December 2015.

7th December: I headed out after work tonight to do the local 21 but after deciding very quickly that it was far too windy to cycle with traffic (we had storm Desmond yesterday and the day before, goodness knows what happened to storm Clodagh, it's been very windy recently...) I decided to do something I'd thought about doing for ages, cycling up and down the bypass on the cycle path.

I can't claim it was an interesting ride but it was rather strange in one respect. With the wind behind me going up the bypass it was like cycling in a vacuum; I was flying along at top speed and it was almost silent. As soon as I turned around and started heading back, into the wind, it was like cycling on the deck of a trawler with the wind howling off the fields - quite strange. Anyhow it wasn't an interesting ride but it was 20.4 miles to start December off.

9th December: I did the local 21 tonight after work. It was extremely blowy, but thankfully dry, and I spent a fair amount of the ride leaning slightly into the wind to stay upright; always a good time to remind yourself that cycling into a strong wind must be good training, surely? Despite the weather it was a fairly enjoyable ride, especially when the wind was behind me, and it's another 20.2 miles for December.

12th December: It had been been peeing down all day today so when it finally stopped at about six I dragged myself out to do the local 21. That was the plan anyway but a couple of indecisive moments saw the actual route I did being a hybrid of various local rides.

It was windy and there was a heck of a lot of standing water and semi-flooded roads but it was quite an enjoyable ride and my legs felt good and it was a much needed 20.9 more miles for December.

16th December: I had the day off work today to catch up on some chores so I managed to get out and do the same ride as above in the afternoon. It was blowy but dry so quite a nice ride overall. It was a day ride so my first ride in a while without my Diablo lighting the way which was nice and 21.4 more miles.

20th December: It was a gorgeous day today with sunshine and blue skies so I decided to head out and do the local 21. That was the plan until I got onto the bypass and found it was extremely windy and, as often happens on my rides, I decided to go exploring instead. I wanted to know where the road goes if you go past Warbrecks nursery and turn left at the the T-junction and ended up in Ormskirk coming home via Edge Hill college. The weather was warm enough but the wind was dangerous; there's a stretch of the road back from Ormskirk that's single carriageway with open fields on either side that had me leaning into the wind constantly and trying not to cycle into the pavement every time there was a brief lull in the wind. Anyhow, I survived and another much needed 15.6 miles for the month.

22nd December: I was knackered after work today but I manfully necked a cup of full-strength Bourbon Espresso, made in my stove top, and headed out into the night. I ended up doing another hybrid of my various local rides aiming to avoid as much traffic as possible.

It was windy (the beginning of storm Eva as it turned out) but much less than it has been recently and I felt great all the way around so a very enjoyable ride over all and 18.8 more miles for December.

28th December: I took Awesom-O today on the last day of the Christmas holidays and did the full local 24 miler. It was fairly windy (the start of storm Frank as it turned out) but not dangerously so like it was the other day and my legs felt strangely awesome all the way round which was a bonus. Anyhow, 24.4 more miles.

Well, I didn't make it out again for various reasons so the total for December was 141.7 and 2015 ended up at 2264.3 miles. Given the poor weather in January and a couple of bad months with my knee, ending up just over half a month down for the year was not a bad result overall. Also, I've just found out I might be being dragged on a week long family holiday 'probably somewhere in Spain' where I'll probably hire a road bike and disappear each day so here's looking forward to 2016!

Review: Schwalbe tyre levers.

Because I use Continental tyres, which tend to be fairly tight fitting, I've been using bog standard metal tyre levers for the past couple of years. They work well but they can scratch the anodising on your rims so I decided to try Schwalbe's plastic tyre levers instead. They are widely available and usually priced at around £3 for three.

I've used Park plastic tyre levers in the past and wasn't impressed, they tended to bend when trying to wrestle a particularly stubborn tyre on, so I was really hoping these would be better. By complete coincidence, when I examined the front tyre after hitting the pothole at the end of November it was flat so I decided to try the new levers. As it turned out, there was a thorn in the tyre which was quickly sorted with a new tube. The tyre levers are fantastic, they're very thin which makes them a cinch to get under the bead and they're extremely strong, they barely bend at all.

