The Bad Boy adorned with 3M reflective Scotchlite

To be honest I haven’t taken this subject as serious as I should have done in the past, thinking it was OK just to have a light on the front and one on the back. It then occured to me that I habitually wear black/dark clothes, and now I even ride a stealthy black commuting machine, my Cannondale Bad Boy 8. I’m not giving myself much chance here am I.

Lighting up in public

Since then I’ve been conscious about making myself seen on the roads. I’m now doubling up on lights, using two 3 LED lights at the back, one static, the other flashing. One has been replaced by a super bright Smart Superflash 1/2 watt light, which is incredibly bright and can apparently be seen up to a mile away. The Fizik saddle also has a small integrated light, which isn’t very effective at all but OK as a backup.

On the front I’ve now got two Smart LED lights, one has 3 LEDs the other 5. These are complimented by a Knog Beetle 2 LED light which is set to flashing mode. Conscious not to dazzle oncoming traffic, I dip the two brighter beams to avoid being ploughed down by dazed and dazzled drivers.

Another hi-viz addition includes the application of 3M reflective Scotchlite stickers (as seen in the picture above). This stuff is absolutely great as in the daylight it appears black and is invisible on my black framed bike. Once in the headlights of a car it lights up like a Christmas tree, bright and reflective. Even better is that it comes in the form of an A4 sheet which can be cut and shaped as required. It’s very easy to apply and stays put. Another stealth weapon for night riding.

The Rapha large Fixed Backpack with reflective detailing

Finally, I decided to treat myself to a new cycle specific rucksack that could comfortably accommodate a change of work clothes, shower gear and a laptop as well as a few bits and bobs for work. Another criteria was style, I wanted the bag to also look good as I travelled in on the tube. Several bags met the criteria but the one that stood out by far was the Rapha Fixed Backpack (Large). It’s completely waterproof, has plenty of compartments and is finished with a sleek and slim design. It’s also very expensive though.

This is a very well thought out bag with every feature considered to the highest degree. The reason I mention this particular piece of kit is that it features reflective pin-dots beautifully integrated into it’s design on the top, back and side panels as well as on the front of the harness straps. Beautiful!

Anyway, with all this added illumination and reflective material I’m hoping now to be seen a little sooner that I would normally if I wasn’t adorned in such brightness. I’ll let you know if I notice a difference. In the meantime it still amazes me that some people think they’ll be alright riding in the dark without lights and any kind of protection.

Be safe. Keep riding.

Arriving a little later than planned due mainly to an unfortunate alarm malfunction, we decided to start off at the old Argoed trail centre starting off with the Penhydd trail, a 17 km Red graded trail (difficult) combining forest road climbs with tight, technical, switchback trails through mixed woodland, a great trail in the dry. We dusted it off in a reasonably swift 1 hour 26 minutes, video of this to follow.

Thankfully, the lack of mechanicals meant we made good time, enough to ride the 7 km picturesque pathway to the new trail centre in Glyncorrwg which hosts the Whites Level trail head. Whites Level is my favourite trail featuring a huge range of absolutely awesome man-made technical riding. Another 17 km, red grade trail featuring some very technical climbing, board walk, slabbed rocky descents, and a Black graded (severe) descent, the relatively new addition named the “Black Run”. I love it. The 7 hour round trip car journey was definitely worth it for the amazing 4 hours in the saddle!

The short video below shows the black run from a helmet camera mounted onto my handlebars. Forgive the shaky picture. Although it doesn’t do the Black Run justice it should give you an idea of it’s challenging technical riding. Hope you like it.

Taken on my Oregon Scientific ATC5K, handlebar mounted.

Look at video from “The Hidden Valley” at Afan’s Penhydd trail.

As a cyclist of over 30 years and a seasoned commuter I consider myself relatively experienced, but never take it for granted and am nearly always aware and conscious of the activity happening around me and always second guessing other road users in my riding zone, always leaving myself a safety bailout option whenever possible.

