I was fortunate to meet Jonna (pronounced Yo-Na), who came to the shop to get a Magura disc rotor last week. (They work better on Magura brakes as they’re slightly thicker than Shimano discs).
She’s a wind farm engineer and she’s on a 2 year bike trip around Europe.
She’s visiting places on her trip to find out about how localities are going about converting to the new electric power shift, and how or if those communities are accepting and indeed adapting their behaviour because of this new technology. She’s also finding out about what technologies work best in different landscapes and climate zones across our continent
From my perspective it was inspiring to hear from her that there were many different renewable energy solutions happening all across Europe. It was also inspiring to hear she’s now cycled about 18,000kms if I remember correctly. From her home in Germany, north through Denmark to Norwary almost touching the artic circle, then back down through Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Austria and Italy. Then she cycled the whole of the Mediterranean coastline of France and Spain, ending up in the Algarve. In Portugal she went north on an inland route and across to Madrid. From there she headed straight up north to Santander where she caught the Plymouth bound ferry. She did the ‘coast to coast’ Plymouth to Barnstaple route, and headed to Hinckley Point to find out more about Europe’s biggest nuclear power project but no one there really wanted to say very much about it
Luckily through my father who lives in Fishguard I was able to put her in touch with Transition Bro Gwaun, who a few years ago built a wind turbine with funding from locals amongst others. I believe my father gets a payout each time the wind blows! One of the perks of community energy?
She is going to visit the Transition Fishguard members and talk to them, (by cycling route 4 from Bath to Fishguard) to find out what they’re doing now and see how renewable energy is going from strength to strength there. At least they will talk to her, which makes me wonder why the nuclear people weren’t forthcoming
She has an amazing touring bike, which are pretty rare in the UK. It’s got a gearbox called Pinion, which is essentially maintenance free, with no chain with zero maintenance belt. I understand Pinion was founded by some ex Porsche employees, good on them! We have Pinion bikes in the UK but they all are sports mountain bikes. I can’t think of one touring bike from the UK with this system.
Good luck and best wishes to Jonna on her cyCLIMATEngineer project, as she described it in her email to me.
We’ve a new ‘demo fleet’ of Ridgeback’s excellent Ebikes, which are available to take home and try for up to a week.
There are bikes to suit all needs and budgets, from very easy to jump aboard low step Dutch style models, to more sporty models akin to an urban mountain bike, and even a super nimble lightweight ‘mini’ cargo bike.
All you need is a valid photo ID plus a corresponding proof of ID with your address on and to leave a hotel style deposit on our card machine for 100.00.
Please email [email protected] or call 01225920148 to book the dates you require
If you want to find out more about the Errand model bike radar wrote a good review on it
Each year since 2010 a mega-corporate clothing brand that shall remain unnamed (ahem!) sponsors a challenge to ride 500kms from the 24th-31st December. Anyhow I’ve never done the challenge so thought I would try this year (2023).
You can ride indoors as well as outdoors, so making it easier to achieve if the weather is particularly foul, or icy and too dangerous to ride. This is also handy for people who have lots on over the festive season, as indoors is a time efficient way to ride.
I got some new kit to motivate myself (which you can order with Click and Collect or home delivery), all Shimano brand Beaufort bib tights, Element jacket and the S1100R H2O overshoes. The bib tights were very comfy and felt lovely and warm even down to 4 degrees. The pad was comfy even after 100kms. I only wore the jacket on a mild day at around 12 degrees, and it was a bit too warm, it would be great at lower temps. The overshoes were brilliant, easy(ish) to put on and in yellow give extra visibility, and kept my feet nice and warm. I wear size 42 shoes, but I always go for the next size up in Shimano overshoes, so instead of medium(40-42), I went for large(42-44). They should basically alter their sizing as it’s all too small!
I kept myself safe with the brilliant Ravemen lights which are kept in stock in the shop. I used the LR1600 and CR1000 front lights on different rides. Both great, the CR1000 has a T shaped beam and the light is more focused, however the LR1600 is geat as it provides a really wide beam of light and bit more battery means longer runtime in low. The rear light was the TR200 with brake detection. I could see the flash light up the road behind me, which was reassuring.
The rides I did were as follows:
24th 60.12kms indoors, a fairly flat ride only 300m elevation. Effort, fairly easy.
25th 52.45kms indoors only 230m elevation so quite flat Effort, fairly easy.
