New Chapter in my life in more ways than one but in this context - cycle commute

It has been a while since I have posted on here, nigh on 5yrs in fact.  Cycling took a back seat for a while due to personal issues, plus I started walking a lot more instead of cycling as I needed to walk the dog.  Don't get me wrong I got fitter. I managed 11 miles in one walk, poor dog!

The bikes sat for a few years in the garage gathering dust, the occasional pootle out then put back because your butt is not used to the saddle, it hurts, then you hate it and put the thing back in the garage.  And repeat..

This was going on for about 3yrs. Job change meant I lost touch with the people I used to mountain bike with (we were colleagues and too lazy to keep in touch!) then a 20 min commute became a 90 min commute into the middle of Manchester.  I had to leave home around 7am and not get home until about 6.30pm - 7pm so by the end of the day I was dead!

Kids growing up having more and more clubs and events put paid to any notion of spending a few hours on the saddle on a weekend.  Not that I complained you do what you have to for your children :)

But still I missed going out and crunching some miles.  Now don't get me wrong I am not a fast cyclist I am a FAT cyclist so my average MPH pushes 15mph at best but I normally sit in the mid 13-14 depending on the terrain and weather and how fit I am.

Now.. Fast forward to early Summer 2019. New Job but this time slap bang in the middle of Manchester.  The commute meant if I drove from near Warrington it would take the best part of an hour if not more at the best of times shuffling with all the other commuters battling for single lanes and parking spaces.  For the first month I commuted from Trafford Park to Manchester on the tram.  For this first month I used it as a recce for cycling to work and seeing if it is feasible, dangerous, easy/hard and all other factors that put most people off hooking their leg over a bike frame at 7am!

Not knowing what to take with me I just took a rucksack.  Soon I realised (the second day of cycle commute) I needed to take spare tubes and pump and levers.. Oh the delights of detritus on Manchesters outskirts... (Liverpool Road for anyone who knows the area is dirtier and more damaged than most farm tracks.

So second day in, I had to take the tram back, pick up spares and fix the next day.  You live and learn from these experiences.

Quickly realising the new form of transport STILL hurts between your legs you quickly start regretting making this economical and environmentally positive decision.  Bearing in mind when you see people of London cycling on dedicated cycle lanes all nice and flat tarmac or be envious of those living in the Netherlands whose entire culture revolves around pedalling two wheels.  The cycle route I take is partly pavement marked cycle route but covered in glass (from drunks who cant carry bottles or smashed car lenses from bumps in the night) to no cycle route for about a mile sharing tarmac with those using the route as a rat run to the motorway so no one is pootling along they are hooning it!

The easiest part is the last 200yds where its a back street and not part of a rat run or main thoroughfare.  The problem we have in this country is that cyclists on the road are perceived to be idiots and road hogs and tax dodging neerdowells.. I mean it is 2020 we kind of need to grow up a bit now.

Even the commute home is a fight with buses who do NOT give you any space and will push you into walls because you are insignificant.  Thing is I kind of see their point when even I get cut up by the infmaous fast food delivery people on bikes with no lights and no intention of obeying any traffic laws and the Highway Code.

I imagine most of the people who consider cycling to work read this and think its not nice and I have to be honest it isn't its a means to an end.  If I start early or finish early the roads are quieter but part of the route home is one of the main arteries to leave Manchester so its always rammed.

During the past 6 months I have ridden 4 bikes.  The racer (bad idea due to the bumpiness of the road)  Singlespeed (worked fairly well but its a big frame so hurts my back)  The Old Giant bike (workhorse but its a bit tired and only has one brake! but it had lugs for a pannier so I put pannier bags on it which was a game changer!) and the Main Travis MTB (built from scratch but needs a service, has no lugs so rucksack only)

One thing I have learned (well I have learned a few but this one made the difference between hating the bike and it being part of my daily grind is tyres.  Weird as it sounds but when you get punctures more or less every other day because of the terrible condition of the roads plus glass/metal shards everywhere takes its toll on anyone's patience.