I thought it would be useful to share the video below, which although a little stiff in presentation does a good job of highlighting good advice for those riding in cities and also provides some great tips to keep safe in some of the more precarious road situations a typical commuter faces on a daily basis.

Use eye contact, use plenty of road, be very careful around lorries and buses who can’t always see you. Enjoy…

Bicycle Safety: How To Cycle Safely In A City

In addition to the lights I was considering what else I needed to do to make myself stand out as much as possible, especially in the rain, when I’m convinced cyclists are the last thing on a car driver’s mind as they turn into a junction. As well as developing that special sixth sense you need to be able to read other road users minds, being seen is of course the most important thing to gear up for, something I’ve been guilty of under preparing for in the past.

Here’s a useful video highlighting (excuse the pun) some points to consider when riding in the dark. Be safe.

Bicycle Safety: How To Cycle Safely In The Dark

Front side view

It’s been over a week now since I’ve had the pleasure of owning a Cannondale Bad Boy 8 in which time I’ve managed four in/out commutes to work, so 120 miles so far. I’d like to offer this brief short term review of the bike and follow it up with a longer term review, maybe in four months time once the bike has fully bedded in.

Compared to my previous commuter hack bike, a Kona Cinder Cone with skinny tyres, the Cannondale Bad Boy 8 was certainly a pleasant although not entirely unexpected change for the better.

First off the riding position is less slack than a traditional mountain bike yet a little more so than a road bike, so at first felt much more aggressive than I thought it would. I’m totally used to the new riding position now and find it very comfortable. The initial lack of any suspension made the Bad Boy feel a little twitchy at first, however it very quickly became evident just how stiff it is, all round. The power transfer to the rear wheel is phenomenal, allowing me to accelerate from traffic lights fast.

I still haven’t worked out how to remove the back wheel and disconnect the hub gear cable in case of rear p*. I’ll have to play with this a little. The front wheel is also a little awkward to remove as the front disk brake need to be partially removed to allow the unbolted wheel to slide off the Lefty spindle. This isn’t really a problem unless you need to regularly remove the wheel to transport the bike. In the case of punctures the wheel can stay on as is due to the lack of right fork blade.

The Shimano Alfine rear hub containing the gearing has worked without fail so far. It really does shift quickly, much more so than traditional gearing, almost instantaneously. The grinding and clanking noises coming from the hub are a little different and I think just need a little getting used to. From what I understand this eases off as the hub becomes ridden in. So far so good.

The only other comment I have at this point is about the handlebar grips, which look good but have already fallen apart. Despite being lock-on grips the grippy part is made from a tape, a little like tennis racket grip and has effectively come unravelled. I remedied this with a little glue, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

Finally, the tyres, Schwalbe Kojak Bad Boy Edition 622 x 28, are nice and fast with low rolling resistance. Awesome in the dry, OK in the wet, despite being completely slick. I’m still a little apprehensive about them in the wet.

I’ll follow up with a more detailed review at a later point. In the meantime here are a load of pictures of my Cannondale Bad Boy 8, 2009 model. Click the image for a larger version.

Do you ride a hub geared bike? If so I’d be interested in your thoughts on the pros and cons. Feedback below…

Rather than talk about what I haven’t done I’ll tell you about what I have done. Despite my promises to start training in a more serious way eight weeks back, I’ve been fair weather training and eating to my heart’s content. My first triathlon on the season is in less than three weeks and today feels like the first day of real training.

Having not cycled into work for the past two weeks, not gone for a serious run of any kind for a least three, and not gone for a swim since last year at some point I can’t even remember, today I worked it.

Cycled into work, head wind was strong but I battled through. The ride home was fast so either I had a tail wind helping me along, or all that energy I was storing up burst into my ride home, probably the best time I’ve achieved since riding to/from work. Then, in the evening I managed an unexpected and rather stonking 70 laps of my local pool.

Damn, I’ve never seen so many plasters and hair bands in my life, all on the floor of the pool, minging! Anyway, I must’ve burnt a few thousand calories and don’t even feel I was compensating for anything I ate today.

