Mark Forrest

After a good start to the year in January, the amount of riding I've done in February really tailed off, thanks to the recent storms and a particularly busy period at work. Good news though, I've got a week off, so we got that started today with a ride over the Long Mynd. Starting out from the NT car park at Carding Mill Valley, we can usually manage four ascents/descents of the Mynd, but in a stark reminder that my fitness isn't quite where it should be, we called it a day after three - first ride on the big bike for a while too. Still, that's over 3000' elevation gain in a 20 mile ride and some decent weather, so not a bad day out.

Great progress so far, following with interest; I have a couple of rakes of coaches like these that I don't seem to be able to part with (despite having no real use for them) - you've got me thinking about detailing and upgrading them!

Not too windy here (Staffs) even managed to get out for a ride this evening - although trails are a little slippery from the earlier rain. I see that Forestry England are closing Cannock Chase from midday tomorrow as the first of this week's storms is due to arrive with us - might be Zwift for the rest of the week for me I think!

Mrs F and I did a nice ride around that area last summer. Highlight of it was that I'd not told wifey where we were going and she had no idea that we'd end up at the seaside. The look on her face when we turned a corner up above Arthog and Barmouth Bay suddenly became visible was priceless; there's nothing like seeing the sea to lift your spirits. Has to be one of my favourite rides of last year.

CX world champs coverage on the Beeb; anyone else watching? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cycling/58947639

The High Peak, Tissington, Monsal and Manifold Valley are all nice and smooth, I wouldn't have any concerns about riding them on a road bike - they are better surfaced than many of the roads around here! Edit to add: Good point though, give it a thorough check over and shakedown

First event of the year today for Mrs F and me, the Alpkit Hatersage Winter Gravel ride. We picked the shorter of the two routes, about 24.5 miles. Really nice route out from Hathersage to the Fox House, over Houndkirk Moor and down to Ringinglow, past Redmire and along Stanage. Dropping down to Ladybower then heading across to Brough to climb up onto Shatton Moor, finishing off with brilliantly muddy and slippery bit of bridleway before returning to Hathersage for soup, cake and beer. Really well organised event and a great route, perfect gravel bike ride - challenging enough, but at no point did I think I'd have rather been on a MTB. Looking forward to the next one.

That's interesting Jim, you've now got me wondering if the increase I saw in mine was as much about stress as it was fitness.

Improving physical fitness and mental health are the main reasons that I ride, I'm also a bit of a geek when it comes to data so do a little analysis of how it's going, but nothing like what a proper athlete would. I wear a Fitbit which is my main way of tracking general fitness/wellbeing over time, I find the weekly dashboard that they email to me has most of what I need to see how things are going. If I was to focus on one metric alone, it would probably be resting heart rate. After a significant life event in July last year, the amount of exercise I was doing dropped off to virtually nothing; at the same time I indulged in some comfort eating (and drinking). Both my weight and resting heart rate increased during this time. I'm now watching what I eat and exercising more and I'm starting to see it come back down and fitness on the bike is improving. On the bike I use a heart rate chest strap (more accurate than a watch at higher BPM, I'm told) linked to a Garmin head unit tend to glance at it on climbs just to get an idea how far off my maximum I am, but that's about it. It's rare that I look at Strava for anything other than distance and time on specific segments. I'd never really looked at power until started riding Zwift (which uses w/kg to determine categoriesfor some races); doing an FTP test on there is an interesting experience but not one I'd want to repeat too often!

@big jim presume that you're changing gear as you would in real life? Obviously you can leave in one gear for the whole ride and treat it like a singlespeed but you can of course shift to an easier gear for the climbs just as you would in real life. I've got 1x10 MTB gearing on the bike on the turbo, great to sit and spin on the climbs (which is generally how I ride in real life), but often find myself spinning out in races against riders with road bike gearing.

It is; taken from the bridge that carries the Pennine Bridleway over the Monsal Trail at Chee Dale

A day off work today so went exploring a corner of the Peak District that we normally overlook. While daylight hours are in short supply we started the ride from Parsley Hay, saving a fair chunk of time that would otherwise have been spent in the car. Anyway, north to the end of the High Peak Trail, Pennine Bridleway over to to Chee Dale, then looped around past Tunstead to drop back down to Millers Dale for a gentle spin along the Monsal Trail before heading back to Parsley Hay. Tough going in places, but definitely a route I'll do again, particularly when things dry out a bit more. We got really lucky with the weather, apparently it was grey and misty most of the day at home.

