I’ve had a bike —now known as my bang about bike— for 15 years. I first used it to complete a Glasgow to Edinburgh ride, Pedal for Scotland, which was a big fun day out kind of event, very much enjoyed by amateur/part time cyclists doing it for charity.
But it took COVID to really push me into cycling as an enthusiast.
A proper road bike was my first purchase, but before long I had all manner of gadgets and doo-dahs, including my precious bike computer (more on that later).
I’m currently on a little bit of a mission (again) to finally shift some weight, with two simple goals in mind.
- Move more.
- Eat mindfully.
With that in mind I have a 6am alarm now set and I’m making little plans for what to do. I will be walking, cycling, and if the weather turns, the gym/turbo trainer.
I’ve dug out my road bike, found my bike computer, lights etc and then remembered one thing that used to irk me about all this stuff. It’s true I don’t really need it all, I could make do without but my setup is still pretty minimal compared to many others. The thing is all that stuff needs charged, configured, and setup.
Hey, I’m just glad I remembered to do it BEFORE waking up at 6am and thinking I could just hop on my bike and go…
Gadgets ready
My bike computer —a Wahoo Element ROAM— was a godsend when I was cycling longer distances more frequently as it includes GPS. I can preconfigure a route (in Strava) and once on the route if I decided (or get forced) to change course, it’ll do it’s best to get me back home.
It came in super handy a few years back when one road I was trying to cycling along was closed completely! Given I was in the middle of the countryside about 2 hours from home it gives me some comfort to tackle larger rides without the stress of figuring out where I am.
Of course as I’ve not used it for a while it needed charged, the firmware updated, and re-sync’d to my Strava account.
Once that was done, I checked that my lights were charged too. I always have them on even during the day as the more I can do to be seen the safer I should be.
And lastly my bullet cam, an older model now, but all it needs to do is record things lest I get run off the road (so I can provide it as evidence to the police). And yes, it’s sad that I even need such a thing.
Bike ready
I’ve not been out on my road bike for over a year, the last time I slipped out the pedals and damaged my coccyx which still gives me a bit of a dull throb from time to time.
I got it out of the garage into the sunshine and give it a quick once over. Needless to say I needed to pump up my tyres and then took it for a quick spin around the block to make sure it feels/sounds ok.
Human ready?
I cycled home from Balloch on Sunday after dropping Jack off. It is a nice flat route for my old bang about bike, and I felt good! While it was an unchallenging 30 mins, I’m already looking at an hour+ rides in the morning, and if I can figure out the timings I’ll hopefully get back to some longer rides which are as fun as they are challenging!
I am wary of overdoing it though —as I have a tendency to do when starting out on my latest greatest attempt at losing some weight— so I’ll start smaller and keep things local as that way, if I need to stop I know where I can bail out/head to a train station.
That said, it was exciting just getting everything ready for the ride and try as I might I can’t help but wonder if I can tackle Etape Caledonia again cos it was so much fun!
First one done
I got up at 5:30am this morning to do this.
What are your thoughts?