Back In The Saddle

Its happened; after a year or so of failing to find the time to ride my bike, let alone complete my quest to ride all of the hundred greatest cycling climbs, I finally managed to bump start my efforts back into life.

After a Friday afternoon spent stuck in traffic (I'm convinced our motorway network is fundamentally broken) I found myself in the not exactly inspiring Chadderton on the outskirts of Oldham. After spending six hours in the car I was pretty knackered (I am out of practice afterall) but I had the comfort of a Travelshack and a cheap burger from a dodgy local takeaway to look forward to before riding two climbs the following day.

Like every Travelshack I've ever stayed in I had an appalling nights sleep. Why do they always crank the heating up to blast furnace levels? Surely the staff should know that if you walk into a room and your eyeballs instantly dry up the heating is probably on too high. Despite turning the heating in the room completely off I still woke up feeling drier than a mummies armpit the next morning. The ferocity of the heating was matched only by the volume of the police cars that seem to patrol the area in packs, at high speed, with their sirens on. I can only assume Oldham was on fire, or being invaded by aliens judging from the level of frenzied police activity. Maybe it was just a normal Friday night in Oldham. I didn't intend to find out; I had a nights sleep to try and salvage.

You know you're on a cycling trip when this is the view from bed...

The next morning I was up before it was light and heading to Ramsbottom to ride the infamous climb called The Rake. There will be a more detailed update complete with my legendary bad camera work to follow so I won't go into too much depth here apart from saying that I managed to complete the climb and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Ramsbottom didn't inspire me all that much though. Its a town that seems to be completely surrounded by urban motorways and the whole area struck me as pretty grim.

The Rake was followed by a short drive along yet more grim stretches of motorway to the more rural setting of Sabden where I got to ride the Nick of Pendle. Not viewed as being as tough a climb as The Rake it still looked pretty fearsome, especially when viewed from the road that heads into Sabden across the other side of the valley, but once again I didn't find it too bad to ride. Sure, I was never going to set a fast time but I'm fairly happy with my latest efforts; they bode well for my more concentrated efforts to tick off the remaining 19 climbs (yes, I'm slowly getting there) next year. My recent training seems have been worthwhile and I actually have some vestige of form to develop over the winter months.

I still have a few more summits to aim for but the weekend was encouraging

I have the hell of video editing to reacquaint myself with but hopefully in a week or so I should have the videos completed and up on the site. Don't worry, despite me being happy with my riding they will still come complete with their normal sound track of me wheezing as the scenery wobbles past very slowly. Watch this space.

The Revenant

Ok ok, I'm not quite back from the dead but it feels like this blog is.

It finally had to happen; I'm back in the hill climbing game. Well I say game, I'm about to start hurting myself in public, which in the minds of many non-cyclists would count as self harming, but I'm strangely looking forward to it.

I suppose I should explain about the vast expanse of time that has passed between this and my last blog post. I was working for myself and quite frankly that took up all of my time and money. If cycling is an obsession self employment leads to an even more all consuming one. Quite simply I had no room for anything other than work, and finding work. Cycling, whilst still a passion of mine, had to take a back seat and any spare time was eaten up by work. After two years of self employment I was starting to realise that without taking huge financial risks I would face real problems in growing my business to a point where I could have a decent life outside of work again. I was good at what I did but struggling to get the big break through I felt I needed. Plus, my social life, my hobbies and everything else that was important to me was being shoved ever further into the back ground.

At the start of 2016 I made the decision to seek out full time employment again. I've learned a hell of a lot by working for myself and don't regret any of the time spent trying to build my own business but that first free weekend when I started a new job working for somebody else, when I had no work commitments and all the time I wanted to ride my bike...boy was that ever sweet. Suffice to say I've found another job and I'm working hard to get my cycling back on track, if I ever was on track in the first place. 

One thing I need to tackle is the 21 remaining hill climbs. I dusted off the little black book of pain the other day and vowed to never let it get dusty again. I've built a new bike and have planned a trip away to bag at least a couple of climbs before the year is out. I don't intend to try and complete the remaining climbs this year; autumn is too close for that as well as the prospect of appalling weather in the hills, but I feel I do need to kick things off and test my form ahead of an all out effort early next year. Watch this space for news on the climbs I decide to tackle.

New approach, new bike. Sort of.

