Hi everyone, Due to a complete lack of interest, this is now cancelled :-( Sorry, but I'm not going to put effort into arranging rides that nobody else is interested in unless its a ride I'm going to do anyway. Look out for 'Tour to Mon' a 100 mile ride (or 120 if you want) I've done it for the last 2 years and am defiantly doing it this year, on my own or with friends. Axe

BKool Classic Trainer, no resistance, Fixed.

Hi, Just thought I'd post about my latest experience with my BKOOL Classic (White) Trainer. I have suspected for a while that something was wrong. When I first got the trainer I had to go up and down gears relative to the incline/descent on the ride I was doing. For the last couple of weeks things have been much easier, with no noticeable increase or decrease in resistance, this also tied in with the fact that the simulator software now rates me as an Elite athlete and I can now finish most races in the top ten. Clearly something wasn't right..... I emailed BKOOL, just to ask if there are any official service centres near me, I bought the trainer second hand so there is no warranty. They responded saying they would arrange for an engineer to contact me and remote desktop onto my computer, I needed to ensure the trainer was connected so that the engineer could investigate. At 10:30 today (exactly when arranged) the engineer rang, and within a couple of minutes had diagnosed an issue with the stepper motor in the unit and offered to send me a quote for repairs, A short time later the quote arrived, 120 Euros and I decided I'd try to fix it myself.... Excellent service from BKOOL, they had no obligation to do anything and whilst I didn't want to pay the 120 Euros, That included postage to and from Spain, replacement of the parts and recalibration, so not a bad deal overall. I decided that for just over £100 if I broke my trainer I could buy another (second hand) so it was worth the risk. I opened up the casing (not recommended by the manufacturer, but with no warranty and a reasonable grasp of electronics I figured I was probably OK) It's a pretty simple design, a big heavy, metal disk which has a coupe of powerfull magnets held close to it, the magnets are moved along the radius of the disk (to increase/decrease resistance) by a worm gear attached to a stepper motor. However my worm gear wasn't attached to my stepper motor :-) I checked the stepper motor was Ok, Used an 3v LED plugged into the socket on the end of the wires, spin the spindle and the led lights up, if you have the LED plugged into the correct wires and the stepper motor isn't broken, 4 wires on this stepper, so 2 pairs, the outer wires (red and black) are on one coil and the inner 2 wires or on the other coil, tested both pairs, All good. So all I needed was a V small allan key to fix the worm gear back onto the stepper motor and put it all back together again. job done in about 30 mins, 120 euros better off. :-) Excellent service by BKOOL though, Now I've got to get used to being at the back of the pack again on the simulator :-( Axe..

Bkool vs Zwift

Bear with me, This is nothing to do with the plans for the Hadrians wall ride 2017. I have a BKool classic turbo trainer. I bought it off eBay and it cost a lot (for me) of money. I have (until yesterday) used it exclusively with the BKool software, which is brilliant. I can ride through a huge number of places around the world and have the simulation of inclines and decents as if I was actually there. I have used BKool for a month or so and until last Wednesday (11-1-2017) I loved it. It has it's quirks (Ok a lot of quirks) If you want to do a specific ride, first you have to find it online (which is not an easy task) then schedule it, for tomorrow...... (tomorrow!!!! I want to ride now, tomorrow I might be in the pub, or at a wedding, or funeral, our just busy!!!) so that's a bit crap. But if you can live with that ten the rides are generally ok. If you don't want to schedule a ride then you can usually find a live ride that is fun (yes, I said fun, it's an indoor cycle trainer for gods sake... but it is still fun :-) ) or a velodrome ride which managed to hold my interest for quite a while, I will join more but probably only as a warmup or warm down ride. Still excellent for that though. They even have competitions (and this is where I fell out of love with BKool) I have taken part in a couple, they are stupidly difficult to join, BKool publicise them on Facebook but for some reason don't publicise how to join in, If you ask (through Facebook) they will tell you, but there is no link, no easy way of finding the ride unless you have done one before. that put me off the first couple of times, and from the comments on face book must put lots of other people off as well. Please sort this out BKool... The main thing that annoyed me is that when on a ride on BKool you get a notification (a 'bing' noise and a popup on screen) whenever someone joins or leaves the ride. this is accompanied by a slight pause in the onscreen display. Normally when on a ride that few people are interested in this isn't a problem, a slight pause occasionally is annoying but liveable. but when on a competition with a lot of riders (80 last Wednesday, plus spectators coming and going) then notifications come thick and fast, this resulted in some very long pauses, which make you think something is wrong, after 10 miles and over 30 seconds of frozen screen I got off my bike and tried to minimise the app (so I could close some background programs, and hopefully reduce the pauses) this resulted in the app closing and losing my position and the miles I had ridden. I was really pissed off. but I rejoined the ride (from the start) and cycled the full 15 miles (so a total of 25 miles when I had only planned on 15) in the end I came 12th but I'm sure I could have ranked higher if I hadn't had to start again. So last night I tried Zwift. I have had a free trial for ages but never bothered, (Strava users used to get 2 months Zwift free, but I never bothered registering) It's not as good but at the same time much better..... There doesnt seem to be the realism that BKool has, no live routes, no video rides (that I found) there do seem to be large groups of riders chatting to each other about how good it is that they are all going at the same speed and they should regroup and ride as a pack (which I dont understand) but the whole thing seems to flow better than BKool, the screen didn't freeze, I could chase other riders and knew when I was being chased, I rode up a steep hill and passed lots of slower riders and got overtaken by lots of faster riders. The whole thing just seemed more engaging. I have connected both my BKool and Zwift accounts up to my Strava account so everything is recorded (no difference between the two that I can tell) I will subscribe to both BKool and Zwift for the next couple of months and decide which I will stick with (to be honest I'll probably continue to use both as they offer a different experience, both of which I like, But I'll probably stop doing the BKool challenges) The only constant in the is Strava, which I wouldn't give up for the world. I started paying for a premium membership just because I hated the thought that a product so good was free, I am happy to pay to keep it going even though the difference between free and paid for is negligible, I am happy to pay for the little extras. :-) That is all. Axe

