Apples fall

me + tandem + 6 yr old daughter + trailer + 3 year old daughter + 5.8% incline = 532 watts

 

Yes dear friends you read correctly, I did ride the tandem with a 6 year old stoker, 2 panniers and a baby trailer with a 2 1/2 year old in it.

I knew it would be a tough climb up Westburn Road and into the hospital, not that any of us were ill, no we were just out for a ride.

It got me thinking why is it so hard, why does a small change in the gradient have such an acid producing effect in the thighs?

Well being the sad Aspie’esque type that I am I hunted for a model of cycling power. There are plenty, just google “bicycle power calc”. After much analysis putting data in and reading results, and playing with excel I established that gravity is to blame.

Simple, the more your fight against gravity the more work is required. If you are worried you wont make it to the top, then slow down. If you want to protect your knees from high torque, change into a lower gear and spin.

It’s all about timing

How to adjust the eccentric bottom bracket on a 2008 Dawes Duet Tandem.

It is technically a Pinch Bolt Eccentric.

Beneath the Captain’s crankset there is a bulbous projection.

Within that are two 6mm Allen bolts.

Loosen them, note they are quite tight, fully off.

On the drive side of the eccentric bb housing there is a hole suitable to hold a 5mm rod, insert a suitable rod in the hole and use this to rotate the eccentric shell either clockwise or anti-clockwise. As the bottom bracket moves towards the rear of the shell the timing chain will loosen, as it move towards the front of the shell the timing chain will tighten.

Adjust until there is some vertical play in the timing chain. Mine was shipped very tight; less than 1mm vertical play, so I loosened it and now it has about 3 mm vertical play.

Retighten the 6mm Allen Bolts to around 10 – 12nm, I used a torque wrench at home, but on the road you would feel that as quite tight.

A bicycle made for 2.. or at least 1 1/2

I couldn’t wait to tell everyone. The day has arrived, daughter number 1 just 5 years and 10 months old has finally taken her position as stoker on the Dawes Duet kiddyback tandem. Admittedly she is quite tall for her age and yes she could pedal before she could walk (strange but true) and yes she is already on her third bike. But who would think that I could collect her from school in a trailer. Sit her on the tandem, tweak the seat and at first attempt we cycled on the pavement for 150 yards, then onto the road for 1 mile.

A few more tweaks to the bars and a wee bit more air in the tubes and off we went back to school for Sradagan (Gaelic Youth Club).

Round the roundabouts, stopping and starting at the lights. So I need to drop my cadence, she is not yet a spinner, but not a complaint nor a whimper.

“Is this better than the trailer”..

“Yes Daddy”,

“Why is it better?”

“I can feel the wind in my face daddy”

I will get photos when I can but for now I am probably the happiest man in the world.

Weight loss strategy.. haha

I my last post I discussed how I was involved in an RTA. I wont rewrite the events, hunt around if you want to read them, but the net effect of the accident was 14 weeks off the bike, 36 pounds in weight gain and the cardiovascular output of an earthworm.

So I went from a lithe 142 pounds to a pant tightening 177 pounds. I thought it would be worthwhile describing how it feels to be a skinny bloke in a fat body.

Awful, it feels awful. I went from people saying “ you look slim” or “ you look skinny” to “hmm that is a belly” or “ you look stocky”.

Truth is even at 141 and 5’9” I still had no six pack, I was lean but not superduper Bruce Lee lean. Functionally at 141 I was a mountain goat, very handy living in the Grampians. The effect of the weight was to retard my hill climbing by a painful chest bursting amount.

So I needed to lose the extra poundage. But how?

Now dont get me wrong I am not a fad dieter or a starver. I spent years cycling to build good thighs and I don’t want to crash diet and lose the muscle.

So i decided to ride it off. 3300 calories a pound, so I just need to start cycling. I did so and found that the broken elbows might have healed but they didn’t work as well as previously. Riding the drops revealed that my arms are now different lengths, that the triceps hurt like hell most of the time and that getting fit was going to hurt. But I do like a little pain ;)

I set about cycling, January 668 miles, February 553, March 698, April 682, May 829, June estimate 880. Did it work, hmm, unfortunately my appetite has risen, my legs are perpetually tired and I am a moody discordant individual. But yes the net effect is I weigh 162 pounds, 15 pounds of fat dropped. I can see the mountain goat returning more steady than fast. The data, I am anal about data, says Jan 25k calories burned, Feb 16k, Mar 20k, Apr 20k, May 25k, and Jun 25k. Success yes but I long for the day when I can again ride 100 miles on oxygen, 3 bananas and a few litres of electrolyte, come home eat dinner and go out for another 20 mile cruise with the CTC. It will come, but no point rushing, another 6 months and I should be another 15 pounds lighter with little or no muscle loss. 147 pounds would be a great Christmas present.

