Halfords Carrera TDF Review

Not everyone in life has a wallet full of cash to buy their first road bike.  Faced with a tight budget you can either opt for a second hand bike or a new bike from one of the entry level brands.  One of those that fits the budget bike category is the Halfords Carrera TDF.  At time of writing, this bike was on offer at £299 inc VAT, from Halfords stores - that's a really good price.

Carrera TDF Large

Visually the bike stands out, with it's distinctive black and yellow colour scheme on the 6061 Aluminium frame.  What also stands out is the weight of the bike, coming in just shy of 11kg (24Ibs) with the pedals on - no featherweight.  At this point, it's important to remember that this is an inexpensive entry level bike, not a £1000 carbon road bike.

You do know it when out on the road as the bike takes longer to wind up, I ride a carbon bike normally, however if you've got the fitness, you soon overlook it.  The current model has a paint scheme in honour of the Tour de France and there are graphics on the top tube denoting this. 

Tour de France Graphic

One thing that did strike me quickly was the gear ratio set up on the bike.  Sporting a standard 52-38 cassette on the front and 12-26 on the back, means that this bike will prove hard work to push up a hill, particularly with it's overall weight.

Given that a lot of people buying the bike, may well not have ridden much, I thought it more obvious to go with a compact chainset up front (50/34) which would be much more forgiving when you come to an incline.  Long days in the hills will be preserverd for all but the fittest and strongest riders.  Something to consider on the next range perhaps.  If however, all you're doing is riding the flats to work, you will get away with it. 

Shimano 52-38 Chainset

Rear components are Shimano's entry level RD-2300 with ST2300 levers on the bars, so you shouldn't find any major problems with shifting through the 16 gears the bike has on offer.  This means you would click with your thumb to make the gears feel harder and push the lever inwards to go up the gears (make them easier).  This Shimano gearing appears on most entry level bikes.  Being a brand new bike will mean this all gets set-up in store for you.

Shimano 12-26 tooth rear cassette

The wheel set-up is branded, with 700x23c tyres.  The wheels contribute quite a bit to the weight, coming in around 4kg (9Ibs) of the overall bike weight.  This is a combination of the 36 spokes and the material used.  Being an entry-level bike, they may buckle easily, so keep them nicely tuned with a spoke key.

Own brand Carrera wheels with 36 spokes

Braking is supplied by Tektro.  I found the brakes to be fine and was pleased to see cassette mounted pad, which gives you the option to upgrade the pads down the line.  I'd recommend a Swiss Stop brake or Shimano pad, which will increase the braking performance.

Tektro brakes

Riding the Bike

For a new rider, the set-up of the bike will please.  Big front headset, long stem, wide bars, sloping top-tube.  That all adds up to being a comfortable bike to ride to work or to spend longer days in the saddle.  It will give you quite an upright riding position (more commonly now known as a sportive position).

Whipping the bike up to speed takes a bit of effort, primarily due to the weight and gearing.  However, with some base fitness, you shouldn't have any major problems turning the pedals.  I did find myself working noticeably harder than normal to maintain an average speed of around 17mph on the bike.  For the ride to work though, you won't complain.

Thinking of who might buy the bike, I thought there would be six types of potential buyer: -

1. Student market (low cost bike due to risk of theft).
2. First time market (Budget bike, buying new rather than 2nd hand).
3. Ride to work market (low cost bike which will take a bit of a battering).
4. Winter hack (the bike comes with rack and mudguard eyelets).
5. Turbo trainer bike (gearing will be less relevant).
6. Training bike (something heavier to build your strength).

My overall assessment is that this is a good bike for the money.  It's not an all singing all dancing carbon road bike, it's not meant to be.  It's an entry-level budget road bike, delivering a solid bike for under three hundred quid.   At £449, I'd probably say throw another hundred quid on the budget and look around a bit more, however at £299 I think the value is there to be enjoyed, particulary when the bike is set-up and built for you and your first service is included within the price. 

One thing that I thought was a good addition was the eyelets to fit either a set of mudguards or a rack.  Many bikes in the £500 sector don't have these, it's a small detail, but when it comes to winter, you'll be grateful of a set of fitted mudguards - trust me.  

Finally, I think it's great that people can access the sport at this level- to get more people cycling, you need to make pricing accessible and get people out on the roads.  Despite it's name, you're not going to win the Tour de France on it, but you may well rank highly in the Tour de Work or Tour de University. 

Halfords are running a competition to win one of these bikes whilst the Tour De France is on.  You can see it on Facebook here.

Other Pictures.

Rear Drivetrain

View from the Front

Aero Downtube

View from the Cockpit

The Drivetrain

10 Reason to Start Road-Cycling

Trundling along on the bike today, mind wandering as you do, I started to think about what a great hobby road cycling is. Here are ten reasons why you should consider to start road cycling (in no particular order).

