« On Yer Bike in Finchley and MoveThat.co.uk's London Cycling Forum | Main | Sir Clive Sinclair invents a bicycle »

New direction, riding through woods, backpack and hills

I'm retracing some of the routes I've taken as a walker, and you really notice the difference on a bike.

I just got back from riding through East Finchley, Hampstead Garden Suburb and Big Wood, over to Temple Fortune to the Marks and Spencer supermarket, and back. The ride through Big Wood was less pleasant than I thought on account of the shoddy condition of the path -- a mountain bike would have been better for this. But the Wood was quite empty, the weather perfect -- I can't complain.

This was my first "shopping ride", and I didn't remember or realize how much harder it is to bike with a full backpack. But you get used to it.

I was a little scared of the ride back up the hill to East Finchley, having remembered that this nearly broke me 6 or 7 years ago when I last attempted it on a bike -- but it was less difficult than I remembered. Practice will make it a breeze. It was the first time I used the lowest gears on my bike -- and, of couse, I managed to get the chain to fall off in the process. A learning experience all around.

Thank goodness there was no audience ...

P.S. The whole ride, both ways, took 33 minutes, or as I like to think of it, 411 calories, which is the equivalent of one of these:

donut.jpg