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Not on his own this time, Mark Beaumont is heading out by boat along with a team of fellow explorers to row to the North Pole.

Sorry for the bad pun…

I just replaced my very old and knackered set of mountain bike forks from my original bike which now gets used as a commuter hack.

So off came the old ones with some judicious hammer and screwdriver action to remove the original headset (not too much effort considering they were the originals from many years and miles of abuse).

On went the new headset with some rubber mallet hammering to seat it properly – followed by the new rigid fork from Surly. Everything fitted together easily enough and although I think the front of the bike sits a wee bit lower but it feels a heck of a lot better than all the play that my old one was exhibiting. I’ll post a pic once I’ve washed it – so that may be a while…

I love it at this time of year when it start getting light in the mornings for my cycle to work, and in the evenings for the cycle home. Maybe it’s an inbuilt caveman thing – winter is over!

Check out the sunset/sunrise elsewhere on this website.

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Right, getting a bit fed up with this snow nonsense now.

Out of the last 31 journeys to or from work I have been on my bicycle the vast total of 6 trips…

1 bus journey home to make sure I was home in time to pick up Christmas trees.

2 bus journeys to and from the station to get to a train down to our head office in Scarborough.

Which leaves 22 trudges through the snow/slush/ice at about 45 minutes each = 16.5 hours of walking!

Lets see how the rest of this week goes before I’m off for the winterval season.

Up to a variety of things this weekend.

Early start on Saturday heading through to Fife for a 30 mile cycle with Simon

Followed by wander down the Water of Leith with Lorraine to check out some of the Gormley sculptures.

Followed by cinema to see ‘The Other Guys’ (well worth a look btw)

Sunday was cleaning for house viewing (we had one viewer yippee!) then food at Kebabish Original in Dalry Road with entertainment from bollywood dancing, belly dancing, violinist, and Indian drummer. Charity thing for Children First.

Then lazy morning at last on our odd Edinburgh holiday followed by nephew sitting for 3 year old Ryan. We had great fun while Lorraine, Lorna (my sis) and Mum headed off to boring old art exhibition. We doodled on the PC then played with some silly effects on the webcam then headed off to see the skatepark at Saughton. Played on the swings and roundabout before heading back home 10 mins before the everyone got back.

Then I did roast chicken for dinner. Yum!

[Show as slideshow]

We all successfully completed the 100 miles cycle on Sunday. Well, when I say 100 miles it was actuall 93 mile between the timing points followed by a 5 or 6 mile cycle on the cycle paths down to the finish gantry in Victoria Park. We then insisted on doing the final 0.5 miles just to complete the 100.

Thanks for all the support messages, texts, and sponsorship – still not too late if you want to donate a few quid to Maggies Centres via our JustGiving page.

The most stressful part of the day was getting up at 5am to be out the house and down at Victoria Park for the transport at 6am. Which then didn’t leave for ages and only got us through to the start for 8am instead of sometime between 7 and 7:30.

Once on the road though it was good to just trundle along warming up on the way out of Glasgow before hitting the open roads. Lots of other cyclists about with 574 doing the 100 miles on the day.

Managed to meet up with Donald when we are the first feed stop. Lost him somewhere in the scrum at the start. We then mostly stuck together for the remainder until I fell off the back of the group just out of Carnwath (25 miles to go) suffering from a cramp (the first of a few in the last 20 miles)

Stopped to see mum just at Balerno where she was chatting to Donald – we then set off on the last wee bit through town before the timing mats at Russell Road. From there we slowed down (a wee bit) and joined up with the 51 milers before reaching Victoria Park – 9 hours after we were last there.

Trying to find on google maps where there was an absolute killer of a hill – lots of cyclists walking up it – including me after the half way point. That was the worst bit, the vast majority of the roads were flowing and smooth – few potholes in the towns and villages but otherwise good!

No major aches and pains today, feeling tired but good to share the cameraderie with the rest of the team.

Timings for the day were (at the 93 mile point)

1st 4:35:29 Linda Dewar (Turns out that due to technical issues some geezer won but his time was missed)

29th 5:08:40 Kenton

314th 6:46:01 Euan

316th 6:47:13 Simon

337th 6:51:27 Donald

368th 7:00:55 Me

574 entered, 28 dnf

My computer said

Many years ago when I was a lad working for John Menzies at 107 Princes Street, we did a sponsored cycle to Berwick – stopping half way at Dunbar.

I trained by going ‘Round the Rig’ which was about a 6 mile loop from my folks house in Balerno. Up hill to the foot of the Pentlands, flat along the top and then downhill back home.

It stood me well and we all managed to do the 60 miles in lots of hours and then got the train back into Edinburgh, bike came back in a JM van.

Yesterday Simon and I managed 64-65 miles to Carnwath, Carstairs and Hyndford Bridge before turning around.

We’ve got to do the same plus half again this Sunday in our 100+ mile effort.

So how about donating a few quid to Maggies Centres through our JustGiving page.

Many thanks to those who have already donated.

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Fancy giving a few pounds to charity for our cycling efforts? The please head to our Just Giving page and support Maggie’s Centes.

This is an actual picture of us training by leading out the pack in this years Tour de France. (or is it?)

Silver Dream Racers winning the Tour de France.(L->R, Kenton, Euan, Bruce, Simon)

50 miles is half of the 100(ish) I’m doing on the 12th September (sponsorship page to follow!)

Me and the new bike went for a proper spin this morning all the way out to Carnwath and back. Just a shade under 50 miles (maybe I should have gone round the block a couple of times to make it a round 50?)

All feels good – cage pedals that came with in are sh**e. Just as well I’ve got some proper SPD clips coming tomorrow! Not too many aches and pains, heavier on the wrists with the riding position than my previous MTB with road tyres.

Average was a lot better – basically took 10 minutes longer that the 41 miles the previous week.

Looking forward to piling on a few miles over the next week.

If the wind can be guaranteed to be as strong and in the same direction on 12th September then the cycle should be great! Took 2 hours to cycle 20 miles out the ‘Lang Whang’ up hill and into a very brisk headwind. I was aiming for a 3 hour cycle and estimated it would be twice as fast coming back as it was going so turned around and headed back.

Fantastic – hills that I had to pedal down on the way out became easy on the way back – ran out of gears several times so couldn’t keep up the +30mph speeds in places.

Poor average speed but 41 miles in 3 hrs 11 felt okay, equates to 7hrs 45 for the 100 miles… Will see how that improves over the next few weeks.

Funny how cars/lorries on the open road give you loads of space and then squeeze past in the town, really noticeable.

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