Wednesday 27 January 2010

Riding to Work Could Damage Your Health

Here's a link to the STV news report on the train crash... That's me with the bike pack and the muddy face!

So I've been riding down to the station these past few weeks, getting the train into Inverness then riding out to where I work. I use my Specialized Hardrock singlespeed conversion for the journey (it's mostly road riding) and I love it, it means I get to ride so much more than I would usually in the winter and it helps me to make sure my fitness is there for racing when the sun comes out.

It's been difficult for the past couple of weeks riding on 4 inches of ice on the cycle paths but I figure if I can do it now it's only going to get easier as the days get longer and the air temperature begins to climb...

So the riding is wonderful, and actually getting the train is nicer than driving for 2 hours a day (although I have to get up at 5.50am to get to the station on time!). The only issue has been getting home... last week the train was totally cancelled on one occasion and then on Friday night... WE CRASHED!!!!

That's correct, my efforts to spend more time on my bike have resulted in my being in a train crash. The train derailed outside Dingwall station on Friday night and we were suddenly surrounded by dozens of Fire crew, Police and Ambulance crew. It was all pretty exciting, starting with a massive bang, followed by the train snaking along the gravel, clearly no longer attached to the rails...  The only nervous moment came when we all felt that the train was beginning to tip onto its side, but as we came to a halt and realised that we were still upright everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The whole thing was actually a pretty exciting experience, nearly as much adrenalin as riding downhill at Golspie.

Well it hasn't put me off. The trains were cancelled for a couple of days whilst they sorted the tracks and got the train cleared, but it's all fixed now.

The best thing about it is that when I got the train this morning it was strangely quiet and there were lots of empty seats to choose from...

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Garmin over all excited...


I've been trying out my new Garmin Edge 205 over the past week or so and I'm pleased with it so far. I need to get to grips with the finer features of the device but so far it logs onto the satellites quickly and seems accurate in use. It's great to have a computer on the bike that doesn't need a sensor on the forks or spokes, and therefore has no complicated setup or installation. It really is a case of just fit and go.

The only issue with this is that it doesn't know whether the wheels are moving or not, I got on the train yesterday and glanced down to see the speed registering 73 mph and the calories at 2346...

The Edge 205 has lots of interesting functions for me to get excited about, including the ability to race yourself over a set course. I'll be posting a full review of the Garmin Edge 205 as soon as I get used to using it.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Snow Falls...

Ah, the last day of freedom before returning to work. If work opens tomorrow that is, latest news is that the car park and pavements around the buildings may be too icy to allow access... we can but hope. All the snow is still here, although we've had no new falls up here for several days. The temperature is so low and the ground is so cold now that nothing is melting. Altnaharra, just to the north of us has recorded an incredible low temperature of -22.3C and the temperature here at night is generally between -7C and -10C. Still, it means more fun snow riding for us. I'm posting a wee video of my friend and I out on our local hill. It's not a video of us riding as such... more a video of us falling. We were wondering how soft the snow would be if we fell into it in a crash, so we decided to throw ourselves into a few drifts to find out. I'm planning on riding to the station tomorrow to get the train to Inverness, then riding out to where I work. Wish me luck...


Saturday 9 January 2010

Friday 8 January 2010

Testing the Fenix L2D



I've had two of these on my bike now throughout the whole of this winter. They're great for night rides and even enduro racing. They got me through 'Relentless 24' this year and I've been impressed with their simplicity. They're really well made, fully waterproof and pretty cool looking on the bars.
The great thing about them is that they take 2 AA batteries, so on night rides I can always have a couple of spare batteries in my pack and I know I'll never be left in the dark miles from home. These lights use the super bright Cree Q5 premium LED which really does fire out trail light. There are several mode choices - 12 lumens gives 12 hours of light and 53 lumens gives a published 10.5 hours. Apart from when I'm riding home along roads and trying hard not to dazzle car drivers, I generally only ever use them on full power, giving out about 100 lumens of light, so 200 for the two lights.
They last a good while on full, although probably not the full 4 hours as proposed on the website, they do go for at least 2-3 hours at a time. There's also a 'turbo' mode that blasts out 180 lumens and really lights up the route, good for really technical trails, but the turbo does really hammer the batteries.
I use 'lockblock' mounts to put them on the bars and they're really stable, keeping things looking neat and tidy.
The lights cost around £40 each, so at £80 for the two, they really are much more reasonable than many of the big name 'trail lights' around, and in many ways, more versatile as well.
I'm thinking I'll probably get a third one to mount on my helmet, probably the Fenix L1D. it's 1/2 the size, takes only one AA battery but still gives out 90 lumens on full power! I know there are cheaper, similar lights on Deal Extreme but with the Fenix torches you know what you're getting and you know that the quality is guaranteed.

Thursday 7 January 2010

Out in the Snow







Went up the local trails in deep snow. When I say deep I really mean it, check out the pictures, it was over my knees in places!
The fresh snow was supersoft and we found it really hard to get traction a lot of the time. The real difficulty was just getting going, once we were on the move we could keep it up until we hit a soft patch and then to rear wheel just dug in...
Coming down was the most fun as riding up was pretty hard. We felt like big bike freeriders having to push our bikes up slopes just to get the ride down. The great thing was that the falls didn't hurt, as we just crashed out into big drifts.
In the end we decided to see how far we could throw ourselves in the air and land without pain and spent a happy half our off our bikes just throwing ourselves into deep drifts for a while.
I have been using some of the new kit I got over the Christmas period and I'll post some mini reviews of the gear in the next wee while when I've given it enough time to work or break.
The snow up here gets deeper and deeper. I know the rest of the country seems to be catching up a little but we've had snow since the 19th December with no thaw. Each time it snows it just builds and builds. It's actually getting a bit boring now as it's making it hard to get out and really ride trails. We still give it a go though and we're getting more and more used to riding in snow now...

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Jack Rides Bikes

I ride bikes. I love riding bikes. I'm lucky enough to live in the far North of Scotland with some of the best riding the nation has to offer right on my doorstep and even more great rides just down the road. I live just minutes from some amazing trail centres, like the Highland Wildcat at Golspie and the Balblair Black route and I can chuck my bikes on the back of the car and be at Fort William in an hour or so. I'm a lucky, lucky mountain biker.

So this is my mountain blog. I'll be trying to log most of my riding, reviewing all the new bits of kit I get my mits on, posting pics and videos of the amazing riding up here and doing my best to help show the sheer wonderfulness of the place I live and how awesome it is to get out and ride.

Let's do it.