Update on the update of tubeless tyres!

 Following on from this post back in January.

After the issue I was having with the tubeless tyres (and them not seating) I put in some innertubes and just used them like that until August when I noticed there was a slight bulge in the sidewall while on a camping trip to Watlington

I managed to gently coax it fully loaded back home (slowly downhill!) without an issue.

I had decided to keep trying with the tubeless setup and had brought a pair of Schwalbe G one allround tyres. I just replaced the rear damaged one first and it went on and inflated without an issue.
I had to pump it up before almost every ride for a few days but it then seemed to just seal. The front was replaced the next weekend.

They seem to work ok on roads and trails to work, off road in the New Forest and some minor off road elsewhere.
I've had no issue with either of these coming away from the rims and have had no need to use the Stans Darts either in the 3 months since putting them on.

The month of May

 Well, this month has been a bit different than normal for me. As in I haven't been on the bike once!!

It was either the 29th or 30th of April when I saw a post on Facebook about a Cancer Research UK challenge which was to walk 100 miles in the month of May.
In my infinite wisdom (may have been cider induced!) I decided to sign up and say I would do double the distance. It's not too bad, I only have to walk 6.5 miles a day avg.

I decided I could walk into work 4 days a week and probably cycle in on Friday evening to add a bit of variety. 
The 1st week I didn't bother cycling in and walked everyday. There are so many different ways I can walk in, whether it be along the canal, river, past lakes or plod along the redway cyclepaths.
I managed a couple of longer walks at the weekends also.

The 3rd weekend of the month was another Association of Lightweight Campers meet at Kingsbury Water Park for our AGM weekend.
The plan was always to use the train and bicycle to get there, as I was doing a walking challenge I decided to pack all the gear in the rucksack and walk to the site from Tamworth station instead.

The gear used for hiking is exactly the same for cycle camping so no issue apart from having to carry it.
It was a pleasant walk once you get out of Tamworth onto the canal which passes right next to the site at Kingsbury.

The walk over and back to the station was uneventful, the weather was great and it was an enjoyable walk.

The weekend as usual, was spent in great company of likeminded people and cider :-)

I hit my target of 200 miles on the way home on the 25th of May. But have decided as I haven't been on the bike I may as well carry on with the challenge and add miles up until the 31st.

I have actually enjoyed walking in and back from work, The sunrises and dawn chorus on the way home everyday have been great to see and hear.

So far (as of the 27th/5/23) I have raised £400 for the charity.
If you can afford to sponsor me, you can do so via Rich's giving page  all donations are greatly received and help towards the fight against the disease.

Association of Lightweight Campers Easter meet in the Peaks

 I spent most of last week getting kit ready for the ALC camping meet at Hayfield Camping and Caravanning site.
Mainly due to me not likely to be finished work until about 6am and having a train booked for 13.30.
I had the bike ready for the off on Thursday night and did manage to get around 4hrs sleep in the end.

The train was on time and got me to Stockport with no issues, the ride over to the site was only around 20km but was quite hilly with the bike loaded with camping gear.

I took the road not knowing the area, it was up and down all the way. At one point I saw some cyclists on a bridge above me and did wonder where the track went, not knowing until later that it was the Sett Valley Trail which would have cut out some of the hills.

It only took me an hour or so to cycle there and the tent went up easily even though it was new and the first time I'd pitched it.

It's the new model tent fromTerra-Nova, the Northern Lite 2

 It was a good weekend, the tent was excellent with a lot of room inside and in the double porch area.
I didn't do any of the rides I'd planned to do, but did find out the track I saw was good to use to get to New Mills for provisions and a ride out with others on the Sunday.
We also found out I could ride all the way into Marple along the canal which would cut out some more hills on the way back to Stockport.

Some of the other campers organised trips to Buxton and meals at pubs in the evening, walking routes around Kinder Scout and cycle rides. 

There was a forecast of Snow and temps feeling like -8c on the last night but by the time we walked back up from a meal in the pub it had changed to be clear.

I was awake at 6am so a slow decamp and pack away for around 9.30 for the ride back along the trail and canal back to Stockport.
I rode along the canal all the way to Bredbury, then took the road across to the station and home for 14.00

Very short distance ridden with only 111km cycled, but was a fun weekend with good friends, laughter and cider.
Was good to be out on the bike and in the tent again.

