Friday before last was the last cycle Friday from Finsbury Park – at least for now. It was good to see that several people had come back from the my first ride a fortnight before, and a couple of new people, and some who had been on rides earlier in the summer. Not bad for the end of a long summer. The weather had definitely turned – we are in autumn now for sure. Gone are the carefree days of not caring what warm clothes to wear, and not bothering to pack my lights for the journey home from work.

What I learnt on cycle Friday was the route home that avoided a huge problem – what to do on matchplay evenings when Arsenal play their midweek games at home. I cycle right past the stadium, and on match day the home crowd starts to gather. If I forget to time my exit from work and flex my flex time I run the risk of hitting the crowds at their peak. Drayton park is usually navigable, so it’s a question of wiggling across, cutting off Gillespie Road, Arsenal tube and ending up at the gates of Finsbury Park on the Seven Sisters Road. This may sound easy – but after a number of thwarted attempts I gave up a couple of years ago and reckoned that it was just easier to hang a right at Islington Central Library and hit the Blackstock Road – this works but Blackstock road is unpleasant at the best of times. My tip is to check the fixtures list on a regular basis, as although the European and league games are scheduled quite far in advance, the cup games can be arranged swiftly – especially replays.

The week before last I tried out Cycle Friday (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12293.aspx) and it was loads of fun. We started out at Finsbury Park on a bright crisp autumnal day just before 8am. When I arrived the ride stewards took some details so that they knew something about the level of experience of me as a rider. Then we set off in convoy to the city. The great thing about cycle friday is being able to discover your route into work with the help of others at a gentle pace. Now i know my route so I just came along for the ride.

This friday is the last cycle friday of the summer – i’m going to turn up again to see what happens.

It’s feeling autumnal out there – the leaves are starting to turn and fall from the trees, there’s a nip in the air, and a chill in the wind. The schools have returned, the evenings are getting darker and pretty soon before we know it the summer will well and truly be gone. Although we may get a few more hot days from the end of September the Autumn will be upon us soon – but some things never change – and amongst them are the endless series of roadworks, winter or summer.

Once again, Amwell street is being dug up, from the entrance going south from Penton Street all the way almost to Roseberry Avenue – the whole road is being resurfaced. There is a diversion in place, which is neatly signposted that actually allows cyclists to fairly quickly nip around a local square (one of those fabled London squares – Albert Sq it ain’t) and back below the road works to continue their commutes. Having any kind of diversion sign is to be applauded. It went up the day after the road closed – which is still better than nothing – that first day I headed the other direction, west towards the Farringdon Road, and found Beven House (a listed piece of social housing) and Percy Square, which is actually an oval – one of the houses there has a blue plaque because Lenin once stayed there.

Despite the diversion, some cyclists are still taking to the pavement instead. Unfortunately for them the local police have realised this and have been fining cyclists for riding on the pavement. Quite rightly too – there is a primary school nearby and the area is very residential. Surely it’s just as rude to cycle on the pavement when someone has actually found a quick and easy diversion to follow as it is stupid to cycle of the pavement so close to Islington police station?

Once of the joys of my ride home is the way you reconnect with the seasons. This also has its disdvantages. Take a corner badly in the depths of winter and you risk reconnecting with parked cars – this has only happened to me once, you never need more than one ice slide to teach you to be more careful. No – this time of year is all about the fruits of the summer. In Lincolns Inn Fields, just as you come through the gates there are a few lovely crab apple trees that have spilled their fruit onto the ground. If this is a waste, it’s a different story on Parkland Walk – just north of Finsbury Park towards Highate, this disused railway line in FULL of brambles this time of year, and has been full of bramble pickers and the air is thick with their sweet smell. That’s got to be better than it’s usual offering of nettles and the smell of grafitti artists spray paint.

So … first time in a long time… on two accounts.

1. Its been a while since I posted here … each day I write my “to do” list, and each day I’ve been scrawling “post on the blog” and failed … apologies!