About a year and a half ago I bought a cheap frame and fork from Planet X. I liked the idea of a lightish road frame with decent tyre clearances and disc brake compatibility. What I ended up buying was a London Road frameset from a production run that has achieved notoriety for poor tolerances and build quality. My frame certainly ain't too pretty up close but I decided to persevere with it. My plan was to finally call time on my beloved Surly Karate Monkey frame and use its parts on the new frame. It would make for a cheap and quick build. 

                                                             

           Yep, thats apparently a bottom bracket thread...brute force won out in the end

Well, it was a cheap build but a wonky bottom bracket thread and seat tube like a clowns pocket made for a fair bit of swearing during the process. I'm still working to resolve the seat tube issues but the speed and responsiveness of the frame makes up for it. I'm not intending to use this bike for the 100 climbs. My faithful old Uncle John is still in my mind the best tool for the job but the London Road is growing on me. I even like climbing the steep stuff with flat handle bars. Time will tell if it ever gets to be ridden very slowly up a steep hill somewhere in the North of England but with a few tweaks it will make a good spare/ standby bike.

Over exposure hides the cheapness

My hill climbing efforts will restart this month with The Rake and Nick of Pendle being the climbs I've decided to test the water with. As ever I'm under prepared and probably not in the right form but what the hell, I've got to get going somehow. Now, where did I leave my charger for the helmet cam?  

Normal service will be resumed shortly

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post? More importantly has it really been that long since I last rode up a steep hill festooned with tiny video cameras?

Sadly it has; the reality of being self employed is that I haven't had the time or money to to get out into the wilds of the UK and finish off the remaining 21 climbs...yet. The business has been growing but my bank balance hasn't been and my diary has been even more squeezed by I'm working on bagging a few more climbs very soon. Its too early to say just when I'll be doing and what climbs they will be but rest assured I'm trying to make it happen before the summer. I have been out training, although not as much as I would like but the power is still there. Just need to work on the fitness but then when have I not had to?

Keep tuned folks; very soon there will be more footage of the British countryside rolling slowly past to a soundtrack of wheezing and occasional swearing.

The Karate Monkey Must Die

Yep, its true. The time has come for me to dismantle my Karate Monkey. It has been a great bike and very adaptable. It has had every set up option under the sun thrown at it since 2010 going from a skinny tyre road bike with flat bars and V brakes to a drop handle bar balloon tyre shod monstercross bike before finally ending up as a heavy duty hybrid/ winter training bike complete with riser bars and bar ends (oh the horror). You can thank/ blame the late great Sheldon Brown for my endless experimenting with the bike as I was inspired by an early Karate Monkey he once built up with two sets of handle bars, brakes and gears (hub and derailleur) just because he could and the frame would allow it. 

Cleaning it would be cheaper than building a new bike but I feel it is time for a change

It has been a fun bike but I need to move on and experiment with a new, lighter and more responsive frame. I've gotten to the point where lugging the heavy old girl up and down the local hills is no longer offering me a training opportunity and, if I'm being honest I want to try something newer and shiny just for a change. If I'm being honest getting back into the garage and swearing at tools again will also have a motivational aspect to it as the pressure of working for myself has taken some of the joy out of cycling.

To this end I've bought a cut price frame from those Northern purveyors of cheapness Planet X; a disc brake compatible road bike frame that will hopefully build up into a versatile all weather machine that can stand in for the Uncle John on some of the harsher hill climbs ahead (the disc brakes will certainly help on some of the climbs). Its a frame with a bad reputation for poor manufacturing tolerances (guesses for the model on the back of a fiver to the usual address) and I may need some help from my LBS in getting it ship shape but that just adds to the fun. To find out what manner of freak machine I build next you'll have to stay tuned as it is still in its box ( I really have been that busy with work recently). The only clue I'll give away is that it will be geared for the steep stuff, probably not too pretty to look at (like most of my bikes) and generally a bit of a mongrel.

Very soon I'll be swearing at the contents of this box in the garage

And yes, the fact I'm heading back into the garage is a sign that I will shortly be heading back into the hills. Normal service, complete with dodgy camera work, will be resumed shortly...

Wow, has it been that long?

It seems like another lifetime ago when I last posted to this blog. Sorry about that.