Update on the tubeless tyres

Haven't done a lot of cycling lately as moving house and changing jobs has stopped me getting out as much as I would have liked.

After watching various YouTube videos on tubeless tyre issues and how to sort things out I decided to try again with them.
I got myself some brake cleaning fluid and also some ethyl alcohol to clean and degrease the rear wheel and tyre before putting it back on again.
I managed to get the tyre inflated to 100+ PSI to seat it and then added the sealant and inflated it to the correct pressure.

All working well on the weeks commuting into work but I did get a flat on the front one morning on the way home so decided to take that one off and clean the same way as the rear.

After a day of trying to reseat the tyre on the rim (with a standard track pump) I gave up and walked to the local Halfrauds to ask them to have a go. They didn't have a pump that would do it either! (I know a cycle shop will be better but there isn't one within a walkable distance from home).
I walked back and ended up fitting a tube in it to see me by until an Airshot inflator comes in the post.

This week the rear did the same again, It stays sealed until I get a flat then the sealant seems to leak out along the rim and doesn't want to seal again. I pumped it up 4 times on the way home (6km).
I have now put the old WTB tyre and tube back on it. for some reason the Panaracer gravelkings don't want to seal on the Sonder rims.

Not sure if it's the tyres or rims that's the issue, I do have an inflator coming in the post at some point so will keep trying as I don't like wasting money.
May end up putting slime tubes in for the short term (so as to run the tyres until they are dead) then get some tubeless road tyres to try as most of my riding is on road anyway.

Watch this space!!

Tubeless tyres!!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try tubeless tyres on the new bike as it has tubeless compatible wheels. 

Tyres and all the kit ordered and fitted, setting them up didn't take long and they seemed to be working ok.

That is all is fine until they lose a bit of pressure. Which at that point the seal between the tyre and wheel starts to leak sealant.

The 1st time it happened was due to a puncture and no matter what I did roadside it wouldn't inflate and stay up.

20 minutes later I put a tube in and rode home.

Removed the tyre at home, patched the hole, and tried again.

Advice was to over inflate to seal the rim then add sealant.

Over inflating the tyre found another small hole but the sealant seemed to seal it.

The tyre stayed up overnight so the next morning I went out again.

100yds up the road and flat again and sealant leaking! Back home and try again.

Tyre off again, small hole patched while off, inflated to 80psi and left overnight.

Checking again the next morning  found it still up, so added sealant and headed out.

This time it did seem to be holding pressure, until about 40km into the ride.

After about 4 times of inflating and riding about 5km I gave up and put a tube in again.

That held up and got me home.

Again tyre off, cleaned and reseated and out again for a local ride.

Squidgy feeling at about 20km and the puncture sealed ok but leaking around the rim again!

Bike has been sat in the shed since Thursday, mainly due to packing boxes at home ready to move, but also as I have ordered some alcohol cleaner to give the tyres and rim a good clean before seating them.

Online research has said that this is one reason they may not be sealing.

We shall see what happens!

 BCQ ride 7

Monday 14th November 2022

BCQ locations
266 Sulgrave

After a few days of mucking about trying to get my new tubeless tyres fitted with various degrees of success, I decided to head out on one of the numerous routes I've been planning since first looking at this challenge.
I enjoy the planning of routes while sat at home when I don't have the time to go out.
Many I will likely not ride as planned, but it gives a good idea of where the locations are, if they can be done in a loop from train stations and can they be done in the areas that the ALC meets have been planned in for the following year. 

I had a route planned that took in Sulgrave and Souldern in a 100km loop but decided to just head for Sulgrave and back as it was lunchtime and still a bit foggy out.

I took the lanes on the south side of the A5 out of Milton Keynes through Passenham, Deanshanger, Whittlebury and past Silverstone.
Usual English rolling countryside around here, just gradual up and down all day. The rear tyre seemed to hold pressure up until I rode down a rough lane near the Sulgrave control where it started to deflate.
I pumped it up and rolled down to the control.

Sulgrave Village

This challenge is interesting as I have come across things I've never heard of and have googled various things after finding controls and wondering what they were about.

