We did the CamCycle Reach Ride today, for the first time in 10 years!

2014

2024

SOLD

For Sale - £1000

Bought in February 2014 from the School Run Centre in Cambridge this bike has been well used for 4.5 years in all weathers, and on many surfaces. It's done the childminder, pre-school and school run, as well as countless leisure trips. But now Matthew is moving into Year 1 we have decided it's time to move on and bought a tandem and sadly we don't have space or funds to keep them both, so it is reluctantly for sale.

We're asking £1000. If you're interested please contact me by email (eleanorb@gmail.com) or text message (07791 272131) to arrange a viewing, test ride, or to borrow for a longer test. We're based in Great Shelford, and can arrange to meet you within the Cambridge area.

Description

A bakfiets (literally "box bike") is a cargo bike with a large box at the front, often used for carrying children. This model is made by Bakfiets.nl - a well regarded brand. It is the smaller of their range, being a bit easier to store and a little bit more manoeuvrable. Suitable for up to two children in the box. This particular bike has a black frame, 8 hub gears and a red rain tent - great for all year riding. We've had it regularly serviced at the School Run Centre. This model is currently £1900 new, and the supplied accessories including rain tent would add £300. (Model and price information.)

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I noticed on the way home last night that there seemed to be more insects around, from greenfly trying to get themselves eaten, or sticking to my clothes to a small cloud of midges hanging around while I was waiting at the level crossing. I don't know whether it was the midges, or an actual mosquito, but I realised once I was home that I had a bit on the back of my left wrist, and I later noticed a pink mark between the first two knuckles of that hand, and a bit of poking showed there was another bite there too. Irritating, but not the end of the world.

Overnight however I seem to have had a rather nasty reaction, a bit like my dad gets, and my left hand is now all puffy right round the first two knuckles, and it's even a bit hard to clench my fist! If it doesn't settle down soon I think I'm going to have to get someone to look at it. I don't mind the itching so much (OK, I lied, I *do* mind the itching) but the fact it actually *hurts* a bit is bad. Though the small bruise on the back of the same hand from my adventures in furniture moving over the weekend probably doesn't help.

Bah!

In rather cooler cycling news I was overtaken uphill (over a railway bridge anyway) by someone on a bakfiets cargo bike with a little girl in the front yesterday - turns out it had an electrical motor to assist the pedalling. Certainly not a quiet one mind. If all electric cars were that noisy you'd not have to worry about them silently sneaking up on you :)

And to finish with another bah, my mobile phone is sulking. I noticed a couple of weeks back that the battery was no longer lasting even 48 hours, so since it was under 6 months old I got Orange to replace it under warranty - assuming it was the battery at fault. Turns out it's still draining the battery in a day and a half even with a brand new battery. Really not looking forward to ringing them up again and getting them to replace the phone!

Last weekend we went up to Harrogate for my cousin Alistair's wedding. They chose a lovely venue - Rudding Park Hotel - and we spoiled ourselves by staying the night before as well. We had a nice potter round Harrogate itself on Friday afternoon: a walk in the valley gardens and a visit to the pump room museum where we admired the old bikes amongst other things and tried the waters (which tasted like an over-salted egg mayonnaise sandwich!). We considered afternoon tea at Betty's but declined in favour of cocktails, before heading to the hotel. Our room turned out to have not only its own terrace but a sauna in the bathroom! We didn't try the sauna but did have a lovely bubble bath and coffee on the terrace in our dressing gowns, and a fantastic dinner in the hotel restaurant.

The next day was lovely: we had time for lunch with mum, dad, Steph, Dave, Oliver and Isobel (who slept throughout) before everyone else started to arrive. The wedding was short (civil ones always are) but sweet - I loved their vows and both Cath and Alistair looked very happy indeed. It was lovely to see all the girls from the hen night again two - three of them looking very swish as bridesmaids. And they couldn't have asked for nicer weather - the sun shone and no-one needed jackets despite it being mid-October. (I had a fantastic new dress too, which I found in Debenhams the week before - I rarely spend anywhere near that much on a frock but I knew it was worth it as soon as I tried it on!) There was the usual wedding breakfast and speeches and cake cutting and dancing - but there were also pirate hats and small children hiding behind curtains - a fab time was had by all.

I took Monday off work to catch up on housework and painting and to take my bike to the bike shop - I'd noticed a crack in the rim of the rear wheel earlier that week and had been riding it somewhat gingerly since then! They couldn't look at it right away but rang me back the next day to say if anything the front wheel was even worse, and I also needed a new set of cogs at the back and a new chain, plus a few odds and ends I was already expecting, and I'd be looking at at least £200-£230 to get it back on the road, if not more. So instead I decided it was time to invest in a new bike instead - the previous Ridgeback had done me a happy 5 years and over 8000 miles so I don't think it owed me much! (See when I bought it)

After picking it out and giving them time to set it up and move all my accessories over from the old bike I picked her up yesterday and rode her home after work. I'm going to have to take her out for a proper spin tomorrow but she's looking good, and I'm very happy so far. I even spent half an hour cleaning the shed out this morning in order to get the even old spare bike I've been riding this week tucked back away at the back and make some room for her.

