Catch Up

Been hectic these past few days, so I haven't had much chance to post.

Wednesday was a superp day on the slopes, carving up the Scottish snow with Hippo and Bovito, loving the glorious sunshine and blue skies.

Thursday gave me a chance to work the aches and pains from snowboarding back out of my legs and the end of the week finished with a lovely cold snap that brought sunshine and dry days, with the evening cycle being made almost entirely without a need for lights.

I'm on a training course next week, the training centre is in Glasgow city centre so I'm not too sure whether I'll be cycling or whether I'll be reduced to taking the train in (I'm just not sure where I'd lock my bike up in town). Nevertheless, my weekend cleaning regime has now been completed, I have a freshly cleaned and lubed chain on my clean bike and the brakes have been retuned in case I feel the need to out-skid some small kids in the local park.

Weekly Total: 91.31 miles
Overall Total: 641 miles

Winter Weather

Its cold again this week. Dry and cold = perfect cycling conditions.

The past couple of nights I've made the rather rash decision of cycling home in shorts and t-shirt. Maybe not the smartest idea but it certainly seemed to give me the incentive to pedal home faster.

Hopefully the cold snap will continue for a while longer yet, I'm hitting the slopes and trading the bike for a cheeky day of snowboarding tomorrow, my first session of the year. Forecast is predicting a sunny day with relatively low winds. Looking forward to a good day out with Jimbo & Bov.

Weekly Total: 44.03 miles

Summer vibe?

A nice cycle in this morning - well, it was dry and sunny, so no complaints from me. The ride back home was amazing though - it was still daylight when I left work, it was relatively warm, so it felt quite summery as i cycled home in my shorts & t-shirt. It was only at the end of the journey, as it started to get quite dark, that the temperature started to drop towards freezing.

I did buy a couple more things for the bike today, my overall spend on the bike jumping up to £351.85 to date. Essential purchases, however, if I intend to keep my bike in as good condition as possible.

Finish Line Bike lube: £3.99
Finish Line Degreaser: £6.99

Not a bad week, all in. I made it through the 100 mile barrier and also passed 500 miles in the overall distance.

Weekly Total: 101.1 miles
Overall Total: 550 miles

Rain and Fire

A monstrous hailstorm kicked off about 20 mins beforI cycled past a nasty looking fire in Maryhill tonight, can't find any news articles ae I left the office tonight. Luckily however, the clouds had cleared up by the time I'd changed into my cycling kit and it was a relatively dry journey home.

I did have to cycle through the remains of a fire around the Maryhill area this evening - the black smog seemed to hang everywhere and made visibility very bad indeed. Hope no-one was hurt.

Weekly Total: 57.05 miles

Time Trial

After feeling particularly amped about my first session with my new kite yesterday (sincere thanks to Cris, Pete, Si and Jim for all their assistance through the day), I decided that it was time to have the first timed run into work. This was also precipitated by the fact that I discovered my new speedo has an automatic trip timer on it too and that I didn't have to walk the kids to school toady (half term).

Anyway, the journey was non-descript, but the results were pretty decent:

Total time: 36mins 40 secs
Max speed: 37 mph (slipstreaming a bus)
Av. speed: 16.65 mph

That beats my previous record of 37mins 53secs and I feel sure that I can beat the new record again this year.

Weekly Total: 10.19 miles

Stats are Back!

Managed to finally sort the speedo late last night, it turned out that the magnet on the wheel wasn't close enough for the sensor on the fork to pick it up (it needs to be 5mm). I actually ended up using the magnet from my old speedo to fix the problem, but the problem is solvexd and it is stat-licious around here now (for instance, it took me 45mins 46secs to cycle home 10.9 miles tonight).

Only 4 days of cycling this week (I'm off work tomorrow because the kids are on half-term) and a paltry 27 miles recorded - thats pretty harsh.

Weekly Total: 27 miles
Overall Total: 449 miles

Still no stats

I was through in Edinburgh last night, so the speedo was fitted to the bike on the late night train back home (about 11pm) and then more tinkering took place this morning about 6.30am.

Neither session has resulted in a working speedo unfortunately, so its been a day of cycling but no stats.

Weekly Total: 10.05miles

Sorted

New bike computer purchased (Halfords to the rescue) - just need to fit it tonight before I cycle home.

I think I've set the wheel size correctly and I was glad to find a reprogramable odometer function on the computer too - I've programmed in the 422 miles that my old computer has recorded this year (and managed to resist the temptation to add an extra 20 odd miles for the miles that have been stolen from me so far).

Bike Computer: £13.99
TCO: £340.87

Overall Total: 422 miles

Road to Nowhere

Its Tuesday, I've cycled in to work and back home again yesterday and then in again this morning. My mileage so far this week? A mere 10.05 miles - the bloody speedometer is playing up again, I'm off to the bike shop at lunchtime to buy a replacement.

Weekly Total: 10.05 miles

End of the Week

It's been a good weekend. Nothing too much has happened, but its pretty much all been good.

