Almost Off The Radar

Well, the problems I anticipated having with connectivity with the rest of the world have come to pass. I have lots of photos and lots of scribbled notes, but spots of mobile reception have been brief and rare and Internet access even more so and plagued with slow speeds. There's no broadband on Skye, Remember the good old days of telephone dial-up?! It's still alive and well - and a precious lifeline - in remote parts of the UK.

The photos I do have are only available to view on small screens, often impossible to see in natural light. So it has not yet been possible to review and cull the  'mistakes' and blurry out-of-focus shots, much less edit or crop the 'keepers' and caption them.

All that said.... I've been able to post onto Facebook from my mobile at fairly regular, if not frequent, intervals, especially since we arrived in Portree.

So, until I have the full range of tools available to me, may I point you to the velovoice Facebook page.

This is only a test...

Further to my post earlier this evening, I thought I'd try posting from my mobile phone straight to Blogger. Amazingly it works! So this is plan B.

Meanwhile, enjoy a moment from my commute home the other night.

Blogging from the Back of Beyond

Preparations are nearly complete for our trip to Scotland. A few things like phones and MP3 player will need to be charged the night before we go and there's this matter of having three more days of work, but otherwise... everything's packed and we could leave tonight.

One decision I've had to make is whether to try and post to the blog while we're away. My preference would be to post little and often -- I haven't got a great memory and don't want to be taking notes of everything as we go along, saving it all up for a marathon writing, photo editing and uploading session on our first weekend home -- we have other plans!

The hitch is technology. Ideally, I could take the Kindle tablet and post with that. But... turns out none of the ports are USB and none of them can handle incoming data i.e. uploading photos, even if I were to get an adapter.

We're working on updating drivers and configurations on a very small Linux laptop of Adam's. The issue at the moment is ensuring that it can and will recognise memory cards from the camera.

If all else fails, I am sure I can take a few snaps as we go with my mobile phone and upload straight to Blogger. Posts like that will each be very short: just one photo with essentially a caption. And I'd probably post several times a day, so those of you on my newsletter subscription would get a collection of several short posts each morning.

I'd rather post as normal though - sit in a cafe or pub for an hour every other day and write up my thoughts and our experiences with a selection of nice photographs.

Meanwhile, we're doing all the experimentation beforehand so if it turns out "We don't have the technology", I'll let you know before we leave... and you can sit back and brace yourself for an onslaught of words and images from me in almost exactly two weeks' time...!

Frankly, if it wasn't for the blog, I'd quite like 12 days without any connection to the outside world. Well... I say that now.... but this was pretty much me at regular intervals during my last visit to Scotland's Western Coast.

Image: mobilephonecoverage_shutterstock_394186.jpg
via www.emeraldfrog.co.uk

Oddly enough, we had great reception in the most uninhabited places like Eigg and Rhum!

Easter Rides - The 100 Mile Smile Ride Reccies

This coming September, local Sustrans volunteers will once again host The 100 Mile Smile Ride, a loop through parts of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. We ran this last year based from the Travel Choices Hub in Dunstable and had a wonderful time. 

Adam and I have done a couple of reconnaissance rides (commonly called "reccies") of parts of the route already. This included two lovely days out over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend in April. 

The first segment we rode on Good Friday was from Bedford to just beyond Knebworth. It was a grey overcast day with strong winds. While we made fairly good time -- including various stops to discuss turnings and possible obstacles or route questions -- I never really warmed up. 

The route has long stretches of off-road tracks that were in surprisingly good condition. Some stretches near parks (with car parking) were very busy with people on foot including parents with prams and children on balance bikes, but with a little care we were soon through those congested areas and enjoyed many miles of smooth paths at a steady pace. 