I am motivated and habitual, I just need to remember to take it steady and that is the hard part.. I don’t do steady or should I say I didn’t, the crash and the events after changed my thinking. Now I can do steady I just have to want to.

UFO’s or UDO’s

So it is 13th October 2008, 7.10pm. Yours truly is completing lap 7 of a hilly loop and setting off home. Cycling down hill I am suddenly filled with a sense of dread, then I feel myself rotating backwards and upside down. I brace my body for the impending impact. I feel my back hit the tarmac, and the breath is squeezed from me. Laid in the road I see my capable mountain bike 10 yards down the hill lighting up the road, I feel sick. I see 3 vehicles coming up the road toward me. Oh my God I am going to be run over. Fortunately the first car slows, the following pair do likewise. The  first car speeds off. The remaining two stop and the drivers alight. They help me to my feet and move my bike.

The driver of the third car, a mini truck, puts my bike in the back and asks where I live, he and the other driver decide I need a hospital, just to be safe.

By now I am rambling about being ok and he can take me home, insistently he proceeds to Aberdeen Infirmary. I sit, I shake, the put me at the front of the queue. They scan me, X-Ray me, hurt me. They inject me, I ask to be let out so I can ride home only to be told that I can’t ride home as I have two broken arms, a dislocated jaw, deep laceration to the chin, puncture wound to the left calf, and unequal pupils. My arms are broken at the elbow joints I can now not move my arms.

What hit me.. I will never know, the police opened a case and closed it three days later due to lack of witnesses.

13 weeks later I am still unable to ride the bike, have gained 31 pounds in weight and lost all my hard gained fitness.

So timetravel 8 months forward. I have now dropped 9 of the extra pounds I am cycling more frequently and gradually for longer.

Interestingly, if I hear a vehicle drop a gear or rev behind me I am immediately filled with the same sense of dread, the October 13th factor. So whilst I can never state for certain and never truly know what happened on that evening I have a very good idea.

The idea? well I doubt it was a UFO more certainly a UDO (unidentified driven object). So as I ride and think just how lucky I am to be able to write this I know there is a driver somewhere who hit a cyclist on a remote coastal road at dusk on October 13th 2008. Having done so he turned around to come back up the hill and see if the cyclist was still alive, having done so he left the scene. He need not worry it was an accident.

Opus 23

http://www.last.fm/music/Edvard+Grieg/_/In+the+Hall+of+the+Mountain+King

Peer Gynt

a truly stunning performance at HMT.

the best I have ever seen at any theatre.

Big question? why was the auditorium not filled to the rafters.

The Journey of an Original Glazed

http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/doughnuts/our-varieties/original-glazed/

National Doughnut Day

The Consumerist reports

“June 5th, is National Doughnut Day. Why do you care about this? Because it is your opportunity to grab yourself a free doughnut. And as we all know, free doughnuts have no calories. Actually, that is a lie.

In honor of National Doughnut Day, participating Krispy Kremes are offering one free doughnut per customer, no purchase necessary.
(We feel compelled to mention that the company just released their earnings and the news wasn't good. Fiscal first-quarter earnings skidded 53%. So, maybe if you're feeling generous and want to take pity on them, you might want to buy a coffee while you're there.)

Dunkin' Donuts also has a deal -- participating locations will give every customer a free doughnut of their choice, with the purchase of any beverage, limit one per customer.

if you're the sort to get annoyed easily, call first to see if locations are participating.”

 

This is interesting, why?. Well the CTC are a notoriously tight fisted bunch who will go to any lengths not to spend money, remember 101 uses of an inner tube !!. They will cycle miles out of their way to get 10p of a Scone and a Latte. Consider also that the Scottish are a notoriously “grippy” race with deep pockets and short arms. So if you were a Scottish member of the CTC you would probably have reached the pinnacle of miserliness, have a wallet from within which the monarch on the money blinks when she sees daylight  and be rueing the day the establishment removed the 1/2p coin from circulation.

So the very thought of free food, doughnuts or otherwise must have them route planning and pannier packing. As much as I would love to see them in their hoards plodding to Dunkin’ Donuts I have to share the following bad news with my Grampian colleagues.

THE CLOSEST OUTLET IS IN ENGLAND.

Dave and Mark will be kicking themselves, with tired, toned and tanned legs, that they didn’t delay their epic ride for a week.

 

http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/store-locator/

CTC’s record membership

Extract From CTC Newesletter, copyright acknowledged.

