Emergency services were all over Marylebone Rd. this morning and it took a while before I worked out what was going on. The only clue was a motorbike headlight shining from under the van. Movements of the service personal seemed controlled so I think the rider had already been attended to. I hope he/she bailed before the bike went under the van.
Walter Greaves: The most unpopular record breaker of all?
The current record for ‘distance cycled in a year’ stands at 75,065mi (~120,000k) set by Tommy Godwin.
To beat this you would have to ride 330k per day, that’s EVERY day, for an entire year!
Updated!
More on Tommy Godwin: www.phased.co.uk – Tommy Godwin
One day with 3hrs of riding in it and I’m knackered the next day? Am I ‘that’ unfit?
I’m going to put it down to the daylight saving changeover. Carl.. help! :S
Poms don’t seem to get the same kick out of pancakes that we do (e.g. there’s no Pancake Parlour here) so it’s DIY (this is Mals).
Today’s weather was brilliant (for London in October). It warranted a ride.
Not that any other day didn’t but I’ve been filling my time for the last year with things other than bikes (mostly).
Headed west on the Ribble, passing my future flat (Nov 10th if all goes to plan), towards Oxford on the A40. Why? Well I was stuck for ride ideas and I’d read omcoc.blogspot.com, who’s author Edward rides the same road for training. Being totally unoriginal, I thought I’d have a look. Failing that, I was going to ride laps of Richmond Park. Another option I want to try is riding south, following the introduction to Matt Seaton’s “The Escape Artist”, hitting Westerham Hill. It’s okay folks, I still hate climbing, I just need “excuses” to ride.
I ended up logging a very short trip (~15k each way). I think maybe I’ve lost my bottle when it comes to riding in fast moving traffic but the A40 during the day isn’t at all pleasant. I moved to a cycle track next to the A40 but this ran out somewhere near Uxbridge. Stopping to take a photo (below) I noticed Dan was finally alive, which meant I could deliver his air matress. So I headed home after 1hr:15min.
Like I said in an earlier post, I prefer riding the fix to the roadie through London city. It’s crazy nimble, it doesn’t wear out brake pads and I don’t care so much about damaging it with my fat arse and a bag stuffed full of inflatable bed and pump!
Lowlights of the ride to Dan’s new place in Hackney (Google Maps: ~22k each way) other than the spinal damage from carrying the bed include the cnutbtichwhroe in the black new Mini that decided I don’t exist and she can drive through me to turn left off Marylebone. You’re lucky I was too busy avoiding you to take your plates cnutwhroe. Almost doored in Islington which is odd because near-doorings are much less common here than in Melbourne. Of course the roads are much wider in Melbourne which helps reduce the risk. 1hr:18min
On the way back I had one the coolest things happen. I rolled passed a taxi at a red and stopped behind a bus. The taxi beeped so I turned around, expecting to be lectured about something. I walked the bike back as the taxi driver gestured.
“Is that a fixed gear you’re riding?”
“Yeah”
“What sort of gear ratio do you use?”
“Um.. 46.. err.. 46-16”
“Is that okay for around London?”
“Ahh.. I’d probably drop it down a bit from that”, I say, thinking about my knees and the stop/start nature of riding London.
Green light and we separate. That conversation cheered me up no end! Thanks Mr. Taxi Driver! 1hr:06min missing Essex Road for the second time.
I’m only able to give times, no speeds as I managed to lose my speedo. Process: Fit new sensor kit to Raleigh, realise there’s no magnet so use old one, accidentally reset speedo by using wrong button combo so 19,000k+ becomes 0k, ride to Subway, never see speedo again..
If anyone finds a Cateye Enduro 2 in Ealing, I’d love to have it back, thanks!
On the way to see Mirek and Iza’s new place (with Dave and Patricia).
‘As Mal would say.’ Outside Madame Tussauds in the early hours.
Nee’ was back in London briefly before jetting off around the other half of the world.
What’s the score when walking under an entire scaffolding rig?