I made some new wheels for my bike that glow green:
Other
Rapha Festive 500 – 2016
Yesterday I completed this year’s Festive 500 – an annual challenge set to the cycling community by the cycle clothing company Rapha. The challenge is for individuals to complete 500km (310 miles) of cycling over the eight days between Christmas Eve and the end of the year.
London Police Boxes
Earlier this week I visited some of London’s remaining police call boxes. I took some photos and dug into the history a little, the result of which you can find here:
London police boxes
River Tyburn bike ride
Over the past year I’ve explored many of London’s lost rivers on bike and foot: The Westbourne, Fleet, Walbrook, Ravensbourne, Earl’s Sluice, Peck, Neckinger, Effra and Wandle.
This weekend I gave a small bike tour of the Tyburn, and have produced a very condensed version of some of its history which is available here: River Tyburn bike ride
Cadence controlled LED bike lights
I built some cadence controlled LED bike lights this week to put on my bike for this weekend’s Dunwich Dynamo – an annual overnight cycle ride from London to the coast.
Here is a quick demo of the thing in action:
Hardware
London cats bike ride
I organised a bike tour to visit a number of London’s notable cats. Eleven Brompton riders came, and we snaked our way all over London, fighting Saturday crowds and traffic.
I’ve written up some notes on the ride and cats here: London cats bike ride
July/August cycling
Back on the bike after my ankle operation, and in addition to the usual commute I got in a few long, fun rides. I pressed ‘pause’ on long rides in the first week of August to concentrate on running for a bit. There’s more to life than cycling after all! More of that later…
Dunwich Dynamo 2015
Dunwich Dynamo is an annual semi-organised cycling event which starts at London Fields on a Saturday evening and after cycling through the night you end up over 100 miles away at Dunwich beach sometime on Sunday.
It was a nice night. The weather was kind to us right up until we arrived at Dunwich, when it started raining.
One advantage to doing this ride on the Brompton is that we were able to just fold our bikes up and put them in the hold of the coach rather than stacking them up with loads of other bikes in the trailer.
Cycling throughout the night is a tiring experience. This is what the coach home looked like(!):
Mid-weekers
In the summer we did a few extra rides mid-week after work, and explored routes in Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey.
Saturday river ride
On a particularly sunny Saturday, three of us rode to Richmond and then continued along The Thames. This was such a nice ride we’ll have to repeat it in a larger group on another sunny day.
Dartmoor Hills
‘Four go down to Dartmoor’ – the sequel. We went on a day-trip to Devon, taking an early train down, a cycle around, and a late train home. Daniel planned this route, and it was packed with hills, breathtaking views and sunshine.
Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100
I did the Pru 100 on my big-wheeled bike. It was really well organised and cycling through London on closed roads is an opportunity not to be missed. There was a bit of congestion up the hills in Surrey, but otherwise a very enjoyable ride. It was really nice to see so many spectators lining the streets too. My time was 5h44m. I’ve signed up again to be considered in the ballot for 2016. If I get in I’ll probably do it on my Brompton to add extra fun 🙂
London to Paris by Brompton
Sacrebleu! I finally got around to writing up our London to Paris by Brompton adventure, which you can reach using the main menu links or the links below. I hope you enjoy reading it. Merci!
May cycling
I did 100 km of Swains Lane loop – which turned out to be 41 ascents (Mont Ventoux is the equivalent of 24 ascents). This earned me a 2015 ‘King of the Mountain’ award for Swains Lane which I’m quite proud of. I will buy a red polkadot mug to celebrate in due course 🙂
I cycled from Otford to Whitstable on a very enjoyable London Brompton Club ride. The bike got muddy, but I’m ok with that 🙂