Overall, very impressed!

November 2015.

6th November: I took the Giant out this afternoon to try a new ride. I wanted to test the new Edge 20 so I drew a route than combined the new route into Kirby that I got wrong the other night and a new way up to Billinge from the East Lancs.

The weather was overcast and blowy but very warm for the time of year and I felt great on the ride. The new way up to Billinge was fun. It starts by going across the dam, then through some woodland and finishes up along a fairly steep street before emerging on the main road through Billinge. It started pouring down as I headed away from Billinge and by the time I called in at my dads on the way home I was absolutely covered in road grime and the Giant was the filthiest it's ever been; I hosed it down in the garden but it still needs a proper wash and I ended up stripping off in the back porch and having a hot bath straight away when I got in. A wet ride but 26.9 miles to kick November off.

7th November: I was determined to get out the house for a quick ride today so ended up making what might have been a very daft decision! It had rained most of the previous night so I knew it might be slippy but when I got there I found a lot of the road was covered with a very thick layer of dead leaves; needless to say I rode the entire length of the Coach Road very, very gingerly and was very surprised not to have been dumped off the bike by the end of it. Anyhow, 15.5 more miles.

10th November: It's proving to be an extremely windy week this week so I'm determined to get out whenever I can, even if it's just shortish rides. With that in mind I drew this route in Garmin Connect and headed out.

It was extremely windy (the stirrings of storm Abigail as it turned out) but very warm so quite enjoyable overall with a few miles of completely unlit road which made me glad I had the Diablo lighting the road. Another 16.5 miles for November.

14th November: I took Awesom-O out for a blast this afternoon and did the ride above but with the Industrial Park added on, the BBC are predicting 40+ mph winds this evening so I decided to head out in the afternoon while I could. It was pouring down and there were huge puddles everywhere but by slowing right down through the huge puddles I made it round in one piece (I've seen the Youtube videos of riders flying over the bars after hitting submerged potholes!) Despite the wind and the rain it was actually a very enjoyable ride. 20.8 miles for the spreadsheet.

16th November: I took Awesom-O out today for a late afternoon wander. It was very windy (the stirrings of storm Barney as it turned out) and a bit miserable so I did a bit of a loop through Crank, King's Moss and Crawford and then plugged up and down the by-pass to add a few miles to the ride.

To reduce the boredom of the bypass, I took a little detour along a local nature trail and around a small fishing pond which explains the tiny loop on the left hand side! I ended up out and about during rush hour which means it took ages every time I needed to stop to cross a main road which was a pain but, overall, a fairly reasonable ride and another 17.2 miles for November.

19th November: It was very windy tonight (the tail end of storm Barney) but reasonably warm so I took Awesom-O out to do the ride I'm going to call the 'Local 21' from now on.

It was blowing a hooley, especially on the exposed sections through the open fields, and started raining three times but this was one of those strangely enjoyable rides; my legs felt great and I managed to stay fairly dry so another 21.2 miles for November.

21st November: I had a bad case of the 'can't be arseds' today so I waited until 6 o'clock for the traffic to die down and dragged myself out to do the Old Coach Road. It was the first properly cold day of the year so I replaced my fleece with a more wind-proof top and had my choob covering my ears. It wasn't too windy for a change but it was FREEZING! The BBC said it was 2c but some of the puddles along the Old Coach Road were freezing over so I guess it was about 0c in the more rural parts of the ride. My face felt like it was going to freeze off for the first couple of miles but I soon warmed up and had quite an enjoyable ride. 15.2 more miles.

22nd November: I managed to get out the house this afternoon to do the Old Coach Road again. It was warmer than last night but not by much, at least there was no ice around. I might abandon this ride until spring anyhow because it's potato harvest at the moment and the road is covered with mud and I think I've done very well so far managing not to fall off! 15.3 more miles.

