Tour de Kilkenny 2017

Where did August go? Too many evenings spent watching La Vuelta and not enough time out on the bike! That said, I did complete the monthly strava Fondooo grand and early in the month, in the form of the Tour de Kilkenny. I was invited to partake by a friend Liam, who I'd first cycled with when I accompanied him from Clonakilty to Skibbereen, as part of his Wild Ireland Tour back in 2014. In fact, that was the first 100 km day I'd done. You can relive all of the Wild Ireland cycle tour here, it's well worth a look.

Anyway, Liam had suggested that we do the 160km route, as it would be a good challenge. But almost immediately after arriving chez liam, the excuses began to bubble up. There was talk of the 160 route being "a bit hilly" and "maybe we'll just take a right turn back to town before it gets difficult" and the like.

It was very tempting to sit and drink beer and talk bike nonsense long into the night, but we took the more sensible option and got an early night. Up at 7am for a good breakfast before heading in to the start of the day. The sun was shining and the forecast was good! I'd brought the Orbit as I always like to see how many retro steel bikes feature on days like these. As it was, I only saw one other vintage bike, a cracking looking old Mercier, ridden by a very definite audax rider! Shame I didn't get a chance to speak to him though.

Waiting for the off

The first 40 km were fairly swift, as we passed through rolling countryside with few hills. This was grand, but Liam assured me things would get harder after the first food stop. He was right too. The road kicked up quite savagely up Woodstock, and from then on it was up & down for the remainder of the day! It was a relief to get to the lunchstop, where plenty food was on offer by the friendly volunteers.

Onwards, and upwards after lunch, although Liam seemed to take the wrong way at the vital moment, heading right when the 160 sign was definately pointing left! Burning up Woodstock had taken too much out of him apparently. I pressed on anyway, climbing ahead of a club and up into the higher scenery.

Empty roads once the 110 lads all bailed out...

The kilometres slowly clicked by. Another roadside stop for melon and oaty bars, and then back to the grind. The next 20 km climbed slowly up and up, before the final steep but thankfully fairly short climb at about 150km. The last 10km was mostly downhill, which was a welcome relief by this stage of the day.

The rolling Kilkenny countryside

Liam was still waiting for me when I finally crawled over the finish line! The big finish banner was gone so I guess I must have been quite slow, though the average speed of over 24km/h was pretty good for me! All in all, a great day out, in a part of Ireland I hadn't ridden in before. The day was well organised with plenty food and its a great route! Refreshingly well priced too, at only €25 for an early bird booking. Half the price of many other such days. Well worth a go next year if you get the chance!

n + 1

Rule 12 of The Rules states that: "The correct number of bikes to own is n+1", where n is the number of bikes currently owned. Its another good rule, which should of course be adhered to.

For quite a while after getting my road bike I was content, but by autumn 2015 I started to ruminate on the need for another road bike - a spare one perhaps, if something went wrong with my main bike.

But I couldn't afford a new, pricey bike. So I started thinking secondhand. But obviously nothing too beaten up as that would require fixery skills that I don't have. Eventually I started to think that maybe something old school would be appropriate - something made of steel perhaps. But still no rash decisions were made.

I knew that a blogging friend (who sadly I've not met yet - Hi Gav) had a retro steel bike called an Orbit America. I loved the name - it sounded great! I googled the model and looked at some pics. After which it was a small step to add two words "for sale" after "Orbit America" and press return. And there one was - in England, on a blog, with lots of pics and a nice price! "Wow", I thought, then "it's probably sold already though", as the date on the blog post was quite old. A quick e-mail exchange later and the news was good - it was still available, and even better it was a 56cm frame - a perfect fit! 12 speed, 1989 or thereabouts and only three careful previous owners!

Things proceeded quickly, and before I could change my mind or chicken out, I'd made an offer. Which was acccepted! Brilliant! Now just the logistics to sort out, and bike number two (if you ignore the by now abandoned old hybrid in the back of the shed) was on its way!

A couple of weeks later, after some tricky courier japes, I came home to find a large cardboard box hiding behind the shed. That night I extracted the parts and tried to work out how they all fitted together!

Bike bits!

Hastily assembled  & not yet rideable!

The next day dawned sunny & bright and I just had to get out for a spin - what a great bike! Its a 12 speed, although 5th gear doesn't really work, but the shift from small front chainring to large in 4th at the back is just perfect - a gradual increase in power - the bike just flies along - very comfy! I couldn't wait to get out there for some adventures on my bike number two!

Orbit America - perfect for a sunny day!