three bikes is one too many

With three bikes currently at my disposal I may now be finally fulfilling Rule 12, but I can’t help thinking that three bikes seems an excessive amount and if it were a permanent feature would cause me further anxiety about good bikes not being used. The third bike in my possession is borrowed from my father-in-law and can now be rightfully returned to its owner having successfully served its purpose of getting me addicted to cycling.

The graph below shows the usage of the three bikes over the last 48 weeks since the Bike V Car Challenge was created. It’s quite difficult to find anything interesting to say about such a boring graph, but I guess it shows that the Carerra is the workhorse and the Fuji and Merckx are a couple of fair weather show ponies. It also pointed out to me that the Bike V Car Challenge and blog is 4 weeks away from its first anniversary. This is far more interesting than the graph itself.

Producing this graph somehow seemed like a good idea but has turned out to be about as interesting as this caption

Stay tuned for further interesting stats and figures represented in graphical format

(with Meg)

Despite a series of inconvenient and consecutive ‘real life’ events like a stag-do, a wedding, a family birthday celebration, a Champions League Final and packing up our lives to move house, I have also managed to fit in some cycling.

Firstly I completed three long rides back-to-back after work last week. These extended commutes were as much mental as they were physical preparation for the imminent Tour of Wessex three day cycle event. April’s insane Strava climbing challenge now seems a long time ago, and regardless of the fact that my cycling ability has vastly improved, there was still a nagging sense that an easy month of May could have been softening both my legs and my spirit. In total, last week I rode 253 km (157 miles).

On Sunday I had planned to take the new bike for its second ride. Unfortunately for the bike (but fortunately for the writer) a certain team in blue only went and won the biggest trophy in club football causing the rider to consume vast quantities of alcohol including a rather unnecessarily extravagant bottle of champagne at midnight. Needless to say the new bike stayed indoors on Sunday.

However, Ms BikeVCar was itching to get out on her bike on Sunday and I decided to scrape myself off the sofa and join her … but only on my old bike. I had a feeling that the unmerciful Merckx would have made me sick, again! We rode 34 km in 1 hour 51 and climbed a total of 460 metres. This was some good climbing for Ms BikeVCar and included the infamous Belmont Hill.

“Really? Why on earth did you climb that 17 times in row?”

At the top of the climb, a fortunate fist-full of my jersey prevented her first clipless pedal capsize, before she then demanded to know why I had climbed the hill 17 times in a row. Apparently, “Strava said to do it” was not a valid excuse and only further proved my stupidity.

I generally try to avoid stereotyping the sexes, but there seems to be a bit of a difference between ladies and gents when it comes to the pure enjoyment of combining statistical data with an obsessive competitiveness. The fairer sex do not seem to share this completely irrational pleasure.  So while Ms BikeVCar was later back at home feeling pleased with her enjoyable Sunday ride, somebody else was uploading his data from the ride along with the carefully caveated title “Sunday ride with Meg”. This rather innocuous title was later laughingly pointed out, along the lines of: “is that last bit just in case somebody thinks you rode slow on your own?” Clearly there is some sad truth in this, but I hope that at least half of my readers might have some understanding …

This evening I finally unleashed the beast and took the red Merckx out for its second spin. I rode just over 30 km in exactly an hour which included 350 metres of climbing. And I completely smashed most of my Strava records. It mostly hurt but I could feel I was flying and just kept on pushing. There was no need to add any shallow caveats after that ride, but also no need to bore Ms BikeVCar with every single statistic. She’d only think I was more weird than I am.

Shorts weather

The weather has finally taken a turn for the better and is having a belated proper attempt at a Spring offering. To the extent that I rode to work yesterday in cycling shorts cut above the knees. This felt good even if it did give many people the alarming sight of my pasty, hairy pins. For the last few months I have been wearing tights to work which I think has put me on a par with a ballet dancer to most of my workmates.

“Jumping for the pure joy of wearing tights”

A couple of weeks ago I made the change to 3/4 length tights which stopped midway down my calves. These demi-shorts seemed a better option until I recently found out that the correct terminology for this item of clothing is “knickers”. Why? Who came up with that? Surely somebody could have thought of a less effeminate name than that. Never did I think I would regularly be wearing tights and knickers.

So with the above in mind, and with the sun on my back, I was glad to finally be comfortable in a regular pair of man shorts.

Ugh … pain … head

After an unhealthy and debauched weekend of birthday celebrations, stag dos and football, this morning’s cycle commute to work was no fun. Added to this, my last ride had been on the new bike so clambering back on The Ox was never going to feel great anyway.