After much research I decided to get a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour tyres.  The difference between these and the normal ones (ie not tour) is the amount of tread as I plan on cycling all the way home which means going on the bridgewater canal for about 12 miles which for some parts its fine but after that I have to use the Trans Pennine trail which is definitely not tarmacced!  I found a deal online in Germany got them both for £50 when UK retailers were selling them for 35 each!  They are very stiff so are very hard to get onto the wheel but once on they look awesome!  On each sidewall is a reflective strip and it took me longer to make this look continuous than anything else!

Now for the positive side!

In essence a few things have come to prominence..

Weight Loss

Commute time

So in light of the fact I only do 4 miles each way every day, I have lost over 3.5st in the past 4 months, a great feat considering I am not even trying (I still eat unhealthy food daily!) but clothes fit better now, I can walk faster, I sleep better, I snore less.

Commute Time

When I first started commuting I noted it took me nigh on 29mins door to door.  I didn't think anything of this because its not a race.  However over time, my time dropped down to 20-21 mins which is a huge reduction over 4 miles.  If the weather is bad or I am tired it creeps up to 24 mins but is nowhere near the original times.  I am by no means the fastest or anywhere near the faster riders on the commute I more often than not get overtaken but they are riding gravel/cx bikes half my weight and carry nothing but it doesn't bother me.  I do me not worry about them.

New Chapter - a hint of the MAMIL creeping in with a touch of Midlife Crisis for good measure!

Its been nigh on 4 years since I last posted which is shameful.  I had good intentions with this blog to bitch and moan about this and that and back in the day it was meant to be about my mumblings on 2 wheels.

Since I last posted, I have more or less stopped riding all forms of bikes since April 2014 when I started a new job.  The old job gave me a company car and fuel card so I could freely go to any bike park/trail centre I wished at no cost (other than paying when I get there).

Now I have to pay for fuel and other costs myself, nipping 2hrs down to Cannock Chase has lost its appeal somewhat.

Oh how easy it was to throw the bike in the back or on the rack (if I could be arsed to put the roof rack on and ignore the persistant whistling whilst going down the motorway) then go off (with wife's permission of course ;) ) go round for an hour or two, avoid a coronary, act like a severe asthmatic then go back to the car with a smile on my face, or maybe that was a grimace at the reality of how unfit I still was. (and am for that matter)

Since that sad day when I waved goodbye to my free transport (well I dont see the tax taken out of my wage so what I don't see I don't miss) my cycling ventures have been rare to say the least.  I recall doing the Preston Guild Wheel from door to door(ish) which was 38 miles all told.  I had good intentions of getting home but I ran out of steam when I got back to Avenham Park and did a detour to Leyland Leisure Centre instead of going back to Euxton to fetch the car keys from a disgruntled other half who had expected me home 2 hours ago, to my sorry state home, warm up, dry myself and refuel.

Other than that the occasional commute into town on the single speed was the extent of my riding in the past 18months or so.  Sad sad sad.

However, in August (yes it is 2015 now) After a nice relaxing holiday aboard the P&O Britannia for a week and the usual over indulgence, I came home depressed.  It wasn't work related (although my feelings on work is another story), it was my size and weight.  I have always gone by shape and physical size rather than the figure you look down on mornfully when you step on the metal slab.  They are just numbers, I have never heeded them, as long as I feel physically ok and not like a blob I'm good.  However I needed to do something about it as I had let it slip again.  As you may have read, I did Lighter Life in 2006 and lost 78lbs in 3 months... yes 12 weeks, or maybe it was 14, anyway it was a lot in a short period, and over the years the baggage has slowly crept back on.

Audi To Sell Wooden Road Bikes - BikeRadar

Audi To Sell Wooden Road Bikes - BikeRadar

LOL!