The tyre held pressure for about 5km before it needed pumping up again. 2km down the road it was flat again and as I stopped for the 5th time at Towcester I decided to put a tube in.
I then just headed south down the A5 as that was the quickest way home.

Kilometres Cycled – 70.16
Checkpoint locations Visited – 1

Total KM Cycled – 440.15
Total Checkpoint locations Visited – 13

 BCQ ride 6

Saturday 5th November 2022

BCQ locations
172 Aldbury
162 Whipsnade
153 Wing

As I had a free morning due to Dawn taking her mum over to Aylesbury for an appointment, I decided to do a train assisted ride and head 5 stations down to Tring and ride back home.

I only live 1km away from the station so I dropped down the hill and had an uneventful ride over to Tring. The weather was changeable as I rolled out of the station but didn't need my coat.
The first control at Aldbury was only 2km from the station and quickly found, it had started to rain a bit more so I put the jacket on. The short sharp uphill towards Ashridge straight away had me sweating.

Some lovely lanes around this bit of the Chilterns, a couple of busyish roads but mostly routed through quieter lanes and a bit of the Icknield Way bridleway got me to Whipsnade Tree Cathedral and the 2nd control location of the ride.

Icknield Way near Whipsnade

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral

It was still raining as I dropped past the zoo and down Bison Hill (a well known climb for local cyclists) and onto the next control location at Wing church.
My route zig-zagged me through various villages and a couple of short stretches on busier roads under the Great Train Robbers bridge

Train Robbers Bridge Cheddington

Then up past Ascott House (one of the many Rothschild properties in the area) and onto the busy A413 through Wing and the church.

Wing Church

The last leg took me through the villages SW of Milton Keynes and then onto the redway cycle paths to get home.

Kilometres Cycled – 60.88
Checkpoint locations Visited – 3

Total KM Cycled – 369.99
Total Checkpoint locations Visited – 12

 BCQ ride 5

Wednesday 2nd November 2022

BCQ locations
264 Castle Ashby

Again as I was off work and awaiting a phone call I kept the ride local, heading north towards Castle Ashby (close to Northampton).

Forecast was good, but windy again for the day and it wasn't too bad on the way out.
I headed across the top of Milton Keynes towards Olney and down to Castle Ashby in quick time even though it's a bit of a rolling route.
The location of the BCQ was right on the edge of their estate shopping area, I've often stopped here at The Buttery café as they give cyclist discount. They are not here anymore but have moved a few miles away to Great Billing.

Castle Ashby

I rode over to Great Billing to the above mentioned café and the coffee and cake were lovely as always.
On leaving Billing I found the aforementioned headwind, it slowed me down a lot as I crawled up the hill and it was against me all the way home. Hence why the ride over felt good.

Kilometres Cycled – 57.92
Checkpoint locations Visited – 1

Total KM Cycled – 309.11
Total Checkpoint locations Visited – 9

BCQ ride 4

Monday 31st October 2022

BCQ locations
265 Stoke Bruerne

This morning I decided to ride up the canal towards Stoke Bruerne for the BCQ location at the waterways museum there.
Although the café here is less than 10 miles away I somehow seem to only have been there once before. perhaps it's because it's so close to home.

As I now have a touring / "gravel" bike (well it's got 38mm all terrain tyres on it 😄) I decided to ride up the towpath all the way there.

Glorious sunshine meant lovely views of the countryside and a change to be there instead of fighting traffic on the busy roads nearby.

The wildlife was out and about all around, although the floating bloated sheep had seen better days!

I did inform the waterways guy who I saw while I was at the café.

The "Café" was actually The Boat Inn on the canal-side opposite the museum, they sell great coffee, cake and sausage rolls if you go there for the BCQ or just a look around.

Kilometres Cycled – 34.53
Checkpoint locations Visited – 1

Total KM Cycled – 251.19
Total Checkpoint locations Visited – 8

 BCQ Ride 3

Sunday 9th October 2022

BCQ locations
166 Old Warden
161 Woburn

After 2 nights camping with the ALC I'd plotted a route to take in 2 BCQ locations on the way home, one at Old Warden and the other at Woburn.
The route wasn't the most direct and having had a couple of days on a bike I was still getting used to, I knew it was going to be a hard days ride.

