness pussy. It is what it is, safer than riding on the road.

I love this song, Iron Maiden Fear of the Dark, its on loop in my head as I ride through the park.

When the light begins to change

I sometimes feel a little strange

A little anxious when it's dark.

Fear of the dark,fear of the dark

I have constant fear that something's always near

Fear of the dark,fear of the dark

I have a phobia that someone's always there

Have you run your fingers down the wall

And have you felt your neck skin crawl

When you're searching for the light ?

Sometimes when you're scared to take a look

At the corner of the room

You've sensed that something's watching you.

Have you ever been alone at night

Thought you heard footsteps behind

And turned around and no-one's there ?

And as you quicken up your pace

You find it hard to look again

Because you're sure there's someone there

Watching horror films the night before

Debating witches and folklore

The unknown troubles on your mind

Maybe your mind is playing tricks

You sense,and suddenly eyes fix

On dancing shadows from behind.

Time to grow a pair...

Well, they are generally right.....

Well partially.....

So the logical choice seemed to be to remove the wheels off the summer bike and transfer them to the winter bike. The wife wanted me to use the new bike, I wanted new wheels. You may have seen her comment on my previous post, felt like I may lose this battle but thankfully I wasn't required to sleep in the shed ;-)

This seems like a decent compromise. The wheels from the new bike go on to the old bike and I buy new wheels for the new bike at some point in the future, it's not like it's going to get used this side of Christmas anyway.....

The only obstacle this posed was the removal and replacment of the cassette as the winter bike is a 9 speed (triple) and the summer bike a 10 (double).

I borrowed a cassette removal tool from a mate at work -

Removal of the 9 speed cassette was fairly straight forward once I understood how the chain whip worked, the spikes held tension from the spokes, took me a while and a text message to work that one out. Use 'youtube' he said, literally no video's I found had this tool set in use.

I simply couldn't remove the 10 speed cassette from the wheel of the new bike, I couldn't get the whip to hold tension on the wheel (well, not without ruining it anyway). So I popped along to see the guys at my LBS, met the mechanic who literally took the wheel and bought it back to me a moment later with the cassette in a bag. job done. He used one of these.....

So I bought one. Makes the job a piece of cake, literally. I must have been in town for 25 minutes max, love it when I don't have to wait for service.

Anyhoo, after sorting the cassette's all I had to do was put the new wheels on the old bike and adjust the brakes to the new rims. This gave me the chance to fit new brake pads on the rear as there was nothing left of the current pads.

So the old bike has new rims and looks all the better for it. Now ready for a full winters commute without me needing to worry if the wheel was going to collapse.

The new bike on the other hand is looking a little sorry for itself, rims with no tyres and wheels with no cassette. It ain't going anywhere, anytime soon.

.....but I WILL be buying some decent wheels at some point before next summer, now I just need to decide which new wheels, ow dilemma's.....

When will she learn?

So in my previous post I mentioned how I now have a cracked back wheel and inevitably it will need replacing.

Ok so I have 2 bikes, lucky me. One is older and heavier and one is younger, prettier and lighter, you can see where this is going....one never see's rain, the other comes with me over hill and down dale, we share blood, sweat (literally) and tears. I've fallen off it and I've kicked it over in frustration but it's never missed a beat and will always be the bike I turn to when the weather sets in.

Apparently this is hard for a woman to get her head around. One for rain and one for shine. It really is that simple. Don't fuck with my theory.

So I'm debating on a new rear wheel (like for like), a new budget set of wheels or a better set for the summer bike, that way I can just place the current wheels on the old bike and save a little dosh towards something a little better.

So I go at the wife with my findings and tell her my thoughts. Her initial response is 'why don't you just use the new bike, thats what you brought it for'. (This one sentence explains the chasm in understanding as to exactly why I own 2 bikes). Now I can't put in words all the things wrong with this sentence but I'll name a few....No, just No. It doesn't see rain (unless of course I'm caught in a shower whilst out riding), it's pretty, it's light, I like looking at it and No it doesn't come out in the rain. Did I mention it doesn't come out in the rain?

