Cycling:Saturday CTC cycle 2008-01-19

Today I took part on the CTC Saturday cycle for the first time. Total distance including getting to and from the start and finish was 51 miles.

As I raced to the meeting point of the Commonwealth Pool, I found the first part of the ride slow. Later on, especially with the head wind I found the pace of the group to be about right. I'm not able to sustain a high speed over a long enough distance to be able to move up to the next level of the road club.

View the full route that I took.

Cycling: Edinburgh 20 miler

Yesterday I took part in the first Edinburgh 20 miler ride of 2008. It was an easy, slow paced, group ride of 12 people around the west of Edinburgh. In total for the day, including to and from the start/finish I cycled about 26 miles.

I found parts of the route interesting because I hadn't come across them before. I was also testing out my new GPS linked to my phone, using the TrekBuddy software. It seemed mostly reliable, though there was a couple of points where the phone locked up, or there was sporadic data. The sporadic data was easily filtered by gpsbabel. It was also nice to be able to have cached OSM data on my phone, so that I could see where there was changes required to the data.

Route of the 20 miler.

Cycle Parking this way

Cycle Parking this way
Originally uploaded by smsm1

I noticed this sign at the Gyle Centre recently after they had move the cycle parking to another location. I wish there was more of these signs at supermarkets, as the bike parking is often hidden away so that you cannot find it. The same should apply to large offices, especially ones that don't like you chaining the bike to the railings at their front door, and instead you have to park your bike somewhere else that often isn't obvious.

Cycling: New chain and chain rings

I've finally got around to replacing my worn chain and chain rings/cogs on my bicycle. I have gone for 2 extra teeth on the front and one less on the back. This means I'll be getting a few extra turns of the wheel for each turn of the pedals. 

Before putting the new chain on, I compared the two, and the old one had stretched by nearly 2 links over the whole length. No wonder the teeth were wearing away so much, and making so much noise when pedalling. 

On my test ride this afternoon, I noticed it was running a lot smoother. Though it does appear that the hub requires to be pulled apart again to be fully re-greased, though I'm maybe thinking that it will need to be replaced due to the wear.

There are a couple of photos of the old cogs below. Take a look at how worn they are.

Happy New Year

This year I headed into the centre of Edinburgh with some friends from university for a house party. Also went out to see the fireworks from a pedestrian bridge over the West Approach Road. This was a great spot as you can see the castle from the west.

There is a video below of the fireworks.