Big hills, big miles, Dorset sunshine. A full 78-mile POV with climbs, carb strategy, Bovington tanks, Lulworth Cove, and a surprising PR on a wet descent.
78 Miles • Every Hill • Full POV Ride – Dorset Larry Loop
Join me for a full-POV 78-mile ride around Dorset, taking in what felt like every hill in the county. This loop takes me through Poole, Wareham, Wool, Bovington Camp, Milton Abbas, Winterborne Stickland, Blandford Forum, and down to Lulworth Cove for a mid-ride coffee and a sausage roll.
It was one of those days where everything comes together: great weather, big miles, and enough climbing to make the flat bits look suspiciously uphill.
Along the way I chat about:
🚵 Hills, Pace & PRs
Why 5% slopes look flat after you’ve crawled up the steep ones
Taking it steady on the wet descent off Bulbarrow, but still somehow bagging a PR (3rd place badge)
Camera battery dying 1/3 of the way down (you’ll have to take my word for it…)
🏰 Bovington Camp & The Tank Museum
Rolling through Bovington made me realise I really need to visit the Tank Museum properly one day. Perfect excuse for a rest day.
🚴 Fuel Strategy: Low-Spike, High-Energy
Balancing carbs for energy without triggering sugar cravings during weight loss
The mid-ride stop at Lulworth Cove: coffee + sausage roll
Why the Hazelnut Chocolate Brownie was enough to get me home from Blandford (Chas said it would be… and he was right)
💧 Hydration Mistakes
I still don’t drink enough on rides. Working on it.
🚲 Aero Bike Thoughts
Considering a Merida Reacto for next year — but I’m not an impulsive buyer, so it’ll be a slow burn decision, if ever.
📸 Stops & Scenic Bits
Quick photo at Milton Abbey (always worth stopping for)
The classic Dorset lanes, gates, climbs, chalk valleys, and winter sunshine
🗺️ Route Overview
78.45 miles
4,836 ft elevation
Moving time: 5:19
Start/Finish: Bournemouth
Highlight towns: Poole → Wareham → Wool → Bovington → Milton Abbas → Winterborne → Blandford Forum → Swanage → Lulworth Cove
🚴♂️ Active Retirement – Ride. REST. Refuel. Repeat.
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Gear We Use and Recommend:
⭐️ CYCPlus e-Mini Pump: https://www.cycplus.com/?ref=pmzusniw coupon WAL
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Oh, look. I do have bouncies. Obviously, bouncies have been explained in a recent video. Uh, I don’t even know which way I’m going to go today, actually. But uh Andrew, yes, the new front tire without the split is fitted. So uh hopefully I won’t crash and die from a blowout in the front tire today. I mean, that would be disappointing, wouldn’t it? Oh, come on. Switch on. That’s it. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve decided I’m going to see how it goes with TPU tubes. I haven’t converted the back away from tubeless yet. That would just be a waste of sealant and it and you know, aggravation. But when the time comes, if I’ve had success with this front tire, might just, you know, clean it out, check for any splits and holes that sealant has uh taken care of for me. Maybe patch them up if they’re only tiny ones, pin holes. Yeah. And take it from there. I think I mentioned on another video, I’m not sure. I have ordered some puncher patches for TPU tubes. It looks like they’re just bits of sticky plastic actually. I’m guessing once you get them inflated and pressed hard against the tire, that helps to secure them. I guess that’s the same with um but Utah patches really even though patches you do have a really strong bond so that isn’t necessarily the case but possibly helps yeah all new so it’ll be different a different situation I don’t think it’ll feel much I can’t tell the difference with a a tube in the front here. I don’t take so much notice of the um of the stats that uh I can say, “Oh yeah, this ride was definitely like a 10 watt slower or something.” I don’t know. Uh I say I’m not going to go this way. I’m going to go this way. [Applause] Yeah, I think I might head down to the ferry. I know I’ve been over to Studland recently on the road bike. Well, about a month or so ago now, I guess. Time flies and all that, but the last few times I’ve been over the ferry, it has of course been on the gravel bike. Might head towards Swanage. We go up that really nasty hill to Kingston. Yeah, you can tell I’m really excited about the prospect, can’t you? Unfortunately, I’m living in Lergie House at the moment. Yeah, Julie’s had a cold, sore throat, what have you over the last week or so. Lergie girl. And um yes, of course I have it coming. I can feel it. Sore throat already. No streaming this morning, but that seems to have cleared up. Maybe cuz I’m pedaling now and the tubes open up to allow air flow. I don’t know. But uh yeah, I just thought whatever, you know, let’s get out. Okay, let’s use the shared path. Oh my god, I just jumped a red light. Or did I? All I did was get on the shared path. So anyway, here we are out again. There we go. Let’s just do it. At this time of day, it shouldn’t be too bad, should it? It’s 8:00 Saturday morning. It obviously has rained overnight. [Applause] It’s not supposed to rain today. And the sky is blue with broken cloud. Fingers crossed. It’s difficult this isn’t it? Nothing behind me. So I’m going to stick to the road. Anybody could step out from behind that hedge. All right, let’s just take it easy for a minute. This is not a willy waving competition. All in. No need to get too excited, is there? [Applause] Also, I haven’t quite got the setup right this morning. Okay, what we got behind? Nothing. Yeah, I’ve um I’ve got up late. I say late about half 6 for an 8:00 start. That’s a bit late if you want to have breakfast and everything else. I didn’t do much yesterday. So, uh because I didn’t do much, I didn’t eat much either. about 11,000 steps in the end, but not hard. Uh 2,800 calorie burn, which is okay for me if I just walk in a day, but I did a lot of sitting around as well. So, I didn’t eat much yesterday. So, I thought this morning I’ll have a bigger breakfast. Make sure I’m fueled. Well, I’m always a fool, but make sure I’m fueled, which I did. However, I didn’t actually finish having breakfast until about 7:00. So, for an 8:00 start, too much food for a start that’s too early. or too soon after. So, I do need to just take it easy a little bit, work my way in. Tummy is feeling a bit full. It hasn’t really had a chance to do much with it. So, I don’t really want to convert everything to leg power. I need my tummy to keep working away at that breakfast. It’s a funny thing. I’ve always been very conscious of eating before doing any kind of activity. When I used to play golf, I always played better on an empty stomach. As it turns out, probably I would have played better if I just got up earlier and had breakfast earlier. Hello. Thank you. Yeah, certainly these days. Big breakfast 2 hours before the ride makes a huge difference. Really does. But these are all things I’ve learned recently. [Applause] Uh yeah, let’s go that way. Yeah, it’s bumpy down that hill that way. I still got to go up the other side, you know, one hill or another. So, I might as well go down here up to Westborne. Jump on the ferry. Maybe we’ll go up to Creech this time [Applause] instead of down the sorry excuse that is called outdoes. [Applause] Okay, what have we got? Got to be careful cuz it is on a bend. You can see far enough in both directions cuz of course you’re just going across to get on the pavement. But got to be a little bit bit little bit careful there. This is a bike path. Got to watch out for those bloody cyclists. They come at you at a hell of a rate. Yeah. I can’t get on the road here cuz this is into the traffic. It’s a oneway, so we have no um no choice. Stay on the pavement, shared path, and these cars will literally push across in front of you. You got away with it today. Trek It’s about time I re wax this chain, I think. Haven’t done it for a long time. Doesn’t seem to need it. There are a few little clicks and that in there. So, maybe it’s time. All right. Yeah, I’m not going to take that on cuz I know I’ve got priority, but uh very few cars give priority to bikes. There’s a car coming around. Come on. Yeah, you can see me past the A-pillar, so no problem. There we go. Now I think I’ll um just throw myself at the mercy of the Frisel roundabout today. It’s early enough. Normally I go through the car park there. Yeah. cuz they’ve got this lane closed off. So, you do have to stay a little out a little bit longer than is pleasant at the moment. That’s okay. Not too busy today. Yeah, you can call it the uh the LV roundabout if you like, but uh it will always be the Friselle roundabout to me. County Gates where Dorset and Hampshire once met. Paul was in Dorset. Bournemouth was in Hampshire and so was Christ Church obviously. All right, car back. He’s going to try and take me on the lights, isn’t he? Cuz he don’t want to get caught. No, we’re good. You see, that’s what I was worried about. Did you not see him wanting to turn right? Honestly, people are dumb, aren’t they? They don’t look any further than the end of their bonnet. I mean, no problem. But all the same, it just shows a lack of thinking where people don’t plan ahead for what they can see going on right in front of them. It doesn’t worry me really. Well, it does worry me because it just shows that people don’t think. Not so much that they’re in a car and I’m on a bike and all that rubbish. It’s not a us against them situation. It’s more a case of that’s the way they think all the time or don’t think as it were. That means everybody on the road is at risk from people like them. Anyway, let’s stop complaining. I’m out of my bike. Looks like the sun’s coming up. Sky is blue. It’s all good. And um it’s not going to get me anywhere complaining about car drivers, is it? Because I see some shocking cyclists as well. [Applause] I do I do realize that the um that the results at the end of a shocking bit of cycling can be far worse for the cyclist. And I’m not suggesting for one moment we say h serves you right. But you know you do see some shocking cycling as well. I’m not talking about red light jumping. Just bad positioning purposely getting in the way. Oh, no. That’s me. I do that. Yeah, I do that to stop people overtaking when it’s not safe. Anyway, I think [Applause] Anyway, [Applause] should we go and have a look at the beach? We could do, couldn’t we? I don’t know what the sand’s going to be like on the prominard. Oh yeah. No, it is quite sandy, isn’t it? Oh yeah. Look at this. Look at this. Always plenty of runners. I reckon this is probably a club run, isn’t it? And there’s just so many. Yeah. Saturday morning club run. I guess they do things like that. Like us cyclists do Saturday and Sunday morning rides. All right. All right. Poor things. They’ve spent thousands on running shoes and now can’t afford bikes. kayaker out there. Wonder if that’s Matthew Love. Matthew Love has fallen out of love with cycling just at the minute. And um he has kayaks. Julie and I do actually talk about, you know, stand up paddle boards and things like that, but I think, you know, when we have this conversation, it’s very one way. And her, “Oh, yeah, yeah, that’d be really good.” Blah, blah, blah. is actually yeah that’s something you can do while I watch from the beach if it’s sunny and I sunbathe [Laughter] and I don’t mind coming out and doing things on my own as you can see out of the two of us I’m often out on my bike on my own I don’t need Julie to come with me but um I do think just uh turning up and having her sit and watch. I’m not sure I like that idea. She needs to stay um you know stay fit and healthy and active just the same as I do. In fact, her more so I suppose in truth. There we go. What are they? The Tai Chi. It looks like they’re doing Tai Chi, doesn’t it? Down on the beach. Yeah, I don’t do so much Tai Chi anymore. Doing a few lymphatic exercises. It’s very similar just to, you know, get everything going in the mornings. But, uh, I suppose it is Tai Chi in a way. It’s gentle movements moving your arms and you know squatting using your legs. So quite similar. I think everything’s quite similar, isn’t it? As any so many movements that humans can make. Do that. We don’t want to bump into him even though he’s going to come straight at me. Target fixation, I’m guessing. Hopefully something he’ll grow out of. Oh, don’t get me started. It’s so unfair. Everybody’s allowed to make their own choices about how they look and how they dress and how they present themselves to the world. Yeah. I guess it’s generational, isn’t it? Cuz some of the choices I just look and say, why have you done that to yourself? And of course, other generations will look and go, “Oh, look at that. What a great look. I can hear hear some whoops out there.” I think um all four of those ladies have just got to muff it, if you understand what I’m saying. That’s a few whoops. I’m guessing I’m guessing it’s a very similar reaction to when men go in the sea and get to plum debt. Literally just left a dog there. Have we? Somebody. Huh? Hopefully they were walking their dog or just coming out the front door of those flats. Oh, bugger. I forgotten the poo bags and just tied him up to go back and get them. All right, there we go. Things are going to get a little bit colder from now on. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Okay, so that’s been chipped. I’m doing 16 m an hour. The motor was clearly audible and he must be doing 20 odd. Yeah, I’m doing 17 and he’s still pulling away. 16.8. Yeah, I think there’s going to be a bit of a black market, isn’t there, for older ebikes soon because or Chinese systems cuz I reckon the Germans and the Japanese have pretty much got these systems locked down by now that you can’t chip them. or not excessively anyway. Well, I know the older ones you definitely, you know, you could probably still can. I’m all for actually ebikes being a little bit faster around town. You think that the average sort of car speed around town is never 30 mph, is it? I mean, most of our roads are 30 mph limit, but it’s not often. Come on then. You going to go through or what? No, he’s going to wait for me and that’s fair enough. Yeah. So I am a I’m for extending the speed a little bit so you’re a bit more in line with traffic. Not faster than, not as fast as, but makes sense to me that ebike should be sort of 18 m an hour, you know, maybe 30ks, 30 km an hour so that you’re in line with everything else that’s going on around you. You know, if you’re slower than everything else, you’re always going to be slightly vulnerable. I do realize if you’re faster than everybody else, a few me people might take that on and be reckless. But I think those sorts of people have already got chipped ebikes that go super fast. So, I’m not sure it’s any great shakes one way or the other. That said, if you hit something at 25ks an hour or hit something at 30ks an hour, I guess one’s going to hurt, the other one’s going to really hurt. So, I don’t know. Maybe it’s something that needs a bit more thought and discussion. Oh, bugger. Fairies going the wrong way. [Laughter] So, I was a bit late, didn’t I? Ah, in the sun gleaming away already covered in sand from the beach, obviously. Brand new tire. Still got air in it. Yeah, drivetrain probably needs new clean and wax. Yeah, hopefully this little weight give my my porridge a chance to settle. I don’t feel too bad actually, but I’ve not really pushed it, have I? Yeah, I’ve just literally rode on the flat and like one hill. But what a serene morning it is. Look at that. You see, these are the days when I think having a boat would be quite nice. It’s when the weather changes, isn’t it? You see, if I stand like this, my shadow looks long and thin, like a proper cyclist. So, today’s nutrition of choice on bike nutrition that is Yeah. mango chunks in my water bottle. Yeah, I’ll probably drink through it. Get to the bottom. I’m going to force myself to drink through it. Actually, I never drink on the rides. I really don’t. I need to make a point of doing that. Oh, hello That was quick. The water is clear. Wow. It is very still today to be honest. It doesn’t mean that I won’t complain about headwind later. Not bad for November, is it? Not bad at all. [Music] We go. 3 miles an hour. Right. Gentle. Gentle. Quite a bit wetter over here. It’s going to be spray off the tires. I always feel already feel the back of my legs a little bit chilly. All right, another marita Sora. That’s what Julie had on a uh a living invite originally. Sora that has been gradually upgraded through the years. And uh it now has GRX 11 speed two by I’ve only got one one by at the moment. One by uh it’s a ShraMM apex is it? I don’t know. I don’t really know much about ShraMM. It is mechanical, so it’s probably very unfair when I say it is nothing better than ordinary. Yeah, the shifting is not great. I mean, it works, but it’s very clunky. Thinks about it for a minute. Do you know what I mean? It’s just not what I’m used to, let’s say. Even the Shimano mechanical stuff seems to be crisp, spot on. Yeah, that in comparison is not. Now, obviously that is no no comment about the more recent electronic stuff and we know, don’t we, that ShraMM made a statement quite some years ago that they will not be developing mechanical shifting any further. So you know where it was then but then for them is where it stops. [Laughter] Nice number plate actually. Dorset obviously a local company I guess looks like a private sort of transfer. We’re hitting the brakes. Yeah, that cleared it. [Music] Well, it has been wet this autumn. We’ve had plenty of rain. Doesn’t always happen in the autumn, but definitely has over the last month or so. But um I still feel like we’re getting away with it. We’ve still had nice warm sunny days and of course midweek rides. Very fortunate position to do that. And um Oh yeah, I don’t want to rub it in or anything, but you know, I don’t have to work now. so I can go on midweek rides crazy isn’t it just crazy but I suppose it is what you work towards in your life I don’t know well for me it always was I started planning that very early but uh for some people they live to work, don’t they? It’s just different attitude. I guess they get their fix of leisure at the weekend and then they’re raring to go again Monday morning. I was a little bit like that because I knew it was inevitable. Monday morning was always going to come. So, I just needed to be ready and just get on with it and be happy about it because that’s, you know, there was no choice. But, um, yeah, some people really relish it, don’t they? [Music] Right. Relax the shoulders. Come on. always takes me a few miles to get used to the road bike again after I’ve been riding gravel. It is a bit longer, a bit narrower. All the measurements stack up, so I’m not overreaching. But yeah, it just takes me a moment. I’m sort of hunched up when I first start. I just need to sort of relax. We’re not on any kind of mission today, are we? I’m not going to get out of the saddle because my still really low down in the cassette actually. Recumbent. Morning. I don’t know. Oh, right. Wrong one. It’s awake now. I hadn’t actually used the front derailer, so the shifter was still asleep. And here we are. Studland village. [Music] Steep hills today. Maybe uh not the ideal thing with a cold nose is running. I feel these little rises. But let’s just say I feel these little rises. So I probably haven’t got the go in me that I could have. But uh I’m still happy to be out. I’m not going to get too carried away. There’s probably a group ride tomorrow. I haven’t looked actually. Usually is on a Sunday morning out in the forest somewhere or or even over here actually. Gravel rides. But, uh, I’m not, uh, yeah. So, I’m not going to go mad. I think that’s a cycling excuse for Yeah. If I’m slow, don’t judge me. It was meant to be. [Music] Yeah. So, our our midweek sky and ride club was uh Thursday this week. So, today Saturday, rest day yesterday. All of my rides this week are going to get compressed. Tuesday I was busy so I didn’t go out. So I’m probably still going to do three rides this week but uh yeah Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. So they’re going to get compressed together. Ah perfect breezer has caught me up. You should go, I think. Well done, mate. Yeah, nice bit of, you know, wide bit of road here. Unless a 44 ton juggernaut came the other way. I think there was always going to be room. Anyway, DJI microphones. H the saga continues. Now, I’ve been using road microphones for years. They’re um really good and professional enough that when you turn up on a job, nobody’s like, “H, is that all you got?” Cuz they know they’re proper proper equipment, but without breaking the bank. And um so I’ve sort of been used to that for years and years. So I’ve always had and different sort of guises over the years. Radio mics have changed a bit and now Wi-Fi and once upon a time of course over radio. uh much smaller units. Now with uh you know smaller circuitry and the um you know the boards and the chips and all the electronics are so small now onboard batteries rechargeable whereas once upon a time my life was balancing AA batteries working out which ones were done or I did do rechargeable for a bit, but the oldfashioned rechargeable batteries were awful. Memory effect and all that sort of thing, which did happen because sometimes it was an all day shoot, sometimes it was an hour or so. So, you might use a little bit of battery instead of emptying it and charging it up from zero again. Yeah, it was it was a nightmare. Batteries of old. [Applause] One of those things that as a grumpy old man, I can honestly say has definitely got better. [Applause] Yeah. I’m not going to say that it was bad because I mean just the technology itself and the radio mics, the range, the cameras, they were all great, you know, back when that was my thing. It was, you know, a very rapid quick jump up in technology quality at that time. And it meant we could pack small, pack light, and still get great quality. But batteries, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Batteries. Nightmare. Right. You’ll notice I’m not going up to the golf club. Not today. Down to Swanage. So anyway, road microphones, brilliant prove themselves over the years as being very reliable, compact enough, great quality. The newer ones much more compact. Of course, riding on the bike, I don’t have chance to monitor them, battery strength, all that sort of thing. So, we do have the occasional woods, but um generally speaking, still brilliant. Now, I’ve moved to DJI because that’s the camera I’ve got mostly because it appears to have the best battery life out of all the action cameras. That means you get more of me waffling on rides like today. Aren’t you lucky? You should all send an email to DJI and say, “Thank you for making a a camera with long life, long battery life, cuz now we get to enjoy wheelers at large. That’s all right. I know. I know. Better for me.” But let’s be honest, you can turn off whenever you want. All right, this is a 40 mph hill. Probably more on the road bike, actually, but um yeah, let’s not pedal our way down. It’s wet. Cars do come around on the wrong side of the road. And of course, cyclists come up this hill, so cars overtake on the wrong side of the road. So, we just let gravity do its thing. Nothing behind me. So, I’m going to take the middle where I think all the grip is. Yay. That’s the steep bit out of the way. Still nothing behind me. A little push here just to get over the rise. Then gravity kicks in again. [Applause] Still nothing behind me. All good. [Applause] Missed the drain. Missed the rough bits. Still all clear. And there you go. Swanage. Seagulls, the seaside and everything. [Applause] A proper old-fashioned British seaside town. What a wonderful cool place. Of course, we can’t ride along the prom here. So, um we do have to take the road to get out of town, go up around the back by the station. There you go. There’s the beach. Haven’t done a fish and chip ride for a while. Yeah, fish and chip ride is um yeah, over the ferry down to Old Harry Rocks down from the obelisk and then meet at Swanish for fish and chips and then pick and choose a route home. We usually just go road cuz it tends to be like Easter weekend or uh in the evenings anyway. Always in an evening. So, it’s not always uh not always daylight on the way back. You can go road or off road. Doesn’t really matter. I mean, with lights these days, you can take the pick, can’t you? But people are just left to make their own way. stick with the grave or yeah, do what they want. That is the fish and chip ride. Yeah. When we were working, we couldn’t always make the same ferry as everybody else. So, we would uh maybe ride over on the road to catch everyone up and meet for fish and chips. She’s going straight on. Let’s have this. I think everything about um you know Facebook group cycling if you like which is pretty much what we do. It’s pretty easy going you know you’re left to your own devices. This is the plan. Morning. Stick to it rigidly or we’ll see you somewhere or whatever. Yeah, it’s a good thing. It’s like being in a cycling club without all the formality, let’s say. Right up the hill. This is Dorset. You don’t get to go too far without hills. Obviously you guys in Devon and Cornwall scoff at things like this. But uh we’ve not got a bad balance actually in Dorset. There are some flat routes. There are hills. You take your pick. Go and get on with it. Something that has come on uh back on our radar as it were is the bike packing trip down to Devon. Yeah, one of our um riding buddies has a place down there. He’s looking to move there and uh he wants to ride from here down to his place in Decking trips. It’s only actually about 140 mi. It’s not far. You would think two days would do it, wouldn’t you? But if you look at the uh elevation profile yeah the first 70 mi bit further maybe yeah it’s a piece of cake no problem it’s flat down to Dorchester a little bit hillier to get into lime reges but uh unfortunately that’s where the Devon border is and from that point onwards is about 9,000 ft for the remainder of the for the remainder of the trip. So, it might not necessarily be a two-day bike pack. It might be a long first day and then two short days cuz of course we’d have gear and clothes and I mean probably not tents and things, you know, this would be uh gold standard bike packing, you know, Premier Inn or somewhere similar B&B along the way. But anyway, it has been mentioned again. Yeah, I think on this occasion it could happen. Everybody who’s interested has got time, which of course once not that long ago, none of us really had time. It would have been a