Easy Sunday

After not feeling up to doing the Dunwich Dynamo XXI over the weekend and my cycling partner OrangeBrompton being slightly injured and not doing the same event we decided to do a little light training around Hyde Park on Sunday.

For once I was dead ontime for once (GASP) so had a little time to take a couple of snaps at our meeting point.

The Albert Memorial

 Royal Albert Hall

When Orange finally arrived we didnt really have anything planned, we did a couple of circuits of Hyde Park and then heading towards St. Pauls going over the Millennium Bridge

Confirmed on the Millennium Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance

At this point we hadn't seen that many people around in London. It was still relatively early and being in the banking district of London most of it was shut down. In the week the same area is pretty crazy with traffic and office workers going about their business.

Feeling a little hungry even though I had a good porridge breakfast before leaving we headed to what is becoming out favourite haunt Look Mum No Hands on Old Street. If you get the chance please visit as the food is great, healthy and very cyclist orientated. Even got a little workshop where they can work on your bike if needed.

Breakfast @ "look mum no hands"

After my 2nd breakfast we headed back into central London's banking district as the traffic was still pretty light. OrangeBrompton wanted to visit The Gherkin before we called it a day. There is always something interesting to see & photograph in central London.

Sculpture in the city 2013 - Really shiny things that don't mean anything by Ryan Gander

Close up

The Gherkin

Security Guards?

After we hanged around the gherkin taking photos for a little while we decided to call it a day. We said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions. I did take a couple of shots on my way home as the traffic was still light and not many about.

LOVE You Bumble B

Not wasting the Bank Holiday

Over this bank holiday I have made sure I haven't wasted it. After not going to the  FNRttC: Burnham on Crouch on Friday night. I made sure I did a lot of training over this bank holiday weekend.
Was doing alot of what I call "Urban" training, basically cycling as fast as I could with alot of traffic and people wondering around. Well I had no choice really as its bank holiday weekend so alot of people wondering about any ways.

But was good fun though, better than sitting about at home.

Saturday Training :-23 miles & Bank Holiday Monday Training :-25 miles

Training in Hyde Park

Preparing for Brighton Night Ride

Tonight, Bumble B 2.0 & I shall be attempting the FNRttC: London to Brighton with my cycling partner in crime @LondonBrompton & Mark W from the LBC.

On my last 2 long haul rides I haven't done as well as I would have liked. I could put the blame on a few things...

Only having 3 gears.(Bad for big hills)
Not riding my own bike
Not keeping my fitness level up as much when Bumble B was having his surgery.

But the buck stops at that face looking back at me in the mirror. Yup me.

Earlier in the week I did a major training session with my age old nemesis Richmond Park. I don't like Richmond Park due to the many long hills it has but I needed to see if the changes I've made to Bumble B would help.
My first circuit on Richmond Park was pretty bad to be honest. I was wearing way to much and was basically over heating. At the suggestion of my cycling partner/coach Mr OrangeBrompton I took off a layer and we did another circuit. Now folks for me I normally only do 1 circuit of Richmond & call it a day but I had to see what improvements I would see on Bumble B.

Garmin: Richmond Training Loops

The hills did feel much easier and I learned that my highest gear is my "save me if all else fails" gear, only to be used in emergencies.

Just trying to figure out what to wear on this ride is hard enough as the weather is changeable. I want to get this right as I can as I've been pretty down about the last big rides.

Training using Cadence

Earlier today I decided to try and do some Cadence training. I used my normal commuting route to work as a test of sorts.

I basically ride to work in my lowest gear (1st) on The Legend (Standard 2009 M3L)

After the initial 5 mins or so I felt my legs get into a good rhythm and tried to keep my cadence around the 80 - 85 rpm mark. There are a few slight hills on my commute which I normally feel but this time I didn't feel it so much as I have in the past. Maybe cause I was wearing my proper cycling gear and no heavy O Bag at the front weighting me down but still it felt good. Normally I would be wearing my work uniform and my O Bag at the front with other work bits in. I thought for sure it would take me slighting longer to do my commute but when I looked at the time its roughly the same as my average commuting time.


