DAS

I’ve taken the plunge and decided to do my DAS. Yes, it’s a lot of money but I’m definitely seeing it as an investment, and better to do it now while I actually have some disposable income and all my money isn’t being tied up with a house or a family! I looked into a few training centres in Sheffield, all seemed to be round a similar price, and went for some free assessments at a couple to see how I got on. One of the places I went to put me off right away with their somewhat chauvinistic attitude and talking about me as if I wasn’t there. Do that and you’re not getting my custom thank you very much! Next I went along to Bikesafe, who are also recommended by SMC where I bought my bike, so feeling somewhat deflated after the first place, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Well, they were absolutely lovely. They had a huge training area with plenty of space and I had a proper ½ hour assessment rather than a quick 3 minutes at the other place. They let me do a few laps to get used to the bike rather than launch me straight into slow manoeuvres right away. I even had a short go on one of their 500s! I left feeling very enthusiastic and, obviously given the not inconsiderable cost, I said I’d go away and have a think. My thinking only lasted a few days before I decided to go for it, so I phoned back and got my 125 training day, module 1 training and module 1 test all booked in. No going back now!

Theory

Well, I did my theory test. Not much else to say really, it was pretty straightforward and fairly dull. I’d never done a hazard perception test though because that came in a few years after I did my car theory test, so I made sure I did lots of practice runs on the internet (whilst watching Back to the Future, which made the test a bit more exciting!). I can kind of see why they decided to do it as hazard perception is an extremely important part of being a road user (hmmm, maybe cyclists should be forced to take it as well….), I just found it totally unrealistic. But then aside from everyone having little microphones and talking through the hazards as they spot them and see them develop, I can’t think of a better way to do it!

Note to self

When having riding in winter when the salt spreaders have been out, DO NOT LEAVE IT OVER A WEEK TO CLEAN THE BIKE!!! Oh dear. I have a few little corroded bits now :(

Merry Winter!

Well, the snow and ice has arrived and is definitely here to stay. I haven't been out on the bike since the middle of November and with the worst snow in Sheffield for 40 odd years, it's staying tucked up in the garage until every last bit has melted! I got a SatNav for my birthday/Christmas which has a long battery life and is small enough to fit into my tankbag so I'll be experimenting with it in the new year. In the meantime, enjoy the festive season!

Hobs and Catie’s Biking Adventures Part II

Hobs came up the weekend just gone for a second round of biking adventures, and this time we decided to head a bit further afield! We headed out of Sheffield and, via Wentworth, Wath Upon Dearne and the outskirts of Doncaster, we ended up on the A19 to Selby. Once around Selby we headed across the country roads to Driffield where we joined the A614 to Bridlington just as the drizzle cleared up and the sun started shining. Bridlington was lovely, very sweet and old fashioned and we ate our sandwiches out on the pier watching the boats coming in and out of the harbour.



Sandwiches eaten, tea drunk and loo visits taken, we continued on our way. We took the A165 then the B1242 along the coast to Hornsea and pootled by the beach for a bit and ate an obligatory seaside ice cream despite the fact it was freezing. The plan had been to continue inland across country roads to Beverley but we somehow got lost in the suburbs of Hull which was less than ideal. After a good 45 minutes faffing we managed to find our way out and decided to take a different route; the A63 and B1230 to Goole then the A161 to Retford and then onto Worksop where we joined the A57 and headed home. By this time it was dark and raining quite heavily and I’d gotten very cold and was thoroughly miserable. We finally arrived back in Sheffield cold, wet, tired and hungry, but luckily my boyfriend being the jolly nice chap he is had cooked us a full roast! After dinner and a beer we headed down into Sheffield to see Sabaton who were brilliant. All in all an excellent but tiring day! We slept soundly that night.

I learnt quite a lot from the day’s ride, in particular how easy it is to get very tired and cold very quickly on a long ride. Although I’d taken an extra fleece to put on I still wasn’t warm enough, and with an already tight jacket, the additional layer made moving my arms a bit trickier. A thin thermal long-sleeved shirt is definitely required! My hands also got extremely cold, but I think rather than invest in some heated gloves (as I don’t do all that much riding in the winter months) I might get a thin thermal pair of gloves to wear underneath. I also learnt that I need to route-plan much better. Quite a lot of Saturday was spent on main A roads which were busy as well as being fairly uninspiring to ride on. I’ve realised now that route planning for a bike is a totally different kettle of fish than planning for a car journey, which is essentially getting from A to B without little thought as to how busy the roads might be and, more importantly, how interesting they are to ride on. This is something I’m going to bear in mind much more when planning routes in the future.