So the question is, can I keep this up, or is it going to be a flash in the pan training session? It’s hardly as if I’ve committed myself to a hard core training regime of any sort. Anyway, yet again I’ll keep you informed.

Hoping to do a quick 5 km at lunchtime tomorrow. Will let you know…

Following last year’s London Triathlon where I attained a personal best under the 3 hour mark, I vowed to strengthen the two disciplines that let me down the most, the swim and the run. You simply can’t rely on the one stronger discipline, cycling in my case to achieve a significantly better time.

Training for last year’s London event consisted of 4 months of cycle commuting, 2-3 times a week, a couple of 5km runs each week and a single swim at the local pool to make sure I could last the distance. Pretty pathetic, however, it got me through and quite clearly the more you put in the more you get out.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve managed one swim and was hoping to go for another today, however that’s not going to happen due to family commitments, or is it just Sunday laziness, or is it because I’m writing this instead of hammering out some lengths at the local pool? I will swim more; I must swim more this year. Surely a bit of effort at least once a week and I could shave five minutes off last year’s swim time. Surely?

On the bike front, I’m happy that I will have done enough. Ramping the commute up to a constant three times a week, 6 x 15 miles will certainly help along with the weekend roadie and MTB outings. Sorted, although I could do without the head wind this year.

When it comes to the run, I’m hoping to shave another 5 minutes off my PB. Optimistic? I’m unsure at this point. Lunchtime runs are slowly becoming routine calendar events for Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, each a 5km blast along the north and south side of the River Thames. The weekend 10km runs will add a little stamina to the training, although I suspect I need to make these a more regular feature of my weekends.

Besides the three main activities, there’s another major part of my training regime that simply isn’t coming together as effectively, my diet. I love food, I love eating, I don’t want to have to not eat as much, but will have to try. I’ll let you know how that goes from now as I attempt to curb my calorie intake.

As part of the physical aspect of the training, I’m also recording it using my Garmin Forerunner 405. You can see training progress on the Garmin Connect site, as well as my regular updates on my Twitter. What I also hope to do soon is put together a rolling graph of my progress over the next few months.

Let’s see how it goes in the lead up to the Blenheim tri, which is eleven weeks away. Panic!

During these past three weeks I’ve slowly felt my body turn soft and sag around the mid region. The past weekend of over indulgent fast food, boozing, and Valentine’s meals has more than taken its toll on the body tipping it to wobbly status, again. So today for the first time in around three weeks I finally summoned the motivation to don my Lycra and baggies and brave the ride into work.

It took longer than usual to get ready this morning and needed to check the bike over, all OK. Despite my initial concerns over fitness drain, once on the road, it didn’t feel as bad as I expected, saved by lunchtime and weekend runs which evidently maintained fitness levels. Only now as I write this can I feel the over tightness of my calves. Note to self: Must remember to stretch before and after ride.

The training runs by the way would appear to be having a positive effect on general fitness as average heart rate is dropping and speed is increasing. Good stats.

Talking of stats, I need to provide a short-term review of the Garmin Forerunner 405 training watch that I’ve been using since Christmas. I like it. Today I cycled 45.21 km and burnt 2,522 calories, average heart rate over the ride in/out was 139, which isn’t too bad, I think.

Anyway, glad I rode in today. Will run tomorrow lunchtime and ride in again on Friday, weather permitting.

Later.

Monday morning, as anticipated the snow fell. A full six inches of the white stuff in my neighbourhood as promised by all the weather reports. Even before I got out of bed I was on the mobile internet checking the transport reports to gauge the likelihood of making it into work one way or another. The verdict, no buses, no tube, certainly no cycle, so no chance.

Having resigned myself to a day working from home I was very conscious that my usual cycle commute into the office was again disrupted, this time by circumstances out of my control. How long would these adverse weather conditions keep me off the roads? The reality was, all week.