1. It isn't time dependent. If you're busy, you can jump on the bike when it suits you, rather than being driven by something that is time dependent, like many team sports.
2. You can do it indoors or outdoors (indoors using a turbo trainer which is a device you can set your bike into which turns it into a static training bike).
3. You get to see some fantastic countryside. As your ability to ride greater distances develops, you get to explore some roads that you never knew existed. It really helps you to familiarise yourself with your locality and further afield.
4. You can do it alone, or as part of a group. Some days you just want to jump in the saddle on your own, other times it's great to ride with a group. The choice is yours.
5. There are a number of different disciplines to road cycling. You might start out on the road, but may develop into other elements such as time trialling (cycling against the clock on a pre-determined route).
6. There are lots of organised events you can participate in. Not only races, but charity fundraisers or rides such as sportives and audaxes.
7. You get to meet a lot of likeminded people. I've developed a large network of new people since starting cycling, great way to meet new friends.
8. You can keep it simple or get right into it. If you want to just jump in the saddle and do some miles - fine, alternatively if you like technical stuff - you can get immersed in all the details of bikes, fitness and training.
9. It's a great low-impact form of exercise. You'll find a lot of ex-runners on bikes, because of it's low impact on the knees. If you want to lose weight, it's a great way of getting fit, losing weight and improving your cardiovascual capablity.
10. It's easy to measure how you're improving. You're not dependent on anyone else, you can log how you're improving over time and this is a real motivation to keep going.

Red pill or the blue pill?

Remember that scene from the Matrix when Neo gets asked about taking the red pill or the blue pill?

We had one of those moments today, when forty five miles or so into a windy and rainy ride we could opt to either take the short route home (the red pill) or opt for the longer drag (the blue pill).

Given that my ride partner was out on his maiden voyage on his brand Specialized Tarmac SL3, it had to be done (gorgeous bike by the way, same as the one in the picture). The blue pill it was.

That choice pushed todays mileage up to an unplanned 65 for the day. In a headwind and with driving rain for the back 25, conditions were difficult, however the grimace went on and carry on we did. I felt great today, could have easily knocked 100 out I reckon, pedals just seemed to be turning, perhaps some of my pre-Xmas fitness is starting to come back. Let's hope so.

Most irritating moment of the day was forgetting to press the start key on the Garmin 705, so none of my ride stats got captured. Garmin, will you please just put an option in the menu that if you load a route, it automatically says "Do you want to start this route now?" The prompt would be appreciated.

Riding back home, I thought that when I first started riding, rain, hills, wind etc was an excuse to not go out. Contrast that with today, I just put on the waterproofs and got out there and enjoyed it. Boy did I enjoy the hot bath when I got home and a good dousing of Rosso post-ride massage oil. Pleased to be back in the Matrix.

Back in the Saddle

Decembers been a write off for me on the bike. A second bout of chest infection plus the snow put pay to any base mile work. Chutzpah!

Arriving back from my first club run, in I can't remember how long, I took a look back at my miles for the last six months, to get some idea as to the impact of December on my overall miles.

Miles since May look something like this: -

May 260
June 485
July 290
Aug 454
Sept 460
Oct 222
Nov 224
Dec 32

So between June and November, I managed to clock around 2.1k miles. My overall target for 2010 was 3,000 miles, so I've comfortably hit that with my Jan-April numbers, so despite Decembers poor mileage month, 2010 has been pretty good for my first full year on the bike.

Trundling along in the cold today, I could tell my fitness had taken a dive from where it was. Sunday 28th November was the last time I was on the bike, so it's about four weeks out of the saddle for me. My heart rate monitor was certainly letting me know as I spent most of today's ride in HRZ4, far in excess of where I would normally be.

Still, I enjoyed it. It was freezing out, however I had four layers on to combat the cold. A thermal vest, arm warmers, merino top, windtex jacket and an altura windcheater over that, with some very thick gloves. All in all, I didn't feel cold once.

It felt good to be out on the road again, it started with a bit of a bump as the bike went from under me on my street, no damage done other than to my pride. I considered to abandon at that stage and jumped in my car, full club kit on to lick my wounds at Starbucks. Pulling off the estate I spotted our club secretary riding down, so pulling him over and checking the route, I nipped back for the Spesh and got myself up to Stretton. Route here.

So, time to shortly think about objectives for 2011. More distance overall. More speed. More stamina. Faster Sportive times. What are you planning?

AN Post Team

Cycling supremo Sean Kelly has equipped his AN Post racing team with Dolan Ares bikes. I've owned an Ares for about five months now, awesome bit of kit and a great ride. Here's my review of the bike and a few decent pics I had taken of it.

Seems Dolan will be providing road, track and time trial bikes for the team. Great to see them transferring their track branding to the road.

Ten Things to Carry on your Road Bike

Chatting with a new roadie the other day, they asked me what things I carry in my saddle bag. So, for their benefit, here's the things I always carry when I'm out on the road.

