Being a Bike Mechanic

I want to be a Bike mechanic. Not the sort who tinker endlessly with motorbikes (wrong sort of bike for this blog!), but the kind of mechanic who can look at a bicycle and know instantly what is wrong with it and what needs to be done to fix it. Someone who has the right tools in his workshop to help another cyclist get his or her machine back on the road again and leave the cyclist feeling confident the bike is safe to ride. I want to be that man who can restore an otherwise defunct machine back to its former glory, to make it whole again so it can see the road and feel the wind in it's proverbial hair one more time!

Bikes were made to be ridden, right? Not left in some skip somewhere to rust and get forgotten about?

I am (or rather I was) the man who would rather take his bike to a local bike shop and pay someone my hard earned cash to get a pair of new brake pads fitted, rather than buy the bits and have a go myself. That should give you an idea of the mountain I have to climb to achieve my goal!

I don't have career aspirations to become CEO of some major corporation, or to go into politics. My needs are relatively simple and involve being happy with what I am doing, spending quality time with my family and earning a crust doing something I love and enjoy, rather than something I need to do to pay the mortgage. I know this is everyone's dream, but lately I have started down a path to try and make my dream a reality!

My aim is to one day leave my high pressured job in IT and replace it with some form of a job working with bikes. I'm not sure yet whether that means opening up my own bike shop, or maybe being a mobile bike mechanic, or perhaps running my own bike tour business, but what I do know is that I am not going to achieve my goal without knowing a thing or two about fixing bikes!

I've done the standard evening course in bike maintenance, learnt a thing or two about fixing bent rims and what those little screws do on the front and rear mech! That's fine and all, and quite exciting in a bike geekery sort of a way, but you need to get your hands dirty (literally) and actually have a go if you want to learn how to be the man I describe at the top of this blog post!

I now volunteer as a part time bike mechanic for a local bike recycling centre. They let me go down for a few hours every Saturday and help out fixing up the unwanted bikes people drop off, to make them work again so they can be re-sold for a reasonable price in their shop. Their workshop is like the pic at the top of this post - it's a bike mechanic's heaven with all the tools, stands, spare parts and grease you could ever need!

Week 1 was last week and although I was only there for 2 hours it gave me such a buzz and I did so much in a short time. I'm back again today to hopefully do more of the same and gradually improve my bike mechanic skills so I can feel confident in what I am doing.

Not sure where the path will lead or if I will achieve my goal, but one thing I do know is I am not going to be taking my bike back to a local bike shop for a service any time soon!!!

Winter motivation

I'm sat writing this thinking up all the reasons why I shouldn't go out to the garage and get my bike ready on the turbo trainer for a 6.30am session in the morning. My lounge is nice and toasty, I have my shiny new MacBook Air to write this blog on, and I've no doubt there is some quality programmes on the planner I have yet to watch, so why would I ever want to go out into the cold dark night.

And not to forget, tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off at 6.15am I'll no doubt be tempted to hit the snooze button, roll over and go back to sleep. Pretend I forgot to go on the turbo and think, oh well, there's always next week instead!

This is what my body wants me to do. It likes safe, it likes warm and it doesn't like getting up at 6:15am on a Friday morning when it's probably minus 4 outside, to go and sit on a stationary bike in a cold garage, wearing a bunch of layers and listening to Metallica, Swedish House Mafia and Nils Petter Molvear when the rest of the house and most of my street are still in bed!! My brain on the other hand, that's the Daddy, he's the one the rest of the body listens to. Getting it going though, and kick starting the will power area of the brain to overrule what the body wants to do, that's the tricky part.

It was the will power bit of my brain that got me back on the bike half way to Brugge last September in the pissing rain and wind, on my own, probably lost and on the verge of giving up the London to Brussels ride I'd trained so hard for. It is also the will power bit of my brain which has kept my legs moving and feet pedalling up lots of seemingly too steep hills, while my legs cry out in pain to stop and get off. My brain pisses itself laughing at the mere concept of giving in, tells the legs to shut up (all hail Jensie) and carries on powering the guns to the top of whatever 16% or 20%  hill 'The Bike Geek' has got me riding up that day!!