Eventually I'd packed away, loaded the bike up with camping kit and headed off into a stiff headwind at just after 11.00.
The path I had chosen along the riverside to avoid a busy roundabout became a muddy track but it wasn't too long before I got back on the road.

Traffic was the usual Sunday morning racers as I cycled parallel to the A1. Sweating into a headwind with loaded front panniers was hard work and it kepf up nearly all the way home.

Old Warden

As I cycled into Old Warden I stopped to check where the location was and the phone said I was there. I looked right and I was!

By this point I had started to make my way across the Greensand Ridge, it's not that hilly but you are constantly just going up and down. The twisty lanes didn't help with not being able to get any speed up before the next hill.

I stopped for food and drink at a garage on the outskirts of Flitwick and Ampthill. The rest did help but it was still rolling all the way.

Woburn

After climbing up, over and flying down through Woburn Abbey Deer park the next location was at the crossroads in the village centre.

Now it was just over the last hill and down through Milton Keynes home.

Kilometres Cycled – 64.51
Checkpoint locations Visited – 2


Total KM Cycled – 216.66
Total Checkpoint locations Visited – 7

BCQ ride 2 

Saturday 8th October 2022

BCQ Locations - 
196 Graffham Water
195 Hilton turf maze
191 Kings College Cambridge

As I was camping at St Neots I'd looked up what BCQ locations were in the surrounding areas.
There was one not far away at Graffham Water and another in Hilton. I did see one in Cambridge town centre I could add on if I felt ok on the new bike (I'm used to riding a recumbent so wasn't sure how my backside would be after the ride over the day before).

Another one of the campers does the challenge also so had planned a route to collect a few herself.
We decided to do the route I'd done and head into Cambridge also, my backside would just have to put up with it!!

We left the campsite up through the town centre towards Huntingdon before heading west towards our first location at Graffham Water and the first coffee.
Location found, Question answered, picture taken and back towards the A1 junction at Buckden, this time we decided to avoid the underpass (with trike stopping fences) and just rode across the roundabout.
If you are not a confident cyclist and don't want to cross a very busy road junction, the underpass is on the northbound side of the A1 carriageway.

Hilton turf maze

Back onto quieter lanes again we headed towards Hilton and eventually found the location after asking a friendly local where the maze was.

Onto the lanes again and heading for Cambridge. We have both done various audax rides in this area (Judith more so than me) so know the roads fairly well, this does give a false sense of security though and we had to turn round after missing a right turn as we were chatting as we went past.

On the outskirts of Cambridge we stopped for lunch at a garden centre that I'd passed many times in the truck but had never stopped at (lorry is too big!) The baked potato with seafood was amazing.

Following a cycle path route into Cambridge was brilliant until we got to the centre, perhaps heading in on a Saturday afternoon wasn't the greatest of ideas! I wasn't too bad being on a bike, but Judith was on a very low recumbent trike and probably found it harder to get through the people.

King College post box

We found the post-box for the BCQ answer and didn't hang about in the crowds. It was mental!

All we had to do now was head back to the campsite, which was an uneventful ride really.

Kilometres Cycled – 90.61
Checkpoints Visited – 3

Total KM Cycled – 152.15
Total Checkpoints Visited – 5

BCQ ride 1

Friday Oct 7th 2022

BCQ locations
164 Stevington
165 Bedford

As I had planned to head over to St Neots for an ALC meet and had been thinking about BQQ I decided to work a route out that took in some of the locations on the way over. It didn't add a lot of extra kilometres to the ride so why not! I worked out that over the weekend I could possibly get 7 locations without to much effort.

I planned the route using Ride With GPS as I have done over the years for all my rides. It's straight forward as all you have to do is put the Lat-Long reference (52.225566 -0.74295724) into it and it plots the route there. Save it, send to your GPS and ride away.

I loaded the bike up with camping gear, this was also the first camping trip on my new Sonder Santiago tourer so it was a good test. 

The route over took in 2 BCQ locations which also gave me chance to look at the places I'd never been to apart from riding straight past.

Kilometres Cycled – 61.54
Checkpoints Visited – 2


Total KM Cycled – 61.54
Total Checkpoint Visited – 2

 

• 
  
  
  
  

 My BCQ rides/diary.

