We're running a series of rides in 2020 aimed at people new to group riding or who haven't cycled for a while. They start with a short, 'get to know you' ride that includes a free bike check and progress through longer distances, tackling a series of challenges on the way:
Bronze: Havant to Portsmouth cathedral and back
Silver: Chichester cathedral and back
Gold: Winchester cathedral and back
That might seem impossible to you now, but here's a sample of the stories recent joiners to our rides have to tell:
Around 2002, Chris Davies - known by many as CCP - was an active club member who wrote a series of articles for the Portsmouth News. Each one described a cycle route for readers to follow.
Clive Dakin scanned in some clippings of Chris's articles that he made at the time, and scanned them. I've loaded them to the routes library having attempted to transcribe them into GPX files. I'll admit I struggled to follow some routes so there's an excellent chance I've misrepresented CCP's intention in several cases. Each route includes the original article and (highly) schematic map, so you can judge for yourself.
This article explains how you can use this web site to record your distance travelled by bike. You can record individual rides, or monthly summaries, either way, you can analyse your mileage (or kilometreage) online or via a spreadsheet download. You also get to add up to three other pieces of information (such as which bike you used) to include in your analysis.
Click any heading below to see more information. Click any image to see a larger version...
Getting started
To log your mileage you first have to log in to the site. This tells the site who you are and ensures your entries are recorded in the right place.
Then use the menus to click/tap 'Member services' and 'Ride logging' (see right).
That will take you to the logging screen for the current year.
Before you start logging for the first time, you can decide what you want to record in your log besides distance and destinations.
Click/tap the ‘Define log categories’ button to see the form on the left.
You don’t have to do this, but it might make your log more useful to you. I record two extra pieces of information:
1. Which bike I used for the ride
2. What type of ride it was
For example, I might record it was a Saturday ride on my Bish Bash Bosh.
Enter up to three categories of additional information and click/tap ‘Update category names’ to complete setting up your log.
You can change your mind later about which categories you want in your log.
Recording your rides
Click/tap ‘Add a new entry to your log’ on the main logging screen (see above) to record an entry, you will see something like the screen on the right.
At the top of the form, select the date for your entry. By default, the system assumes ‘today’. To make the best use of graphs, you should choose the last date of the month when recording a monthly summary.
Then enter your distance travelled. You can use either miles or kilometres (but not both).
You can see I have opted to record two additional categories of data: ‘Bike’ and ‘Ride type’. Your categories (if you asked for any - see above) appear here. Enter anything you like in your category fields (up to 12 characters).
Record details about your ride in the description box. You should at least record the destination if you are logging an individual ride. I also record key events such as “New chain” so I can look back at the log and find out how long items have lasted.
Finally click/tap ‘Add new entry’ to complete your entry.
Hopefully you agree that’s pretty easy. If you decide to record just monthly summaries, I can record them for you if you struggle with the system.
Analysing your log
Once you have recorded some rides, you can start seeing the benefit.
From the main logging page click/tap ‘Show graphs’. We show three sets of graphs. Here are mine as at mid-August 2019
My actual distance per month, in miles:
My cumulative distance per month, in miles:
Definite incentives for me to keep my riding up!
This graph shows which distance certificates you are targeting...
You can't tell from the images, but each graph allows you to hover over a data point to reveal more information.
Maybe you want to analyse your data a different way. For example, I might want to review the distance cycled on each of my bikes. Click/tap ‘Download your log’ to download a file containing all your data that you can open in a spreadsheet – like Excel – to analyse it any way you like.
Compare with other riders
Click/tap ‘Show table’ on the main logging screen to see how you compare with other riders:
Hmm. Could do better! You will, of course see all the entries I have blanked out here. Note we show you only totals for other riders, not their log details.
We use this to award the CCP cup (for the furthest distance cycled in the year). I have no aspirations to win that cup, however, but I still find it interesting to see how I'm doing compared to other riders.
Review and change your log
If you make a mistake, or you want to see the detail of your log online, click/tap ‘Review and change your log’ to see a list like this:
Click/tap one of the triangles next to a month’s summary to see all the detail for the month like this:
Again, this shows the categories I’m using – you will see your own. You can click/tap any of the edit buttons to see a simple form that allows you to change the entry you selected.
When to start logging?
No harm starting now. The system works best if you log entire PCTC years: October 1st to September 30th but you can start logging at any time. The system allows you to enter your log one month in arrears - so you get all of November, for example, to log rides for October.
Let me know on a ride or via email at: Andy@PortsmouthCTC.org.uk if you have any difficulties or suggestions for improvement.
Josie Dew asked us if she could change the date of her club night presentation so we have swapped it with the Competition Night.
Josie's presentation will now take place on Thursday 14th March and the Competition Night on Thursday 28th March.
For those who don't know, Josie is a near-local and Vice President of Cycling UK. We know many of you are looking forward to hearing her speak so please make sure you mark the new date.
After voting by the members who attended, we awarded prizes to:
First place: Anthony Beggs who also wins the photographic competition trophy
Second place: Roger Pratt
Third place: Wilf Forrow
You can see the winning entries below. Click any image to see a larger version.
Anthony was the clear winner. Roger and Wilf tied on the same number of points so second and third positions were decided by Andy's casting vote - see if you agree with his decision...
Following an unplanned meeting with a gravel path, one of the hoods on my bike got ripped, so I looked for a replacement. It was more difficult than I expected, but I finally succeeded.
I first thought I'd found just the thing on Amazon for a reasonable price (but, all the options I found were for a left and right hood, so I had to buy two when I wanted only one). When it arrived, however, it was obviously too small to be the right part. I'd ordered a SRAM Force 1 hood not realising there were two versions: one for hydraulic disk brakes and one for cable pull brakes (the hydraulic fluid reservoir sits above the levers making the unit taller). Oh well, it was easy to return. I downloaded a parts list from SRAM and found the exact part number I needed and Googled that. I found a matching hood on eBay, sourced from China. It said it was a genuine part and I was encouraged by the correct part number, so I ordered it. A few days later I got an email to say that there had been a manufacturing problem and did I want to wait a few weeks. I couldn't see how that could have happened for a genuine part, so I assumed it was a fake copy and immediately cancelled. I finally managed to order the correct part on eBay but it took a bit of detective work. The advert didn't include the part number, but:
The item said the hoods were for a SRAM Force 1 hydraulic shifter
The picture looked right
The enlarged picture had a faint 'Hydra' logo which matched the ripped one
The source was in the UK
The hoods I received matched exactly and came in a SRAM box - but I've no idea whether they are genuine or not.
Then came the difficult bit.
The hood fits over the shifter through the base and there's a cut out for the brake lever. So all you have to do is pull the old hood off and pull the new one on. In my research I'd seen several reports of people being able to do that without disassembling the shifter. The trouble was that the openings looked far too small to fit over the shifter. No way could I pull them on and off! Then I found this video:
They do pull on and off but you have to really stretch them. Mine were more difficult than the ones shown in the video because I had to pull them over the oil reservoir. Thankfully, I could practice using the old hood. It still took a bit of courage to pull the new one on, but after a few minutes struggling it went on!
We're running a series of rides in 2020 aimed at people new to group riding or who haven't cycled for a while. They start with a short, 'get to know you' ride that includes a free bike check and progress through longer distances, tackling a series of challenges on the way:
