Luggage and what to put in it

As mentioned on the Bikes and Kit static page we'll both be using Carradice SQR Tour Saddle Bags. These have a 16L capacity and a 10Kg recommended weight limit.

Here's a picture of mine on its test fitting.  I swapped the carbon seat post for a spare aluminium one just to be on the safe side.  It would be a bit of a disaster if the carbon post cracked while on the ride so better to be safe than sorry. 

You can see from the photo that I have barely enough exposed seat post to mount the SQR bracket and as a result I can't easily attach the bag to the bracket as there is not quite enough clearance. This means I  have to raise the seat post, attach the bag and then lower the seat post to the correct height.

There's not a huge amount of clearance between the wheel and the bag either. Before today's 60 mile test ride it did take a bit of fine tuning to get the loaded bag onto the bracket and the saddle at the right height and fore/aft position.  I had to stop after a mile or so as the wheel was clearly rubbing the bottom of the bag as it bounced around.

Raising the saddle another 5mm or so seemed to resolve the rubbing apart from on extremely bad road surfaces. The additional saddle height didn't seem to affect my knees either.  I clearly didn't tighten the saddle clamp enough though as the last 20 miles were a bit uncomfortable and when I got home I noticed that the saddle had moved back about 10mm or more on the rails. 

I'm hoping to get away with one set of cycling gear which will be washed and (hopefully) dry each night.  I'll also need a T-shirt, long shorts or trousers, underwear, sandles/shoes and a light fleece for evenings.  Minimal wash bag, first aid, sun cream, chamois cream, etc.

On the tools and spares front then the two side pockets of the bag should take all that's needed - a couple of spare tubes, multi-tool, chain tool, tube patches, chain links, lube, gloves, cloth and a lock.

On the test ride today all this fitted easily into the bag and the loaded bag weighed just under 5Kg. Given that I've lost just over 2Kg of body weight recently then the net weight difference is not that much.  This was reflected in the average speed of my 60 mile test ride - over 17 mph!

I also have a small top tube mounted bag to put my phone, wallet and a couple of gels or energy bars.  There's also my jersey pockets to put other small stuff and carry my rain jacket, arm warmers, etc.

Whether the Carradice bag would be big enough and work on my bike were two of my main concerns during the planning of the ride so it's fair to say they are now much less of a concern, it's just the faffing around each morning to get the bag on properly that will need a bit of care.


Mike

Suffolk Sunrise 100 - Done!

Well, I did manage to complete the 102 miles of the Suffolk Sunrise champion route and in quite a respectable time too.  Just under 6 hours of riding time and just under 7 hours in total.

It was a cool and windy day which made for a strong headwind in the latter part of the course and for the last 15 miles or so I was very grateful to Roger for spending most of the time on the front of our 2-up TT formation and dragging me to the end.

Copyright Sportivephoto Ltd

We skipped the first feed zone at 20 miles and carried on to be greeted by a splendid buffet lunch with fantastic homemade cakes at the 45 mile feed zone.  It was hard not to eat too much but we resisted temptation and limited ourselves to a small portion of pasta salad, bread and a few other bits and pieces and a slice of delicious lemon cake with a coffee.

The next feed zone was at 75 miles and again there were lots of cakes as well as fruit and tea and coffee.  I had a banana and a couple of small cakes.

Overall I was surprised at how little I needed to eat and drink.  I got through three 800 ml bottles of energy drink and a few jelly babies were also consumed along the way.

Despite the wind our average speed was just over 17 mph. This was no doubt helped by being in a few fast groups for long stretches where we were pulled along by some stronger riders.

So overall our confidence is up.  We managed 100 miles without any real discomfort.  Yes we were tired but didn't feel too bad the following day and even rode our bikes to work.

Whether we could get up and ride another 100 miles is another matter though but we're both now more confident than we were.

Mike

Training gets serious

This week-end I'm attempting to ride 102 miles in one day on the Action Medical Research Suffolk Sunrise ride.  This will be more than I've managed in all but one week so far this year!

My Garmin data and Endomondo tell me that I've ridden 826 miles in 2013 so far.  My weekly average is about 43 miles and the longest ride I've done is just under 50 miles.  Is this enough with less than 6 weeks to go?

If I compare this to the two times I did the Dragon Ride - a one day 120 mile ride - then the first year I did over 2000 miles of training between January and end of May and the second year it was a few hundred less. My weekly average was well over 100.

So will I manage the full 102 miles on Sunday or will I bail out onto the 68 mile route.  A strong headwind is forecast for the last section so it could be tough.

I'll let you know.

Mike

So, who has done this before ?