The weather was crappy all morning, but it dried up in the afternoon and by home time we were enjoying some rare sunshine. I was laden down with a heavy backpack of groceries and so sensibly decided to take it easy going home. However, 30 seconds into the ride I was moving fast and enjoying it so I decided to maintain the speed. After another 30 seconds I decided to see how long I could maintain my maximum effort level. I have been toying with the idea of trying a time trial at some point and so thought it would be good to try riding hard for a prolonged period.

In the end, I went full throttle for 15 minutes until I was struck by a killer headache. I immediately slowed to a pootle and struggled the last 10 minutes home before collapsing on the lounge floor where I was discovered 15 minutes later by a bemused Ms BikeVCar.

A broken man

 

Unsure whether it was the exertion, dehydration in the sunny conditions or a delayed hangover from the weekend I lay on the floor quietly groaning at my foolishness.

Ms BikeVCar – “what’s happened to you?”

Me – “Ugh … Pain … head. Went too hard”

Ms BikeVCar – “You should have taken it easy”

A few glasses of water and a short while later I peeled myself off the floor and went for a shower. Next time I plan to take it easy I should listen to myself more carefully.

100th blog post: going metric

With its 100th blog post, BikeVCar has seen this as an appropriate landmark to fall in line with the cycling world and go metric, where distances are communicated in kilometres and ascents in metres. I appreciate that this may cause some confusion to readers from the USA where the imperial system is still used. I doubt anything could make things more confusing in the UK where both systems are partly used, with the bizarre result that short distances are measured in metres and long distances in miles, with many people apparently unsure how to convert between the two.

A garlanded tape-measure makes a great winner’s trophy

Henceforth, kilometres will be the unit of measurement on this blog. If you are unsure how to convert kilometres to miles, then a simple trick is to divide the number by 8 and then multiply by 5.

If you are unsure how to do this, then you could find a 10 year old and ask for their help.

Alternatively you could get this tattooed on your arm

I hope you continue to enjoy the blog and that its decimalisation doesn’t cause too much confusion. I would love to write more but the temperature outside is a beautiful 303 Kelvins which seems like perfect cycling weather for a ride.

A new arrival in the family

I am pleased to announce that I bought my new bike. The Merckx EMX-3.

Following my blog post on the demo ride of the EMX-3 and the two difficult choices faced, I received lots of helpful advice through comments and emails which was really appreciated. People were generally divided into two camps: White Bike v Red Bike.

To recap – the white version of the EMX-3 had Campag Athena groupset, Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels, various other blingy bits of seat post and stem plus “free” shoes and pedals. The red bike had Campag Centaur groupset (one below Athena), Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels (slightly inferior) and slightly less blingy bits of seat post and stem, and no freebies. But it was £400 less.

Red Bike V White Bike

In the end, I opted for the red bike for the following reasons:

• My original intention was to spend £X and focus on getting the best possible frame to last me for years, where the red bike was £X + £400 and the white bike was £X + £800. I would be happy to settle for lower spec’d wheels and groupset as I could upgrade later when my cycling ability warranted it. A top frame was the number 1 priority.
• I preferred the look of the red bike
• The difference between Campag Athena & Racing 5 wheels to Campag Centaur & Racing 7 wheels did not add up to £400 – therefore the shoes and pedals were clearly not “free”
• Red bikes apparently go faster (according to several people!)

It was not an easy decision, and advice from several people about the short and long-term benefits of Athena over Centaur were noted, but I couldn’t justify the extra spend. Plus I will probably move the Centaur groupset and Fulcrum 7 wheels onto my commuter bike next year when its components wear out and then upgrade to Athena and some decent wheels on the Merckx without raising suspicion from Ms BikeVCar that further big bicycle spending is going on. “Yes, the bike was expensive, but it will now last me for years so it’s an investment”.

A beautiful bike in some beautiful sunshine

A great paint job and internally routed cables

With the new bike bought and some rare sunshine blazing down there was only one thing to do – christen the baby! I intended to cycle from Bedminster to Compton Martin, a relatively easy 20km if you can find your way around hilly Dundry. Unfortunately I don’t know Bedminster very well and got into a complete bugger’s muddle trying to find my way out which ended up leaving me with two options:

1. Take the long route around Broadoak Hill as intended, but arrive late
2. Climb the beast of Broadoak Hill and make it on time

Although this appears to be two options, when riding on a flashy bike with the name “Merckx” emblazoned across it in at least 7 places there was actually only one option. You cannot arrive late on a bike like this! At an average gradient of over 10% for 1.2km, Broadoak Hill is a bit of a bastard, but I got over it at an average speed of 14km/h and spending a good amount of that time out of the saddle. The bike felt light and stiff and it was just  about as pleasurable as a killer hill can get.

