Jake's Rides

London Brighton Ride Sponsors

Just a quicky. As you may know by now I am taking part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride this year on June 20th. You can sponsor me at the address:

www.bhf.org.uk/sponsor/jakehowlett

All proceeds go to the British Heart Foundation.

Learning to Ride a Bike

They say it's becomes harder to learn to drive the later you leave it in life. I can imagine this to be true but to what extent? And can the same be said of learning to ride a bike? More so, I would imagine!

Judging by photos like this pedal-power has been a part of my life for a long time. I can't remember learning to ride or how old I was though. So this weekend I had a hard time trying to pass on what I know to a child. My girlfriend's daughter, Quinn, 9, has yet to learn to ride a bike. She got one for Christmas three years ago but has always managed to get out of actually using it. As you can see from the images below I've managed to goad her in to learning. She's outgrown the bike a little but she's getting the hang of it, slowly. Here's the point where I finally managed to let go of the seat-post.

My dad had told me to hold the seat-post and run along with her until she seemed to be getting the hang of balancing. When she got to this point I started to loosen my grip without her knowing. She thinks I am doing all the balancing but really it's her. This seemed to do the trick and it wasn't long before I just let go. She's ok with this now but is having trouble with starting off on her own and only seems able when going downhill slightly.

How do you pass on a skill you take for granted as much as the ability to walk? There's no easy way to get it over is there! I found myself getting way too technical and then resorting for encouragement along the lines of "Just pedal and hold on!!".

We're getting there...

The Shame of It

Earlier this week I spent a couple of days in the Peak District with a friend. He's not in the country for long so it was good to do some man-bonding. For the first day we chose a circular route that took us up past Kinder Resorvoir, Kinder Downfall, along the Pennine Way and back down in to the valley.

I remember Kinder Scout from my days as a boy -- wait for it -- scout. It was my first taste of what I imagined to be wilderness. Until then I was used to waking in areas such as the White Peak, to its south, where the paths were clearly marked and well-defined by the farmer's fields they passed through. Getting lost in the White Peak would be a challenge. The Dark Peak and Kinder are a different kettle of fish. Once you're up on the fells you have to rely on being able to see the path or have a good map and compass with you. It's the kind of terrain that requires you give it a certain amount of respect. Here I am on the top of Kinder.

Well, not long in to the walk and we are on the Pennine Way - a well trodden route to say the least. At this point I turned to Dom and remarked "We can't get lost! Only a f*ckwit could get lost on the Pennine Way!!". Can you see where this is going yet? Not long after we stopped for lunch we lost the path for a moment and ended up re-joining the wrong one. In my defence the Pennine Way is the only clearly-marked path on the map and the path we joined looked well-trod to me. It wasn't for a mile or so until I got the impression we were heading in the wrong direction. So I got the eTrek GPS out and found we were heading in a south-easterly direction, whereas we should be heading due east. I put this to the back of my mind and we soldiered on. After another mile or so it really sank in and we stopped to get the map out. Not having much to use in way of orientation, we had to wait for a group of lads to reach us on the rock outcrop we were sat on. "You guys just come from over there?" I ask them. "Errrr, where is that exactly?" I sheepishly inquired. They soon put us right and we turned back on our path with our heads hung low. The worst part of it all being that they were mere kids. No older than 16 and simply out to practice for their Duke of Edinburgh award.

Moral of the story being - never forget that you can get lost, no matter how good an orienteer you might think you are. Also, don't rely solely on a GPS unit. Always take a compass and know how to use it. Looking at the photo I am reminded of a comment Dom made about me while we were up there - "All the gear. No idea."

April Showers

I am sat here dressed in all my biking kit, looking out of the window at what will probably be one of many rainy April days. Should I go out in it or not? The reason I really want to is that tomorrow it will be three weeks since I last went out on the bike. At one point I promised myself I would go out once a week. Then there were a few occasions when it slipped to a fortnight and now three weeks! If I don't pull my socks up there'll be no regime there at all.

Life is busy, busy, busy at the moment. Yesterday the estate agents came round and nailed a For Sale sign to the front of the house. Last week we had an offer accepted on a house in Nottingham. Sometime between now and September we need to sell this house and move back down to the East Midlands. They say it's one of the most stressful things you will ever do. I can see why.

It's going to be a shame leaving the North East as I've grown to really like it up here. Nottingham won't be able to offer me half the biking chances I've got here. Notice I say biking and not mountain biking. The East Midlands is mainly flat land. There are some nice woodlands, such as Sherwod Pines, and the Peak District is close, but for real mountains I will have to spend the majority of a day driving to them.

Oh well, at least I'll have a whole new set of Geocaches to discover. I seem to have exhausted the local supply around Sunderland...