Over the last year or so I have been chatting to Stephen Dee while camping at Association of Lightweight Campers meets about British Cycle Quest (BCQ). Stephen is the Cycling UK BCQ organiser and he hopes to complete the challenge himself next year.

Basically BCQ is a cycling challenge organised by Cycling UK where you cycle to 402 locations (link to the Google map) across the whole of England, Wales, Scotland and various islands and answer the question allocated to the location.

Looks like fun and will get me (and Dawn) to other locations around the UK for a few years to come.

Jan 2020

The year has started well with me managing to ride every day so far.

Have managed just under 800km, just by my usual commute and a couple of extended ones bagging some veloviewer tiles.

Earlier on in the month I took the wheels off the Pompino frame to see if they would fit on the Dawes Shadow that I got from York Rally last year.

I wasnt sure if the brakes would work on 700c wheels as the old wheels were 27 x 1" 1/4.

After replacing and adjusting the blocks it worked a treat and I fitted the mudguards, seat, levers and bartape off the Pomp.

The Dawes frame being an old 23" fits me way better than the Pompino did and it is actually quite comfortable to ride.

So much so that most of my km's this month have been on that one and I've hardly ridden the recumbent. 

Now I've ridden it for a month and like the fit I need to tidy it up a bit.

New bar tape, properly fit rear mudguard and change the crankset. Work in process. 

I also managed to get £55 for the Pomp frame 👍

Nov 2019

Well Strava says I've cycled 650km this month. Mostly commuting but did get a 200km diy sudax in.

My current job is only around 25km round trip a day so not too long, 30 minutes or so each way still keeps the heart rate up (coming home anyway) so at leadt keeps me ticking over.

I use the Bacchetta most days for commuting but I do use the fixed maybe once a week as I'm able to carry my works gear in a pannier to leave in my locker st work.

The 200km audax ride at the beginning of the month took me down to Kidlington and back then over to Sandy and back.

The route worked out quite well for a midweek ride and it allowed me to come home for lunch (and let the dog out) half way around.

I will likely do this route again, possibly the other way round though so as not to be caught up in school traffic in Bedford and the rush hour around Flitwick.

This work week starts on Sunday though it's only 4 days as I have a days holiday booked to go over to Tewkesbury for s 100km ride with Dawn.

If she decides not to do it I may upgrade to the 200km ride instead, will see what happens!

Rich.

4 yrs! Blimey!

Well, I have still been cycling in this time. Mainly just commuting to work and back but still cycling.

Have been using different bikes over the last 4yrs including converting me old Univega MTB to single speed and buying an On One Pompino fixed. Just to see what it was all about.

Not done anything long distance as before still enjoying cycling.

While trying fixed I managed to get thrown off it going downhill too fast and getting a speed wobble. Ending up with a torn rotator cuff and found being painfull to ride recumbent for a while.

June 2018 saw me buying an M5 Carbon High Racer for my 50th and after trying to set it up I let it sit in the shed for far to long.

I found while finding it my knees hit the bars and to get it comfortable to ride I had to extend the bars out leaving only about 5mm of stem inside the steerer.

Obviously this was unsafe but it took me around 8 months to get around to ordering a longer stem for it.

After getting the stem I rode ot a couple more times and thought about selling it.

I even had someone come and test ride it, unfortunately they dropped it on the 1st corner and broke the derailleur hanger. 

Hanger replaced, I thought I'd take it out for a ride. I started to get used to it and the speed of it was amazing. 

Audax was starting to get back into my mind again and I entered a diy 200km.

The ride went well and I got round in under 10hrs even though I lost the ability to change the front cog after cable a breakage.

I still ended up with an average speed of over 28kph.

Still getting out

The weather is still being kind to me, most of my rides lately are extending the ride home from work.
After moving a couple of years ago we now live a grand total of 1.5km from my work!
This has meant my mileage has dropped the last 2 yrs, last year I only managed 2500km in total.
This year so far I have added almost 1000km to that.

Tuesday after the Boroughbridge camping meet I took the bike to work, planning to ride a few km home, on leaving I found my legs were still fairly tired from the weekends km's so just rode around the redways instead.


Thursday saw me heading away from work again at near on midnight for a 1hr40 zone 2 ride around the villages SW of MK.


