Mike's map

WHAT?! Yep, you read it right, Mike, photographer and postman from Leeds, has been on a cycling adventure for brainstrust. He set off at the beginning of June and got back about a week ago. I’ve yet to meet Mike for a pint to hear the full gory details, but I do know that he completed this MAMMOTH 1600 mile trek unsupported, and without a major hitch. When he wasn’t riding or on

Mike, before in Leeds before his adventure

the ferry to Ireland, Mike took in the 3 peaks – Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, and then carried on past John O’Groats to the Shetland Isles.

The route:

From Lands End, Mike is headed North East through Cornwall and Devon to Bristol. He then cycled into Wales to climb Snowdon. Then it was onto Hollyhead for the ferry to Dublin, where Mike spent a week taking in the Giants Causeway and climbing Slieve Donard (the highest peak in Northern Ireland), before catching the ferry from Belfast to Liverpool. there he scrambled up Ben Nevis. Following the Ben Nevis climb Mike struck on for Inverness, then John O’Groats and the Shetlands.

brainstrust director, Helen Bulbeck, said: “We are in awe of Mike’s commitment to our cause. This adventure is a challenge of staggering proportions, and we are truly moved that he wishes to devote his time in the saddle to brainstrust and our ambition to help every patient in the UK who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour”.
Donations to Mike’s endeavour can be made via his JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/Landsendtoshetlandvia3peeks and you can see more photos from Mike’s trek here, on his flickr page.

It’s interesting that last year a significant percentage of riders threw in the towel at the Kielder 100 because of gear failure. And I know that this is probably stating the obvious, but the more miles we’re clocking up, the more problems we’re coming across with our bikes… the most exciting being Lloyd’s brakes going up in flames on a particularly steep section of singletrack (it was so good we made him do it again!)

Impromptu fires aside, so far I’ve managed to get through:

4 sets of brake pads for the mtb (now there’s a money spinner for the pad co’s… don’t get me started)
1x 53 tooth ring on the road bike
3x  chains (2 mtb, 1 road)
1x road tyre (rear)
2x mtb tyres
1x mtb cassette
4x gear cables
1x front mech (mtb)
2x mech hangers (mtb)

So all wear and tear bits really, with the road parts being down to winter months on the rollers, spinning away in the big gears. But still, could a better maintenance regime have helped save some parts/money? Probably! In fact, the quick sums in my head whilst typing this list have taught me a lesson… ouch.

I guess of paramount importance is that  we need to make sure that on race day, we’re not forced out by a simple mechanical failure – to think, all the training, undone by a simple breakdown. Our team knowledge of mtb mechanics dates back to about 1998, when there wasn’t much that couldn’t be fixed with a monkey wrench and a hammer, so Al (currently recuperating from a nasty broken foot) has been doing some homework. Read on to find out exactly what ‘them daft wee screws’ on your rear mech do…

When my shiny new bike showed up at my door, my second thought was, “how long can I get-away-with not servicing this thing?” Needless to say, my first thought involved dancing up and down and possibly swearing with joy and disbelief at how cool the new bike was

Anything mechanical needs maintaining. We all know this but only very few of us so-called ‘Bike enthusiasts’, are actually enthusiastic about this side of riding. Countless times I’ve attempted to read maintenance columns in magazines only to get halfway through said article with 100% less ambition to finish it as I had at the start . Basically the reasons for my feelings about this are probably the same as others in the same boat. You buy a bike to ride, maintenance is an afterthought, a second thought.

The more one rides, the more one realises the importance of a little bit of cycle orientated TLC. The last thing you want out on a trail is for your gears to clunk or your brakes to literally set on fire. I had the pleasure of following Lloyd down a steep road not so long ago only to see his rear disc spurt out flames! So, what happened there? No idea. Probably worn pads creating friction. Easy – change the pads. But crikey did that suddenly make me seriously aware of the complexities that are the mountain bike beneath me.

Several times in my many years of riding, myself and friends have had gear slip where the rear mech is not properly lined up and tuned. This is very frustrating as it can lead to your knees smacking the stem. Not to mention wear on the chain and cogs and general irritation. So what we do is stand around the bike, chins in hands staring down at this contraption known as a derailleur. “Anyone got a screwdriver?” Obviously, in our quest for success none of us have a clue but it’s the best ice breaker anyone can summon. As long as we look like we know what we’re doing, thats the main thing. The reason for the screwdriver is to have a ‘good go’ at those 2 screws on the mech. They MUST have something to do with alignment. After 15 minutes of trial and error the gears are marginally better so we soldier on. The fact that I’ve owned a mountain bike for the best part of 20 years and have no idea how a rear mech works, really is funny. My ‘Have a go at the screws’, attitude is my typical primitive, hunter-gatherer, male attitude showing through. What can I say? It’s worked so far! I ride for riding, not so I have a bike to tinker with.

