One Less Device When my Garmin died the second time, I was travelling away from home. I had noticed that some people use a smartphone cycling app to record their ride directly on their phone, without a dedicated GPS device, like a Garmin. I got out my phone, connected to a WiFi hotspot, downloaded the Strava app, and decided to gave it a try. The first time recording a ride using a smartphone cycling app on my phone was a disaster. After...
Yorkshire Dales road cycling may seem like an obvious focus for an avid cyclist. But as long-time Ilkley rider Charles Oxtoby explains in the post below, it was not always the case, for him, or others. - Ed. I got hooked on cycling in the mid-1990’s. Mountain biking that is. I was drawn to the freedom it gave me to explore the wild Yorkshire Dales moors. Nothing could keep me out of the back country. Nothing, that is, until the outbreak...
Did you have a model globe in your house when you were growing up? I remember spending hours examining the globe, the vast oceans, the continents and the countries. I noticed that on a particularly open part of the seas, usually the southern ocean, was what looked like a big figure 8. At the time, I didn't pay it much attention. Now, however, I now know why it was there, and what it is: the "analemma." As a year-around cyclist, winter...
For cycling navigation, I used to ride around the Yorkshire Dales with an Ordnance Survey map in my jersey pocket. It was a clumsy affair. I would study the map before the ride to decide on my route. But I never was able to remember more than a few turns if I went on new roads. Inevitably I would take out the map, find my current location and orient myself from there. Sounds like easy cycling navigation, eh? Try opening an...
We surveyed the 2017 riders to get a White Rose Classic review and scorecard. Riders had many different experiences out on the road. My perspective, as the Event Organiser on the day of the event, was probably jaded. I heard mostly about issues riders ran into and challenges faced by the army of nearly 100 volunteers from the Ilkley Cycling Club. To get an accurate assessment of the the experience riders had, we decided to survey the riders and ask...