Fighting pollution one bike product at a time.

We have all become more and more aware about issues concerning the environment recently. Single use plastic is bad and as a country we’re not taking the problem seriously enough. Cars and congestion are causes of stupid amounts of emissions, all sorts of chemicals are going down our drains eventually leading to the oceans and reaching sea life. basically it sucks to be nature right now.

But hey that’s cool. We are cyclists right? From throwing ourselves off mountains pretending we are the Athertons competing in the UCI Downhill word cup, or clubs roadie rides doing your own Tour De France. We help the environment by spending less times in our cars so there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

Well mostly yes. Have you ever considered that all the products you use to maintain your two wheeled steed may be polluting the environment? Of course your not considering that! Because you think your being an eco-warrior by using your legs and not adding to emissions in our air.

Okay. Bikes are not too bad right? No they are ceratinly not! Still better than cars with no footprint on the whole carbon thing, but if you think that all that WD-40 and GT-80 you spray into the frame it eventually washing off and goes somewhere right? Oils containing PTFE finds ways into our environment.

Not to mention that bikes go where cars don’t go. Up the mountains, along the beaches on and canals… All those oils and toxins that eventually reach our ocean and pollute our plant life. Places were nothing chemical should ever touch, such as your local bike park or nature reserve you could be contributing to getting these chemicals to these places!

Okay there are a few companies that sell a few products that are bio degradable but are they truly bio degradable and safe for our environment? If you read the ingredients and other info on their packaging some still contain harmful products, exactly what we need to be cutting down on!

Your harmful chemicals could be reaching beautiful places like here. Photo Credit https://www.instagram.com/dave_on_a_mountain/

Is there anybody out there who really do focus on making products that are animal safe and plant safe?

Yes. Yes there is. Green oil is safe. Not just from a marketing point of view this company really are 100% committed to helping the environment. There oils, lubes cleaners and grease are plant based! So no nasty PTFE chemicals coming off your bike during a heavy downpour in north Wales whilst your gaining that air over that table top, damaging the environment around you. These are truly human and animal safe products based right here in the UK.

Here is a Glimpse of what they do.

Based in London… Where their are a lot of bikes lets be honest! Imagine all the grease and oils that go down the gutters eventually leading to our oceans. If everyone used plant based products imagine the difference!

I have used Green oil chain oil for a while now and haven’t had any problems. I have questioned a bike shop about there supply in bike maintenance products.  The response I got was rather upsetting as all was said was ‘its just a couple of bikes it really will not make a difference’. Well according to We are cycling UK 31% of us take to our bikes whether it be a hobby, a commute or being a pro and every person makes a difference.

Green oil isn’t just a company set out on making great products from plant based and sustainable safe sources they have won countless awards for their products too!

Their bottles are recycled as well as being recyclable! I really think their products are a fabulous way to help cut out the nasties going into the water and harming other life around us. They have a multitude of products available on their website or even on sites such as Wiggle .

If your as particular with your care and cleanliness of your beautiful bike this one small change will make a lot of difference to the environment. If you own a lot of bikes or even work in a workshop this stuff is ideal. 100% bio degradable goodies that will be nicer all over your skin instead of dirty PTFE oils eh? This is a real moral company out there for the greater good of our beautiful planet!! Made by cyclists for cyclists!

Give them a follow on Social media, if you have any more questions why not ask them? or even get in touch with your local bike shop and ask if they give a crap about the environment enough to stock there fabulous products.

Instagram

Youtube

Facebook

Twitter

Go on, Ride clean!

 

The art of being an cyclist

How do you know you’re border line obsessed with cycling and all things bike related?

Here are some truths some of us face when we’re passionate (or clearly obsessed)

You have more than one weather app.

BBC weather, Google weather…. either way you constantly check the weather, also for some reason you seem to trust the one that sounds more promising. Even if it has betrayed you before.

Nope! 

Errr better

Ooohhhh! Let’s go out on our bikes. 20 miler anyone ?

Your house has become a garage.

Most people… well normal people may actully have a garage or shed. But the few of us that live in flats, apartments or small houses experience the dining room or front room jumble when trying the tinker with our two wheeled toys.

Yes this is my spare bedroom… I mean garage

You have more jerseys than actual going out clothes.

I can’t remember the last time I bought anything not cycling related.

Oh wait I bought… Errr hmm

Your phone has more pictures of bikes than your family and friends.

