Cycling – Page 6 – Frank Kinlan's Blog

Hawkstone 200 Audax.

What a day this turned out to be.
It didn’t start out too well as I had an email from Ray about not starting if there was snow on the ground. An inch and a bit later had me heading out to the start. M56 was closed around Daresbury luckily the Garmin Nuvi 250W had the rerouting in hand.
It took a bit of forcing mind you as it wanted to send me back to where I came off.

With this delay time was tight but it did get me there in the nick of time. Phil was there and that was about it. Others were setting off but not on the route but down the A50.
Now with no routesheet or map Phil and I opt to follow the Garmins but take it steady on the lanes. We haven’t much other choice.

64 had entered but only 32 rode. That would explain why we saw very few riders on the ride, 10 to 12 tops. Seamons I think had a chain gang down the A50 as when we reached one of the controls we were told a group had come through nearly an hour before us.

Following the proper route from the start the roads were clear with no ice to speak of. Jodrell Bank came into view so I stopped to take a picture. One of the few on the ride. Very few of us rode the full route.

I really like the Jodrell Bank picture as we were riding for a fair few hours through similar scenery. The snow didn’t dissapear until later. The next two pictures are of Phil closing on one of the few groups we saw on the road. In the morning everwhere looked like a Christmas card and it was really pleasant riding.

Once your seperated music starts coming into the equation, I had spinning class music bouncing around my head. Soulja Boy CrankThat, google it. I had thought ” This is a nice easy ride” only to find we had only done 20 miles. Only 105 to go.

Next stop is the “Red Rooster Cafe” another control point. Well worth a visit in IronBridge. Not a big place but well worth it if you can get a place. I had egg and baccon baguette. This was the halfway point and I needed filling up.

A minute after taking the picture of the IronBridge there was a snow flurry a minute later sunshine. The next section takes up back around Upton Magna and it’s the first time Phil has seen the power station on the outskirts of IronBridge. It just looks so out of place.

There is another control point at Wroxeter which required a trip to the visitor centre. This was livened up by sheep escaping onto the road by the farmer who hadn’t shut the gate.

I’ve got this saying “All roads lead to Wem” because for some reason they do. Every roadsign you seem to come across always seemed to have the same distance on it. The road to Wem is fairly open and the wind is starting to pick up.

Phil stopped at a cash machine here and then it was what seemed one of those straight roman roads to Prees Heath and the control at the Raven Cafe. A place that even welcomes bikers never mind cyclists. We were too late as it was closed so it was off to the garage to get a receipt instead.

After the stop it was a case of finding the non existant footbridge, Phil and I headed off to the roundabout looking for it even though the Garmins were pointing the other way. Then we saw a group of three riders going down a lane we hadn’t seen across the dual carriageway. It was a case of lifting the bike over the Armco to get to the other side.

Conditions slowly got a steadily worse but we had got on the back of the group of three. Then things took a turn for the worse, snow flurries.The overtrousers went on for the rest of the ride. It was really grim at times but it is not as if if you can call it quits when things get a bit tough. Then it let off a bit.

Crossing BoothLane at Middlewich Phil couldn’t get across the road and we split with the other group is sight of the finish. Not the end of the world but we came to a T junction at Jones’s Lane and Brereton Lane where so bright spark had reversed the Holmes Chapel sign. On the map it looks an insignificant juntion and with no waypoint on it and a 50/50 decision the tampered signswayed it. Right instead of left. It proved to be a bad move. Heading over the M6 instead of under it we had a couple of mile detour. Then had to endure a trip down an A road in driving rain with lorries going past at 60 mph.

Got to the finish about 15 minutes later than planned. There was some really good soup waiting for us at the finish, and a coal fire. Could have stayed there all night. 125 miles in 10 1/4 hours. Glad to have done it, it was 50/50 at the start but turned out OK. I mention to people that I went out for a ride at the weekend and the usual reply is how far did you go?. 125 miles, most don’t want to drive that far never mind spend over 10 hours in the saddle.

Audax Cheadle to Radway.

A new ride for me this year but Ray rode it last year. The weapon of choice was the Toy and if I’d had any sense I’d have fitted the raceblades but that’s in hindsight.
A belt of rain was forecast and I was hoping to avoid it.
Clothing is dilemma at this time of the year, overdress and you fry, under dress and you freeze. Throw in some rain and it can make for a miserable ride.

Turned out to be a good ride with Ray, Martin, Phil and moi riding together again. All using GPS with Ray’s route programmed in. We had a slight detour and I managed to drop my overtrousers that would be needed later. Soon back on course though.

