The road.cc “Attaining A Higher State of Consciousness” Challenge 2014

VecchioJo · 2014-01-02T18:33:12+00:00

A different slant to the usual annual challenges and something more rounded and all-encompassing. The game this year is to become a better, more experienced cyclist by trying one new thing each month. Be that attempting a distance you’ve never managed before, a bike related activity that has passed you by or a cycling skill that you have yet to master. It can be as simple as learning to wheelie, entering your first race or even riding a different type of bike, maybe completing your first proper century, or 200kms, something as grand as crossing a mountain range or as simple as riding to the top of that hill in one go. It could be your first night ride, or ride through the night. Possibly something mechanical from learning how to change a gear-cable through to building your first wheel, anything that tests you. The size of the endeavour isn’t significant, whilst some might seem grander than others that isn’t the point, they’re all equally important personally. So anything goes, something that you’ve never done before, something that makes you step out of your comfort zone, twelve things that will make you a better, more complete, more experienced cyclist after 12 months. No prizes or sew-on patches for this one, just the knowledge that by the end of the year you’ll have experienced a whole load of new things and progressed a bit. Go.

This topic has 33 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 11 years ago by Leviathan.

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January 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm #20405

VecchioJo

A different slant to the usual annual challenges and something more rounded and all-encompassing.

The game this year is to become a better, more experienced cyclist by trying one new thing each month. Be that attempting a distance you’ve never managed before, a bike related activity that has passed you by or a cycling skill that you have yet to master.

It can be as simple as learning to wheelie, entering your first race or even riding a different type of bike, maybe completing your first proper century, or 200kms, something as grand as crossing a mountain range or as simple as riding to the top of that hill in one go. It could be your first night ride, or ride through the night. Possibly something mechanical from learning how to change a gear-cable through to building your first wheel, anything that tests you.

The size of the endeavour isn’t significant, whilst some might seem grander than others that isn’t the point, they’re all equally important personally. So anything goes, something that you’ve never done before, something that makes you step out of your comfort zone, twelve things that will make you a better, more complete, more experienced cyclist after 12 months.

No prizes or sew-on patches for this one, just the knowledge that by the end of the year you’ll have experienced a whole load of new things and progressed a bit.

Go.
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June 14, 2015 at 8:01 pm #767229
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Leviathan

Isn’t it about time to unpin
Isn’t it about time to unpin this one and let it disappear? Maybe come up with some other challange?

June 12, 2015 at 3:51 pm #767227
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Sven Van Anders

All god stuff, but you
All god stuff, but you attached the wrong version of the record, completely wrong; a bit like 4″ of spacers above your stem.

October 10, 2014 at 1:07 pm #767225
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Anonymous

I’m just glad I’ve managed to
I’m just glad I’ve managed to finally get out on the road.
So far I’ve totalled nearly 50 km in four rides, got some aches and pains and a bit wet but really enjoyed it.

Plan for the winter is just to get used to riding again, so once the new year comes i will try and step it up and do some proper training so I can have a go at some local time trials.
In the dim and distant past I could do a 29 minute ’10’ on a mountain bike so hopefully I can improve on that!

October 6, 2014 at 5:49 pm #767223
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Cyclist

Possibly something mechanical
Possibly something mechanical from learning how to change a gear-cable through to building your first wheel, anything that tests you……

Today, more of a coincidence than anything else, I was expecting 1 but not both, I took ownership of two new framesets for my Autum/winter projects to be done as self builds :B

#1 build will be a customised ally frame which will have ritchey Classic finishing kit/ultegra 10 speed, deviation will be. A dura ace standard double crank.

When I have built that and I am happy with my skills…????? I will then move onto:

#2 build: Colnago CX Zero Evo Nero. This will have ITM cock pit, Colnago 27.2mm seat pin and full 11 speed mechanical Ultegra 6800, the price for the ultegra was just ridiculously cheap (in context) Di2 will follow 18 months-ish down the line, for now wheels will be shim RS81 C35 (RS80 C24 on the ally frame) however they will be replaced by ENVE 45s clinchers or SPADA stilleto crystals???? Not sure yet but that can wait….

Progress to follow… Bare with me……

August 25, 2014 at 10:48 am #767221
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Binky

Increase my average
Increase my average speed
wear my helmet more often (i fall over getting on and off the bike)
Don’t fear roundabouts
Bark more often
Find a sweat proof bra (no one wants moldy chest)
Do weights more often (as soon as i dust them off)
Drink water

August 21, 2014 at 7:15 am #767219
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truffy

Claud And I wrote:To belittle
Claud And I wrote:
To belittle my own win would be an insult to them and their fast legs, so I’m going to remain proud of me and mine.