This can’t be true can it??

Hmmmmm

Wait …

See??? That’s not a bike !

Every time you go for a walk you’re checking out lines and hills.

Often, when I walk the dog I see a muddy rooty hill and think… I can go down that.

You have amazing ebay feedback….

Oooo!  Lights!

Oooo! Gloves!

Oooo!  Derailleur!

Must stop spending money..

The local bike shop owner knows your name… Also knows your weakness.

Every time I walk into the Cycle Centre Runcorn I get talked into buying something.

But obviously I needed it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bought it, right?? 

You seem to have alot of mucoff bottles knocking around.

I keep finding these everywere! I don’t recall buying this many bottles!

Must have been from my local bike shop…

You’re constantly cheating on your bike online…

As much as you love the steed you own… you still window shop.

Must stop drooling

You’re more smug than your colleges.

“Did you not find the morning commute hard today Jen?” I often hear.

On which I reply “no don’t be silly that was extremely easy”

As I gasp for air and hide my muddy and soggy bottom.

You suddenly think your a dietitian

Telling your friends and colleges that they’re eating crap. Telling them what they should eat… whilst you’re munching on a Yorkie bar and drinking a load of coffee promising yourself you will drink that 2 litres a day and cut down on sugar….

All your friends are now cyclists.. or you’re trying to convert them.

This was at a BBQ last weekend… Oh wait you are not in the picture?  If your not a cyclist you can’t come in.

Its a beautiful baby b….bike?

Sadly a few weeks ago me and my other half came to terms with the sale of the beautiful Whyte as it was, if only slightly too big of a bike for the both of us.

Me being me had seen this as a opportunity to ‘give ‘ my other half my Cube Reaction as it was better for her size and start shopping for a bike for myself.

So as I cleaned her for the last time (who am I kidding, I will end up cleaning her!) I handed her over to my other half like a sword at a ceremony and very quickly grabbed the laptop got on google and started hunting.

I already decided… I wanted to stick to a hard tail but I was originally looking at a second hand bike.

That was until I locked eyes on this beaut

 

This bike was exactly the spec I was after. Originally £1150 to buy off chainreactioncycles.com but as they only had a handful of 15″ frames left and as it was 2015 model it was further reduced to £849.

So I was in love? Or was it just rebound?

I gave myself a cooling off period and went on eBay to check out what this spec and model was actually selling for online. I found the lower spec still selling for £500 and as a cube owner many times before this I know they tend to devalue as soon as the sat on similar to when your car clocks a mile!

So I read some reviews.. had a butchers elsewhere. I wanted to buy from my local bike shop but the hardtails there just didn’t float my boat.

I sat there looking at the screen. Read though the spec again, Worked out Cubes incredibly complicated  geometry and realised the tiny frame was perfect for me.

 

I still read into the bike a bit more. Suddenly I remembered I had a British Cycling membership. Sometimes as a member I get voucher codes. So I quickly logged into my online account and found a fantastic 10% voucher code.

Mind made! Bike bought.

Sadly It was a four day weekend (Easter Bank Hoilday) so I had to wait that little bit longer to receive my new baby. I kept checking my tracking info and as I was sending it to work I spoke to every single member of staff and told them to not sign for my bike. I wanted to see to it that I knew the condition of the box before it was in my grubby little hands.

Then, as I was working away I heard a bellow of one of my colleagues indicating that Parcel Force had a rather large box for me. I quickly hurried to the door ( not breaking any health and safety rules I assure you ) And with a massive grin on my face I signed for the box and wizzed it in the office.

As soon as my break came along I put the beast together. ( okay just needed to pop the pedals on and adjust the handlebars) and Bam! Happy new bike day!

 

Its been 3 weeks.

 

Shes already covered many many miles with me 🙂

We have commuted! Played on trails and climbed some lovely hills.

 

I had to change the seat to a lady friendly seat though. As nice as the seat was that came with it, it was as comfortable as sitting on a plank so it just had to go!

Just look at the Makeup she has.. Sexy hubs love!

She has well and truly been broken in now anyway!

I have already had to strip her down to give her a lovely bath!

Here is too many many miles together… With all her friends!

Error 404 blog not found

First off let me apologise for the lack if blogging goodness explaining how my cycling life has been the past few months.

I am experiencing both techical and health issues stopping me from feeding you spelling mistakes and poor grammer.