Anyway, this wouldn't be a post of mine without some photos, so here's the wedding:

And here's the bikes:

In both cases click through for more.

Mum and dad came to visit the week after our gardening shopping, and we had a nice weekend. We went to Anglesey Abbey, because I had a vague feeling they were known to have snowdrops, turns out that's a bit of an understatement: they have the biggest collection in the country and over 240 varieties. Mum took loads of photos :) We also put up some pictures, which makes the house look better, and planted various things in the garden, and even flattered my dad into putting the bird box up, by pointing out he was tallest. It was lovely to see them.

The following weekend Karen and I went back to the wedding dress shop, and I re-tried the dress I loved first time round. Also tried a couple more and found another I like even better. It's more expensive, but also more me, so in the end I've ordered that one this week - it'll be here towards the end of June :) Also wedding related I managed to order and collect a tiara for Emily, which she's really pleased with - lovely to be able to help out.

And last weekend was Emily's hen do, in London. She didn't even know where we were going until she got on the train in the morning, and every stage was a complete surprise to her, which was brilliant. Even better she has lots of lovely friends (and family :) and we all had a really good time together. Champagne in St Pancras, pizza, Sister Act at the Palladium, and then dinner and music from King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys at The Pigalle Club. The food was fabulous, the music even better, and the atmosphere brilliant. The hard-core few stayed until 2:30 and then finished off a bottle of cava back at the hotel. I crashed out at 3:30 but I gather the last three managed to get the doorman to let them order in pizza, and god know when they got to bed :) An absolutely fabulous day.

This week I've been mostly catching up on lost sleep. That and helping out with a bike survey at the station yesterday, standing in the cold for an hour and a half at rush hour. Between us we counted (as best we could) every bike going through the gate line to the platforms, every bike leaving or arriving in the main bike parking areas, and at lunchtime every bike currently parked. Turns out there were half as many again bikes as parking spaces, which shows what a problem there is, and well over 1000 bikes through the gates too. It feels good to have helped out.

Planning a quiet weekend now, definitely needed!

Addendum: Oh, and apparently my liver function test came back perfectly normal after a month off the statins. Will go see doc next Weds and discuss the other tests that were done at the same time as the abnormal liver one, and see if I still need to take the metformin.

Today we set out to see if we could follow NCN11 all the way to Stansted Mountfichet, where it apparently runs out. On the way (and before we set off) we did our best to make a start with our copy of the Usborne Spotter's Guide to Birds, which was a present from mum (she gave us each a copy, and kept one herself).

NCN11 review: much better than expected. It has some of the usual flaws (trying to use the pavement on busy stretches, with dismounts for side roads, and some slightly long detours) but once it got to Hinxton it was actually lovely, with some great single track roads, and the one big detour was a lovely route so well worth it, and probably only added a couple of miles. It needs a better route between Shelford and Hinxton really we were wondering if it's the ford/mini-bridge at Duxford that puts them off the Little Shelford/Whittlesford/Duxford route instead.

It's been an absolutely gorgeous day, even if a bit cold. Cold enough that we found there were a few places which still had snow on the road, never mind icy puddles, and one tiny one-track road had a 100m section which was basically ice the whole way across the road. We got off and walked up that bit! Totally beautiful though, and we had a lovely time, and got to Stansted Mountfichet just 15 minutes before the hourly train home, which couldn't have been much better timing!

Route map extracted from the GPS here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/2010-01-03-NCN11. Almost exactly 25 miles.

And here's the birds we've seen:

• Blackbird
• Blue tit
• Carrion Crow
• Chaffinch
• Common Gull (maybe)
• Fieldfare
• Goldfinch
• Grey Heron
• House Sparrow
• Magpie
• Moorhen
• Pheasant
• Robin
• Rook
• Starling

We're fairly sure we saw both rooks and crows, given a good look at legs and beak with the binoculars, and the crows being in pairs and the rooks in larger groups. The gull I'm less sure wasn't a Herring Gull though: from a distance it's hard to tell size, but the book describes the common gull as being more northern, but sometimes southern and inland during the winter, and doesn't mention the herring gull coming inland, which is what made us initially decide that's what it was. Herring gulls score fewer points though, so I suspect since we saw several more later on that that's what they were. The fieldfare was definitely a treat though, since I don't think I've seen one before, and from the drawings it couldn't really have been anything else: the pale front, rich brown back and grey head were very distinctive.

Brilliant day out.

Now with added Photos: over on Facebook (public link)

Rae and Adam invited us and Fluffy for dinner on Saturday to say thankyou to Mike and Fluffy for being bridesmaids. So we got the train to Cardiff arriving late Saturday afternoon with just time to take the dog for a muddy 45 minutes walk before it got dark. Dinner was lovely, with good company and much playing of estimation whist and then hearts after dinner. On Sunday we got up and out of the house about 10:30 and took the dog for another much longer walk, about 2.5 hours with me on the lead for much of the time. I'm still surprised such a small dog is so strong, and so hard to wear out! We ended up with a nice walk along the cliffs though, and Mike and Monster made it down to the beach, although it was a bit too muddy for the rest of us to attempt. We finished off the weekend with a cheap and very plentiful lunch in the pub, and a lovely pint of Brains Dark, before Adam dropped us at the station.

