Category: Challenges

Round Trip Ride – Hammersmith & Notting Hill 走一轉系列 – Hammersmith & Notting Hill

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Looking back often brings surprises or delights, much like when I recently moved my blog posts to my new site. I noticed that there were several half-written cycling posts left gathering dust. Instead of letting them as they were, I’ve decided to tie up those loose ends and hopefully boost some more traffic to my new blog. Although these rides were made over two years ago, in the ever-unchanging British landscape, I don’t think there will be much difference today.

回顧通常都會帶來一些驚或喜，就像我早前把網誌文章搬到新網站一樣，竟發覺有好幾篇單車遊的紀錄只寫了一半，但又不知何解地被擱置於一傍。與其繼續放低不理，我決定要為這些紀錄做個了結，亦希望可為網誌增加多一點流量。雖然我這些單車騎行已是兩年多前的事，但以英國的千載不變的生活環境，相信今天看來亦不會有太大的差別。

Bike Climb Improvement Project 單車爬攀改善計劃

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Riding uphill places a greater strain on the heart, which can be challenging for individuals like me with cardiovascular conditions. In my early days of road cycling, I got my first road bike, the Giant TCR SLR1, that came with Shimano Ultegra 6800 53/39T racing crankset. This made it quite tough for a beginner cyclist like me. Two years later, I used this bike for cycling tour around Taiwan and despite I had already switched to a bigger 32T cog, climbing the challenging slopes of Shouka and the North-Yilan Highway was still a struggle to me.

騎乘斜坡對心臟的負荷較大，對於我這類有心血管疾病的人來說不是易事。早期對公路車認識不多，第一部購入的公路車 Giant TCR SLR1 是配備 Shimano Ultegra 6800 53/39T 的競賽 Crankset，令我這單車初哥騎得非常之吃力。還記得當年到台灣環島騎的亦是這部車，縱使已轉用了 32T 飛輪，攀爬壽卡及北宜公路的兩段路仍是苦不堪言，因此在我購入的第二部公路車 Giant TCR Advanced SL1 時就指定配上 50/34T crankset。

Home Automation 家居自動化

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It has been almost a year since I moved into my current apartment. Apart from daily household chores, the introduction of home automation has taken up most of my time. And the story begins with the pendant lights in the living and dining rooms.

搬入現時居所差不多一年了，這段日子除了日常家居打理外，花得最多時間可算是引入家居自動化這個概念。 而故事就是從客、飯廳的吊燈開始。

Simple Guitar Repair 簡單電結他維修

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Life was really boring during my course of Shingles recovery and I planned to pickup my aging Line 6 Variax 500 electric guitar to pass time. As the guitar had not been played for nearly two years, two of the tuners could not be tightened and the strings were out of tune shortly after few hours. Close inspection found that the plastic washer of those tuners disappeared.

休養期間生活有點百無聊賴，找來我的古董 Line 6 Variax 500 電結他消磨時間。 由于這電結他差不多有兩年没有彈過，在調音時發覺其中兩條低音絃線的 tuner 有點鬆，調好音後不到半天便走音，細看原來是 tuners 有破損，其中的膠墊圈已失掉。

Localisation for my bike? 單車也要本土化?

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Those two Giant TCR bicycles that delivered to UK were bought through authorised dealer in Hong Kong few years ago.

Being the world’s biggest bicycle manufacturer, Giant bicycles sold in different parts of the world have to conform to local regulations and riding practices. As such, there are variations in the use of components and settings for these bikes across the world.

隨行到英國的兩部 Giant TCR 公路單車，於香港的代理購入已有數年。

基於全球單車第一品牌 Giant Bicycle 產品行銷世界各地，需配合當地的法規及使用習慣，因此無論在設計細節，零件使用或設定亦會有一定的差異。

Do It Yourself 自己的事自己動手做

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Since I had published my last post on replacing my road bike tyres, some of my friends living aboard mentioned that DIY is the way to go to save money and possible lead time. I absolutely agreed with them and do believe that mastering DIY skills is another objective to achieve in UK.

居於外地的朋友們對我上一篇自行更換單車軚的網誌，都不約而同提出日常維修工作如果找店家或 Handy man 做，除了費用高外，往往亦要等很久，因此學習自己做 (DIY) 是必然的事。這個我完全同意，亦是移居英國後其中一個學習目標。

Life is just Bits and Pieces 生活就是一些無聊的點滴

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Since moving into our new apartment in late May, it seems that I was extremely busy. Spending most of the time tidying up those bits and pieces, moving the furniture around and went shopping household items. I considered myself so exhausted that I didn’t even have the mood to write any post for this blog.

自五月尾搬入新居後，每天總是看似非常忙碌；不是執拾東西，便是把家具移來移去，又或是再添置家居用品，亦因此總提不起勁去寫文章。

Round Trip Ride – London Eye 走一轉系列 – London Eye

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Even though I have been living in UK for nearly one year, I still found London’s winter very cold and couldn’t stand the piercing cold wind especially riding outdoor. That explained why I had not go cycling for several months. Anyway, it just happened that I still had a number of cycling trips that I could share with you here.

Comparing with those previous journeys around suburbs or countryside, I attempted some completely different trips across cities. When mentioning city, the first came to mind was definitely our famous cosmopolitan city London. And my destination was central London, the Parliament House, Big Ben and London Eye.

雖然在英國住了差不多一年，倫敦的冬天對於生長於香港的我仍是有點冷，騎單車的話，迎着陣陣刺面寒風更不好過，因此自去年十一月後已有數月沒騎車出外，還好先前尚有多個行程可在此和大家分享。

相比早前走的市郊路線，去年九月尾想過要作不同的嘗試，來個穿越城市之旅。説起城市當然第一時間就想起英國的國際大都會倫敦，而目的地就是倫敦市中心，國會大樓，大笨鐘以及 London Eye。

Riding with my boss 與 Boss 走一轉

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Studying in UK is really wonderful, there are so many term breaks throughout the school year. Just like the recent Spring Term Break that began on 1st of April, my little boss started staying at home with nothing to do again. Early Sunday morning, he suggested to go cycling, which I had no reason to turn down despite of the cold and windy weather.

在英國讀書真好，年中 term break 多到難以至信，剛過去的四月一日又是 Spring Term Break 的開始，家中小老闆又再百無聊賴的 hea 在家，星期日早上，難得他提議午後騎車出外走走，雖然天氣非常寒冷，我也無法拒絶。

Round Trip Ride – Putney Heath 走一轉系列 – Putney Heath

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For the past cycling trips, I used to take those relatively flat roads and footpaths. In this round of my Round Trip Ride, I would include some bike climbs in my visit to another adjacent district, the Borough of Wandsworth and with Putney Heath as my destination. The return trip would go through Richmond Park and back to the Kingston twon centre. The total distance was estimated to be around 29 Km.

過往的單車路線大多是以較平坦的車路或小徑為主，今次會嘗試加多一點爬坡路段。行程以 Borough of Wandsworth 的 Putney Heath 為目的地，回程會穿越 Richmond Park 返回 Kingston 市中心，行程預計約 29 公里。