danceswithcats

I hope I'm doing this properly.

I bought a bike (my first bike for over ten years) when I gave up smoking at the beginning of the year.

I use it to commute to Portsmouth, via the fastcat (catamaran ferry) five or six days a week. The cycling component is about three miles each way. The ride to work starts with a BRILLIANT descent down Ryde hill, throught the town to the pier; depending upon traffic I can get up to quite a clip. I also enjoy the half-mile run along the pier to the catamaran; on a sunny day, with Southampton and Portsmouth looking shiny but grubby in the sunlight, on the other side of the Solent, I am almost glad to be going to work!

Of course, the journey back means climbing Ryde hill, which has been my own private challenge. I can do Ryde Pier Head to my home in nine minutes now and know I'm in a good mood when I don't drop down to gear one of my front sprocket.

I have done a bit of exploring round the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, nosing out bridleways and wishing I had more time to simply potter.

I feel GREAT. I was beginning to feel old, but since I started cycling regularly I have got my energy back, am enjoying commuting and (important, this, for a night worker) sleeping better. I am putting aside the pennies to buy a second bike; possibly more of a tourer setup, and my partner, who is slightly nervous of cycling on roads, has promised to explore with me on her bike, a Dawes framed ex-rental, so we can get around a bit, before the summer ends.

This has turned into a bit of an epic. Sorry about that. Hello. Hope to speak to lots of you.

East Hill

Hello danceswithcats--you have got me curious now. First, I don't think I've ever seen another member from the IOW, and second, we'll need photos of these cats (unless the reference is to the fastcat?).

What kind of bike did you get? How old is your partner's Dawes?

Oh, and as you can see, I am quite experienced with hills .

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

danceswithcats

Hello, East Hill.

Because I have no shame where the cat is concerned, I have a web album of photos of him, which you're welcome to admire. He is actually a lot better looking in the fur: I haven't been able to quite capture the good natured stupidity of his habitual expression yet.

I have an American hardtail moutain bike which I bought on the recommendation of my local bike shop, Tav Cycles of Ryde. I blogged about it, in my month off (40th birthday present from my partner!) in June.

As for Amanda's Dawes, I can't guess at the age. It's covered with stickers; Komodo, Answer, Handbuilt By Dawes, UK. My guess is that the rental company (apparently they were in the New Forest) have them put together for them by a third party. I think it's a case of a good frame with cheap components. The shimano kit on it is a pretty basic twist grip indexed thing, and I don't like the brakes but the frame is light and not wobbly, unlike a really cheap catalogue bike. When I cycled it back from her parents' house in Whippingham, (about six or seven miles) I wasn't horribly less comfortable than on my own machine.

Thank you for the friendly welcome. I've been looking for maintenance tips and so on, so I'll keep an eye on these forums. The Island, by the way, is a pretty good place for cycling and the Council does a lot to promote it as such. Over two hundred miles of bridleways on an island less than thirty miles long! Now they just need to ban cars!

East Hill

I'm going to put the pressure on you, Pete! I've bookmarked your blog--it is brilliant!

About J.S. Thunderpaws. He looks completely and totally spoiled. My husband, Mr. East Hill, has a tortoiseshell who is equally spoiled .

I didn't have time to read the entire blog today, so I don't know if there are photos of Amanda's bike, but it sounds...interesting.

East Hill

danceswithcats

Thank you for the attention. It's a foolish thing, this blogging, but it ties together lots of other interests, so I seem to be keeping it up.

There are no pictures of Amanda's bike on the blog, but I have taken a few for your pleasure.






I hope that's worked. At the moment I've just got broken image gifs on the form. We'll see. If not, they're here as well.

I just got hold of the leaflets for the Isle of Wight Cycling Festival. Where would be a good thread to see if it's mentioned on these forums? With the weather we've had this summer the dear old island tourist trade needs as much help as it can get.

morea

welcome aboard! Love the user name... and the pics of the cat. (surprise!)

I posted pics of some of my own in THIS thread.

East Hill

Hmmm, last question first...there's a regional forum for the UK--but you possibly want a larger audience. I'm not sure where it would go...here would seem to be as good as any. Possibly a home in the touring forum? The touring folks do cover a lot of territory. Aye, the weather's been not very good, and I hope that the hoof and mouth outbreak doesn't ruin the tourism even further .

Thank you for the photos of Amanda's bike. I've never seen one of those before. Remember, it's always possible to upgrade components on what would appear to be a decent bicycle. It does seem to have quite the collection of stickers .

East Hill

East Hill

And as we are enjoying some cat moments--here is Anniebear:



She practically lives in that shoe box. Her tail looks just like the tail of the cat in my avatar, although she is a Manx, and not a Japanese Bobtail.

East Hill

danceswithcats

A label queen cat! Wonderful! She's very lovely.

There's a kitten in a box on Youtube. I promise I don't spend all my time searching the internet for cat videos. It was posted on a blog I like.

danceswithcats

How many cats do you have? Nice photos. Is pet sharing something that erupts occasionally? Very civilized, if that is so.

Thank you for the welcome, Morea.

danceswithcats

Okay, I'll post this here and maybe copy to the touring forum and the UK thread. It's 15-23 September, includes a road race, a triathlon and an off-road trials thing plus loads of meets, pub tours, picnics and maintenance workshops and the website is at www.sunseasandcycling.com. Most of the events are free or involve a small donation to charity. A couple of the bigger events have entry fees.

It's a very logical marriage, as the IOW is excellent cycling territory.

So far, I've only signed up for the maintenance workshop in Sandown on 18th Sept. If anyone should be planning to come over, please let me know.

East Hill

We enjoy our pets here on Bike Forums! Mostly it's a Foo thing (you'd have to go to the bottom of the main page to see that), but I could not resist.

Mr. East Hill and I have three--all tortoiseshells. I noticed that morea also has at least one tortoiseshell .

East Hill

morea

I do have a tortie - Melina (my oldest) - who is about 12 years old. I've had several tortoiseshells over the years (I do rescue work) and they have the sweetest personalities!