After an longer than expected wait, my Tacx trainer tyre arrived yesterday, along with innertube, Topeak saddle bag and my pirate socks.

I’ve put the tyre on my bike, and despite still being as sick as a dog and in a lot of pain, I had to try the tyre out on the rollers, but only for a short time, as I don’t want to make my chest worse than it already is. The first noticeable difference is how much quieter it is, it’s a lot better with the loud buzzing noise from the other tyres now gone.

Another thing that has changed is, the effort required to turn the pedals, it’s a lot easier now, but that presents another problem, I only have 2 rings on my bike, and whilst on the largest ring, with the chain on the smallest gear on the real wheel, I have to pedal furiously to maintain a good speed, as there’s hardly any resistance now, this is something I saw mentioned in one of the reviews for the rollers.

I definitely need a bike that has 3 rings to give a wider range of gears, hopefully, people might have got new bikes for Christmas, and as a result, there should be a some second hand bikes in the local paper fairly soon, fingers crossed.

We’re going to my mums for Christmas dinner tomorrow, so it’ll be Monday when I do a short video to show the how much quieter the rollers are now, compared to before with the MTB tyres on.

I wish you all have a Merry Christmas, go easy on the mince pies

As per my last post on the blog, I was correct in thinking I was coming down with the cold (man flu), I awoke the next morning with a blocked/runny nose, sore throat and a bad chest, I’m coughing like a good un and my chest feels like it has been kicked, which means no more riding until I’m over this, couldn’t have happened at a worse time, just as I was about to get in to a routine

To cheer myself up for when I’m better, I’ve just ordered a new Tacx trainer specific tyre for going on the rollers, that should cut the noise down to a minimum and save the rollers from getting scored any further.

Tacx Trainer Tyre

Which meant I had to buy an innertube to go with it.

Michelin C2 AirStop Butyl Tube – 26 x 1.1 – 1.5

Looking at the saddle bag I bought just recently, whilst it’s small and will just about do the job for short local rides, and thinking further ahead, I thought I could with one that is a bit bigger, so I’ve ordered this one.

Topeak Aero Wedge

Apart from the fact that I needed to buy something else in order to use a voucher code, I needed some new socks anyway, and I like the pirate motif on them, so bought 3 pairs of these

SockGuy Pirate Socks

That definitely concludes my bike shopping for this year and hopefully next year, it has cost me a fortune to do only a few miles so far, roll on the man flu clearing up and getting rolling again.

Man flu is no laughing matter, this is what all of us blokes need when we are ill

I did ask the other half to do that for me, she just laughed, women eh.

The bike rollers now have a new home in the outhouse, I had a good clear out in there yesterday so it should be good for getting the miles/hours in on the bike, albeit slow and steady for the time being, I’m not going to kill myself. Being an out house, it’s very cold in there, and although I had the door wide open with the icy wind blowing in on me, I still sweated like a pig on the bike in there.

I did 5.08 miles on the rollers last night, they now have the support stand attached, it really does make a difference having those on there, I can now concentrate on riding, rather than wasting my time trying to keep my balance and not enjoying it. Although I only did 5 miles, it did hurt as I was trying to keep a fairly good speed up, so I had to stop for a 15 second break several times during the 5 miles to get my breathing right again.

I had a bit of trouble getting the new bike computer to pick up the signal from the magnet on the spoke, so I had to jam a piece of wood under it to push it closer to the magnet and selloptaped the wood to the frame for it to work, it does the trick anyway. These are the stats from the new computer for last nights little session:

Distance: 5.08 miles
Time: 18.49
Avg Speed: 16.2 mph
Calories Burnt: 169.7

Not too bad, I hope to do that at least a couple of times a day for a week or two in order to get my general fitness levels up a bit, then I can think about increasing the distance and speed, and gradually try and get back in to something like my old routine.

The 2 videos below have just been uploaded to my new YouTube account, the first one was my first try on the rollers, which I did in the hallway where there are 2 walls close by to support me, just in case I came off the rollers, the second video is of my first try with the new stand fitted last night, just a quick test video to see it in action:

I’ll be ordering a nice slick road or training tyre, as the noise from the MTB tyres is very annoying, I noticed that it’s also scoring the drums on the rollers quite easily, so that needs to be rectified soon.