Home >Work
Distance: 5.13miles
Time: 27:58
Avg Bike Cadence: 79 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 96 rpm

Work > Home
Distance: 5.34miles
Time: 29:07
Avg Bike Cadence: 79 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 106 rpm 

Not too bad I guess, in time I hope I will improve my cadence to around the 90rpm at a regular basis. One thing I have noticed when I was "spinning" is that kinda bounce up when I'm just about to go on the down stroke. This to me tells me that I'm starting to "push" down a little too early cause I'm pushing my body upwards and wasting energy instead of putting it though my legs, to the pedals, to the wheels & onto the road. I've been watching a few cycling videos of riders and I haven't seen this. 
Also notice that my shoulders rock from side to side more than anyone else as well which I'm thinking is also wasting energy. Now that I have seen my current riding style on video I got a better idea on what I need to work on to improve. I need to do alot more prolonged straight cycling on a track of some sort or maybe a cycling machine which I have been looking into. Then I don't have to worry about traffic and needing to stop. I'm thinking once I get my pedalling style down and second nature everything else will become easier and my overall cycling will improve. I'm going to be basically starting from  the begining and re training my body to be more energy efficient.
I'm excited as its like I've been blindfolded. Suddenly now I can see everything and see how it all falls into place.

While I was near my work place I went to my local bike shop and had a look at the Carradice Barley Saddlebag which is 7ltr which is 3.5 times bigger than my Carradice Zipped Roll Bag. As I've been reading on other blogs and my own experiences having a small bag when on day rides would be of great benefit instead of having my HUGE Brompton O Bag. Don't get me wrong I love my O Bag and very glad I purchased it but for the full on major rides I have planned for 2013 I can see it being more of a hindrance than a benefit. I love my Carradice Zipped Roll bag but its just not big enough to hold everything for a full day of riding.

Being more efficient

I've basically been on a little downer since the Cambridge ride. I know the biggest things was the high winds, cold temperatures & muddy start which sucked most of the energy out of me. It was one of the hardest rides I've ever done.

After discussing afew things on the London Brompton Club about training and improving my Cadence. I decided to install the Cadence sensor that came with my Garmin Edge 800.

I know gadgets are not a replacement for just hard training and putting the hours in,but then again it couldn't hurt to install it as it was just sitting in a draw gathering dust anyway.

Garmin Edge 800 Cadence Sensor

Well I'll guess I'll have to see how this works out and how I can use the information. I'm going to see what my current Cadence is and then try to improve it. From what I've been told 80- 90 revolutions per min is a good target to aim for.

We shall see.

Training & something broken

This morning did a little more training with my cycling partner in crime @MyOrangeBrompton. The weather reports said it would be raining early on but clearing up mid morn so I figured is finally wear my new Altura Night Vision Jacket for the first time. I'm finally getting the knack of wearing the right cycling clothing for the weather which is always an added bonus when on the road in the UK.

Made sure I fuelled up on fruit porridge and toast before I left to make sure I had a good energy reserve.

Got to Hyde Park, Albert Memorial a little late but was quickly joined by Mr. O as he has gone for shelter from the rain.

The Legend @ Albert Memorial

Albert Memorial

The wind I found was pretty bad on the high points in Hyde Park so it was a bit of a struggle for me but as always I kept on pumping my little legs. In conversations with Mr. O we finally realised that we have a major ride in less than a week, LBC Ride: London to Cambridge. I was saying to my buddy that I swear the date has been changed as this ride seemed to have snuck up on us & only just realised we got less than a week to go.

The reason being is the original date for this ride was in April but seeing the London Brompton Club  calender was a little neglected we decided to also to this ride on 2nd February 2013 in case some people couldn't make it to the April one.

On returning home "The Legend" needed a good cleaning. I cleaned him up and on my normal maintence checks I found that one of my rear wheel spokes was broken. :(

Broken spoke :(

On my break at work tomorrow I'll take my boy down to my local bike shop and see what they can do for him. This is one thing I won't be able to do as to me its a magic artform. Ever since I had a broken spoke awhile back that I didn't even know of at the time but it was found at a previous Maintenance class.

Remember folks, check your little buddies regularly !

The Battle of the Folding Pedal

Today was the start of a battle of EPIC proportions.

I didn't know who or what would survive the battle.

Who would blog about this EPIC battle between man and inanimate object.

