Lights, camera...

*Note - this has been sitting unfinished for a while. Hence the out of dateness :(

I've just tipped up over the 3000 km mark today :) A slight detour (i.e. missing a turn) sent me on a 65 km jaunt across Munich.

Getting slightly lost in a forest on the outskirts gave me a pretty good chance to test my new front light, a Fenix TK11. Verdict; a pretty good light, certainly excellent for the money. It's plenty bright for the cycle paths and for road use. As a rough estimate, it gives off a bit more than a dimmed car headlight. For extended riding, something a bit more powerful would probably be nice, but I can't see myself doing the Race Around Ireland just yet :D

Including two batteries, the charger and two mounts, the full set up was about as cheap as I could get for a decent power light. It'll serve well, and maybe get upgraded to something brighter in a few years. Though that's big money there, well over €250, so a serious investment if I really need it... I've also added two smaller USB chargeable lights to the arsenal. I'm gonna put up some pics of the lights and what they can do once my camera decides to start working again. It's pretty impressive overall :D But I think the rear needs a good powerful one, there's a distinct lack of glow from there...

Distance = Speed*Time

Looking back through my history from over the Summer I'm noticing something interesting. My current top speed is just over 60 km/hr, which I hit about a month ago. It's not terribly fast, but it's half decent. Last night I went training on my fixie. It was the first time in a while, but the road bike needed some tweaking before being let out. The top speed was 49.3 km/hr. This was done on the flat, in a relatively low gear, and sustained for a few seconds. On a fixie. My descending needs to improve greatly :D

On a similar line, I'm currently north of 3300 km for the yearly distance so far, with a few longer spins planned. I should hit the 4000 km mark with a few weekend spins before it gets too nasty to cycle. I think 5000 is out of the question, but that's not terrible given that I started in March and spent a lot of time finding my legs. Time to start on distance targets for next year, I think :) 10,000 sounds like a nice round number... If I'm living in Munich and commuting out to Garching next year I should top 5000 km in just commuting. Add to that my plans for audax and it's looking pretty decent :)

Numbers from my road bike (I have the Garmin on that, so everything gets recorded);
Total distance (so far) - 820 km (2400 on the fixie makes up most of my distance!)
Total time - 38 hours
Average speed - 21.6 km/hr
Max speed - 60.2 km/hr
Av heart rate - 160 bpm
Max heart rate - 201 bpm
Longest day - 141 km in 6 hours 20 mins

Not a bad first year so far. Next year will be better :)