'New' commuter

Having commuted on my X since I got it, my Yuba Mundo want being ridden, so it's been sold to a worthy local cause. But the committing was taking its toll on the X and I was getting bored of needing to wear waterproof trousers because of a lack of mudguards.

So, my Solitude has been converted to commuting duties. I splashed out on some less fugly forks, plus sensible tyres, mudguards, new rear brake, and a bag/basket; and played musical handlebars.

Monstercross Fixietwat local autumn ride

I went for a quick monstercross fixietwat nichecore local autumn ride:



There were leaves:



I got dirty in the Buff:



It's been far too long since my last ride. I need to do this more.

Distance: 27km (map on Strava)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 1:30
Weather: Cold and dry. Autumnal.
Bike: Solitude Fixietwat Monstercross (with 42c tyres, 34:16)

Quick Darlington Fixietwat Spin

Snook out for a quick spin round the town - Barmpton Gravel, North Park, Black Path, Motorway Bridleway and Baydale Beck - on the Solitude.

• Fixed rooty singletrack is fun


• The subtle clip of pedal on root


• "Mister, your bars are on upside down"

Distance: 15 miles (Strava/map)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 1 hours 40 minutes
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Solitude Fixietwat (with 2.25" tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Teesdale and Swaledale

I needed to get out on a decent bike ride and I needed to pick up my tickets for Dales Bike Centre's Ride the Divide cinema night. Getting them by the shortest and easiest route would be a bit silly, right?

So, with only four non-commute rides in my legs in the last 7 months, riding fixed gear via the highest pub in Britain was the obvious choice.

Home to Barnard Castle to Bowes to Tan Hill to Reeth and then home again. 73 miles, with some off-road built in. Hills. And no freewheeling.

It was a lovely day so I had an espresso and a pastry in Barnard Castle.

The climb from Bowes to Tan Hill pub is long and bumpy.

But there's beer at the end of it.

The road home has its share of bumps too, in places.

Ace day out. My longest fixed ride ever, off the back of very little riding.

I hurt now.

Distance: 73 miles (map)
Surface: Road and easy off-road
Time: 9 hour 30 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Darlington - another short local ride

Another quickie.



Distance: 21km (map)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 1 hour 18 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Darlington - short local ride

Quick post-work spin.

Distance: 12km (map)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 45 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

Popped out for a coffee (fixing Swaledale)

Popped out to Dales Bike Centre for a coffee and a panini.

I'd planned to ride on my Inbred, but found that the bottom bracket was bust the day before, so had to do a fixietwat ride instead. It's a long time since I've ridden a fixie a decent distance so, like all the best rides, I wasn't sure I'd manage it. It was fine though, though I could get out there a lot faster on the MTB.

Distance: 90km (maps: 45km out and 45km back)
Time: 3 hours out, 90 mins for coffee, 3 hours back
Surface: Mainly off-road
Weather: Cold but dry and sunny
Bike: Fixed Solitude monstercross (34:16, with 1.6″ tyres)

Darlington - Hamsterley Group Ride - Darlington

Rode up to Hamsterley to join a group ride with some HTB members who'd been camping there the night before.

A massive group of four of use set out at 10:30 on Saturday morning - myself, Andy, Dave and Karen. We rode at a 'sociable' pace it the first bit of the black, then down G***** O** (not sure how public this trail is) before Dave and Karen went to the skills loop and Andy and I followed the Black to the ford and then along to the Grove, where I had a cup of tea and Andy went back to bed to sleep off Friday night's excesses.

I did 50 miles with 2664 feet of climbing on the road, plus 720' of climbing over about 5 miles on the group ride.

Distance: 55 miles
Climbing: 4444 feet
Surface: On- and off-road
Time: 2 + 2 + 2 hours, plus breaks
Weather: warm and dry!
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2″ tyres)

Darlington - Swaledale - Bowes - Barnard Castle - Darlington

If you ever look at a map and decide that the bridleway between Melsonby and Richmond looks like it would be a great way to ride to Swaledale, don't ride it. Pushing your bike through nettles and brambles then over boggy grassy fields seriously takes the edge off a ride, as well as producing the great low average speed of 7mph you can see below.

Luckily, there's a road alternative which means that I can do the rest of the ride again. That's a good thing, because it's a great ride. The descent off Fremington Edge is great and riding to Tan Hill is suitably epic.

Having no water between Hurst and Barnard Castle also dragged the speed down and made the climb up the valley from Langthwaite seem a very long one. For future reference, the shop in Bowes is only open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and the public toilets in Langthwaite are currently closed for renovation.