Having gone all that way it seemed like a good idea to take a couple of days off work and go visit Mike's parents too. So we got a train to Newport, and the bus to Chepstow and a lift home from there to their house, for a lovely curry for dinner and much amusement for me with Gina's Wii Fit Plus: I've already put a copy on my amazon wishlist but Mike now tells me I may need to remove it again :) After dinner Evan dropped us at Phil's house for a pleasant evening of gossip and Rock Band.

On Monday we got up late and headed out after breakfast at nearly 12 for a nice little bike ride. 23.1 miles and 2100ft of climbing (and descending again!) in around three and a half hours rather completely wore me out, especially after all the walking the previous days. So we slumped on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon before trying to take Evan and Gina out for dinner. But despite us saying it could be a late birthday present to them they still insisted on paying for their half!

It was lovely to see them anyway, and we had a nice time, and have spent today travelling home again without having to worry about anything more disruptive to the rail network than a cow on the line at Roydon leading to a 15 minute delay. Tired now!

I'm curious about how far people commute by bike in Cambridge.

Arse, I missed 2-3 miles off the poll. Please accept my apologies and vote/comment again in the new version.

Feel free to add your commute even if you only do it once a week, rather than every day, and do comment with details if you'd like, or vote in comments if you don't have a livejournal account.

If your commute is entirely outside the city boundaries but you still consider yourself a Cambridge cyclist (perhaps you live in one of the boundary villages?) then do vote, but please comment.

NB in the second question "don't know/other" is intended to cover the answer "I am not a Cambridge cycle commuter". I knew I should have made that a specific option.

Had all the family visiting at the weekend (except John, who was off in Berlin getting very drunk any staying up til 10am with his mates). Takeaway curry and birthday/housewarming presents on Friday night. Then a nice chilled Saturday with the farmer's market in the village, pub lunch, a walk on the Magog Downs (while Mum, Dave and Emily went shopping in town), and a party in the evening with a rather *fabulous* buffet and cocktails. Steph and Dave made us breakfast on Sunday and Mike and I cooked a proper Sunday lunch while everyone had a go on wii music. It was a lovely weekend, even if we are now completely knackered. The house is now quite throughly warmed (we turned the heating up quite high all weekend give how cold it was outside) and contains many more vases and cushions and wine glasses then it used to.

Then an adventure on the way to work this morning: I parked up outside the Co-op while buying breakfast, and I dropped the bike as I unlocked it, and it landed hard on the derailleur side. The chain had come off the rear sprockets so I put it back on and turned the pedals until it settled back into gear. Poked stuff and it looked vaguely OK so I set off again for work. Then I thought I'd best see if I could change gear OK. There was a large thunk and my rear wheel locked solid and I didn't quite fall off but skidded to a stop. Stopped to look (and a nice chap who was just parking up had a look too). Seems I'd snapped the rear hanger (the bit the derailleur attaches to), and the derailleur had spun round and lodged itself in the wheel, above the sprokets, having bent the mudguard in the process. Here's me thinking "arse, can't weld aluminium, OMG am I going to have to buy a new frame??!?", because the lug had snapped clear through.

Turns out that bit is "fail safe" and replaceable for 15 quid. I presume by fail safe they mean "if you damage me a cheap part breaks off and you can replace it without having to replace the entire frame", since jamming the back wheel and trashing it in the process is not what people would usually call "safe". Actually I think the wheel is surprisingly OK and just needs a bit of trueing. But I may need a new rear mech, and will need a new mudguard, so it may turn out to be fairly expensive. Which is a shame when I've just decided that I *will* sell the bike I won in the raffle, and put the money towards staying in a posh hotel in Oxford for a couple of nights in January (instead of the cheap one we would normally have gone for). But hey, I do have a couple of people interested, and it's not the end of the world, and I didn't even fall off, so it could all be much worse.

I have removed my bike lights from my bike in case they can't fix it today. That way once I've got the bus or train home tonight I can fit them on my spare so I have something to ride in the meantime. It's a shame I didn't have a camera handy to take a picture of the mess though!

Edit: They rescued the mudguard, but £57.95 got me the replacement bit and a new rear mech, new chain by the look of it too, and the labour and re-truing of the wheel. A fair whack but much better than a whole new bike, and on the other hand I've just found a promotion that gets me 60 quid off the hotel room for January if I pay now rather than then, so it's all worked out quite well really.

Finally got round to uploading the photos from our summer holiday cycling in Cheshire/Shropshire. Lots of pics of our walk round Chester, some good ones of and from Beeston Castle (including the panorama below), and a couple from Colemere. As usual click through for the full gallery