My Bikes

I have literally owned many bikes and built quite a few, too many to remember them all. Up until I was about twenty something they were pretty much run of the mill stuff, cheap and cheerful. 

My first real bike or what I consider serious was after I had started having a go at building my first mountain bike back in the early eighties or late seventies. I bought a red Saracen MTB with a double chain set as triples were still yet to come in for mountain bikes. I used it for a while round town and for local rides, but then sold it for another Saracen but with a triple chain set so I could go proper off road. Sadly that got stolen and I went through a stage of building my first mountain bikes and some road bikes. 

My next big buy was a Dawes Edge mountain bike that cost me £600 back in the late eighties. The main picture on the blog title is of the Dawes Edge. I used this for some off road work longer local rides about twenty miles or so and getting to and from work. I became reasonably fit and on weekends I got a flavour of doing sponsored lengthy bikes around the county. This was the early version of Audax ride we have today and was good fun to be involved in.

I had the Dawes for many years and at the same time I built quite a few racing and touring road bikes which I rode for a short time and then sold on. Below are a few of the bikes I have built over the years.

The Handsomedog MTB!

 

The Sab 4.0 with a 105 groupset

The Orbit Tourer
This was built around the late 80s, I always find it interesting that now in the 21st century the bike marketing companies are advertising the gravel bike, does the Orbit remind you of anything? LOL.

Currently I'm riding my Ribble Audax winter training bike, that I built last year. The frame was bought from Ribble and then I've added the components as I go. It's currently fitted with Shimano a Sora groupset. Pretty standard but ideal for winter training.

I have a large shed that I store and do all my bike building in. I'm very lucky as it's so big and I can keep everything safe and dry, it also acts as my training area for when I'm using the indoor trainer.

You can see my Ribble Audax and my Ribble sportive that I'm in the process of building with my training bike in the foreground. The picture below is of the reverse angle so you can get an idea of the size.

The Sportive is a winter project so I'm taking my time on the build, which is good, as I'm awaiting for all the parts and tools to put it together! 
You have to remember this has taken a while to put together and it comes from been dedicated to cycling. The average keen cyclist can quite happily exist with just one good bike!

The Stroke

On April 30th in 2015 my life changed. I hadn't been feeling well for roughly two weeks before, having suffered from dizzy spells and headaches. I seen my doctor and had a scan at the local hospital but they had passed me as OK. Then finally on the morning of the 30th I started having major dizzy spells that got worse and worse, to the point of feeling absolutely plastered and when you're so drunk you can't stand up because of loss of balance. 

Precisely at the point of losing my balance my wife returned from walking our dogs and quickly realised something was not right and immediately rang the emergency services. By the time they had arrived at my house I was completely immobile, I could not move apart from my eyes, I had what I found out to be locked in syndrome from having had a brain stem stroke. 

Basically I was completely paralysed for two days and then gradually began to have some movement with my arms. I could not talk, but managed to communicate by a letter board although half the time I could not focus on the letters! I remember thinking that I would soon be out and about with no thoughts of fear of permanent paralysis, but it wasn't going to be that easy.

After 5 weeks of being in hospital and basically learning to walk again besides many other things I came out of hospital. But my recovery was really only just starting. When I say walk I could manage a few yards, it took at least another three months to be able to say I was back to walking about half a mile. It's a very weird feeling having to learn to walk again believe me, just putting one leg in front of the other was hard work!

Finally after about five months I came to the decision that it was about time I tried out a little bicycle ride. Attempting to ride a bike round the garden was a bit of joke to start with. I had very little energy and my balance was shot, but I persevered, determined not to give up and finally on about the tenth attempt I managed a short ride the length of the garden, I had succeeded! 

I then attempted a short trip down to my local village and back, which was only about a Kilometre but felt like miles. I succeeded but, any car passing me made me wobble and I was extremely tired. I was trying to cycle once a week and by the third week I was getting past the village and round a few local roads, a reasonable five miles or so. After about the fifth week I attempted a 10 miler and couldn't believe I actually succeeded, it was a major milestone in my recovery and I was over the moon!