2. This weekend was the first time in a very long time that I headed out on the Saturday morning club run. No … this doesn’t involve running (I’m far too attached to my bike to consider running, plus dodgy knees!). I’ve previously mentioned that I’m a member of a cycling club, Dulwich Paragon. The club is well known for its range of weekly rides available, there is something for everyone!

At the heart of the club is the Saturday morning club run … for a few hours the cafes of Crystal Palace are invaded with guys and gals swanning in on their bikes to meet for the club run. Typically the club run is a 30 mile loop out into the Kent country side, takes in a some lovely rolling hills and winds back in Crystal Palace just before midday in time for another optional cafe coffe  natter. The group is divided into sub groups of “desire to go fast” … the quicker peeps rolling out first, generally followed by an intermediate group and a steady group … something for everyone, newbies to racers! This week’s turnout saw 70+ keen beans, enough to justify 5 groups!

Riders needn’t be a club member (however, you might find you get hooked, and are a member before you know it!), own a fancy bike or shave their legs! The sociable rides are great for commutters alike looking to notch their cycling up a tad!

Fancy finding out more? Check out www.dulwichparagon.com (click Club Rides in the left column).

Here’s a quick run down of what I ride, wear and carry on the bike. After 5 years I’m pretty confident I’ve got this fairly close to being spot on for my commute – but I have the relative luxury of showers, a locker and secure parking, which means I don’t have to carry any spare clothes, an extra lock or freshen up stuff on the bike all the time as mostly there’s stuff at the other side waiting for me….

So I thought you’d appreciate a run down on what’s what and why:

The Bike – Dawes Audax. This is a fast touring bike. Touring bikes are built to have strong frames so you can carry lots of luggage on the bike – and they are comfortable so that if you spend all day in the saddle you’re not quite as sore on a long day’s cycle. Of course, commuting is not the same as touring, but the comfort is important, and a tourer is much like a road bike with drop bars and fast gears. This tourer is an Audax, so it is a bit lighter than a regular tourer, with a compact frame for speed… so that’s what it says in the catalogue anyway. Two things attracted me to this model, it has a steel frame, which is slightly heavier than aluminium but is “springier” meaning you get much less jarring with the bumps in the road. More importantly it had about 30% off in the end of year sale – this bit is really important!

The bits attached to the bike – I have luggage racks attached to the front and the back of the bike. These are for attaching pannier racks to… two bottle racks which rather obviously hold water for rehydration. On the handle bars I have a front light (I like the Smart lights – bright and the battery life if fantastic), a bike computer which tells me how fast i’m cycling and how far i’ve been recently. On the back I have a rear light (again the Smart ones are great, Blackburn do some really good ones too) and sometimes I have a small bag which clips under the saddle – these are great for keys, phone and cash card. Just remember to take it with you if you park the bike in public.

The Pannier bags – Pannier bags are much more efficient that carrying your kit around in a rucksack. Most importantly they take the weight off your back, but they also carry weight in a better balanced way, lowering the centre of gravity of the bike and making the ride more stable. With panniers you get what you pay for. Ortlieb and Vaude both make excellent completely waterproof panniers, but they are quite expensive. However they last a long long time, they fix very securely to the racks and mine have never leaked. My canvass ones with fiddly rain covers that I first bought didn’t properly survive a leak, and keeping your stuff dry is essential!

Clothing – I wear a pair of long cycling shorts – these look like regular knee length shorts but have padding in the right places to make them more comfortable. I used to wear Lycra shorts, but after a while the novelty wears off, and it makes it awkward to go the the shops – no pockets and a touch of the Linford Christies. During the summer I only wear a light coloured t shirt, and carry a rain jacket in my bags for the days when the heavens open. A good rain jacket (raglan cut – so it covers the gap between your shorts and t shirt when you reach for the handlebars) is well worth it – avoiding yellow will make you feel less like you are wearing a cycling uniform too. In the autumn and as it gets colder I switch to wearing a merino wool base layer (Howies have a great range but there are lots about) and then layers under a rain jacket depending on how cold it gets. Layering socks helps too, but it only seems to get cold enough in London to justify full fleeced leggings for couple of months in the depth of winter. Fingerless gloves, with gel padding in the wrists, will lessen the pressure on nerves in your hands which can get damaged with too much jarring.