Here's my fabulous blogging station

So I have lost 4… Yes 4 pre typed on word document and spell checked just needed copying and pasting on to WordPress blogs due to my Hardrive packing in. So now I have to start again.

I am back on it now though let's go!

I have also been poorly on and off and had to have a short while off the bike. 😭

I have already tried to re type my blogs to turn this back to a regular thing.

Stay tuned bike nerds!

Christmas time!

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. Hope you all got what you wanted, mostly I hope everyone had a fun and safe Christmas (those who have been effected by the flooding I hope you all alright!)

Being England we never seem to get snow. Even though we nearly got it last year, instead it was a dusting on boxing day..

Anyway I have managed to eat my own weight in food so I need to get back on the bike and start burning those extra calories!

I got loads of bike goodies !

Including this awesome Park Tools bike maintenance stand!

Now I can take my bike apart without having to juggle it to keep it balanced and can clean all the parts on my bikes perfectly!

I also got clothes to brave the cold and some amazon vouchers on which I have decided to finally buy the bike attachment to run my dog with my bike 🙂

So let’s see how long it is before I get injured…

Sorry for the lack of bloggage! Will get on it soon.

Have a fantastic new year!

Writers block…

Okay I haven’t really got writers block.  In fact I have too much to write about. Just sadly it’s taking me a while to decide how and what posts I want to publish first!

So excuse my absence.  Since I came back of my hoilday normal service has been resumed. I have continued to commute to work even though the gloves and winter buff is out. Even better it’s been dry enough to use the roadie 🙂 .

Even though I did tuck her in for winter.  The sun’s still shining so I had to take advantage! 

But yeah! Will publish blogs soon. Lots to write about!

Being a tourist

I am sad to admit it but we didn’t get to go out and about on bikes in Paris. Sadly we just didn’t have the time and also Paris City centre was just too manic.
We did the whole tourist thing though and visited a bunch of national monuments.

But being the obsessive cyclist I am I couldn’t help but admire how set up Paris was for cyclists .

You could rent the Velo street bikes to get from A to B but we didn’t pre order it before we got to Paris so didn’t bother with the hassle.

Paris had seperate lanes for cyclists and buses. A large amount infact. Their government really seemed to promote keeping pollution levels down as we saw signs promoting buses and car sharing throughout the city.

If you have ever been France you may notice there are also alot of motorcycles too. So many people use other transport instead of cars. If you go deeper into Paris you will notice 1000’s of scooters, cyclists and even the likes of roller bladers and skateboarders commuting around the streets.

You can see why the locals take to these objects to use as transport. The traffic is terrible…. think its bad in the UK? Think again! I can see why the push cycling on so many people. Even there subways are double deckers to cram more people in yet they still get full to the brim!

I still have more to write about Paris. But I will have to wait till I get home. Using a mobile isn’t the best way for me to blog and all my pictures are on my camera and go pro.

An introduction,

Hello and welcome to my little spot were I can show off and speak about all things cyclist!

After toying with the idea of blogging through the fact I have an unhealthy obsession with Bicycles of all kinds, also the fact my friends are sick to death of me posting pictures of my bikes on my statuses on facebook and posting on twitter and instagram. I decided to maybe post my little projects on here so if people wanted to see them, they themselves would have a choice.

I have gone through various blogs and gotten a lot of idea’s and read fab reviews of products on the market available to cyclists so I thought I would too have a wee stab at it.

I will warn you though I have never been the type to… well type… So please be kind and no grammar Nazi’s. I will try my best to proof read my posts and will also try not to go on to much that it sends you to sleep. Mind you, it would not surprise me if no one was to ever read this; but I promise shiny pictures…surely that’s exciting?

Well to start, My name is Jenii, I am from Runcorn in the UK.. Just a few miles from Liverpool. I am 27 I have had many many steeds (I mean bikes)  I started off with BMX’s as a child because I thought I was cool.. I still had one in my early twenties. I am not going to lie, I thought I was cool still. However, lack of gears and big wheels caused problems and I was too old and scared to try and do tricks so I went the ‘big girl bike’ way!

(Think this was me about 5 years ago… got rid and said hello to mountain bikes)

Cycling seems to have kicked off massively with the 2012 Olympics and the launch of ‘Boris Bikes’ in London, and now similar in Manchester and Liverpool. I noticed that bike prices were shooting up massively. But paying quality money is needed to buy a quality bike.

