Dave's space

Well that was 2008, I've now moved to an equally unexciting blog page for 2009, it may improve, chances are it wont, anyway its

 

So how did I do?

Total Mileage 5281 in 204 rides

 

Offroad (anything offroad inc commutes)

1251 miles

47 rides

Longest ride 66m at hit the north

longest proper ride 49miles (3towers on a single speed)

 

Road Riding (road rides just for laughs)

285 miles

6 rides

Longest ride 93 miles

 

So that leaves 3745 miles of on road commuting

151 commutes overall, cant be bothered working out how much was off road.

Longest commute 52 miles

 

Best ride

Borrowdale & Blencathra was pretty cool, as ever and Ambleside & Elterwater was a good new route which I'll be doing again soon hopefully. The "all the local downhills" route was a cracking day snatched from the dying of the summer. But I guess Helvellyn wins for sheer enjoyment, short route but the amount of technical riding is awesome, scary and fun at the same time.

 

So not a bad year mileage/commute wise, plenty of getting out for a few extra miles after work. Not so good for off road riding must do better. 2 new bikes and one new frame, one broken frame, one trashed wheel, no bad crashes (injury wise), a few bits worn out (pads bearings rims etc), lot's and lot's of punctures. Managed my 5,200 goal and enjoyed HTN even if it was a bit of grind in places later on, pity I missed MTL and the FW routes. Must do better next year especially offroad riding, will probably involve a lot of spinning now that I have 2 full time singlespeeds one on and one off road but both on one :-)

 

Erm can we have better weather in 2009 please?

Maiden voyage of the HMS Kinesis was just after christmas, I like it! Fairly light (for one of mine) with the forks wound down it flew up the winter hill altho the tailwind may have helped and it was a lot of fun on Jons 200 till I hit the ice, mince mode on, slow and steady then hammer it once I'd passed it. Very much a mishmash of parts I had lying around and the forks are for scrapping already, magura phaons, never really been plush or stiff enough, the winddown is really useful (why don't more forks come with this?) but they've always seeped oil and less than 50miles since their last service and one side is sticking and leaving black marks on the stanchion. Fox vanillas going on and I'll swip swap brakes around a bit. I also managed to trash the bashring oops.

Riding home last night, I was thinking it had nice easy ride into work and home, uneventful, mild weather even a bit of tailwind and no incidents....until about 60seconds from my door. Going down a 3 lane dual carriageway, 2 lanes of traffic traffic turning onto the road from the left, I pass the first emerging car and the second pulls out just as I start to pass him arrrgh, he brakes but he's already scared the crap out of me. At the next set of lights I subtly indicate that he has vexed me ("what the fuck was that baldy?") I expect the standard "sorry mate didn't see you" aye very good, maybe the blind fucker that finally kills me off can suggest it to my wife as an epitaph on my tombstone. But this time a slight variation, he didn't see me but thats all my fault, both him and passenger start shouting at me. I point out the 4 sets of lights on my bike and ride off (lights had changed) he drives after me beeping his horn like a mentalist. Fortunatley there was already a lane of cars between us and more congestion meant I was well away.

 

Feel like shit this morning, traffics quiet and I need to do some shopping at lunch so I take the car to work but your still not immune from the knobs. Going down a dual carriage way, I'm already doing the limit in left hand lane, cock in a merc tears passed me, having to cut me up so he can undertake the cars in the right hand lane, wanker! East lancs, 3 busy lanes of traffic going at exactly the same speed, I try to leave a bit of space in front of me, cock in a honda cuts into it, I go into the space in the lane he was in, again leave myself a bit of space in front, cock in honda (who hasn't actually made any headway) sees the gap and cuts infront of me again, 3 or 4 times this happened, words really do fail me.

Oh and for anyone who is interested I got the maxlight built up despite me spending longer looking for tools that actually knocking the bike together, helped by the early christmas present from my wife (a bike workstand) Looks ok, light-ish, rides ok on the front street and that's as far as it's got. Bit of a mix of components I had lying around and to be honest quite a few of those may change before long. Proper ride soon hopefully, pics to follow.