Headgear – Helmet, definitely. Don’t feel you have to but a ludicrous top of the range race helmet, you are only paying for aerodynamics. My tip for happy cycling is eye wear. There’s debris all over the road. A week into my commuting life I got a sliver of metal in my eye from the Embankment and had to have my GP remover it with a needle – deeply unpleasant. Glasses, clear, shaded, prescription, will all stop debris, insects and pollen from getting in your eyes and causing that frightening temporary blindness that happens when something flies in. There are a few companies that specialise in making shatterproof prescription cycle wear too if like me you are a little short sighted.

I’ve cycled once this week – nothing more or less than the unfortunate side effects of swine flu meaning I am confined to the house with seasonal flu symptoms and a duty not to venture out for fear of infecting others.

I’m a rubbish patient, I’m restless but unable to do very much (anything remotely active leaves my temperature soaring and in a sweat quickly) – which means I’m left in front of the telly/pc/books and magazines. Hell, even the test match, so often the savoir of boredom is rained off again. I’ve falled deeply in love with Spotify, failed to work out how to set up my new router, and read lots of things.

Two magazines in particular arrived this week. London Cyclist (free to members), which is the bi-monthly magazine for members of the London Cycling Campaign. This magazine is full of up to date news of events, campaigns and information about cycling in London. It embraces cycling as a broad church and not just as a commuter issue, although much of the practical side of the magazine (London campaigns, gear reviews) tend to be commuter focussed. It’s pretty well written, the pinnacle being a sassy column written by the (Guardian’s Zoë Williams (who is a bit of a cycling anti-hero of mine) – overall this is a much better quality membership magazine than many (ie it actually gets read and kept for a bit!)

Also popping through my front door was Ride to Work (the essential guide to commuting, £5.99) – a bookzine from Future publishing which is a fairly comprehensive round up of commuting issues, personal interest and leisure stories. To it’s credit, it isn’t a London centric publication, with features looking at cycling in Leeds, rural Wales, bath and other parts of the UK too – being London based it’s easy to become blinkered to the issues in this city sometimes (yeah, I thought my commute was hilly until I took a trip to Edinburgh….). Lots of useful advice in here, how to side assertively, how to approach difficult junctions, what gear to get, what to wear, how to lock your bike up. Impressive stuff. If I could find one draw back, it would be that they recommend carrying your kit in a rucksack on your back. which is fine if you just take a bit – but I often take a spare set of clothes, some shoes, a drink ….. which made me think about doing a post about my cycling kit – what I carry and why. That’s coming next!

Help! I’m in panic mode peeps. Why? Because I’m meant to be racing in a quadruple scull (four crazy birds rowing with a blade in each hand) this weekend and I’m not exactly race fit. The question is not if I win but if I survive the 1,000 painful metres at Henley Town and Visitors Regatta.

In a last ditched attempt to prepare for the self-inflicted torture, in addition to the 0630am trips to Thames Tradesman Boat Club, I have been cycling rather faster than normal around town and realised that Bobby is PRETTY SPEEDY when I give him some welly. This morning was a triumph… I ruled the road… well… in my head I did. I overtook at least five lycra clad hybrid riding cyclists on my way in and only lost my position to a handful of wannabe Contadors. Not a bad performance on a 3 gear sit up and beg Dutch coaster whilst wearing my own version of lycra in the form of a racy Dotty P wrap dress. I did however arrive at work a little more rosy faced and steamy than usual… thank god for air con and my sample size Sure deodorant.

