London Freewheel
So, Sunday 23rd September was the day of the London Freewheel - an organised mass bike rally event in Central London.
As previously stated, this event was one of the reasons I bought a bike so there was no way I was going to miss it.
Some highlights of the day.
- Spending the day with a group of really great friends - they even waited for me when I stopped on London Bridge to take some photos (I shot film so no photos to show yet)
- The free sandwiches which were really quite good - still can’t see myself buying Hovis bread mind
- The general sense of fun and smiles on everyone’s faces - I don’t think I saw a single cross face all day
- Riding along the embankment with thousands of other cyclists, which was amazing exhilarating fun
- Experiencing some extreme close quarter cycling at some of the choke points as it got very busy indeed
- Ringing my bell (not a euphemism) when we went through the tunnels
- Ice creams in Hyde Park after, would have preferred a beer mind
- Riding over a traffic free Westminster Bridge on our way back to Waterloo Station for the train home
A truly excellent day, and I just hope they do it again next year.
Update: Got my photos back.
See more in my London Freewheel set on Flickr.
Further commutes
Two days after my first commute I did it again.
In the days between I had studied my maps and worked out some shortcuts. The second time around I managed to shave a whopping fifteen minutes off my first commute time. Get in!
My main route change involved cutting out the “scenic route” along the river and continuing along the pavement for another 5 minutes. I can still take the scenic route on the way home when I am in less of a hurry though. The other tweak involved avoiding most of the bad traffic around Barons Court by riding through a nearby park. So, a win-win then.
Having commuted by bike twice in my first week I wanted to do the same in the second week. Initially I planned to ride on the Monday morning but that weekend the weather turned and it was a lot chillier so I managed to talk myself out of it and went in on the tube instead.
After a crap day at work and a shit journey home on the tube I resolved to cycle in the next day no matter how I felt when I got up.
So, the next day I got up early and got ready to ride. It was still chilly out so I put on two long-sleeved layers - I don’t yet have any longer shorts that cover the knees so I wore my (secret!) lycra shorts under my normal shorts to keep me a bit warmer.
The initial shock of walking outside wearing shorts almost made me want to call it off, then I remembered my resolution and pressed ahead. Once I was a few minutes down the road it didn’t feel so chilly after all and within ten minutes I was nicely warmed up.
With my new shortcut route I did it in 40 minutes (starting to settle into a routine now) - which is still a tad slow but I can put about 10 minutes of that down to crossing roads and waiting at lights (I’ll probably be adding a cycle computer to my gear list soon as I am curious about my timings).
Once settled in at my desk at work I realised how much more energised I felt at work after riding in - the day before I’d felt lethargic and tired - but today I was buzzing with energy - I could get used to this feeling!
I’m now on my 4th commute in two weeks - I’ve not set any targets as such, but it’d be a shame to drop below two days a week now.
Weather looks warm next week though - might aim for 3 days.
My first commute
So, I had all the gear and had really run out of excuses to not ride to work. I had the maps, had done a test run of the route on a Sunday morning, and all the rain of July and August had gone away to make for perfect cycling weather.
The route
The most direct route between Richmond and Hammersmith involves two long straight roads that intersect about two thirds of the way there - unfortunately, one’s a 4-lane highway with a 40mph speed limit, and the other is a 6-lane highway, also with a 40mph speed limit. I was not ready to cycle on those kinds of roads yet (if ever).
But luckily I can cycle on the pavement (legally!) from the end of my street to Chiswick Bridge.
I then turn onto a quiet lane that hugs the curve of the Thames - it’s a scenic route both in that it’s very peaceful and in that it’s very much the long way around. That lane eventually turns into a mix of quiet back-streets and riverside paths that run along that narrow strip between the A4 and the Thames. This gets me as far as Hammersmith Bridge before I am on some more back-streets for the final stretch to my office which is just across the A4 (the 6-lane highway) from Barons Court tube.
Setting off
So, one September morning, around 8am, I set off for work on my bike. It was around 6 miles and I really had no idea how long it would take me. My main concern was how much busier the roads would be on a weekday morning than they were on my Sunday morning dry-run.
As it turned out it was fine until I got close to Barons Court station - that was when I met the tail end of some backed-up traffic. I didn’t feel comfortable passing the cars on the left as I’d be squashed up between them and a row of parked cars - and the stream of oncoming cars gave me no room to pass on the right too.
I’m really not comfortable in situations like this that demand high manoeuvrability at low speed - so I got off the bike and pushed it up the street. Once past the worst of the traffic outside Barons Court I got back on and waited at the lights to cross the A4. The rest of the route from there to the office was pretty straightforward.
Once at work I checked my watch - it had taken me an hour! Oops! Well, I guess my times can only improve from here!
After locking up my bike and changing (no showers at work unfortunately) I sat at my desk feeling quite knackered but with a massive sense of achievement.
I did it!
Joining the lycra set
So, I quickly found out that buying a bike and a helmet was just the start of my spending.
