Second Gear

"Lockdown" Exercise last weekend (with Katya)

2020-05-23T19:46:00.000+01:00

We just took a short spin out along the Waddesdon Greenway and back.
We left a bit after 8 am in order to avoid most folks (who were still in bed at that time on a Sunday morning).
Anyway, I will let the pictures tell the story ...

Not many folks about - which is good

... Checking it Twice - Lockdown Cycle Camping Planning

2020-05-23T18:32:00.000+01:00

...
Section 2 (the camping stuff) is starting to sound a bit like "taking everything except the kitchen sink".

Time for a quick check to see what that lot weighs!
I nipped out to the garage, and, using a scale designed for weighing holiday suitcases, started weighing stuff.

Tent (the small, single-skin "fishing shelter"), including carry bag - 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs)
Airbed - 2 kg (4.4 lbs)
Holdall (the strong bag I intend to put all the stuff in, and then strap it to my luggage rack) - 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs)
Lightweight groundsheet/poncho 400g (a bit under 1 lb)

So the "camping" stuff comes in at 5.2 kg (12.5 lbs) not including the chair.
The chair is 3.9 kg (8 1/2 lbs).

There is also LOADS of room in the holdall for other kit - cooking gear, clothes food, etc. etc.

Making a List, Checking it Twice - preparing for "Lockdown Cycle Camping"

2020-05-21T23:01:00.000+01:00

Planning.
Planning.
Planning.

A good plan, plus some improvisation, gives one a fair chance at success.
A bad plan (or no plan), and you are just making a rod for your own back.

So here is the first draft of my plan, specifically the equipment list.
(it will be revised as I think of things, but best to get down an outline first, rather than trying to get it perfect in one go).

There are several sections to the list:

the bike

camping gear (tent etc)

eating gear (and food)

water

clothing

entertainment/relaxation

special items

Lockdown Cycle Camping Trip Next Week (involving my Back Garden, because all the campsites are closed!)

2020-05-20T22:45:00.000+01:00

Talk about "the title says it all"!

I have vacation time booked next week, and I was hoping to go cycle camping in the South Downs
(a hilly bit, in the South of England).

BUT

Well. you know, real-world stuff and all that.
All the campsites are shut by Government decree.

So I will just have to pretend:

load up my bike with camping stuff
cycle about a bit
pitch my tent at the "simulated" campsite
cook up some food with the campstove I will have just cycled about with
sleep overnight in the tent.
repeat steps 1 - 5 as required.

His and Hers Vivoactive HR watches - how are we getting on?

2020-04-06T00:20:00.001+01:00

Update 5 April 2020:
Anna's Vivoactive HR watch is still going strong, although the battery life is dropping off, and it needs charging perhaps twice a week now, rather than the once a week it was before.
My Vivoactive HR watch is still soldering on, cracked screen and all.
Yeah, it has lost some functionality, but it still does most of what I want.

Lockdown and future planning

2020-04-05T19:47:00.000+01:00

Hi folks.
I, like a lot of you, am on "Lockdown".

I am actually a minor key worker, so I still go to work.
(I am at the practical end of logistics - I actually move things from A to B by vehicle, and it is not a job that can be done from home. And, like I said, I am officially a key worker providing an officially essential service - indeed, for the corp I work for, our most important contract is probably the one we have with the Government!)

However, I do not try to "stretch the point" or abuse my position.
I go to work the short way.
I come home the short way, stopping only for a bit of shopping once or twice a week.

Recap of 2019

2020-01-13T05:53:00.000+00:00

A couple of weeks into 2020, so it is a bit overdue that I review last year.

One thing that stands out is just how high I seem to have set my personal bar for "success",
Last year, I turned 55, and "only" jogged several 13 milers ("half marathon" distance), and "only" rode one 100 mile (160 km) and one 125 mile (200 km) distance.

Taking a step back, and viewing this from the perspective of my workmates, of the 120-ish of us, I am the ONLY one to have cycled anywhere near those distances in one day!
A few of my work colleagues are occasional runners, including a little guy that runs 3 hr marathons (!), even though he is in his late 50's, so my running performance at work is merely "better than most" rather than "exceptional"!

Eat, Drink and be Merry, for tomorrow etc.etc

2019-12-29T23:26:00.002+00:00

I am writing this from the perspective of a 55 year old male.

