Category Listing: Article archive

I created this video from our rides on 4th, 7th and 8th of July 2018:

The featured bird is, by the way, a Jackdaw.

Another year of excellent entries.

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...

Anthony Begg's entry

Roger Pratt's entry

Wilf Forrow's entry

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!

Anyone want a right hand SRAM hydraulic hood?

I think I've found the perfect bike for CTC lunch and tea stops 🙂

Another high standard of entries this year.

After voting by the members who attended, we awarded prizes to:

• First place: Keith Wileman who also wins the photographic competition trophy
• Second place: John Rosbottom
• Third place: Pat Mitchell

You can see the winning entries below. Click any image to see a larger version.

An honourable mention goes to Wilf Forrow who was just a few points behind Pat.

Keith Wileman's entry

John Rosbottom's entry

Pat Mitchell's entry

Photos are a great way to share and remember cycling experiences, and we use them heavily on the website, the club magazine, and at club evenings. While you can include the odd few photos in website articles, our website isn't really set up to store hundreds and hundreds, but don't despair.

Sharing photos on the web is getting easier and easier and can even be free. In fact, we recommend uploading your precious photos and other files up to the web as a backup for when (not if) your phone or computer eventually dies! Once they're uploaded, you can very easily share a link to them in a post, or by email - e.g. for use in the magazine, or club meetings.

It's not difficult these days. The easiest and free way to get started is to register for a free account with one or more of the websites below, if you haven't already. Here are some we've tried and can recommend:

• Dropbox. Great one minute intro here. Brilliant if your main interest is occasionally sharing photos with others, and backing up your photos (and all your other files as well). It gives you a folder on your computer that automatically syncs to Dropbox's website, and to any other computers, phones or tablets you have. It's free for the first 2 GB, which is enough to store several hundred photos. Highly recommended - the original and still the best - everyone should have a Dropbox!
• Google Drive. Good intro here. Similar to and almost as good as Dropbox, but 15 GB free storage, and especially good if you already have a google account. Google also offers to back up all your photos automatically, totally for free if you don't mind slightly less than maximum resolution.
• Google Photos - very new and trendy, but not recommended yet unless you're very comfortable with smartphones and computers.
• Flickr.com. Good intro here. Great for organising and sharing your photos, and fairly simple to use. It's the world's most popular photo sharing website, owned by Yahoo, and offers up to 1TB for free - that's 1024 GB - it's HUGE.

Once your your photos are uploaded, click the 'sharing' option to get a link (a web URL) to them. Usually, you'll be sharing more than one photo, so best to first group them into a folder or album and share that in one go. Simplest is to make them public, but it's pretty secure, as the link is usually so complex that no-one else could guess it, but if you're paranoid about security, and don't mind a bit of extra work, you can share them so they're only visible to specific named individuals.

As an example, I just created an album on Flickr of my CTC ride to Wiggonholt - you can follow the link here.

Do give photo sharing a try!

Alternatively if you just want to send one or more photos to someone without filling their email inbox, there are several free services that allow you to send your photos via a web site. Your recipient gets an email to let them know your files are available together with a link allowing them to download them when they're ready.

There are a lot of sites offering this service for free and without asking you to create an account first. You just provide the destination email address(es), your email address and the files you want to send. The web site does the rest. Beware, however. These sites have to earn their money somehow. Some ask you to give permission for them to send you and your recipient 'promotional material' which could be irritating at best and offensive at worst - so read the T&Cs carefully. This site...

www.wetransfer.com

... gets its revenue by displaying adverts as background images while you use the site, It seems to be benign. You can even upload files without providing your recipient's email address (they might not take too kindly to you giving their email address to a third party). You get a link you can email to your recipient privately. To use the free service go to the web site and click the '?' icon at the bottom right of the left-hand pane for more information.

We had a great time even though we had problems with heating and hot water! The weather helped a lot - as did the food. As usual, Wally prepared a four course roast dinner to kick us off on Friday evening - and it kept coming: cooked breakfasts; curry on Saturday evening (with all the trimmings) and a finish-up-what's-left lunch on Sunday.

We are already taking bookings for next year - click here for more details.

Here are some photos. Click any image to see a larger version...

Where we were working...

Courthill farmhouse is a vacant property on the Slindon Estate. It has a lot of potential to generate income for the estate and the National Trust is considering how best to use it. In the mean time, the gardens need a lot of work to prevent them from becoming a wilderness.

Before and after...

Tom - our supervisor for the week-end - assigned us a set of tasks that we divided up between us. Here's some before and after images:

And some more after...

Unless someone has some before photos, you'll have to imagine how the site looked before we got going.

Clean up...

In case you were wondering what happened to the debris, we kept what logs the NT could sell off and burned the rest - all of it!

And then...

... to bed:

I don't ride without a helmet - my brain's too important to me - but if you do the research, current helmets aren't actually that safe, and they're uncomfortable, and bulky when you're not wearing them . I've hunted high and low for something better, and now a British team has developed a game-changing helmet which I think is much safer, more comfortable, and folds up small when not in use. And best of all, it's re-useable - you don't have to throw it away after a bump. They're trying to raise enough money through crowd-funding to go into mass production, and they've only got 8 days left.

I really rate this helmet, and I think it deserves support. I've ordered one for Joy and I, and I do recommend you take a look, and if you can, support this brilliant improvement in cycling safety. It's at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/headkayse-a-game-changer-in-cycle-helmet-safety#/story. As with all crowd-funding projects, there are risks, but they look pretty small to me.

Let me know what you think.

Here are some photos from the recent week-end away at Slindon organised by Wally. Unfortunately illness prevented him from attending so Pat took on his cooking duties. Once again, Katie from the National Trust kept our noses to the grindstone.

Click any image to see a larger version.

We worked with the National Trust to fell and chop up Hazel trees that were encroaching on a path used by NT tractors and other vehicles.

We had a great time. The weather was damp on the Saturday, but we really didn't notice while we were working. The food was, as ever, excellent as was the company. Speak to

Id wallys does not exist

to book your place next year!

Photos from Phil & Martine

Here's some pictures taken at the Winedown by Alison and Wilf. Click any image to see a larger version.

If you hover your mouse over the carousel, the pictures will stop moving. If you put your mouse at the left edge of the left image, an arrow will appear; click to show the previous picture. Similarly, put your mouse at the right hand edge of the right picture and click to show the next image.

If you have any more pictures let me know.