I have some concerns about the changes to the Highway Code; not in what they set out to achieve but more in how the changes are being/will be communicated. Until I Googled it just now, the only places I've seen details of the changes mentioned has been in bike related social media posts. Most of the news websites that have reported on it have made no mention of the road positioning changes (rule 72) advising cyclists to adopt a more central road position (in certain circumstances) - I think there is a real risk that the majority of motorists won't be aware that cyclists are being advised to ride in this position. Personally, I take the view that any faster moving vehicle (whether that's a car on the road or a faster cyclist on a trail) behind me when I'm on a bike is a distraction I could do without and one that spoils my enjoyment of the ride, so I'd prefer to let them pass as soon as possible so I can see what they are doing rather than having to worry about what's going on behind me. For a long time I was reluctant to fit a bell to my bikes, preferring to call out a cheery "hello!" to the few people we did see. However, since getting a gravel bike and riding on more shared trails I got sick of the "where's your bell!?" response to what I thought was a nice friendly greeting so have fitted one. I'm amazed how much more positively people seem to respond to the sound of a bell than the human voice.

While some of the earlier Cambrian kits could be a little challenging the more recent and retooled kits generally go together very well. The thinness of parts that you mention probably puts them closer to scale thickness than some of the alternatives. My personal preference is to replace most of what goes below/between the solebars with etched or cast components, so can't really comment on the axle length issue - although if I am building a rigid underframe experience has taught me to dry assemble the components to check they fit due to variability in axle length, bearing depth and axleguard thickness - unfortunately this advice probably isn't much use to you at this stage. If there is a choice between a Parkside and a Cambrian, I'll still pick the Parkside over the Cambrian; but as there is little overlap between the ranges I don't hesitate to build a Cambrian kit where their offering suits the prototype I'm looking for.

Useful and reassuring info as I have loco and tender kits to do Coal Engine 8088 with a 2500 gal tender. I really must find the time to get started on that.

Have you tried firmware update and calibration of the turbo? Not much else I can think of trying, may be that the turbo is broken.

Managed to squeeze a bit of railway interest into today's gravel ride. Got the year off to a decent start with 50 miles on the Tissington and High Peak trails, starting out from Ashbourne, up to Parsley Hay, then over to Middleton Top and back to Ashbourne. Not the most exciting or challenging ride, but great to get some miles in.

Yes, that's how the controllable thing works, Zwift controls the resistance on the trainer

I think that ride is organised/sponsored by Saris, I'm using a Tacx turbo which I connect as a controllable to the Zwift app running on an iPad using Bluetooth. I've had a few problems with the Zwift app recently where it will initially show as paired to the turbo, but then doesn't seem to recognise it when I start a ride. I've had to go into the menu during the ride and reconnect to the turbo; don't know if that helps at all? Other thing to try would be a firmware update on the trainer to make sure it has the latest version - on the Tacx there is a separate app to check/update the firmware and calibrate the trainer, not sure if the Saris trainers do the same. Hope that helps.

Strava (combined with a heart rate monitor and a Garmin head unit) appeals to my inner data geek, I like it for tracking fitness over time and occasionally for comparing my times on segments to other people I know. I'm never going to be fast enough (either uphill or down) to trouble the top end of a KOM leader board, but do like to see how I compare to a few people I know who ride locally. In the past, setting myself a 50 mile a week target has helped motivate me to get out, but that didn't work quite so well this year. Most of my route planning I prefer do on the OS Maps website, creating a gpx to load on the Garmin. Trail Forks on the Garmin can be useful when out and about too.

Great idea Jim, I've just given you a follow, so you'll see me in your followers, or this link should work: https://www.strava.com/athletes/15189502 I've also just set up a Strava club for RMweb members, if anyone is interested, https://www.strava.com/clubs/1010944

End of year Strava stats... It's not been a good year for me, think this is the first time in 5 years my annual mileage has been below 2000 and elevation gain below 200,000'. That's despite adding a gravel bike to the fleet and doing some rides on Zwift (both of which make hitting distance based targets easier to achieve than a MTB). Motivation to ride in the second half of the year has been a real problem; resulting in a vicious circle of riding less often, losing fitness/gaining weight, then finding rides less enjoyable as a result of lost fitness and so on. I know that, to have the best possible summer of riding in 2022, I need to start getting back in shape now - waiting until the sun is shining is leaving it too late.

Stunning views up above Hope this afternoon. Although after the descent down Lockerbrook the Derwent dam was looking quite spectacular. A day of cleaning bikes and clothes to look forward to tomorrow I think.

Mrs F and I braved the cold and drizzle yesterday to take part in the Salop Sludger a MTB/gravel ride starting out from Bishop's Castle. The event raises funds for Midland Air Ambulance it's a point to point ride with grid references provided at each point. Interesting mix of bikes taking part from full suss enduro MTBs to one lad who did it on a road bike with 28mm tyres and rim brakes!

I'm neither historic myself or a drinker of historic beer, but do happen to have an area in our garden that previous occupants of our house appear to have used as a rubbish tip. Most of the bottles we've unearthed have been half pint capacity; these two (Lichfield Brewery and Ind Coope) are approx 2.5" diameter. I don't have an age for them - could be anytime in the past 220 years.