London to Paris - the fundraising

At the same time as sorting the bike, I thought I had better get on with a bit of fund-raising. According to the information, I have to raise £1200 to be able to take part. Now, in years past my employer match funded half of any money an employee raised for charity - up to £500. So, I thought, actually I only need to raise £700 - which sounds ever so much easier.

Just to check, I rang up - some of you will know we have been taken over recently. Well, the new brooms think match funding for the nominated charity of the year isn't right, so have stopped doing it. So, I do have to raise the full £1200 myself after all.

As you may know, I emailed everyone on my contacts list and the response was great. Some people have been really generous. Even my daughter, Colette, managed £3.50 - although the note about racing snails is a bit much. I'm not that slow! Just as interesting is who hasn't...

I've tried a few companies too. Yorkshire Building Services were great and gave me £100 - thanks Andy. I wrote to some that I thought might have a connection - Benecol, Kelloggs, Flora and a few others. Oddly enough, I haven't heard back from them - I suppose the recession doesn't help. Neither have I heard back from my doctor, who does such a great job signing my prescription every two months. I really thought they would be interested. Perhaps I need to call and ask personally.

The local paper were very good though, I sent them an email telling them about the trip and they sent a photographer around to take pictures. The result was somewhat less inspiring than the one I did myself for the JustGiving page. See for yourself at http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/ossett-news/Little-wheels-big-heart-.5336904.jp

Taking my own photo was, by the way, something of a trial. I balanced the camera on a wall, set it to timer and then rushed over to the bike, jumped on and tried to sit still until the shutter went. Thank heavens for digital cameras. I'd have wasted loads of film trying to get a decent shot with a film camera. I nearly fell off twice; cut my head or feet out of the picture a dozen times and pulled stupid faces on many others as my balance went just as the shutter went off. You can see the result on my Justgiving page: http://original.justgiving.com/michaelvennard/

Which reminds me; whilst I'm rambling on... my page got shut down for 2 days whilst the JustGiving people did an update. As a result, all my advertising stuff says 'www.justgiving.com/michaelvennard/ and the new address is http://original.justgiving.com/michaelvennard/ Hardly fair, given that for 2 days people couldn't donate. And I'm sure there were hundreds who would have if they could but were put off by the difficulty, don't you? At least £1,000 worth eh?

I don't know if you've noticed, but there are some adverts beside this blog. Well, if you click on them, I get paid. I've no idea how much, but whatever it is will be going to British Heart Foundation... so you may want to try clicking.

I was going to do cream teas at work to celebrate Wimbledon, but I'm a bit busy with other things this week and next will be the end of Wimbledon anyway. Oh well, I'll try and think of something else.

The next blog will be about the training...

But I've already forgotten to tell you about CREW! As well as cycling to work, I go to the gym across the road in Halifax to do spinning every Monday and Wednesday morning. (Do you know what 'spinning' is? Sitting on a stationary bike and pedalling - not peddling, as some of my donors seem to think! - you can adjust the resistance to make it harder. Makes me sweat a lot, which means I must be getting fitter, right?) The lady that takes the class, Yvonne, used to run the cardiac rehabilitation classes for Calderdale Royal. She has been great (thanks, Yvonne) in promoting my ride with people at the spinning classes but also put me in touch with the local CREW group.

CREW stands for Cardiac Rehabilitiation through Exercise and Walking. They organise walks and encourage those who've had a heart event to get into regular exercise. It sounds like they do a great job. Anyway, John Tudor - the Halifax secretary - got in touch and offered me £100 to start and also to help publicise my ride. How could I turn that down?

So on Wednesday 1st July I will be riding my folding bike to work for the first time in order to take it down to the Northbridge Leisure Centre to have yet more photographs taken. Its as well I'm such a good looking chap, eh ladies??!!!

Next post will probably be after that....

London to Paris - the bike

Where were we? Oh yes, I had to pay £99 to register and then raise a minimum of £1200 to take part. So I sent my cheque off and didn't really give it much more thought.

Not long after, I received a pack telling me all about how to go about raising money and the training required. The bike is not perfect, so I subscribed to a Forum on the web (http://www.bikeforums.net/index.php - if you're interested) so that I could ask the people who are really into folding bikes what is best to do.

Some people suggested just changing the front chain ring - the big cog at the front where the pedals are - and make it bigger. But then, someone suggested getting a rear hub that has 3 gears inside it and the ability to put a set of 7 gears on a derailleur as well. That sounded so much better I got straight onto ebay to find one.

A couple of days later, and £10 lighter in the wallet, I had a 3x7 hub which gives me 21 gears when made up. I rushed it round to our local bike shop owner - John - who I know is a wizard wheel builder. And from here on it went a bit pear shaped.

The rim on the existing wheel has 28 holes for the spokes and the hub has 36. Oops. Not to worry though, I asked the guys on the forum and they gave me a link to a supplier and I ordered another rim. A day or so later and the rim arrived and I rushed around to John. Yes, will be a pain but couple of days and the wheel will be ready.

