Cycling UK Forum

Mick, this bit is wrong

Bear right at a roundabout under a footbridge still on the A396, and right at the next one onto a minor road past Blundell’s School (posh private skool) and go through Harberton and Sampford Peverell to the A361 dual carriageway. You cross this road over a flyover and sort of cloverleaf and wind back on yourself.

The road is fast and busy, but wide, and before you get off the slipway, you can ride along a layby, and by the time you get to the end of it, you reach a busy roundabout. Total distance on the dual carriageway A361 is only half a mile.

Head straight across the roundabout. It’s a bit fast, but it’s fine if you get a move on. If you have difficulty, get off and cross the road on foot. It’s the M5 Junction 27, so can be a bit hectic.

Straight on is what you want, and it’s the A38. Not too busy because the big traffic is on the M5. Head north for Wellington and turn off through the town centre as it’s the easiest route.

In Halberton turn right sp Willand - there's a pub on the junction
Follow that road to a "straight over rbt", under the M5 and past a chippy

Now, at the next RBT (which has a Coop that's open to 11pm on it) there are two choices

CHOICE 1
. 2nd exit, up to next RBT (Waterloo X) then 3rd exit to go on A38 towards Taunton/Wellington. Don't go through Wellington town centre, take the 2nd exit sp Taunton/M5

CHOICE 2
3rd exit, sp Uffculme. In Uffculme follow the road and you will cross the river. Keep to that road and you will go through Culmstock. After Culmstock climb the hill and at the top take 1st R then R at T. Through Nicholashane and a notably muddy dip near a farm, cross the M5 AGAIN and descent to R at T and onto the Wellington Bypass. Do not go through Wellington unless you love waiting at traffic lights (or want to visit Waitrose)

Choice 1 is better if it is rainy or if you want to ride very very fast
Choice 2 is better if you want an easier route (It's the Blackdown Hills neither route is flat)

Between Wellington and Taunton there is Sheppy's cider factory outlet. Just saying.

At the other end of the bypass there are a load of RBT, just keep following sp to Taunton and then follow Mick's suggestion of going through Taunton. Which is not a great experience

Another issue is this. The money and power and influence of the CTC is based on it's members. So they are all going to have to rebrand too. It isn't just a dictat that can be sent from the top

For example, the CTC group I go to the pub with on a Wednesday night ( see http://www.lkjh.biz/index.php?title=ExeterWednesday ) have their own line of cycling jerseys



It will be a year or two before we redo the jersey. And I will keep wearing my old one.

These little groups over the entire country will have branding stuff to realign.

One little problem with this rebranding is that there is already an organisation called "We are cycling" that owns the domain names "wearecycling.com" and "wearecycling.co.uk"

Citroen Berlingo will take a touring bike or three with the wheels still on plus people plus more stuff

I've done this before, holding the phone on with elastic bands

Yes the vibrations mean that the pictures aren't that great

I think it's something to do for a laugh rather than everyday on the commute to record potential incidents

Entries for the 2013 London - Edinburgh - London 1400km audax open tomorrow.

My blog here https://audaxing.wordpress.com/2013/01/ ... gh-london/ has an account of how it went for me in 2005, in case anyone is curious about how these rides work

I used to use the "measure with a ruler" method but found it a bit imprecise and faffy. I missed a very worn chain before a long audax with bad results The park chain tool checker is a lot easier

pedalsheep wrote:That's amazing! I can't believe how much time and effort went into that advert - no wonder the prices keep going up!

Brooks are owned by ISTR the same company as Selle Italia

I use Brooks saddles because they are a good perch for doing hundreds of miles on.

The "brand owner" however sees them as a set of values of tradition and craftsmanship. And that is what the advert is supposed to bring across

www.viamichelin.com with the bike option is pretty good

If you really want to use Sustrans "off road" paths then google maps in bike mode tends to send routes off on these

Goretex MTB shoes + really good overshoes like BBB Waterflex will keep the water out from the down direction.
The only way to keep it from running down the leg and filling up the shoes is to have water proof trousers which are wider than the shoe and have them over the top
Of course the trouble is that trousers like this are too warm
For shorter rides ( say 2 or 3 days ) letting your shoes get wet on day 1 and then hoping it doesn't rain so much and wearing water proof socks on the latter days works. Dunno what would be appropriate for Lejog though

I was riding an audax in Cornwall on one of those cheap Tange Frames that SJS used to do
The bike had an 8 speed triple but then a stick flicked into the drive train took out the derailluer, broke a couple of spokes
I converted it to single speed and carried on riding. I got lost and lost a bit of time so didn't complete the audax but I managed to make it back to the hall

After this the bike had to stay a single speed as the derailluer hanger had rusted out. Now, you know that you always keep those old 8 speed chains and cassettes and stuff "just in case they come in handy"? Well make a single speed like this and suddenly all that crap is handy! I never ran out of chains or sprockets!

I used a 66" or 70" gear and it was fine in Devon as long as I was careful with the route to avoid the really steep stuff
One winter I did do occasional 70 mile round trip commutes over Exmoor on it.

Alas, after a few years of riding in all weathers with my causal attitude towards maintenance the headset froze and I couldn't change the headset bearings
The headset got stiffer and notchier. I bought another bike to do the commute on. I took the wheels off and sold the brake levers.

Eventually the frame with the frozen headset went to the dump. I offered the frame to friends but a 24" rusty frame has limited appeal. Maybe one day I'll have another 1 speed bike, but I doubt it. My knees aren't getting any younger

Here is a picture of it on a sunny day. You will notice from the picture that it still has the triple chainset on. Funny, the middle ring kept wearing out.


single speed by vorsprung2009, on Flickr

Marathon Plus 28mm do 10,000 miles and then the rear tread is worn off so I swap the front to the back and buy a new front

Schwalbe Ultremo ZX 28mm , 2000km and the side walls are so slashed that I feel nervous riding them. Wonderfully fast and light and comfortable. They were good for PBP. Not suitable for general use though.

Continental GP4 Seasons 28mm, 2500km and then the casing has lots of nicks and they puncture constantly. Not a good "long distance" tyre but nice in other ways.

Continental Ultragator Skins 28mm last a lot longer than GP4 seasons, probably 6000km before they get worn and start puncturing.

Michelin Pro Race, they keep changing the version. The ones from a few years ago "Pro" were good. The "Pro 2" were better. I rode a lot of miles on Pro2 but not enough to wear them out. The "Pro 3" are faster and grippier but I've not gone far enough yet to access the durability

Mick F wrote:
You have an infinite set of route choices, but in reality, it only comes down to a few basic choices.
1. A9 to Inverness or across the top of Scotland via Thurso and Tongue before turning south for Inverness.
2. Old A9 via Perth to Edinburgh or A82 via Loch Ness and Loch Lomond to Glasgow.
3. Carlisle to Bristol via Severn Bridge or Carlisle to Bristol via Gloucester.
4. Bristol to LE via Tavistock and Truro or Bristol to LE via Launceston and Wadebridge.

thanks that's the sort of thing I was wanting to know

At some point in the next couple of years I'd like to do a JoGLE

I've looked at the CTC resources and they seem to describe one official route in the lejog direction
I've looked at the "http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk" website and they seem to want £5 to give me this information

I guess it would be too easy if there was just some way of seeing which routes were good (for me)

If the nipple is really that stiff that it can break a spokey then surely the thing to do is to use an adjustable spanner on it? Loosen it with a huge spanner with more leverage, then work on it with a spoke key