Commuting again

After a summer of doing other things, I'm back on my bike and commuting up and down the Avon Gorge. Gorgeous. The weather has been great this week and cycling home from work is a good way to de-stress. Or have all those arguments that you wanted to have but were wise enough to keep to yourself during the day. I have realised however that I need some thicker padded shorts if I'm going to keep this up, so that's this weekend's shopping task. It beats shopping for work shirts anyway. Here's a pic from the very wonderful chocolate path alongside the river, mud glistening in the sunshine.

Commuting

Every time I've looked at a petrol pump in the last couple of weeks, the price of a litre seems to have gone up by another 2p, so this seemed a good week to start commuting to work by bike again. I managed to cycle to work all three days that I'm there. It's an 8 1/2 mile ride each way and I was pleased that I could do it without collapsing with exhaustion or even being particularly out of breath, although I was tired by Thursday. I know for hard core cyclists this is nothing but I haven't been cycling for a while. It is a joy of a ride as well, most of it off road so there's no need to be keeping an eye on what the cars are doing. And the cycling city changes that have happened over the past couple of years mean that routes that have existed for a long time are now joined up (maybe they always were and I just didn't know). Anyway - here's a route map. And hurrah for the UKs first cycling city, despite my initial scepticism.


 
View Totts to work in a larger map

Up the Avon Gorge

Having started a blog about cycling I then stopped cycling for about three months, apart from the occasional trip into town. There is no reason for this apart from laziness, and chilly weather. That never used to bother me, but I'm not as hardy as I used to be, what with being 50 an' all... Anyway, today I decided to get off my fat lazy bum and go for a ride. This was a research ride as I wanted to see how long it would take me to get to work over the other side of town, and what state of knackered sweatiness I might arrive there.

It was a stunning day and it's a really straightforward ride largely off road (although next to a very busy one). In fact, it should be a Bristol tourist ride, because you go out along the river on the 'chocolate track', over the Pumphouse swing bridge, and up the side of the Portway under Clifton Suspension Bridge. Lovely. I had forgotten how joyous cycling in Bristol can be! This would make a good half of a round ride if you went over the M5 Avonmouth Bridge and back down the fabulous cycle path on the other side of the gorge. But I'll write about that one another time...

So, I'm going to stop wasting money on petrol and get back to my cycling roots. Or should that be routes... Stop groaning. Should be alright as long as I remember to pack a spare top... The photo is of the Trym going into the Avon as I went into one of those cycling reveries once in sight of the suspension bridge and completely forgot to take a photo. The other photo, featuring the front wheel of my lovely Trek, is of the 'chocolate path' - apparently named after the blocks which make this a bone shaking ride along the river.

Bike noises

It's a beautiful day so I thought I'd go for a bike ride and up my Vitamin D levels. First the bike needed a bit of cleaning and tinkering and whilst wasting time prior to actually doing anything I came across this excellent looking site http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/keepitquiet.html Many of the irritating noises your bike makes are documented here with the solutions. Unfortunately I still can't quite work out what the rattling noise is from my back wheel. Sounds like a ball bearing rattling around but is that really what it could be? Might need an expensive trip to the bike shop. ho hum...

Jumping in... and braking

I'm going to hold my nose and jump right into the fast flowing stream of information that is the blogosphere, with this blog dedicated to being a 50 year old cycling woman. If that isn't a poor metaphor for a cycling blog. I have cycled since I could walk and sometimes cycled when I could barely walk. On one occasion in fact I cycled, then couldn't walk - at a very young age when I didn't understand the incompatibility of steep downhills and no brakes, although I didn't do that again, and have always had a healthy respect for the brakes on my bike ever since. So first post is about brakes.

I have a Trek 7.5, lovely bike, but it has V Brakes which is not what I'm used to in bike maintenance terms so I wasn't sure how to adjust them. Tightening them is easy - no need for a whacky 'third hand' (remember those, what a handy piece of kit that was). However they have this annoying tendency to go out of synch so they're not pulling evenly on both sides and then they rub on the wheel rim, slowing me down and requiring more effort to ride, something I am never in favour of. After some unproductive fiddling fuelled mainly by guesswork I realised that the answer would probably be available on YouTube - being of the Richard's Bicycle Book generation it hadn't immediately occurred to me that there would be a video explaining what to do . And there was - so here it is. The relevant 'adjusting the little screws' bit is around 2.15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPxuyQ7YKI&feature=related

My brakes are now in perfect alignment and no longer rubbing. And when they aren't, I'll know what to do. Small victories empower us!