My first experience of SPDs

Up until now I have always ridden flats. I've tried a few cheapies and even invested in some Crank Bros 50/50s a few years back. When it came to SPDs, I always had 'the fear' of falling off and corkscrewing my legs off my body or else be a commuter-clown toppling over at the lights, much to everyone's amusement. I'm sure these things might still greet me in my future but since receiving my Shimano SH-MT41G shoes at half price I've only experienced good things.

Oh, what a difference it makes. Admittedly I changed my tyres from 26x2.35 to 26x1.95 and inflated them to 60psi but I still found that the climbs both on and off road were so much easier and I really did feel that my energy was focused on pedalling rather than staying on the pedals and adjusting my stance.

Coming down Elrick Hill was wet, rooty, rocky and technical and it was uncomfortable not being able to quickly dab a foot down but actually, when it was really necessary, I found I automatically released my foot to dab down before coming a cropper. My fear or being clipped in is waning. Here's today's route.

A friendly welcome to Sven

Up until now I've accepted that while people have offered to join me on parts of this ride, I would have to do much of it solo. However, as of yesterday, all that has changed and I now have a bike buddy for the whole trip. Sven is a friend of the family and an expert in all things outdoors. Although we've not met yet, he has a great deal of enthusiasm for the trip and shares my sense of adventure and passion for two wheels. I'm really pleased to have a companion to share the sights and 'discuss' map interpretations. Sven will be coming over from Norway a few days before the trip so hopefully we can squeeze in a few fun rides before the adventure begins.

So this now becomes Charlie and Sven's Big Adventure.

Satellite Tracking and Emergency Assistance Sorted

I've now booked a SPOT satellite tracking device to give me, friends and family piece of mind during the parts of the trip that I'll be doing solo. The device runs on two AA lithium batteries and will spend the week updating my location on Google maps, allowing me to send pre-determined 'I'm ok' texts and emails to friends and family as well as having a non-emergency help button and an emergency rescue button in case of a severe accident.

OutdoorGB.com have agreed to hire me one on a 7-day rental agreement. I think that they are one of the few places in the UK that hire them out. To buy these new would set you back around £150 and then you need to subscribe to the SPOT service at around $99 per year.

Date Set For Trip - Sponsorship Needed

The date for the trip is now set. I'll be leaving Kyle of Lochalsh on Friday 22nd of July and aiming to arrive in Montrose on Thursday 28th.

I will really be hiking up the sponsorship effort over the forthcoming weeks to try and reach the target for both Charities. I am hoping that the family bike events planned in June raise some money but I need much more.

I've contacted several people recently to ask for help and advice and have had lots of useful hints and tips, especially regarding the Corrieyairack Pass and I'd like to give particular thanks to Gavin Brebner at Angus Council's Outdoor Education dept for organising the hire of a BOB bike trailer for the trip and at a really good price too. Thanks Gavin.

 

Coast to Coast Route Decided

Following some looking around, I've decided to follow Tim Woodcock's Scotland Trail from Skye Bridge to Montrose. Here is a brief breakdown of the route as taken from the companion pack.


View Skye to Montrose C2C in a larger map

Day One - Skye Bridge to Arnisdale & Corran via Carr Brae and Bealach Ratagan

Day Two - Arnisdale to Fort Augustus via Glean Dubh Lochain, Cadha Mor and Choire Pass

Day Three - Fort Augustus to Glen Feshie via Corrieyairack Pass

Day Four - Glen Feshie to Tomintoul via Ryvoan Bothy, Carn a Chnuic, Eag Mhor Pass

Day Five - Tomintoul to Ballater via Culardoch and Felagie

Day Six - Ballater to Edzell via Mount Keen

Day Seven - Edzell to Montrose

I will likely be doing the trip solo but have some bike-minded friends who have said that they are interested in accompanying me on some sections. If anyone has any advice please feel free to leave comments below.

Thanks.

The London 'Training'

Isn't funny how anything bike related seems to be training? My latest Chris Hoy/Marc Baumont calibre training event took place in the City of Serenity, the quiet streets of London Village. And the only stressful part was putting the bike back!