When you are under 30, you are probably immortal (at least in your subconcious mind).
A male in a "rich"(i.e. G7) country has a life expectancy at birth of about 76 to 81 (depending on the country) - it is 81 to 87 for women - and yes, the US is at the bottom and Japan is at the top for both men and women.
So even for the "worst" case, an American male, at age 30, about 40% of your "time" has passed - less than half.

By the time you get to 50, it is pretty obvious that the immortality of youth has failed you.
You start to attend the funerals of co-workers who died of ill health, rather than accidental death.
You start to get a fatter and fatter medical file, and if you don't already have life insurance, the premiums start to get scarily high. You've very probably buried a parent, or at least a few aunts and uncles. Not many folks in their 50's have grandparents still alive, although, of course, some do.
Speaking for myself, all 4 of my grandparents are long dead - the last died about 25 years ago. My mother has been dead for 10 years, and of my 4 uncles and aunts, one uncle has died. Only one of those 6 deaths was not "natural causes".

At 55, I am no longer immortal ;-)
But I want to see support my daughter (17 y.o.) for a while yet. Probably have to subsidize her education, or help her get her first flat/apartment, or both.

So what can you do?
Well, personally, I have paid what seems like a LOT of money into pensions scheme - both to central government and to commercial providers, and I don't want it to be a massive waste.

Plus:
simply by living to 55, my life expectancy has gone up by more than 2 years ;-)
(it is because I can't die at less than 55 years of age, because I have already outlived that risk!)
looking at the G7 again, if you get to 65, things look even better, and the USA stops being the "tailender" - it becomes the "equal tailender" with Germany. The differences become a lot smaller for men, though - if you live to 65 and are male, you are likely to live to about 83 or 84. Form women the spread is much bigger, at 86 to 99 (yeah, the USA is worst again, and Japan is tops).

Of course, these are only figures for large population groups, and other things affect it too.
Genetics is one - if you have a lot of relatives who lived long, then that is a plus. But if your relatives die young, then that is a minus.
Things like not being poor and being better educated affect things, too.
(yeah, I have a modest house, and, yeah, I went to university).
And, the big one - lifestyle.

Nothing like a bit of exercise, not smoking, and drinking moderately to push up the life expectancy!
Have a fiddle about with the calculators here, and see what a difference a few lifestyle changes can make!
Using the tool I suggested earlier, my life expectancy, because I have reached age 55, is now 81.7 - put in more data, and I get 83.3, despite being overweight, having a grandfather who died at 44 etc etc - I assumed one relative at less than 50 and 3 at more than 50 - they actually died of multiple illnesses, but all had cardio-vascular problems. My saving graces are activity, not smoking and fairly moderate alcohol consumption.
How much do I drink? Well, I polished off a bottle of port in two days at Christmas, but that is something I only do once or twice a year. Normally 1 am a quart of (hard) cider a week, and often less than that. Indeed - often I don't drink for weeks or months at a time.
I am a lifelong non-smoker, so that one is easy for me.
On exercise, I walk about 8500 steps a day just as part of going to work and working, so it is really the more intense exercise I concentrate on - jogging and cycling - although I do sometimes just walk with my wife. But getting my weight back down to the lower half of overweight is worth a year, and getting back to normal weight is worth two, while further weight gain costs me years. And that is all assuming I can stay in the highest "exercise" category! If I retired early (I can just about afford to do so, although it would be a pretty frugal lifestyle in a cheaper part of the country!), and just drove everywhere, and "relaxed" a lot, that is worth a couple of years off, even if I don't gain any more weight!

At 55 already, a couple of years either way on my life expectancy feels like a lot more that it did when I was 30, and a couple of extra years of me working could really help my daughter, too.

So with a new year approaching, let's all get out there and do what we can!
Doesn't matter if it small or big, even the longest journey starts with a single step
(or in my case a 5k run!)
If you fail this time, have another go, next time.
(Health Warning: do see a doctor/physician if you have any health issues, and especially if you are over 50! - start slowly and build up - the last thing you want to do is go flat out straight away, fuelled by Red Bull and enthusiasm, get dehydrated, and have a heart attack. Take it easy at first, and work up to higher levels of exertion and duration of a period of months, not days! - I ran 3 (slow!) half marathons and did a (slow!) 200 km/125 mile cycle ride earlier in the year, so I know I can still handle a 5k or two, but if you haven't done much for the last 5 years or more, start out slow and short, and slowly build up!)