Now we hitched a ride on the back of group of fast guys. There was a steady headwind and these guys were up for it. The average speed went up and it was just like a club run. Strong guys on the front setting a good pace.

We did pass Jodrell Bank and I did get a picture on the move but it mainly consisted of an overgrown hedge. It was good to see all the same. The digital camera doesn’t like looking into the sun. First stop was the first checkpoint which is the third picture. Time for a bite to eat and a sip of energy drink.

Our group gets split by a set of traffic lights so I ease off the back of the front group to remain with them. Getting back on to the main group takes some doing and it takes a while if not a set of traffic lights to rejoin.

It starts to fall apart again on a hill. I manage to bridge the gap that was forming to the lead pair. The group is well split but once crested they know they have split the group and I opt for a stop for a picture.

Ray in the Hi Viz, Martin in red and don’t know who the guy in blue is. Probably the highlight of the ride for me, had a good go on a climb. Things went well until the next control point. The weather that we were hoping to miss hit us, not before I took two pictures at the control point

Nice place, the landlord of the pub even offered us in and that was after the rain had started. No mudguards meant I was in for a soaking, the Sealskinz socks held out as I had no overshoes but the hands took the brunt of it. Had retrace my steps as it became obvious that the rain wasn’t going to pass and it was best to don wet weather gear if you had any.

The next section isn’t fun as I’ve not brought along the right gloves. The BBB winter gloves are not waterproof and being fleecy act like a sponge. My hands are freezing and I contemplate dropping off the back to warm them. Luckily the next info point comes up and by this time the rain has stopped.

Had a near miss at the rail crossing, I’d parked my bike on a lamppost at the level crossing as we needed a number off the post box a few feet away. Next minute there is a bleeping and the barriers starts to come down. I whip the toy out of the way with seconds to spare as the barrier would have chopped the toy in two.

Next thing an Intercity Express train passes at around 120 mph, it doesn’t bear thinking about the speed it passes by. Got a bit of warmth back into my fingers and the next section isn’t too bad. Ray has pencilled us in for a stop at a Tesco mini supermarket rather the garage or KFC.

Going back to Audlem the staff at the Coop are getting used to us invading them for till receipts. Soreen malt loaf for lunch (a whole one) with a large Lucozade sport to top the bottle up with. The rain has made a handy cyclist splashing puddle right where we are congregating. It didn’t happen but we had at least two barstewards sounded their horn at us on the ride. One idiot in an Audi was even coming the other way.

Back to the ride, we had lost Derek by this stage as he has tagged along with us on the last Cheadle ride. Ray pushes a high gear and I mean high, I followed him up one climb and he went up it in 52X12 or 13. I’m assuming 12 because he’s in it all day.
Phil on the other hand says he feels like a prat spinning away on the new Ultegra Compact groupset he has fitted. I make no bones about it if I need to go into the granny ring I will. On the longer steep climbs I have been overtaken by riders pushing 39X25 only to re pass them further on near the summit. Don’t get me wrong I’m still in the red but the lower gearing at least allows me some acceleration in a situation like this where normally (every other club run) I would not be able to respond.

The run in to Cheadle isn’t too bad and I do my stint on the front. There is no rain now and the roads are drying so someone can take my mudguardless wheel. There is one part where I sprint off the front downhill because it is a waste of a good hill if you don’t carry that momentum up the other side.

The route back takes us through some of the quieter (better) area’s of Cheadle but you are continually reminded of how close this is to the Manchester airport flight plan. The jets can’t be more than 100 metres above us but it still an impressive sight. The frequency is about one a minute when they are landing in your direction.

There is a good spread at the finish with some hot tomato soup that goes down well.

Northend Ride to Hideaways Cafe.

This is the second time of writing so I hope to get it published this time.
Eureka is full of Northenders on their Saturday rides. There are about three rides leaving the cafe and I opt to ride with the fast group.
This means I’ve got to chase the group as they stop for no-one, not een me taking pictures. I’d just about got on the back by Woodbank. Others had gave up and opted for another group.

I just had to post the fourth picture as it is a shot of the Northend at a red traffic light. Nothing too unusual in that but the number of times the front rides thru on green and the tail gunners get dropped by a red light happens to often.
Anyway I got dropped for taking the pictures. Later on I got dropped again and lost cintact with the group. It came together again at Buckley when the group rode across a set of traffic lights I was coming up to. I was in if it’s a hill it must be on the route mode.
Now there some tough climbs on this route. There was on by the hall with the white gates that was steep. I was in the granny ring and Tempo and Chicago passed me only for me to pass them back further up the hill. Needless to to say I was in the red but thats the way I cycle. It’s about the only time it happened for the rest of the time I was off the back.
18% kept cropping up on some of these gradients which is seriously step.