After getting the MKS Lambda Wide Platform pedals I set about installing them on "The Legend"
All went well replacing the NON folding pedal but then the battle hadn't even began. Then came the Brompton Folding Pedal

2012 Brompton Folding Pedal

There is only one way to take of a 2012 Brompton Folding pedal and that was with an Allen key type deal in the hole in the above photo. I had already changed the folding pedal once before thinking that it would be simple as last time as it took me all of 5 minutes to change them over (Mistake). There was even a LBC Ride planned for today and thought I would have been able to change the pedals over and have a nice long club ride to test the MKS Wide Platform pedals properly. What a mistake that was.....

First of my crappy Allen keys wouldn't get it off, I tried everything I could think of. Brute force didn't work, WD40 didn't work to free up the stubborn sod either. Spend a good 2 hrs trying to get it to move but nothing.

Folding Pedal: 1 - Human: 0

There is a little bicycle workshop just down the road from me so I took it there to see what he could do. Nope nothing, he had a bigger Allen key type deal to try to get it off but once again the stubborn pedal wouldn't move. Cheeky monkey said he had a crank arm that he could put on for £10 but not a Brompton one. I turned his offer down

Folding Pedal: 2 - Humans: 0

This was starting to get silly now and it was time to bring out the BIG GUNS.
I packed up the new pedal and headed down to Londonfields Cycles, E9 and I was pretty much close to tears when entering the cycle shop. Luckily their main Brompton Engineer was on hand and I told him of my EPIC battle, his voice was calming and a great relief when he said he'd get it off and install the new pedal for me on the spot.

Five minutes later, the EPIC battle was over. I looked though the workshop window and saw the folding pedal come off. A wave of warm relief flowed across my body, mind and soul like the warm sea waves on a Caribbean beach as I knew soon that this day would not have been a wasted, soon I would be riding "The Legend"

I was told that the old pedal didn't  have any grease in the threads of the bolt which would have made sure the pedal wouldn't lock in like it did. (My mistake as I installed the folding pedal awhile back and put it on "dry" no grease or any type of lube to stop it from locking up)

I asked him "Whats the damage!?"

He just said for something like this no charge.

I nearly burst out crying & also resisted giving him a big hug >:P

Finally the great battle of the folding pedal was over and I could now enjoy the MKS Wide Platform Pedals and pedal into the nice sunny winter's day with "The Legend!".
I had ALOT of frustration to get off my mind at this point so I went to Victoria Park, E9 just down the road and burned up the park with some solid hardcore training.

Humans WIN!

Secret Testing Facilities

The Legend at a secret test facilities getting ready for the IG Nocturne Folding Bike Race. If your going to do testing, do it BIG I say.

My training rollers

Entering "The Zone!"

Well yesterday afternoon was a good one. This whole week I have been feeling very drained & tired all the time, probable cause I'm on late shift with work. Since Christmas I have been slipping badly with my training and healthy eating habits. Yesterday I made a big effort to push my energy levels up to try and get back into some kind of upward curve with training and general outlook.

I really have to get into some serious training as 2013 is going to be a busy one to say the lease with some HUGE rides up coming. A major thing with me is actually eating at the proper times, most of the time I miss out breakfast which is the worst meal to miss.

My secret weapon

On my commute which is just over 5 miles there are a couple of hills I have to go up, nothing major but still going up hill. I've always have problems with going up hills but nothing I can do but try to keep doing them more.

Yesterday I felt good and energized as soon as I woke up, I even went to work early and just powered on my commute to work. Couldn't believe what the Edge was telling me with the under 25mins to get to work. Most of the time I'm in the 28's and this week I know I have been even slower. I was totally in "The Zone" and just powered though big time. I need to try find out exactly what it is I do to get me into that zone, I know its both mental and physical. I have to start doing some major training

The proof

I was thinking of installing the rest of the sensors that came with my Garmin Edge 800 but the magnets for the cadence sensors won't reach. There is a magnet at the end of the pedal arm and another on the rear wheel spokes  but on the Brompton they don't overlap to where the sensor unit is. See pic below

Gamin Edge 800 Cadence on The Legend

With my cycling partner currently testing out a Garmin Edge 800 loaned to him by Garmin UK themselves I've been looking into the rest of the Garmin Connect website. I normally don't upload my commutes but I uploaded everything and I found out I've done over 1200 miles since August 2012 >:D

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~ B ~

Video: Last Richmond Training Ride of 2012

While out for a little training ride with my cycling buddy Mr. O just before Christmas I took my little wide angle keycam for a little test. This is the same keycam I got back in June 2012 but this is a new version with a wide angle lens, almost the same wide angle as the GoPro HD Hero 2 but a 10th the cost.

