Nice ride in this morning.

On my commute in today I was passed by someone who gave me a cheery "Good Morning" on his way by. It gave me a bit of a start as I wasn't aware of his presence. He was wearing Wycombe Cycle Club kit and riding what looked like a nice road bike. I Good Morning'd him back and then prepared for the chase. I soon realised however that I hade met my match and then some. I managed to keep him in sight as we rode into Bourne End where I started to examine his riding style. For some reason he kept getting out of the saddle to pedal. After a little while of this I realised he was on either a single speed or a fixed! I managed to make ground on him as he waited for some traffic lights and discovered he was riding a nice Ribble fixed gear bike. We started to chat. We stayed together until Burnham on the A4, where I slowed to cool down. I established that he was severely dedicated in his riding. 40 mile return journey every day and Audaxes. He was chatting away about a 400 mile 48 hour event he had taken part in in the West Country. No wonder I couldn't gain on him till he stopped.

I didn't get his name but I have no doubt that one day we will ride together again.

Whoever you are, thanks for the company this morning. Oh, and by the way- chains a bit slack!

Commuter Racing

Forgive me Cyclists, for I have sinned. It has been two weeks since my last sedate commute.

Yes, I admit it. I have once again fallen foul of the urge to race every cyclist I see on my commute. Picture the scene, Yours Truly mounts his steed and rides out from Fuzzy Towers with the intention of having a gentle bimble through the early morning mists. I ride through Marlow full of the joys of being on the bike when, in the distance, I spy what turns out to be my equivalent of the red rag waved at a bull- BLINKENLIGHTS! I try to ignore them but it is useless. There is a cyclist ahead of me who I just know has looked round and seen my own BLINKENLIGHTS. I can hear their thoughts in my head "Bike behind me. Must NOT get caught by the bike behind me. Must go faster!". Before I know it, the race is on. I drop a cog at the back and start to work harder, closing the gap between us. Sometimes the gap closes slowly because the cyclist ahead is powerful and a worthy opponent. Sometimes the gap closes rapidly because I am so awesomely powerful but the gap ALWAYS closes. This can create a quandary for my prey. When they look back to see how much they have increased the gap between us by, what do they do when they see me gaining on them. Some of the commuters I race are made of stirling stuff and accept that I am going to blow them into the weeds, so acknowledge defeat by returning my greeting as I pass. Others however are weak losers. They see me gaining and start looking for the next side road to turn off, as if that was their true route to work or home. I know what is going on however and revel in my glory as I see them bail out. Once the pass has been made, I continue on, arriving at work or home with the glow of victory in my mind. I AM INVINCIBLE!

That is how the scenario plays out in my head anyway.

What is probably more accurate is that the BLINKENLIGHTS I see ahead are attached to a bike being ridden by someone far more mature than I am and who probably couldn't give a damn if they get passed by another bike. On the occasions when the other rider is as juvenile as I am and gets sucked into commuter racing mode, the process is probably far different. A couple of days ago, the BLINKENLIGHTS ahead were attached the the back end of what looked like a top end hard tail mountain bike. As usual, I was riding G G G G Granville so got down on the drops and accelerated past. A minute or two later however, MTB man accelerated past me, giving me a nod as he did so. That was it. Race was ON! I tucked in behind and followed for a few minutes then put the hammer down, blasting past him. I stayed ahead for a good 5 minutes but, as we were riding through Bourne End which at that time of the evening was very busy with traffic, MTB man came into my peripheral vision passing me on the pavement (sidewalk in American). he glanced at me as he passed and I could tell that he was gloating, thinking how strong he was overtaking a racing bike on his hard tail. I was ready for him though. I thought right back at him "Racing Bike? Racing Bike? This is a Touring Bike AND it has got loaded panniers on it!" I was passing him again as I thought this at him. I finished the communication with "Shove that in your pipe and smoke it mate!". We duelled like this for another couple of miles, neither of us willing to give quarter. The race was interrupted however when we got to a large roundabout. we both had to stop and wait. It was at that time that we both realised the folly of our ways. "Alright mate?" I said to MTB Man. "yeah, I'm good. Nice to have company."

The traffic cleared and we both pulled away, full of the warm glow of a shared experience. I started to chuckle to myself, thinking about how stupid we were, letting ourselves get carried away like that. All we were doing was riding home. No one was racing. We were just riding home.

MTB Man still bottled it and took the first available junction because he KNEW. I was too strong for him. As for me, i was just toying with him, being nice to lull him into a false sense of security. if he hadn't have bottled it, I would have done him good style on the road into Marlow!

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!