26th 100.01kms outdoor ride from Corsham to Tetbury and back up a challenging climb from Ford to Colerne at 65kms, and immediately after an easy but long climb from Box to Kingsdown. Finished off with a loop south of home to South Wraxall and back via Atworth. 1020m climbed so a bit more hilly than the previous indoor rides. Effort, hard due to wind and wet gritty roads. Climbs at end added more pain.
28th 72.41kms outdoor ride in very gusty winds from storm Gerrit, so I opted to stay very close to home and did 2 loops south of Corsham going up Goodes Hill twice which is on the main road from Melksham to Corsham. I also climbed from Ford to Colerne again, and repeated the Box to Kingsdown hill as well, 901m ascent so probably hilliest ride of week. Effort, pretty extreme due to wind and 3 fairly long climbs. Roads as above
29th 61.90kms indoors. Took part in a group ride so the draft meant average speed was up and this the pain didn’t have to last too long. Effort, quite easy
30th 94.24kms outdoors in insanely strong wind. Luckily the lanes to Tetbury have good shelter from high hedgerows. Just a touch under 1000m of ascent. Met the hunt near Sherston, more cars than horses which made riding past unnerving. 3 deer leapt out of a hedge across the road right in front of me, near Alderton, a nice sight. Effort, extreme due to wind.
31st 60.28kms indoors group ride. Quite a high pace, and I lost the group on the climb at around 50kms. Wasn’t much fun or fast riding on my own, so finished early at 60kms. Was supposed to be a 92km ride. Effort, quite hard as wanted to stay with a group.
Massive thanks to Bryan atTheBikeTheBody. I had found my Shimano RC7 shoes affecting me with hot spots and aches on my sole on rides over 50kms. I took in some brand new Shimano RC702 shoes, and walked out with a pair of his wide fit Lake CX238’s and custom moulded insoles. He set up my cleat position with some cool tools, checked my position on my own bike on the studio turbo, and made some minor tweaks to saddle height and angle. Had no problems on any of the rides, thanks to Bryan!
From November to the end of February get a free pair of genuine Shimano stainless steel gear wires worth £27.99. This super deal also includes genuine Shimano SP41 SIS outer gear casing, which is coated internally with silicone grease to give very smooth and light shifting. This is £4 per meter and a typical bike usually requires 2 and a bit meters, so £10 of cabling for free on the average bike. For your convenience you can book a service online here https://www.greenparkbikestation.info/product/randonneur-service/
As we get a good number of German speakers coming to us to hire bikes, its nice to get a listing on a website specifically aimed at the German speaking visitor to Bath. Click the link here to have a look
Through March there’s 20% off everything in the shop, this includes servicing parts, so you can get your bike ready for better weather at a better price!
This will also apply to bike services booked in March but not carried out in March, in case you can’t make it in during March to have your bike serviced for instance.
Just mention the deal when you come to pay for whatever it is you want.
The deal excludes items already on sale, and excludes service labour.
Last year I had first hand experience of two visits to the RUH, both for a few days under general anaesthetic. The care was amazing, many cups of tea were brought by friendly folk, presumably to help flush all the drugs out of the system. There was always someone on hand should you need something, and I was checked like clockwork by the nurses. This is very costly to fund, and government grants must only go so far. So that’s where the Forever Friends appeal steps in, to fund extras to make the care that much better. So to help the appeal, when a bike has a £65 Randonneur service or more I’ll add £5 to the appeal, it also applies if spending £65 in store. This fundraiser is also going to raise funds for Dorothy House who provide Hospice care. You simply choose which charity when you pay for your service or items in the shop. It goes without saying that this is a vital service, and again a very costly service to run. So go on, make your bike run like new again with a service in December and January and feel good too by helping two great causes.
The fundraising page for Dorothy House which sends the money raised direct to them is here .
And the fundraising page for the RUH Forever Friends Appeal, again sending funds raised direct is here.
Ian chanced on us as he had to return from abroad to Bath for family reasons and needed work done on a steel Genesis mountain bike, which he’d bought to ride for practical reasons of getting about and as a bit of escapism from daily pressures. I think he asked me for ideas on touring on an MTB and I vaguely said check out bikepacking bags on the web, not sure what his idea for a tour really was, I thought he wanted to go to Cheddar for the day or something!
Well he certainly got into bike packing and the escapism, check out his story below.
“A big shout out to Tom and Adam, the guys at Green Park Bike Station for their support with my trips in the Southwest and Wales. The guys gave me a great new bottom bracket (Tom – a UK made Hope unit), new chain and gearset which set me up for my first trip: Bath to Portishead, then Strawberry Line to Bridgwater; a side trip to Glastonbury, Priddy and Chedder, then down to Sampson Peverell. Another side trip to Exeter, then NCR 3 over Exmoor to Barnstaple.