The Joy (or not!) of Running

2019-12-29T15:07:00.000+00:00

After a reassuringly well-fed Christmas, it is time to think about the upcoming year (2020).

So I hit the streets earlier today.
Wearing a groove in the pavement (sidewalk) again.

Just a basic "background" run - 3-and-a-bit miles (5km).
Nice and slow.

Not trying to set any records or impress anyone, just trying to get round without injury.

I chose a "target pace" of 7.5 mins/km (12 minutes a mile).
That's the "Cooper" pace (a reasonably measure of the difference between "health" exercise and "sports" exercise - the "Cooper Test" is to cover 1 mile in 12 minutes on the flat) - but of course I was aiming to keep it up for three times the Cooper distance.

Did I enjoy it?

Retro gas stove - Field Test (raw footage)

2019-11-17T19:24:00.000+00:00

This is the "straight from the cam" footage from today's little expedition - just compressed to bring down the file size! (I had to compress it a LOT to get it from 3GB to under 100MB! - it was shot in 1080, but here you see it in about 1/4 resolution, with a lot of detail loss)
I cycled about five-and-a-half miles (about 9km) to a nice little rustic "picnic" table on a nearby trail.
I ate the noodle/pasta mix out there - I boiled a bit too much water, so I had it "ramen style" (with "soup") rather than "pasta style" (with sauce).

Retro review - De Luxe Super Bleuet Camping Stove Set

2019-11-10T13:32:00.000+00:00

1960's De Luxe Super Bluet camping stove set, with a similar age camping kettle.

New Toy - the 4k action cam - trip to the shops.

2019-04-20T22:36:00.000+01:00

Hi,
I have a 4k cam.
so this is just a test of it.
(downsized to 720, low-quality for uploading, although I shot it all in 4k)

shot it as 4k timelapse for the trip to the shops, and 4k 30fps on the way back.
I slowed down the timelapse section afterwards in video-editing software, and speeded up the 30fps section.

Video size seems to be a real issue - i tried making the clip 1080 and high quality ... and came up with a 275MB file size!
Meanwhile, the original (4k) footage from the action cam comes in at about 3.3GB. Yes ... Gigabytes!

It would appear that I might have to think about a RAID array of big fat hard disks just to store my 4k footage!, toys, boys

Old Man Gears for an Old Man?

2019-04-14T15:46:00.000+01:00

new bling - a Shimano HG-500-10 cassette is now on my bike

Since I went for super-short cranks, I have had a bit of a hill problem.
My 175mm cranks had a triple ring setup, and I used to run 48, 34, 26, along with my 11-32 SRAM PG850 cassette.

The 145mm cranks I switched to (MUCH easier on my ageing right knee) are only a "double) at 48, 34.

So my "crawling up a hill" gearing had gone from 26f/32r (= 0.8125) to 34f/32r (= 1.0625) - a rise in gearing of 30%

Hmm, I thought to myself.
I have friction shifters (so I don't have to worry about indexing), and a "long-cage" derailleur (a Shimano RD-591), so, maybe I just need a new cassette and chain, give everything else a clean up, fiddle with the b-screw, reset the High and Low stops on the derailleur, and job done?

Sort of ;-)

Still got a (slow) half-marathon in me!

2019-04-14T14:41:00.000+01:00

Hi,
I'm still here
More than two years since the crash (in which I badly broke my shoulder), I am mostly "back to normal".
Or course, I am still in my 50s, so I have the issues from that ;-)

Anyway, while a basic test of fitness might be something like a Cooper Test (run one mile in twelve minutes - and, no, it isn't very hard), a better test of my current ability might be just how far can I run.

So I did.
Two days ago - and here it is on Strava (at top of post, and here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/2284443506)

Still here!

2018-02-13T15:45:00.002+00:00

Yep.
I'm still here.
Been working on a few things.
Got a few product new reviews to write up.
Watch this space!

BikeBins hard-sided locking panniers - approaching the seven year mark!

2017-05-01T14:21:00.002+01:00

Almost seven years on, and we are still using our Bike Bins panniers.
Here I am about to lock my helmet inside on a trip to the local hospital.