Sunday saw a more relaxed day’s biking, essentially pootling around in the Peaks. We ended up in Matlock which if you’re a biker is THE place to be on a Sunday, as it pretty much gets taken over. We parked up and wondered around the town admiring the rows and rows of bikes lined up along the main street. One particularly eye-catching bike was this custom Suzuki 1800cc which was absolutely incredible!!! The chap who owned it was kind enough to let me have a sit on it, and even with my gorilla arms the handlebars were just out of reach! Absolutely stunning, although I wouldn’t fancy being the one who has to polish it!

A gap in the market?

I haven’t been getting on very well with my leather trousers. I don’t like the style of them as they’re more racing trousers and they don’t really go with my bike, I only got them because they were the only ones that fit me! But biking gear doesn’t come cheap so I’ve been saving up for some decent textile trousers. I headed down to SMC to see what they had in stock, and although they had a pretty decent range, they had no long length trousers, everything was short or regular. The guy said he could order some longer ones in, but most manufacturers only do one style in long length. I like the Frank Thomas gear but and tried on a nice pair, but apparently they only do an entry level trouser in long length whereas I wanted something a bit more substantial. In the end I went for the Frank Thomas XTI trousers. They’re a bit too short but they cover the top of my boots at least, which is the main thing. It got me thinking though…surely I’m not the only long-limbed biker out there? What do other people do? It’s the same problem with my jacket, the sleeves are really too short and I got the longest gloves in the shop and they barely cover the ends. Maybe there is a gap in the market for extra long length biking gear?!

Hobs and Catie’s Biking Adventures Part I

My friend Hobs from back down south passed his DAS back in April and got himself a Kawasaki GPZ. When he found out I’d done my CBT he promised to come up to visit and have a weekend biking in the Peaks, so we finally got round to organising it! He came up on Friday after work (up the M1…rather him than me!) and we planned a route in the pub, which is definitely the best place for route planning!

We set off about 9.30 on the Saturday morning after taking a bit of a detour to SMC Bikes for a bacon sandwich and a cuppa and a browse at bikes we couldn’t afford. Then we set off on Ecclesall Road towards the Peaks. I’m writing this somewhat after the event so I can’t remember 100% where we went, but our route went something like this:

Foxhouse – Grindleford – Calver – Hassop – Bakewell – Haddon – Youlgreave – across the A515 to Hartington which was our first stop – Hulme End – Wetton – Dovedale – Thorpe – Ilam – Grindon – Onecote – Upper Elkstone – over the moors (with some amazing views of The Roaches to the A53 – Buxton – A6 to Doveholes – Sparrow Pit – through Winnat’s Pass (which is EPIC on a motorbike!!!) to Castleton – Hope – Bamford – Ladybower – Strines (where we stopped at the inn for a bite to eat) – Bradfield – Loxley – back into Sheffield. It was an amazing day, the furthest I’d been on the bike so far, and perhaps a bit too far as I hadn’t properly run the engine in! I asked Hobs what he thought of my riding and he gave me a few useful tips, such as positioning on the road during corners and using both my front and rear brakes, not just the rear! I had a bit of an incident on a muddy stretch of road where the back wheel totally went out from under me as I was only using the back brake. Luckily I managed to straighten myself out but it was a bit of a shock and I’ll certainly bear it in mind in future!




Not a great deal of biking took place on Sunday as I had to be at a band practice at 11.30, and we’d had a rather late night out at a metal club, so we headed out to Calver via Froggat for a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea (do you see a theme here?). We then headed to Hathersage via Grindleford. Once through Hathersage we took the sharp left along the awesomely named Fiddler’s Elbow which leads round to Ringinglow via Burbage. Burbage is a bit of climbers’ hotspot and today was no exception. Due to my abandoning him for band practice, Hobs was meeting up with a friend to go climbing so we parted ways and I headed back to Sheffield. All in all an excellent weekend was had!