John's Cycling Diary

Worked from home again today

Managed to get out for another lunchtime ride

I thought I would give the GoPro a go off road on the Chippenham – Calne cycleway, I was keen to see if the rough terrain would affect the video stability.

I think the camera bounces on the belt, looking at the proper chest harness, it has a much larger mount area, I suspect it will be a much more stable base.

After a quick search online I found PcWorld have a chest harness for sale at £26. So I bought it (They normally retail at £36)

The Garmin had the ride as 25.82 miles with an average speed of 15mph, route here…

Worked from home today

After going through the throws of fitting the GoPro helmet mount onto the cycle helmet last night, I came to the realisation that I didn’t want to go cycling looking like a telly tubby…

I looked at the camera head mount and realised that I would never use it, but I could take it to pieces and make a chest mount Better still, if it worked it would save me £36 in buying one

Just before lunchtime as I was looking longingly out of my office window it looked gorgeous out, sunny and still with blue sky after I got changed and was ready to go for a quick lunchtime pedal, the skies had turned dark and it was raining

But I was on a mission to try out the camera and home made chest mount so off I went…

I am pretty happy with how it all turned out, no shocking wind noise, a very interesting and immersive perspective. I am still a little concerned about the camera shake over rough ground…I will investigate if the proper chest harness would eliminate shake (I suspect not).

The Garmin had the ride as 22.94 miles at 16.2 mph, route here…

I have ordered some 25mm and 16mm P clips from flea bay to mount the bullet cam on the rear drop out, I think it will make for some interesting video shots on Paris-Roubaix.

I also got around to looking at the wheels on the Peugeout, I had noticed that the back wheel had gone massively out of true and the front had developed a minor wobble.

It turned out that I had broken a spoke on the back, I changed the spoke and gave the wheel a quick true, I was quite happy how my first build wheel has held up

The front was down to a single loose spoke, it was tightened and the rest where checked.

Got in from work very late

I put some pasta straight on to cook and ate it at my computer..

The GoPro camera arrived and I was in tinker mode…so no cycling…

I am looking forwards to trying the camera out

Got in from work, got changed and did an hour on the rollers.

I had ‘The Sufferfest’ – ‘Downward Spiral’ playing on the computer at full volume to provide inspiration/relieve boredom/encourage.

The computer had the session as 20.56 miles in 1 hour with an average cadence of 93 rpm, as ‘The Downward Spiral’ is interval training I am not to bothered by the low cadence and relatively low speed, I was completely knackered and dripping in sweat at the end of the session.

I do think the rollers are a little stiffer with the new bearings in…

Night off, played computer games.

I was at a bit of a loose ends this morning, I hadn’t made up my mind yesterday if I was going to do the club leisure ride or do something a bit longer by myself.

The cross bike was nice and clean and still had cross tyres/no mudguards, I did have a brainwave this morning, I took the crud catcher off the Dawes Hybrid (I am going to sell the Dawes 601) and fitted it to the Merida Cross, Hopefully it will keep me/the bike a little cleaner without causing any mud/tyre rotation issues

I really fancied doing a ride up the Fosse-Way and heading back home on the lanes, so after making some Porridge for wifey n me I headed to Batheaston, up Bannerdown and then headed literally straight to Kemble (Romans knew how to build roads!).

The drag and drone from the tyres was very noticeable…I joined the first off road stretch of the Fosse, the track was strewn with fresh hedge cuttings, so I did the usual weaving around in some vain attempt to avoid the thorns.

Some how I managed to avoid getting a puncture Then I hit a piece of rubble hard….

After joining the very fast and well paved downhill stretch of the Fosse the back tyre started to go down, the hard hit had caused a pinch puncture

I replaced the tube with one I patched last night and I was off again

And a little more straight track…

And then shock horror…a bit more straight

Ok a subtle lie, the Fosse is mainly straight, it does have a few twists and turns, there are a couple of fords to cross as well

When I reached Kemble I turned Easterly and had a few miles of full on tail wind

By the time I got home I was feeling quite worn out, the drag of the tyres, head wind, off road and hills had taken their toll.

The Garmin had the ride as 60.18 miles in 4 hours 20 minutes with an average speed of 13.9 mph, route here…

After my shower/change I took the dogs out for a walk then prepared tea (Cider Boiled Honey Roast Ham, Mash Potatoes and Peas with Cheese Rouix Sauce)

 

Got up early, had a bowl of cereal for breaky, then headed out on the reverse chain gang.

I met up with Paul M and Jim B at Biddestone at 7:45am (after battling into a headwind for 30 minutes)

The temperature was unseasonably warm but the wind was punishing :-9

Date	Time	Weather	Temp		Wind					Vis		Pressure / trend
					Dir	Speed		Gust
Sat 21 Jan	0600		9.3	°C	WSW	26	mph	38	mph	26	km	1013 hPa, Falling
	0700		9.5	°C	WSW	25	mph	40	mph	28	km	1013 hPa, Falling
	0800		9.7	°C	W	23	mph	38	mph	29	km	1013 hPa, Falling
	0900		9.7	°C	W	25	mph	40	mph	30	km	1013 hPa, Falling
	1000		10.1	°C	W	23	mph	33	mph	30	km	1012 hPa, Falling
	1100		10.3	°C	W	22	mph	34	mph	35	km	1012 hPa, Falling
	1200		10.3	°C	WSW	23	mph	36	mph	30	km	1012 hPa, Falling

I had intended joining the chain gang at the cemetery and heading back the other way, but Paul and myself both agreed that we didn’t fancy riding in a group in the strong wind, so we opted for doing a second loop of the wrong way round

The Garmin had the ride as 78.88 miles in 4 hours 55 minutes with an average speed of 16mph, route here….

After my shower/change I had soup for lunch then cleaned/lubed the Cross bike ready for tomorrow

Ohhh I also ordered the GoPro camera and 32GB memory card today.

Long day at work got home and went out for a meal

It has been a bad cycling week this week…

I did manage to finish writing the weather station log file parser and construct an hourly observations web page

http://jobby.dyndns.org/Cumulus/hourly.htm

I wanted something that resembled the met office hourly observations page, and I think I achieved it

Normal (abnormal) cycling resumes tomorrow

Felt exhausted when I finished work

I did perk up on the way home, but I made the mistake of NOT getting changed and going straight on the bike, I sat down and started tinkering with scripts for the weather website (I want hourly observations).
So no cycling again today…And I am feeling very tired again This going to the office everyday is exhausting!

Had to go to work today

When I got home I got changed and had a 45 minute session on the rollers, the computer had the session as 16.23 miles in 45 minutes with an average speed of 21.57 mph, I was absolutely knackered!

After my shower/change I had tea then relocated the web server in my office…the weather receiver wasn’t receiving reliably in the dark corner, with everything relocated and working I then started playing with some non silverlight web scripts for the weather.

http://jobby.dyndns.org/Cumulus/index.htm

Just need to get  the gauges working now!