This weekend I headed down to Brighton with some of the London Brompton Club. I’d offered this ride to some of my work colleagues as we did this ride last year and it was a great ride, thanks to David’s excellent navigating skills, and a couple decided to come along this weekend. I also offered it to the LBC as well, though I was aware that this would clash with the Dunwhich Dynamo that was being ridden that evening.

On the London to Whitstable ride, I made use of my Samsung S5. This let me make use of the apps on my phone, rather than my old Garmin unit for showing directions. I sold my Garmin recently - this was partly down to the fact that I could use the Samsung for navigating and partly because I never seem to have the Garmin with me, but my phone goes everywhere.

So July is upon us already and with it some of the hottest days of the year, with temperatures reaching 36°C in places! Anyhow, taking the idea from earlier in the year from the 30 Days of Biking challenge, I’ve decided that July that I’m going to try to and ride every day for the month. That means a tracked ride in Strava and not just the commute to work. I didn’t do it in April as I was away for business part of the time.

Today I decided to ride part of the route I’ve got planned for the LBC ride on July 25th. I’ve ridden the first section numerous times - St Albans, Hatfield and Potters Bar featured heavily on my rides over the past few years as I lived there. However, I’d never really ventured past Hertford and so the second half of the route was a complete blank to me. Not really ideal for leading a ride over in that direction!

This weekend saw the Brompton club do a tweed themed ride to celebrate a couple of members 40th birthdays (though, neither of them eventually made the ride, unfortunately). I’m not sure where the tweed part came in but it was an amusing addition to the ride! I’ve a tweed jacket, but I ended up wearing a retro merino wool jersey that I’d got from Stolen Goat. Tweed is ok, but as we edge towards summer, I think I’d have been far far to warm.

Saturday morning is usually my lie in - its not often that my alarm will get me up at 6am in the morning on a Saturday as well as the work week! However, this weekend was different as I left Wimbledon on a train at 06:21 to get to Trafalgar Square. Why would I get up so early? Because of a bike ride! The LBC have run a ride to Whitstable now for the last three years.

So work recently bought me an iPhone as my work phone. Whilst I’m happy with this (as much as I like Android, I find iOS to be better), it has led to a few head scratching moments. Namely, as an Apple user for a fair amount of time, I’ve purchased a fair amount of apps on the App Store that I want to use on the work phone, but I’m hampered by the fact it’s linked to a new AppleID, one created with my work email.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded my Brompton to the puncture proof, Tannus tyres. I’ve had a puncture twice now on my Bromptons - both times occurring when I didn’t have a puncture repair kit with me (once, as I was on a quick ride around Hatfield and the other when I was commuting home from work) so I’ve been forced to walk the bike home in both instances (in fairness, I tried to get a bus home with the Brompton the last time, but the local bus service in Welwyn threw that idea out the window - the time waiting for the next bus, I’d have actually got home).

Saturday saw me do a ride with the London Brompton club. It’s the first ride I’ve done with them for quite a while to be fair due to various reasons (such as not being in the country!) The promise of cake made the ride seem like a good prospect and the good weather we’d been having for the last few days made me think that perhaps the ride would be accompanied with good weather.

I have recently spent a few days in Ireland for a holiday, meeting my girlfriends family and friends from back home. Whilst I was there, I managed to get out and about for a quick bike ride. I borrowed a bike from one of the family members and did a loop of the local area whilst the house was being setup for the extended family to arrive over the weekend.