Let’s see, I also needed:
- gloves
- water bottle
- water bottle cage
- a lock
- lights
- a pump
and that’s just for starters - I was thinking of commuting to work so I also needed:
- puncture repair kit
- multi-tool
- mini-pump or CO2 cartridges
- spare inner tubes
- a saddle-mounted bag to keep it all in
the final thing is clothing - luckily I already own some breathable tops, fleeces and shorts so at least I don’t have to buy those.
There’s just one more thing I need to complete my setup and that’s something I thought I’d never end up buying - that’s right - a pair of lycra cycling shorts. See, I’d always assumed cyclists wore lycra for two reasons - aerodynamics and posing. I wasn’t interested in either of those things, I’m not a poser, oh no sir, not me.
But what I didn’t know was that those lycra shorts were padded; and that padding sure makes for a comfy ride. And I can wear them under normal shorts so nobody need know I’m even wearing them - it can just be our little secret.
So, lycra shorts it is. Still can’t quite believe I joined the lycra set, but it’s a damn comfy set all the same.
Buying the bike
So, having decided to buy a mountain bike I then set about trying to get my hands on one.
We knew of a bike shop nearby so popped in there the following Saturday for a chat.
The chap there asked us what sort of things we wanted to do with the bikes and quickly whittled it down to a mountain bike. (hmmm, why hadn’t I just come in to the shop a month ago!).
He recommended a Cannondale F5 Disc for me - a pretty sweet bike - it even had disc brakes (well, I was impressed). For the missus he suggested a red Cannondale F6 - which she was pretty happy with.
The only problem for me was that I really didn’t like the blue and white colour scheme of the F5 - it also came in a very cool looking matte black but that wasn’t going to be available for 2 months and I really didn’t want to wait.
I asked to see some other bikes and he suggested an orange Kona Cinder Cone. What can I say, I like orange so I was sold.
I took it for a spin around the block - it was my first time on a bike in twenty years - but I needn’t have worried, it was like one of those things that you never forget how to do (I’m sure there must be a phrase for that!). So, I was happy, the size was right, the colour was right and the bike had two wheels that went round and stuff.
Choosing a bike
So, having decided to buy a bike, I then set about choosing one.
This mostly involved me bugging my bike-mad friends and learning about various types of bikes. In reality, I could have skipped all this nonsense, walked into a local bike shop (or LBS as those in the know call it) and said “I’d like to buy a bike please” and taken it from there. But I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to spend at least a month doing “research”.
I think at the back of my mind I may have been trying to make sure I really wanted a bike before I spent several hundred pounds on one. So, I continually asked my friends lots of daft questions and tried to wind my way through the minefield of contradictory opinions and half-facts that is the Internet.
The first thing to decide is what type of bike to get; it breaks down as follows:
Road bike Also known as a racing bike. Same as what your Tour de France rider uses - although theirs are considerably more expensive than the average thing you might buy in the shops of course. Very light and thin, but quite useless off-road apparently and I’m keen to ride some of the trails around Richmond Park and New Forest and places like that.
Mountain bike Chunky-frames, big knobbly tyres, t-bar handlebars - you can guess from the name that it’s designed for off-road but it performs reasonably well on-road too.
Hybrid/Commuter bike Sort of a compromise between the two. Closer to a Mountain bike than a Road bike in style - though not as rugged or heavy. It ended up being a toss-up between a Hybrid and a Mountain Bike as I definitely wanted to ride the trails in Richmond Park (I live nearby). I also had half a mind to cycle to work (a 6 mile trip each way).
After much umming and ahhing I decided on the mountain bike. Because the hybrid is a compromise I’m worried that I’d outgrow it pretty quickly and then want to get a mountain bike after all. So, I wanted to buy a mountain bike - that was easy enough!
Deciding to buy a bike
I’m really not sure what the exact trigger was for me in deciding to buy a bike. I’ve not owned or ridden a bike in 20 years so nobody could really describe me as a cycling fan. I can’t even remember the exact point I decided “I’m going to buy a bike”. It’s likely a combination of the following events and factors:
The Tour de France Grand Depart in London. I don’t remember the day itself making me want to buy a bike, but it did give me the impetus to start watching the Tour again on TV (I used to watch it back in my University days).
Following the Tour on TV Watching “le Grand Depart” in London gave me and my girlfriend the hook to follow the tour on TV. Watching the highlights each evening probably did give me the fledgling idea of buying a bike. Not that I had an urge to compete in the toughest annual sporting event in the World or anything like that.
London Freewheel Finding out about the London Freewheel was probably the match that lit the touchpaper that had been soaked in the oil from the seeds sewn by watching the Tour on TV. I have a vague feeling it was this that made me decide to buy a bike. I know I signed up for it before buying the bike - which shows I intented to buy a bike at that point.
So. I’d decided to buy a bike. Now to choose and buy one. Hey, how hard could that be?
