I’ve spent the afternoon checking, cleaning and lubricating the bike. It gleams. I’m cycling out to a meeting in Dunnington tonight and that’s it until I arrive in Whitehaven tomorrow evening.
All gleaming and ready to go
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Category Archives: journal
Low gear and thirty miles
The shiny bit is the low gear
A call from Cycle Heaven (on earth). The lower gear had arrived and if I took my bike round to the shop they could fit it. It was fixed in no time and so I took off on a thirty mile bash just to make sure my muscles knew what to do and to check that gear changes were were working. Both are in good condition.
A few new donations today too – please keep giving and lets raise these much needed funds. Click here for the links and some background information.
Sitting target
I’ve been away at a digital storytelling event in Aberystwyth this week which has limited the time for cycling – and I set off for my Coast 2 Coast ride next Tuesday. I don’t feel as practiced as I should do. So I’m about to set off a for a few miles of training.
While I’m out it would be great if there was an increase in the donations. Just click on one of these charities and catch up with why I’m doing this 140 mile ride next week.
Gear ordered
Sometimes as I hit the steepest gradients no amount of weight or muscle power will turn the pedals. So with the experience of my Yorkshire Dales cycle ride in 2008 I visited my local bike shop – Cycle Heaven – for advice. I could fit a smaller chainring on my crankset. So there’s one on order which will hopefully give me that lower gear for the hills.
If this is all too technical for you – this isn’t technical at all. I’m cycling Coast to Coast to raise money for two charities. Visit the Justgiving pages I have set up and be kind enough to make a donation. Let me assure that none of this money is going into the cost of a new chainwheel. Every penny you donate goes to the charity except for a small admin cost taken by the website.
Funzi and Bodo Trust – funding medical help for a community stricken by cholera
Riding Lights Theatre Company – funding adventurous theatre productions by this Christian based company
Stopping Places
Say “140 miles in a saddle” and your calves start to ache and your bum feels sore before you turn a pedal. So what is the secret of cycling long distances without a serious dose of weary anticipation?
It’s all to do with stopping points.
I’ve booked three places to stay overnight on my charity ride from Coast to Coast. The first is in Whitehaven. I arrive on June 22nd to make an early start the next morning on my C2C ride. The second stop is 53 miles away at Penrith. I’m staying at lodgings that specialise in looking after C2C cyclists. Fellfoot Independent Hostel has secure cycle storage and it’s really cheap. Then it’s over the Pennines for 40 miles, the stiffest part of the ride, to Rookhope, where I’ve booked into the Rookhope Inn for what will be a well deserved sleep (after suitable refreshment.) That leaves another 40 miles to complete the ride. After an initial climb it is – as they say – all downhill from there to Sunderland and the sea.
In between those planned stops there will be times for coffee, tea, cake, lunch, photography and map reading. I see no point in being in some of the loveliest countryside on earth if I don’t stop now and again to appreciate it. So the trip will be split into manageable sections which follow one after another until I reach my destination and collect all your sponsorship money.
Talking of which I am raising funds for two charities. Riding Lights Theatre Company and the Funzi and Bodo Trust. The first to support a professional company that delivers original productions in schools, prisons, theatres, churches across the country and also offers great experience to aspiring actors in its two youth theatres and Roughshod company. All with a Christian purpose. The second trust is providing two communities in Kenya with a much needed Medical Centre and a School.
To donate follow one or both of these links.