First post of 2017, Happy new year everyone :-)

Hi everyone, Now that we are into the new year I figured I should resurrect this plan. I've had a quick look tonight and I think night 2 will be at (or near) the Twice Brewed Inn, NE47 7AN. this leaves around 50 miles for the last day. If it's anything like C2C that will be easy, even with a hangover (the C2C was largely downhill or level after Crawleyside Bank) I know I've posted day one previously, but I haven't looked back at it tonight, Hope to get time to finalise the route this weekend. :-) The original driver has now dropped out, (busy making wedding plans) but I have a replacement in the shape of my son, who thinks it would be fun to watch his dad have a seizure miles from anywhere :-( The dates are still open for discussion, I want to finalise them so we can start booking accommodation. I think that the end of January is probably a good time to finalise it. so if anyone has any preference then you MUST let me know on or before January 31st 2017. If nobody emails or texts me with a preference then I will make a decision based on the one request I have had so far for the end of June, as I'm doing the Manchester to Blackpool ride on the 9th July This suits me well. (Hadrians Wall followed by a couple of weeks short/easy rides followed by Mcr-Blackpool, will set me up well for a good time and possibly a ride home from Blackpool-Mcr which I have failed to do for the last few years :-) ) So, as it stands currently it will be a long 80 miles ish for day 1, but not many hills as the route follows the cost. Then a short 40 mile second day which might be the hardest day as there could well be more hills involved (I will post altitude profiles etc in the next few days) followed by a relatively easy 50 mile day 3. I have read some good things about the Twice Brewed Inn mostly from books about long distance cycle rides that have also stopped there (or passed through) so I think it should be a good location. Training sessions start this weekend depending on the weather, anyone that wants to join in please drop me a line, I will tailor the session for the number of people and the experience of the riders. I'm happy to do anything from a 5 mile casual ride with lots of rest stops if required, to a 60 mile round trip to Ormskirk and back. The ride will start from Stretford, or the Trafford centre if thats easier (depending on participants) That is all. Axe

HAHAHA, Just posted an update from months ago that I had saved to drafts by mistake. It has a link for the proposed day 1 of the route. Things have been a bit mental/crappy for a couple of months, been in hospital, discovered an illness I didn't know had :-( I'll start work on the rest of the route, accommodation, transport etc in the next few weeks. Got some other stuff to sort out this week, just thought I'd better update something so everyone doesn't think I've given up on the idea. Regards, Axe

This is all getting a bit confusing, I have set up a website for the Hadrians Wall ride, But TBH I cant get my head round keeping an eye on that site and this blog, So I'll bin off the website for now and just keep this blog up to date. Nezza has requested a training schedule (which will be very flexible!!!) probably start with an evening ride once a week (up to 20 miles, depends on the fitness level of the attendees), which will increase to include a weekend ride as well over winter. I'm still working on the day 2 route and will post that when I have sorted it. for now day 1 looks like this:- https://www.strava.com/routes/6571409 I have no idea if that works, let me know if you can follow the link or not. That is all, Axe

Hi Everyone, Just had a quick look at Day 1 Looks like it'll be a long day, 80 miles (ish) but mostly sea level (about 3 hills, nothing over 300 Feet, so a total of less that 2000 feet for the day, (First day of C2C was over 3500Feet)) that will leave us with just 90 miles to cover in the last 2 days (probably a short but hilly day 2, followed by an easy day 3 freewheeling down to the east coast) A little more info on the website http://rawsonda.wixsite.com/hadrianswall2017/single-post/2016/09/19/Day-1-route-almost-complete The route is subject to change, It'll only get easier, not harder. (depends on how the second 2 days routes pan out) Also Strava which I'm using to plan the routes doesn't seem to know about some of the cycle paths that Sustans know about, so some of the route will change on the ride. That is all, Axe.