A road that traverses like this is rarely easy going

I enjoyed my first ride on my new bike. The Campag gearing is very different to Shimano that I am used to, but I like the solid feel of it. My ride was fast, but also comfortable. This was an important consideration in choosing this bike.

It is now living inside our flat and making friends with Ms BikeVCar’s Orbea. This was supposedly due to the security concerns of leaving the bikes outside. Personally I just wanted to be able to look at it and smile. I feel I’ve made the right choice.

Shiny bikes make a great focal point of any front room (note the celebratory bubbly in a pot of ice!)

Can exercise make you ill?

I am ill. After the title of my last post this is somewhat ironic. And when I am ill, I do what any internet-savvy hypercondriac would do – I Google my symptoms to make sure I am not at death’s door.

If the best type of debilitating condition meant that you weren’t allowed to be around other people (i.e. at work) but that fresh air and exercise (i.e. cycling) were needed, and the worst type meant that it wasn’t contagious and you could just about struggle into work by borrowing your wife’s car, then I would definitely be suffering from the worst type of illness.

From further paranoid hunting on the triple-W, research suggests that although moderate exercise may help protect athletes from sickness, training for too long at too high an intensity appears to make athletes more susceptible to illness. Lab research shows that athletes exercising at a high intensity for 90 minutes or more experience a steep drop in immune function that can last up to 24 hours. The drop in immune function appears to be caused by the elevation of stress hormones released during and following heavy exertion. This is what exercise immunologists believe allows viruses already in the body to spread and gain a foothold.

This image was clearly chosen to attract more sympathy

Spreading the bike bug

Just over a year ago we had no bikes and two cars in our household. Then I got a new car and bought my first road bike on the same day … and the BikeVCar blog was born.

5 months ago I quit my awful job, handed back my company car and found a local job that I could cycle to. At this point it was Bike 1 – 1 Car.

Yesterday, Ms BikeVCar collected her new road bike from the local bike shop “one nil down … two-one up!!”

I’m currently also very close to buying a second bike which will represent even further two-wheeled domination.

Ms BikeVCar’s new bike is a thing of beauty and certainly a lot nicer than my bike – justifiable grounds for my upgrade, methinks

Today was the first outing by Ms BikeVCar on her new machine. We chose a 35 km loop from Stow on the Wold which mostly avoided main roads. It didn’t mostly avoid hills, but seeing as ‘wold’ roughly translates as ‘hilly area’ it’s always going to be difficult to avoid hills around Stow on the Wold, in the Cotswolds.

A relaxing, mostly traffic-free loop of the Cotswolds

Today’s route elevation – about as flat as it comes around Stow on the Wold

When it comes to cycling, Ms BikeVCar already possesses an amazing, cycling-specific skill – cake baking. And over the last year I have developed an amazing capacity for cake-eating which is purely out of respect to true cycling values.

Only a cyclist could consume this amount of Ms BikeVCar’s homemade chocolate brownie in one day and not feel the slightest pang of guilt

Those who know anything about recreational cycling will know that cakes represent one of the Five Holy Pillars of Cycling. The other four being:

• dressing head-to-toe in Lycra so revealing that it would make any non-cyclist feel naked
• understanding the importance of sartorial elegance on the bike (even if you think nothing of wearing black shoes and a brown belt in normal everyday life, you would never allow the colours of your bike frame, bar tape, jersey and helmet not carefully match and complement each other)
• the evidently infinite amount of gear and equipment that one must strive to acquire
• accepting a completely new cost-value ratio that any rational person not indoctrinated in the world of cycling would not comprehend – “you could buy a good car for the cost of your bike” is a typical comment

Ms BikeVCar displaying fine sartorial elegance. Stylish bike, retro jersey and the whole outfit containing just 3 colours – white, black and pink. She means business!

The ride today was an enjoyable spin in some rare sunshine. After several weeks of heavy rain it was a pleasure to have some favourable weather. The speed of the journey was possibly slightly slower than Mr BikeVCar is normally used to, but other than the one occasion when Ms BikeVCar made him lose his cool by stopping to squeal at baby lambs he managed to behave in a gentlemanly and patient manner.