The climb up to Hideaways Cafe is 18% in parts and just gets rougher as it goes up. Once you leave the mettled section it is just limestone but worth it. The pictures at the cafe don’t do justice to the beauty of the area.The best shot would have been when we left the cafe but I couldn’t afford the time loss.

The cafe managed with our numbers bespite being overloaded at first. We were the only customers.Pancakes for a few of us went down very well. Apple and Bannana pancake went down really well.

I took the ride down from the cafe steady as it is rough. Needless to say I was last. The worrying thing was a Labrador choose to chase me down the road at a great rate of knots. The hippychick owner having no control of the animal.

That was about it I was well and trully dropped, even at 30 mph at Loggerheads I was falling behind. I just latched on to Peter and Clive at Mold but they were off the back too. It was a fast trip down Ewloe hill turning off through Queensferry and GardenCity. Once up Woodbank we were sorted. Cafe and home via the missing link.
Great day even when you don’t think they will turn out like this.

A Mere Century Audax

This was my first Audax last year with the route the same as last year. Ray sent me the GPX file for the Garmin Edge and also sent it to Martin who has a Garmin Etrex Vista from memory.

Link to Google map of ride

I met up with the team for the ride Ray, Martin and Phil. I’d ridden with Phil when the Toy broke on Roys ride to Ruthin many moons ago. The first picture contain Sheila Simpson who has ridden Paris-Brest-Paris a record 7 times. PBP is a 1200Km event puts my little jaunts into perspective. The chap on the trike get around and features later on in the ride.

We had a good little group going for us from the start including the ride organiser.
Phil dropped hus lock out of his bag around Manchester Airport and had to play catch up. Which he did. The plan was to take a picture of all the Mere,s well that plan got ditched after the first Mere. I’d stopped to take a picture and that was it I was off the back good style. No pictures of Great Budworth as I was still way off the back.

I didn’t get back on to the group untill the bridge crossing followed by the sharp climb up. Then Phil lost his lock out of his bag again and this time Ray stopped but Martin went with the others. We were split.

Delamere was taken on the move as was the picture of Phil and Ray.
We had taken Rays quiet car free route only to bump into a car coming the other way.
Before the last two pictures we had an incident with a black Mercedes van giving us the horn and nearly taking Ray out. Really uncalled for, I wish there is a tree with his name on it. We sign in at the control and I take a trip to the visitor centre.

Once back, Martin has turned up so we are a team again.
The next section takes in some of the Steve Cummings training ride and is perhaps the flattest part of the ride. We are making good time here with Ray pushing that big ring style of his. He’s on compass mode but doesn’t realise we are doing 18-20 mph.

Next up Phil takes his turn on the front with me. The pace is still the same but it starts to slowly rise up a bit. A chap in blue has joined us on our wheel , anyway the pace is too fast and we still have a long way to go. I look behind and we have dropped everybody, at Audlem the chap says to Ray “you’ve got some fast mates in your group”. This stint allows us to close up on two Southport Cycle club riders who are doing about 15 mph. It’s a steady pace and we stay with them to Audlem where there is no room in the control point Cafe so we take a trip to the Co-op.

Throughout the ride we passed and are repassed by Steve, a bigish guy who is ridding on his own. It happens 4 or 5 times, we stop because something has fallen off a bike I had a stop to pick up overtrousers. Phil lost his lock twice, Martin dropped his pump. Only Ray emerged unscathed.

The idea is to maintain a 15 mph average on the final section, I’m riding shotgun and it seems to work well. The hills around Alderley Edge don’t seem as fierce this year and in reality they aren’t .

Aston Martin territory this and we are indeed passed by one.

We were within the last ten miles of the ride and it was litterally all downhill. another great ride, soup at the fiish was most welcome. Home via a delayed M56 and a hot bath.

Ride Around Britain's Coast

Dave sent me this link about a ride around Britain’s coast that Cycling Weekly are developing.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Ride_Around_Britains_Coast_article_175481.html
Dave has already submitted the Wirral section so I’ve promised to give it a go.
There is bound to be more at a later date as the route takes shape.
Good onya Dave and thanks for the link.

Do I deserve decapitation?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article3097464.ece

I don’t know who has rattled his cage but I don’t think I deserve decapitation for riding two abreast. As a Northender week in week out you get continual abuse from motorists whose journey has been slowed for a couple of seconds. Usually in Wales for some reason which is not usually noted for busy roads.

