A Grey day

So that'll be summer then.


It was a cracking sunny pedal home via the cut, NCR 5 and the Lickey Loop for 16 miles yesterday. I couldn't hang around too much though as I had parents evening for the Spawn of Satan at his Nursery at 1715hrs. Parents evening for 3 year old Nursery pupils, I mean, c'mon, please, what the hell is that all about? Anyway, digressing again. The cut was pretty busy as the video below shows and you have to question the awareness of some people as to what is happening around them.






Stats here:
Started: 24 May 2010 15:03:46
Ride Time: 1:06:59
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 16.17 miles
Average: 12.80 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 24.85 miles/hr
Climb: 1083 feet
Calories: 1172


As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago I've been trialling a couple of IPhone apps that log your pedals, http://www.abvio.com/cyclemeter/ which is £2.99 from the I store and http://www.b-icycle.com/home.html which is £5.99 from the I store.

For the past few weeks I've been using cyclemeter as you can turn it on, stick the phone in your pocket and then turn the app off on arrival, then email yourself the stats. All good, it also has a few nice little functions such as route comparisons, elevation graphs and the opportunity to stick the data in a spreadsheet if you're that anal or a serious athlete.

The b-icycle one needed the phone to be mounted on your bike as it required a very good access to the GPS signal to function, so I went and got this mount from Amazon for £14.99.

It enables you to fit the IPhone onto your handlebars so the unit has an uncluttered line of sight to the GPS facility.

Handlebar mount.

Iphone holder.

Unit mounted on my bike.

Can you spot the problem?

The issue is that the two retaining bolts for the handlebar mount are not long enough and I had to improvise a means of keeping the unit on the bars by means of 2 zip ties through the bolt holes of both brackets. This is temporary as I will source 2 longer bolts from work today for a more permanent fix. But I wanted to try the app today! That just seems a bit crap to be honest, do these people not know the diameter of cycle bars?

Anyway, after a bit of faffing to get the thing fitted, I fired up the B-icycle app this morning, stuck the phone in the holder, (my Iphone has a protective rubber case fitted) and rode off. The phone seemed secure with the case fitted, indeed it was a bit of struggle to get the phone in the holder which I didn't mind as logic would dictate that what is hard to get in, is hard to get out! (Oooh Matron!).

Nothing could be further from the truth, on the first downhill (Cock Hill) I hit about 35mph and a bit of a bump and wallop! The phone flew out of the holder. Not good. I had to remove the rubber protective casing and re-fit the phone in the holder, it didn't feel too secure so I used a bit of electrical tape to tape the phone into the holder. One of the customer reviews on Amazon said the phone was that secure he had no problems MTBing with it. I can only say I wouldn't!

As for the B-icycle App, it shows your position in real time on a map and has a scrolling map facility like a car satnav or I suppose a Garmin.

It's not exhaustive but what do you expect for £6.00, the only downside is heavy battery usage, I doubt it would last 4 hours unlike the cyclemeter App probably would.
 
On to the ride itself, I came in the City Centre route with no incidents.
 
Stats here:
Trip time: 00:37:46
Trip distance: 11.80 mi
Trip calories: 640 kcal
Average speed: 15.7 mph
Maximum speed: 35.3 mph
Climbed altitude: 404 ft

New Bike Radar Blog .http://www.bikeradar.com/blogs/article/weight-loss-rider-does-a-50-miler-26295