Fat Bloke on a Bike: An Unlikely Adventure

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There’s probably some law about someone my size forcing themselves in a triathlon one piece suit anyway and the attendant risk of being harpooned by a passing Icelandic trawler if swimming in open water, but I do look forward to hearing about those who branch out into two and three discipline events as part of the ‘Blue and White Tri Dynamite’. A more ‘professional’ way might be to remove the rear wheel – but that would obviously take a bit more effort. Sadly, these are currently only available to Spanish residents (one needs a Spanish bank account to register) but they are incredibly good value for money and apparently good to ride, despite their weight and robust build. Anyway, once you have undone the nuts, you then find that the screw on the sprocket side is partially held in place by the chain and sprockets.

My relationship with bikes has never been great, not since as a kid I flew down Knott Lane on my sit-up-and-beg Raleigh. The situation in question was an ecological assessment of a relatively large piece of farmland in a rural part of lowland Lancashire (in northwest England). And if that’s not enough, you can use two hands which then gives you seven fingers to measure with (yes, I know, most people have eight fingers, but you still need to leave one to hold the pillar! And the next thing you know, you’re tutting at people who get in your way, the ones who are trying to keep a steady pace, muttering “bloody tourists” under your breath.Stupidly I have set myself a goal of riding Lands End John O'Groats with the objective currently set to do this in May 2010 if I feel at that time I have reached a level of capabnility where I am able to give it a real good go. The most notable bikes on the streets though, as well as parked in extensive lots right across the city, were the Spanish equivalent of London’s “ Boris Bike” – the distinctively liveried red and white Bicing cycles. I haven’t tried the cord idea but I suspect that there would be problems with it trailing and getting snagged on things when the seat is dropped, and wrapping it up each time would probably become a bit of an annoyance after a while.

Since you do like pedalling and would like to put some work at least on way home, torque sensing would suit you. Fat Bloke on a Bike' follows Paul's novice attempt at cycle-touring as, huffing and puffing, he hauls his seventeen stones from Weardale in the North Pennines, along the North Sea Coast, and through Scotland's cities, islands and highlands to Inverness. The tyres look super flimsy to me at 28mm but that's because I am used to MTB tyres - apparently, they can be upgraded to upto 40mm. If you have the bike and can swim decently – I’m afraid that while I represented my house at ‘big school’ in breast stroke as a kid, I now swim with all the grace and proficiency of a house brick – then you have a great chance of mounting a challenge to the great and good who you might not get near if it was solely down to a foot race.I mentioned in a previous post that I had recently bought an S2L as an addition to my M6L; a bike I could take out for a quick spin, and something nippy I could use as a ‘racer’ in the Brompton World Championships. The semi-compact is the sensible design compromise between the classic horizontal top tube and the rather ridiculous compact form. I have been advised by those in the medical profession that for me, with arthritis of the hips, cycling is the way forward. But there are other situations where it just isn’t appropriate, or convenient, despite arguments to the contrary put forward by the always-carry-your-Brompton school.