Almost seven years!
I always intended to make this a long-term review, and you won't find reviews as long as THIS elsewhere!

It was in June of 2010 that we bought our pair of hard-sided locking panniers from Bike Bins.
They are currently 45 quid each (or 80 quid for a pair) including VAT and shipping.
We paid about 65 for ours, but that was seven years ago!

Anyway, we still use them.
In the seven years, the colour has faded rather, and we have broken one mounting rail (which, because it uses standard Rixen and Kaul parts, I was able to repair for a reasonable cost).
Here are links to where I have written about them in the past, so you can easily read what I wrote then:

The original review
2 years on
3 1/2 years on
Approaching 4 years
Problems at 4 1/2 years
The repair
5 years, and a comparison with other panniers we own

New Shifters, and Nine Over Eight Gearing?

2017-03-21T16:04:00.000+00:00

Winter dreaming about gearing.
Having recently got my hands on a pair of "old school" "thumb" friction shifters, I will have a bit of flexibility with gearing.

Three factors that influenced me buying the friction shifters are:
1) I have an almost unused rear wheel that came with Hoppy (that was quickly swapped out for the eight speed I was using on Mermaid) that has a seven speed freewheel. With friction shifters, to swap wheels I'd just have to alter the stop screws on the derailleur. Indexing is irrelevant on an unindexed system :-)
2) Having removed myself from the hegemony of having to have the same "speed" shifters as rear gears, I can run a variety of set-ups, including unorthodox ones. Irregular spacing between cogs? as long as the chain can handle it, so can the friction shifters!
3) If I fancy another go at an aero setup, then friction "thumbies" mounted on the aero bars will be MUCH cheaper than the "proper" aero "bar end" thumbies.

Fixing the bike after the Crash

2017-02-15T16:02:00.000+00:00

Hmm. These were "North Road"-style bars.
But the left side has been bent in the crash.

The lower side has been bent in the crash.

Hoppy escaped the crash pretty lightly - indeed a badly bent handlebar seems to be the extent of the damage.
But I can't ride like that, so a bit of repair is in order!

To Voucher Or Not To Voucher - That Is The Question

2017-01-31T13:02:00.000+00:00

I got an email yesterday.
Decathlon reminding me that I have a voucher that is about to expire.
Given that today is the last day of the month, I guess the exoiry date will be today!

Hmm.
Whether to redeem or not?

Question 1: Trust.
This is always the biggie for dealing with folks and companies!
What do I think of Decathlon?
Do I think they sell great stuff, or junk?

I Went Quiet - What I Have Been Up To?

2017-01-30T14:40:00.000+00:00

I've mostly been writing on my my sports-orientated blog.
That andd I fell off my bike, breaking my shoulder blade/

So here is a little list of article there, in case you are interested:

A running footpod (clips onto you running shoes to measure cadence)
Compatability worries about Ant+ sports tech?
The relative importance of power and aerodynamics in cycling
Review of my (cycling) turbo trainer
Four cheap ways to lose weight from your bicycle
Fitting short - really short - cranks to my bike
My favourite Training Peaks features
Training tips, with the case study of a real 100km (62 mile) ride
Why I don't own a "proper" road bike
My 2017 training plan, and training tips
Issues with chainline
My big bike crash (I broke my shoulder blade)
The importance of "rest" days
Editing activities in Training Peaks
Setting custom zones in Training Peaks
A review of my cycling year - 2016
My progress since the crash

So I've been quite busy, really!

Short Crank Database

2016-12-08T18:08:00.001+00:00

Hi.
Today I'm going to talk about short cranks.

There are lots of reasons why folks want shorter-than-normal cranks.

some folks are petite - the 5 ft rider has shorter legs than the 6 ft rider!
some folks ride TT, and shorter cranks allow a more aero position
some folks have injuries - longer cranks result in a more acture knee angle

How short is short?
Just about every makers covers 170-175mm.
A great many cover 165mm cranks, too.
So I'm going to concentrate here on cranks of 160mm length or less
(btw, I'm currently running a 152mm crankset on my bike, even though I am 6 feet 3 inches tall!)