Cycling along National Cycle Network Route 51 through Priory Country Park east of Bedford --

Public Art IV: The Alban Way

A few weeks ago, the city of St Albans held its official "opening" of the new mural in one of the underpasses along The Alban Way. Sustrans, as the key partner in maintaining the route for walking and cycling, provided some "entertainment" in the form of a smoothie bike (which promptly broke, as it always does) and more practical assistance in the personage of Dr Bike (played here again by Adam).

The mural was created by young people from the Cunningham Hub Youth Cafe, with community input and under the guidance of a professional artist, and is located on the walls of the tunnel under London Road. 

Taking Stock

It's been a busy few weeks: settling into the new job, preparing for our Skye trip and getting some miles in.

The daily commuting has seen my monthly kilometre-age jump from 251.54km in March to 352.94km in May to 567.1km in May. Most of those are frequent short trips, but I did get two 100+km rides in during May.

The first of these was the Historical Commercial Vehicles annual London to Brighton Run, undertaken with a merry band of Friday Night Ride chums.

The second took place yesterday, where we rode to a charming tea shop near Potterspury (about 10 miles northwest of Milton Keynes), where a group of CycleChat members were stopping for lunch en route from London to Marton (somewhat near Warwick).

along the Sewell Greenway between Dunstable and Stanbridge

#ScotTour - 10 Days of Scottish Heaven

Here is our revised itinerary, now leaving Thursday morning instead of Tuesday night.

Day 0: all day on the train: Luton > London > Glasgow > Mallaig

Day 1: Mallaig to Elgol

Bespoked Goes Back to Bristol in 2015

The organisers of the Bespoked UK Handmade Bike Show (see here for my review of the 2014 event) have just announced the dates for next year:

And... as you can see... the event is moving back to Bristol.

I have mixed feelings about this. Okay, mostly negative through a positively selfish lens.

Yes, it's nice that it might again be a more intimate event.
But wasn't the Lee Valley VeloPark pretty darn amazing??

#ScotTourTrain - Lessons Learned

(C) Stephen Bowler *

1.   Being "fit enough to ride" is about the state of my mind, not the state of my body. 

2.   I must not pre-judge how my body will feel over the course of a long cycle ride. How I feel when I wake up is not the same way I will feel when I walk out the door.... or when I get on the bike... or several hours in... or when I get off... or when I fall asleep in utter exhaustion... or -- perhaps crucially -- whether I'll wake up feeling ready to repeat it all over again. 

3.   So often I feel pain and think "if I keep cycling, I'll make it worse"...  I won't. It won't. Keep going. Don't look for trouble. 

4.   In practical terms?  I've been working on muscle control awareness. Knee tracking is always an issue but I'm practicing conscious control of the interplay and exchanges between different muscle groups as my pedals move my legs around in endless circles. Key to this has been reminding myself to point my toes straight ahead. And work those glutes! And for the left leg, more glute medes.

Am I ready?  Getting close. Will I be "fit enough" on departure day? Yes, I will.

*Photo re-published under license. 

#ScotTour - What To Take?!

Photo via Google

At the beginning of April, there was some doubt that we'd be able to go through with our planned cycling holiday in Scotland, with me not having an income. So I haven't talked about it in recent weeks. Then quite out of the blue came a job opportunity (just a little different to what I had been looking for) -- and it's now Game On!

In the dark winter months I read a number of online articles and blog posts about what experienced cyclotourers recommend taking on tour. What you take -- and don't take -- can be the difference between completing an enjoyable journey and cutting a miserable one short due to lack of crucial equipment or supplies.

With our itinerary, we'll be on the isle of Skye on all except the last two days. (Oops, I see I haven't posted the latest itinerary - will do that shortly!)

Yes, there are a number of villages but they are quite small and with minimal facilities -- perhaps a small store. Moreover, they are separated by rugged countryside where anything could happen and leave a rider stranded a long walk away from the nearest settlement -- which may not be able to provide what's needed. We'll be based in Portree, the only real town, for four days but for the most part we'll be off each day exploring much more remote areas.