No lunchtime runs, no cycle commuting, Let’s see if next week brings an unexpected heat wave that somehow brings the country to its knees for one reason or another. At least I’ll be able to ride in, unless my tyres melt into the road.

Did you manage to ride your bike into work this week? How did that go?

The going was cold, and eventually quite wet. Although this evening’s journey started off crisp and dry, it soon turned into a hail storming shower from hell. All I can really say is that I was thankful for the additional set of lights that I recently appended to the bike. Every time it rained the rear light that I was relying on simply stopped working, which is not your friend in the darkness of night.

So the additional lights certainly provided that little extra bit of failsafe confidence, but what made it all tolerable was the new set of leg warmers, worn for the first time today.

The last time I wore leg warmers was back in my old roadie days when I was a mere youth. Back then leg warmers were long thick woollen thigh length affairs that just kept falling down every five minutes, completely useless in the wet and did nothing for the look. These new knee huggers, although not catwalk worthy, did their job admirably. With their soft fleece lining and lycra fit, they were nicely secured by the silicone thigh grippers, and I have to say, despite the cold I was comfortable all the way home.

It’s all about the equipment at the end of the day. Get the right equipment for job and you’ll be fine come rain, shine, cold or warm conditions.

Time for some cold remedy now…

When I’m not concentrating too hard on the traffic and other obstacles that might prevent me from reaching my destination in the shortest, quickest time possible, I’m diverting myself by either by observing the changing landscape of east London, as I buzz through the Lee Valley on the Lee Bridge Road, through to Hackney and into the city, all the way from Epping Forest.

Admittedly, most of the journey isn’t actually all that interesting made up of mostly main A-roads, bus lanes etc, so the computer was a nice toy to play with when the dull part of the ride kicks in.

It does allow you to challenge yourself by maintaining or setting a faster pace, but mainly it’s about attempting to set new land speed records on those particularly fast sections of the journey, for example, I have a nice long hill that takes me down into my hometown. To date I’ve topped out at 41.7 mph going down this, which although fast could be done much quicker on a road bike. I ride a converted MTB hack bike with a 48 toothed large front ring, so I imagine the 53 toothed chain set on my road stead will give me considerable more to play with. Hmmm, I’ll have to give that a go one day.

A recent landmark event for me was reaching 1,000 miles on my commute. Not a big deal, but good to know anyway. It got me thinking about the mileage I would achieve over a whole year. 2-3 rides a week in and out of work, averages out to around 3,600 miles, probably not much less than I do in the car over the same period.

I also use a heart rate monitor from time to time for training, but not for commuting. At the moment I’m thinking about getting an all singing all dancing gadget that incorporated GPS, heart rate, cadence, and pedometer monitoring, oh what fun!

If you know of any gadgets that meet these criteria, please do let me know, I have to add this to my Xmas list…

There’s no doubt that the senses need to be on high alert when hacking through the London streets, literally scanning, analysing and assessing every single movement, or lack of movement on the road. Concentration levels are high and fingers twitchy on the brake lever.

The two occasions that I rode home this week, at least twice each night I was confronted by a car driver who didn’t see me coming and would have broad-sided me if it hadn’t been for those DEFCON 1 status senses. The mind is constantly calculating distances, looking out for each conceivable different scenario whilst also establishing the best emergency exit for each permutation, just in case, in addition to watching for the man hole covers that can send you of course, glass, drains, parked cars, pedestrians etc etc.

Can they see me? Can they see me? Please see me?

I recently invested in a pair of high viz arrows that attach to the back of my pack and helmet. Hopefully that provides some indication of my presence from behind at least in addition to the main red tale light and emergency red flasher attached to the backpack. My main concern however is being seen from the front.

On the whole the newer style LED lights provide a decent, powerful white beam that can be seen from a fair distance, much improved on the older style halogen bulbs that were good for an hour then burnt out once the battery power dropped below 80%. The newer variety last for many many hours on a single set of batteries and burn brighter. When conditions are bad, a few LED based lights are preferable in addition to high viz clothing and reflective bits and bobs.

