Category: Setup

Breakfast included in the Hotel price and they kept bringing me food, I just could not eat it all. Sooooo much, the staff were great but I had to tell them to stop bringing me food.

Bike together, out for a coffee at Ainmané.

Then round the houses. The road is straight and after the first 10km or so it turns flat and from then on its sort of on a plane out of the mountains but still at 800meters.

But there are some highlights along the way Royal Enfield has a shop, maybe a motorbike trip around India, I was inspired by Jupiter’s Travels when I read it. India is a retro type nation and the image or riding one of these fits right down to the ground.

I discovered an image I want to emulate.

I rode into Mysore thinking I would flick on my Vodafone internet and find one of the places I had looked at last night. But 10km out, still no connection, again 5km out nothing, I was getting a bad feeling. Right in the centre nothing, schoolboy error. My Garmin does have hotels it shows where tgey are but not how good, I looked at 4 and the 5th was ok just The Crystal Paark Inn. Grrrr.

I went shopping in a Tuktuk. Now relaxed gotta find some food before The 6 nations starts.

Due to a technical (disorganised) error I had to change hotel. So after breakfast I packed paid and rode down to my new hotel, a slightly less salubrious area but pretty good and so much better value. I then took a walk around town, had a coffee. Went back to the room and lay in bed, I was knackered. Well that’s my day off really.

I did go out for dinner but early for India 7.00pm most seem to go out at 9.00pm. Anyway there was no one else in the resturant, I felt I was treated a bit shoddy. But I don’t speak Hindi and it’s pretty rude to expect the host nation to speak my language.

I did see this board, I tried to look inside. I reckon no one is in side, the rural roads are pretty dire.

All in all Madikeri is a good town for the day. Probably would have been better in Misore (one of many ways spelt).

They were a good family to stay with. I was off to Madikeri. A beautiful hill top fortress (I forgot this fact later).

My routes are designed by my Garmin and on the whole have been fantastic. I do ask for wiggly lines (usually indicating hill climbs or descents) but today’s was a killer. Once again the scenery was outstanding. This is coffee country (surprised – who knew?) There are never ending coffee plantations they do like to grow a tripple harvest, coconuts, then pepper creeping up the coconut trees and in the gaps between coffee. Much of the verges are manicured beautifully and a hedge surround.

I am riding somewhere between 900m and 1200m. And my route is southerly. It’s a bit flatter inland and on the coast, but I of course have to pick a mountain range to ride down. But views and scenery to die for.

I rode a leisurely ride stopping for coffee, tea and food at will in the morning. Some serious ascents and decent , some off road (And some wrong so I had to push the bike back up) thus all took up so much time.

Estimated 120km today. I keep an eye on distance and eta. I can see it’s getting tight. So I quicken the pace, really my legs don’t want to do this. Anyway as always the last 20km is a sprint against the setting sun, in this case up hill seriously steep, grrrrrr.

As I got into Madikeri, I met a German guy living here, I asked about a hotel he said the view was good at the Hotel Mayura Valley View Madikeri, so here I am, it’s pitch black I hope it’s worth it in the morning, most expensive in town.

Bugger, why am I knackered, sore and ready for a rest again …. But I am loving it.

I discovered one of the wires ripped out of the terminal on my dynamo. My chief engineer reckons the flex of the Lauf fork may have ripped it grrrrrr. I uploaded 2 pictures and Strava but WordPress won’t let me do the rest.

I found a box. Put all stuff bound for UK into the Carradice saddle bag then put the bag in the box. I packed my bike up read for the off. Waited till 08.40 when the shops open to buy tape. Wrapped the tape around the box so it was secure. Put the address on. Took a tuktuk to the post office, not open till 09.30. Went to 2 cashpoints failed to get cash. Back to the PO, can I send this to the UK yes but all the little gaps between the tape have to be covered in tape. Tuktuk back to the hotel, covered all the holes. Tuktuk back to PO, new man was really grumpy, passport, I produced it he looked asked for my address, I explained it was not on the passport, I need Xerox,now I had on in my bag, produced it. He made me sign 100 documents (soooo slow to print) write addresses on more places. Took vast quantities of Rupees from me. I was free to go. 08.45 to 11.00. I still had to find a working cash point.

Anyway I packed the rest of the stuff onto the bike and off, found cash.

THERE IS NO WOBBLING. YIPEE.