My second route took me from Bath to Fishguard. Day 1: Bath to Abergavenny, Day 2: Abergavenny to Carmarthen; Day 3: Carmarthen to Whitesands Bay near St David’s, then after a rest day a quick hop over to Fishguard.”
While the steel frame of my Genesis mountain bike keeps the ride pretty comfortable, the mountain bike set-up is obviously less than perfect for such long-distance touring, so most recently the guys at Green Park Bike Station have been setting me up with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires”
What an epic trio, three should be am award for these efforts! My suggestion to make riding even more pleasant would be 29″ wheels, more comfort and speed. The tyres we’ve upgraded Ian’s bike with will reduce the sluggish feel a good deal however. A mountain bike is a good idea for these rides, if you like taking quieter national cycle network routes they can often be gravel and / or not very good surfaces. If you know you’re only going to stick to roads a road / gravel bike is ideal and fast.
Well, who would have thought that two areas of the Pyrenees could offer such distinctly different cycling. Luckily we had the good fortune to stay in two different regions of the Pyrenees in October, starting off our trip in the Hautes Pyrenees and then finishing the second week in the Ariege further east.
The Hautes Pyrenees have the more ‘famous’ Tour de France climbs located there. Names like the Peyresourde and Tourmalet. The second base, the Ariege has fewer famous climbs, but massively more choices of lanes, medium sized cols and generally more places to ride!
My general impression was that the Hautes Pyreenes, certainly around the town of Luchon where we stayed, had lots of tough climbs, some famous, some less so, but all have featured in the Tour at some point. Sure, you could cycle down the main valley road and do a short detour up the gentle Col de Ares at 5%, but it would not be a very exciting ride – cycling away from the mountains and then slogging back to base camp up the main road. So far less to choose from than the Ariege.
However, we did some pretty stunning rides from Luchon. No warm up mind you, straight off uphill almost immediately every time, which felt sore! On our first day we cycled up the Peyresourde down to the valley on the other side, with a beautiful lake. Then up the Col D’Azet from the valley with stunning views at the top. This route had very open views of all the surrounding mountains as it is not overly forested, which is nice as you get a sense of the geography that surrounds you. The ride back conveniently skirted down and round the valley back to the Peyresourde, thereby missing a climb which was a relief. The gradients were generally 8%-9%, so quite tough. The changes in gradient were fairly gradual though so you could get into a rhythm, no lumps and bumps here.
On day 2 we tackled the Port de Bales. Funnily enough it was featured in a big write up in Cyclist magazines October issue which I bought in the airport! It made it sound tough, which it was. This road was quite different. Much wilder, less (read almost zero) traffic compared to the Peyresoude. It was also tougher to ride as the gradient changes were quite frequent meaning it was hard to keep a steady pace. But it did feel amazing being in the wilds of the Pyrenees, you’re generally climbing through pine forests, with occasional glimpse down the steep sided road to the river valley below.
It’s only in the last 3kms that the forest gives way to grassy moors and you get the idea that you are on a big expanse of mountain! The climb is around 20 or so Kms so it’s long, and the gradient is tough again around 8%-9%.
On day 3 we thought it would be a laugh to ride into Spain and back. We were recommended to go that particular day by our hosts at the super freerangechalet, seeing as there would be no lorry traffic into Spain on the Sunday. The ride goes straight up out of Luchon, twisting back and forth on some gradual hairpins, nothing too dramatic. It is fairly steep though so quite a tough climb at around 9%. The view at the top only looks back down the valley to France, you have to descend about a kilometre to see down the stunning Val D’Arran with its steep sided valley that seems to go on a long way into the haze of the midday sun. The town at the bottom of the Col du Portillon is a typical Spanish holiday town, restaurants and bars lining the main road. We headed on down the valley for about 20 kms virtually all slightly downhill which was nice. Here we headed up the Col de Mente, which was super tough. Mainly because it seems to be very exposed to the midday sun beating down on its slopes! It’s also quite long and fairly steep.
On day 4 we decided to cycle, despite the gloomy and threatening weather. It was probably a mistake, should’ve had the day off. We cycled up to the Hospice de France and halfway up Superbagneres, to the Devils waterfall. Very impressive too. But we got soaked and it was pretty horrid, at altitude it get colder that much quicker. Hospice de France was super tough, but the half climb of superbagneres was fairly easy, just a challenge dodging the wind blown chestnuts on the road on the way downhill.