25th November: I headed out after work today to do the new local 21 again. It was dry but very windy but at least the wind was fairly constant so not too sketchy. The temperature's are mild again so a good ride and my legs felt as good as they have for ages which was cool. 20.7 more miles.

26th November: I'm low on miles for the month so I did the local 21 again after work tonight. It was warm enough and the wind wasn't too bad but the rain was that weird sort of rain that seems to stay in the air rather than actually falling. This meant that most of the ride felt like I was cycling with fresnel lenses in my glasses, which was sketchy, especially in the traffic-y areas, but I made it 'round unscathed for curry and chips in the village at the end and another 21.1 miles.

30th November: I needed 9.6 miles to get to the magic 200 so I set out to do a shorter version of the Old Coach Road after work tonight. It wasn't a brilliant start because I hit a pothole with a very loud crack just as I got to the base of the railway bridge. I was convinced I'd blown a tyre but I got off and checked and they seemed to be ok. It was very soft this morning which will need investigating but I'll do that when I've got more time. Anyhow, it was another 11.8 miles for the month giving a total of 202.8 not too bad I reckon!

I've finally replaced my defunct Edge 200...

The Edge Touring plus works perfectly for basic ride recording but it is huge and can't navigate routes reliably so I decided to free up some cockpit space and buy an Edge 20. One thing I have to mention that the reviews don't quite get over is just how tiny this thing is - it's actually cute!

One minor annoyance is that you can't just drop .gpx files on it, you have to draw a route in Garmin Connect and 'send' it to the device instead. I've re-drawn one of my routes and I'm taking it out for it's inaugural ride this afternoon. Report to follow...

First ride impressions? I'm very pleased so far. The bread crumb mode is a sort of enhanced version, it displays the bread crumb line but when you get 800 feet from a turn it beeps and indicates which way to turn with an arrow. It's pretty waterproof as well, it chucked it down for the last half hour of the ride and it survived it just fine. The fact it has 4 contact pads rather than a USB socket means the device is far better sealed than USB charged devices. The downside, of course, is that you can't easily run it with a power pack to enhance the endurance of the device.

Topping up the sealant in my new wheels.

I've read in various places that tubeless tyre sealant dries up and ought to be replaced every 3 to 6 months. Given that my new wheels are six months old, I ordered a bottle of Stan's sealant from Amazon.

Once it had arrived, I managed to get a couple of inches of the tyre off the rim (not as hard a job as I'd feared) and poured in an old film containers worth of sealant which went into the tyre perfectly. It was when I went to pump it up again that it all went pear shaped... I was pumping as hard and fast as I could but a lot more of the tyre bead had come loose and there was latex vapour blowing out of parts of it and liquid latex spraying out of others so I had to think of a plan B. I took the whole thing apart and washed the latex off everything and ordered an Airshot tool and a couple of 50ml syringes off ebay (these are really cool as they come with a finer nozzle you can push on the end which is perfect for filling coreless Presta valves).

I removed the core from the Presta valve as recommended, pumped the Airshot to 140 PSI (surprisingly hard work even with a good track pump), connected it to the valve and let it rip. It almost worked but didn't quite seat the bead properly all the way around. I then went round the circumference of the rim and tyre with a cloth soaked in soapy water and tried again. This time it worked perfectly with the bead popping on all the way around. I then used the syringe to inject approx. 35ml of sealant into the tyre, screwed the valve core back in and pumped it to it's usual 80 psi. I then gave the wheel a good shake around and a spin and it's been holding air perfectly ever since.

September 2015.

September 6th: I did the local 24 again this afternoon. It was warm but pretty windy but I averaged 17.1 mph so I must have been doing something right. I ended up at the pub meeting my mum and dad for lunch so 24.3 miles to start September off.

September 8th: Autumn's on the way, aaargh! I did the local 24 again last night but only managed to set off at about twenty past six and the sun was setting as I got back in so it looks like 'bike light season' is here again. It was a fairly windy but very pleasant ride except for my legs. I started off absolutely flying but my legs gave up after a few miles and I struggled a bit for the rest of the ride. My average was 16.6mph so they can't have held me back too much, It would have faster but I got stuck behind a tractor towing a hay rake for about a mile on the farm track section. Still, 24.0 more miles for September.