May do a review later,

Wide angle lens

Normal Lens

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~ B ~

Review: Altura Night Vision Over Trousers

I bought these awesome Altura Night Vision Over Trousers after seeing a review by my good cycling buddy Mr.O & for the LBC Ride: London by Night 2012 recently. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to throw at us that night so I thought I would make sure with a pair of these bad boys.

I never actually got a chance to ride with them on the LBC Ride: London by Night 2012 ride itself as it didn't rain on the LBC Ride but yesterday morning I saw the weather was looking abit wet so I put them on before heading out the door. I'd only gone about 5 minutes down the road when it started "spitting" down a little and another 5 minutes it was proper raining. I have to say I'm very impressed with these over-trousers, I've never worn cycling gear like this before (well haven't worn any proper cycling gear EVER)

Altura Night Vision Over Trousers after morning commute

Only thing I will say is that these are not "breatheable" and on a longer commute/ride could make my legs alot hotter and sweat more, but saying that in winter they will be invaluable

I can see in the coming days more and more cycling clothing being purchased as I slowly but surely see the light in wearing the proper clothing when riding. When I was on my most recent ride LBC Ride: Boxing Day Beano 2012 I noticed how different my riding was when wearing proper cycling type clothing. I felt alot faster, lighter and stronger.

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~ B ~

LBC Ride: Boxing Day Beano 2012

Ladies and Gents, this was planned as a little leisurely ride though London. Which included a few of London's squares & bridges & also a little trip to Abbey Road. >:D

My journey into Central London was longer than normal as there was a London Underground strike going on so NO tube trains where running. So I had to make my way into Central London via bus. I made it to Green Park Station and just typed in the postcode to the Le Pain Quotidien and my Garmin 800 took me right there no problems.
Once there met up with a few other members of LBC, which turned out to be 6 of us all together, there was supposed to be 7 but not sure what happened. Anyways we waited as long as we could and then we set off. We knew there was rain forecast at some point of the ride but we hoping we would be all done and finished before it came down.

Albert Bridge

Peace Pagoda

Outside Battersea Power Station

House of Commons from Southside of Thames

Winston Churchill Statue @ Parliament Square

Nielson Mandela @ Parliament Square

The LBC tried to recreate the famous Beatles Album Cover "Abbey Road"

Beatles "Abbey Road" Album Cover

Abbey Road Crossing

As you can see there was alot of tourist doing the same thing, the traffic wasn't too happy at times but we did our best. Maybe next time we will try and do it very early in the day and not on a public holiday.

Abbey Road Crossing

We later found there was a webcam at the crossing and you can go back and see yourself crossing the road itself, you really cant mistake me with my Nuclear HiVis jacket >:D Abbey Road Crossing Webcam

Here we are on http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing

Here we are on http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing

Here we are on http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing

The legend at a place where a legends are born. Take note dear readers, you saw "The Legend of the Brompton Bumble B" here too

The Legend at Abbey Road Crossing

Bromptons outside Abbey Road Studios

The Legend outside Abbey Road Studios

Regents Park

At this point we all decided to call it a day as it start to spit a little. Most of us headed towards Marble Arch. I was going to catch a bus but seeing the raid was holding off still and the bank holiday traffic was abit crazy I decided to cycle as much as I could til the rain dropped. I managed to get to about Angel before the rain was falling pretty hard and jumped on a bus. When I got off the bus it wasn't the end of my adventures as I will post about in another post.

Another great ride lead by David Parkinson without the use of an electronic devices I might add. Mapping skills amaze me everytime & a good paced ride too.

Richmond Pre Christmas Spin

Another hard training ride in Richmond Park @ 08:00. Wasn't help that the overground trains not starting till 08:15hrs, so didn't really get there till nearer 09:00.