The cycle back home on Friday night was a struggle after the morning farce, I basically had to carry back all the stuff that had taken me two days to carry in. I made it though, and was pleased to break through the 100 mile barrier again in spite of the various speedo and mechanical issues I've encountered.

The cost of the new tube and tyre needs to be added in to the Total Cost of Ownership tally too:

new tyre: £9.99
new inner tube: £6.99

Total Cost of Ownership: £326.88

Thats a pretty hefty figure for only the first month of this challenge, but if I add in the fact that I managed to complete over 400 miles this month, basic maths dictates that its costing me less than £1 per mile to commute into work, a figure which should reduce drastically over the next few months. I also only have to break that 400 mile barrier again 9 more times and I will have achieved my target. There's a chance I could have this all wrapped up by October!

Weekends Chez McFlea are generally a torrid affair of suburban dwelling interspersed with a multitude of kids activities and classes. The same murky mix was endured again this weekend, but it was made far more palatable because this time we CYCLED to each of the classes. The boys seemed more than pleased to be scooting about the roads on their bikes and that made me pretty chuffed too who knows, maybe I can persuade them to start their own blogs detailing their experiences on the road?

Sat 4 Feb
Dad dragged me out on the bloody bike again this morning, said some stuff about 'building character' but all I know is that I had cold fingers and dirty jeans by the end of it. Wish he knew how to drive so we could have taken the car.

Weekly Total: 104.76 miles
Overall Total: 411.9 miles

Operation Business Casual

Its been a hive of activity at McFlea HQ this week. I had meeting to attend this morning. We were going over to visit one of our major hardware suppliers, Hewlett-Packard and, as with all other occasions when we meet customers or suppliers, the dress code would be 'business casual'.

My normal work attire is jeans and a t-shirt. This is simply because the majority of our work is not customer facing and so a relaxed dress policy is in place. Conveniently, jeans and t-shirts travel very well indeed when stuffed into a backpack or pannier and no-one really gives a stuff if there's the odd visible wrinkle or crease in your clothes.

Anyway. Business casual is no problems, but cycling in to work and business casual poses some concerns. How do I transport the shirt and slacks without either creasing? What about my dress shoes (I keep a pair of trainers in the office), how will I carry them in as well as my squash kit (I play squash on a Friday)? So many things to deal with... its time to plan Operation Business Casual.

Operation Business Casual
OK - so the first thing that I established was that taking my stuff in would have to be spread in over 2 separate days. I would take my squash kit, my smart jacket and my dress shoes in on the Thursday morning and then take in my trousers and shirt on the Friday. I would need to work out a way of transporting the shirt and trousers to minimise creasing too.

Thursday's operation (Operation Business Casual - Part 1) went without a hitch. All good were transported safely and distributed in various places about the office (we aren't allowed to keep shoes, clothes etc in the office).

Friday (this morning) was a hectic affair. I managed to get the kids up out of bed OK, got my trousers and shirt folder up together and then carefully squeezed them into a plastic bag and then placed that carefully into my backpack (apparently the trick to preventing creases is to pack the clothes tight, but not too tight, so that they can't move around in the bag). Everything packed up, I set off on Operation Business Casual - Part 2.

The kids were dropped off on time and without any issues. Everything was going like clockwork, my only concerns were whether or not I would make it on time (I had to be showered and in the office block by 9.30am) and whether my clothes would be crease free. If only that was to be my only worries of the morning.

About 10 mins into the journey, just at the Bingo hall at Broadholm Street, I realised that my rear tyre was going flat pretty quickly. I hadn't seen any glass on the road but I had no time to try and work out exactly what had happened, I could only replace the punctured tube with my spare and get back on my way. 10 mins later I was sorted and back on the road again and I was soon back on time again. A little extra speed in sections where I would normally ease off, allowed me to make the time up and I was feeling confident about making the Playdrome in time, which meant i only had my concerns about creasing my clothes to deal with.

Then disaster struck.

I'd been pedalling along for at least 20 - 30 mins and thinking that my back tyre hadn't really been running as straight as it had been previously. I was assuming that I'd somehow managed to knock it out of line somewhat and was considering where I could take the wheel at the weekend to get it trued up. I certainly didn't expect to hear a loud 'woosh' of air and feel the whole tyre deflate in just a second or so and had to quickly turn off onto the pavement. My 2nd blowout.. only 8 - 10 mins from my final destination. A quick
assessment revealed that the tyre sidewall was damaged and I knew that for the tube to deflate so quickly meant a pretty big hole or tear in the tube, probably irreparable. Obviously it didn't help that, in the interests of saving time, I had thrown away my other tube rather than stuff it into my bag, so I had absolutely no way of repairing the bike which meant I would have to walk the remainder of the distance... gutted.

I made the obligatory phone call to excuse myself from the meeting and began my long, slow walk of shame. I did stop off at Halfords along the way and buy myself a new inner tube and tyre (and decided to fit them there and then). I made it in to work just after 10am, with nary a crease on either my shirt nor my trousers.

Operation Business Casual has been deemed a failure and now I'm sitting at work with a shirt and trousers on and everyone keeps asking if I've been at a job interview!!

Weekly Total: 90.29 miles