Before too long I was soon attempting a twenty mile ride and although it seemed to take forever as I wasn't exactly going at speed, I managed to get round the route and I was then confident that my cycling was not over due to the stroke. However sadly some things did suffer, for the life of me I could not balance on training rollers  and my motor biking days were over due to loss of balance when rounding corners.

But without doubt the biggest difference post stroke was my mental ability, I lost confidence in myself and the frustration of recovery was very difficult, I think looking back now I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but the one person who stuck by me through it all was my wife. But when these things happen I think of others who have had similar disabilities and not got away with it like myself. I count myself very very lucky indeed.

Getting Started

Well the first thing is of course to have a bike, be it road bike, mountain bike , any bike! When starting out bikes can be expensive, they can range from a few to thousands of pounds/dollars etc. My only advice would be get a reasonable alloy frame, don't bother carbon at this stage, just a good strong alloy frame that's reasonably light weight. Components etc you can change, but a new frame will cost, so get a good one to start with.

Get out enjoy the bike ride experience, go your own pace and get the feel of cycling, it's fun, so enjoy it! Once your happy riding about try and get in routine of riding every day or every other day so your body gets used to a bit of exercise. Getting to do regular exercise to start with, is better than trying to exert yourself too much in an unorganised pattern. You will probably end up injuring yourself if you do this. Just take it easy for the first few weeks and get yourself in to the stride and you should begin to start felling a little healthier. 

Remember some common sense here, if you have a medical condition or are  overweight check with a medical professional first before exercising.

My personal experience as I said before was that I have been riding a bike since my early teens. However, back in 2015 I suffered a Brain Stem Stroke which naturally caused somewhat of a setback in my exercise regime! Suffice to say,  I was paralysed for roughly five weeks and it took me around six months to be up and walking and thinking about cycling again. So I will start from 2015, because as you can imagine riding a bike was now completely alien to me, as I had just learn't to walk again!

Old Man Cycling - The beginning

I decided to start this blog because I seem to be the only 60 year old man cycling! I know that's ridiculous and not true but living out in the middle of the sticks in Gloucestershire, I feel like the title of the book "The loneliness of a Long Distance Runner" only replace runner with Cyclist!

I've been cycling in some way ever since I was a teenager, never seriously as in wanting to be a professional, but enough to get me out and about as a teenager and then to keep reasonable fit as an adult. My average distance then was about 20 miles and it was mainly the enjoyment and the freedom of cycling that appealed to me.

I was also heavily in to the mechanics and the building of bikes and even as a youngster I started to tinker with the gearing and seating positions and later began to build my own racing bikes.This has gone on from building several bikes from the wheels and spokes upwards.

Nowadays I tend to go down the easier path of buying off the shelf bikes but occasionally I will still have a go at building the odd bike. Presently I own four bikes, a Cube Attain, which is a carbon lightweight, two Ribble audax bikes, one a winter trainer and the other a later 7005 sportive that I am in the process of building. Finally I have my training bike that lives on my static indoor trainer.

Interestingly my training and riding distance has gone up as I get older, which either points to more time on my hands, or the thought of getting older scares the hell out of me! 

This Blog will record my rides and experiences be it building bikes, indoor or outdoor training sessions, so as to give myself and other like minded people of a similar age knowledge of what to expect or what can be achieved. Training when your sixty has differences obviously from when your a young 30 year old. These are mainly recovery times, your body takes a certain time to repair aching muscles etc and as you get older this may take longer. Also it is essential that you do proper warm up exercises for the start or the end of a training session, If you don't I assure you you'll know about it!

Remember when starting anything new take it easy gradually work yourself in to it, never rush, it will come gradually. So far this past summer I started at a large 93 kilos and am now 87 kilos, I can safely and happily ride 40 odd miles, climb steep hills and not feel too worn out. If I can do it, so can anyone!