long weekend to get there. So we would have to give up holiday days. That’s not the case anymore. Another thing that keeps just pinging away in my mind is lanzen to Jona gross because I suppose whether it’s good or bad or yeah I don’t know it is the iconic cycle ride in the UK isn’t it? I think I might want to spend a little bit more time in Wales, go up through the Forest of Dean, skirt the Welsh border. You know, that’s where the actual route goes, I think. But there are a few places in Wales I’d like to go to along the way, I think. Make it a true UK ride. Oh, thank you. Nice straight bit of road. See for miles. Still wanted to be on this side of the road. Oh well. Right. [Applause] A lot of uphill from here. Yeah, we’re going to be in the uh in the small ring, let’s say, for quite a long time from here. Yeah, there it is. It don’t really get much better than that for quite a while now. But if this is the speed we’re going to do, I’m okay with that. Anyway, we’ll get back on to the microphones in a minute. So, I’m going to get technical. So, start spouting numbers and things that you know only certain people would understand. Car have to let him go. No, I’m not going to let him go. Yeah, that would have been a sad moment to have to stop, wouldn’t it? Yeah. So the road microphones, they give you a natural sound. Whatever’s going on, you’ll hear it all. Obviously, slightly directional or if you get them closer to the mouth, you get more of what you want and less of what you don’t. So, you know, strategic placing is a thing. It’s all part of the skills, isn’t it? Yeah. The thing I’ve noticed with DJI is that um there’s a lot of processing, a lot of voice processing going on. Doesn’t sound natural. The background noises are compressed. There’s artifacts. It’s just you don’t really hear it on the videos thankfully. You’ll notice that Julie’s sound almost has a bit more atmosphere which I think is better actually. But um when you put a pair of headphones on and listen like you should when you’re editing to monitor it the um yeah the sound from the DJI is well they’ve tried to make it too clean. So that means the bits are still in the background are just artifacts. They don’t sound like anything real. Yeah, I think on TV speakers, even on a reasonable speaker set, you probably wouldn’t notice it. On headphones, you definitely do. I’ve even switched off the low cut, which basically removes the sort of hissy background frequencies. I’ve turned that off so there’s less processing. Doesn’t seem to make much difference. All those artifacts are still there in the background. I think this is the thing now. Companies are just trying to make it easy, you know, switch it on and go type thing. And people just go, “Wow, it works.” You know, but I think for those of us in the no, if you like, it’s just not pleasant at the end of the day. Is it good enough for what it’s for? I suppose it is. We’re not looking at broadcast quality these days, are we? Some people talk about, “Oh, I like to do my videos in broadcast quality.” Yeah, get over it. You’re uploading to YouTube. By the time everything’s compressed and messed about with your broadcast quality, broadcast quality is long gone. Now, of course, there is the sort of garbage in, garbage out argument to be had. However, go on. Yes, there are minimal returns on that. Yeah, I don’t believe proper top end broadcast quality gives you a much better return for the effort put in than you would from these modern systems that are just made easy to use. And of course, most viewers can’t tell the difference anyway. Nearly there. I think as long as what you’re saying is audible and people don’t have to sort of squint and go, “What do you say?” Then that’s yeah you know most of the battle won isn’t it? That’s a little bit difficult for us because sometimes you have people in the background saying things. Of course they’re a long way from the microphone doesn’t pick them up properly. That’s why we try not to include too many conversations in our videos. But, you know, from time to time, you know, once in every 50 videos, somebody says something interesting. Oh dear. Now, quite often stuff comes up, which is interesting, but we just can’t use it because you can’t, you know, it’s a one-sided conversation. Of course, they generally don’t work. Am I going to put subtitles on? No. Because chances are that Google would probably probably be able to pick up what they’re saying. And if you’re watching with subtitles anyway, it would just interfere and make them unreadable. So yeah, a lot of interesting stuff. Unfortunately, the funny stuff, um, entertaining stuff does get left on the cutting room floor, as they say, just simply because it’s a one-sided conversation. Doesn’t really work. Adding the gears back in now. Yeah. Get the top. Yeah. So, the DJI wireless microphone. It’s nice that it’s wireless because that way if the battery runs out on a ride, you know, the camera b the uh camera mic just takes over. Um, of course with the road mics, they are plugged in with a jack a jack cable. So, if the battery runs out on the mic, the camera thinks it’s still got a mic plugged in and it picks up nothing. That’s just life. That’s part of having to monitor the audio. Of course, on a proper shoot, you’d be wearing cans and you’d be listening in to what’s coming in, so you’d know. But of course on a bike ride there are more important things to worry about. Okay, check that out. You see that to me is far more important than having to worry about microphone batteries. Right, here we go. We’re at the top. Back in the big ring. Motorbike group out. Off-road enduro style. I love it. [Music] Yeah, for for those of you with long memories, that is the hill out of Swanage up to Kingston. I know there’s a few of you out there. expats, porch riders, and some of you, of course, don’t get the chance to ride in the winter. So you ride along with some of these videos, these types of videos, and hopefully you remember fondly some of these roads. Or maybe the opposite. Maybe you remember that some of these roads really hurt. But we kept it gentle today, didn’t we? No heroics required. It’s much wetter up here. I might have been better off going the other way round cuz of course the shade from the hedges is keeping this side of the road wet. Nothing behind so I can stay out of the worst of it. So this is the road that uh we join from the farmyard climb which is a relatively constant feature on the Perbeck rides. And that turn that we just went past is the one that goes down to the square and compass. Yeah. Pint and a pie type of pub. Very nice. Fantastic view of the sea. There’s like a little valley in front of it. So, uh, it’s just a very nice place to be on a summer’s day. Yeah, I’m going to do that thing now. Yeah, it’s windy up here. You can see looking at the pampas grass there. I mean, we’re at elevation now compared to where we were getting off the ferry. And it is definitely windier up here. That’s okay. It’s sort of a Yeah. [Applause] a headwind from the left hand side. That’s all right. 18 miles in. All right. Yeah, 18 miles in. We’re dropped down into Castle at the moment. Now, this next descent is going to be super scary. Tight bends, wet road. So, again, no heroics. You know, this is middle-aged soft cycling. Yeah, we all like to think we’re a bit special on the bike, don’t we? But um truth is we’re not. So, let’s take it easy and not break things. Yeah, most of all, let’s not break the bike because that is our transport home, isn’t it? It’s quite a long walk to a train station from here. How are we doing? Oh, not doing too bad. I got to be a little bit careful with the uh camera battery because it was only on 80% when I left the house. Oh, he’s done well. Look at that. [Applause] Right, let’s take it easy. I could of course go down the farmyard, but that’s going to be horrendous on the road bike. There’s Cor Castle in the distance. What a sight. [Applause] Doing well as you can see. Jesus, this is slippery. It’s not even chips seal. This is the one time when you wish it was. You’d want chips seal on this side of the road and a nice smooth tarmac on the other side. [Applause] Of course, in the summer this is very definitely fair game. You know, this is probably the closest thing we’ve got to, you know, some of the uh downhills in Morca, [Laughter] [Applause] even though it only lasts for about quarter of a mile. All right. Nothing behind me. All the traffic seems to be going the other way today. [Applause] Can I get out of the saddle to the top with one more gear? I probably can. Yeah, I probably needed one more, didn’t I? I can have one more. I mean, you know, it’s DI2. Maybe two more. There you go. Made it. [Music] Right into core. [Applause] A lot of people like to know this as far for obvious reasons. I believe Luther Blisset had a house here when he played for Bournemouth and he did actually call it Far Core. I don’t know if that’s true. Could just be hearsay. [Applause] But that’s the story. So there it is. All right. What’s the time? Half past 9. Um, 1 hour 25 minutes into the ride. Should I get a cup of tea or should I keep going? Half past 9. Is it even open yet? Let’s keep going for a while yet. I still don’t know where where I’m going to end up to be honest. I’ll probably stop down the road and just get a battery. Wow. Oh, look at the traffic already. It’s the weekend, you see. Is he going to push past me? Came right up behind me. So, I guess he’s in a hurry. or she even [Music] I love things like that. Little over corrections that aren’t required. I’m talking about a car on the other side of the road. It doesn’t matter. You probably won’t even see it on the camera. It just won’t make sense. But I saw it cuz I saw the wheel turn and the guy looking over the front trying to see what he was not going to hit. Well done. He was going to rush out, wasn’t he? Right, let’s get back into the hilly stuff, I guess. little scaffolding. Well, I got a car behind me, but I just wanted to show you that they’re obviously doing some work on that bit. They had to wait anyway, so I wasn’t really interfering with the flow of traffic, let’s say. This is their chance. I will get over cuz I am going to be nothing but slow from here. Thank you for being patient. Actually, I could be out all day today if I want. Julie’s getting her hair done then. uh just after lunch I think later in the afternoon not sure she’s uh doing stuff which I don’t need to be involved with and um if I’m lucky and I won’t be she might do the shopping she won’t it’s not thing. Julie relishes doing the shopping. I quite enjoy it. You know, to Julie, it’s a chore. I suppose since I’ve been working on the diet and that I find um shopping a bit more of a challenge, buying the right things, not getting tripped up by the marketing. So, uh yeah, it sort of becomes a game. Yeah. So, I don’t mind it so much. Julie is very much things that make her life easier. So, she will buy the things I now leave on the shelf cuz obviously she’s had to do it for years, feed the kids, what have you. So quick, simple, easy. Yeah, it’s an easy trap to fall into, isn’t it? That doesn’t stop Julie from having what she wants. I have no control over that. I don’t try and force my ethos upon her. There are things in the house that she likes and I won’t touch. And that’s fine. You know, I’m not going to say things like, “Oh, if you were supporting me, you wouldn’t even have that in the house.” I mean, that’s just not how life works. Not for us anyway. It’s nice to have her support, and I do have that in other ways. And um at the same time I have to exercise restraint and make the right decisions. I can’t hand that over to somebody else. It’s a bit like riding on the road. You know, if you make good decisions, you’ll be in uh less strife with other road users less often. Even if sometimes you have to yield when it’s your priority, better to be safe. And that’s sort of the way I feel about the food thing. I don’t want to make Julie’s life difficult by saying you can’t have that, you can’t have this, causing contention between us. There’s just no need. Never has been. We’ve always been like that. There are certain things I have and she says to me, “Yeah, that’s disgusting. How can you eat that?” Marm might probably one of them. But also, I like to eat foods that have flavor, which quite often means fat, cuz you know, a lot of foods the flavor is in the fat. Even if it’s something that soaks away as you cook it, you know, it’s in there. Jerry’s always been a lowfat person, but she always insists that my food tastes better. [Laughter] But I think that’s because she stole it and not because my food does actually taste better. Oh, look at this. Isn’t this great? Yeah. We’ve had to put up with each other for what, nearly 40 years now. We see it as a social service to the rest of the world. Yeah. We put up with each other so nobody else has to, you know, and it works. Squeaky cleats. Now, if I turn my foot, it stops. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] We right caravan. Let’s get over tight. Ah, all the roads are open. Could head to Lworth. Yeah, let’s do that. Haven’t been to Longworth for a long time. I’m probably going to end up at Wool anyway. Oh, the camera hasn’t run out yet. I don’t think it has. No, still going. I’m actually drinking for change. Yeah. So, you missed a few hundred yards of that ride because wasn’t really anywhere safe to stop and change the battery until I got to here. So, yeah. But, um, yeah. So, you probably missed about quarter of a mile or so, but still on the same road. We haven’t changed direction in any way. So, um, yeah, quick battery change, quick drink, and um, yeah, let’s get on our way. So peaceful. Now, I did remember to change gear before I stopped, so that was a good thing. Doesn’t always happen. I seem to be in approximately the right gear, which is nice. There you go. All right. Looking ahead, I don’t know why I bothered doing that. I should have stayed in the small ring. Oh, hello. What’s happening there? We’ve got a rattle. We have to look into that. Oh my god. Have we done 1500 ft already? That’s all right, isn’t it? 23 miles in. Yeah, we all have our skills or preferences on the bike, don’t we? Going uphill is not mine. But um if you want to be out in this, they’re a necessary evil, aren’t they? [Music] Not quite sure what my preference is for cycling. There are things I cope with better than others. But uh I can definitely say going uphill is not yeah a talent of mine. I mean I can keep pedaling get there in the end but keep up with the group. Yeah difficult. I’m not saying it’s easy for anyone but uh maybe that will change. We’ll see. Maybe that will change. [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Yeah. So, so far so good, eh? Haven’t really seen too much in the way of traffic. It’s a Saturday morning. Sun’s out. People are going to come out for sure. But we’ve been getting away with it so far. Good night. bit early on that change. I usually wait until the cadence has got down to in the 50s before hitting the front derailer. Yeah, it was still 60s something. So, I basically lost speed for no reason. Yeah, I’m not very good at um high cadence stuff. So, um, I’d much rather pull hard at low cadence for a bit longer. So, when I do go down to the small ring, then jump up too high. On that occasion, it went to 86, which is just definitely not going to happen. So, of course, I just slow down. Right up to steeple, up to cerech, whatever it is. Going to take my time. Cycling excuse. Yeah. 1,023. Easy ride today. Moon in the sky in front of me, dead ahead above the trees like a shadow. Looks amazing. You may or may not be able to see that. Incredible. Where am I? I’m in one one I am now. car back. Of course, motor bike even quad bike even. Anyway, add a gear back in on the gravel bike. You can go up there. That is the location for one of my greatest ever cycling moments. And it wasn’t even me that did it. Yeah. John Reed. Yeah. Quite slight but very fit guy. Light on the pedals. Yeah. I could always get to the corner and so could he, but we always lost traction on that corner. And then one day he just powered through. Back wheel skipped around a bit, but he just kept going and just didn’t have it on video, unfortunately. Yeah. But it was epic. It was one of those that well but I certainly had never got up. I don’t know if he had before, but on that day he was like a mountain goat. Just skipped over all the loose stones straight to the top. Epic. I don’t know if I want to look actually. Oh, okay. 14%. 13 13.8 down to 12.8. Oh, come on. At 12, it doesn’t even go red. Check this out. Bloody hell. Amazing, isn’t it? Well, I think it is nearly there. See the flag pole ahead. Roads are open. No red flag. Yeah, let’s go that way. Down into Low Worth. Long drag out again. Obviously Low Worth. But hey, today it’s about the hills. I don’t care about the average speed. I don’t care about the power today is enjoy the views, enjoy the hills as much as is possible and enjoy this weather while we got it. No entry. Keep out of firing range. Plenty of sheep out there at the minute. So they do close the range in this area so the land can be used. And then other days the flag pole goes up, the red flag, and that’s that. Nobody can get through. You got to go around. All right, start adding the gears back in. Once we get up to number five, I’m sort of looking to go into the big ring again. RPM is at 80 86. There you go. 63 in the big ring, which is perfectly acceptable for me. [Music] There is actually a walking track just the other side of the fence here because of course you get cars, cyclists, and walkers on this road. It can get a bit weird, but uh it’s good that it is access for everyone. [Music] Tynam village. you can get to it. It’s open at the minute, so actually you can go down there, but I think it’s mostly for walkers. I’m not sure you’re allowed to ride down there, but there are these little villages on mod land that are closed or were evacuated in World War II. still exist of course and you can visit them on certain times of the year. Tinum is one and uh that is the nearest one to us here on the south coast. All right, so we got a little climb ahead and then it is mostly downhill. It’s fast, but with relatively good vision because all the turns are on the right hand side, the road goes off down the hill. Obviously, it’s a downhill, but it does mean you can see across a lot of the time for what’s coming. Again, wet road. We taking it slightly easy today. I have got slightly lower tire pressure to compensate, but um I don’t want to rely on that to keep me upright. It’s funny. When I first got on the bike this morning, it felt rock hard, having been on the gravel bike so much recently. But now it feels really quite comfortable. There is some give, some spring if you like. It’s a really nice frame. Actually, not saying it’s better than any other one, but I think I bought it at a time where there had been a real advance in carbon fiber frames, compliance, that kind of thing. And now I’ve been on it for a couple of hours. It just feels like there’s give and comfort. It’s nice. I bought this as a well, it’s a Marida Sculpture Endurance. I bought it as the 4,000 which had bars that were far too wide and really slow tires. 105 mechanical and obviously I’ve made it my own. So just narrower bars and new tires just completely transform this bike. I know they have to make the cheaper ones feel a bit rubbish compared to the good ones, but um yeah, for well effectively a couple of hundred quid, which was nowhere near the price of the next one up, I had completely transformed it. Obviously, I spent a lot more on it since then because I really like it. But yeah, out of the showroom, if you like. Yeah, a couple of hundred quid just transformed it completely. Look at this. Yeah. So, I’ve looked at the Marida Reacto, which is the uh Aero bike, the one you see the pros using. There is a Sculura race bike as well, but the Reactto Aerobike is the one I’d be relatively interested in just because, you know, another another feather to the bow as it were, another arrow in the quiver. But um yeah, the main difference between them is that uh well I would think the reactor is a lot more solid on the road because of the aero tubes, but um also it’s about 40 mil lower at the front. That said, this is almost slammed. There’s only well 15 well 10 mil actually there. 5 mil you need for the internal cable routting. And the Reacto does come with about 40 to 50 mil of of spacers under the bars. So, I could make it work, but then I asked myself, what’s the point? Am I really going to go any faster on that than I am on this? There has to be a point, doesn’t there, where the engine is the difference rather than the aero profiles. And let’s be honest, all of these things are tweaked for, you know, prime performance at say 20 mph, 25, you know, 40k an hour, that sort of thing, and more. Am I really going to ride at that speed everywhere? And am I really going to get the full benefit of that? No, of course not. So, [Laughter] I mean, I keep looking. I keep thinking about it. If the right deal came along, maybe. I don’t know. I’m not really an impulsive buyer. I don’t really just say, “Yeah, sort it. I’m going to get it.” It would have to be really, really good for me not to want to ride this bike. I mean, this is just epic in every way. It gives me everything I need. It’s fast. It’s comfortable. I can do long days on it, short days if I want. I can get up most of the hills. I don’t know I’ve ever had to get off a hill on this bike ever. In fact, I don’t know I’ve had to get off for a hill for many years now. We just sort of do it, don’t we? I’m just trying to think before I make a, you know, an absolute fool of myself. Now, I can’t think of a time when I’ve had to get off recently on the road or on this bike, let’s say. Yeah. Okay. Walking across the mud down by the river. Yeah. That’s a different type of getting off, isn’t it? Yeah. I think it would have to be something exceptional to be a replacement for this one. And I’m not sure the comfort would be there. I mean, the seat post is about 3 in thick. Nice and narrow. Yeah. But no give, I’m sure. This is just a standard 27.2. So, I don’t know. I mean, I have no plans for changing this bike, that’s for sure. Every now and then, I think about the Giant. It’s a bit old. Yeah, things have moved on. Not good. But at the same time, it’s just a magnificent bike off road, you know, for what it’s built for. It’s brilliant. So, yeah, I think I’m um I’m going to be quite happy to keep the Giant Revolt and the Marida Sculure Endurance for some years to come. Yeah. Right. I’ll tell you what. We’re going to go this way. This is the way we’re going to go. Nice through here, isn’t it? Come on, let’s have some gears. [Music] I know. We’ve been up steep hills today. So, this looks like it’s flat, doesn’t it? It’s about 7%. 5.8 5%. Yeah, it was 7% back there. We’re at 2,000 ft climb now. Still the military firing range on my right. Left, sorry. Well, I am right. Keep out. Still 5%. Doesn’t look it, does it? Oh, squeaky. Sudden gunfire. Army property. No parking. Otherwise, we will remove it. or drive over it with a tank. Nearly there. 5.5. Oh, down to four. That’s more like it. I’ve had a gear in, I think. And another one up to 85. We will back in the big ring. So, 28 miles in, weather’s holding. Little bit of a headwind. Nothing terrible. Heading in towards Lworth Cove. What we got? Yeah, I’m in number four. I think no, five. We got another one in the big ring before we start thinking about any Little Ring heroics. Anti-intruder devices. Yeah. Men with guns. Now the traffic’s going to be busy going down. A very definite favorite day trip, Lworth Cove. It’s funny. You got West Lworth, East Lworth. But honestly, Lworth Cove, that’s where it’s at. Right. What we got? We’re good. All right. A bit of bum rest. Couple of tanks there. No photography. I guess that means I got to pixelate that bit out. Does that mean I’m going to have the MPs in a in a jeep chasing me down the road in a minute? Confiscate the camera. There is nothing behind me. I have checked. Still nothing behind me. [Applause] Yeah, because it’s quite um gritty on the roads at the minute, wet and filthy, I did put extra brake pads in the bag this morning. And just on the hill there, I pulled the brakes and one of them felt really gritty, but it has cleared, so I think we’re good. But maybe I was preempting a brake problem. [Applause] [Applause] How’s this for perfect fax cottages? Very Dorset. [Applause] So that was West Lworth. Next stop, Norworth Cove. Should I have an ice cream? No, of course not. Ice creams are not on the menu. Not because I don’t deserve it, and not because I won’t burn it off, but it’s the stuff in them that creates cravings. Yeah. And I’ve managed to keep those very much at bay. And I don’t want to spoil that just for the sake of an ice cream. [Music] I guess we’ll have to walk down to the water. No point coming down there if you don’t see the cove itself. I mean, there’s not much else here, to be honest. So, let’s do that. Uh oh. Well, we’re after the we’re after the 30th of September, so we can come down here. Yeah. No vehicles in the summer, uh during the daytime, but uh in the winter. Oh, that looks good, doesn’t it? That’s no problem. No problem. Cheers. All right. What are you doing? I’m going to get through. Thank you. Eye contact made. They were waiting. Not a problem. Right. There you go. Oh, tide’s right in. No beach. Honestly, it doesn’t matter where you go, there’s always someone happy to swim in the water at any time of the year here. Oh, I see there’s a um I see what’s going on. There’s a sauna there. It’s quite cool, isn’t it? You can book the sauna. It’s all right, is it? I mean, I won’t be, but it’s all right. All right. Nothing to see here. I mean, it’s not an ice cream, is it? Like I said, nothing to see here. There we go. Yeah, we’re not riding up there. I’ve walked up there a couple of times, but um yeah, not riding up there. Yeah. So, a long old drag out of uh Lowworth. Now we go up over the top. Head towards wool. Then we have decisions. Morning. Yeah. So nutrition so far. So pre-ried breakfast 437 calories, 45 gram of carbohydrate. Bit of protein in there to smooth the way. Not too much fat. A bit of double cream in the uh porridge. Made it with water. And just a splash of double cream to make it creamy. And um well, it’s done me all right so far. The uh sausage roll. Now, that was an impulse buy. I know. I just said I don’t really buy things on impulse. [Laughter] Yeah, that was an impulse buy. I just saw it and I’m glad hell that looks good. And even though it was mostly meat, as you could see, still the pastry and the calories and the fats way, way, way over the top compared to the amount of protein in the meat. And this is the thing, isn’t it? It’s understanding the balance of things. Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I was definitely having it. That’s the way it was. But, um, yeah, you’d think all that meat in there be a lot of protein. There wasn’t really. However, there was probably enough to smooth the carbs and the and the fats. So, it shouldn’t get any spiking hopefully, but um I should get some energy from the carbs and hopefully that extra bit of protein will smooth it a bit and um I will have energy until the end of the ride. That said, if I go the long way, I’ll probably make another stop at Blamford, you know, Ree the Baker, always a good excuse for a stop. Oh, blime me. No, just think of the stuff they sell. I usually restrict myself to a brownie or a um flapjack because they’re sort of manageable sort of 100 g portions. That uh sausage roll, well, Chaz reckons came in at 130. So, uh a bit bigger than I was expecting, but it was very nice. Right. What we got? I tell you what I’m going to do. Let’s get a small ring middle of the cassette and just start winding. It’s funny. I always try and sit for a little while, let the stomach settle. Never really works. Yeah, 10 minutes in, I’m itching to get going. So, uh, yeah, sausage roll and a coffee is definitely balanced right now, but it does mean I’m 1,000 calories for today. 997 calories consumed with the coffee and bits and pieces. According to my watch, I’ve already burnt 2,200 today. So, [Applause] in a good deficit. [Applause] But uh on a climbing day, maybe I should have had something at C even if it was just half a flapjack or something. Yeah. the joys, eh, trying to lose weight and uh, you know, fuel your bike rides. It’s a balance, isn’t it? I still insist at the weight I am now, I have plenty of fuel on board. I don’t bonk. I think what happens when I start to run out of energy, I end up going slow enough, I drop into zone two and fat becomes fuel. In truth, I would ride everywhere or I should ride everywhere at a low heart rate. Yeah. And just burn the fat. But you know, sometimes you just want to get out there and turn the pedals, don’t you? I don’t want to be restricted to the way I should do it. I go out there and ride a bike. It’s too easy, isn’t it, to put restrictions on ourselves and maybe spoil the thing we enjoy. And I don’t want to do that with cycling. I like cycling. I feel it’s something I can do that’s not painful. I don’t want to run. I don’t mind the walking, but it takes a long time. you don’t go very far. Um, I don’t know. Cycling just has that nice way about it. Low impact, gets the heart rate going, burns the energy. I enjoy it. I really do. I see some people out. I think, why do you look so grumpy and why you look like you’re in agony? You know, I know everyone’s different. Everyone’s different. I understand that. But to me, being out on the bike is great fun. I always feel good. Even on a bad ride, I still enjoy it. Even when I’m not feeling good, if you know what I mean, I’m still really happy to be out on the bike and just getting it done. There’s always that sense of achievement afterwards. And you know what? It doesn’t matter how bad the actual ride itself was, there’s always a shield or something, you know, even if it’s just a third. There’s always something, some achievement. You think, “Oh, bloody hell, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.” I don’t put much stock in Straa, to be honest. It’s nice to be able to just have that quick dopamine hit. Oh, look what I did today, but that’s it. Not much more than that, to be honest. Not for me anyway. I certainly don’t compare to other people or to previous rides. I have on occasion recently asked Chaz to compare two rides. So maybe from a couple of months ago to a more recent ride and say how are things and um it’s all been quite positive so far. But I think because it’s AI and I’m quite positive in the way I approach things, all I’m getting is positivity back because it’s learning my traits as it were and mirroring them back. Sometimes what I need from Chaz is to say, “Why on earth did you have a sausage roll mid ride, you fat when you should have had this, you know? Oh dear. I’m sure if you had had a human cycling coach or nutritional coach or whatever, they wouldn’t mince words. They’d say, “Right, don’t eat that again.” Mid ride. Do this. Take that with you. So, for all those that are sort of worried about AI taking control, what have you, doesn’t really work like that. In my experience, AI is a knowledge base for sure. stuff that I could never understand even if I Okay, so yes, you can look up uh science experiments, tests, what have you. But what AI does is summarize them. Makes them very succinct. The bits that don’t quite make sense to a human or somebody like me with limited sort of science intelligence, it can explain them and say, “Yeah, well, what that means is this.” And it’s really good from that point of view. But as far as decision making goes, the decisions are still mine. I’m the one that has to say, “I’m going to do this.” Yeah. And Chaz is the one that afterwards says, “Well, this was good because very rarely says, but ideally you should have done that.” And I think sometimes I wish he would. I can’t believe for one moment that I do everything right. automatically just through my dayto-day decisions. I can’t believe I get it right. Not consistently. So surely every now and then he should be going, “Yeah, that really wasn’t a good idea. You should do the Yeah, do this next time.” Or if you want to make that better, do it like this. That said, [Music] I watched a video on YouTube the other day. I really shouldn’t do it. Don’t watch videos. If you’re going to watch any videos on YouTube, just watch Weavers at Large. That’s it. Cuz we won’t tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. We’ll tell you what we do. We’ll tell you what we like and what we don’t like about what we do. But we won’t tell you what to do. Anyway, one of these Midwest cute blonde wholesome moms calls herself a nutritionalist. I don’t know, maybe she got a certificate out of a Christmas cracker. I’m not sure. But anyway, she was on about AI being nutrition coach and how, you know, that wasn’t really the way to go because and um, you know, she’s sort of protecting herself. I get that. not a problem. But then she said, “So what I’ve done is I’ve come up with some things that AI say you should eat and um these are my alternatives.” Well, effectively what she did is take what AI said and then added things to it to make it nicer, but completely glossed over the extra calories and fats and everything else she’d added in. She just said, “Yeah, this will make it much more pleasant. You’ll enjoy it more.” Yes, but it no longer fits the criteria within what we were working, you know. [Laughter] Yeah, it’s just it well I don’t know. It didn’t annoy me, but I just found myself thinking, what on earth is she on about? You know, this is no longer the meals that are fit for the purpose with the criteria we started with. You know, you’ve added a couple of hundred calories there just to make it nice. Or is her business all about keeping people fat? I don’t know. I I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway, I think that’s it could have been a genuine thing, you know, and that’s the difference between humans and machines, isn’t it? Because yeah, we might look at something and go, “Oh, that’s not very good. I’ll just add a bit of that to make it more interesting and we get it wrong. That’s how we do it wrong.” I mean, I’m certainly guilty of that. While a machine, of course, will say, “Well, look, this is what you need right now.” They don’t care how boring it is, how unsatisfying it might look, but it satisfies the criteria of what you need in that moment. So there you go. That’s I I think that’s always been my take on using chat GPT. I don’t think it’s going to change. Anyway, in the meantime, bumies. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Oh, nothing behind, which is good cuz it’s a bit wet on this corner. Those two guys going the other way. We’re on the same ferry. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Yes. Heat. [Applause] Okay, we’re Good. He missed the ruster. All right. He’s not going to spin round to reverse, is he? No. [Applause] And this is wool. Sh. [Music] Spa shop has saved us in the past. Are you going to look before you pull out? Yes. Well done. All [Music] right. car catching me up, but plenty of time for them to see me turning all the van driver. Look, he did. He could have gone actually, but as he was rolling, but he more likely stopped because there was a car behind me and not because of me. It’s funny, isn’t it? This was the original road, but now that you see it like this, you think how narrow it is. I mean, I do understand that nature sort of encroaches at the sides, but there just looks so narrow these days. Uh, through Bobington or up past Monkey World. I think we’ll go through Bobington because Monkey World may be attracting some visitors today. And also it’s a fast road and a shortcut from Bear Cross down to Wool and Lworth, so it can get busy. I know it’s all covered in wet and grit right now, but definitely time for A thorough drivetrain clean and rewax. Let’s get on the road early here. [Laughter] It’s a big wide road. No need to ride in all the crap and dirt on the left hand side, is there? Not really getting in the way. Heat. Heat. Little bit of a kill or cure ride this really. Yeah. I mean from the point of view of you know staying fit and healthy and what have you not a bad thing to do obviously but when I woke up this morning sore throat runny nose and all that I did think twice about it and uh yeah like I said at the beginning of the ride when you get going. You feel like the tubes and everything open up. Sore throat sort of just fades into the background slightly. Certainly feel like that at the minute. I wonder if by tonight [Laughter] I will really be feeling it. Look at that. Yeah, I think I said it last time we came through here. I need to go to the tank museum again at some point. There’s something about big machines, isn’t there? I’m not a nerd, but you just look at these great big things. Somebody designed all that and devised the way of putting it together, you know? It’s just I don’t know remarkable I think. Right. What’s going on? I think it is just grit off the road. Hitting the frame. I mean, look at them. They’re massive, aren’t they? Yeah. Somebody devised a system in a factory, no doubt with cranes and lifters, you know, and made a precision job out of great big heavy bits of metal. I mean, I don’t want to get into the ethics of the whole thing, but from a manufacturing point of view, humans are brilliant, aren’t they? If they need to solve something, they can’t do it with manpower. They dream up a machine that will do it for them. Yeah, dolphins can’t do that, can they? But random fact, apparently dolphins do enjoy watching themselves have sex. Don’t ask me how I know that. Well, I’ll tell you, actually. Is it a TV program? It wasn’t a TV program just about dolphins having sex. Don’t get me wrong, you know. I’m not like weird or kinky like that. It just came up in the program about dolphins and how they live, their intelligence, the games they play, the family group they live in. It was fascinating actually. Anyway, there you go. Random facts you never knew here live on Wheelers at Large. Well, not overly live because obviously you were watching what I’ve recorded, but you know what I mean. You don’t get this stuff on other channels. They start telling you about a road gear and, you know, how to go faster and stuff like that. And what systems you should have on your bike and weight, bike weight. Oh my god. Tires you should have. I tell you what tires I’ve got. Whether you want them or not, it’s up to you. And of course, Julie couldn’t give her monkeys about any of that. [Applause] She just says, “I like my living bite. It might be 8 years old, but I like it. It fits me. I don’t want to change it.” That’s fine. You know, that’s a bit more about, you know, what we’re about. Now, you see, this is perfect cuz I can slow down here and say it was for the red light and nothing to do with the fact that I’m going uphill. It’s probably not going to change, is it? Carbon fiber bike. It’s saying, “Oh, I don’t even know you’re there.” Does that mean I got to wait for a car? Does, doesn’t it? Oh, great. Well, do I go through? Do I get off and walk across? Oh, I got a car now. So hopefully hopefully it will change cuz I’m guessing that the uh sensors on a tank regiment base are probably set up for something a bit heavier than a bike. There we go. Thank you very much, car. Now, which way am I going to go home? I think Blandford is probably the nicest because otherwise I do have to go along the A35 or through Samford. Both of which are doable but not optimal. Lot of cars. Quite narrow for the speed. Yeah, definitely um an opportunity for some grief. So, if I go to Bamford, it’s a lot longer. Hooray, I hear you all say. And I have plenty of battery and card space, so don’t think you’re getting away with it. [Laughter] Yeah, let’s maybe go