Back in the saddle

Last week and the beginning of this week saw me commited to the extent that riding was not an option. From Wednesday morning through to the following Thursday morning I was either training or doing family stuff. This meant 8 days without riding. Yesterday morningh I was up at 5:00 a.m. for work. getting back on the bike for a ride to the nick through the mist and developing dawn was ace. It was only 8 days but I was amazed at how I missed the ride. It doesn't look like I'm going to hit 300 miles this month though- bummer.

The Boy done good!

My youngest son is a bit of an artist. When he was succesful in obtaining GCSE's to allow him to continue in sixth form, we bought him a tablet laptop whicjh he spends hours on. The other day I saw him doing some art work on it. I asked him to send me the result when he had finished. What I recieved was 3 images which represented the progress of an Anime ispired digital painting he produced as follows-


Which became



and finished as



Any guesses as to which video game inspired this?

I'm quite proud of his ability!

The gloves are dead- Long live the gloves

These are my Specialized Equinox gloves which have served me well for a number of years-


(clicky for bigger image)

These are the best gloves I have ever worn for riding. Warm enough to see me through all but the coldest weather. Just enough padding to stop my hands going dead. Thick enough to prevent injury when things got a little out of shape. We have been through a lot together- 70+ mile round trips into London, chasing bad guys during my bike patrol days, the odd SMIDSY, getting shot at with pellets during a recent airsoft skirmishing evening my two sons persuaded me to join them on. Over the 4 years or so that I have been wearing them, I have become really attached to them but, as you can see, they are slowly giving up the ghost. It would seem that the time has come to retire the Equinox's and bite the bullet.

I have acquired these-

(clicky for bigger image)
Endura 'Singletrack' gloves. They feel like they are of similar weight and quality in their material, just perhaps a little snugger in their fit. I will wear them for the first time today. I have had them for about a month but, as I said earlier, the Equinox and I have been together for a long time and it felt like I was betraying them.

Daft isn't it?

Someone needs help

For a number of years now, I have been on the register of potential donors run by
The Anthony Nolan Trust

The trust was born out of the Anthony Nolan Register which was set up in 1974 by the family of Anthony Nolan, a young lad who was in need of a bone marrow transplant in his fight against an immunological disease. Sadly Anthony never found his donor. He passed away in 1979. Demonstrating great strength of character however, his families fight went on so that other people could be helped.

My involvement came as a result of a local appeal due to a child from my area needing a donor. The trust set up a registration day at the local sports centre. Potential donors attended and a small blood sample was taken for typing and matching. I was then placed on the register of donors. 4 times since then I have been contacted as a possible candidate. This involves further tests for more detailed tissue typing and matching. Unfortunately I was not a close enough match on those occasions.

Yesterday I received a letter from the Trust. I am back in line as a potential match. Apparently I have a 25% chance of being a donor this time. Someone out there needs help. Start thinking positive thoughts folks. With your help, I could end up undergoing minor surgery to donate marrow.

For those of you in the UK, the Trust is always looking for new members of the register. Visit their site and find out how you can help.

If you are from outside the UK, donor registers work internationally. There may well be a register for your Country. Do some digging and see if you can help.

Wind

If you gather together any size group of cyclists and ask questions about the wind, you will soon learn that in most- not all but so close to all that it makes little difference- cases, they have had to cope with the seemingly impossible situation of a bi-directional wind. Find a straight road with two roundabouts, one at each end and continuously ride the loop of this road. If the wind is in your face on the outward leg, common sense tells you that the wind will be at your back on the return leg. WRONG. The wind is in your face whatever direction you ride. Riders passing in opposing directions on that loop will both be riding into wind. It is an almost immutable law. Cyclists only ever find a headwind. What is that all about?

I don't know about other cyclists but, I suffer from another problem with the wind. I can't pass it whilst pedaling. Too much information? No. This is a public information message. If you were ever to find yourself drafting me as I ride (or wheelsucking if I'm in a bad mood) and you notice that a) I have stopped pedaling and b) I am standing up then start to react. I am either getting ready to deal with a pothole or other danger to cyclists OR I am about to relieve stomach pain by breaking wind. Either way, right behind me is definitely the wrong place to be. Public information message ends.

On a lighter but just as informative not, yesterday I discovered the blog of a friend of mine. A certain red haired Amazonian fixie chick acquaintance of mine called Charlotte blogs as
bicycleslut. A good read. Visit and enjoy!

