On Sunday 31st October 2010 my trusty old Vitus 979 bonded frame suddenly became unbonded in the lanes at the back of Newgale, about 20 miles from home. After 20 minutes of swearing and fettling and swearing I managed to get one gear on each chainring working, guessed that the frame would hold together if I didn't get out of the saddle and slowly made my way home.

On Wednesday 3rd November I visited my local bike shop, Pembrokeshire Bikes in Fishguard, to see if Peter Walker still had his Raleigh for sale. I've been lusting after this most of the year, but couldn't really justify the expense, but now I had no choice so it was out with the chequebook (an old form of money that still works in a few places), bike into the car and a diet of bread and dripping (if you have to ask you won't understand) for the rest of the month.

A new bike needs new goals and ambitions so a plan was hatched; I will ride an Audax Super Randonneur series on it. For those not familiar with audax this is a series of four rides in a year, organised under Audax UK rules, covering 200km, 300km, 400km and 600km. Each of these have to be ridden at an average speed of at least 15km/hour including stops for food, sleep, mechanical mishaps and getting lost. I rode my first event in February 2003, Des Radford's Carmarthenshire Stopper, 100km in an exhausting 7 hours and 55 minutes, but with practice I've got better than that now. I became a randonneur in 2006 by completing the 200km Carmarthenshire Snapper.

So there you have it; this will be a record of triumph or disaster with the idea that the more people know about it, the harder it'll be for me to wimp out.