One minor problem might put a spanner in my training, my kid has a raging cold, the other half has caught it, and I now appear to be coming down with it, so I’m not a happy bunny about that, as it’s hard enough trying to get my breath without feeling completely bunged up, I’m just hoping I don’t get a chest infection again, I’m quite prone to those and anything like that would mean I can’t go on the bike until the infection clears up.

I wasn’t very successful on my first attempt on the bike rollers the other day, one reason was possibly the big mountain bike tyres I had on the bike, secondly, when I last tried, I’d been awake for over 24 hours, so it probably wasn’t the best time for me to try them, but I did say I would try again after I changed tyres, and so I did.

Now that I have the semi-slick tyres on the bike, I decided to have another go tonight, and I was pleasantly surprised, I actually managed to stay upright for quite a while with only the end of thar handlebar grip occasionally touching the wall, I managed to do 2.66 miles in the end, but not all in one go, I still had to stop 3 times as my breathing was all over the place and I wobbled a bit, but I do think with practice, I will get used to the rollers.

I have to say that the noise of the tyres was driving me mad, they have a knobbly edge on them and it’s a constant loud buzzing noise, can’t be helped and it’ll have to stay like that for the time being.

I think that some proper skinny tyres would help even more, or possibly a cheap racing bike for use only on the rollers, I might have a look in the local papers for something second hand, as there’s no point shelling out a load more money for a new one that will never see a road.

I recorded some very short video of myself on the rollers tonight, but it didn’t come out great as I used my digital camera to record it, I’ll try and do a better one tomorrow during daylight. I’ll post the video here when I’ve uploaded it, and I’ve just opened an YouTube account, this will be my channel page for any videos I publish http://www.youtube.com/cycleorguk

The support stand from CRC for the rollers never turned up today, so that’ll be Monday now.

Just been looking at some of my notes from 2008 for inspiration, these were for September 7th of that year on my indoor exercise bike, comparing then to now, it just shows how much being off the bike for nearly 3 years has affected me:

I did 4 sessions to get the 50 miles up today, all were pretty intense, especially the last one where I kept the speed constant at around 20mph, and did a 30 second sprint every 3 minutes and held it at about 25mph for the duration of the sprint, I was sweating like a pig at the end, well, all the way through actually , and that’s another reason why it’s best to have the bike in the kitchen, wipeable floors, although I do catch most of the sweat by tucking a towel in to my waistband and putting the other end of the handlebars leaving just a bit of the display showing.

I think I’ll be out for a ride tomorrow, lunchtime looks like it will be sunny with a 13mph wind and the rest of the weeks looks similar, log for today:

Sep 7th (sessions on exercise bike)

15.03 miles (time 00:47:44)
15.05 miles (time 00:45:21)
10.11 miles (time 00:30:40)
10.07 miles (time 00:29:19)

Will I ever be able to get back to that level of fitness? I don’t know if I can, but I know one thing, I’ll give it my best shot, although it’s going to be very hard on my body at my age and with the recurring breathing problems etc.

Just been out for a short night ride, it’s a miserable 2°C and it’s bloody freezing on the forehead and ears, and now I’ve got an raging headache because of that. It has been suggested that I get myself a beanie hat for this weather, hmmm, I’m not really a hat person and although I do like the idea of keeping my head/ears out of the cold, at the same time, I don’t like not being able to hear what traffic is coming up behind me, but that’s not so much of a problem on these quiet country lanes, though, I’ll think about a hat.

I’m finding this really tough going, although I tried to push myself harder tonight, I did 3.79 miles in exactly 20 minutes, which I thought was fairly good, but that’s only an average speed of 11.9 mph, which included a short stop whilst going up an hill, the legs went and I had no choice but to stop grrrrrr.