1. A spare inner tube (or two if you have room).
2. Some hand wipes (avoid greasy hands on bar tape post puncture).
3. A puncture repair kit in the event that you get a double puncture.
4. Tyre levers (carry three, because some tyres are a very tight fit).
5. A multi-tool.
6. A piece of old inner tube to patch a tyre up with in the event of a tyre rip.
7. Contact details of who to get hold of in an emergency. I have one of these on my helmet. Well worth nine quid if it means life or death.
8. A mobile phone. We've all been there, double puncture, buckled wheels, broken spokes resulting in a long walk home if you cant ring someone to come and get you.
9. Some money to get you out of a tight spot. A taxi home. An emergency cuppa. A bar of chocolate if you bonk.
10. A plastic glove or two. You know the ones you get at the diesel pump at a petrol station. They scrunch up really small and are the ideal thing for putting over your hands to mount a de-railed chain or a wet tyre which is gunked up with brake dust.
    

Blackpool Rock(s)

It's been a very busy seven days. A combination of a very busy schedule, travelling and some late nights thrown in, left me feeling pretty tired this weekend. As a result, I fancied a flat and easy 40 miles today, rather than the scheduled North Cheshire Clarion club run, which was a hilly route.

Question was, where to go? Needing a bit of time for reflection, I decided to have a run up the coast. I loaded the bike on the roof of the car, drove up to Lytham St. Annes and rode the coastal route up to Fleetwood and back. The route takes you right through Blackpool promenade in parallel to the sea. It was just what the doctor ordered, bit of sea air and great views over the Irish sea plus plenty of time to clear my thoughts down. Weather was a little cold and overcast.

Setting off I had a decent tailwind and shot up to Fleetwood pretty quickly. Spinning round, that tailwind became a headwind and I opted to just knock into an easier gear and have an easy run back. Spent quite a bit of time dodging pedestrians, which did knock the average speed down at points, however, no drama, I went there to enjoy the view and that I did.

Bike was pretty gritty when I got back. There was quite a bit of sand about and The Unicorn needed a good clean, the babywipes soon sorted it all out and it's back its dazzling white best and in it's air conditioned cabinet back at home :-)

Overall it was just short of 40 miles for the roundtrip, almost pan flat all the way but a nice change. Here's a photo I took en route.

North Cheshire Clarion Club Run 031010

Sunday was wet. Very wet. In fact the rain lashed for about four hours solid on the club run. We were all drenched. According to the met office there was only the risk of slight showers, someone got that one very wrong.

Riding a route that looped back on itself a couple of times, six of us ended up through Delamere Forest to one of our regular cafe stops at Summertrees (load of the club on the Seasons of the Mist Audax on Sunday). There was no one there when we arrived, place was empty and we soon had the place steaming when we started stripping our kit off. I wrung my gloves out the door and it was like squeezing a sponge, water poured out of them.

And then there were the puddles. We hit some big, big puddles. You had no perspective of how deep they were approaching them, we went through two big ones and then we hit the big one, splash, It came up as far as my cranks and my feet got soaked through.

It was one hell of a slog. Average speed was rubbish, we had to slow right down for safety more than anything, Geordie Graeme's brake blocks almost totally disintegrated with all the grit on the road, so that was fun for him on a couple of the descents.

Arriving home, I was wet through. My overshoes had done their best but my feet were soaking, my gloves were wringing wet, my hat soaked through. Still, you have to be able to go out in all conditions if you want the miles bad enough, I did and despite everything, a hot bath soon sorted me out.

Tour of Britain - Photo

Here's me just hitting the crest of Gun Hill on Sunday's Tour of Britain, Stoke Sportive. The fastest rider on the day got up it in 7 mins and 31 secs. My time was 12 mins and 52 secs which put me 516th out of 778 riders in terms of time. Plenty of work still to do on my fitness. You can get some perspective of how high it is from the backdrop. Was great to nail it.

Tour of Britain 2010 - Stoke Stage Sportive

"Quitting lasts forever, pain is temporary", those words from Lance Armstrong were ringing in my ears today on some of the biggest and hardest hills I've ever ridden. With just shy of 8,000 feet of ascent across the 100 mile sportive, today was about guts, not quitting when your body is shouting out for you to stop, digging deep for that extra little piece of energy when you thought everything was spent.

My mission today was clear, ride the whole route without walking up any hill. Prior to today, I'd of thought that a big ask as I've been off the bike on previous tough sportives, however I'd been mentally preparing myself for this one and arrived at the start line with a steely determination to give it everything I had. This was the hardest sportive on paper that I had ever entered and I had my race face on. I've captured the key points of the day in bullet form below for easy reading.

• Driving down to Stoke at half six this morning, the temperature was dropping. Six degrees in Knutsford, three degrees in Stoke. On arrival at the car park, it felt really cold. I had planned to just wear shorts, a base layer, my top and some new Merino arm warmers I bought yesterday. I rolled out with a hat on and leg warmers too!
  