Cycling with a purpose

Since my fall on monday at Gisburn Forest, plus the fact that my Raleigh is without a rear wheel (dead rim), I am a bit reluctant to go straight out on the bike as it is a bit of a nervous affair to cycle with a fresh injury.  With the leg still hurting a bit, but more like stinging, I had no plans to go offroading for a while until the wound has healed enough to put protection back on!

Since I had booked Monday and Tuesday off from work, and Monday was used around Gisburn, I "conned" Mrs B to go to Chiquitos, with one condition.  We cycle there!  Since we live inbetween two restaurants, one is distinctly easier to get to than the other due to having quieter and more urban roads.  The Middlebrook one is a major A road away but the Preston docks one is smaller A roads and streets so easier to navigate and easier for Mrs B as she hasn't been on a bike in a while.

The route there is fairly flat until the last half mile where it drops to the docks, which meant the route back with a stomach full of food would include a short sharp climb towards Lostock.

The route there is here.  and the Return leg is here.

You will notice the outbound route is longer as we stopped at Morrisons to get changed, but couldn't be naffed on the way home so we got changed at Chiquitos! (hope they didn't mind as we plan to go back again soon!)

I luckily wore bib tights so it not only protected my injury from the elements it also kept it warm.  BIB Tights FTW! :)

Gisburn Forest Loop

Endomondo Mountain biking Workout

This loop begins and ends at the Cocklet Hill car park.  I have missed out a little bit right at the far end of the loop which includes a rock drop but since I was out on my own I did not fancy doing this and getting it wrong.

As it turns out, I still crashed on a section called "hully gully" (you will find numerous vids on youtube of this bit as its quite infamous.)

This is the result of said "off"!

As you can see it looks quite painful and as I write this, its stinging like hell.  My fault for going too fast and not looking far enough ahead to get my lines sorted, live and learn :)

I found this at the car park which may be of use to you, it is the trail map although its a little outdated now as it does not show a new section built.  This section is at the bottom left hand corner after the climb following the reservoir, instead of following the reservoir it turns up and meets the next section.

 

August 2010 - Trip to Innerleithen and Glentress

Last year, a few of us from work decided that a couple of days up in Scotland would give us some decent riding done, since the locations for some decent trail riding around where we are have been done to death and we had heard so much about the 7stanes and the fact that, barring Wales, these were THE places to go if you want to ride on some good singletrack.

The plan was to stay somewhere in Peebles or Innerleithen, preferably Innerleithen due to its close proximity to the Innerleithen trailhead.  I had found a converted terraced house which had been made into two apartments, one on each floor, but with separate access so no common door.  The price was a very reasonable £70 PP for the 3 night stay. 

Once we got there, we realised HOW close it was to the Innerleithen trailhead, it was 5 mins on the bike!  MINT!

First attempt around Innerleithen was a bit iffy, since we'd driven up that day, plus gone shopping then gone to the pub AND had a BBQ, so we were a bit oiled and fuelled so no much oomph, PLUS it was raining, but still here we were.

Next day we tackled Innerleithen again but this time to do the full loop.  Yesterday we cut it short due to running out of daylight plus need some more alcohol :)  It rained again but only a drizzle, however the midges were out in force and had it not been for a dash of Avon Skin So Soft, I would have been screaming murder!  That stuff is brilliant for midge repellent, even though you get funny looks when you tell them what you use, it certainly works!

Myself and one guy cut the red loop a bit short and missed out the big climb to the top of the mountain, but the other two guys carried on, and boy did we miss out on some amazing bit of sweeping singletrack. A video of this is done by my mate who did it on his Contour Camera.

 

The run back to the car park was highly enjoyable since the clouds had broken and sunshine came out.  Definitely going back to Innerleithen again, but plan on getting a bit fitter for it next time!

On our penultimate day we met up with a forum member at Glentress, and unfortunately the heavens opened a torrent of rain.  This made our day a bit more miserable as we had realised that there was a big climb from the bottom to the interesting bits of Glentress.  There is a car park farther up where the freeride park is but we wanted to see it all not a diet version.