Ok, I’m not expecting miracles after not riding for so long, but I was hoping that I might at least be capable of doing slightly longer distances than I am, even if it was only up to around 10 mile rides I would be happier, but my body is telling me that’s out of the question as my legs are killing me and my lungs feel like they are on fire. What is annoying me more that anything is, it’s just 3 years ago that I used to be able to ride 60 miles in 4 and a 1/2 hours, half of that on road to get to and from the trail and half on the trail itself, so to struggle doing 4 miles now is pretty soul destroying, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy as the lungs will have degenerated since then, but I thought it would be easier than it’s turning out, all I can do is struggle on, any cycle exercise is better than none at all.

The new Tacx Antares bike rollers arrived today, I was looking forward to trying them out, and at the same time, a bit apprehensive. I had watched numerous videos of these rollers being used on YouTube, in most cases, people got on them and pedalled away quite easily as if they were on a bike on the road, and a couple showed people who struggled to stay upright on them, unfortunately, I fell in to the latter category.

I assembled the rollers, put the bike on top, got on the bike, and sort of expected that I might not have too much of a problem, but it was apparent within the first few seconds of holding on to the wall and trying to pedal, that I would not be suited to rollers, I persevered for a whole 5 minutes, that might not sound like much time, but I’m someone who has zero patience, and if I struggle with something, I just end up getting wound up.

I decided to leave it after that, although I will try them again tomorrow with my Continental Travel Contact semi-slick tyres on the bike, instead of the current Furious Fred MTB tyres, I had it in my mind that the Furious Freds would help me to not slide across the rollers so easily, I was wrong on that count, I was all over the place, and just the slightest of movements on the bars sent me off the side of the rollers, as I say, I’ll try it with the semi-slicks tomorrow and see if I do any better, this is the bike on the rollers:

I’m not expecting the tyre change will make much of a difference, so with that in mind, I’ve been back on the Chain Reaction Cycles site and ordered this support stand to aid me:

Tacx Antares Support Stand

Using the support stand then leaves me with the problem of not being able to see what mileage I’m doing, as there will be no front wheel on the bike, which means I now have to put a cycle computer on the back wheel, so, with yet more expense, I’ve also just ordered this computer:

Cateye Velo 8

Someone in the reviews for that computer said that they use it on their rear wheel on a turbo trainer, although the cable doesn’t reach the handlebars, but that’s not a problem, I can just hang it from my saddle and glance down to see my distance.

Whilst making my previous CRC orders, I kept forgetting to order a saddle bag, although I’m not out on the bike much at the moment, I will need it once I’m fitter and out on the road more often, it just needs to be big enough to carry a spare tube, tyre levers and allen key set, so I’ve ordered this one:

Fizik Saddle Pak – Velcro Strap 2011

That’s about it for another not very enlightening day, but once the support stand arrives, that’ll be a different story, should be able to get a good number of miles in if I use it a few times a day.

Constant rain every day has pretty much ruined any chance of me riding recently, although I did manage to get out on Saturday (Dec 3rd) for a quick ride at night, I managed a paltry 2.79 miles before it started raining again, so I left it at that and headed home then. At least it gave me a chance to test the new bike lights out, and the result is, they’re great for riding on the country lanes at night. If I didn’t have these light, I wouldn’t have gone out in the first place on these roads, they’re far too treacherous for night riding without decent lights, even with these lights on full beam, I came close to hitting a couple of large potholes, something I wouldn’t have seen with a cheap single light.

With the rain here being as bad as ever at the moment, no doubt the snow and ice will be arriving soon as well, so in order to be able to get some indoor riding done, I’ve been reading through multiple reviews for turbo trainers and bike rollers, it took me ages to come to a decision on which to buy. I like turbo trainers because they’re static and there’s no chance of falling off them, on the downside, I just couldn’t be bothered with having change to a training tyre every time I want to use the trainer, so, in the end, despite my reservations about trying to use bike rollers, because there’s a good chance that I will fall off them quite a bit, I still decided to go ahead buy one, this is what I ordered from Chain Reaction Cycles a few minutes ago:

Tacx T1000 Antares Roller Trainer

It was quite a good deal, the normal price is €205.69, but they have a sale with 12% off, that takes them down to €181.49, then I had a €60 voucher code from the purchase of my bike which took the price down to €121.49, which I think is a bargain, it has some pretty good reviews and only a couple of negative ones amongst them, I’ll update when it arrives, and let you know if I can manage to sit on the bike whilst on the rollers, or not, as the case may be

We’ve had nothing but rain here since my first ride the other day, now I don’t know about you, but I never ride in the rain, some people love it, but I get no enjoyment from getting soaked and being freezing cold, just for the sake of going for a ride, so, if it’s raining, I’m not going out, simple as that.

