Critical Massive

I have read a book on cycling that is quite interesting Two Wheels by Matt Seaton of The Guardian. Basically it is a load of his columns made in the last 4 years organised into chapters that talk about like minded things. The 1st chapter includes a topic called Critical Mass, to anyone who is not a cycling enthusiast it is not the inclination to judge severely and find fault in the public celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church. However it is a way (on the last Friday of the month)to increase the awareness of bicycles on the road by cycling in a group slowly taking up the whole road.

All day at work I was excited that I could make tonight's Critical Mass. My hours had changed this week and I had a 4pm finish on a Friday which meant for the 1st time I could participate. Now with any type of protest movement you could probably get arrested depending on how militant it is, however the cycling variety is more of a an "organized coincidence", with no leadership or membership. This meant there is unlikely to be any trouble. However I just remembered coming up to lunch I had to get measured at a suit shop for a friend's wedding by tomorrow as he would be picking up the measurements in their Reading shop. I could go after work, but this would mean I would miss the cycle, I went in my lunch break, did this now mean it had become pre-meditated me turning up Friday night in Bristol City centre? If we did get arrested I could no longer swear under oath that I hadn't decided to turn up, as the measurements in my pocket suggested otherwise.

5.40pm I turned up at the fountains with around 25 other cyclists. There seemed to be two main people that had been a lot of times before (see I am already trying to shift blame if we got clocked on CCTV as protesters) who at just after 6pm started the procession. We cycled all around Bristol City centre blocking roads with cars and buses in tow. It was a great experience and for once made me feel as a cyclist I was the majority and not a piece of metal with cars whizzing past. Apologies by the way if you are reading this and drive a black BMW or the two chavs in the blue Fiesta as your journey tonight probably took a little longer than anticipated. It was great community spirit with some cyclists stopping at junctions to ensure cars didn't get in between the group(corking).

After 50 minutes of cycling it had finished, brilliant fun ending up in the Full Moon bar in Stokes Croft. I had a pint, just the one as I do not condone drink driving in any form.

[Right I know I have gone on a few tangents in today's entry but I have just had a Windows 7 moments. I didn't know how to spell condone, so I used a search engine to find out and a whole load of pages came up about something else. So I deleted my history!]

I sat about with a few other cyclists discussing how the ride went and then the conversation went to other things I found out a few interesting facts. Elephants and Whales are related, they are the only creatures where their nostrils are higher than their eyes. You are more likely to be bitten by a human in new york than bitten by a shark. (Can't really remember the actual stat but 1,200 humans are bitten by other humans in NYC each year I think). The best one though was the 3 Door Game show probability, known as the Monty Hall problem, We had a 15 minute debate about it, brilliant.

Thanks
Louis

Cycle to Castle Combe and Back

Right, me again.

I bought a camera in the week so this time you get pics. For anyone who wants to know
its a Panasonic Lumix FS10 Digital Camera - Black. 12MP 5xZoom £108.00 from Amazon.

Lesson from last time was to be more prepared take a map etc. So I took a map, a sports bottle, a map of Bath and Keynsham and set off on my travels.

I started off into Bristol City Centre towards the Bristol to Bath Railway Path. My journey took me through Cabot Circus which was busy, people crossing the road without looking. There was a sea of shoppers I closed my eyes and was gonna just go for it but then after a couple if seconds I decided against my 29 years of experience of my mum saying "it will all end in tears" got the better of me.

I arrived at the cycle path with great intentions to go for a quick ride to Bath, go to a Jamie Oliver endorsed supermarket for lunch then back to the house to get ready for a friend's party. Then I get six miles in, see a sign post and decide to veer off towards Yate. I then get close to Yate and see sign posts for Pucklechurch, which I thought was made up (my friend is a teacher there and I didn't believe it was a real place).

This meant I now stumbled upon a Sustrans Cycle Route number 17 so at least I had some extra sign posts to follow(or not). I went through Dyrham Park some beautiful views and stumbled across villages North Wraxall, West Kington, Nettleton and saw sign posts for Castle Coombe. I knew there was skid panning there so thought I would come off Route 17 and see what it was like.

Castle Coombe is a really great place for walking, loads of great hills, the village itself has shops that looks like houses and a sign post saying 'slow free range children'. A couple of nice looking pubs so I thought I would jumped off my bike and get a drink. It was at this point I realised I didn't know where I was, so I opened my bag and realised the map of Bath and Keynsham was now defunk, I didn't have my mobile and only £11 in my wallet. So I decided not to stop and followed signs for the Skid Pan circuit.