Currently I have my mountain bike. (No I don’t this has now been stolen 😦 )

She is my baby and I picked her up second hand for under £400. ( I called her Charli) I was not willing to pay the £599 retail price on this bike as much as I always wanted a new Cube. This was a replacement for a bike I loved dearly….

My Carerra Fury. Again this retailed for about £500 when new (this spec did, as some started from £349) I used to work in a Cash generator and someone wanted to borrow a small amount of money on this bike with the intention of coming back for it. But he never did, Not being a stingy human I convinced my employers to hold it for a few weeks after he was due in… We actually forgot about the bike all together till a stock take about 4 months later! I decided to buy it there and then, after looking at the group set and wheels alone I fell in love! Picked her up for £100… I called her Carly. I was a Very VERY happy Jenii.

We spent many happy miles together, going on canals. Commuting to work after I quit Cash generators after I decided I was a decent human being and was against the lack of morals they had in the stores getting the poor into debt and making money out of it. ( but that is a different story!) I was happy with my lovely little mountain bike.

At this point I was only a casual cyclist. This bike brought it out of me. I started travelling 20 miles in one go, doing a little downhill biking….exploring! It was great fun.

But our love did not last. I had had her for about 8 months and the love ended. How you ask??? Was she stolen? No, thankfully. But I had to sell her.

This was not for any reason of being skint or becoming lazy. She hurt me…..

A broken collar bone!…. After googling it I discovered many cyclists who had came off their bikes had done this and it was a common injury. Not one I appreciated! After I came off; by going over my handlebars, hitting a loose brick on a curb and landing directly on my shoulder, even though it was no safety problem with the bike I did not feel safe on the bike anymore. So she went on ebay after a service and a small repair to the brake caliper… Sadly I miss this bike and as sexy as my Cube Acid is… She isn’t my first love.

Well this blog is mainly about my projects! It just would not seem polite to post them with this introduction. I have a few more bikes. These are retro racers. As I mentioned earlier bike prices have risen stupidly… if I was to buy a Carerra now in Halfords for 349 quid, for example, now it would be a basic spec.. However, if this was 6 years ago that I was buying it… The spec would be excellent.

Road bikes in particular have suffered from this rise in prices.

I started dating my current partner in 2012, just before the Olympics. She really wanted a retro bike. I had always wanted one but never bothered. My dad had about 5. I was always worried they would require too much work.

She was on ebay for days… weeks.. We had only just started going out. Every time we went out for a meal or a pint she would be glued to her phone watching the bikes she wanted. In the end she bought one. A small framed Peugeot.

Did not think much of it.. Always wanted a road bike but was too used to mountain bikes. But bless her she stripped it and took it all apart. Replaced a wheel, got new tryes and polished the thing top to bottom. Even bought brakes that were more expensive than the bike near enough…

When she has finished it was as beautiful as her. I was instantly jealous!

We discovered this frame was very very small. It had drop bars originally, but I went to the local bike shop and had the handlebars changed. It made the reach for the brakes easier, so in return, safer.

( I will be killed for posting this picture) But here she is trying the bike out at Wigg Island Runcorn.

Now it was this time last year I decided I wanted to do the same. But instead of Ebay I asked my Dad. He had a lot of bikes…. Soon to be a trait I picked up. I asked him for a certain bike he had.  A Raleigh Equipe 1987.  He had a Claud Butler and a Donaghue to name a few that were in better condition. But he refused, basically in my eyes he was just being a knob.. My Dad could not drive and this was his main bike. Not only that but he found it…. Yup the tramp found it in a field overgrown in grass covered in all-sorts. The wheels were rusted and the chain was filthy and covered in weeds… But he decided to carry it home the two mile walk to his home. He replaced the tyres.. cleaned up the chain, Fixed the brakes and used electrical tape as handlebar tape ( cheap git ) but it did ride beautifully.

It was surprisingly after a few weeks he got a flat tyre he decided to bus it home from work. Discovering public transport was his downfall. He said I could have his bike if I got it from his work. It was a done deal. Then I was a proud owner of this sweet little Raleigh.

This is one of my first projects that I will be posting about.. I have called her Ramona.. She looks different now. I am still building her but she looks completely different.

If you managed to read this…. and enjoyed or even found it of some interest… I like you. In a few days I will be rolling out my reviews of certain products I have added to the bike.

Thank you for reading. Laters! x