😀

August 21, 2014 at 5:46 am #767217
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Sam Walker

Perhaps this is the year I
Perhaps this is the year I will finally wrap my own handlebar tape, or [url=http://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/index.php?topic=91.0]tighten a spoke.[/url] Still some time left.

No physical challenges call to me, though I have lately been conducting an experiment to see how little sleep I can survive on

June 19, 2014 at 4:31 pm #767215
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Claud And I

Oh, I’ve been doing a bit of
Oh, I’ve been doing a bit of a thing about this on my blog.

Here you go.

http://www.claudandi.co.uk/category/12-new-things/

April 17, 2014 at 12:12 pm #767213
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Cyclist

Built a homemade single speed
Built a homemade single speed from all the old bits I had in my garage.

Old aluminium frame resprayed
Pair of carbon forks
A 15yr plus use seat post
Pair of clinchers I forgot I had
Sora crank
Adhoc cassette
Charge bullet end bars and stem
Single speed brake lever
Sora front brake

I wanted to try a nil cost build, use only what you have available. Only thing I did was get the spray paint from Halfords.

So I have a nip to the shops or cafe bike. Have to say I am fairly chuffed with myself.

April 1, 2014 at 3:33 pm #767211
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MKultra

I have done the opposite. I
I have done the opposite. I must have been commuting in all weathers for more than a decade now. To be honest over the last 6 months thanks to the daily mail brigade and Clarkson there has been a marked increase in people willfully trying to run me down including a bus driver who is now the subject of a criminal complaint, that and the 3 months of constant pissing down rain I simply went back to work at Christmas and decided to take a few months off the bike. I don’t feel guilty. Being able to leave it alone and not feel bad about it has been a step forward for me. It wasn’t making me happy, it was making me miserable and stressed.

April 1, 2014 at 2:57 pm #767209
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Potiriadis

I am riding from Bordeaux to
I am riding from Bordeaux to Paris at the end of May, a distance of 600Km with a time limit of 60 hours. To date the longest single ride I have completed is 122 miles, so quite a jump.

Obviously I’m doing it for Charity so here is the link with the spiel about just why you should give up hard earned cash to help critically and terminally ill children.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/BordeauxParis

Yes this is a bit of a hijack but when the cause is this good, surely its OK?

February 17, 2014 at 10:56 pm #767207
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movingtarget

Brilliant idea! I’ve got two
Brilliant idea! I’ve got two already lined up:

Go riding in the desert (Red Rocks and Valley of Fire outside Las Vegas)
My first century (around the rim of an inactive volcano no less 🙂 )

February 17, 2014 at 10:13 pm #767205
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Anonymous

rather than set goals, I’ll
rather than set goals, I’ll just see if I can add something new here each month,

So:

January – rode a Cyclo cross sportive. Hard day out in wind and rain, but such good fun I’m signed up for another. Also took a bike ‘home’ and rode the roads where I grew up for the first time in 25 years. I’d forgotten how fun they were.

February – bought and fitted some tri bars. Never tried them before but they have turned out to be surprisingly easy to ride with, and less uncomfortable than I feared. Finally rode through to friends in South London, so I’ve braved the ‘pleasures’ of Cycle Superhighways 7 and 8. Not impressed.

Wonder what March holds…

January 16, 2014 at 9:04 am #767203
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Miles253

Ill start mine from June,
Ill start mine from June, when i return from travelling

Learn to ride no handed
Ride a century in the UK
Learn to True a wheel
Join a club
Complete London to Paris
Watch all the grand tours
Complete a sportive
Watch a classic on tv
Complete a track day
Ride in a country other than France

hmm, need a few more

January 8, 2014 at 7:39 pm #767201
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Bhachgen

Like this. Excellent idea
Like this. Excellent idea Jo.

So far I’ve got “Watch the TdF in the flesh”
Start a Kids’ cycling club (plans already afoot)
Do one of those on-and-off-road Sportives
Get my Coaching qualification
Ride across Wales from border to coast in a day (I live in Lancs and parents live on the west coast of Wales).
Do a ride involving a ferry trip (Maybe Argyll, maybe Fleetwood-Larne for the Giro, being realistic it’s more likely to be ‘Cross the Mersey!)

That’s 50% of the required challenges. Not much time to come up with something for January. Might have to go with today’s “Set an uphill Strava PR with loaded trailer attached to the bike”. No, I’ve no idea how that happened. Must have been gawking at the scenery or something on the previous occasions I rode it.

As for other posters, last year would have been good for this given that I did all these things for the first time:

Taught a child to ride
Marshalled a race
Entered a hillclimb event
Taught an adult to ride
Volunteered to serve on the club committee
Rode the velodrome
Rode a fixie
Joined the crowds on a mountain pass for a pro cycle race
Bought and used a bike trailer
Did various scary bike-mechanic related tasks
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