My cycle to rowing/ dragon boat training at TTBC (located next to Barnes Bridge) along London’s finest tow paths is always an adventure on Bobby. Thankfully the leather seat is fully loaded with springs to soften the ride. The only issue is the rather high position… great for the road… perhaps not so much for the row path… low hanging trees and… errrr… bridges. Hammersmith Bridge proved to be a particularly interesting obstacle at first but I have now nailed the “duck at speed/ head in the basket” action to tackle it unscathed. Ooops… think I’ll hold back on the tow path adventures and spread the love over a few instalments… this is a blog marathon not a sprint!

Weekly wisdom #5… if you’re a veggie then keep your mouth closed when riding along the tow path

Tata,

Kinikki
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ps: check out these amazing Tour De France pics… http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/2009_tour_de_france.html

There’s a cracking new video on the TFL website about staying safe when cycling around HGVs, trucks, cement mixers – those huge bits of road hardware. This is a pretty cool thing to do – as driving a HGV is not easy at the best of times – let along somewhere as complicated as some of the windy london roads – and far too many cyclists are injured and an unacceptable small number are killed by other road users every year; the high profile incidents involve HGVs, Best parts of the video are where you are shown the limited visibility of the driver in the cab, and where they try to hammer home the idea of making sure you are either sat right in front of the truck at the lights, or behind the truck patiently waiting. The video can be found here at this bit of the TFL website:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11687.aspx

There are, of course, lots of things that you see commuting through London that you need to be aware of. Not just HGVs! There are the pedestrians who walk out into the road, or onto the cycle lane without looking, and who wear personal stereos turned up loader than my bell can penetrate. There are the the couriers (cycle and motor) who do crazy things, there are rogue drivers of all kinds… but there’s plenty enough well behaved drivers, cyclists, pedestrians out there. Peace love and harmony on the roads would do us all a lot of good.

But there are some times when someone does something that is really shocking. When then do – if you can – you ought to do something about it. With couriers, the company then work for is often printed on their van or motorbike. I witnessed a van courier driver verbally abusing a cyclist at a set of traffic lights, and at the next doing the same – but leaning out of his window giving a torrent of foul abuse, and then flicking a cigarette at the cyclist. I clocked the name of the courier firm, got the number plate of the van and wrote a complint email to the company when I got home. So far so ordinary. But the bit that works is sending the complaint to the Chief Executive. All of these companies will have to register with Companies House (http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/) and here you can find the name of the CEO. Using this, you can guess his or her email address (and try a few iterations – it won’t hurt) from any other email address on the company website. For me – I got an email from the CEO apologising and promising to take action, and a follow up from the press office telling me what they had done. Oh, and I think it helps to copy in the Mayor onto emails too

Apologies for my absence… no excuse really… been a busy bee fishing, rowing, dragon boating, drinking, boogieing, yapping, sleeping, eating, occasionally working, watching the Tour de France and naturally riding Bobby the bike.

Aghhhh… the Tour de France… that amazingly addictive race over the Channel with heroes and villains… British mods, Eurotrash and the odd yank… outrageous lycra and Dijon mustard bottles/ red devil costumes… painful wipe outs and hyper-active fan moonies… the odd hill and home sprints… trains and scooters… blah blah blah. Is it just my office or has Britain become Tour addicts? Whatever the answer… I am now a convert. Although this is in spirit not in style… I’ll leave the sweating to the Armstrong wannabes. The only thing in common will be our silky smooth shaved legs… oh… and a bike.

I have a bee in my bonnet (excuse the pun). Cycle helmets. They are UUUUUUGLY. Why do such functional things have to be so unattractive? It’s so boring. The choice of risk dying young (ish) and pretty or bolt an odd shaped porous piece of plastic to your head. Well peeps… Yakkay have come to the rescue with helmets that look like hats… hurrah! You buy the helmet base and choose the hat style… so much fun! You can buy them at http://tinyurl.com/lv9cbe or have a play with the style at http://www.yakkay.com. Good stuff.

Weekly Wisdom #4… Beware of small dogs on long leads with no owner in sight. Messy.

Till next week… PROMISE !

Kinikki
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