Every day more and more people join CTC and that’s why we have surpassed our membership record set back in the ‘Golden Age’ of cycling in 1899, just after the invention of the pneumatic tyre and the safety bicycle, and before cars appeared in any great number. Today CTC has 60,776 members, supports 10,000 more cyclists in affiliated groups and has helped 20,000 beneficiaries through its charitable work. CTC Director Kevin Mayne said: “I am delighted we have reached the highest membership in our history. Membership helps make CTC unique and gives us our independent and democratic voice as we are 60,000 people united by a passion for cycling. It also makes us a community, a club and, even at times a safe haven, for all types of cyclists: ‘Safety in Numbers’ has real meaning in CTC.” To find out more read Kevin Mayne’s message to members.

Kwai Chang Kane.. no more

Sad to read today of the mysterious death of David Carradine in a Bangkok Hotel. I am not going to delve into the how and why of his death just say that he was a favourite actor of mine and my lasting image of him won’t be as a dead Holywooder, or Bill, or Chuck Norris’s adversary but as Grasshopper. For me, the original SuperHero.

RIP DC

The duo complete

Well done to Dave and Mark, a good ride for a good cause.

that was the summer, here comes autumn

So just as I am getting a tan the sun again proves to be a weakling when compared to the North Wind.

So it looks like summer is leaving as fast as it arrived and over night we lose 10 Deg C of warmth. I now understand why Majorca is a favourite destination for UK cyclists.

Ah well time to put some warm clothes on.

Joggers

Well not exactly joggers more LE joggers, Lands End to John O’Groats. LEJOG.. gettit.

Two friends of mine are about to complete the effort. Read all about them on http://newtdavelejog.blogspot.com/ and don’t forget to give to charity.

Ok so why the prompt, well as you know I love to ride and whilst the worthy twosome have been riding a 1000 miles for charity I have been riding my usual 900 miles for no purpose other the self fulfilment. I was reading the joggers blog when it struck me that maybe I should do something worthy with my legs. But what ??

current options are Aberdeen-Inverness-Aberdeen in a day, or Aberdeen-Fraserburgh-Aberdeen on the Formartine line in a day, or Aberdeen-Oban-Aberdeen, LEJOG & JOGLE.

I am not sure which or why to pick, I have the legs and the bike but just looking for the ounce of motivation.

Come on Dave .. share the magic

Why do they wear Lycra ?

So I did get a 31 mile ride this afternoon. From Aberdeen, Orrock, Newmachar, Dyce and back to Aberdeen. So why should you never trust a sunny day? well here on the North East Coast the sun is often only visible when there is either an offshore or onshore wind to blow the haar and the clouds away. Today was one such day, an offshore wind was blowing and from what I can see outside it is still blowing. 24 km/h from the west which for me meant I got the wind on my left side, on my right side and in my face but never on my back. I would love to say it’s no bother but after 1200 rides over 4 years and nearly 29,000 miles covered I still can’t seem to break through the impenetrable wall we refer to as wind. If you chat to folk they will swear black is blue that rides it the wind are faster and they may well be if the wind is on your back. But if you have to turn back into the wind then whatever was banked before is withdrawn and leaves you in debt.

The simple fact is that a ride on a looped course is always slower when the wind blows. You don’t believe me??

Here look.

20 mile out and back course with 6mph tailwind.

tailwind of 6mph, effort of 20mph, speed on cycle computer = 26mph. So 10 mile course covered in 23.xx minutes.

headwind of 6mph, effort of 20mph, speed on cycle computer = 14mph. So 10 mile course covered in 42.xx minutes.

total time 20 miles in 65 minutes = 18.4xx mph

Same 20 mile out and back course but with 1 mph tailwind.

tailwind of 1mph, effort of 20mph, speed on cycle computer = 21mph. So 10 mile course covered in 28.xx minutes.

headwind of 1mph, effort of 20mph, speed on cycle computer = 19mph. So 10 mile course covered in 31.5xx minutes.

total time 20 miles in 59.xx  minutes = 20.3xx mph

So that’s why they wear Lycra.

Oops sorry

That why we wear Lycra.

And Spandex.

And Meryl.

And …….

The sun is out

So the sun is out and the wind is warm, the tarmac beckons.

A nice ride of 30 miles or so, but might be only 25 as the legs are a little tired. Why such a short ride, well Wednesday is CTC Pub Run day so there will be a 25 mile group ride later this evening and I don’t want to be too tired.

I spent some time last evening taking a look at family transport, bicycle style, and I will share my thoughts and some pictures later.

Long time.. no posts

Well fear not dear readers, paraphrasing the immortal words of Arnold,, I’m Back.

So you probably want to know why I stopped posting easy,, baby number two. Yip if you think one little poppet is hard work then you have no idea how hard it is to find spare time to do anything when you have 2 little darlings.

But the good news is that the tunnel is showing some light. Baby number 2 is now 2 years old (and a few months) and well occupied at nursery. Her older sister, yes the wee one on the bike, is 6 in August and still eager to get on the back of the tandem.