• The start line was well organised with plenty of noise, plus TV cameras, so we managed to roll up to the line with our club tops on to hog the picture. Riding with me today were Martin, Sarah, Ade and Matt.
• Riding out, we had a motorbike outrider and we were all pretty excited. Although the traffic wasn't stopped, like the real tour, the organisers had gone to town to try and give the riders the same experience.
• It was windy today, really windy. It made the ride much, much harder and for me precarious at points. With the deep section wheels I had on, they really caught the wind. At one point, I hit 40mph on a descent (Ade hit 50mph) and was still gaining speed, a huge gust came from the side and nearly blew me off. The bike did a big wobble and I got straight on the brakes, it put the frighteners on me for sure and at other key times during the day I experienced the same thing. On the positive side, the wheels rolled magnificently and looked the business.
• Food and drink was first rate today. All the drink and food stops were well stocked and on arrival back in Stoke you got a voucher for a bowl of pasta and a bag of freebies. I managed to bring back a pocketful of energy bars and gels. All in, there were six stops on the route. Only critiscism I had about the organisation was that they didn't have timing mats on the stops to deduct from your overall time. The mats just timed you rolling out and rolling in plus how quick you did Gun Hill. So, if you had a few stops, it would make it look like you were out for a huge amount of time.
  
• Gun Hill. We were all cacking ourself about this one, particularly as it had a lot of press during the tour. To be honest, we all felt there were harder hills on the ride. Some of the short, sharp, shock hills which didn't qualify for King of the Mountains, were absolute killers! Many a time I was out of the saddle, fighting to stay on someone's wheel or just to stop myself coming to a complete stop.
• What's very different about this Sportive compared to say The Cheshire Cat is that the hills were relentless over the entire distance. It felt like the bulk of the ride was going up. The Cheshire Cat gets them all done in the first thirty miles. Even within the last four miles of this ride, there was a hill. Not a big one, granted, but enough that you felt it after 96 miles of tough climbing.
• Great moment was when Twitter follower Mike McConnell, who lives in Birmingham said "Are you Roadphil?" as he recognised my bike which I call "The Unicorn" at one of the feedstops. Mike is was great to meet you, readers please visit his blog or give him a follow on Twitter. The power of social media eh.
• Fellow North Cheshire Clarion riders were magnificent today. Ade (AKA "Billy" the mountain goat) flew up everything in sight, Matt overcame terrible cramp at forty miles and ended up finishing (that took guts), Sarah just got stronger the longer the ride carried on and Martin kept our spirits up with his hill commentary. As a group we got round and had some good banter on the way.
• Had my front derailleur fettled by the SRAM mechanics on the first foodstop. Was struggling to get it off the small ring to the big one on front, small adjustment and all sorted. The bike felt awesome today, I think it played a big part in my ability to get up the hills. It's light, nimble and puts the power straight to the wheels.
  
• There were times when I was on my limit today, no doubt. I think the base miles and sportives I've ridden over the summer have helped. I can honestly say, I've never performed better on hills than I did today. Still not superfast, I'm 210Ibs in weight and that takes some hauling up, however compared to where I was twelve months ago, big change.
• At the end of the sportive, we rode in the park where we set off to the finish line and we all crossed together, that was a great moment. It typifies what our cycling club is about, not shelling people off the back or dropping people, but never leaving a rider behind. Managed to bag some bargains from the Tour stall which was selling off its stock.
  
• On the way back to the car park, I commandeered one of the lamp post signs for the Pro Tour, that will have pride of place somewhere when I figure out where to put it. Managed to hack it off with my house keys, nice memento.
• All in all it's been one hell of a hard day. At times, my lungs were at capacity, my legs ached and it would have been easy to walk. However I did what I set out to do, that is ride the entire Sportive without getting off once (apart from food stops of course). Overall it took me about 7hrs 30mins to ride the 100 miles, comparing that to the 6hrs it took me to ride the Manchester 100 the other week, it says it all. Easily, the hardest ride I've done since starting on the bike last August, but by a long chalk, the most satisfying. Today was a real achievement for me and another step forward in enjoying this wonderful sport.
  

Tour of Britain - Stoke Stage

Tomorrow, i'll be riding the Stoke stage of the Tour of Britain, along with a few other members from my Warrington based road cycling club - North Cheshire Clarion.

Make no bones about it, it will be the hardest sportive I've completed to date. It's 161km (100m) long with 2450m of ascent (7350 feet). You can view the stage manual here.

I've kitted my Dolan Ares up with with the SRAM S60 deep section wheels for the first time, they've been sat in bags since I bought them and this may well be the last chance to ride them before the winter sets in (see picture). Following a run of punctures on my other rims recently - which run Michelin Pro Race 3 tyres - I've put some Continental 4000's on to see if they make a difference, only problem being they were very tight to get on, so I hope I won't be struggling to get them off again at the side of a road somewhere.

My Garmin 705 has still not been returned from them following it's breakdown, I have to say I've been pretty disappointed in the service experience from them and I'll think twice before buying upgrading to an 805. I think there's a real gap in the market for someone to challenge Garmin with a decent GPS/Bike computer, if I had the time......

So, now making the final preparations for tomorrow. What food to take? (although the feed stations look well stocked) When to stop? When to pop a gel? How am I going to get up Gun Hill? I'll post a blog about how it all went.

Road Bike Buyers Guide

Buying your first road bike, can be daunting. There's a lot of jargon, a huge range of products to choose from and loads of opinion to decipher. 