This is also the reason I’ll be buying a turbo trainer or some bike rollers to put in the out house, because in this part of Ireland, it is pretty much guaranteed to rain 5 days or more per week at this time of year, for example, in the extended weather forecast, 8 of the next 9 days is forecast rain, so I need to be able to get some miles done indoors over the winter months, so that hopefully, when the better weather comes in spring, I’ll be pretty fit and be able to go out for long rides.

Today was rain free, so I went out for a ride, still taking it easy distance wise, but I went further than the previous ride, I did 4.62 miles today, around 2 miles of which was all up hill. There’s a lot of very hilly roads where I live, and I hate hills, but if I want to get fit again, I’ll just have to put up with them, as there’s nowhere else to ride around here. As well as being hilly, the roads here are bloody terrible, we’re talking very rural Ireland, the tarmac is riddled with potholes, and even where the tarmac is in one piece, it’s not in great condition and usually covered in moss, which can be pretty slippery, there’s a lot of vibration going through the bike from the lousy road surface, it would probably be less rough doing some off road trails.

I was going to go out for another ride tonight, but you guessed it, it has started raining again.

I put the computer on the bike, along with the new front lights that have since arrived, those will be a godsend on these roads when I do any night rides. As I normally live in towns/cities, I usually make do with a front light that costs about £5 – £10, which is good enough for roads with street lights, unlike here in the middle of nowhere, so I was amazed at how bright these new Electron Terra 2 lights are, they push out 160 lumens on each light unit, and they’re not too dissimilar to car headlights when I tested them across the garden in the black of night, a very nice bit of kit, and they look good too.

I found the lights tricky to fit, the instructions on the inside of the box lid were for a different type of light fitting base, but soon figured it out, although getting the rubber o-rings to hook on to the lip at the back was a bit of a pain, I would have preferred the usualt type of lights that clip on to a bracket on the bar, but such is life, they do their job, that’s the main thing.

I took the new bike out for it’s first short run today, this was the first time I had ridden a bike for 2 years and 8 months, and it felt quite strange being back in the saddle. Not wanting to do too much, as I was worried about my lungs and if the breathing problems would return, I took it very fairly steady and did just 2.07 miles along my lane, I was shattered even after that short a distance, my heart was beating erratically and I was very trying to catch my breath when I got off the bike, but not as bad as I thought I would be, to be honest, my legs probably hurt more than my lungs did.

Well, at least it’s a start for me, the bike is very light and goes nicely, the SRAM gears are a dream, very smooth, you can hardly hear or feel them changing gear, as is to be expected from such a great brand name. Having had disc brakes on my previous mountain bike, I found the v-brakes on this bike pretty good, have to be careful of the front brake, otherwise I’ll be over the bars, and I don’t wear a helmet when riding, so I tend to use only the rear brakes most of the time, when I remember which is which, that is.

I had some of my other bike goodies delivered, just waiting on the mini pump and the front bike lights now:

I got a reply from CRC today with regards to when I can expect delivery of the bike and other parts, it appears that it hasn’t even been sent yet, they said:

Thank you for your email.

We do apologise, there has been a delay in processing your order. This has not been caused by any problems with your order, but unfortunately is due to an unforeseen delay.

We will endeavour to get your order dispatched as quickly as possible.

Once again, we apologise for the delay and for any inconvenience caused.

Not a happy bunny, oh well, not a lot I can do about it, just have to sit and wait until next week and hope it arrives sooner rather than later.