All Wired Up

I have an ambivalent relationship with bicycle gadgetry. I've used cycling computers practically from the day I (re-)started cycling as an adult in 2009, but I've spent months at a time without any, and haven't had one on my main commuting bike for several years. I log a general estimate of commuting miles on the mycyclinglog website but am not really interested in any other data coming out of my daily commute.

On my 'good bike', however, I've always been interested in how far and fast I go -- though I am by means speedy nor am I what is known amongst audaxers as a 'Mileater'*. Nonetheless, the 'best bike' gets the best miles and I do like to know what I've been doing, in concrete as well as visceral terms.

The first few years, I used Cateye cyclo-computers. My first two computers (on the Brompton M3L) were wireless but found they sometimes fail to record what you're doing but likewise sometimes pick up interference from nearby devices, so just weren't reliable enough. I switched to wired versions and ran those on the Cross Check and Pacer quite happily. 

 

A Vintage Mystery: Kerry Bicycle Company

What is it?

Background

The LSTF-funded Travel Choices project in our area is coming to an end this summer. One very successful initiative (largely run by Adam) over the past year has been the bicycle workshops. This has included people bringing in their own bikes for free-at-point-of-service checks and then having it serviced/repaired by one of the project's mechanics, or learning how to service/repair their own bicycle themselves using the workshop's tools and having a mechanic on hand to assist and answer questions. 

The other aspect of this Travel Choices initiative, run through the workshops, was a donation scheme: bring in your old bicycle and donate it, then choose another one that suits you better from the ever-growing stock of bicycles donated by others. This effectively recycled a number of bicycles through the community. Each donated bike got checked over, serviced and repaired to the extent needed to make it road-worthy. Any bicycle that could not be made safe to ride would become a donor, 'cannabilised' for any useful parts. 

With the project coming to an end, the two local councils are working on transitioning their resources into "legacy" projects that can be run by local volunteers. The Luton and Dunstable Cycling Forum has been a key partner throughout the Travel Choices project, so it is the obvious contender to take over some of the activities that the Travel Choices project had run. And so the Forum finds itself the recipient of a lot of the cycling-related stock and inventory. 

And thus it came to pass that a van-load of donated bicycles (and boxes of components) was disgorged on our driveway this week!

Mini Reviews of Women's Bib Shorts - Some Brands "Get It", Some Don't

Some time ago, a discussion about womens bib shorts came up on the LovelyBicycle! blog. The usual issues were covered: lack of availability generally, lack of choice for sizes and body shapes and of course the inevitable challenge of the Toilet Break, or as some manufacturers delicately if somewhat obtusely put it, the "Bio Break"*. 

At some point in the middle of the discussion, I was struck with the impulse to dig out all the bib shorts I owned and take comparative photos. So I abandoned the computer for 15 minutes, dashed upstairs, upturned a few drawers, arranged various samples on the bed, snapped a couple of shots, then uploaded them to a photo website so that I could post a link to share with the other ladies in the discussion. On each of the two photos, I jotted down the brand and style name of each item, a link to where they can be bought (ideally where more details are provided directly by the manufacturer) and then a summary of what I personally thought of each pair. 

A suggestion was made that I blog about this myself. I certainly intended to but somehow it didn't really make it onto my To Do list. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I had a clear-out of all the cycling kit that I don't wear regularly, for one reason or another. When it came to the bib shorts, I realised my experiences over the past few years have refined my preferences considerable, down to the point where I really only ever wear Gore branded bib shorts or bib longs.** So everything else went into the Outbound bag. And I decided it might be helpful to capture and preserve my "overviews" (not "reviews") in a more accessible place, i.e. here on the blog. 

So without further ado - I present a selection of bib shorts of various designs, highlighting where I think some manufactures have successfully figured out the whole Women's Bib Short "thing" and where others are just playing a Gimmick Game. 

#Errandonnee 2015 Challenge: Rides 6-8

Errandonnee #6

Date: Friday, 13 March 2015

Errand:  Get drugs (!)

Category:   Personal Care

Destination:  Local pharmacy

Steed: Lorelei the Puch Princess 

What I learned/observations:

I had my timing wrong and reached the village just at school leaving time. The streets were heaving with children... and with people driving their cars for the school run. I saw two other people on bikes: one a young lad cycling slowly on the sidewalk keeping pace with his mum who was pushing a stroller and a small girl about 5. The other was a teenage boy who lives near us, who walked by our house just as I was leaving home. He was hammering back up the street towards the village again, riding no-hands as he shrugged into a jacket. Late for his after-school job, I reckon. I envied his no-hands skills and was pleased to see him putting them to practical use rather than showing off!

Deja vu! Today was warmer and the bike has been rebuilt. 

#Errandonnee 2015 Challenge: Rides 1-5

Here's my first batch of Errandonnee rides. I haven't really got to grips with the new controls. In the absence of specific food/drink categories and given my current unavailability for any ride that could remotely be construed as "social", I foresee too many errands being categorised as Personal Care when they are anything but! (If only I were looking after myself as well as my anticipated over-use of this category might imply...)

Errandonnee #1

Date: Sunday, 8 March 2015

Errand:  Get Cash

Category:   Personal Business

Destination:  ATM in Luton town centre

Steed: Riley the Enigma

What I learned/observations:

When an ATM is unable to dispense cash, it will still take you through the entire menu right up to selection of the amount you want before telling you so. Why can't the cash option be disabled or displayed as unavailable right on the main menu?

Take 1:

#Errandonnee 2015 Has Started!

Up to my eyeballs in coursework with a final law exam looming in just 3 months, much in "real life" is passing me by. For example, this year's edition that fabulously fan "Farewell Winter, Hello Spring" cycling challenge called the Errandonnee started on Thursday. 