In this short buyers guide, I'm going to try and give some advice as to the basics you should be looking for, demist some of the jargon and hopefully allow you to make an informed decision about what is right for you. I'm going to focus on the sub £999 price bracket primarily as that is where the Cycle to Work limit is.

First things first, buying your first bike is all about getting going, getting out there and starting to enjoy the sport. Bikes in the sub £1k category all pretty good, with different pro's and con's of each. The main vendors in this category are: -

Boardman (Halfords only) - English brand, made in Taiwan.
Cannondale (Available in many bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.
Giant (Available in many bike shops) - Taiwanese brand, made in Taiwan.
Specialized (Widely available in local bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.
Trek (widely available in local bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.

Within this price bracket, you also buy bikes from Bianchi (Italian), BMC, Cube and Eddy Merckx. As you can see, Taiwan is pretty much the bike producing capital of the world now, with all the major brands taking advantage of the low cost labour to hit the key sub £1000 price point.  If you want to see where a brand originates from, I posted a separate article about it here.

Major considerations to make when buying your new bike are firstly: -

What sort of riding are you planning to do? Sportive, Racing, Tri-athlons? Depending on your answer, it will dictate what sort of geometry you should go for. If you want to ride for distances with comfort, you're better off with a bike with a long front headtube, which makes the bars sit quite high relative to the saddle (sportive position). If racing or tri-athlon is your cup of tea, then you'll need something with a shorter front head tube and tighter geometry which sits you further down on the bars to reduce air resistance.

How fit are you? This will dictate whether you need a triple, compact or standard chainring on your bike. A triple (three cogs on the front) gives you the maximum range of gears and willl certainly be the best choice for the beginner. I purchased a triple for my first bike and I'm glad I did, especially on the big hills. A compact chainset has two rings on the front with what's generally a 50/34 combination (big ring has 50 teeth, small 34), this is better if you are reasonably fit, it has a slightly narrower range of gears than the triple. I moved to a compact for my second bike and found it fine as I was fitter. A standard chainring is what most experienced riders, racers and tri-athletes us. It is a set of bigger rings which allow you to go faster by creating harder gearing ratios.  I've written a separate article about gearing here. For a beginner, I would consider a triple or a compact. 

Groupsets. The word groupset commonly refers to the combination of the brake & shift levers, the derailleurs, rear cassette, brake callipers and pedal crankarm/chainrings. There are three major brands in the market, Campagnolo, Shimano and SRAM. Each manufacturer has an ascending set of groupsets, starting from budget and ending up in something very high end. You can see the ascending lists here. Generally speaking, Boardman come with SRAM Rival, Bianchi come with Campagnolo Centaur or Veloce, Specialized come with Shimano Sora/Tiagra and Trek come with Shimano Sora/Tiagra too. For my second bike, I went with SRAM RED, the very top end of the SRAM groupset and it works like a Porsche gearbox!

One thing to be careful of is that manufacturers mix and match. For example, they may have a Shimano chain-ring and derailleur, however opt for unbranded brake callipers and other components, so it's not what's considered a full groupset. As you get more into cycling and mix with other cyclists, groupsets figure a lot in discussion as they are key components on the bike. Gear changing and braking efficiency on the bike are key, however on sub £1K bikes, you have to try and get the best you can, taking into account other components on the bike such as wheel quality.

Wheels. As you get more into cycling, one of the first things you'll find yourself upgrading is the wheels. Generally, sub £1K bikes come with pretty average wheels. You'll find Alex rims on most of the Specialized range, Ritchey rims on the Boardman and Bontrager wheels on the Trek (Bontrager is a brand owned by Trek). Personally, I think that the Bontrager rims are the best in this category, however that shouldn't be the decisive decision for you, as the entire bike and look/feel need to be taken into consideration when you make your purchase.

Aesthetics. You can drive yourself nuts trying to compare loads of bikes, I've done it myself. You love the look of one, but the other one has better wheels. One has a better groupset but the colour scheme isn't your cup of tea. Seriously, you'll be there. My advice is this. Make a shortlist of three bikes that you like the look of first, forget the spec. Go and see them in a showroom and see if you like the look of them in the flesh first, don't buy the first one you see.

Then do a spec comparison of the bikes taking into account the best deal you can get at the local bike shop. Remember, if you're buying on a Cycle to Work scheme, the dealer wont often budge on the price as they have to give 15% margin to the people that run the scheme. If you're using your own lolly, then drive a hard bargain. I managed to get my shoes, water bottle cages, two bottles and a full set of Specialized bib shorts and a Specialized top with my bike, plus some Look pedals all for £50 more than the bike SRP, so I saved a stack.

There are some good bargains to be had on last years bikes as dealers clear this seasons models for next. Grab the bargain whilst you can and spend the money you save on other kit like lights, saddle bag, spare tubes and a bike multi-tool. II've written a few blogs about kit you might consider to buy if you want to get serious about cycling, so it's good to save a bit of money at the start.

