My June Rides (week 22)

Rides this week: 4.5
Miles this week: 105.28
Weekly Average: 2.9
Public transport days: .5
Oyster costs: £0.00

I have at last clicked over to an average of 2.9 rides per week for 2011. Much less than I should be really. It shows the impact of being off the road through illness/injury. As the year progresses I may yet get it up to 3.4. But not very much higher.

The beast has had to spend the weekend at the office as I had to cart home all my clobber for PGC Hants IoW on Saturday. Mrs TyT spent the day with my younger brother whilst I strutted my stuff in Portsmouth Guildhall. She seemed happy enough when I rejoined her. We all went out for a sushi dinner in the evening and then stayed up 'til quite late chattering.

My eldest daughter has moved out this week; to a flat in Blackheath. I do hope she will be happy. I have not seen her flat. My younger daughter has also said she will move on as soon as she can afford to. This is depressing mrs TyT. Personally I can't wait. It will seem like getting my life back.

My May - June Rides (Week 21)

Rides this week: 4

Miles this week: 93.33
Weekly Average: 2.8 
Public transport days: 0
Oyster costs: £0.00


As Monday was a bank holiday 4 days of cycling equals 100%, so I am feeling fairly pleased; smug even.


Generally a very good week on the road. I think it is half term so the roads have been quieter. The weather has been dry and fine though a little on the windy side. And the wind is still cold.


As I have always said my commute is quality time as far as I am concerned, but sometimes I feel that I am missing something.

My May Rides (Week 20)

Rides this week: 4

Miles this week: 93.75

Weekly Average: 2.8

Public transport days: 1

Oyster costs: £8.00

A short explanation of the above ‘weekly average’ statistic is required. It is lower than I would have wanted for the time of year because of two accidents which have kept me off the bike. In particular the first one which put me in hospital with bursitis.

I'm back

I have been most remiss in not keeping this blog up to date – note to self, "must do a bit lot better."

It all went wrong when I decided to try and upload my daily statistics which I maintain in a spreadsheet. I couldn’t find a way to do this and so I gave up the whole project. I have yet to work out if I can add my spreadsheets.

For a while I maintained a record on the cyclechat forum website. Then I had a fortnight off when I went to Cuba and when I came back I didn’t pick it up again – naughty me.

TyT

My March Rides (Week 9)

This has been mediocre cycling week. I intended to ride all four days (short week because of Good Friday) but the weather was crap. On Wednesday I had a dodgy tummy and decided that I would enjoy the luxury of train travel. Tuesday's rides were hard work into head winds and on Thursday I set off from the office in a downpour. By the time I reached the end of Waterloo Bridge which absolutely running with water I was soaked. I do not understand that it makes no difference in which direction you are travelling in windy weather there is always a head-wind. Strange that! I have now heard back from Halfords. The patch is the site of the first puncture, on the other tobe if u look closely you can just about make out where I have marked the tube with a black pen in readiness for the next repair.

I have posted the mail exchange below:

My email: Dear Madam/Sir, On Friday 12th March 2010 I had a puncture in my bicycle rear wheel outside Halfords Catford London SE6. Rather than do the repair myself I went in to your store and asked them to do it for which I paid £12.98. The repairman said he could not find any foreign object in the tyre. I retained the old tube which I then brought home and repaired. On Monday 15th March 2010 after about 25 miles of further cycling I had another puncture. On this occasion I was nowhere near your store so had to get the old repair kit out and do it myself. And lo and behold the puncture is on almost exactly the same spot as Friday's one. On Inspection of the tyre I found and removed the offending foreign body which appears to me to be a piece of brown glass. I have attached a word document with pictures of the two tubes, the foreign body and my receipt for the repair. This has caused me considerable inconvenience. Your comments and suggestions of recompense would be appreciated. Yours sincerely. Halfords Response: REF: 313988 Dear Mr Wood, Thank you for your email. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise in the delay of our response. It is always disheartening to hear of situations where our customers experience additional inconvenience and feel let down. I wish to assure you that Halfords endeavours to maintain a good relationship and will always seek to use customer responses as a way of improving our customer service. All concerns relating to our stores are logged onto a central database and the information regarding your experience is made available for the Area Managers to read. As our Store Managers are 100% responsible for the service in their stores, we also make the information available for them to view on our stores intranet system. This method is proven to be very successful in highlighting any shortfalls to the line managers responsible. They are then able to take any action they feel necessary with the individuals concerned. I have also requested that more training is given to those members of staff in order to avoid these incidents in the future. As a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience, I will be happy to send you the £13 back in gift vouchers. If you could possibly email me your address, I will be more than happy to send this in the post. I appreciate you taking the time to highlight this problem as it is only through feedback from our customers that we are able to identify areas where we are falling short of our customers’ expectations and can redress them. Please accept our apologies once again. Kind Regards, Luke Ebanks Customer Service Advisor My Reply: Dear Mr Ebanks, This is a disappointing response. This repair took me over an hour to sort out in the dark in the back streets of Peckham, South London. A hostile zone in broad daylight. My cycle jacket and the inside of my gloves are covered in dirty oil and will have to be replaced and I have yet to take my bike into a reputable repair shop to get the gears re-set; another cost I am going to incur through the laziness of your staff. I will not be fobbed off with a handful of gift vouchers. I suggest you have a further think and if you can't do any better I'll post the story round the cycling blogs and send it to trading standards. I have nothing to lose. Yours etc. Halfords reply: REF: 313988 Dear Mr Wood, Thank you for contacting Halfords Customer Services. Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response. However, after corresponding with my colleagues regarding this issue, we feel that the £13.00 Halfords Gift Vouchers is an adequate amount to send to you considering that this was the amount you had paid to have the innertube repaired. If you are still having problems with the bike then I would recommend that you return to the store and speak to the store manager regarding the issues as I am confident they can resolve any issues you might have. Please accept my apologies once again for the inconvenience caused. Kind Regards, Luke Ebanks Customer Service Advisor