30 Miles over 12 Rides in 12 Days.

The "rules" are designed to get those creative juices flowing and get you out in the fresh air with that trusty steed which may have been languishing (just like you) a bit too much through the winter. 

Much of the fun happens on the Facebook page, where people from all over the world post photos every day from their pedal-powered outings. And the Twitter hashtag is #errandonnee. (That's 2 Rs, 2 Ns, 2 Es.)

So where will you go? We want to hear about it! 

selection of #errandonnee photos on Twitter today

Though perhaps the burning question is:  You carried WHAT on your bike??!

@rachelcannon lobbied for the addition of this new category to this year's challenge.
I wonder what else she has up her sleeve?!

The London Bike Show 2015

After the almost-overwhelming experience of trying to take in the NEC Cycle Show in Birmingham last September, this year's London Bike Show seemed... well... almost provincial by comparison. It is certainly much smaller than the NEC show. The hall in which it is held is huge, but as you explore the Bike Show you find that, all too soon, you come up against the neighbouring shows (the Triathlon and the Outdoor Adventure & Travel shows, with the International Dive Show running Saturday and Sunday) 

The Bike Show itself takes up perhaps only a quarter of the total exhibition space. 

That said, the smaller size makes it easy to find specific stalls very quickly. I did not set out determined to see 'absolutely everything' and, unlike the past few years, I had already decided not to try and write a blog post giving comprehensive coverage. I had earmarked a couple of specific product launches I wanted to look at, and a few people I wanted to search out and say hello to. I did that and then took my knees home before they began grumbling too loudly! (This consideration was especially important as it was my first day back on the road bike this year and I had six miles to cycle home last night.)

So without further ado - 

As always, I visited my friends at Enigma (recently re-launched as Enigma Bicycle Works) and drooled over their two new models. 

The Evade is somewhere between the Etape and the Evoke:  lighter and faster than the Etape, without "fully loaded tourer" being part of the specification, but better suited to long days in the saddle than the racier Evoke. It is, as ever with Enigma bicycles, a "looker" and very appealing as a candidate for "fast day ride" or "Sunday best" bike. 

Time To Try Again

I last cycled a 200km event in July 2010, riding completely solo and self-supported on my 1979 Puch Princess (at that time with original gearing of 48 x 14-28 five speed).

The following year I attempted the same ride with an assorted mix of friends of varying abilities, most of whom I hadn't cycled with before. We were a disorganised mess, perpetually unsure of who was ahead, who was behind, who was waiting, should I wait?, etc., etc.  About 60km in, I found myself alone in the pitch-dark countryside with a pulled muscle, with none of my cycling companions answering their mobile phones. So I phoned a friend who lived nearby and arranged a "DNF".

In 2013, I tried the same route yet again -- this time with a small group of fellow FNRttCers, which means we all stick together -- but again did not finish for a variety of reasons, including an unfamiliar saddle not set up correctly. 

Since then, I've got a good bike that fits me, kitted out with gear that suits me, and I have bullied and cajoled my knees into behaving fairly well most of the time. 

So here we go -- not the Dunwich Dynamo this time but a proper organised audax with controls and time limits, in day light through countryside I'm somewhat familiar with. I've known of this audax for a while and was vaguely tempted but finally threw my hat in the ring when I found out quite a few friends (FNRttCers and CycleChatters) had signed up.  

I'm certainly not fighting fit enough to do it tomorrow but I've got nearly four months to get myself back up to that level. I'm really looking forward to it. 

On Turning Two

Yes, the vélovoice blog is two years old! And thanks to all of you who read and comment and share, it's been a very good year indeed.

I don’t care all that much about stats – I care far more about interaction, conversations, engagement. Nonetheless, it’s gratifying to see that pageviews the past year were double what they were the first year, with most visitors hanging around to read more than one page each time they drop by. The split between brand new first time readers and returning ones has shifted slightly from 70/30 to 65/35, which suggests more “retention”, in which case I must be doing something right! The British audience has dropped from 50% to 40% while the American audience has grown from 20% to 30%, with the remaining 30% coming from all over the world (Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Singapore, Japan, Netherlands and Spain filling out the rest of the Top 10).

As ever, I am always thinking about ways to reassure people who visit vélovoice for the first time that they are “in the right place”, i.e. that they will find the information they were looking for and hopefully other things of interest as well. With that in mind, I find it illuminating to see what Google search phrases lead people to this blog. Other than searches on the word “velovoice” (gratifying in itself!), more visitors arrive here for the first time having asked Google for information about the Ortlieb Zip City bag, the Brooks Swallow saddle, the Trakke Bairn bag or the Carradice Stockport bag for the S-type Brompton bicycle. Why? I think because there is so little customer-driven information out there about those products. Manufacturer advertising and press releases can only go so far. People want to know “what is X really like to use?”, if at all possible, before committing to purchase. I hope what I’ve written about those four products, both the good and the bad, is helpful.

The Week Of Rollers

I've not been on the bike much in the past month due to sinus problems. I've been running recurring lowgrade sinus infections since last April but at the moment am not taking any medications, just avoiding (to the degree possible) having icy cold air blasted up my nose. This has meant: (a) no cycling when it's windy and (b) even on still days, no cycling outside the village because every road out goes downhill... fast. 

I'm been trying instead to get to grips with riding my bicycle on my new Tacx Antares rollers. In the first 10 seconds of my first attempt, I was confronted with a shocking truth: I don't know how to ride a bike!  No, I didn't fall. But I can hardly pedal. The only strength in my legs seems to be brute downward force through my quads, one leg at a time, which on rollers basically causes my bicycle to behave as it is being ridden by a drunk. 

Glamorous work out location in the garage!