I don’t litter the countryside but have committed the crime of wearing Lycra and wearing a ludicrous helmet, ride in pairs. Have yet to find a Carbon fibre bell for the high carbon footprint Trek. I’ve yet to see a cyclist drink Red Bull, let alone throw the can into the hedge. As for Lucozade I had a bottle for nearly a year unopened because I read the label.

He just got himself in the black book under the idiot section.

Been reading the comments (now up to 71) including one from Barry who went out on a ride with me on Wednesday (Boxing day) The thing was Barry thanked everyone that let us by, pulled their dog over, the horse riders by the Thatch. We passed at least 50 with no agro. This story is going to run by the looks of it.

Now up to 77 mostly reasoned posts which was more than that pricks Parris post was. I carry a spare gear cable that between two sticks would be just up his street.
Anyway after considering yesterdays events I posted the following to the Times comments section.

On the day Benazir Bhutto gets assasinated for wanting political freedom we have Matthew Parris wanting cyclists decapitated for dropping litter and wearing Lycra.
You must feel a proud man Matthew Parris.

Hasn’t made it to the thread yet but his writing really mucked up half a day of my life, I went to the cinema with Val to see the Will Smith movie and came out to the news that Benazir Bhutto was dead. Pretty ironic that on the day he takes a pop at the likes of me a political leader gets assasinated.

Just had an email from the CTC about writing to the Times editor rather than the Letters page. The comments are now up to 110 which makes it the most commented section of their site.
28 Dec 07
Went out for a ride today, my last of the year and although I had a torrid time with three punctures it wasn’t a bad day. No piano wire and no loons trying to take me out. 41 miles and enough time to get myself sorted a good end to the year.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article3123486.ece

“I offended many with my Christmas attack on cyclists. It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry.”

Thanks for the apology Matthew not easy say sorry when you’ve been getting away with it for years. Say something decent about us and you may even get your name taken out of the black book. 04 Jan 2008

The Peoples £50 Million

I cast my 1 vote for the Sustrans Connect 2 bid because it was going to improve cycling across the country.
Picking up the Times today there is another anti cycling piece in it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3048613.ece

I received the email from Sustrans via the CTC and it has around 50,000 members. Paul from the Northend was encouraging everyone with a phone to vote last Sunday so it wasn’t just Sustrans email getting everyone to vote but fellow cyclists networking. The quote from David Bellamy and others rings of sour grapes.

There is a distinct anti cyclist ring in some of the Times reporting. I’d don’t know if it’s because they have staff writers like Jeremy Clarkson, Paul Kimmage and David Walsh writing for the paper but you never see anything with a positive outlook in the paper.

Rant over, I’m off to Jacks funeral and boy is it cold out today.

On the positive side we’ve a new bridge over the River Dee to look forward to.
For those that used the gap to cross the A5117 the good news is that we are back in business as the contractors have reopened the gap.

They may have reopened the gap but Lodge lane is still fenced off with a climb over a wire fence needed to get through. This was today Saturday.

Homebrew Led Headlights

For the last few weeks now I have been toying with the idea of building a set of LED headlights to see myself through the winter. The Audax UK site has some good links to some good lighting articles but the technology is changing that fast a lot of it is starting to look dated.
I’ve already got some 15 degree lenses from Hong Kong and I’ve got some 3W and 5W LEDs on the way too.
I paid 45 pounds for a Cateye EL530 light and although its bright I’m not happy with it.
A LED torch rated at 5W from Hong Kong but more like 0.5W has a similar output but a wider beamspread. Take off 17.5% Vat and the shops markup and your looking at prices that are quite cheap as the component value is minimal.

At the top end of the market things are a bit different but the savings are higher. From what I can gather it is a blend of light output versus battery life. I bought 5 lenses for $3 which should see me OK for a while. There is a whole home brew community out there I might as well add my 2cents worth.

The thing is that things are changing as we speak, higher output LED,s are coming on to the market all the time. Li:Ion battery technology is increasing all the time too. It’s just a matter of where you source your components.

I have no problem with buying from the far east on Ebay it has all turned up if a little slowly.

To be continued with links, pics, articles and whatever.
The LEDs are taking some time to come through but it’s early days yet.
16 Dec 07 I’ll be buying some LEDs off Farnell or RS components as I don’t think these far east ones are going to turn up. At least I will know what I’m getting from a UK supplier. I’ll be using an off the shelf LED driver for it as the allow you to set different currents and incorporate flashing modes too. I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel just get a setup that is cheap and bright enough to ride in the dark.