So, after a few weeks off the bike apart from the odd hour here and there with my body ruling the roost and trying to hibernate for the winter, it's time my brain started doing some of the work and took over the training schedule! After I publish this blog and share it on twitter, I am going to get off my very nice warm sofa, take off my slippers and put some shoes on and probably a wooly hat, to go up to the pain den which is otherwise known as my garage, and I am going to get the turbo ready and the bike prep'd for the morning.

Then, I am going to lay my kit out downstairs ready for the morning, and when the alarm goes off, at 6:15am tomorrow, my brain is going to kick in straight away, stop me hitting snooze and make me go downstairs and get kitted up and out on the bike for 45 mins to an hour of pain, sweat and suffering before work!!

Every minute I stay sat on the sofa being safe and watching TV only makes me fat, and ultimately slower in spring than 'the other guy' who has done his winter training. I don't don't don't want to be fat, and I love, absolutely love being quick come the spring and dropping the guy who missed his winter training and just got his bike out for the first time in March, while I have been on the road every week since November getting fit and lean!

So it's a no brainer, right? Get fit, not fat. Kick in the will power bit of the brain, fuck the cold and the pain, and definitely don't hit snooze on the alarm in the morning at 6:15am. You know you'll feel better afterwards and your guns will thank you for it come the spring, when everyone else on the road is getting dropped and you're powering up those 20% hills and smiling all the way to the top!

.....that's my view anyway!!

#BringThePain

The Anti-Strava

I had an experience today, which can only be described as 'feeling shit first thing in a morning right before a big ride'. My head just wasn't into the ride, which is a first for me, and I had a slight nervousness when I thought about the hills I was going to encounter on my ride. Again, not like me. I may not be the fastest up hills, but I get up 'em as best I can and I ride for the challenges they give me.  

After I had texted the bike geek to inform him of my slackness, I went back to bed (and proceeded to wake up at 10am, lazy arse!!!). Not only was the lie in something I'm not accustomed to, being an early riser regardless of whether I'm riding or not, but it gave me chance to think, while I was laying in bed coming round from my slumber!

The conclusion I came to was twofold. Firstly I have a virus, still, and it's pissing me off because it saps my energy, fills me full of flem and mucous and clogs my lungs up. This is no good when trying to get up otley west chevin, unless I want to do it in a time only slightly faster than my 94 year old grandma could do! The second conclusion I came to was that part of my reticence to ride was strava related. I use the app whenever I ride to find out how I am doing with my segments, to prove to myself I'm getting faster, riding further, and to keep tabs on how much riding I am doing over a given period and compare that to previous time periods. I bombed on last weeks ride because of the virus and my times were shit, I didn't want to repeat that today, hence the reluctance to ride and endure shit strava segments 2 weeks running.

The trigger which made me realise the stupidity in the second conclusion above, was an article about just this topic in this months cyclist magazine. It made me smile at how idiotic I had been to become so dependent on strava, at the expense of a ride. So, no more strava for me. I may keep tabs on my distances in the app by manually adding distances in, but purely so I don't forget when I last trained, but I am not using the gps function, I won't be recording my segments real time, and I don't give a shit if I get up otley west chevin a minute slower than I did last week. If I ride it, it's fun and I do it the best way I can, full gas at the time, whatever that means, that's my main goal from now on.

So, call me the anti-strava if you like, I couldn't give a shit. I'm a road cyclist, for fun, for fitness, for social, but that is all. Segments? Keep 'em!!!

My holy grail right now

I have a 27km loop I do when I only have an hour or so to ride. It takes in the half mile long, 19% (at its peak) Kearby cliff that I keep going on about. It's not long or arduous in relative terms, but on a quick hour loop it's a nice leg burner for a few minutes half way round and for that reason I enjoy the challenge. Also mentally, it helps me elsewhere when I hit a 14% or a 16% climb, knowing that I have ridden steeper on my staple hour loop. Anyway, when I started riding this loop about 6 or 8 months ago I did the 27km in about 1 hour 15 mins. I've since got it down to 1 hour 3 mins, and as the subject of this blog suggests, my holy grail is to get sub 1 hour.

I've done a few 1 hour 5 and some 1 hour 7's since, but those last few minutes being knocked off my time are alluding me thus far. I know the areas where I can knock time off my ride, but somehow when I am there on the road at the time, I give it full gas and still end up a few minutes outside the target. 