Now I agree this is a little sad, I am very lucky in that I have a choice in which bike I ride when the weather is crap. My old bike has mudguards, my new bike doesn't even have eyelets for mudguards, why would I choose to ride it in the rain when I have a bike set up for wet weather, JESUS.

It's not rocket science. she'll never understand how I need new wheels. I can't just 'use the new bike' because I'll then still have a broken rear wheel.....not logical thinkers are they.....

Garmin stats (YTD)

Year to date stats. How exciting. I ride daily.

 I'd like to explain how I add base miles and how my I ride within a certain percentage of my heart rate. Truth is I haven't got a clue.  I just ride. I ride to get there and I ride to get back. everything else is just living.

That's that f**ked then....

My winter bike. Well more specifically the rear wheel of my winter bike. I noticed a spoke coming loose a few months back but though nothing of it, I mean its not like there isn't 35 others, can't do that much damage can it?

Not sure I can keep riding on this mind. Look's a bit terminal.

It's cracked either side of the spoke eyelet and the rim itself is cracked on both sides. There's no papering over these cracks. Like Armstong's career, I may not want to admit it but it's coming to an end.

Now I don't race, road or cross on this bike, apparently its capable of both (I on the other hand, am not) but I have ridden it in all weather conditions covering thousand's of miles both on and off road. Its seen 2 (ish) years of hard graft, been a worthy servant and a faithful companion so I guess I should just replace it and move on, though part of me just wants to ride it into the ground and see what happens.

So a Shimano 9 speed compatible rear wheel it is then, can't be too hard to find......

This is frightening...

Now I don't really want to get involved in this "did he,didn't he" theory regarding Lance Armstrong (that's clearly a lie, I love a bit of drama). It's long since been assumed he did but never been proven. Now USADA are running with what Lance considers a "witch hunt" its certainly looking more likely that he actually did. This next few weeks will be an interesting chapter in the history of cycling. They've taken his decision not to continue fighting as a declaration of guilt, all evidence would have been provided to him prior to the sanction.

Lance has already been stripped of all results circa 1998 but the evidence put forward by the USADA in the weeks to come will establish if that ruling actually stands. If as USADA officials state, they have as many as 10 eye witnesses willing to testify against Armstrong, many of those being fellow professional cyclists from his former team and many of them already being banned riders in the shape of Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton et al. Each one Armstrong's deputy and each one fallen by the wayside on his route to 7 Tours de France. Director sportif's, team doctor's, you name it, all implicated.

Difficult to know the truth without the man coming out and saying "I did it". The sad thing is, (if this is true) being a cancer sufferer he was a real beacon of hope for millions around the world, a real inspiration. I know I own both his books, the first of which almost bought me to tears. A genuine hero. But being a genuine cycling fan, I want answers and I want them from him not some bullshit penned by his highly paid lawyers. We all know the lengths Landis went to too prove he was innocent, it was and is just embarassing and he's a parasite that needs to disappear. The 'Floyd fairness fund' I mean come on, he's just been ordered to pay $475,000 of money obtained by fraud.

Sadly, cycling has no history without doping, it really is that black and white. Tom Simpson was on something when he died on the slopes of mont ventoux. Numerous cyclists have tried and failed without the use of substance. So many riders still do it, I believe 3 were banned from this years tour for doping. I enjoy the riders that have come from nowhere, with no history of winning yet here they are on this given day kicking the arse's of the worlds best "clean" riders, haha. It's only a matter of time.

Anyway the image shown above taken from the NY Times tells you the sad truth about cycling history. Riddled with corrupt c**ts. 2003 is a particularly special year, who do the UCI give the title too, hmm decisions, decisions.

Win at all costs.

NY Times article