Cycle the Underground,overground,wombling free,making a tube map for a poster for me

First ride out over a couple month break is always going to be a little difficult but things were more problematic than normal.

I had tried to put the gpx track I had prepared on to my phone the night before however, osmand refused to render the track giving errors. Yet I imported it on to other websites and reader without issue, must be a new bug in osmand, I wish I had not accepted an update last week. Old tracks which worked before stopped working too. Anyway I know the Victoria Line route pretty much up to Finsbury Park anyway, so I figured I would just use Google Maps as needed.

Perhaps I should have stayed in bed on Sunday morning. Had intended to be on the road for 8am, however I didn't get out of bed till 8.45. Once I was ready and got going it was a little after 9am. I hit road works in Battersea which made me decide to take an alternate route to Brixton. I must have missed a turn and ended up by Vauxhall so instead of back tracking to find the turn I figured I would just go via Stockwell even though I am going to be doing the same route 15 minutes later in the opposite direction. This added a few extra kilometers. I got to Brixton at around 9.50am. Took a photo and set off after texting sacredheart who was going to join me at Seven Sisters.

I took a wrong turn a the Highbury and Islington roundabout, and headed towards Stoke Newington (route I take to get to easts) rather then straight up the Holloway Road. Luckily I realised this when I saw the Newington Green turn, so I turned around and consulted gmaps which told me to go down Highbury Park instead, which comes out infront of Finsbury Park tube. From there it is a straight run to Seven Sisters. I got there at 11.10am.

Locked the bike up and headed to Costa to grab a coffee whilst sacredheart appeared. Drinking my coffee took a little bit longer than planned, and way we setoff for the next station. In fact everything went well until we got to Walthamstow Central.

Now since I could not use my gpx track. I decided to use gmaps navigation to get us to Cockfosters, this was my first big mistake of the day.

Riding with the GPS when you don't know where you are going is a slow, you ride slower and you second guess turn instructions. We wasted time taking a route that took us on the A406, so we decided to back track and find an alternative. Adding an extra 7km, thing were looking up again. Unfortunately we got seperated by a light, causing sacredheart to miss a turn. So I patiently waited for him to head back, which he did after a few minutes. It was now 1pm, and the phone was still saying 30 minutes to get to Cockfosters. sacredheart had a time limit, he decided to head back and do some climbing drills instead.

I had put a new set of V-Brakes on the bike during the week, so I was really worried about them not being right. Since I had only ridden a few miles with them. Thankfully they didn't let me down.

The route to Cockfosters is quite up and down. Just as I got near Oakwood station there was a set of big hills, not too much of a problem. Except for the last one when my chain snapped.

Now I had a chain tool with me on a multitool, however I seem to missing the bit that allows you to rotate the bolt, which happens to be another 5mm allen key slot. Obviously you can't use the one on the multitool. So I rolled the bike to the station, and went into the cab office and asked to borrow a 5mm allen key. No drivers were around at the time, so I had to wait a while. Finally a cabbie with some tools showed up. So I was able to fix the chain. By now it was nearly 2.10, and I was not feeling that I could get to Uxbridge before dark.

I was about a mile from Cockfosters, instead of heading there I figured the best thing was to head home. Traffic through Wood Green was really heavy. I hit most of the stations apart from Arnos Grove on the way back. Arsenal were at home meaning that I had to walk my bike down the road on which the station is on. I kept on route till Russell Square, which at that I point I just took the fastest route home, was back home by 4pm.

Not a great ride, but I got some distance in about 80km including the rides to the start point and all the wrong turns.

In a couple of weeks I will give the Piccadily line another try, I will cycle up to Liverpool Street and get a train to Enfield, then cycle along to Cockfosters that ride will be ~65km should be a breeze.

Lessons Learned : Buy a F**KIN Garmin, carry a second 5mm allen key, don't use Google Maps in dynamic route mode.