Strava Cycling App

Discovery of the day was testing out Strava cycling application on my phone. Its free for Android and iPhone, and the results were better than expected. At first attempt, the record ride function refused to work as there was no GPS signal as I was inside the flat - this is slightly annoying as I can't press the start ride button and just let it find the signal when I'm on the road. If you can see the phone, then you would see current speed, distance etc but I kept it in my back pocket the whole route. This is how I will always use the device, its far too big to even think of mounting it on the handlebars, and the batteries will last many hours just recording GPS data.
After saving the distance, time, elevation, route etc are presented on the app itself and the website has a nice design with more detailed charts. I've seen enough folks Garmin pages by now (with its nasty bing maps), but the surprising bonus with this system was that it had automatically picked out my climb given me a time from  start to finish, I assume it will do this automatically for all climbs in the future. On top of that, it found other riders who had done the same climb and so you instantly get a hall of fame for your local climb!
Very nice.

http://app.strava.com/rides/3620048

die Umleitung

There have been some murmurings in the blogosphere regarding the complete lack of posts in 2012 on this here blog, and even suggestions that the recent theme has been overly cyclo-cross focused. Well, the lack of posts is certainly true, and as the end of January rapidly approaches I'd better make at least one entry for the month. I don't mind the accusation of a tendency for off road activities, but for what its worth lets get things back on the road for 2012.
I've been using the old (~23yrs?) Ribble 531c as a winter bike, but only last week got around to fitting a pannier frame to it. Don't care for spending buckets of swiss francs on a piece of metal, but the shop Velo Klybeck has an excellent stock of second hand and vintage parts - my first purchase from here was new hoods for my original 105 brakes - but like many shops here, is closed on Mondays and only open 2-6 the rest of the week, and when you turn up on the wrong day or at the wrong time it does become very annoying.

Light snow at the top of the climb

Anyway, now the winter bike is set up I finally started my intended detour on the ride to work. The heavy Militarvelo is fine for getting from A to B across town, and carries a heavy load well, but its not real exercise at all. As I cross the Birsfelden damn across the Rhine maybe 1km from home, I look left to the center of the city, its only a 15min ride to work if I turn left here, but the hills are calling and so I turn right and cross the border into Germany.  The considerable detour takes me further into BadenWurtemburg, up a deserted road to to the top of Ruhrberg, down surprisingly quiet roads to Inzlingen then Riehen and eventually back to Basel via the cycle path along Lange Erlen.
I know from last year that daily commutes add a lot to fitness, but if I can manage to complete this quality ride with a decent hill in the middle everyday then I should be in good health for the summer mountains.  Its much more strenuous than last years commute, I'd need a change of clothes if I were to cycle home again, so for now this is once a day, until its lighter in the evenings.
For the record, the minor and very steep side road took 15min 21sec. Today the main road ascent was slightly faster, but I think I will stick with the minor road as its totally traffic free. I think I will get to know the dog walkers on this hill very quickly.