Iron Man & ACDC vs Rochester Castle

Wow.

Turn your speakers up and watch Rochester Castle rock!!!

PowerPax – Battery Caddy

I bought a few of these PowerPax battery caddies to safely store my battery supplies during my charity ride from Rochester to Fishguard.

These are tough plastic caddies into which you slot your batteries.  Once inserted, each battery is protected from damage and short circuits.  To remove a battery simply push it out.  The batteries are held in by small lips in the design of the caddy but pushing the battery easily ejects it from storage.

There’s a whole range of different caddies available for the main battery types including CR123 cells.  They also come in a range of colours including glow-in-the-dark.

They’re relatively cheap too – the 12 AA caddy shown above costs $6.95 ($9.95 if you want it glow-in-the-dark).

The only downside is that you can only get them directly from the US manufacturer (as far as I could see).  This puts the postage to the UK at $19.95 so you really need to buy a few caddies to justify the postage – although the postage charge is quite reasonable.

Oh, you also may get caught for import VAT.  If you do then expect to pay the VAT and Parcel Force’s £8 handling fee.

Despite that, they’re worth the cash even after the import charges.  I bought a few caddies for AA and CR123 batteries, in a number of sizes and colours.  Red caddies are easy to see, and therefore easy to find, in that messy kitchen ‘bits and pieces’ drawer which everyone seems to have!

Great for cyclists and photographers – or anyone who has batteries!

The full PowerPax range can be found here.

Update, 16th October 2010: They’re now available in the UK from Heinnie.com.

Do My Knees Still Work?

Popped down the road on the Dahon for my first ride on a bike since my 300+ charity ride.

My knees are still recovering from the stresses and strains of my ‘little epic’ journey across England and Wales!  I took it easy didn’t cycle far or fast and there was some slight discomfort but otherwise things were okay.

I think I’m ready to start thinking about longer rides again – well, perhaps longish local rides, I still don’t think I’m up for another epic…

Charity Fame

Having completed my 300+ mile cycle ride, and being met by the Mayor of Fishguard and Goodwick, my little adventure made it into the press!  Front page of the County Echo and into the Community pages of the Western Telegraph.

Scans of the reports from each of the newspapers are shown below.

Front Page of the County Echo

Community Section of the Western Telegraph

307 Miles For Charity

At the beginning of 2010 I was keen to make the most of the year ahead and to get out and spend more time on my bikes.  I began to plan a number of rides and challenges, from short local rides to longer more intense ‘journeys’.

One of the major journeys I was planning was to cycle from my home in Rochester, Kent, to my parents’ home in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire – a distance in excess of 300 miles (483km).  Then I began thinking a little more about it…

In the latter half of 2009 my father was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the upper and lower motor neurones.  I didn’t know much about the disease so thought I’d take a look around.  Then I found the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), a registered charity, which supports sufferers and families in addition to funding awareness and research programmes.

So, with that in mind, I decided to cycle the 300+ miles and raise money for the MNDA at the same time…

Read the full story of my charity cycle ride, my struggles, the kit I took and review my route via this link.

(Click the link above to view my full Charity Ride report or click below to donate to the cause!)