Category Archives: Cycling

26 mile refresher

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Sat. 17C, grey, WNW4, dry.
Warm-up ride for tomorrow, an hour & a half ride through routes not used by me for years.
Looked at Specialized and Giant bikes. They both do cross machines that are commute-adaptable. The Giant does not look great, perhaps unnecessarily heavy too. The Specialized may be a difficult fit for a rack.
Both makes used a mountain bike wheel-set, 29er wheels are The same size as road bikes.
So they’re standard sizes, that opens the possibility to buying a second set of wheels, one for summer…

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Followed by a little voice.

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Sunday, 16°C, SW2, half sun.
I rode with MapMyRide! Distance: 74.43mi, time: 04:46:02, pace: 3:51min/mi, speed: 15.61mi/h. It didn’t fail this time.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/703244445
Surprising how often the GPS drops the signal. Each time it does, the voice says “workout paused”. It happens even riding under a tunnel of large trees. Unfortunately, it also gives confirmation of Workout Resumed when moving forward in the queue of a shop. I really needed that flapjack, but it’s embarrassing. Cyclists look gorkey enough as it is.
I cut the ride after 70 miles as I had 30+miles in my legs yesterday.

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Bib shorts.

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Sat. NW3, showers unforecasted. 16°C.Racelite, tracked with MapMyRide Distance: 33.24mi, time: 02:06:19, pace: 3:48min/mi, speed: 15.79mi/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/702136043

After all these years, I have a pair of bib-shorts. For non-cyclists, they are cycling shorts with shoulder straps. I have not bought a pair before because it has been difficult to get long enough straps. I am quite tall.

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Amazingly comfortable. They are a close enough fit to prevent the luggage moving about.

Voice feedback– if you reinstall an app, it’s too easy to forget your own usual settings. Today, I forgot to switch off voice feedback. The thought of that is almost embarrassing. What happens is an electronic voice which sounds like a distant platform announcement, comes from near your bum.

Actually, I can see a use use for it. It spoke out after each mile distance, average speed (for that mile), and stuff like that. If a little voice tells you that the last mile’s speed is too low, that can urge you on to raise the pace. I should have used it when I hired that bike in Portugal. The bike had no speedo, but the voice could have told me the running distance.

It is useful to know your half-way point, say you decide to ride for 50 miles, if you know when you reached 25 miles, then you can turn home.

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GPS failmyride.

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Weds. Sunny, 15°C, NW3.
I rode the fixed gear with MapMyRide! Distance: 61.27mi, time: 03:35:36, pace: 3:31min/mi, speed: 17.05mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/698192099
Mapmyride has new bugs since the last update. Firstly, this good ride not completed the whole course of the ride. It only recorded half.
Their website can be used to update, or add new rides (or hikes). The app cannot synchronise from the site though.
Still enjoying the new sprightly wheels. This last few rides are considerably faster, over 17mph. This ride takes the year’s milage over 1,021 miles. That means it’s time to check the chain for year.
Best of all, it’s fun.
Look that this cloud-
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Reminds me of Suilven.

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CXP22

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Tues. 16C, sunny NE3, few clouds.
Tracked with MapMyRide! Distance: 32.33mi, time: 01:52:37, pace: 3:29min/mi, speed: 17.22mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/696675245
New wheels,buying these could become addictive. The new wheels that I blogged about a few weeks ago have been out for the first time. The first impression is of lightness. Holding a old and new wheel in each hand does not show much difference, but riding them does. Even kicking the crank into the starting position was considerably easier. There is far less flywheel effect. Acceleration and hill climbing are newly liberated. Riding out of the saddle is far more natural.

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I like the colours better too.

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This should work.

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Heavy rain, then humid sun.
Upgrade wheels for the fixed gear. For £99 you can get a trendy pair of wheels with painted, deep aero rims. Mine are orange but like others of the breed- they are heavy.
After the success of those Aksium wheels, I looked at the single-speed bike.

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Nothing ready-made in the catalogues, so I ordered a pair built. Though they look nice, but the spokes are different front and rear. They have not been pre-tensioned and not laced with the pattern I asked for. I still expect a considerable improvement in their handling.
It’s going to be more than a week before I find out.

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Lakes, hills and Aljezur

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Cloud, then bright sun, 27C.
GPS MapMyRide! Distance: 78.31mi, time: 05:19:18, pace: 4:05min/mi, speed: 14.8mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/670187733
Rode many hills and a few dead ends, but the hire bike makes big hills likable. It was not until near the cafe stop at Aljezur that the sun came out.
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So most of the big climbs were under white cloud.
One of the rear spokes worked loose, I can blame the climbs for that. I hit no potholes all day- the roads are pretty good here. Traffic was very light too.
I am going to be famous! on the ride back, the Google Streetview car passed the other way. I will give them six months to post then have a look on Google Earth. I know my face will be blurred, but I will know it is me. That gives me six months to prepare for the rigours of fame on the World Wide Wonder Web.

That was a very satisfying day.

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End of the world.

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23C grey sky.
Tracked with MapMyRide! Distance: 13.31mi, time: 55:32, pace: 4:10min/mi, speed: 14.4mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/669112035
Rode out beyond Sagres to the lighthouse which marks the most SW point in Europe. It’s flat and rocky there with cliffs on all sides to the Atlantic. Slight mist is developing which must be very striking in stormy weather.
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I have the same bike again and plan a ride that pushes deeper inland tomorrow.
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Cork woodland.

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27C brisk NW sea breeze. Bright sun.
Hired bike: rode MapMyRide! Distance: 50.04mi, time: 03:31:11, pace: 4:13min/mi, speed: 14.22mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/665367287
Great ride in the Algarve nature reserve. The main feature was a long twisting ascent up to the wind farm. Then followed a fast descent to the west on an empty road.

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Cork Oak trees.


That was good so I stopped at the bottom to read the map. I wanted another route to take me back up so ride it again. But then it was obvious how little water there was left in the bottles. That became my priority, so I resumed the route and look for a cafe. Carrapeteira has a nice square with a few places to buy water.
The return was a faster cruise along sweeping roads.
Traffic have a wide berth but they do tail-gate each other badly.
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The bike was quite likable, comfortable and smooth; not bad for a hire bike. It has an aluminium frame with carbon forks. The guy said he got them for €800 each. The frame seems good with costs cut on components. I really liked the new style Tiagra shifters, the up-shift lever is in a more natural place and it’s clunkiness sir a good feature in my view.

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