Where to buy your bike. You've three options really. A bike chain retailer (Evans Cycles/Halfords - Boardman/Carrera range), a local bike shop or over the web. Halfords don't have the best reputation with road cyclists and you'll read lots of complaints in the forums about poor set-up. Don't worry too much as Boardman bikes are good bikes and if you buy one, just whizz it to your local bike shop and pay them to set it up properly for you. You've no other options as the Boardman range is exclusive to them. Evans are more specialist with a better reputation and a wider range of brands to choose from. Lot's of guys I know ride the Boardman and it is a decent bike, so don't be put off.

Local bike shops can offer more specialist advice and set-up advice too, they'll also be trying to push the models they have in stock, so visit a couple and make your own decision (don't forget about bargaining hard). If you don't mind ordering on the web, websites like Onixbikes, Planet-X,  Ribble and Wiggle (with their Verenti brand) have cropped up, all offering decent bikes with good spec at competitive prices. Wiggle offer a 30 day try before you buy on a wide range of bikes, which does away with the uncertainty away if you want to give a bike a good try.

If you do buy a bike, try and get it fitted by a bike fitter.  After riding for six months, I look back and wish I'd sorted this out on day one as it can make a big change to your riding style. Even a set 1cm too high can impact on your pedalling performance.

The bottom line with your first bike is buying a bike that appeals to you in terms of looks and has as good as components as you can get for the look you like. Some people like white bikes, some black, hence my advice to narrow down on the emotional side first, i.e., which bikes you like the look of first, then groupsets/spec, then price all have to be assessed to come up with your final choice.

As you develop, you'll upgrade bits as I did with my Specialized Secteur Sport, it doesn't take you long to get into the serious cyclist mentality, buying kit, shiny new bits, latest bits and bobs and things you read about in magazines, that's half the fun of getting into it.

So, get out there, get looking and good luck!

Meeting Graeme Obree (Part I)

Last night, I spent a good amount of time with former World Individual Pursuit Champion and Hour World Record Holder Graeme Obree. I hired Graeme as a speaker for an after dinner talk and – as a result – got to spend a lot of time with him one to one. It was fascinating to meet him and I had so many questions, we spoke for about an hour in the bar of the hotel as I scribbled notes furiously.

Since getting into cycling over a year ago, I’ve read many biographies and The Flying Scotsman (his biography) was one of those that I really enjoyed. I saw the film on TV a couple of months back which I highly recommend you watch.

Reading the book and watching the film quickly established that his life had been full of adversity, serious challenges and – at times – failure. His well documented battle with mental illness simply goes to underline the strength and resolve he subsequently showed in breaking Franceso Moser’s record in 1993. I wanted to focus our time together on his cycling achievements, rather than his battle with bi-polar disorder.

Speaking to him, what strikes you about Graeme is his intensity. He’s either staring you steely straight in the eyes or looking the other way when talking. He’s a maverick. Outspoken. Single-minded. Opinionated. Highly analytical. Focused. Quirky at times. He’s been compared to James Dyson in the way he analyses problems and finds solutions, using first principles for solution searching.

Underneath all of this was someone who is a genuine person with an amazing story and a large dose of modesty and – after the initial nerves – we warmed to each other and relaxed. On many questions, he really paused before answering, considering details, asking that some responses not be published, for political (cycle politics) reasons. I agreed to this, so some elements of the conversation have to remain with me.

I’ve captured as much as I can from our time together. For me, I wanted to get inside the head of a world champion. To understand what it was that made him tick? To understand how we kept going, in the depths of personal and sporting despair when the odds seemed stacked against him? Earlier in the day I’d asked on Twitter if anyone else had a question for him, these are answered below.

Question via @leeboyman – Rumour is that he has a book on training coming out. Is it true? A – True. Graeme is planning a book; however it is not yet started. It’s the next big thing he plans to work on and ideally would like it done for the Spring 2011. The book will cover road cycling, time trialling, training and nutrition.

Question via @leeboyman - Can you ask him if it's true that he just trains on 'feel' ie no heart rate monitor or power? A – True. Graeme told me that his set-up is as simple as this. He has a turbo-trainer at home, with a big screw in it so that the position never deviates or moves. He uses exactly the same track pump, inner tube, tyre and tyre pressure to ensure that his bike set up is absolutely constant over a long period with no deviation. Then he looks to constantly improve every time he trains - sometimes by only 0.5%. Therefore, he trains by feel only with no electronic measurement. Amazing.

Question via @adamleadbetter - I'd like to know what he thought of the film version of "Flying Scotsman"? A – He enjoyed the film, however has only watched it once and doesn’t like to watch it. He was careful to remind me that this was a film, not a documentary. There are some factual inaccuracies; however – in the main – it is representative of his life. He enjoyed the emotional and evocative style and felt that the film has introduced his story to a newer generation.

Q – Do you think you could ride in a team? Are you a team player? A – Yes I could but only if people were as obsessed about results as I am. If people can’t give critical feedback about their performance or mine, then it would serve no purpose for me to be there and I would be better to ride alone.