On day 5 we went for a great walk up the valley side, opposite Superbagneres, there were good views of the ski runs and the town spread out in the valley below. The following day we set off for our second base camp in Foix, 150kms distant, and with 2 cols to climb. The route to Foix took us downhill in the chilly 10 degree morning air, for a good 20kms, so this wasn’t that great a start. However the Col d’Ares was a very pleasant 5% and we gained a fair bit of height, annoyingly only to go downhill again to the start of the Col named Portet D’Aspet. It’s quite a tough climb at 8%-9%, and also in a narrow river valley with forests either side. Nice and cooling in the summer, but in the shaded parts and touch chilly! Never mind, the descent which is almost 30kms (!!) to St Girons was bathed in lovely warming sunshine, and the upper slopes on that side of the col were not forested or in such a narrow steep valley. From St Girons we followed a very nice road for a good 40km to Massat, quite a narrow and wooded river valley, but much warmer now it was afternoon. The gradient was easy, never rising above 3% or 4%, so we made good progress. We’ve been to Massat a few times, so for once we’re cycling in familiar territory. We hit the lower slopes of the Col de Port, really easy at 7% and after 10kms turned up the Mur de Peguere. This was pretty murderous, the first km was 17%-20%, so hard, we crawled up. The climb eased as you progressed to 8%-9% so still hard. It was over fairly quick being only 5kms or so in length. The best thing now was we had zero uphill left and 30kms all the way downhill at 7%-8% to Foix. A really fast exhilarating descent! We were so glad to have the warmest of welcomes (read nice food!!) at the super cyclepyrenees.
In Foix we did 3 days of riding, and it was a lot easier than the riding we did in Luchon. Perhaps that was a subconscious decision, as there are some big climbs in this area of the Ariege. I’d describe the rides here as scenery spotting rides, as we headed for some famous local landmarks. On day one we headed down the quieter road towards Andorra, our first climb was Montolieu. This is not somewhere we have been before. It’s a pretty little village with a very distinctive tower perching above the narrow rustic streets. Moss grows in the middle of the single track road here, it really is out of the way. We then headed to Les Cabannes, which is the town at the bottom of the climb to the famous Plateaux de Beille cross country ski resort. Here we headed up the other side of the valley to the road at the top known as the Route des Corniches. It’s a great climb of 7% with some nice switchbacks. We didn’t get to see the more spectacular bits of the Route des Corniches, but headed back to base on the busier, but still pleasant main road. The drivers in France have an all round courtesy and respect to cyclists, as our hosts explained, it’s more to do with insurance laws than being in the home nation of the Tour de France, where drivers are presumed at fault in any incident with a cycle.
The next ride we did was to a Col well known to us called Montsegur, it’s featured in the TdF quite recently. We’ve cycled it 3 times before, but always from Belesta, which is the longer and tougher side with the hairpin bends. This time we cycled up it from the other direction, which is way easier. Unfortunately coming down the other side I had a spectacular tubeless failure and spent an hour trying to fix it, until much to the disgust of my ride partner, put an inner tube in. I called in at the amazingly well stocked bikeshop in Laroque-d’Olmes
The following ride was a bit gruelling, it seemed that despite feeling fine, perhaps we weren’t and nor was my Garmin as it only recorded half the ride. It was quite a long ride, around 50 miles, round a lake on battered old roads to the cave at Mas D’Azil, which the main road goes through and is so spectacular. Especially on a bright sunny day where you go from bright blinding sunlight to the coolness and calm of the cave.
Next we headed up a climb on backroads to the D117 to Bastide De Serou, where we headed up the climb, new to us, towards Sentenac de Serou and ultimately finishing just below the Col de Peguere. Whilst it was a great climb, with lush pine forests and views and topping out at almost 1300m, we felt shattered from all the cycling and didn’t really enjoy it. The descent to Foix is a highlight, 16 miles of freewheeling, but our numbed brains hardly processed the exhilaration, and all the will we could muster was to think about cornering and braking safely rather than enjoying it. We still managed to walk into Foix after to enjoy the atmosphere of the medieval centre, with the imposing Chateaux.
The final day of our holiday was a trip to see the famous underground river at Laboiuche. It’s near to where we were staying so we had a pleasant walk down the voie vert, the old rail line, to the attraction. You descend into the caves and jump onto a big aluminium boat with a guide who shunts the boat along, talking in fast French, mostly unintelligible (!). It’s s really spectacular experience however, so a nice way to finish our stay.
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