On arrival there were two signs one for competitors and one for spectators. After not being allowed to compete on my bicycle because it was deemed too dangerous because of all the speedy cars I settled for a view from the spectator area. When I heard someone turn to their mate and say 'um look at that guy with the bum-bag' I took a few snaps for your pleasure of the cars, sadly not any of my bum-bag. After fives mins of cars whizzing around and no crashes I got bored so decided to make my way back.

By this stage I was cursing the fact I didn't pay more attention in Geography at school or have a relevant map. Then I had a light bulb moment in the Daily Mail they were giving away a Road Atlas 2010. All I needed to do now would be to find a town or village and buy a copy. The next place I came to was Yatton Keynell with a shop, result! Gutted, they sold out apart from Mrs Cunningham's copy I was close to taking the supplement out of the paper only to work out that was probably stealing. I asked them the way to Bristol and they said the A420 was close by. The good news I was close to the road, saved myself a £1 and hadn't inflated the Mail's circulation figures. Although the Cider on a shelf looked very appealing especially as I had no drink for the party I was going to later. My only worry was I had no phone, so if my bike broke I would probably need all the cash I could muster and Cider wasn't a priority (although it played on my mind all the way home) I thought I might stumble across a Cider farm on route.

Now the A420 is quite a busy road for Bristol to Chippenham but I didn't want to get lost. I had previously cycled on this road 3 years when training for my Oxfam challenge so was comfortable but after about 30 minutes I got pissed off with traffic whizzing past me and came off at West Littleton. Just before this I saw a Lorry with a work colleague's name on had a chuckle and took a picture.

I then saw a National Trust signpost for Dyrham Park and thought brilliant I must be close to where I was 3 hours earlier. I then saw the two bridges to Wales so I tried to work out where I was from them. I thought I would never be so excited about a number of George crosses on a house I had seen this 3.5 hours before. I then cycled the same route back.

When returning to Broadmead there was a cycling event which had just finished sponsored by a bike cleaner brand, gutted, if I had only cycled a bit quicker or not got lost I may have been able to get it cleaned for free. Instead I cycled home feeling extremely tired and thirsty because I had managed to let my 500ml of Ribena last me 4.5 hours.

Had a Bubble bath, dinner and off to my party.

That was my Saturday

Louis

A Cloudy Day to go to the Beach

Right, as I have sent people the link to this page I thought it was only fair to update it to the best of my capabilities.



1st 'big' cycle of summer
I thought it would be nice to show people the places that I am cycling through pictures so yesterday I went into Wilkinsons (basically the new woollies but less grannies!) and bought some Lithium batteries to go in My Samsung Digimax A7 camera.

I got up today had some porridge and a coffee, got the batteries out and put them in my camera turned it on and nothing, after 5 years I need a new camera. Oh well hopefully I will get another camera before my next training ride.

I filled my drinks bottle up and left the house in my cycling leotard. Now it was probably a good idea to take a map of some description or at least have a route planned, especially as i bought a map on Sunday. However I thought I would go where the wind takes me.

Set off on my bike with its new seat post. Forgot to say last week a bolt on my seat post snapped off and I lost a key component meaning I had to buy a complete new post at £19.99 and cycle for a day and a half without a saddle. It was knackering having to cycle 6 miles home standing up meaning I couldn't rest as sitting down was impossible. I managed to get a second hand seat post from a work colleague for £5 so I just need to take the other one back (unpacked), apparently on Saturday because the manager isn't in till then!

Journey
I decided to cycle towards Stapleton, then Winterborne, Frampton, Iron Acton, Thornbury, Alveston, Pilning, Severn Beach (hence the title), Henbury, Westbury on Trymn, the Downs and back through Redland. When I got to Winterborne I noticed that they were due to play MCC this week but couldn't find anymore details and it was too early to have a rest. Another observations they are still looking for Barry George Rubery's killer in Iron Acton. A £10,000 reward has been offered by the Crimestoppers charity for any information that leads to a conviction. When cycling to Pilning I was cycling with 3 riders behind me it felt like I was leading the Tour De France with the peleton chasing me until I turned the corner to see two horses. I wanted to give the horses a wide berth as they can get nervy so I started cycling on the other side of the road up a hill luckily a car wasn't coming in the other direction. On reflection my safety is probably more important than a horse going buckaroo (loved that game). Also forgot the female member of staff of the Shell Garage in Henbury that was having a cheeky fag behind the garage, surely that can't be safe?

I found out the hard way that not all of my gears work correctly, mental note I need to grease my chain as well, it didn't sound too good. I wonder if there is someone I can be reported to you for misuse of a bike!

Back
I have now got back after being just under 3 hours on the saddle to a sportsman's lunch of Doritos and a glass of Ribena. Possibly an omelet may have been better
I can't work out how far I cycled but I didn't rest for 3 hours so a shower and cat nap is in need

Louis