Q – Do you think the press attention dubbing Old Faithful “the washing machine bike” was detrimental to your career? A – Yes, sponsors didn’t take me seriously at the time, it meant that most of my career I’ve lacked serious sponsorship. Many people have offered me alternative sponsorships of types over the years, but I’ve refused it as I felt it would compromise by ability to speak out or do things my way.

Q – Do you think you would have liked to have ridden the Tour de France? A – Yes. He cites in the book that the amount of doping at the time meant that he could not have ridden the Tour and felt as if he was competing on equal grounds. He would have ridden it if this was not the case.

Tomorrow I'll put up the second post which contains information about his diet tips, advice for new road cyclists and all of the other general information I captured. To be continued...

Update. Here's the link to the second part of the interview and other Obree related articles I've posted.

Latest Ride Data

Dolan Ares Review

I've owned the Dolan Ares (pronounced "Ar-ez") for three months now, so thought having racked up around 600-700 miles on it, I can give my initial thoughts.

First picking the bike up, what struck me was a) How light it is b) What a different ride is was compared to my previous bike and c) just how quick it is. I guess for the money, that should be expected.

The geometry on it is out and out road racer (you can buy the bike with 3T time trial bars on if you want) and the narrow downtube gives it good rigidity and aerodynamics. Coming from a cheaper bike, I could immediately tell the difference in quality, speed and build quality.

The steering and handling is second to none. It whips in and out of corners really quick and I've had a real sense of pushing myself harder as my confidence in the bike has grown. That's confidence being helped by the SRAM Red groupset, which has the most awesome brake set-up going. They are so powerful that you can carry your speed that little bit longer, I'd need another 10m or so on my Specialized, even with the upgraded Shimano pads.

The bike turns heads as there aren't many on the road, primarily due to Dolan having a much bigger footprint in the track market, than road. However, many of the top track stars do their road training on Dolan bikes and their popularity is growing. In the North West you see a lot more of them than you do in the South, so if you want something that you won't see as often as some other brands out there, Dolan are someone to consider.

You can order it in a number of different colour combinations as Dolan do all their spraying here in the North West. I went for white/black to keep it pretty neutral and added some metallic red hubs onto Ksyrium SL wheels to give it some colour, they do stand out and I'm pretty pleased I went for this option in the end. I also got some SRAM S60 deep section wheels too (they're sitting in bags at the minute).

One thing I've recently changed on the bike is to remove the recessed seatpost and replace it with a straight post, which I ordered from Dolan. As I'm not an out and out racer, more a sportive and social rider, I found the ride position a bit too aggressive, with a little bit too much stretch when on the bars. Installing the straight post has fixed that and pushed me about an inch further forward in the cockpit, also meaning my pedal stroke is also more efficient with my knee being more central with the centre of the pedal. If you wanted to do the same, just ring Dolan up and they'll sort it out for you.

All in all, I'm really happy with the bike. It's supremely fast, well built and well specced. Terry Dolan has been building bikes for over thirty years for some of the worlds best riders and I like the fact that - although the frame is made in Taiwan - the bike is designed and assembled about twenty miles up the road from where I live. I'm looking forward to cracking out plenty more miles on the bike and will write a further blog in the future with an update on how it's performing.

North Cheshire Clarion Club Run 220810 Ride Data

Good Cycling Reads

If you like a nosy in a book, here is my reading list of books related to road cycling. I'll keep adding to them as and when I read more and if you can recommend any more, please leave details in the comment box: -

We We're Young and Carefree- Auto-biog of Laurent Fignon

Boy Racer - Auto-biog of Mark Cavendish

Heroes, Villains and Velodromes - Auto-biog of Sir Chris Hoy

In Pursuit of Glory - Auto-biog of Bradley Wiggins

We Might As Well Win - Auto-biog of Johan Bruyneel

It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life - Lance Armstrong

Every Second Counts - Lance Armstrong

In Search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore

Tour de France for Dummies

Lance Armstrong Tour de Force - Daniel Coyle

23 Days in July - John Wilcockson

The Flying Scotsman; The Graeme Obree Story- Graeme Obree

The Fastest Man on Two Wheels; In Pursuit of Chris Boardman - Phil Liggett

From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France - David Walsh

The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography - Matt Rendell

MAMIL's

If you haven't already heard the term "MAMIL", this is latest acronym to try and segment an emerging demographic group by the market research firm Mintel. "MAMIL" stands for Middle Aged Man In Lycra (see picture for the image that conjours up).

I did titter to myself when I read it. No doubt because there will be hoards of blokes below 40 who will object to being called "middle aged" (the demographic is from 35-44) and that the their interest in cycling is somehow linked to them having a mid-life crisis. As someone that fits within the MAMIL definition, here's my take.

It's true that as you get older, you're values change and things like health and well being, nudge themselves futher up your list. It wasn't until I was starting to approach forty that I kind of got that need to "kick start" getting back into fitness, I guess it was part of the mid-life crisis cycle that we all get to go through, if you're not there yet, good luck with it!