Honestly I cannot tell you how goid a normal bike feels. I hared off along the road, accelerating, jinking, swerving, it feels great.

I had picked the top of a switch back to stop tonight. The cycle was flat and as usual very loud until I left the coast then it quietened down a bit, but not the most scenic of rides, but it got late and I was close to the bottom of the switch back and saw a sign to Home stay, I just followed the signs and rode in. What a great oasis of calm. Free WiFi, resturant on site, set amongst tender coconut groves, and food and accommodation around 14 quid, can’t go wrong with that.

Yes I didn’t ride up the switch back a joy for tomorrow morning.

Yep, he’s the bloke, the fool, lucky you are not looking at him from the side there would be daylight shining through.

Now I have made it no secret that it is my desire to go travelling for a bit. I was in a quandary as to what bike to ride. I have my Reilly Gradient that is a spanking good bike, but I do feel sometimes that a little fatter tyres would be more conducive to the terrain that I desire to travel over.
I follow blogs and I watch people travelling distances off road, camping in the wilds of countries desolate places, hard to get to places. Places I can come back from and smile happily to myself that I cycled there.

So I made the decision to buy a 29″ off road touring bike and came up with the Surley Ogre I promptly went off and bought the frame and for sure I was pleased, I put in some anti rust (yep it’s steel), pressed in a Chris King headset and I was nearly ready to go.
I have always maintained that if you buy a touring bike it should be as unobtrusive as possible. Black and scratched, in that way people do not notice it, and people do not think it’s up to much if there are scratches.

But……….why does there have to be a but, but there always is a but in my case. Something caught my eye, it wasn’t black, it wasn’t green, it wasn’t dark blue….

Fuck me that’s PINK you may say but you would be wrong, it’s a very demure Rasberry. I talked to my lovely niece Emma who is living in our house at the moment (quite a little happy community we have going on here), she is the knower of all things beautiful and colour coordinated and I asked her what colour headset and bottom bracket would suite and she came up with green, I promptly went out and bought a Matt Emerald Green, Chris King, bottom bracket and headset, hard to get hold of the limited edition matt.

The consensus, Myself, Emma and the guys in Bike Zone St Michael’s Street, Central Oxford, all agree that it looks perfect, as unobtrusive as you could get.

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I have a Shimano XTR crank with a Middleburn 40 tooth chainring (last forever those buggers) , some Avid BB7 brakes taken from another bike, surely I’ll get some Alligator i links for the brakes.

I still have an old set of Hunter Luv Handles that will go on, they are, sadly, not made anymore, but I am so hankering after an Oddity Razorbar wide, and with acres of space to attach luggage and lights and handholds and maybe tri bars, the full array……… anyone want to spring for the titanium ones for me.

The wheels with my Rohloff hub, are on their way, so excited.

Way back in October 2012 I met 2 guys, Timon and Bart. We rode together for a couple of weeks. The account of our ride together is available by clicking the photos below:

I am riding to a small camp site close to Winchester to meet up with them. We try to meet every year, but of course, life and work sometimes gets in the way. Timon visited me in Portugal last year. Bart pretends to be working hard, for Katusha cycling (but I have only seen minimal freebies)

We will relive our travels together and separate adventures. They will reinvigorate my enthusiasm for life and travel.

On my recent trip to Telford my friends Rashmi and Mark gave me a good talking to about my lack of ambition. I hung my head in shame.

Now I love them both dearly and never disobey their commands…. oops I mean welcome suggestions. So as soon as I get home it sorted something out.

I changed the sprocket, changed the chain, changed the bottom bracket. Then slid the Reilly down to Mickey Cranks for a quick service and sorted the back brake lever out (way beyond my ability), yes yes I know, I shouldn’t have ridden it all the way to Telford without a back break. Scott did a fantastic job and it rode like a dream on the way home.

It’s impossible to wear contact lenses while I am touring and sleeping in a tent and so I cannot wear my sunglasses.
I bought some clip-on sunglasses, how cool are they and they flip. Thanks Abingdon Eye Centre.

I had a bike box (the cardboard variety) in my garage. Leaving it till the day before I dismantled the Reilly and put it in. They don’t make all bike boxes the same size and my beloved Reilly was a bit large. I sliced up the box from my newly arrived Surly Ogre frame. It’s a bodge but it seems to fit. Let’s hope everything doesn’t drop out.

I’m in Alicante.

I have sorted out some routes, designed in Gaia GPS great for designing on and off road routes.