12th September: I decided to take Awesom-O out today because it's been raining a lot lately and I thought the roads would be soaking. I made a decent job of truing the dinged back wheel beforehand and realised, whilst de-greasing the cassette in the bath, that the bladed spokes had all twisted so I ended up untwisting them with the spoke key and holding the blade of the spoke in an adjustable Bahco spanner and guesstimating the nipple rotation again. The chain then needed a thorough de-greasing because the Muc-Off wet lube had actually completely dried into a weird dry dirt that took a lot of scrubbing off. Anyhow, I lubed the chain with the recommended 2 layers of Purple Extreme, allowed a couple of hours for it to dry, and set off on the local 24. It was very windy and overcast but a lot of the clouds cleared by half way so quite a nice ride and 24.4 more miles.

15th September: Did the local 24 last night on Awesom-O again. I noticed on Saturday's ride that the stem and the front wheel weren't quite aligned properly so I sorted that before I went out because it's extremely irritating, a view I suspect I'm not alone in holding! The weather was windy and chillier than it has been recently but a very enjoyable ride overall and 24.5 more miles for September.

19th September: The weather was gorgeous today so I headed out to do the local 24. Because the weather was so nice however, I decided to go exploring instead. I ended up on the rural part of the route and took a road I've never been down before and ended up cycling through Aughton and into Ormskirk.

It was quite a tough start but once my legs kicked in it was quite an enjoyable ride. It's a depressing fact that the weather can only go downhill now that autumn's arrived but you can't hold back the seasons I guess. Anyhow, 26.0 more miles for September.

20th September: I wanted to get out of the house for a bit today but didn't really fancy doing a full ride as the weather was grey, overcast and chilly. In the end I decided to do the old coach road as I haven't done it for a while. Despite the less than awesome weather I felt extremely strong and really enjoyed the ride and it was 15.7 more miles for September.

22nd September: I did the local 24 tonight after work. I knew I'd be setting out fairly latish so it's officially the first ride of the year where I had to go out with full lights. This sucks, obviously, but my new Exposure Diablo was pretty epic coming back along the shared use path through the village pushing out 1,300 lumens! It only runs for an hour at full pelt like this but I've found out since I bought it that Exposure do add on battery packs that plug in and extend the run time which is pretty cool. 24.0 more miles for the month.

27th September: Well, it finally arrived! The 2015 British Heart Foundation Blackpool to Manchester night ride has rolled around again. This year, like last year, was blessed with calm dry weather and I got to the Trafford Centre pretty early and managed to get into the second 'pod' of riders and was on the road by about ten past midnight.

I spent the first half of the ride with a bloke who'd finished his first LEJOG a few days previously and we were soon overtaking some of the slower riders. I then lost him and ended up following a tall guy on a Trek (really nice guy with tattoos covering his head, face and neck!). As we got to around ten miles from Blackpool I took a turn on the front. This went well but I was starting to flag slightly in the last couple of miles and as the guy's mates shot past with about a mile to go, he joined them and shot off towards the finish.

Anyhow, I made it in the end beating last year's time by 4 minutes with 2h 53m which was awesome. It might have been faster still but the tattooed guy and I got diverted into both feed stations which neither us wanted to do - something to avoid next year. It was freezing cold in Blackpool and the buses and vans for the trip back took ages to leave but that seems to be par for the course with BHF night rides. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get under 2h 50m next year if I get my calorie intake right throughout the night but it was quite fun and 51.4 more miles for September.

30th September: It was a gorgeous warm sunny day today so I went out to stretch my legs after work. I didn't fancy the full 24 so I did the old coach road and then the full length of the shared use path that runs through the village. Anyhow, a good ride and 18.7 miles to conclude September giving a monthly total of 233.1 miles.

August 2015.

Determined to start clawing some mileage back for the year, and with my knee seemingly sorted, I am going to try getting out on the bike every other day for August.

