Life In The Saddle

Not a bad month, but not great Lower mileage and average speed than in most months due to: One weekend missed for a trip to visit family and friends in London A long week of recovery at the start of the month (following the Festive 500 ) Feeling a bit under the weather for a few weeks The focus from now until the racing season starts will be on increasing high end power, with shorter and faster efforts Can't wait to get racing again...

Who's seen it yet then? Comments below

It will be great to see Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw back on the same team for 2014. Prepare for some more stunning lead-outs like the one featured in this video on the Champs-Elysée.

  For many years, bike gearing followed the mantra of " bigger is better ", and the more you spent on your bike, the more chainrings you would get on the front chainset and more sprockets on the rear cassette. The advantageous result was that gear ratios became wider and riders had many more gears to choose from. The disadvantage was that at the same time, drivetrains collected additional weight, clutter and the addition of more gears created a higher risk of mechanical problems... Things have been changing over the last few years though, mountain bikers and now cyclocross riders are increasingly stripping back their drivetrains. " Going Single " on your chainset is now the latest fashion... In the last couple of months I have tested both the Race Face Narrow/Wide Chainring ( Wiggle Blog Review - Link ) and the Hope Retainer Chainring ( Wiggle Blog - Link ). Stripping off the front mech and two chainrings ditches A LOT of weight, and as I explained in the rev

Bryan and Kaia from Foxwood Films on Vimeo . This makes me miss my Border Collie even more... what a dog!

Safety is always a priority for me when I'm out on the bike. Having been knocked off at 30mph by a hit and run driver early last year, it has always been a niggling thought in the back of my mind, of what might have happened. What if I had been knocked out cold? What if no one else was around? In those situations it always comes to mind that the best thing to do would be to ensure whoever finds you is able to easily identify you. This is where ideas like the Medical Data Carrier come in... This is a simple and low cost system for carrying your identity with you on the bike, it is a self adhesive carrier that sticks to your helmet, inside which you place a filled-in identity form, which can easily be accessed by the emergency services or the 'Good Samaritan' that finds you. This system is designed by a paramedic, and although simple, seems to work well enough. I'm not sure how well it would stick to a helmet with a very skeletal structure, but if you have

I'm fortunate enough not to need reading glasses... yet. However, I know plenty of riders who do, and encounter difficulties seeing their computers and reading maps. The Dual Eyewear range is designed for those that need a bit of magnification for reading, but are fine viewing objects (and roads) at a distance. The glasses look like normal sunglasses, and for the most part they are, the difference is that they have a small insert on the inside corner of each lens, which allows a level of magnification when you look through that area. The magnification can vary from 1.5x to 2.5x depending on the model you choose. Wearing the glasses feels just like a normal set of reasonably priced sunglasses; they feel sturdy, have a strong plastic construction and wrap around the face well. The only difference is that when you glance down you suddenly have a magnified view of your computer and cockpit.  There is a slight interface blur between the magnified panel and the normal len

My main cycling computer is the Garmin Edge 510 , it's a great bit of kit and has a huge amount of functionality. However, I recently tested a Cycleops Joule computer in a PowerTap package and was impressed by the Bar Fly out-front mount that came supplied with the computer (something that is not supplied with the Garmin). By placing the unit further out you reduce the amount you need to bend your neck to see the screen, whilst also reducing the likelihood of knocking the unit when you are out of the saddle. Those are two notable benefits, so having been pleased with the Bar Fly mount for the CycleOps Joule, it seemed a good bet for a Garmin out-front mount too; I opted for the Bar Fly 2.0 and the Bar Fly Mtb... The Bar Fly 2.0 Mount Starting with the build quality of the mounts... The Bar Fly mounts are made of a strong composite material, they weigh very little, but they are solid enough to last well. There are metal mounts on the market, but experience s