Being able to climb at speed, out of the saddle up steep hills is something I dont have in my arsenal and I've written about this before. I think I need to finally crack this once and for all if I am going to go sub 1 hour.

I'll keep you posted, hoping to give it another crack tonight.

Life is what you make of it

This blog is not entirely about cycling, but it's my blog after all so I am allowing myself this one post which is partially off topic! Bear with me!

I have various interests in my life, some of them business, some of them personal. Cycling is my release that keeps me in shape, fit and healthy and crosses both my personal and business life. Being self employed I have a number of disparate business ventures I am working on or involved with. One main one which pays the bills and pays for my sons new cricket whites, or my daughters ballet lessons, and a few personal passions which I hope one day will become revenue generating businesses in their own right. 

I have an entrepreneurial mind which prevents me from standing still and settling for a 9-5 office job and no more, so while I am out cycling I often find myself thinking about business ideas! Some of them may go nowhere, most of them are bugger all to do with cycling, but all of them help keep my mind active while at the same time taking my mind of the pain my legs are enduring! 

If you're interested in my business ventures I can bore you with my plans for hours. My mate the bike geek and myself often spend hours on the road swapping tales of our various plans and ideas, it's what keeps life interesting. Right?

I am very happy with my lot, don't get me wrong. I don't get on the bike as often as I would like right now, but I do try and manage 2 or 3 rides a week totalling 100km or more as my staple. Any more is a bonus at the moment and will hopefully be increased in the summer as I get closer to the 193 km stage one tdf ride I'm doing for Alzheimer's in July. Work wise, I am very lucky. My cycling keeps me fit but also helps keep the stresses of work at bay, which allows me to be mentally active from before dawn to well into the evening every day. My cycling has knocked 2 hours of my sleep, I've said that before. I use the time getting up early to either go for a bike ride, naturally, or if not then I am working on some business idea or other. More on that to come I hope.

Some words of wisdom I've picked up or been told along the way - life is what you make of it, don't settle, be happy, ride your bike as much as poss, eat healthy, drink plenty of water, be mindful of what is right in front of you, don't lose sight of where you are right now at the expense of what you might want to achieve in the future. 

That is all.

The search for the perfect turbo trainer tune!

Normally I have a set playlist that I listen to when I'm on the turbo. It's an hour long, comprises a mixture of genres, ranging from electronic dance music, to hip-hop, to heavy metal. This morning however, while I was warming up for the first 5 minutes on the turbo, I decided I'd change my playlist.

While I was choosing which tunes would be the most motivational to get me going, I found what I think is the perfect turbo tune. Now the majority of you reading this probably won't be that familiar with the work of Norwegian electronic jazz trumpet legend Nils Petter Molvaer, but please, bear with me!

Nils is somewhat of a pioneer in his genre, that of mixing improvised jazz trumpet, with electronic effects, metal guitars, loops, samples etc. One of his early albums, Hamada, includes a mental tune called 'cruel attitude'. This, is the perfect turbo tune.

After 3 or 4 minutes into the 8 and a half minute tune, the tempo and intensity starts to increase, and by the half way mark the band are in full flow, which nicely translates into a tune that well and truly puts the hammer down and kicks you up a gear on the bike. I used it after about 20 minutes into a 40 minute turbo session this morning, and it was just about timed perfectly. 

I found that the first few minutes were used to get me even more in the zone that I already was, and I gradually got faster and moved up into bigger and bigger gears the more the tune went on. By the time it finished I was flat out at a cadence of about 120, totally in the zone, with my legs screaming out in pain and with sweat dripping off me like a pig on a spit roast! Awesome feeling, awesome tune, give it a go. Tell me I'm wrong?!

......this is what the tune made me look like when it finished....!!

Can't ride, still training!

Another week till I'm back on the bike, you don't want to know why! Suffice to say it's doing my head in and I am beyond itchy to ride. My new gore ride wear is hung nicely in the wardrobe, bike is freshly clean, cycling shoes at the ready, the only thing I need now is time. Roll on next week!