Getting Some Country Air

2016-12-05T10:45:00.000+00:00

A nice little ride out to Quainton.
The "tower" is the remains of a windmill, and look like it has been converted into a tall, thin, circular, house.
(Must be fun putting shelves on the walls!)

Today's ride starts off with the infrastructure I mentioned a few days ago.
The route runs clockwise, and the long, straight line is "Sapphire Way", then "Pebble Way".
I continued on Pebble Way right through Stone to the very end of that cycle route, though.
(Map is a crop of the "Garmin Connect" map for the ride, and handily contains weather information!)

Infrastructure Showcase - Martin Dalby Way

2016-12-03T16:31:00.000+00:00

Funny name for a road that no-one lives on.
Probably some local politician.
I tend not to remember them all.
Just the pro-cycling head of the county council :-)

On to Martin Dalby Way, then.

Here, we are going through Buckingham Park, a new housing development on the North of the town, built over the last 6 years or so.
For our purposes, this roundabout marks one end of Martin Dalby Way, but I am pretty sure the cartographers have it going for another 100 yards ro so to the right.
If you look carefully, just to the right of the tree in the centre of the picture is the wind turbine. More about that later.

Hoppy parked up at the top of Martin Dalby Way.
To the right of the pic, just about the fence, you can see the turbine again.
The wide-angle setting of the camera makes it look smaller.
The dual use path is visible - as wide as a whole traffic lane on the road.

Zoomed in from the same position.
The largest onshore wind turbinr in the UK.
For scale, the height, including the blades, is about the same as the Empire State Building.
It never looks as big as it is, but it does that tall building thing where as you get closer, it doesn't get much bigger.
It is actually set back a good bit further from the road than it looks, and is clearly visible for miles around.

The white building is a new high school.
This is at the other end of Martin Dalby Way, where an extensive new housing development (known as "BerryFields") is taking place.
The crossing shown allows folks to get from the dual-use path to the school.
Although not mant folks are about on a cold Saturday lunchtime in December, quite a lot of young people use Martin Dalby Way to get from where they live in Buckingham Park to the new school.
The blue "dismount" sign is a bit of an oddity.
I am advised that it has no legal standing, and might as well say "eat more cheese".
Especially odd placement as the crossing is a special "mixed" crossing, where cycling is allowed.

Close up on the crossing controls, clearly showing it is a special "xyxling and pedestrian" crossing.
The different types of crossings have fancy names, and I think this type is a "Toucan" (perhaps a pun is intended).
But the names are just an extra - what matters is knowing how to use each type, and they are are pretty similar, except for the type of users expected to cross (some allow horse riders to cross, for example).

Same position as above, looking back up Martin Dalby Way in the direction we have already come.
For our purposes, that roundabout marks the end of Martin Dalby Way, but again I think the cartographers draw in another couple of hundreds of yards this side of the roundabout as having the same name.

Coming along adjacent to the roundabout, we see the turbine again ...

Here we are going up Martin Dalby Way. Between the two roundabouts, there is almost a mile-and-a-half of decent cycling/running/walking/whatever, with no side turnings!

Martin Dalby Way runs through a rural section between the two housing areas.
Urban, yet right next to rural, Aylesbury is a popular place to live.

Perhaps a clearer shopt of the giant turbine. Empire State Building, sized, remember.

Looking towards the top and Buckingham Park again.
The modest hill at the end adds to the challenge of this multi-user path as a training route.
Just go up and down it half a dozen times each way, and it'll soon toughen you up.

Looking back the other way, back to Berryfields, the low white building to the left is the new school, and the housing is the Berryfields housing area.
Martin Dalby Way is such a good training route that a number of runners sneaked past the builder's fences on some Sundays
(when the builder;s weren't there!) and started posting Strava segments on the route before it was even open for public access!

Showcasing The Local Cycling Infrastructure

2016-12-02T17:35:00.000+00:00

Preface
I've mentioned before that I live in a town qith quite a bit of cycle infrastructure.
So today I am going to take you on a brief walkthrough of one route (actually it is two - the routes all end in the town centre, but it is pretty much a straight route, and follow the A418 road into town from the North-East, then follows the same A418 out of town towards the South-west.)
There are more routes than this - indeed, I think there are 8 main routes, plus some bits and bobs that aren't parts of routes as well.
But this is just one example.
All this is real "bricks and mortar" stuff, not plans.
There are quite a few bits that could be improved a bit, and some parts of the route have a bit of a rough surface, where cheap repairs have been made.
We are very grateful for what we have, though, and realise that most folks in the country (and indeed most other countries) have much less than us!
The route I will be showcasing is about 95% off-road, with just a few road sections to link it all up.

Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

2016-11-30T12:56:00.001+00:00

Ok, so there is no dock, and there is no bay.
But there is water.
A couple of days ago I went for a spin on the bike down by the canal.
Sometimes it is good to stop thinking about training and work and stuff, and just go for a pleasant ride in the country.
I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

Kitted out for the ride.
I was only intending to go at a moderate pace, and it was quite chilly, so I was well dressed.
Thin merino leggings under my full-length brushed cycle tights.
A sports singlet, then a running T-shirt (you can see the blue neck!),
then a long sleved cycle jersey, then a light showerproof/windproof jacket to top it off.
Be safe, be seen.
On my bike, I just loaded a single bottle with about 500ml of dilute drink
(nice little sugar kick if I need it, plus plenty of hydration - as it was I didn't touch it).
I have a pannier on the back with a few bits and bobs, too.

The road is closed at the bridge over the canal.
The access to the canal path is just before the bridge.
Additionally, it looks like I can sneak my bike through the gap in the barrier (not shown) to the right.
I did this near the end of the trip when I reached this point for the second time.
I like signs that ban motor vehicles, but still let perdestrians and cyclists through!

Down on the cycle path.
The first bit is well maintained and surfaced.
(the canal is rather washed out in the white section to the right
- it is a spur of the Grand Union Canal, that runs from London to Birmingham)
For history buffs, During the 18th Century a lot of canals were built in Britain,
being gradually superceded by railways (a British invention!) during the 19th Century.
The Aylesbury Arm, that I am riding part of today, is a spur
(like a side branch) from the main canal, and was opened in 1815.
I believe it stopped being commercially used as late as about 1960, with low value bulk goods,
such as stone and gravel being transported.

A lot of the Aylesbury to Tring section is like this - here I am looking back towards Aylesbury, so the canal is on the right.
There is a drainage/overflow ditch on the left, so the path is on a raised causeway between the two.
Often the path is not as wide as this, and in a few places one is cycling only about a foot (30cm) from the water.
Fresh air and a bit of "nature" (although not as much as falling in the canal!) is good for the body and the mind.

It's a bit muddy ...
My Marathon Plus tyres just about managed.
Some slipping and sliding at the back in a few places.
Really one would want MTB tyres if it was any muddier than this.

The bucolic lock keeper's cottage.
Actually, this one is more likely to be a works office for the folks that own the canal.
The locks are primarily "self-service", with canal boat owners/users having a special winding arm.

A new exit from the canal - you can see tha path through the bushes on the right.
The large, flat, building is the new dairy - the largest "fresh milk" dairy in the country,
and I think it may be the largest in Europe, too.

The canal owners have done quite a lot of repair work since I last came along this way,
But the path on the Aylesbury to Tring section certainly isn't "all-weather" yet.
It had been dry for three days before the ride, yet in the late Autumn things take quite a time to dry out!

I decided to leave the canal by this rather smart path to Wilstone.
Of course, at the far end, where vehicle have used it, it is rather pot-holed.
Yet another reason why I don't own a road bike.
The extra volume in my 37mm tyres soaked up a lot of road shocks.

At the "houses" end of the path from the canal to Wilstone is a nice information sign.
(Showing its age a bit, but nice, all the same)

Every small village seems to have a pub.
This one is quite old - i'm guessing a couple of hundred years.
It has "authentic" features like a not very even roof.
Basically, if an old-looking building looks like a bunch of drunken workmen built it, is is "real".
But if everything is nice and straight and sensible, it is a modern recreation of an older style of building.

Every small village round here has a war memorial.
This, like most, is to the dead of the First World War.
WW2 is usually commemorated with an extra plaque with a few extra names.

And on to Tring High Street. Quite classy, a bit pricey, Tring is a popular place to live.
From here it is up a slight slope, then down, down, down, a big hill towards home.
Then nip across the "closed" bridge I featured near the top of the post, through 2 areas of housing on minor roads,
and it is time for a nice cup off tea.