With this Kielder 100 looming, and my ambition to enter some DH races this year, I have decided to get serious about bike maintenance. I want my gears to be split second accurate. I want my breaks to work perfectly and I want my suspension tuned to my weight.  It turns out that our little screws on the rear mech are called ‘Limit screws’.

Extract from Park Tools Website:

“Derailleur pulleys are limited in both inward and outward motions by using the derailleur limit screws. Properly set, the derailleur will shift to both the extreme outward sprocket (the smallest in size) and the extreme innermost sprocket (the largest in size). The limit screws do not control the derailleur on the sprockets between the two extremes. These are set using the barrel adjuster and tension on the inner wire. The limit screws are usually marked “H” and “L”. The “H” controls the outer most limit of the derailleur, and the “L” controls the inner most limit.”

So there you have it. Messing with the limit screws all these years is NOT fully what I should have been doing. I am now finding it very interesting as I age, to get into the nitty gritty of the workings of a bike. The fact that the Kielder 100 is on the horizon has absolutely nothing to do with it…. Honestly….

I wonder if we’ll be coming across something like this on one of our Kielder 100 training rides? Hope so

Oh, and our sponsorship page is up now. So please spare some cash – It’s for a really worthwhile cause, and this one’s going to hurt. A lot. Just click here: http://www.justgiving.com/K100

Thanks!

Will, Lloyd & Al

Well, we started with the best intentions. With the Kielder 100 a palatable 8 full months away, January would be the time to get a head start on the Spring/Summer.

We know that later in the year our precious weekends will be nibbled away at by impending nuptials, holidays and all the usual ‘it’s sunny let’s drink brown booze’ stuff that goes on. So there it was. We agreed to while away our first January of the decade in the best possible manner.  We were to set out as we meant to go on, and prepare ourselves for the season by getting loads of TITS (that’s Time In The Saddle).

Yeah right. As soon as a ’slightly seedier than 31st Dec 08′ Jools H counted us in to the new decade, the first frosty flake fell from the sky, which in turn hoisted a comedy giant sized two foam fingers to our plans.

So what now? Well from our team of three, there appear to be two approaches.

1) ‘The Alex Allan programme’. This consists of long and strenuous reps of xbox, xbox, facebook, facebook, xbox, facebook.

2) There is no describing the alternative. Here a mild nervousness brews inside, welling up from the (numb) toes. This is then compounded by cabin fever which is induced by being snow bound. This is not eased by the fact that Lloyd and I are talking A LOT about riding, and how we need to get on with it. A morbid frustration hangs in the air, knowing that we just need to get some hours on the bike. But for the life of us we just can’t see a way to get out there and actually get the hours in while the snow is on the ground.

So there we have it. All best intentions shot to pieces. Any semblance of a new years resolution laid to rest. And we’re not even a week in.

Al, dreaming of xbox.

Oh, and what’s that quietly fluttering to mat? Ah yeah, the first wedding invite of 2010. Thanks guys, you picked the best weekend there was. The weekend before the Kielder 100. Bend over, I’ll drive.

Britains first 100 mile, single lap, mountain bike race, held at Kielder Forest & Water Park is back for 2010, and this time, we’ll be there!

The team brainstrust Kielder 100 entry so far consists of Will Jones (that’s me!), Alex Allan and Lloyd Harland, all from Yorkshire. We’re in for some tough training, and we’ll make sure to share the highs (and the lows) with you here as we go.

If you’re interested in joining us, just send an email to will@brainstrust.org.uk outlining your cycling experience to date and in return for raising a small amount of money through sponsorship, brainstrust will be happy to reimburse your entry fee. There may even be a beer waiting for you on the finish line.

The route will use a variety of manmade trails, tracks and fire roads in Kielder Forest and crosses the border into Scotland to use the Newcastleton 7Stanes trails.

Start Date/Time 04-09-2010 06:30:00
Finish Date/Time 04-09-2010 20:00:00

Time cut-offs add an extra challenge to the event, but serve a purpose to get all riders home by dusk at 8pm.

Location:
Kielder Castle Visitor Centre
Kielder Forest & Water Park, Northumberland

Categories
Open – Male (18-39)
Open – Female (18-39)
Veteran – Male (40+)
Veteran – Female (40+)

There will also be prizes from the event organiser for the first male/female single speeders. Entry closes on Friday 27th August.

To join team brainstrust (benefits include subsidized entry cost), or just to find out more about racing for brainstrust, and the benefits, email will@brainstrust.org.uk or call 07855 987340.