Dutch Police bike training day 2009

On Thursday 17th September 2009 I flew to Schipol Airport in The Netherlands where I was met by my friend Tommy Hammelink, a bike patrol officer from Den Haag (The Hague). For the next two nights I stayed with him at his old fisherman’s house in Scheveningen, a coastal suburb of Den Haag. The area Tommy has settled in is really pleasant, his house being situated off a quite car free cul de sac. Thursday evening Tommy decided a tour of his manor was in order so he broke out his Montague 'Paratrooper' folding bike which he has converted into a marked Politie bike and his pride and joy, a Surly Pugsley snow bike with balloon tyres. He let me enjoy the Surly for the evening and it was great, rumbling around the streets of Den Haag with folk doing double takes at the bike! It was a fun bike to ride.

He showed me around the Police Station he worked at and also the local HQ where the Embassy security teams work from. We then made our way to a city centre restaurant for a dose of steak and chips. Lovely grub.

The next morning we put his patrol bike and the Paratrooper in his car and drove to Amsterdam Police HQ and training centre where we joined close to 250 other like minded officers, most from around The Netherlands but also including at least 4 officers from Belgium and 3 from Germany. The day was spent around the training centre and Amsterdam City centre streets where, in groups of 8 to 10 bikers, we descended on waiting instructors and 'suspects'. At each Town centre location, we were briefed about an 'incident' involving our suspect who we then had to deal with. I don't think the suspect came quietly on any occasion. One of the stands was to deal with an aggressive drunk who was sitting on a town square bench. This suspect seemed to be the strongest of all that we dealt with and he put up a good fight. This stand was being keenly studied by the local 'celebrities' who were by that time, reasonably well into their jars. They gave a good critique of the way officers dealt with the suspect- probably from a professional background! I think quite a few visitors to Amsterdam came away with photo's and video of massed bike patrols dealing with bad guys and girls in the city. I had a really good day and learned a lot about how the Dutch do their thing.

The day finished with a BBQ at the HQ after which Tommy and I returned to his house, changed and took a walk to a beachfront bar for a relaxing drink.
On Saturday morning, Tommy broke the Surly out again and we took it for a ride on the beach. This is about the only bike I think I could make progress with on soft sand. Going was hard but possible. The transition form softy to packed sand was very noticeable and, when I rode off of the beach and onto the concrete slipway, that change was like lighting the afterburner on a supersonic jet!

Thanks for a great couple of days Tommy!

Saved by Sports Beans!

Yesterday I had a meeting to attend at Golden Lane in the City of London. Being the sturdy type that I am, I decided to cycle in. I rode into work yesterday morning (10 1/4 miles) and did a couple of hours work. During this first ride I suspected I would have resistance on the way to London as the wind was in my face. Sure enough, when I left the office at 11:00 a.m. the wind was blowing from London. Anyhoo, I had a nice ride for a couple of hours, along the A4 past Heathrow, into London, leaving the A4 at Hammersmith, heading to Kensington Gardens/ Hyde Park where I cut through to the Bayswater Road and Marylebone Road before heading into the City arriving at 1:00 p.m. on the dot.
The meeting lasted a couple of hours and, after 20 minutes of post meeting chat and catching up with folk, I left to reverse the route home.
True to form and conforming to the well known fact that the wind is always from the direction of a cyclists destination, the wind had changed to a South Westerly, in my face again. Not a problem for I am a hardy cyclist!
My preparation for the days riding had included an early start to my lunch before leaving the office, a bottle of energy drink consumed on the way into London, a cup of tea, a can of full fat Coke, a Snickers and the rest of my lunch at the meeting venue and a bottle of energy drink to consume on the return ride.
The return was fairly uneventful (apart from a couple of folk in cages suggesting I get off their road and onto the cycle path- not an option due to the glass and crap and all the side roads I would have had to negotiate) until I got to the stretch of A4 between Langley and Slough. At this point, with about 13 miles to go until home, I suffered the scourge of all cyclists, a bad case of 'The Bonk'. My legs ran out of go completely. I think it was the fact that I had been riding into wind for the whole day, that and because I had my commuting luggage on the bike as well. In the space of about 400 yards I descended from pootling along at about 15mph average to struggling to maintain 10mph. Concentration was going and I was starting to wobble a bit too much for my liking. I then had a flash of inspiration. I remembered that I had a small bag of Sports Beans in my jersey pocket. These are jelly beans with an extra carb kick. I stopped at the side of the road, ripped open the packet and nommed the Sports Beans in one go. 5 minutes later I felt my energy returning and my concentration level improving. The energy boost got me the last 13 miles home. I don't know what I would have done without them- probably curled up in a gibbering ball of pitiful humanity and got on the phone to SWMBO to beg for rescue but, thanks to Sports Beans, I made it home. A mileage tally for the day of 77.79 miles- all of it into wind.
Lets hear it for Sports Beans !!!!!!!