Thinking of my day job, it involves lots of time sat at a PC screen, sat in meeting rooms or in my car plus long hours or time away. Outside of work, I found myself doing lots more work and devoting all spare time to raising the kids and being #1 Dad. As a result, the old waistline was expanding and I wanted to do something about it and "break the cycle" so to speak. That's how I ended up back on the bike, this blogpost explains the key steps I took.

Why I enjoy cycling so much is that aswell as being a way of getting fitter, it does appeal to my gadgety bloke nature too. Poring over bikes, specs, latest stuff and statistics is right up my street. I confess to buying mags and admiring bikes, thinking of new wheels, new bikes and all that comes with it, like an expensive car (with perhaps one less nought on the cost).

I've really enjoyed the science behind performance, reviewing my heart rates, diet and technique, riding sportives, seeing new countryside, meeting new people and really developing a passion for a sport, rather than just buying a bike.

In conclusion, I think I am a MAMIL as far as the basic definition goes. I'm in the age group, I wear lycra, I have a carbon bike, do sportives but have not (yet) ridden Mont Ventoux.

So, I'm now firmly in my box, defined by the marketeers and now waiting for the hoards of marketing material that is no doubt going to arrive. I can feel a T-Shirt coming on, a magazine and a support group. On a more serious note, Mintel wouldn't be doing reserach like this if it wasn't a significant marketplace at stake. MAMIL's have disposable income, they are ABC classification demographic, likely to be home-owner and in middle or senior management roles. There are lots of complimentary businesses that want to communicate with this sector, so the MAMIL is not soon to be extinct, but a new force to be reckoned with.

You can read the full BBC news story behind MAMIL's here.

North Cheshire Clarion Club Run

"Ahhhh, a bloody wasp has just flown up my base layer sleeve and stung me", seriously you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but it happened to me today out on the club ride. About five minutes after heaving myself a nasty little hill on the route (heart rate hit 186bpm - total RED lining), I felt something just fly up my sleeve and then the sensation of the sting going in. Damn! It was bearable at the time, tonight my wrist is slowly seizing up, not painful though.

It didn't take the shine off a really nice ride out, we did 50 miles in all. Heading North from Warrington rather than South, it made a nice change to see a new route and ride some new roads. Today's cafe stop was at Rufford Marina in Rufford, Lancashire. Arriving, it quickly dawned on us that this was road bike central. All in, there must of been fifty road cyclists already seated with more arriving as the minutes ticked by.

Seems a lot of the Lancashire clubs use this as their regular cafe stop, there was a real collection of kit parked up, plenty of Dolans there with being in Lancashire. Liverpool Mercury and Harry Middleton Cycles clubs both turned up en masse, there were sixteen of us, so a real hotbed of clubs, new and old, which was nice to see.

I took the unicorn out today (nickname the lads in the club have given my Dolan Ares), it was a last minute decision as I spent an hour mounting mudguards on my Specialized Secteur Sport, thinking it was going to hammer down. As it turned out, it was overcast, but dry and the bike returned home unscathed, immediately cleaned and put back into it's display cabinet in our dining room :-)

July hasn't been the best month for miles, I've only got a couple of hundred miles under my belt for a number of reasons, so work to do as the Manchester 100 and Tour of Britain Stoke stage are looming, happy days.

Boardman Team Carbon Increases in Price

Boardman bikes have been selling like hotcakes of late. According to recent information from Halfords, they've sold around 21,000 units of the range in their last financial year, a very good sales result, for a very good bike range.

Boardman got it right in terms of his line up and has won lot's of awards for his road bikes which start with the Comp at £699, then flowing through the range with the Team at £899, the Team Carbon at £1199 and the Pro Carbon at £1599 (the Pro Carbon won Cycling Weekly Bike of the Year), not bad for a relatively new entrant to the market.

However, only in the last couple of weeks the Team Carbon has increased in price from £999 to £1199, all a bit sudden. They've sold a lot of this particular model, primarily because the spec for the money is second to none and because it came in at the magical price point of £999. This is the upper ceiling for the Cycle to Work scheme, with most employers limiting spend to £1000 due to them needing to obtain a Consumer Credit Licence if offering bikes over this value. As a result, a huge proportion of this particular model were sold by Halfords on this scheme (Boardman bikes are only available via Halfords).

I'm not sure why this model alone has gone up in price as others in the range have stayed static. What is evident is that it takes one of the most popular choices for Cycle to Work road riders out of reach. I'm sure this will play nicely into the hands of competing brands like Planet X who are still catching this price band with their SL Pro Carbon Ultegra SL bike (another great ride for the money). I'm sure Halfords have their reasons, however I'm sure that recent buyers of the bike will be pretty happy they managed to get one before the price increase (you reading this Gary!).

Boardman continues to build a great reputation for his bikes, focusing primarily on the quality of the frame. Most reviews recommend you to upgrade the wheels when you can afford to aswell as getting it set up properly by a local bike shop, as Halfords have been a bit hit and miss with set-up, according to reviews I've read.

The decision to put the price up will fall into the hands of the competing brands, that's for sure, they'll all be rubbing their hands at the numbers of buyers that want a carbon bike under a grand. Whether the rest of the range will go up in price, we'll see.