1st August: Did the extended 22 today on the Giant. It was quite hot and humid but very windy. Nonetheless, it was quite a fun ride and I felt strong and averaged a hair under 17 mph so pretty good and 24.0 more for August.

3rd August: Did the same again tonight after work in what proved an eventful ride... First of all a taxi driver in a Mondeo narrowly missed removing my right kidney with his wing mirror, then one of a gang of young kids yelled "Bike wanker!" at me as I shot past (I can't really object because I get the almost uncontrollable urge to yell "Golf wankers!" whenever I see people playing golf...) followed by an Audi that overtook me on the industrial park that ran over something made of black plastic in the road which shattered flinging a small piece right past my face like a ninja throwing star. Still, it was hot and sunny so a good ride for the tan and 24.2 more miles.

5th August: Same again today... I decided to clean the chain on the Giant because it was looking fairly manky and ended up deciding to stop using Muc-off wet lube. The chain was a bit dry and dirty but the chain rings were gross. There was a thick black crust of dirt and congealed oil that actually came off in lumps as I scraped it. Muc-off is a vegetable oil based lube and the problem is that the vegetable oil oxidises and solidifies in use (a process known as resinification). I'm switching to Purple Extreme next time I change the chain but until then I'm going to use Finish Line ceramic wet lube which is petroleum based and not prone to solidifying. Anyhow, a great ride for topping up the tan (although it was mentally windy!) and 24.3 more miles for August

8th August: Same again today. It was a bit overcast and quite windy but warm, the wind dropped as I was waiting at the main traffic lights in Kirby and it was like standing in a commercial oven. I'd replaced the chain before this ride with a freshly degreased and Purple Extremed KMC X11EL (quite a posh chain, I must have bought it in a sale for the spares box...) so the shifting was extra smooth and crisp which is always a bit of a treat. A good ride with an average of 17.0 mph and 24.1 more miles

12th August: The BBC weather website was predicting a hot and sunny day all day today so a bit of frantic synchronised applying for leave saw James and I doing the 'Southport the long way' ride we did last spring.

It was a fun ride and there were a couple of times, there and back, where we were holding a steady 23 mph for several miles which backs up my theory that hot sunny weather makes you cycle faster. Southport itself was absolutely rammed so that killed our average speeds for the day but we had a huge chip balm each for lunch which was awesome and it was 40.7 miles for the day.

15th August: Did the extended 22 again today. It was a fun, uneventful ride except for the weather. It was hot and sunny but with a very cold wind which was strange for August. Any how, 24.1 more miles for August.

17th August: And again... The weather was warm and sunny but very windy but pleasant enough overall. I have spag bol at my mum and dad's on a Monday evening at 7ish so I had to set out at twenty past five so the traffic was mental but another 24.0 miles.

22nd August: And again! The weather was overcast but a bit less windy than it's been recently which was a relief. It was deceptively warm though and I was a sweaty mess by the time I got back in but 24.0 more miles for August.

26th August: Did it again on my day off. It was hot and sunny but about as windy as I ever want to ride in again, I actually felt the wind tug on my front wheel several times which is unusual because the Hunt wheels are pretty shallow rimmed. Anyhow, 24.1 more for August. My current total for the month is currently 233.5 miles so I've got a few days left to really start nibbling away at the current deficit.

28th August: Did it again today and apart from a minicab driver nearly pulling out onto me as I cycled up the by-pass it was a fairly uneventful ride. It was warm and windy but the wind wasn't as bad as it was a couple of days ago which was a relief. 24.0 more miles.

30th August: Met James today to do a ride we did earlier this year in the spring. It was overcast but fairly warm and only slighly breezy for a change!

I'm beginning to regret James buying a proper road bike because our average speed is definitely getting faster! Anyhow, a great ride and it's always nice to catch up with James and 30.0 more miles to finish August off.

It's been a good month for getting the rides in due to the warm (occasionally very windy!) weather so I've taken a good bite out of the annual deficit with a monthly total for August of 287.5.