A quick Google search suggests not many people have done this before.  Or, perhaps more accurately, few people have published anything on-line about riding this particular coast-to-coast route.  A number of people have done similar distance routes like Barmouth to Yarmouth, St Davids to Yarmouth and the Bobby on a Bike team have done Aldeburgh to Aberystwyth a couple of times and are planning it again in May 2013

This route looks good on first glance but take a closer look and it includes some major trunk roads including one section of the A12 that's hary enough in a car let alone on a bike.

Then there's the girls-on-a-bike who apparently rode F2F on a tandem although there's no indication they actually finished and they state that it's 450 miles so they may have taken a 100 mile detour.

Amazing what you can find on the Internet, eh?

Mike

One Step Forward...

It looked like good progress was being made in the last few days. Accommodation booked, I'd done 70 miles of riding from Mon-Fri, Caradice saddle bag arrived and (only just!) fitted my bike.



Sunday was shaping up nicely for a long ride in the sunshine testing out the recently discovered turn-by-turn navigation capability of my Garmin Edge 500.  A 60 mile route was easily created on ridewithgps.com and saved to the Garmin.

I set off and was alerted to every turn with a beep and a little directional arrow and street name appearing on the screen - unfortunately this was, more often than not, right at or just beyond the junction! Not to worry though as one of the other screen views shows the distance to the next turn and an arrow pointing the way - this worked much better.

Things were about to take a turn for the worse though. At 31 miles in I pulled out to overtake a parked car in a quiet Suffolk village when there was a loud "twang" followed by a lot of rattling from my rear wheel. My heart sank, this was almost as far from home as I was going to get on this ride and I knew, from previous experience of this, that the bike would be barely ridable.

Yes, a spoke had snapped.  For those unfamiliar with this scenario, on a wheel with 20 spokes this basically means there aren't enough spokes left to keep the wheel true so you have to open the quick release on the brake caliper and rotate it slightly to allow the now severley buckled wheel to pass through the brake caliper. As an added complication it's more than likely that the tyre will now rub the frame on the chainstay.

The people who were getting into the parked car were sufficiently concerned with the noise to come and see whether I was OK or not and whether I needed help.  Also at that time a group of cyclists appeared and also insisted on helping.  I had already cable tied the broken spoke to the next spoke and was contemplating how to get home - or more accurately how slowly this would be.  One guy from the group helped to adjust some of the spokes to try to pull them in from the other side but on a wheel like this they are too far apart to allow for much adjustment after one is lost.

So there was only one thing for it.  The humiliation of riding at less than 10mph towards somewhere with a mobile phone reception and waiting for my wife to come and collect me.  The next 12miles were miserable.  It was the warmest day of the year so far and there were more cyclists out than I have ever seen on a ride.  Needless to say I was passed by all of them and I bet they were thinking  "all the gear no idea" as they passed me in my full lycra and Ti framed bike barely making progress.

Below is a picture of the wheel taken when I got home you can see the broken spoke and the sidewall of the tyre worn away from rubbing on the frame. This is the second time this has happened on this wheel and I'm sure it's the same spoke as the wheel rubbing is in the same place.  All in all I've lost confidence in this wheel.  I'll get it fixed but I don't think it's up to F2F, I can't afford to have this happen on a 4 day 350 mile ride. Luckily the last time it happened I contacted Easton and they sent me 5 spare spokes for each of the 3 lengths required for front and rear.

So, do I use the Shimano wheel from my Allez for F2F ?  This hasn't given my any problems in the last 5 years or so.  Or do I get a new rear wheel that's a bit more robust and heavier ? Need to do a bit of searching to see what's available at the right price I think. Either way I don't think I can take the risk with the Easton.

Mike

Right, we're on !

After much planning and deliberation we have now finally agreed and confirmed that we are doing this ride from 13th to 16th June 2013.  It now seems a bit too real!

Given that I in particular haven't done much training this is going to be a bit of a challenge.  The last time I rode more than 50 miles in one day was in June 2011 on the Wiggle Dragon Ride.  Since then I'm not sure I've done 100 miles in a week let alone a day. 

There's just under six weeks to go now so I need to do a couple of long rides to remind myself how to eat and drink the right amount to keep me going for seven hours in the saddle.

The F2F will require 80-90 miles of riding on four consecutive days.  Our plan is to ride for two hours or so at a time and then stop for some food and drink.  We're not aiming for a particular speed or time so will take it relatively easy and just enjoy the ride and the scenery.

Two of the three required nights B&Bs are booked and Carradice SQR Tour saddle bags have been ordered and received.  The rest of the logistics will hopefully be sorted out next week.

More info on the route and the ride is available on the static pages shown in the menu bar under the header image so have a look around.



Mike