A Week on the Machar Peninsula (Rough Cut No Sound)

Not cycling related but a great place to cycle. Low levels of traffic, pleasantly undulating use Sustrans map 'Lochs and Glens (South)'

Isle of Whithorn 2015 (Rough Cut) (No Sound) from Stuart Murden on Vimeo.

Off to The Isle of Whithorn

We'll be off to the Isle of Whithorn soon so there will be a bit of a blog break

We'll be packing wet weather gear ...  It's one of the 'sticky out' bit of Dumfries and Galloway.

 

 

The Dartmoor Ghost Ride - My Next Micro Adventure

The Dartmoor Ghost Audax Link to Audax UK

145km cycling event starting from Bovey Tracey, Devon. Controls at Whiddon Down and Yelverton, plus 3 information controls.

Under the ethereal light of the full'ish moon, experience the wonder of the open Dartmoor roads, & visit numerous 'haunted' locations on your way. 

This has the makings of a fairly significant 'upping the ante' for me with much more climbing and a distance of 147km that's 50% further than my standard 'long ride' plus it's at night.

AAA 2.25 'grimpeur' (hill climbing) event

Although there is a lot more climbing than my previous rides the gradients don't seem to be a bad as some hills I've done recently. A lot will depend on the weather. I quite like riding at night. The ride is very close to a full moon so if cloud cover permits it won't be that dark. Watching the dawn has a unique quality but cloud cover can spoil that. 

Cycling means you're travelling very 'close' to the weather; what direction is the wind, how strong is it, what are the clouds doing, is it hot or cold maybe I need another layer? 

So far I have been very lucky and really I've had no rain to speak of except once on a Brompton ride from High Wycombe to Tower Bridge where I mis-read the rain. I thought it was going to be a 'localised minor shower' so I didn't put on any rain gear when really the rain had set in for the day.

Cycling and Audax in particular has a 'smiling at adversity' culture.

This distance and profile seem to indicate that I could be in the saddle for 10 hours. That's quite a long time. I'm planning to gradually get up to 12-14hrs by the end of the year.

Over The Hills And Far Away - Tewkesbury and Malvern 100km Audax

Over the Hills and Far Away 100km Audax from Stuart Murden on Vimeo.
I great 100km ride using my Surly LHT. The wind was very strong something like a 20-25kph from the south west.

The Bike Re assembled at the long stay car park in Station St.

Upton on Severn

Looking West from the 'Singing Kettle'  (3rd Checkpoint) view 1

Looking West from the 'Singing Kettle' view 2

Lower Lode Inn (Penultimate checkpoint)

Oddas Chapel (Last Checkpoint)

The Brevet Card (Shot 1)

The Brevet Card (Shot 2)

Does Bike Fit In An Audi A4 Saloon? - Dry Run

What I thought could be tricky turned out to be very easy.

Loads of room to spare.

I completely emptied the boot. Folded down the seats. Took off the front wheel and 'Hey Presto'. There is plenty of room for miscellaneous items. Must remember to pack the 'Joe Blow'  pump. The Joe Blow has turned out to be a really good buy and something I would recommend to any cyclist. To be kept at home or in the car.

Although the bike fits well there's actually not too much spare in terms of length as I didn't want to change the drivers seat position.

I'm riding with no GPS but will have to make sure my Polar HRM and FujiFilm X100T are fully charged.

I'm planning to ride creating a single GPX track (previously I've used a track per stage) and I'm thinking 6hrs 30mins in the saddle with stops on top. The Polar RC3 has 8-10 hrs battery life whilst in GPS mode so pretty confident it will last out.

I'll be up at 5am on Saturday ready for the off at 9:15am from The Royal Hop Pole Tewkesbury. The weather forecast looks promising. I don't mind anything other than strong wind. An average wind speed of over 25km/hr would most probably put me off.

I'm quite keen to change the pedals to MKS detachables before the Dartmoor Ghost Ride. I have a spare pair from the Brompton and the bearings are much better than the default units. I don't use cleats on this bike.

Transporting my Surly to Tewkesbury

This is going to be an interesting exercise. I have just started moving my company stuff out of the Audi A4 Saloon with a view to putting in my Surly Long Haul Trucker. I'll put the back seats down and see what happens.




Surly LHT outside hotel in Shaftesbury

  

To what extent can I get it in without taking it to bits I'm not sure. I'm prepared to take the wheels off but would prefer to leave handlebars in situ.

One thing I learnt though is to keep the saddle well covered whilst in transit.

I'm sure I've seen bikes transported in 'Golfs' with just the front wheel off but maybe that's the benefit of a hatchback.

If all fails it's down to Halfords for a bike rack but that's a bit of a last resort to be honest. I'd better pack some HD mechanics gloves.

I had contemplated spending Friday night under canvas and then i realised one of the boys has my sleeping bag emmmmmm ........

Map and Paperwork

  

Audax route received. Organisers instructions received. Map purchased. Luckily the route more or less fits on one OS sheet no 150 so that's a bit of luck. I'm riding this Audax 'old skool' with just instructions and a map. GPS is Kaput. I've been studying the map and making mental annotations. Here's to a 9:15am Saturday start. 102.6km. Weather forecast looks promising .......