Of course, you never know what the other road users are concentrating on themselves, so whilst they’re looking after their own interests, just make sure your second guessing them as well as looking out for No. 1.

It’s DEFCON 1 out there. So eyes open…

The merino wool base layer arrived this morning and the Gore Windstopper leg warmers are next on the list. It really is getting cold out there, bit is it really worth it?

For the first time this year I was happy to be wearing my fully loaded thermal/waterproof sealskinz socks, which meant my feet were nice a toasty all the way into work.

For the time being my main worry is the cold ride home, but I manage to cope admirably, despite the freezing wind hammering my bare legs. OK, so I'm only wearing shorts but the old knees are feeling the bitter cold and are creaking under the strain. Fortunately, my little legs work hard enough to keep them warm throughout, however, if the weather continues towards sub-zero, things will have to change.

Those skinny tyres are starting to slip on the cold, wet road surface, especially over the metal drain covers, but momentum keeps me upright, for now.

Three things urging me to keep commuting on the bike

1. My annual travel card has expired, so now's the time to start saving on those travel expenses.
2. The more I ride, the less weight I put on
3. The prospect of buying another bike on the company's ride2work scheme. a nice winter hardtail MTB is on the cards…

One thing that surprised me was the relative ease at which I've got accustomed to the ride into work. I remember first time around that it took me a good two to three weeks to get into it and get to the point where I didn't feel my lungs were going to explode. Mind you, I did used to smoke back then.

As a non smoker for at least a good year and a half, that in itself has contributed to easier exercising and faster reintegration into an exercise regime. I suppose my occasional rides over the past few months have also helped, but it really does feel easier.

Getting into it so much that I’ve already invested in a nice little Cateye computer. I decided to go for a wired version of the Strada. Works nicely and gives me something to compare each day I ride in and out of work. Best time so far is 55 minutes on the way home. It seems a little faster on the way home, despite the home destination being at a higher altitude.

Riding into work tomorrow morning and more than likely riding home again. Hopefully this will provide a good warm-up for the planned Saturday afternoon ride around the Essex loop on the ride bikes.

More soon…

The hack bike performed better than anticipated and stood up to the task admirably. My trusty stead took me the 15 miles without so much as a complaint and I have to say it was a real buzz to be back in the saddle on my way into work after such a long time.

Speeding through the traffic and picking up speed on those long straight sections is a real thrill, as is the excitement of swerving in and out of the queuing lines of cars and vans as they slowly but surely shunt their way towards their destination.

Although the traffic levels were not too bad for a Friday, I wasn't used to so many cyclists on the road, especially around the Angel Islington area where they just appeared from every street corner and filtered into the main arterial cycle paths.

My only grievance was the position of the saddle which I hadn’t got quite right when setting the bike up. As I kept sliding down it to the sharper end it became very clear that I needed to micro adjust in order to save my crown jewels from permanent damage.

The ride home was joyous, and helped by the glorious sunshine and the knowledge that the weekend had come round so soon.

Looking forward to the next ride in…

• Jeans? Check
• Shirt? Check
• Cufflinks for shirt? Check
• Pants and socks? Check
• Showering stuff? Check
• Towel? Check
• Lock? Check

Well, I think I'm pretty much ready for the go. My riding gear is laid out at the end of the bed ready for when I get up, no doubt sleep deprived as my newborn will have woken the household up for the third time in the middle of the night. All I need to do now is get some good sleep and hope it doesn't rain.

I also need to hope that the bike will perform adequately. I'm well aware that the single 44 chainring that I've forced myself to rely on may not be large enough for road use, but we'll see how it goes.

My trusty mate, Steve will be knocking on my door at 8:00 am to guide me through the best route into work. He's a bit of a veteran at this, so I'm hoping any shortcuts he can offer will ease the pain of riding into work during full on commuter hour.

I used to commute to work on my bike about 5 or 6 years ago now and remember really enjoying it. I'm sure it'll be fine. I only hope I live to tell the tale…

…tune in for more.