John was as good as his word, and I picked the wheel up later in the week. Of course, he had a few problems because the spokes had to be custom made as they are so short. But, he managed and I'm happy.

Until I got home... the wheel is bigger than the existing one on the bike!! Not by much, but definitely bigger! How can that be? The existing tyre say 16 x 1 & 7/8ths and the rim says 16in. I went back on to the forum to ask....

You think someone would have warned me, wouldn't you? It seems 16in is not necessarily 16in in the folding bike world. Some companies measure to the rim, others to the tyre. Consequently there are two 16in wheel sizes. How mad is that!? As mad as me, by now!

I spent an afternoon fiddling about to see if I could get the new wheel in and the good news is I can. Only now, the brakes no longer fit. The brake blocks now go straight into the spokes instead of rubbing on the rim as they should when I apply them.

Back to John. I think he thinks I'm nuts, but came up with a solution... he suggested welding a piece of metal just above the existing fastening point. Job done, I went back to fit the brakes... guess what? It works! And so do the gears, although the top gear is so stupidly hard to push, my spindly legs won't be able to manage it, except perhaps on a 1 in 5 descent.

So the bike is finally ready... just the money to raise and the training! That's the next Blog....

Phew, that was easy! I've set up this Bog thing to keep anyone who is interested in my ramblings about this Folding Bike Challenge that I am taking part in to raise money for British Heart Foundation.

I suppose I'd better start with the history of how I came to sign up for it and then you'll be up to date. I'll try to keep it up to date as things progress....

In my youth (I'm now 45) I used to cycle a bit... commuting to work, bit of touring and club runs and even dabbled with a bit of racing; although never really amounted to much and it was pretty much limited to time-trials. Anyway, since getting married and having children the cycling has fallen off although the basic interest has really only gone dormant.

Then in 2008, the fuel prices went all silly. My commute to work is just short of 18 miles, and it was costing me a fair bit in diesel so I thought I'd try public transport. Only the train station is about 3 - 4 miles away, which means a bus ride or taking the car anyway. Ok, I'll go to the station on my bike and then get the train. Then I found there is only one direct train between Wakefield and Halifax per hour; but there is another option to get the train to or from Dewsbury and again only one train per hour.

Then, on a trip to London, I saw loads of people on folding bikes. Yes! Eureka moment... get a folding bike and then it won't matter which train I get on the return trip as I'll have it with me.

Straight home and onto ebay and bought a folder for £50. Lovely red colour, single gear and folds up great. Really going to be the business... and then I rode it. Seat was way too low, gear stupidly small so the slightest downhill gradient meant my legs couldn't keep up... I obviously need a bike with gears. (Fortunately this one freewheels!)

The neatest fold seems to be a Brompton. There are LOADS of Bromptons on ebay and they tend to go for around £400+. New ones cost anything from about £800+ I didn't want to pay so much; because this is supposed to be an experiment, remember? After some searching, I found a Brompton copy (a Mission Space Genie) with 5 gears and a taller seat. Another 50 quid later and it was mine.

But then I rode it. Gears were bearable, and a big improvement on the last one, but I wouldn't want to ride it more than the 3 miles to the station. The seat height was still too low, but I solved that as a friend got one made for me. Only the new tube is stainless steel and it weighs almost as much as the rest of the bike! Still, as I don't have to carry the bike far it is now good enough for the ride to the station.

I bought a one month pass - another mistake. The first day, the train was cancelled with no explanation so I had to go to Leeds and then back out again - not hugely inconvenient, except the Leeds to Halifax train is often late/cancelled etc. The next three days were a nightmare of cancelled trains, delayed trains, missed trains....

As I'd bought the pass (£90), I toughed it out for the whole month. It was quite an experience - coaches instead of trains when they were cancelled... I admire you guys who put up with this sort of thing, but I decided I couldn't.

After my summer holiday I thought, 18 miles is not so far. I'll cycle from home to Halifax. That will just be easier. Just on the nice days, you understand. I don't like riding in the rain so when it does, I'll go in the car. Overall, I'll still save.

During August and September I rode on average 3 days per week and at the end of each week my legs were killing me - I still remember being able to average 20mph all day and mentally still can. But my legs can't. The first day took me 1 hour 3 mins to do 17 miles.

Anyway, I'm digressing.... this isn't about my personal battle against the wind.

The folding bike sat in the garage gathering dust and waiting for me to post it back on ebay. Until March; when my employer put a message on the intranet to say there were 20 places reserved for employees on the London to Paris Folding Bike Challenge in September - raising funds for the company's charity of the year The British Heart Foundation.

I thought, why not? I've got a folding bike in the garage and 240 miles doesn't seem too bad over 4 days. Of course, I'd have to sort those gears out... but hey, easy peasy.

So, I applied..... and have to raise at least £1200 to take part; more details to follow.