In my downtime therefore I am doing what I can, which pretty much just involves core work. Lots of planks, kettle bell squats, leg raises and so on. If I can't feel the burn on my legs from riding up 19%, I'm sure as hell going to feel the burn in my abs from some core work.

It's all a means to an end, all training for Le tour Alzheimer's on 20 July, so all good. Even if I am frustrated as hell seeing all the cyclists I follow on twitter going out for rides, and the sun outside and lighter mornings beckoning me to join them on the road.

See you soon!

Wearing a bike helmet and having lights is obviously not cool!

My wife and I took the kids to buy some rabbits yesterday. Nice for you to know and yes they are very cute, but totally irrelevant to cycling, right? Well, on our way home from the pet shop, while we were driving down a dark country lane on the outskirts of rural Harrogate, we luckily managed to spot a teenager on a bmx, in the dark, riding on the road a few hundred metres in front of us, with no helmet, no lights, and no high viz anything! And to make matters worse, when we got close to him he decided it would be a good idea to ride on the wrong side of the road to let us pass!! 

We drove past him, slowly and with our jaws on the floor at how stupid this lad was, and how much of a death wish he must have, and I couldn't help but think that whoever taught him to cycle obviously didn't do a good job teaching him how to be safe on the roads, and what to do when a car approaches!! I guess being visible and staying alive just isn't cool enough these days?!

If you are reading this, whoever you are from last night, just remember that having a cool bmx (and it was a cool bmx by the way) and being able to do a 180 on a vert ramp is all well and good, but it won't do you much good if you get run over because some car driver doesn't see you, in your black outfit with no high viz, lights or helmet at 8pm on a dark evening on a country lane with no street lights!! Muppet!!

Stay safe kids!!!  ;-)

Training changes, what a difference a year makes!

12 months ago my average training ride was about 20km, with the odd 25-40km ride on a weekend which just about wiped me out! And all of the rides tended to be on nice days when there no wind or rain!!! Since I finished London to Brussels last year I got my head into a space where longer distances in all weathers, I.e. 100km+ in my terms, became more of a possibility on a regular basis. 

This year I have signed up to do another endurance ride for Alzheimer's, namely the first stage of the tdf from Leeds to Harrogate. Before you get excited, i have not turned pro, the ride is a few weeks after the main event and unfortunately not on closed roads, but at least they are familiar roads and in my home county of Yorkshire :) The ride we are doing is 120miles, 193km, over the actual route including all 3 of the main climbs, so I have consciously increased my training to get ready. Not only was I training all winter in all weathers, with the exception of a couple of Weeks in December over Xmas, I have been on the road throughout 2012, and this year I've been on the road every week from 1st jan onwards. What a bitch of a ride that day was!!

Now though my training has ramped up a notch. I am off the bike right now for a couple of weeks recovering from an operation, but in jan and feb I was regularly doing a couple of very hard hours on the turbo during the week on the dark evenings when most other folk were in the house keeping warm and getting fat (!!!!) followed by anywhere from 70km to 100km on a weekend, again with very few other cyclists out on the road to nod at. I fully intend to carry on this level of training when I get back on the bike in a couple of weeks time, and my mantra now is 'get fit not fat', and I am finding that I live my cycling life according to this as well as the infamous rule #5 and rule #9 (velominati.com in case you don't know what I'm on about!!)

I'm working up to making my staple training ride 100km each time, longer by the summer, and building in as many hills as I can muster. Otley chevin and ilkley moor especially, but as we get closer to July I'll be going over to buttertubs and the other stage 1 climbs. There is a nice 156 km ride from my house to kettlewell and back that I have my eyes on for a nice summer day, bring it on :) 

I guess the reason for writing all of this is reflection, and also to show that with a lot of focus and training it is possible to make huge leaps in the space of a year. I don't confess to be the fastest climber, ask my mate the 'bike geek' and he will tell you that I can get up a 20% climb with the best of them, but I may not be at the front of the bunch. But for someone who was knackered after a 7km ride 18 months ago, to be honest I ain't fussed. I have my own style that works for me, seated mostly but with some out of the saddle for short sprinting climbs. I do want to work on getting faster up hills, but it's not my priority. Increasing the distances, getting a faster overall average speed, and being ready for July is where my head is at right now. And so far, so good!