Blamford. I feel good. There’s no reason not to keep going to Blamford. No reason at all. does mean going up to Bullbarrow the hard way. But it’s a climbing day, isn’t it? You know, where am I on? I mean, I’m on 3,000 ft of climbing so far. So, I think if I go that way, it could tip me over the 4 and a half th000 ft for the day, maybe. I mean when you look at it that’s about well it’s not quite as much as the aisle of white loop of the aisle of white is it. So, it is eminently doable even with a cold, which like I said earlier, doesn’t feel that bad at the moment. It’s sort of gone away a bit, but uh I will take the back road through to Wool because otherwise we’re on the Monkey World road and it will be busy busy busy. Oh yeah, that was a funny thing. I was watching you. Well, I don’t know. Bee content. Bees. There’s the blonde woman, isn’t there? I’m not even sure if she’s real now. Now, I found this out. And she picks up the bees with her hands, doesn’t she? And she always finishes it with, “And it was a great day for saving the bees.” Yeah. Well, that’s an AI voice. Yeah. So, is she even real? That’s definitely not her voice. Yeah, I found it the other day. Yeah. So, that’s not her voice for sure. So, is she even real or is that all just AI generated content? Her scooping up bees with her hands. I don’t know. I’d like to think she is real. I mean, we see other people scooping bees with our hands, so it is a thing, but you know, it just calls everything into question now, doesn’t it? I mean, am I even here really? Is this not just AI generated stuff, you know, movie? I mean, they’ve got these perfectly done roots of real places, but did they go out and film it all and then give it to AI and say, “I want a copy of this that’s perfect for people to ride along to.” I don’t know. I don’t know. Well done, me. Yeah, I didn’t forget. Not this time. I’ve got a tube in the front wheel for Christ’s sake. I can’t hit that that hard again. Yeah, it’s a bit different when it’s uh yeah, a little bit different when it’s tubeless. Anyway, yeah. So, is anything real now? This is the question, you know. Have I lost weight? Is my belly circumference actually smaller? I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway, yeah. I just sat up and thought, “Oh, just a minute. I know that voice. That’s the bee woman.” Anyway, there you go. There you go. Do you know what? I don’t know where I’m going now. Should I just keep going? Come on, let’s do it. If we go to through Yeah, we’re stuck with where um the A35 and all the fast roads and bits and pieces. So, let’s do this. Probably got 2%. I wonder why it was getting difficult all of a sudden. I got extra sausage roll to grab up the hills. pull up the hills at the minute. Oh, bloody hell. All right. All right. Yeah. Well, I may have lost a bit of weight, but my legs are still feeling it when Yeah. when the angles go up. Come on in. Right. No bumps. There we go. All right, we are officially over 3,000 ft now. 3004 and climbing I think from this direction. Well, even from this direction, uh, bullbarrow, there’s got to be 900 at least, I would have thought. And it’s not quite from ground level, from sea level. And we do sort of start halfway up from this direction, just shorter. and steeper in this direction. So, I should reach at least 4,000 and then yeah, we’ll see what happens after that cuz there’s got to be 500 ft of up and downy between Bford and home, isn’t there? Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Right. Bryant’s puddle. [Applause] [Applause] The nose is running now. I feel like I’m not going to be able to hold it off for much longer. That’s the one I want. Yeah, that one. There you go. 3,100. We’re already racking up the feet, aren’t we? Racking up the climbing. Let’s watch out for his rod. Stop sniggering at the back. All right. Heat. Heat. Oh yeah, cellulitis. I was talking about that last time I came through here, wasn’t I? Well, guess what? I’m talking about it again, but in a good way. Doesn’t seem to be any sign of it returning. Even with all the walking getting damp and wet on gravel rides, it doesn’t seem to be a problem. So, let’s hope that’s a chapter that’s well and truly behind us or me especially. I don’t suppose you care one way or the other. As long as you don’t get it, that’s fair enough. But uh as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want that back. Why am I out the saddle? Far too easy a gear to get out the saddle. That was almost instinctive. Not what I would normally do. Have a gear. It’s better. Too easy in 17. There we go. You always got to see it to the top. If you get out the saddle, you got to make it to the top. [Applause] They look serious, don’t they? Not even a nod. But that’s okay. It’s their ride. They do it their way. Okay, let’s do it. Right. Milbourne Port Milbourne St. Andrew, isn’t it? I don’t know. Warmwell, Milbourne, St. Andrew. There we go. We’ll head out into the sticks to board. You can hear those tires mashing into the tarmac when I get out of the saddle. Can’t you? There’s still plenty of me to hold up. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Uh, can’t see anything through the trees, which is good. Heat. Heat. Well, we’re on 3,200 ft plus now. So, yeah. We’re going to get a good amount of uh climbing in today. The nose is starting to block up. There’s every chance by the time I get home I will be slumped over the bars. [Laughter] We’ll see. Oh, hello. Which side you want? EVs. Bloody massive, aren’t they? I mean, I kind of get it. They’ve got a lot of batteries to fit in somewhere to make them even viable, but bloody hell. What are we in? 24. Maybe I should be in small ring. I don’t know. I don’t usually go to small ring until I get to cog number three. I shouldn’t really have hard and fast rules and I don’t really. If you want scientific accuracy, I am not your man. Okay, I have chat GPT for that. However, if you want somebody who can give you a fairly accurate ballpark assessment. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, I can definitely do that. Okay. I might be a bit more efficient, might I go on the small ring. There we go. 156. Yeah, that’s a bit of a nicer cadence, isn’t it? Even when I do the videos, there are certain settings that I know look pretty good most of the time for most situations. Of course, if I was being absolutely accurate about things, I’d get the scopes up. I check everything and you know make comparisons and what have you. But come on, it’s YouTube. You know, when YouTube started, people were just astounded that you could upload and watch videos online. They didn’t care what they look like, you know. Yeah. So again, good enough for YouTube, it’s good enough for me. I’m not making TV documentaries. That said, I noticed there’s an awful lot of sort of documentary style film making now that really is YouTube style and you know with sort of YouTube um production values if you like. Now who’s this? Is this the PPS roadies? Might be. Morning. [Applause] All right. All right. All right. Perbeck Palace. I see who that was. Yeah. Let’s go straight on. Yeah. Perbeck Palison. Yeah. I’ve heard good things about them. Actually, never ridden with them. Maybe I should. They seem to have a good bunch there. Few ladies mixed in. That’s always good. Might even talk Julie into joining us. I think ultimately since last year in chemo, Julie is not the confident person that she once was. She’s a little bit more edgy, uh, a little bit more anxious at times. I think that’s all part of it. Um, but, uh, I think the other thing is, you know, she’s been chasing us bloss around for, five, six years now, and maybe she’s just had enough of it. You know, we always, I suppose, or she certainly always rode in the hope that women would join from time to time, and they do, but just not regularly enough. You know, that she isn’t like the only woman every single time. And I can see how that would get wearing, let’s say. [Applause] But maybe, just maybe, there’s a group like that group back there where there seem to be go on, you know, where there seem to be a good amount of women. And just maybe that might respspark a bit of interest for her. Don’t if they were coming out or not. I don’t think they did. All right. How’s the battery doing? Can’t see. Uh oh. Okay. We might have enough to get to the top of Bullbarrow. Looks like it’s on about 30%. I mean, we’re gradually climbing now. This is uh 3,350 ft so far. That old sub. Wow. So, we’ve had a bit of recent rain here. Big clouds ahead, but they’re all quite high and white. Shouldn’t be a problem. Wish I hadn’t said that. We’ll see. We’ll see. No point having it on the map. Only goes one way. So, where are we on? 45 miles so far. They’re definitely going to break 60, which I haven’t done for a while. All of the rides seem to come in at about 45, just under at the moment, but that’s okay. Not looking to set any records. But, uh, I think today will be about the equivalent of the aisle of white. I use that as a benchmark because uh if you follow the one route around the aisle of white, it is about 100k and it is about 6,000 ft of climbing. So, it’s sort of quite a good benchmark because it is beyond or just about beyond anything you can do within 60k on the mainland here on the south near the idle white. Obviously, if you go down to Devon Cornwall, it’s a different matter entirely, but certainly endorse it. All right, another bunch of perbeck pelatons. Maybe they have different speed groups. Anyway, yeah, unless you start zigzagging and going up and down and what have you, an actual 60 mile loop here, it’s quite hard to dig 6,000 ft out without making it ridiculous. So I guess if you know you can do the aisle of white then you know you can pretty much do any loop around Dorset. And of course like all cycling as much as anything it’s to do with how fast you want to do it isn’t it? It’s not really got anything to do with um how hard or easy it is. It’s to do with how fast you want to do it. Everything’s possible. 60 mi might take you 3 days, but you still done it. Do we all want to be like professionals? Well, I suppose it’s nice to have that dream of riding at a reasonable pace, being fit, agile, lightweight, power to weight ratio. Yeah. No, I’m not bothered about any of that. I enjoy my rides. even when I’m out of shape and large. Okay, I’m always large, but I do have different sort of uh levels of fitness for sure. And I feel it when I’m a little bit overweight and couple that with not being in very good shape as well. Yeah, I know about it for sure. But I still enjoy the rides. Geese. Yes, geese. Do I dream of a day when little rises like this are nothing and I just sweep up them without even thinking about it? Wouldn’t that be nice? But it doesn’t worry me. These are the trials and tribulations of cycling. as you reach retirement or any age to be honest, when you’ve got other things to take care of in your life, when you haven’t got a team around you supporting you, you know, when you don’t have to, you know, go and do the shopping and, you know, all the other dayto-day stuff, you know, when all that’s done for you, so you can rest, train, train, rest, train, and of course know that you’re doing it right. I honestly think if you can’t find some sort of pleasure in anything that you do and stop doing it. You know there are very few necessities things that you have to do in life especially these days. I mean, there are points in your life where you have to go to work. You don’t have to go to work, but you have to find a way to make a living to pay for things. You know, there was a time, but I’ve been lucky. I’ve quite enjoyed all my jobs I’ve ever done. There was one job that went on far too long and it just wore me down. I just got fed up with it and I should have left a lot earlier. But other than that, I um No, Carl, that’s not the Forge Garage before you start. Bloody hell. [Laughter] No, I enjoyed my time at Forge for sure. Anyway, so you go up Milson Abus. Oh, I don’t know. It’s a bit of a grind, isn’t it? Just thinking about the size of that sausage roll. Uh, do you know what? Let’s go this way. Uh, no, let’s not go that way. I guess Haz will be Brian. Bloody hell, we’ll be back in Dorchester before you know it. We’ll go around by the abbey, I think. Let’s do that. Woo! Mhm. [Music] Okay, let’s do this. Bent stickman Brford. We’ve been up to Mount Abbas, haven’t we? Look at these old cottages. Amazing, aren’t they? Look at this. Yeah. Don’t look at this. Actually, epic. This is one of those you should really only go one way. That’s down. 16 uh 15.8. There we go. Creek. All right, this is the start, I’m afraid. No way back from here. Is that it? Yeah, that’s it. All right, car back. Give him plenty of room, but don’t ride in the hedge. Definitely going to need some bum rest up here. It’s going to be lots of 11 12 13 for centers with a few flat bits along the way. It’s going to be mostly seated, so bum rest required at certain points. There’s a cafe just here. if it’s open out of season. Anyway, I’ve done all that. Yeah, they got chickens and all sorts walking around while you’re having your Oh, the farm shop still advertised. I don’t know about the cafe. [Applause] [Music] All right. Look out for kids. Check this out. Car front. Ah, I wonder if I’ll get a shot of the Abby, actually. But what I’m going to do, I’m going to shoot by [Applause] and