Travelling without moving

Today I travelled from Gothenburg to Norway. It took me 7minutes. All in the comfort of my chair.

No I wasn't in a supersonic jet. I was following our route on the maps that were delivered. Unfortunately the maps don't show much in the way of the topography of the land. Nor do they make it easy to understand the scope of the journey ahead of us.

I always prefer to map a route out on paper instead of the pc. For a start you get a sense of accomplishment, also its a bit of a challenge finding the best route, and lastly...computer algorithms aren't always the best.

We will be taking a laptop with us to update the blog each day during the cycle, however its just not practical to cycle with a laptop on your handlebars. You'd get arrested in about 4 and 3/4 minutes.

So I'm going to try to mount a map on my bike somehow so we can see where we are going each day. The very worst case is tape it to my leg (a la home-made top gun fighters), wonder how that will go down in the land of the giant good looking blond people? a wee short skinny dark haired (well I used to be) scotalian with a map taped to his leg...I'll be arrested by the police for making their country untidy!

Ah well, I'll just have to add any embarrassing memories like being ejected from Disney World, Orlando.

The ring of fire...

I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down,down,down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.

only those of you who have ever ridden a bike beyond the recommended distance will know what I am talking about. For those of you who have more mental acuity than people like me who cycle all the time, I'll explain.

My butt was in tatters...riding 28 miles on a rock hard seat with a skinny ass like mine means I was going to be in pain but I didn't expect pain akin to eating 17 rogan josh's and washing it down with a few pints of vinegar.

Before I go to sweden I WILL be investing in a decent gel seat for the bike...

and some ice...

and hopefully I'll be able to find an obliging Swedette who will help massage the pain out

Hey, it's not all about being selfless and enduring a huge cycle for charity. I'm getting some reward from doing it too! :)

But seriously, a comfortable seat also means that I'll be able to pedal for longer without giving in to the pain in my butt before my legs are too tired to go on.

The right tool for the right job

Right, so if you're following this blog you know we've been racking up a fair number of miles in a pretty short time and will be racking more and more up as the weeks go on. As our bodies need proper maintenance (food, rest and exercise) so do our bikes.

To maintain the bike you need a few essential tools - remember using the right tool for the right job will ensure that you dont damage your bike or more importantly yourself -either during the maintenance or worse. Just imagine your wheels deciding to fall off when you are travelling at 30mph down hill.

So...which tools do you need. Well it depends on your bike. I'm not going to pretend I know much about those fancy carbon fibre road bikes and will instead concentrate on the mountain bike as its my favourite.

Never leave home without:

• a multi tool like this one from topeak
• a puncture repair kit - no brainer really.
• a good pump (ideally with a big barrel and dual action so you inflate the tyre in half the time).
• a set of tyre levers - well kind of obvious given my habit for picking up punctures recently.
• a chain splitter - it can also be used to rejoin chains if they snap.
  

At home - if you are interested in your bike as we are you should have at least:

• A set of allen keys - for tightening/loosening most components.
• A decent number 2 phillips screwdriver - for adjusting the derailleurs.
• A decent number 2 flat screwdriver - might be needed for the derailleurs too.
• Pliers - for helping tension gear cables.
• Wire cutters - to cut the gear cables to length.
• A 14mm spanner (open ended)

And finally - for the competent mechanics amongst us (or wanna-be grease monkeys):

• A crank puller - to remove the cranks so you can get to the crank bearings
• A chain whip - to help you remove the rear freewheel mechanism
• A Locking nut - for your specific gear set so you can remove it. Shimano uses different means from other manufacturers and even within its own range.
• a BottomBracket tool - again watch out for the manufacturer and model as it will be different for each one.
• 3/8" Ratchet Drive - because I am lazy and dont like using spanners unless I really have to!
• and loads of grease!

I'll not bore you with the details of how to maintain your bike just yet; but I will say this for now, its important to make sure that the chain is well oiled (use oil not grease) and that the bike is left upside down overnight at least once a week if you have suspension to allow the top seals to be kept free from any perishing effects from drying out. A rubber o-ring might seem an innocuous piece of kit but if you dont take care of the smallest detail it can let you down big time.

I'll use rest days to ensure that my bike is running as it should to help ensure that the training is as problem free as possible.

Hey Presta!

Well given my adventure coming home on thursday night I decided to fit a different set of tubes to my bike...at least this way I would be able to use ANY bike pump/car pump to inflate my tyres and not left doing a half arsed rocky training montage sequence to get home.

I bought the new tubes, took my bike to bits and tried to fit them. They managed to get through the first hole in the rim but not the second one...who designed this bike?!

Never one to give up I got out my trusty drill and started drilling the rims VERY VERY carefully.

The result: a bike with NORMAL valves and me not being left stranded anywhere again. The lesson learned is that we have to ensure that when we do cycle to Norway that we have the right adapters and that the rims of ALL the bikes can take normal Schrader valves instead of the skinny Presta valves.

See what I did with the blog post title now? and you thought I just couldn't spell!