I'd like to say I'm back with a bang but I think I would fall a bit short of the dynamism that would be needed for that. Its nearly a year since I was last on the bike bagging epic road climbs. Setting up my own business and then running said business has taken up pretty all of my time and huge amounts of money, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. One of my customers recently commented that running my own business must be great as I can decide when to work. Er...yeah, I can but if I want to eat I kind of have to work when my customers want me to, plus I no longer get paid holidays. I have been getting out on my bike but the need to generate an income off my own back has had to take priority. In many ways it still does today but I'm aware that I still have 21 climbs to complete and I intend to make a serious dent on them over the coming months.

My new job is a nice active one and involves lots of time spent climbing up and down ladders, carrying heavy bits of kit around and generally not being sat behind a desk staring at a laptop all day. As a result I don't seem to have lost any power over the last few months although my fitness levels are behind where I want them to be at this time of year. I seem to have lost a bit of weight as well. Now don't go getting excited, I'm not rocking a Chris Froome look but by my standards I am marginally more efficient with regard to power to weight ratio and on recent training rides I've been mashing my way up the North Devon hills in a decent gear and not feeling too knackered at the top so there is hope for the future. 

Most of my training miles have been done on my faithful Surly Karate Monkey which is probably the most unlikely training bike you can imagine. That said, hauling its weight up and over the local hills has resulted in my going up my regular training inclines with a fair bit of extra power and in a much higher gear and being able to go off piste and leave the tarmac behind when I feel like it has been a fun addition to my rides. I do however need to put some longer rides in to ensure I don't get to the top of my local climbs completely out of breath and ready to collapse.

There is going to be a further blog update in the next week or so but rest assured, the remaining 21 climbs are in my sights once again and I'm intending to spend a bit of time at the start of October getting the total remaining to below 20. After a spring and summer trundling around North Devon in a battered little white van I'm more keyed up than ever to get back out into the wilds and up close and personal to some steep tarmac. 

As a farcically over sized Austrian once said; I'll be back.

Er, hello. Its been a very long time since my last blog update. Sorry about that but I have been genuinely very busy in the last couple of months. After tackling the remaining climbs in Yorkshire at the end of June I set up my own business and its safe to say that going self employed has sucked up a lot of what would have normally been spare time that I could spend cycling.

I'm still cycling and still focused on completing the remaining 21 climbs from the little black book of pain. It had been my intention to tackle a few climbs in the Lake District before the end of the year but training courses, a viral infection and the pressing need to attract and retain customers mean that even my weekends have been taken up with work. With the end of 2014 not far away I've decided that trying to squeeze in any more trips right now would be fruitless; I simply don't have the form (have I ever?) to make a decent fist of things right now and work is taking up a lot of my time. I think a decent plan is to wait until mid February and then, weather permitting, head up to the Lakes for a couple of days of ice cold hill climbing. I hate hot weather so the timing would suit me and hopefully the situation at work at that point in the year will allow me to take off a long weekend.

I've been so busy recently that even my compulsive bike building has had to take a back seat. Buying equipment and stocks for my new business has taken over from buying bike frames and components. I have however had to rebuild the Uncle John as the bottom bracket bearing and then the chain decided that they had both had enough of hauling my fat carcass around and promptly failed. My beloved Surly Cross Check is still largely in pieces and now that the mucky winter weather is here I don't intend to build it up fully until next spring; I don't want to build up a bling looking bike and then proceed to ruin it on crappy salted roads. Its going to have a pampered existence as a fair weather bike; I think its earned it. My Karate Monkey and single speed road bike are doing their best as winter training tools and at some point are going to need a good clean. If I get the chance the Karate Monkey may be taken apart and cannibalised to provide bits for a rebuild of my old touring bike and my Singular Swift. 

Anyway, that will do for now as an update. I'm intending to keep cycling through the next couple of months and hoping to build some decent form for early next year. A recent virus has really hit me hard and left me struggling on any form of gradient but I'm gradually getting back to normal and my new job is thankfully a nice active one so I;m not likely to settle into a sedentary existence just yet. In fact I may have lost a little bit of weight which can only help when the road starts going up.

Ta ta for now. I'll be back.

Shibden Wall

Ahh, Shibden Wall, a legendary climb amongst British Cyclists. I have to be honest, I was actually looking forward to riding this cobbled suffer fest. I knew it would be a rough ride and I'd reach the top in pain but its one of the climbs in the 100 Climbs little black book of pain that has always stood out for me.