The Legend waiting at the station

Met up with my training partner Mr. O at station and headed off to Richmond Park.
As always I have problems with this place with it's huge hills that seem to be getting bigger & bigger each time. Thankfully the temp was pretty mild compared to this week and no rain. Started out pretty good but the the hills started up and I didn't see much of Mr. O with his powerful legs accelerating him into to distance as my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest like in the aliens films.

Richmond Deer

Richmond Deer

Once again it was just me and the legend against the elements, this time the enemy was wind. May have been the windiest ride in Richmond to date for me which made it feel twice as hard.
After catching up Mr. O we had a little discussion about aerodynamics & wind resistance. From his work mate he passed on some words of wisdom about clothing to help cut this down to make me more aerodynamic which in turn make riding easier. I promptly said that his going to get me spending even more money on cycling clothing which until recently I had never truly considered.

Currently on shopping list is cycling pants with padding in. Also making sure I don't load myself up with unnecessary items that I don't need for training. Also doing more rides more often & upping my average speeds too, also making sure that for training rides I should wear as little as possible as I should be cycling for the most part so in turn keeping myself relativity warm in the process. So no more "Normal Clothing" s Mr.O puts it and more cycling type clothing but I'm not going so far to get into super tight lyrca, I don't think the world is truly ready to see me go that far.

I have slacked off of late in riding due to weather mostly but also with it being Christmas time is also pretty busy time but with Nocturne in a couple of weeks I need to get my game face on even though I don't know if I've actually been drawn yet.
Other than the Nocturne @ The London Bike Show in January there isn't much on the LBC riding calendar til April 2013. There is who ever alot of rides outside the LBC happening in May, June, July which are the big ones I have entered into.

I think future training rides we won't be in Richmond Park too often as its a hell of a long train journey for me to get to. Will be doing more rides around Hyde Park and other central London areas maybe even closer to my own area if I can find any.

Review: Endura Skullcap

I've found that with my helmet on and short hair my head gets cold pretty fast, esp at this time of year. I wasn't really looking for this but saw this in the shop.
It's thin so doesn't feel tight when worn with my helmet and even long enough to cover my ears to

Endura Skullcap

While wearing this i didn't feel any of the cold or wind. It's made from Thermolite with High Performance Repel Teflon fabric protector, which says draws away moister/sweat. I'm guessing its the same kinda of stuff used in other cycling clothing

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~ B ~

Richmond Training ride

On train heading for a training session with my cycling buddy Mr. O this lady comes up to me wanting/needing a closer look at "The Legend" I really have to be faster in getting my club/blog cards out to give to the Brompton riders I meet when travelling. Even giving me a slight idea for a photography project too ;)

Only lasted a few seconds as we was coming to her station but she said looking at her own blk B that it seems kinda naked after seeing Bumble B :D

On Overground train to Richmond

Well went and did abit of training with my cycle buddy in Richmond Park. Felt a little better with myself physically but still a long way off fitness wise compared to Mr.O. If I can get to his fitness level before my major rides next year I'd be extremely happy. We where discussing the up coming rides and how we are thinking we will be doing. I know I have a long way to go in my training to be better and have to really focus on not just the riding itself but also the preparation work too. The foods & drink I consume is a big issue for me as doing shift work I sometimes don't have alot of time to look for the healthy options.

My Training Stats:


Anyways some photographs I managed to take while riding today.

On a footbridge over the river

I promised myself next time I got to Richmond Park I would take my Infra-Red converted camera with me to take some shots of the park. The weather wasn't perfect for Infra-Red as I would like but this is to compare what a normal camera/human eye sees to what my converted InfraRed camera sees

Normal part of the spectrum that everyone/normal camera's sees

Now the same scene but in the Infra Red part of the spectrum.

As you can see in the InfraRed the green leafs and grass reflect the infra red part of the specturm and therefore looks white.

Well we finished abit of training just over 13 miles. Here is a shot of our steeds resting on top of a hill heading back to the station.

Brompton Bumble B & Orange Brompton

As always I had my Garmin on to record the ride so I can compare at a later date to see how my training is going. I think next time I will try to remember to wear the heart monitor to see how my heart is on a ride.