For the two bottles of water between home and Hurst and the two between Barnard Castle and home, I used nuun tablets for the first time, bought from Nick at Nixon Interactive. It's hard to say whether they made a difference, but the ride home from Barnard Castle was a lot easier than when I've done it before and I feel fine today, which is pretty good considering I had no water for the middle third of the ride.

The big tyres were pretty draggy on the road, not helped by the skinny tube in the rear tyre making it a bit flat. I'm pretty sure that I could have ridden the off-road stuff on the 45c Panaracer Cinders I have in the garage, if a little slower than I did on the bigger ones, but the road bits would have been a lot less draggy. I think some Small Block 8s would be a better tyre for me than the Nevegals, at least on this bike.

I'd planned on riding the bridleway between Whaw and Tan Hill, but the weather and lack of fluid made the road a safer option. One day though.

Food: 20 jelly babies in one jersey pocket (100% of my RDA for sugar!) and 10 dried apricots in another. Four slices of toast with honey in my bag. Should have taken more - I bought two iced fingers and a bar of chocolate (and two litres of water) at the Coop in Barnard Castle.

Distance: 70 miles (map)
Climbing: 4199 feet
Surface: On- and off-road
Time: 10 hours
Weather: wet
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2″ tyres)

Local meandering ride

Went for a local mixed ride (map). I intended to ride to the bridleways just north of Richmond, but a combination of getting lost (a junction on the fold of the map meant I left left when I should have gone right, returning me to Stapleton instead of getting me to Barton), getting a puncture (hawthorn) and bad weather made me cut the ride short.

Revisited a nice bridleway that I've not ridden for a good few years that would make a good link in a round-Darlington route, and found a nice singletrack road with grass growing down the middle (the best kind of road).

Distance: 23.5 miles
Climbing: 797 feet
Surface: On- and off-road
Time: 2.5 hours
Weather: wet
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2″ tyres)

Darlington - Bildershaw Loop

I'd planned to ride to Whitby and back today, but the forecast winds and rain (which never materialised) put me off. Instead, I rode a loop out to the west of Darlington, going over/around Bildershaw. Took in part of the W2W route, and some bluebell-lined singletrack. Bits of on- and off-road.

Nice loop, might do it again tomorrow.

Distance: 30 miles (48 km)
Climbing: 1512 feet
Surface: On- and off-road
Time: 3 hours
Weather: Cool and overcast
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2″ tyres)

Darlington to Crathorne and back on Sustrans W2W route

First proper length ride on the Solitude with the bigger proper 29er tyres, though still mainly on the road. It looks loads better (though still very odd) with the 2.2" tyres filling out the frame and forks properly. The Kenda Nevegals don't roll as well as the narrower tyres I had on before but they're ok and should be lots better off-road, but I think something like Small Block 8s might suit my riding better.

I used a bike path and bridleway shortcut to get out to Hurworth and then joined the Sustrans W2W route's spur towards Whitby (map (I rode home too, obviously)). I'm considering doing Darlington to Whitby and back as a long ride in the summer, so it was nice to get to try some more of the route. I just rode out for 90 minutes, then turned around and rode back.

It could be a nice route, although not through the prettiest of areas, but the pouring rain and freezing cold temperatures took the edge off a little.

I got home soaked, filthy and freezing. Great.

Distance: 38 miles (61 km)
Climbing: 1300 feet
Surface: On- and off-road (only a couple of hundred metres off-road)
Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Weather: Wet and cold
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2" tyres)

Hell O' The North 2007

My second go at the Hell O' The North ride saw me cut an hour and a half off last year's time. Crap weather again, especially considering yesterday's sunshine. Riding the singlespeed was fine, apart from some of the more gradual decents where I just couldn't keep up with the geared road bikes. I see a geared road bike in the near(ish) future...

100 miles. 2500 feet of climbing. Three Counties. Two chocolate milkshakes. 8 hours 35 minutes. One gear.

Distance: 100 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 8 hours 35 minutes
Weather: Wet and windy, but warm
Bike: Solitude (34:18 singlespeed)

Update: My right knee has died
Update (03/09): My right knee's still bad. I swore a lot on my ride home from work. Otherwise, just a bit of a sore neck - my legs feel fine.

Fixing Teesdale

Rode from home to Egglestone, then on to Middleton-in-Teesdale, then via Grassholme and Hury reservoirs to Barnard Castle and then home again via (some of) Sustrans route 52 (map).