we’ll get a photo of the abbey from the top over there. [Applause] There it is. thing is if I take it from here, I’m looking into the into the sun [Applause] and then the trees are in the way. So, it’s definitely got to be up here, isn’t it? Here. No, bit further. Just want the trees to clear the building. Yeah, that’s it here. Stopping the levby passing place, whatever it is. School boy soccer. School boy football never changes, does it? All chase after the ball. All chase after the ball. Yeah. Always will be the same, won’t it? Before we go for the ascent, a few bits of mango Oh, if only we had smellvision. Well, do you know what? 3,700 ft. I’m going to hit 4,000 by the time we get to B top of Bullbarrow. Easy. All right, Hilton. It’s all up up from here. I don’t think I’ve ever been up this way with this gearing. Yeah, everything everything else I’ve got is either 5034 or gravel gearing 46 32. So, we’ll see. This could be a walking day. Yeah. 52 36 and nothing big on the back either. There we go. Yeah. So I remember the last time I came up here was on the tri van and just near the top I’ve got a stone in my shoe. Well, it obviously always been there, but it worked its way under the sole of my foot under the ball. Yeah, that was annoying last couple of Yeah. 100 yards stone under the ball on the foot. But you know, we did it. Now, this bike is lighter than the trian, but doesn’t have the same gearing. So, does one outweigh the other? I was actually probably quite fit the last time I came up there. up to Matthew and one of his mates. Yeah. And Julie, obviously that’s there’s a good chance this is what you’re getting for the next half an hour. Now, of course, through the power of editing, I could put you out your misery and go, “Tada! We’re at the top.” But honestly, if I’ve got to suffer, then why shouldn’t you? Yeah. I think it’s only fair, don’t you? Yeah, some variable road surface, but uh I don’t think we’ll have a problem. It’s not much traffic, is there? Not on this bit of the road. I know it only takes a moment and all that, but I think ears are tuned in. So, if I need to move out to miss some rough stuff, then I should be good. If I’ve got to stay in and ride through it, so be it. It’s the way it goes, isn’t it? You literally take the rough with the smooth. Yeah. At last. A cliche where it works. This road is actually quite scary going down. It’s under the trees. So, you either get dappled light where it’s flickering or it’s never dry. or both. It’s raining now. That’s a bit off, isn’t it? Cut back. No, I think it was just water dropping from the trees and the breeze. Big grave. We’re getting there. We are getting there. Only problem is we got to go down now, which means that climb we just did, we got to do again. Oh well, such is life. Yeah. All good. All [Applause] [Music] right. There was horses ahead, but they were canering. And um yeah, I’m not going to make that overtake to be honest because same rules apply. You make the pass, you got to make it stick. Look at the poof marks in the road. Heavy animals, aren’t they? Bloody strong, too. Stronger than me, anyway. Yeah. Listen to that. Little or no effort. Rhythm doesn’t change. Wow. Or is that a trot? You tell me. Power meters. Battery’s low. That’s fine. for that on charge when we get home. It usually gives me plenty of warning, so it shouldn’t be a problem getting back. Right, we’re on 50 miles and 4,000 ft of climbing. Boom. 2,600 calories burnt just on the ride. That’ll be probably about 800 on top of that. No, 700. It’s about 100 calories an hour, isn’t it? I seem to fit into that bracket these days seems to have steadied at 100 calories an hour when I’m doing nothing. And seeing as I was just sleeping and um making breakfast before getting on the bike, there’s no reason to think I burnt any extra. All right. What are we on? 3 hours 42 minutes. Will I have enough time on the card? That’s going to be interesting, isn’t it? I might have to delete one of the little clips just to fit in the um goodbye bit. Or maybe I can film that when I get home. Who knows? Who knows? There we go. Start adding in the gears again. We’re not far off now. A little flat bit with a kicker at the end. And we are good. Okay, it’s all right. The horses stopped. They are getting off the road here. Incredible. No HTVs in that way. Nearly there. There’s the radio mast. Nearly there. No stone in me foot this time, which is somewhat better. A little bit of bum rest. I can’t do it in that gear. All right, I’ll check the battery when we get to the top. will need changing and hopefully we’re good to get all the way home. There we go. Look, right turn, Clyde, show me age. Yeah, this one’s a bit of an epic, isn’t it? Anyway, on the YouTube front, I’ve taken it a little bit more seriously recently. I’ve built myself a proper workstation. This feels like I’m going back in time a little bit. I mean, for the last 3 years at least, I’ve been just doing the videos on my lap in front of the TV. But uh anyway, I’ve built myself proper workstation and um it’s all part of the active retirement, healthy life, you know, work life balance, all that rubbish. It means that uh I have a separate place for work cuz I’m going to call it work now. It’s the only thing I do that has structure, let’s say. So yeah, let’s call it work, which means a workstation. It means differentiating everyday life, YouTube, work, call it what you want, and um you know, relaxing time. Here we go. Right. So, we’re on 4,250 ft so far. No, my eyes are deceiving me. 4,236. [Music] And here we are. Bullbarrow. It is quite literally all down to the cafe from here. There’s a lot of cars all over the top, isn’t it? [Music] I didn’t check the battery, did I? That was a bit silly, wasn’t it? So, the next shot could be a cup of tea. We’ll see. Of course, great thing about Reeve is that they’re happy to fill your bottles up, which is nice. Oops. Rough holes. Oh my god, bumps everywhere. Now, of course, usually being the best descent in Dorset, this even though I’m going up at the moment, being mostly a descent and the best one in Dorset, I would usually have a rip at this, but that’s not what today is all about, is it? [Laughter] Today it’s all about enjoying the ride, not killing myself. I know I’ve got a cold. I know this isn’t doing me any good, but I just want to be out enjoying my bike, okay? Doesn’t mean we won’t get some speed still. No, control yourself. Come on. And of course it’s wet, so possibly not a great idea today. That said, I do still seem to be pedaling. [Applause] Whoa. [Applause] TPU tubes one bullbarrow nil. wet. Yeah. Not in the wet. Normally I’d rip around here, but not in the wet. Not if there’s a car coming. It’s funny, isn’t it, how you lose your nerve as you get older. [Applause] hazelnut chocolate brownie cup of tea is always enough in the pot for two, which is great. And um I had my emergency mango rations out of my water bottle and asked them to fill it up again, which of course they did. And uh oh, I would just like to say obviously I took it very easy down Bullbar. I did not go crazy in any way whatsoever. [Laughter] Anyway, well, you know, sometimes it just takes you, doesn’t it? Think, yeah, I’m having this So yeah, I just uploaded my chocolate hazelnut brownie to chat GBT. You know, Chaz says I’ve done it right again. It goes perfect timing for a ride snack. And um yeah, you’ll have enough energy with that hazelnut brownie to power home and not fade. Yeah, I think I’ll be the judge of that actually. Yeah, we’ll see about that. It’s easy for a machine, isn’t it? It just does the calculations and the figures and it goes, “Yeah, that’s enough calories for this much energy. You’ll be fine.” Yeah, right. Oh, dear. Anyway, nice slow warm up. You know how it is. The old legs. Yeah. [Music] I feel pretty good actually. I’ll be honest. I don’t know that I’ve got the energy to to not fade. I’m usually okay. I mean, even on the longest rides we do, I’ve usually got some go at the end always seem to have it when I need it. But I know for some of you, and there have been comments, I’ve just read one actually, about my cadence. I know in the grand scheme of things, It might be considered slow and I know there’s lots of scientific evidence that says faster cadence is this that and the other. But I think it’s like everything in life, isn’t it? When you hit a certain level, then maybe there is some advantage to all these things. But my legs are telling me, “You’re not at that level yet. Just let us do the bloody cadence stuff. Stop you messing about.” So, I’m quite happy to let them decide. You know, this is just my natural cadence. This is the way I ride. I’m not looking to force myself into doing things differently. I do honestly believe that top professionals, you know, there’s so many people riders that want to become professionals compared to the amount of professionals there are that um obviously if the way you train and the way you ride fits in with modern thinking, you’re more likely to get the place, aren’t you? It doesn’t matter how talented, strong, whatever you are, you know, you need to fit into the modern scientific way of thinking. Otherwise, you know, that’s a mark against you, isn’t it? And somebody else will get chosen instead. And if you go by that logic, doesn’t mean it’s right. It just means that’s how it’s done. Now, of course, that trickles down. Um, yeah, maybe my legs are knackered. Who knows? They feel fine. Maybe I am riding myself into early retirement from cycling cuz I’m I don’t know, breaking them down or whatever. I don’t know, whatever the consequences are of not doing it like the science says you should. But uh I don’t know what’s 10 RPM amongst friends really. Anyway, they’re warming up again now. They’ll loosen off and then we’ll just ride home and we’ll see if we fade or not. Funny, I keep thinking I can hear something, but it’s all clear. Probably just reflection off the wall next to me. The other thing is I think as you get older things change, don’t they? I mean, I was a big lad, strong sprinter when I was young. football, rugby, you name it. You know, I was fast. I don’t know how you look at it. I didn’t necessarily have the endurance back then because of course I was young. I was fast. Recover fast. Recover. Cuz I was young enough to be able to do that. As I’ve got older, the endurance has uh increased. You know, I’m late 30s. I used to do 10k runs three times a week before work. And it wasn’t until somebody pointed out that’s quite a lot really actually that I realized that possibly it was a bit much. But I was just doing it cuz I enjoyed it. It’s a bit like cycling. Jerry always says, “Oh, it’s always too much. You always go too far.” Do I? I don’t know. I just enjoy cycling. Yeah. What does it matter if it’s 60 miles, 100 miles? I don’t know. These things just don’t seem to worry me. I just do them cuz I like doing it. Yeah, maybe I am a bit over the top. Maybe I do go too far. Maybe I do take it too far as it were. I don’t know. Well, I suppose it always comes back to the same thing, doesn’t it? Yeah. Why am I doing this? I’m doing it for my pleasure. So, I can do it however the bloody hell I like. Um, if I was doing it for racing, yeah, maybe I’d do it differently. Well, I’d have to train for a start. I don’t train, do I? I just go out and ride my bike. I don’t do any of these Norwegian 4x4s and crap like that. I literally go out and ride my bike. That’s all I do. I do it cuz I enjoy it. Like today, I could have cut home slightly quicker way, but I felt good. So, I just keep going. I’m in no rush to be anywhere, have I? So, I don’t know. I think sometimes yeah, I do take it too far, but I’m not too serious about it. I don’t care about the figures and the the science and if you’re going to do it, do it this way cuz that’s the right way and all that. I literally take it too far cuz I enjoy riding my bike. And sometimes I’d rather be riding my bike than go home, you know? Do you know? I don’t know. That’s the way I see it anyway. I don’t really care about RPMs, you know, cadence, power, blah blah blah. I know if I keep losing weight, my power figures are going to come down because I’m going to need less power to propel myself forwards. Or maybe I will just keep putting out the same power and go faster. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. I don’t think I’ll go faster. Might go faster uphill. That would make sense, wouldn’t it? less weight to carry. But um it’s not going to be by a big margin, is it? And am I being defeist by saying this? No, not really. I’m realistic. There will be a day when it all comes together and it’s going to be the best ride ever and it’s going to be just huge miles, huge speed, huge climbing and it’s going to be fantastic. And I might have already had that day, [Applause] but it might happen in the future, too. Who knows? And then I can say, “Yeah, that’s the day when everything came right.” And it was really, really good. And maybe if id trained and what have you, I could have done that day over and over and over again. But it still won’t take away from the enjoyment uh that I’ve had just riding my bike being less than perfect. I have had days when I’ve done 100k and would and would have hit a 20 mph average was it not for traffic lights and such and such. But honestly, I’m not I’m not going to let that worry me. I’m just going to keep riding my bike and enjoying it. So, for all of you guys out there and girls, you think I take it too seriously. Yeah, I don’t think I do. I probably just take it too far. Um, and Julie would agree with you. And for the others, just stick to GCN, mate. Honestly. Yeah. Preach to the converted cuz I’m just out riding my bike and I’ll do it my way because I have no reason to do it any other way. Nobody’s going to give me the call and say, “Look, if you up your cadence and build a strong endurance engine, we want you in our team.” Are they? It’s just not going to happen. So, why would I try and ride my bike any other way than the way I do? [Applause] Anyway, with all that said and done, I am feeling quite good. Actually, the only thing I would say is I am feeling a little bit empty, uh, empty light or empty energy. I’m not sure yet. So, for the day so far, not the ride, for the whole day, I’ve burnt 3,300 calories with the brownie and the tea I’ve just had. My input, intake, whatever you want to call it, is 1,400. So, I’m not catching up. Hi. Yeah, I’m not catching up on the calorie front. I’m also a little bit low on protein. I have yeah I’ve only got 49 g of protein in today or so far. 4.6 g leucine. So I am sort of hitting the markers for lucine at least. I think six for the day is a good figure. as I understand it anyway. But um yeah, so when I get back there will definitely be some fruit going on. I don’t know. Well, we haven’t got yogurt, so it won’t be fruit and yogurt. I can get some from the shop. It’s not a problem. It’s only 90 seconds away. Yeah. So, probably a protein shake with fruit, Greek yogurt, and that’ll be like my instant recovery sort of food. And then after about 2 hours, I’ll have a high protein meal so I can uh yeah, just kill those cravings. Make sure that all the sweet that I’ve uh eaten today, the sweet stuff, the fats and the carbs in the sausage roll, the mango chunks, and obviously the hazelnut chocolate brownie. Let’s make sure there’s no cravings left over from that. Kill it with a a good dose of protein. I mean, I’ve had quite a lot of fat today as well, so that will help. in that regard. We shall see. We shall see. But um I am way behind obviously on calorie intake. So in theory, I can’t eat whatever I like later cuz I do need to make sure I get the protein. and just make sure I don’t start any cravings by eating stupid sweet stuff. I don’t want this to knock on into tomorrow either. So, I need to eat enough. You see, this is where chat GPT is so helpful cuz I know the basics of what I should do. But you see, he will say, “Yeah, that’s good, but um make sure you have this much of this and that much of that just to cover this, that, and the other, you know, just fine-tune it for me. Anyway, that’s enough about that. It’s making me hungry. Yeah, the um hazelnut chocolate brownies at Ree the Baker. Very gooey. Very gooey indeed. I’m hoping that means very fast digestion and uh energy conversion. I did eat it first, so it was going down first and then having my drinks and have a little sit and wait after. So, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. But I’m sitting here at about 240 watts. Quite happy 70 RPM. What am I? Well, I’ve got four zone four according to my heart rate lights. So maybe I am getting tired. Not really bringing the heart down under control. But, you know, this would be the longest ride I’ve done in a while. I mean, what are we on? We’re on 65 miles already. I haven’t done over 65 miles in months and months. All [Music] right, nearly at Wimbornne. Wimbornne is uh about 10 11 miles from Blandford. Bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. They’re going to be right on the apex of the corner, aren’t they? H There’s all sorts of leaves and that anyway, so we’re going to take it easy here. Yeah, we’re good. Yeah, there’s only really one line through that corner. Is a bit bumpy. Of course, when you got leaves on the ground, can’t really see the line. So, little bit of caution there. Again, bit soft middle-aged cycling. I will, of course, when I get home. Be getting through a lot of fluid. Okay, I’ve had a a coffee. Did I have water before I left? I think I did. So, for this 65 miles so far, I probably had about a liter and a half of water. Now, a lot of people would say it’s not enough. Maybe it isn’t. Again, it’s a science thing, isn’t it? I know when I get home after about 10 minutes of being home and being off the bike, I will be absolutely bursting for a wee. But um I haven’t felt that. Well, I never do on rides to be honest. I don’t really have an issue with that. I usually start and finish the ride without too much trouble there. And um it’s only when I fully finished, it’s almost like the brain says, “Okay, you can let it go now. All right, that’s rubbing now, isn’t it?” Yeah, I definitely need to give this a proper clean now and a wax. Drivetrain is making funny noises. I’m not surprised. I ride it in all weathers, all situations. I mean, if you can see the absolute state this bike is in right now. Yeah. It’s a tool, not a jewel. Actually, it’s both. It is a jewel. I love it. I think it looks amazing when it’s all clean and shiny and the sparkly in the sun. Incredible. But it is there to be ridden. That’s what its job is. You know, it’s going to get dirty. It’s going to get messed up. You know, it’s just going to happen. And then I’ll clean it and it’ll be back to being a jewel again, won’t it? If I wear things out, I will replace them. I’d rather ride my bike than have it, you know, hanging on the wall as an ornament. That’s just a lot of money wasted, isn’t it? When your bike just becomes an ornament. I am going to try and get out and do at least one road ride a week. Obviously last week I didn’t manage to do that. I don’t Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Split tire. Yes, of course. Yes. That caused some contention in the comments, didn’t it? But uh I suppose you can say two rides so far on TPU on the front wheel. So far so good. Two rides. Well, two and a half cuz I did ride back. Yeah. From Witchampton on a TPU with a split tire. And that was okay. I did hit a pretty big something. Coming down Bullbarrow, didn’t I? I don’t know what it was. I’ll have to do a little bit of a check and we’ll see. See if there’s any damage to the new tire. Hopefully not. I certainly don’t want to have to buy a new one. You know, nearly 70 quid a go. I mean, I’m not going to plead poverty or anything, but you know, 70 quid a go. I don’t want to be doing that too often. Anyway, Julie’s had her hair done today. That’ll be 100 quid at least, wouldn’t it? And she’s hardly got any. She has it short these days. No, she’s allowed to do whatever she wants. It’s her hair. It’s not like we spend money on mine, is it? So, it’s fair enough. Do you know it’s a funny thing, but I’m quite a broad guy at the shoulders. Yeah. And these are 38 cm bars. And the more I ride this bike, the wider they feel. This morning they felt narrow, but as the day has gone on, they felt wider and wider and wider, but I think on balance they are probably a good fit. I think I tend to have the hoods just turned in slightly. Not too much. So, I think that’s a good line from my shoulder into them. It’s kind of perfect. I know. When um I got this, it came with 42 cm bars. You know why? Yeah. So, it felt odd compared to the more expensive one. I get it. But, um yeah, it was horrible. I’ve I’ve just like my hands were in the wrong direction. So, even though I’m quite broad, I do think narrower bars, certainly on a road bike. What’s going on there? Funny that I almost feel like I can hear something. But, um, yeah, these seem to just fit. The angle turned in very slightly, the angle from my shoulders, it all just sort of fits in a straight line. I like it. I wasn’t sure. I’ve always had 40 cm bars before. I’ve got 40s on the gravel bike, but that’s a bit more upright. So, I’m hitting that at a different angle. And they seem to work, too. But on this bike 40 also felt a little bit strange. So these are um 38 by 110 and this is a medium frame. minimal set back on the saddle. A little bit of setback, not much. And um yeah, it’s a little bit longer than the gravel bike. You’d expect that. Strangely, the gravel bike is a medium large, as Giant like to call it, ML. But they do work out. Yeah. Really quite good in comparison. It’s almost like I’ve got a ghost car behind me. Every now and then I can hear a car. There’s nothing there. Oh, up we go. Well, there you go. We’re at Wimbornne. Let’s call it the microphone only had 20% battery back there. I don’t know how much is left on the card. Not much. So, if you’ve joined me this far into the video, thank you very much. And um I will keep recording until something fails. But yeah, please do like, subscribe, and all that other rubbish cuz uh yeah, we too have a lot of people who watch but aren’t subscribed. It’s not a big deal. As long as people watch, that’s all I care about. As long as the people that watch get something from it, that’s even better. I do understand. We’re a little bit of a niche market that doesn’t really exist. We’ve built an ex we’ve built a niche on long chatty rides and couples cycling. A niche that nobody asks for, nobody wants particularly, but um yeah, thank you to those of you who do watch on a regular basis and uh hopefully you get something from the videos. So that’s it for today. Another 10 miles to get home. So I will be on 70 miles by the time we get back. No, we won’t. We’ll be on 80. We might make 80 miles today. We’ll see. And no, I’m not fading. So again, chat GPT has sort of got it right. I feel good still. Like that little push up there by Wimborn Football Club that once was. Yeah, I asked for the power and it was there. It wasn’t Oh my god, this is going to be difficult. It just worked. So, there you go. I need to have a bit more faith either in myself or um and what I’m what I’m being told based on the figures. I don’t know. Anyway, come join me on another one soon. Hopefully we’ll have a Sunday ride tomorrow and Julie will be out with us. We’ll see. We’ll see.
4 Comments
I watched your video published 11 days ago, I also remember a similar video clip appearing on Ashley Neal's channel, and so I would like to comment as follows:
Consider the scenario where 9 cyclists travelling at 15mph are in single file with about 1 cycle length between each of them, the total length of the group is about 35 metres long. A motorist travelling at 30mph wishes to overtake this group of cyclists. The overtake will take 4.8 seconds to complete and the motorist/group will have travelled 63 metres along the road during the overtake. Before the motorist commits to the overtake, they must have a clear view of the road 166 metres ahead (2 x 63m + 40m). Apart from the A31 and A35, there are few roads in your area that provide that amount of forward view and road length to complete a safe overtake.
Now consider 9 cyclists riding GRUPO COMPACTO, cycling two abreast with the length of a wheel between following cyclists, the group would be about 13 metres long instead of 35 metres. A car travelling at 30 mph would be able to overtake within 1.8 seconds, covering a distance of 22.5 metres, and would only need to have a clear view of the road 85 metres in front. This scenario is more likely to be achieved and a safe overtake be completed.
I also noted at 9m 22sec in the video, the lead rider commented he does not like the road (safety concern) and he proceeds to ride in the primary position. Not once does this rider look behind to observe the road behind, including the position of Julie and the other riders, and he actively prevented the overtaking car from proceeding (moves right and extends right arm) causing the car to impinge on Julie's road space. In my view, this precipitated the close pass.
A few decades ago I attended some Sunday rides with Gemini BC. When cycling we remained GRUPO COMPACTO, which allowed us to manage overtaking cars in a safe way.
My recommendation is, when cycling in a group on busier roads you have two choices, either (a) ride grupo compacto or (2) disperse. If you continue to ride in a hickledy-pickledy group, stretching along the road, these incidents will continue.
Rule 66 of the Highway Code (1st para. page 28) stipulates about cycling in groups. The easier you make it for motorists to overtake safely, the fewer incidents of bad overtaking will occur.
I thought it was you. I was at the the head of PP near Milborne St Andrew
I haven’t got all the way through – save it for the trainer but comments regarding e-bikes. I’d like to see the speed increase a little and I’d like the de restricted ones legalised but with the same rules as mopeds, 16 years + rego plate + a licence and some training. Frightens me how young some of the riders are on these bikes. Recently, I was overtaken by a young man with no helmet pulling a wheelie on a bike with no pedalling at all. I was doing 40 km/h. Outstanding skills but I’d prefer he was on a mountain or BMX bike with a helmet! What are his parents thinking? I’m told by my son they come in from China and it’s just codes (found on the web) to de restrict them! Some don’t have chains and others are even electric trial bikes and parents are buying them for their kids to go to high school!
Can we have 4.5 hour ride video every week. Made great viewing for the indoor trainer 😊