The climb up is not for the unfit (me), as its unrelenting uphill for a long time.  It is not particularly steep anywhere just a long drag uphill.  It is quite annoying seeing older folk on cyclo cross bikes whizz past you as if you were going backwards, but then again I would be if i were that thin!

Since the weather was putting a dampener on things, I'd lost a bit of interest and didn't bother doing the full red loop but was quite happy to go around on the blue route.  What I have noticed is that there is no two trail types the same, what I mean is, a red in England is not necessarily a red grade in Scotland.  I found a blue in Glentress was on par with a red in places like Grizedale or Llandegla.

Rivington Pike and Healey Nab

I have gone on enough about tarmac-based efforts, now its time to wax lyrical of sorts about my efforts off road.

I have to admit, my balance leaves much to be desired, never mind my fitness/physique/weight issues!  This leaves me in somewhat of a pickle when going offroad since the trails are not level nor are they smooth, or even curve gently!

Since I live in the shadow of the west Pennine moors, I have the luxury of having some excellent offroading opportunities within cycling distance, although most of the time I drive there to save energy (and i cannot be bothered!)  However I do have Rivington Pike within 10 mins drive, which seems far but I have to drive through Chorley to get there.  Healey Nab is another place which is even closer but that is more aimed at the more serious cyclist as the causal one might be put off by the severity of the trail.  It has Red and Black route trails which are experienced to downhill skill level riding.  By this i mean it is almost compulsory to ride the Black on here with some protection other than helmet.  Rivington Pike is more accessible to anyone fit enough to climb the path up to the top, but the views from there are fantastic.

Brief Summary
Rivington Pike.
Personally I would park at lower barn car park, which has a cafe during the weekend, I cannot vouch for weekdays as I have not been there.  And then ride up towards the pike following the well used trails marked.  There is very little in the way of guidance in terms of signposts that i have noticed on the way up but this is not primarily a cycling site, it is open access to all, so you will find ramblers and the family day out to dog walkers, and on Sundays a motorcycle club meets up at the Rivington Hall Barn, and I recall a BBQ laid on in the warmer months :).  I suggest you get an OS map, or look it up on google maps or similar and see how the trail leads you.

This is the loop I have been doing, and at just past 9 miles is the start of Healey Nab which is optional.

Healey Nab
Healey Nab was constructed by local riders in conjunction with Lancashire County Council, to provide a facility for the more experienced riders to have fun in the locality. I am sure there is more to it and if you Google it I am sure you will find more info on the subject but that is how I perceive it.

I first went to Healey Nab about 18 months ago on my hardtail (I did not own the Banshee by then), and as I was still a bit iffy on the more technical trails found it a lot to take on in a short space of time.  Since then, they have had fairly regular trail building days and I have managed to attend one of them, I am ashamed to say that I should have gone to more but with mrs B working some weekends, getting away is not that easy.

Here is a link to a route I did a few weeks ago.  It begins at the upper car park at Rivington, then encompasses Healey Nab.  The site is where mile marker 7 is located, so you can work out roughly where the site is.  If you make your way to the top, there are signs marking the start of the trails and point you in the right direction, but this only occurs at the trailhead not before.  You need to know where to go to get to that point.

I would advise parking around here, then cycling to the gate here, and head up the track up until this point where it forks up to the right and follow that until you see the forest ahead of you and a newly installed wooden gate.  This is the entrance to it and follow the signs from there.

Time to go and what to take
Rivington is suitable all year round to be honest, but since the majority if not all of it is hard packed ground there is little point taking aggressive tyres or mud tyres.  However, Healey Nab is under tree cover and drainage is ok but not great so when it is bone dry and a spell of hot weather has been around, then again some decent XC tyres should suffice, but in the winter and during a wet patch, I would recommend something with a bit more bite.