Penny Farthings

Everyone knows that penny farthings were named in reference to the size of two British coins: the large front wheel being the penny, and the small back wheel being the farthing (worth a quarter of a penny). Not everyone knows that enthusiasts sporting waxed mustaches still ride these beasts round the British countryside. Here are two fine examples, outside the First House in Scotland in Gretna.

And here are the waxed mustache-clad enthusiasts mounting said beasts and heading north to John O'Groats (having started in Lands End).

The North of England

They say, "It's grim up north". I disagree. I was lucky enough to stay with Aggs in Long Preston, who has a fabulous place and makes an equally fabulous chicken pie! Mmmm, chicken pie...

Check out the bedroom where I slept! Now, this is more like Rivendell!

There is, however, a little rain occasionally...

BIG THANKS!!!

According to my JustGiving page, I've officially made my sponsorship target of £500!!! In fact I'm quite a way over it, since I've also got £65 collected from people along the way and there's an additional £100 from other sources.

So I'd just like to say a huge THANKS to everyone who has been so generous and donated to Orchid.

Stats

A few quick stats on the journey so far:

Days so far: 11
Distance so far: 1289 km (805 miles)
Spokes broken: 4 (now fixed with a new wheel - BIG thanks to Matt and Kate)
Punctures: 1
Max speed: 85 km/h (53 mph), coming down off Dartmoor
No. items left behind in random places: ___ (I'm too embarassed to say!)

The Midlands

The Midlands is all about canals - it's where they started. Along with the industrial revolution.

Tight squeeze! Don't try taking these too quickly...

Who knew that Rivendell is in the English Midlands, just outside Warrington!

The South East

After spending time visiting family and old friends in London, I headed for Essex to catch up with Vicky and Jonny, who are ace musicians and all round great people. First I had to go through London one more time...

Then I cycled up the Lea Navigation, which is a surprisingly nice corridor along a canal. Better than your average London commute:

Then I went through a field, which didn't go so well...

There sure are some damn fine looking houses in the S.E. of England.

London

Hi folks,
Sat 21st. I'm in London, E. Sheen to be precise. I'm staying with my old school buddie, Pete, his lovely wife Mary-Clare and their one year old. Many apologies for the lack of blogging so far on this trip. This is due to me not being tech-savy enough to own anything like a mobile internet. Also, I've been dealing with some bike issues (broken spokes) and have had to put in some fairly long days to cover the distance up from Cornwall, so there's been a lack of time for things like blog updates.

Anyway, what can I say about London. London has really amazing people, that's what I can say about London. And London also now has a new bike hire scheme like the ones they have in the other cool cities in Europe like Paris.

Plugged in, hoping for a bit of extra charge.

London also has some surprising wildlife. Aside from the doormouse I saw at my Grandma's house in central London, and the Pidgeons around Trafalgar Square, there's the amazing Richmond Park, complete with herds of deer:

With a Cape...

So... My darling wife and my flatmate Scherie put me up to this: if I was to do Cape to Cape it had to be with a cape. So here's yours truly, appropriately caped and exploring the wilds of Britain.

The start of the adventure. I met two lovely families in Cornwall who were holidaying together and they invited my for BBQ supper and wine. They snapped this picture of me as I left...

Cape Cornwall, learning to fly.

Our intrepid superhero suspects some evil creature is at work. A giant alien bee is building hexagonal domes and is intent on taking over the south of England (it's the Eden Project and the domes are biospheres).

Clearly our superhero's powers are still very much alive. Stonehenge pales into insignificance beneath the mighty warrior's giant stature (it's there somewhere; better photo below.)

Shakedown

I decided to test out the new steed on a wee ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Britain has this emerging and awesome bike network that has grown from a couple of hundred miles in 1995 to over 12,000 miles in 2010. Nice work Sustrans!

Glasgow and Edinburgh are linked by route 75, which runs along the Forth and Clyde and the Glasgow to Edinburgh Union Canals.

Funky boats...

Half way along is a giant structure called the Falkirk Wheel. This replaced a flight of 11 locks that once linked the Forth and Clyde to the higher level of the Union. This lock flight was dismantled in the grey days when canals seemed completely obsolete. The Falkirk wheel is the only rotary boat lift in the world and is pretty impressive! The video below has been slowed down a little for clarity...

Things had gone pretty smoothly up to the Falkirk wheel - smooth, well maintained towpaths, nice weather, tail wind. Immediately after the wheel are two tunnels, the second of which is about 700 m long. As we emerged, the weather had changed. In fact, it rained so hard that the towpath basically turned into one big puddle.

At the end of the day we'd covered 60 miles. My new bike was completely fine, the riders were a little more disheveled. Thanks to our hero flatmate Scherie, we had pre-ordered Thai food waiting for us when we finally rolled in to Ol' Reekie.

New Bike

Wow - first post on the personal blogosphere! This has nothing at all to do with snow. Instead it's a brief snippet about my new (to me) bike that I'm intending to ride the length of Britain for the Orchid Cancer charity. I'm planning to ride Cape to Cape - that's Cape Cornwall in, well, Cornwall to Cape Wrath in the north east of Scotland. A little detour via London, Essex, Chester, Glasgow and Inverness to visit friends will take the total mileage to around 1500 miles.

If you'd like to sponsor me on this ride, please visit my JustGiving page to make a donation.

Here's the bike I found locally for 65 smackeroonies:

Seems ideal for long-distance cruising (sorry!), with mudguards, rack, comfy seat. Time for a few mods:

• Chain guard, dynamo, light set and ugly decals had to go
• The 7-speed transmission was upgraded to 21 speed by fitting a 3-piece crankset
• Drop handlebars (£5 from Edinburgh Bike Station) with Shimano Sora integrated shifters (a lot more than £5 from ChainReactionCycles)
• Upgraded pedals with toe-clips

Cap it off with a bottle cage and some rad red tape and it's starting to look the business:

I intend to start riding on 17th August from Cape Cornwall and be at Cape Wrath on 3rd September. I'll hopefully get to update this blog along the way with some reports and pictures - stay tuned...