Back on the Chain Gang

| Richard Morris

Well now. That was nice!

I last used the Brompton when I was commuting in London from our home in Rotherhithe. And then COVID-19 happened, so I worked from home. The company saw cost savings and I had been advocating remote working anyway, so we ended up having new employment contracts with WFH as the default.  That meant we didn’t need to be in Central London any longer, so three years or so ago we moved out to Surrey and I started a lot of indoor cycling instead.

The only use the Brompton got was then by my stepdaughter in her year out between doing her Batchelors and Masters in Law.

Until today!

The estate where our house is has limited parking and of course all the numpties move in to houses with one parking space for their SUV and van to use (it’s always that mix…). That plus the narrow streets means parking is at a premium.  We have space for two cars on our driveway in front of the double garage (which is actually the Man Cave for the motorbikes and the Pain Cave for our home gym).  At a push, we can play Car Tetris and creatively park them, but it’s a bit of a palaver. So when the family on the corner briefly vacated the visitor space they use all the time (!) we put the Abarth there as we have family coming up to stay this weekend with a whole host of children, so they’ll need to park on our drive.

This meant that when I needed to take the Focus ST for its second annual service this morning, we didn’t want to lose that space by collecting me in the 124. Instead, I decided to dust off the Brompton, pump up the tyres, and shove it into the boot to ride back on from the dealership.

I’ve only ever done the trip there and back by car, so once checked in, I unfolded the Brompton, popped on my helmet and gloves, and entered Home as my destination in Apple Maps with directions for pushbikes. And that’s how I followed some cycle paths and woodland trails more suited to a mountain bike back home.

July 2026 Stats

| Richard

July 2026 saw a couple of heatwaves hitting the UK and of course July always means the Tour de France. I’ve been watching the coverage on TV for as long as I can remember now but never really got involved in any way … until this year.  This year, it started in Barcelona with two and a bit stages and finished in Paris on the Champs-Elysées.  I asked Alison if she wanted to go to Barcelona to see it and she jumped at the chance.  I booked the InterContinental Barcelona as it was on the route for both the first and second stages:

Tour de France 2026 Stage 1 Map Tour de France 2026 Stage 2 Map

And then Alison said, “Well if we’re going to see the start, wouldn’t it be lovely to see the finish?” So that’s how I ended up booking the Paris Marriott Champs-Elysées Hotel with a suite overlooking the Champs-Elysées itself, so we could watch the riders doing their laps and the finish line.

The Yellow, Green, Polka Dot, and White Jerseys on the Champs-Elysées

The Yellow, Green, Polka Dot, and White Jerseys on the Champs-Elysées

Business Class flights with British Airways and limousines from Blacklane all made it a little pricey… I’m hoping August will allow my wallet some respite from the absolute battering it got!

Other than that my normal exercise regime continued with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  On ROUVY, I was doing their challenges and an occasional Sunday morning group ride.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do later this year maybe, if I can resolve when I won’t be travelling.

I also decided to try again with some Apple Fitness+ workouts, concentrating on upper body and core, as my legs get plenty of workouts already!

So, here are July’s stats:

July 2026 Statistics

July 2026 Statistics

Activities: 78 Distance: 626.79 km Time: 25:47:32 Calories: 18,827

Turning to my weight, at the end of June I weighed 92.7kg and at the end of July I weighed 93.4kg, so a gain of 0.7kg change over last month.

Body fat percentage was up from 27.5% to 28.0%, which is not really surprising.

Summer Riding

| Richard
Summer Riding

Summer Riding

We came back from a weekend break in Barcelona to watch the opening two stages of this year’s Tour de France cycling race  to be greeted by similarly hot weather as we’d experienced there, as well as a message in the Motorrad Riders’ WhatsApp group saying that Shaun Napier was organising a ride out from Bahnstormer at Alton on Thursday evening and who would like to come along?

So Alison and I quickly said yes, and we then had to decide on what to wear…

Now our Klim Latitude and Altitude gear is excellent stuff: waterproof and also has many vents you can open to get some airflow through, plus as you can see in the photo, you can also partially unzip them and then hook the sides back to prevent them flapping in the breeze. The only problem then being that the RT’s fairing is so efficient, it doesn’t let much air hit the rider and passenger, even with the screen in the lower position, as we found out on our Eurothrash 2024 when it was up in the high 30s/low 40s.

We also decided to wear our Hedon “Hedonist” helmets, usually reserved for the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Rides on the ZRX1200R.  That did make it a bit breezy with the screen down on the A3 on the way back.

The ride was fabulous: heading out from Farringdon down to John’s Cafe at Hayling Island for Hayling Bike Night. A really lovely ride with the smells of summer fields of wheat and barley, etc. and being able to watch the sun start to get lower in the sky over the coastline as we decided to leave.

But the ride made me decide that we really did need to buy some jackets with more airflow for really hot weather.

We’d thought about some “Air” type mesh jackets after the Eurothrash as well as a few rides in the Canary Islands in a ‘regular’ leather jacket and were tempted by Alpinestars and Klim’s offerings, except that the Klim ones are much more expensive and we do, of course, already have Klim gear. So I’ve plumped for the Alpinestars ST-2 Air and Stella ST-2 Air jackets for the two of us:

Not us...