She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes

We stopped in the quaint village of Moreton-in-Marsh for cups of tea and a slice of cake before the long climb home to Stow on the hill.

Cake and tea stop … more cake? Yes, of course more cake

We were out for three hours which provided some excellent bum-conditioning for Ms BikeVCar. Now that she has her own bike correctly set up for her, the next phase of cycling development will be overcoming the discomfort of spending hours perched on a thin wedge of plastic. Who knows what will follow after that – Bike V Car part 2 ?

Test riding a torture machine

Last weekend I visited Strada Cycles in Bristol to look at their bikes. I already enjoy walking around hardware shops and checking out the tools and materials, smelling the freshly sawn timber and inspecting the new gadgets and gizmos. Bike shops have now entered this realm and I can spend good amounts of time looking at bikes, squishing saddles and generally poking around.

Last Saturday I had a mission – to find a new bike. A proper racing bike. The guys in the shop were really helpful and we inspected and talked about lots of their potentially suitable bikes until we arrived at the Merkx EMX-3. It was a bit over my budget (of course!) but this week they arranged for the Merkx Bikes rep to deliver a demo bike to the shop for me to test ride. And today was the day of my ride.

I swear that bike is following me around the shop

The bike is beautiful. And an animal. A beautiful animal. I took it out for over an hour and climbed 500 metres of local climbs at an average speed of 18.5mph. Which for me, and especially on such a hilly route, is very fast. Much faster than I’ve ever ridden before. I’d strapped my Garmin onto the demo bike to allow me to gauge my pace and I set personal bests on all my climbs. This was the beautiful part.

Today’s route saw all of my Personal Records take a beating

The animal part was that I was completely unable to take it easy on the bike. Halfway up one climb I was beginning to suffer quite badly. Before I knew what I was doing I was up and out of the saddle thrashing it even harder. I actually exclaimed “Oh f**k!” as if Eddy Merkx himself had been there shouting at me to man-up and climb harder, and I was left with no choice but to comply.

I am also slightly embarrassed to say that I actually threw up a little bit at the top of Belmont Hill. I had to stop and rinse my mouth out. The bike is an animal!

The bike looking all cocky after making its rider throw up. “Ha!”

Back at the shop I was presented with two options.

A) The bike I had ridden – white paint job, Campag Athena groupset, Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels, and various other blingy bits of seat post and stem plus “free” shoes and pedals.

B) The red bike – same frame but different paint job, Campag Centaur groupset (one below Athena), Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels (slightly inferior) and slightly less blingy bits of seat post and stem, and no freebies, but for £400 less.

I’m sleeping on it tonight. The red bike was already a little more than I’d wanted to spend so the white bike is obviously a little bit more than a little bit more than I’d wanted to spend! But the red bike but isn’t such a good deal with all the inferior equipment. Either way I think it’ll be a beautiful animal to enjoy for some years to come. Sweet dreams!

Bike accessories – No. 5: Garmin E800 Case

There’s no denying that the Garmin Edge 800 is an attractive and intelligent piece of kit. However it has a design flaw.

During last month’s climbing challenge I noticed that when it rained, the Garmin’s altitude readings went haywire. Typically, it stopped registering any change in elevation which was quite frustrating.

Initially I thought the device was faulty, but some Googling around revealed that the Garmin has a small hole in the back which allows an internal sensor detect atmospheric pressure and temperature. However, a small droplet of water can clog the hole and block the sensor.

Even the rear-end of the Garmin E800 is sexy

However, the hole in the centre of the shot has no protection from rain

After hunting around on the interwebs, I discovered that Garmin manufacture a silicone case for the E800 which covers the offending hole, but with a groove to still allow air movement.

Garmin dressed for success

Cut outs for fixing bracket and SD card / USB slots

The groove allows air movement but runs down the body of the Garmin so there should be no way water can find its way up

Product spec – this can be ordered from Amazon but be warned, they posted it in a parcel the size of a shoe box. The case could probably be rolled to fit in a matchbox

My verdict on this accessory is that it is essential if you own a Garmin E800 and cycle in the rain. But what irks is that you shouldn’t have to hand over more cash to Garmin to resolve their own design flaw.

If you really don’t want to pay extra to protect the device, there is always the sammidge bag solution. However I was consuming two sammidge bags a month which would have equated to the cost of one Garmin silicone case in less than a year. The price you pay for living in the rainiest part of the UK…

Garmin E800 Sammidge Bag (available from all good grocery shops)