I woke up at dawn on the 22^nd June to find that my left knee had miraculously stopped hurting and was actually bending properly again. Bouyed up by this positive development (and after falling asleep the night before with my knee feeling like it was broken I could only be positive) I piled into the car and set off for Shibden Wall. I reached Lee Lane (the official street name of Shidben Wall) by about 8am. If you're trying to find Lee Lane and struggling to get your sat nav to recognise it I recommend heading for the Shibden Mill Inn which will bring you to the bottom of Lee Lane.

I parked at the bottom as I didn't want to subject my over worked Fiat to the horrors of the cobbles which meant I was riding the climb blind. This did give me a few problems with pacing as it meant I didn't know how long the steep, cobble free, section at the base of the climb was. I was feeling relatively fresh and probably spent a bit too much energy on this lower section of the climb. As I rounded the final bend on the smooth(ish) surface I felt a little bit excited as the cobbles came into view. The other cobbled climbs in the book are tough but, in the case of Constitution Hill and Michealgate the cobbles are fairly ordered and in good condition. The gradient and bouncing as you ride over the surfaces of both make them a tough ride but they are rather civilised for cobbled climbs. Swiss Hill is a challenge because the cobbles are more uneven and there are a few rutted sections but it is a relatively short climb and the variations in gradient mean it isn't as tough as Shibden Wall.

When the pavement has steps built into it you know you're in for a tough ride

Shibden Wall is something else. You reach the cobbles with a steep start already making your legs burn and then you hit some horribly uneven cobbles on a very steep section of road. Its basically a daft piece of road and I couldn't help but laugh as the first few metres rolled under my wheels. Just as the cobbles start to give you blurred vision what must be the work hairpin bend in the UK bounces its way into view; its horrendously steep with some really uneven cobbles and the only way to ride it is to take the widest line possible. Not having had the chance to drive the hill before riding it I was hoping that the hairpin from hell might indicate that things were about to get better. Sadly not. The cobbles got worse, the gaps between them wider and the steep stuff just kept appearing. In fact the section that follows is probably the hardest part of the climb as the gradient stays steep and the quality of the cobbles in some areas is appalling. What I could believe was how many houses there are on the hill. I can only assume the local residents have gotten used to the blurred vision they must have from having to drive up and down the cobbles every day. Thankfully the road was quiet as I tackled it relatively early on a Sunday morning; my slow speed weaving could have caused problems with approaching traffic otherwise.

Finally reaching the top brought a brief moment of joy before the realisation set in that I would have to ride back down the climb to get to my car. With visions of me bouncing out of control at high speed I did the only sensible thing and took to the pavement for the first part of the climb. This ran out about halfway down the climb and I was forced onto the cobbles which left me with a headache and sore hands. Even the rough tarmac on the lower section of the climb was a relief to ride on.

Its as if somebody decided the hill wasn't tough enough to get up so they added a steep

hairpin and covered the damn thing in cobbles.

Getting back to the car I felt quite pleased with myself for having taken on Shibden Wall and surviving the experience. Feeling pleased with myself lasted for approximately one minute as on firing it up my sat nav decided the only way to go home would involve driving up the cobbled nightmare I'd just experienced on the bike. The hill seemed even worse in a car despite having suspension and soft fat tyres and twice on the same day I felt a deep sense of relief when the ski slope and smooth tarmac at the top of the hill came into view.

Whats Next?

Shibden Wall may well be the last of the 100 climbs that I tackle for a while. Recent changes in jobs and a new career direction have resulted in me being self employed. I like working for myself but, as anyone who is self employed will tell you, it isn't easy and my spare time is very limited (which is the main reason why this blog update is so overdue). I'm still getting out on my bike, it is afterall helping to keep me sane, but I'm unlikely to be able to take loads of time off for biking adventures in the near future. In fact I still haven't finished the bling and slightly retro rebuild of my Surly Cross Check. Its propped up across my office from me as I type this looking very sad and only partially built waiting for me to lavish the care and attention on it that it deserves.

I will return to the 100 climbs as I can't turn my back on them having come so far. If all goes well with the business I may be able to arrange a brutal short weekend in November to tackle some of the Lake District climbs but that does rely on work going well and the weather not turning too nasty too soon. All I can say is watch this space...