Too slow though. I'm definately not doing the Hell O' The North fixed, but will give it a bash singlespeed.

Distance: 65 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 7 hours
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 45c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Eggleston (Day 3)

Rode home. 24 miles, mainly downhill. My hands hurt; I think I need to move the saddle back a bit, and tilt the nose up a little.

Distance: 24 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 45c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Eggleston (Day 2)

Went for a ride while the others went shopping or had a nap. Just two hours, but on nice steep and narrow minor roads (map).

Distance: 16 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 2 hours
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 45c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Eggleston (Day 1)

Rose up to Egglestone to meet up with the rest of the family, who'd travelled up by car in the morning while I was at a funeral, to stay with A, A and M. The ride up seemed easier than last time, when I'd been on the Inbred. Don't know if that's down to the bike or the fixed gear.

Distance: 24 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 2 hours
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 45c tyres, 34:16)

SSUK 2007

Last weekend I was down at Ashton Court in Bristol for Bristol Bike Fest and this year's National Singlespeed Mountain Bike Championships. I might get around to writing more here, but in the meantime there are some photos in the SSUK2007 Flickr group pool (including one with me in). Basically: bikes, beers, jousting.

It was my first off-road ride on the Solitude and it was great, even with just 1.6" tyres and a fairly rooty/rocky course. Obviously, I wasn't as fast as all the people with bigger tyres, but I wouldn't have been anyway.

Of course, I only managed 3/4 of a lap - I must have lost a couple of chainring bolts, which caused the chainring to die quite spectacularly. I had a nice push/freewheel through Bristol to get the train home...

Solitude almost finished (again!)

Why didn't I ride yesterday? The 287V levers arrived for the Solitude, which means I now have a working bike after setting them up last night. I've fitted the lever for the front brake and hooked it up to an Avid V brake I had in the garage. The rear brake's still a canti but is really badly set up because there's no way of adjusting the cable tension like on flat bar levers. I was going to fit a V brake to the back as well, but I didn't have a road-type brake cable long enough. I might call in at the bike shop on the way home to remedy that.

So, this morning was my first ride longer than just up and down the street: 2.5 miles to work through traffic on the route I usually ride on my singlespeed.

I didn't die! (But I was scared.)

I clipped a pedal on a kerb when filtering slowly through traffic, but stayed upright and on a downhill the pedals got away from me a little and I ended up just having to life my feet and coast to a halt, but otherwise there were no real incidents.

I'm undecided about whether to keep it fixed for SSUK this weekend, or whether to flip the wheel and ride it singlespeed. I think the combination of a new bike, drop bars, rigid forks, 42c tyres and my first fixed off-road ride might be a bit much for me all in one go, especially when I'm not the best technical rider anyway... I'm not sure I fancy riding a fixie loaded up with camping gear through Bristol either...

Solitude build nearly there!

I had the BB and headset installed on the Solitude today, so I finally got to see it as a bike.

There's no brakes yet, and the chain was on the freewheel side of the hub when I collected it from the bike shop, so I couldn't ride all the way home, but I rode the odd uphill section. Wow, the bike feels like it fits like a glove straight away. Normally, when I swap from my Inbred to my Kona or back it takes a while to get used to the new position, but this feels just right. I didn't even need to tweak the saddle height, after fitting it while the bike was still in two halves using the measurement from my Inbred.

I flipped the rear wheel to the fixed side when I got home. I had to lose another link from the chain to do it. I took the chain tugs off at first, but the rear wheel slipped just riding it across the garden, so they went back on.

Not being able to freewheel will take a bit of getting used to, but I've done a few trips around our street and up and down some kerbs with no problems. No brakes fitted yet, so I can't ride it anywhere I might need to stop in less than a couple of bike lengths.

I think 36:16 might be a tad too high a gear for round Hamsterley, but I've an 18t freewheel on the other side of the hub and 36:18 is just a bit higher than I run on the Kona. I'd probably be wanting the freewheel for the more technical stuff in the forest anyway. 36:16 feels like it'll be great for on the road and on the bridleways round here though.

I need to sort out a cable hanger for the front brake, and some cables. Then, once I've got the position of the bars and brake levers dialed in, I'll be able to tape up the bars and get in a proper ride on it.

I'll get some photos up once it's completed, but it looks pretty much like Alex's bike in the first and third photos on his recent blog post.

I'll be riding this bike at HamsterVI next month, if I get round to entering before it fills up.