No return flight booked yet. But anticipating 10 days ish.

Right now to find a campsite or bar showing the rugby.

And

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Luke.

😀🎂🎂🎉

After a great relaxing day off, Rashmi and Mark told me that had to go to Scotland for work. Seemed a bit far fetched as an excuse to get rid of me so I believed them.

I set the alarm for 06.13 woke up and promptly went back to sleep…. that’s unheard of. So 06.40 I got up and packed., checked the bike. The back tyre was a little low… an ominous start.

Off I set still no map on the Garmin so i was still just following a line on a blank screen. After a few false starts I got the route. There were closed roads ( I ignored the signs)

But the debri was still on the road.

I popped into Worcester Cycle Centre who pumped my tire and furnished me with some tubeless fluid.

I rocked into the Kabin in Kinlet who fortified me with a coffee. No pictures too tired.

I got into the Cotswolds and decided the route was taking me way out the way so I readjusted the route, unfortunately some of the new route was not quite the ‘on road’ variety

Home at 18.14. ~Faster, less lost and feeling less tired.

Sorry for the boring post.

 

I invited myself to my friend Rashmi’s house. We always joke we can visit each other any time. A very recent weekend gone by Rashmi was at Blenheim Palace but had unfortunately contacted me too late for a meet.

I just called her up on Friday and invited myself for the weekend.

I designed the route and downloaded to my Garmin 810. I had my second Garmin 700 and my phone as backup, what could possibly go wrong.

I woke way too early Saturday morning, 04.00 approximately. So I got up packed the last of my clothes and set off.

20 mins out of Oxford my Garmin turned itself off Grrrrrrrrr. But I stopped and fired it up again. Lucky it all worked.

Then I got the first rough road (despite having set the map to roads only)

I ploughed on regardless.

Sunshine, coffee, Turkey cooked the night before.

Along the tow path in Worcester I believe. Tranquillity abounds. 🤗

Ice cream.

Now when I was setting up my Garmin a few years ago I couldn’t be bothered to download the maps of anywhere north of Birmingham. So somewhere on my route I lost the map but was just following a line that sometimes turned. I got lost a few times especially along the rough tracks I was being taken down.

Then 9 hours in my Garmin ran out of battery and deleted my whole ride.

But I had my backup.

I turned it on, it turned itself off immediately. I turned it on again, it turned itself off immediately grrrrrrrrrr. Backup cocked.

Lucky I had my phone so I was following my Google directions on the phone, holding in one hand along a track. Desperately losing the will to live.

Eventually I arrived at destination after 13 hours. Tired hot and disorienting.

Gotta do it all again tomorrow now but backwards

Thanks for the great weekend Rashmi and Mark. 🙂🤩

I have got to find a place to live. The home I have lived in for the last 15 years, the house has been with the family for the last 55 years, is to be sold and I am destined for a one/two bed flat. To say the least I am unhappy with the prospect. Damn my parents for buying this house, damn my parents for letting me live here for so long, damn my inability to be successful.  Gloom permeates every aspect of my life, and with the British weather the rain the constant rain, the cold. I sleep badly, I eat badly, I am getting fatter, I am getting slower, I cannot keep up cycling with my friends, my friends are sick and tired of me droning on and on about my supposed woes, And to add to this I have started sleep walking I fell down our spiral staircase the other night.

I cannot see myself being able to settle in a flat. I looked at a 2 bed flat that would have all fitted into the living room (well nearly) of my present house. Coming to terms with this is tough.

But I have a plan and I am sticking to it. Buy a flat as a base and then go travelling. Luke, my son, will be able to live in the flat and at least he will be settled.
I will have to sell all my bikes as I will have no storage to put them. My possessions, my paintings, the desk my grandfather gave to me, everything I have collected throughout my life… no idea what will happen to them. My sister has a basement and most will go there. They are worth nothing except to me. Keep your eyes on ebay.

Well the positive I will be able to buy a new bike to go travelling, a flat bared Rohloff Stoater from Shand Cycles. I may be able to complete my world trip which I previously terminated to care for my mother.

Anyway the upshot of all this is that I will not be going to Morocco, although it will still be on my mind, I have to look for a place to buy and live. I am presuming this will take a month or 3. It also seems wrong to love living somewhere and to leave it for the last few months to go travelling, after it is sold I will possibly have all the time in the world to travel, until I spend all the money and have to get a job – – I’ll look forward to that when I am 65.