The first 3 watt led has turned up from China with a 5 watt 192 lumen on it’s way. The fun starts now with driving the 3 watt one. It is a Luxeon star from Lumileds and the lens fits tightly over the emmiter. It is now a case of mounting the lens and led on a heatsink sorting out a current source. The 3 watt LED is rated at 80 lumens. More to follow.

Had a spot of bother with the first test of the 3 watt Led. I ended up blowing the thing up playing around with driver currents while monitorin the forward voltage. What is apparent with the 3W Leds is that twice the current does not mean twice the light output. I’m looking at throttling the current back and maybe doubling the battery life.

What is also apparent is they are operating right on the limit. Go over the limit and it is the worlds fastest fuse. Also they need a good lens or the light is just wasted. It was with when I was playing around with a torch reflector that it went pop.

Jack McAllister

On Saturday while out on a ride with the North End Jack fell from his bike and died from his injuries in Hospital the next day.

http://www.bnecc.co.uk/

Wednesdays rides are going to be a lot quieter now Jack has gone. He allways had a quip for the walkers and horse riders we passed on the rides.
One of his rides got a write up and there are a couple of pictures of him in the group and on the rides dotted about in the pictures.
He’s going to be missed by many.

Discovering Shropshire Audax.

I’d signed up for this Audax at the last minute having been in touch with Ray about which one he was doing the week before. He had opted for the 118 Km, 77 mile one rather than the 200 Km event. Pah I hear you cry I wouldn’t get out of bed for that.

Well looks are deceiving and I had spent Friday programming the route into Marengo. Cross referencing it with Anquet OS mapping. It turned out to be a hilly ride due to the rolling hilly nature of the area.

Every time I looked down at the Edge it was showing 10% gradient or seemed that way.

At the start there is much mirth among our group as Ray is checking tyre pressures by squeezing the tyre and coming up with a figure. The funny thing was he was remarkably close on three occasions. Triple puncture Guy should have had his sorted before the event and we had a stop a mile or two down the road to check that the tyre wasn’t going soft. Ray pronounced it Ok at 110 PSI. This puts us towards the back of the ride after a quickish start.

The first control is just past the world Heritage site, IronBridge. You can just see the bridge in the third picture. As you come down the valley you can’t help but wonder what this huge building is with cooling towers. It turns out to be a power station in the most unlikey of situations or perhaps not given this was at the heart of the industrial revolution.

I fell off the back of a fairly large group for these pictures, the actual one of the bridge not making it onto this post.

The first control was at the Tandem shop after negotiating what looked like a landslide. With the card stamped it was time to regroup and do a bit of climbing. It was staring to brighten up a bit and although the roads are still wet it hadn’t rained on us.

Things get a bit spread out on some of the climbs but it allows me to get a few shots in at the top. The last one in this sequence is at the second control point at Rays Farm. The turn is near the bottom of a hill and it’s a sharp climb up to the farm. The chain derailed on the Toy as it got shoved into the granny ring. But no damage done. Busses full of kids were struggling up the hill.

Once out of the control guess what, more climbing. The next section involving the highest point on the ride, Wenlock edge.

After the final control things have brightened up again and it’s turning out nice.
Now the thing is when your riding as a group you go at the pace of the slowest member but things get spread out a bit on the hills. It’s just the way it is, as once you get bunching of riders accidents tend to happen on the steep bits. Touching a wheel means your on the deck.

I tend to favour going off the front and waiting at the top, sometimes to take a picture sometimes not. A rider passes me as I ease up at the top of one of the climbs so I’ve got to return the favour on the next climb. More of a dash down one side of the hill and a sprint turning a big gear up the other. Honour restored it was time to slow down for the others.

It’s not all one way, but the faster riders tend to be at the front anyway. These rides aren’t races but there is an element of competition lurking under the surface.

Another rider passed comment on the Nike Lance 2 shoes. If it was going to be wet I wouldn’ have worn them. As it was they got lightly soiled we shall say at the end of the ride. Nearing Upton Magna there is a tractor and muck spreading tailer that has plastered the road with muck. It spreads for quite a distance. Now I don’t hang around as any traffic coming the other way would plaster you with the stuff. Given the speed I’m not expecting cries from behind me. Guy has leapt on my wheel and I’ve no mudguards.
You can picture the scene, to add to it Janet is on Guy,s wheel. It was a fairly clean ride up until then. Within another couple of hundred yards we are back at the start another great ride over.

The Edge is playing up at the moment by not splitting the rides up properly. Will post a link to the route when I get it sorted.

Link to Google Map of Ride

Missed out a few bits and pieces about the ride, two rides in two days takes a fair bit of writing up and the Edge not splitting them has had me trying to work around a fix for most of the week. SportTracks saving the day in the end.

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