Not us…

Sadly, they only come with shoulder and elbow body armour, so I’ve also ordered some product-compatible back protectors for the two of us.

Nucleon Flex Proi Back Protector Nucleon Plasma Back Protector

They should all arrive this week, just in time for another rideout on Friday evening.

June 2026 Stats

| Richard

June continued my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  On ROUVY, I was doing their challenges and an occasional Sunday morning group ride.

There was a change of plans with me heading off to Cyprus for along weekend in the sun rather than going to Dublin for something work-related.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do later this year maybe, if I can resolve when I won’t be travelling.

I also decided to try again with some Apple Fitness+ workouts, concentrating on upper body and core, as my legs get plenty of workouts already!

So, here are June’s stats which again needed a significantly increased screen resolution to fit them all in:

June 2026 Statistics

June 2026 Statistics

Activities: 75 Distance: 526.69 km Time: 18:03:33 Calories: 14,319

Turning to my weight, at the end of May I weighed 92.7kg and at the end of June I also weighed 92.7kg, so no change over last month.

Body fat percentage was down from 28.1% to 27.5%, which is nice.

May 2026 Stats

| Richard

May was a further continuation of my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  On ROUVY, I was mainly going their Giro d’Italia-themed challenges, such as the Maglia Bianca (completed) and Maglia Rosa (nearly done) ones and a Together Around the World challenge to honour Amy & Kyle Hudson’s world record attempt and who are currently in Singapore.

We also watched the Giro d’Italia highlights on SBS On Demand which was nice as it’s free to air in Australia and not the absolute rip-off of £31 per month on TNT Sports on HBO Max which bundles a load of other crap in there, like football and rugby that I have zero interest in watching.  If they had a dedicated cycling bundle at a much lower cost I’d be interested.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do in the early summer, if I can get some answers to some queries I’ve raised…

So, here are May’s stats which again needed a significantly increased screen resolution to fit them all in:

May 2026 Statistics

May 2026 Statistics

Activities: 88 Distance: 684.02 km Time: 24:01:11 Calories: 19,876

Turning to my weight, at the end of April I weighed 92.1kg and at the end of May I weighed 92.7kg, which is up again by the 0.6kg I lost last month.

Body fat percentage was up from 27.4% to 28.1%, which is not nice.

Multiple Personality Disorder

| Richard Morris

So there have been some changes this week.

When we bought the car in 2024 we put on a personalised number plate: AF17 BOD, to ‘spell out’ A FIT BOD, but we’ve recently had a change of plan and instead decided to register another one with Alison’s initials, AJM. So I got in touch with the DVLA and asked them if they could release a plate for me, which they did: ST24 AJM.  ST because it’s on a Focus ST, 2024 because of its age, and AJM for Alison’s initials.

Because we are planning to sell the existing persona numberplate, we had to first apply online to remove it and put it onto a retention certificate, a process which takes less than 5 minutes.

We were given the car’s allocated registration, RY24 YEK, and given both a certificate number for AF17 BOD so we could assign that one immediately to another vehicle if we wished and a certificate to allow us to get some new numberplate made up, but not the new V% certificate number.

In order to assign our new personal registration to the car, we now needed the V5 number for RY24 YEK, which they post to you and don’t give it to you online or by email. So for the intervening period, to ensure the car was legal and insured, I had to put some new numberplate on and change the insurance, both of which are ‘wasted’ costs.

The V5 then arrived on the Friday, so I was able to immediately go online, assign the ST24 AJM registration number to the ST, slap on some new ‘plates that I’d already had made up, and change the insurance again! Fortunately the DVLA handles the tax/road fund licence so that automatically transferred across.

So in the space of a week, the ST has carried three different registrations!

 

 

 

MoT Time Again

| Richard

So then. The MoT test.

Blue Rex was last MoT’d in July 2024 but as it wasn’t getting much use last autumn or winter, I decided to delay getting it done until now, mainly due to having it ready for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride – Guildford & Surrey Hills (again this year, it should be the most popular ride in the world, even ahead of the London one that we used to ride in).

I took it to my usual place where they’re very thorough, so although it passed again, it had an advisory as the braided steel covering on the rear brake hose has worn where I have struggled to get it onto the too-short R&G paddock stand.

Anyway, it passed, with a recorded mileage of 20,024 which is up a massive 106 miles since last time. That’s an average of 5 miles a month…

April 2026 Stats

| Richard

April was a further continuation of my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do in the early summer, if I can get some answers to some queries I’ve raised…

The gaps were due to a long weekend on the R1250RT in Cornwall and a family wedding and yet another grandchild – my 12th – last weekend.

So, here are April’s stats which again needed a significantly increased screen resolution to fit them all in:

April 2026 Statistics

April 2026 Statistics

Activities: 66 Distance: 622.78 km Time: 17:29:45 Calories: 16,211

Turning to my weight, at the end of March I weighed 92.7kg and at the end of April I weighed 92.1kg, which is down by 0.6kg despite the holidays.

Body fat percentage was up from 27.3% to 27.4%, which is less nice.