Kids at the weekend meant we both went out for a ride on Sunday afternoon towards Leighton Buzzard with the plan of popping in to visit Dawns mum.
In the end they weren't in when we rang so we did a slightly shorter loop round instead.
Most of this ride was in zone 1 for me, but it was good to ride together and the mileages and weight loss Dawn has been getting was definitely noticable. She is climbing hills a lot quicker than she has been and her avg speed is up.


Tuesday nights midnight zone 2 ride took me south again with no plan of where I was heading.
I ended up riding through Leighton Buzzard and around via Hockcliffe, Woburn and Salford for a total of 54km


Just 2 weeks now until the Upper Thames 200km, the one thing that I'm worried about is not getting in from work until midnight and having to be out of the door by 05.30 on Sat morning to drive over for the start.

Rich

Boroughbridge ALC camping meet.

This previous weekend I had planned to attend the Association of lightweight campers on their meet at Boroughbridge.

The plan was to load the bike with camping gear and cycle the 80km over to Peterborough for a train to York and 35km to Boroughbridge.

As per usual everything was last minute packing and loading the bike in the morning.

The ride over to Peterborough was fine apart from the usual ride with gps trying to route me along sandy lanes and bridleways! I took a slightly different way across from Kimbolton but the roads were very quiet until you hit the outskirts of town.

I thought about doing the ride as a LSD ride but wasn't too fussed if I didn't stay in the zones.

On checking Strava afterwards I actually managed to stay in zone 2 for 88% (2hrs 54m) of the ride with an avg heart rate of 114.

The ride over to the campsite was a bit quicker as I rode straight out of York on the A59 so was trying to move a bit faster, 30% of this ride was in zone 3.

The rides back were very similar apart from going down to Huntingdon on the old A1 instead of the hills to Kimbolton.

For a total of 250km for the weekend.

Sun morning

Sun afternoon

More ramblings..

Another week or so since the last post.
Only managed to get out twice last week as we were away Thu/Fri for a short break in Blackpool.

Still playing with the heart rate monitor and still not managed to get the HR anywhere near my perceived max!
Will give it a few more weeks of regular riding and then see if I can do a functional threshold test to set a benchmark to work on.

Tuesday saw me do a fastish ride to work.



Then a zone 2 ride home at midnight.
Keeping the heart rate inside the zone is interesting, as soon as you stop pedaling or go downhill slightly it drops by a beat a second. You have to work fairly hard to keep it there.



A weekend away meant no cycling but we walked miles along the seafront and back a few times.
Weight went up a couple of pounds but I'll put that down to bread and drink :-D
Have joined a Strava training plan to start with which is a first as my "training" has always been just get out and ride distance.
Will see how I do on it.

Back on it this week with squats at the gym on Tuesday, the planned long ride home was put back a day to Wednesday as I'd forgot my jacket and it was pissing down!



Nothing today (Thurs) but have a planned 280km total cycling planned this weekend, 80ish km over to Peterborough for a train to York and 35ish km ride to Boroughbridge for a camping meet.
Ride on Sat and same back on Sunday.
Don't think I'll be able to keep it in zone 2 for the whole ride over but will see what happens.

Oh, I've also entered a 200km audax ride for the 1st time in 4yrs!
I think I have done this ride 6 times before, It was my 1st 200km event back in 2006 and I'm sure I rode it every year until 2011 where it was my last calendar ride.
I think it's a good place to start again, and it will be interesting to see how I do on it.

Rich

Hello again..

Ooh hello! Been a while!

I've not been doing a lot of long distance cycling the last 4yrs, the last audax ride was back in Nov 2011.
Over this time I took up running for a couple of yrs and lost around 4st in weight and ran a few half marathons.
Though after doing more strength training in the gym the running stopped, early morning club running after a late night squat session wasn't the easiest thing to do.

Been out enjoying riding with Dawn, mostly short rides locally and touring with full kit and trailer around Yorkshire and Suffolk.
Starting to get the fancy for longer distance riding again and looking at heart rate as part of a training plan. Been out for a few rides mostly after work to see what it's like riding in a HR zone.







Just need to get out more often now and looking forward to see if it pays off.
May try for an SR again next year!