A Long Ride and A New Phone

With the leave year coming to an end in March I usually need to get rid of some leave before I loose it.  The most effective way of doing this is to plan some Riding Mondays.  These free me from the office and give me a full day to go and play.

When I was thinking what to do this Riding Monday I had a scan around the local roads and decided to combine a long (for me) road ride with a trip to The Apple Store in Leicester to return a slightly dodgy iPhone cable to see if I could blag a new one.  This would also allow a lunch in Nandos and coffee and cake somewhere else.

I used Garmin connect to plan the route as it plans the route along roads and it could be downloaded into the Garmin Edge 200 for road testing.  59 miles round trip.  Big for me but should be fine with a lunch stop.

Bike sorted and Rocket Pocket filled, it was a cold start. Numb hands after 10 mins in -4. Loads of sunshine and quaint Thomas the Tank Engine villages. Cows, tractors and the roads to myself

The soundtrack was mostly Woman's Hour podcasts I had missed.

I sailed over congested dual carriageways. Gridlocked by black ice.

Leicester appeared after a couple of hours with knackered potholed roads and confusing one way systems. A shock to the system.

Bike locked and messages sent. To the Apple Store so the could check out the phone. New phone and cable in hand straight to Nandos for lunch. Excellent service all round!

Back home the long way past all the stilton making villages.

62 miles total on the Peugout (here+here). It is a nice comfy old bike.

Two weeks until Riding Monday comes around again. Where next?

We Didn't Quite Fall into the Incident Pit

When I offered to lead one of the www.natsmtb.com rides this weekend the weather was warm and sunny.  I thought it might be a bit colder in December so I decided on a short ride from Hope in the Dark Peak. Nothing too heroic, cafe at Ladybower half way round to get warm and have something to look forward to.

I didn't realise at the time how bad the weather could/would be.

The Thursday before I'd recce'd the route in the dark (with an owl) and it was hard work, especially with a dicky tummy :-/

I must admit I didn't spend long weather checking on Saturday night.  I think I'd been lulled into a warm secure summery blanket that I'd not mentally shaken off.  Basic weather said cloudy and a bit chilly - shorts should be fine - I'll take a waterproof just in case.

16 riders met at Hope on Sunday.  Drizzle.  1 new rider (Shaun) - only had the bike a month, trainers, football shorts and fingerless gloves - concerned I am.

Hope Cross - all OK. Rain.

Down the Beast (cleaned it again :)) - nobody died - Shaun and others walked a lot. More Rain.

Up Hagg Farm - everyone still OK. Cold rain.

Down Lockerbrook - sleet - cold - Shaun's still smiling!

Cafe for coffee and pasties - sodden hands. Dyson Handriers don't dry gloves - more sleet. Shaun's rear brake lever is broke, threaded adjuster.  Shaun pulls out a pair of waterproof trousers. I think they saved his life. Some riders (not Shaun) decide to ride back along the road - madness! 

I drag Shaun up the Landrover track - half the group decide to cut back via the Beast (incl. Shaun - still in good spirits!).  Rowlee Farm for the hardcore into cutting sleet as the weather really deteriorates. Cold wet hands now being frozen by icy northerly and sleet.

Four more riders do a sneaky footpath cutback bail to The Beast ascent. Only 2 of us left to do the Roman Road up and over. Continuous sleet leads to a frozen river down the track, but it's still rideable - we were right.  Hands frozen solid and unresponsive for the descent. Back onto the road and we're jubilant we have survived.  We're tough.  We fought the mountain and weather and won!

But, one false move, puncture or twisted ankle and we would have been right down at the bottom - Mountain Rescue time.

Juddering in the car, struggling to get out of the wet clothes I didn't feel tough.

Thankfully everyone made it back.  They came through looking cold wet and bedraggled in dribs and drabs - including Shaun.

I'm sure he'll be back...

More Garmin Edge 200 Musings

First proper ride with the lovely free test bike GPS.  A few thoughts while I remember:

The mount is brilliant! Sturdy, no vibration or rattles - just works ACE!

Buttons still easy to press with thick gloves on.

The course follow function works very well.  The route zooms in and out as you speed up.  The route resolution is so good you can see which side of the road you were on in either direction. The unit does a bleep for off course and another different bleep when you get back on it. The GPS accuracy is shown as a ring arround your position arrow.  It would be no trouble to follow an unknown route - as long as the route was accurate enough.  It indicates how long you have left based on your current average speed, and a bar across the top indicates what percentage of the route you've completed so far.

Head to head with Martin's Edge 500 the screen seems the same size and resolution.  However the Edge 200 doesn't accept Heart Rate, Cadance or Power readings that the Edge 500 will accept. For the £30 extra...?

Garmin Edge 200 - New Toy!

I am in the fortunate position of receiving a new toy to test!

The new toy is a Garmin Edge 200 GPS bike computer.  Pete from www.justgoride.co.uk has some contacts at Garmin and he asked them if I could have one to test.  So they sent one to him!

 

 I got my sticky mits on it Tuesday night and last night I downloaded a track from justgoride straight onto it.  I've loaded up the ride for tonight, even though I know the route I want to try it on know ground before I have to use it for navigation

The unit is about the size of a large bike computer, and feels nice and sturdy. Buttons on the sides are easy to press even with big winter gloves on.  The bike mount with rubbery bands is excellent.

It does have a few annoying beeps but these can be turned off.

I'll be doing a proper review once I've done a load of rides - otherwise I'll do a few more random updates here