 

Being such a small place, I'm surprised London has a cycling culture at all. Nevertheless, this bike park seemed to justify it's fancy 'double-decker' status. It made me feel the longing for a bike. If only you could simply borrow a bike from Boris.

 2 minutes later I was borrowing a bike from Boris. My friend Claire, who was working with Boris' people in City Hall that day said she's give him a kiss on my behalf but for some reason he wasn't around. And here's me thinking that he was the ideas man, in everyday, making London happen! Only one criticism... could he make a larger front basket happen. It took me an embarressing period of time, having already paid for the hire of the bike, to fit my bag and jacket in. I could tell that some onlookers thought I wouldn't manage. I won!

If Boris wasn't around for me to sing the joys of helmetless cycling around the busiest city in the UK on a steel steed with an unhealthily laden and unbalanced nose, then I was going to the top. The Houses of Parliament. I thought maybe I'd find John Prescott in the bar. We could chat about the merits of travelling by bicycle. But I didn't.

So I continued on my travels, over Westminster Bridge, past the IMAX, waving at other TFL cyclists along the South Bank, over Blackfriers Bridge, waving at the angry buses frustrated by this buffoon on a bike, no helmet and over-enthusiastic hand signals just to show everyone he could ride one-handed on this pedal-powered tank.

With still half an hour to go there was only one thing for it...  back over Westminster Bridge, past the IMAX, along the South Bank to find an abundance of docking bays enticing me to push my new friend nervously into their jaws.

I say nervously because when I hired the bike, I was fortunate enough to speak to a human being who told me that as long as the little green light went off, I was safe from the £50 late fee or £300 lost bike charge. But hang on, there are three little lights. A red one, orange one and a green one. What if one of the others came on? What does it all mean?

I asked myself the same question later when I smuggly avoided the train delays at Waterloo by cycling towards Earls Court. I carefully docked the bike just off Warwick Road to the sound of a wrrrrrr, clunk and a red light... that eventually went off. The bike was docked and locked, I couldn't get it out again but yet, no green light!?

I've not had the £300 bill yet and the bike did register as being at that site when I checked on my Andoid bike hire app. Anyway, I'm sure Boris would understand. He's got loads of those bikes going around London anyway. Whats a wrrr, clunk, red light between friends?

And The Bike Training Begins

Spurred on by two great weekends on Cycling Scotland's Cycle Trainer course where I met some interesting and all round good people who also like bikes, I decided that today should be spent on a nice long bike ride. I've been meaning to explore the Deeside Way for ages now, so today I pedalled off to see how far I could get before the sensible part of my brain suggested I come back.

It turns out that the Deeside Way is a really nice ride through the posher, more picturesque parts of Aberdeen and shire. I think the tell-tale sign was that the fields tended to have horses in them rather than stinky, grass munching bovines.

So, I found out that it was around about Banchory that the sensible part of my brain said, "Charlie, do yourself a favour. Eat some lunch and head back before your legs drop off." However, it was rudely interrupted by the daft part of my brain which then said, "Ooh, look at that tower on top of Scolty Hill. It would be rude to visit Banchory and not visit that."

So after some pushing of the bike and polite banter with a group of oldies walking down (Blue rinse #1: oh they don't like those things up here. Blue rinse #2: There's even a no bikes sign at the top. Blue rinse #1: Aye, I saw that too. Tsk!) I made it to the tower and gazed down upon my conquered domain. I know owned everything from the tower to the horizon!

A fine ride and I even got back in time to meet Beth from school. Now that I've had my cuppa, I'd better go and wash the trusty steed.

Did I mention that I made it back from the Tower via the downhill mtb trail with my Michelin Country Rock tyres inflated to 60psi! I didn't intend to take that route but damn it was fun and a good test of technical skills as roots, narrow gaps and mud would have sent me to my death... or at least given me something to moan about for a while!

Here's the route:

The Deeside Way To Banchory

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