Monthly Archives: Feb 2013

Friday is a good day to…

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-1~+2, NE wind, light, dry. …to ride. I rode fixed 42×17 with MapMyRide! Distance: 56.90mi, time: 04:10
http://mapmyride.com/view_route?r=3819258234418495489
The big problem today was to keep warm. The penetrating icy wind occasionally blew light snow flurries from the east. At half-way, I pulled into a cafe that is part of a garden centre. It wasn’t all that warm in there either. But they did a decent onion soup and tea came in a pot with a knitted Cosey. Then I noticed an excellent space-heater. This roaring great machine blew hot air that could be directed inside your jacket. I stood there for a while, turning slowly as if on a spit to dry out my damp clothes. Damp layers are a quick way to cool very quickly, not what I wanted at all. Further, pulling layers up to let the warm air into base layers, I felt prepared to resume the ride.
This ride included Bannister Hill which is a beast. It’s always satisfying to reach the top without a stop on the fixed gear. Today, I failed near the top where it starts to level out. Shame, but not really uprising considering how I felt on the approach. Two weeks ago the climb was okay even though I was still recovering from the winter’s cold. Perhaps today’s cold air was the cause.
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Did I ever tell you…

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3.5°C, SE strong. Dry.
… How annoying DIY can be?
Yesterday, I spent 4 hours installing replacement cable for the phone extension. The signal has so much interference that voices are difficult to follow. Now the new cable is in, the phone is no better. Next try– change the BT terminal socket; last possible cause, this socket is obviously quite old and turning yellow.
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The next; to fit a curtain rail. Normally an easy enough job, unless the drill hits the edge of a brick. But at least you know immediately that there’s a problem and you can re-drill.
Cavity walls are quite a different prospect. There are a range of fixings to solve them. It turns out that many of them don’t work easily. See the photo above.. Both plugs failed so that they could not be un-screwed nor slid out. Each one collapsed inside the wall in a different way. I had to pull which which sprung a big scab of plaster. What a mess, it looks like a read bodge job now.
For the second time, I am waiting for poly-filler to dry. If this were my house, I would fit a thin plank and fit the rail to that. Oh well…

Bosworth

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9°C, light SE, Clear. CA:60 miles.

Tracked today’s with MapMyRide! Distance: 60.31mi, time: 04h 49m,
So many smiling faces today. The sun, clear skies and lack of cold air has affected us all. Some of the old guys can be really quite grumpy, but even they were cheerful today. No doubt I was smiling too. It wasn’t until after 40 odd miles that I could feel that a long ride is possible. Average speed was no big deal but stamina roused more as the miles passed.
Some roads were still flooded from last week’s rain though; at least four  flooded the whole road width, that I remember. The technique that works best there  is to ride through the water with the cranks level. Then ratchet the pedals to get through the water without immersing shoes. The only caution is hidden potholes and stones. Even on a day like this another twenty miles with wet feet could be pretty miserable.

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Two buzzards picking at a swan’s corpse.

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8°C, sunny, still, CA:30

Tracked ride with MapMyRide! Distance: 29.80mi, time: 01:54:51, pace: 3:51min/mi, speed: 15.57mi/h. http://mapmyride.com/view_route?r=544671779495346177
Passed a strange sight- two buzzards feeding on a dead swan near Elford. It was like a Breugal painting, one of those with a haunting, ominous medieval moral.
The ride was good, as has this whole day been altogether.

Roof shedding.

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1°C, dry cold.
Top temperature was 1°C today, mostly, surfaces were dry but ice was slow to melt. I rode in today with little to worry about, bar one thing.
Many drivers don’t clear the snow heaped up on their cars. They drive around with a white layer that looks like a new mattress or the sugary topping of a grotesque christmas cake.
As the car heater warms inside, the layer of snow becomes loose. It takes some nerve to leave the snow up there: at any moment it can drop onto the windscreen like an avalanche with no warning.
More likely though, the ice mattress will fall when the car turns, brakes or pulls away. Cars do this of course, on parts of the road where I, as a cyclist, need grip the most. Places like the apex of a bend, a roundabout, or a junction; they are the really critical spots. These are where the lumps of ice lay today.
I really hope the police start to enforce the law that promises 6 points on the lazy selfish drivers’ licenses.

How do I fix this?

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5°C, heavy non-stop rain.

Repair: my phone line is often very poor, the crackle & hiss is so loud that I can’t hear what people are saying and it often cuts off my ADSL internet connection. Okay, but it costs £99 to get a British Telecom engineer out and they may decide that it’s an internal fault and not do any repair.

So, now on a very wet Sunday afternoon, I could replace the internet wiring run from the BT box. It’s an intermittent fault, and what do you know- it’s clear right now.

Film: Lebanon

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3°C, light rain.
Film: Lebanon, set entirely within a tank during the 1982 war. In many ways it reminded me of Das Boot. A small number of men encased in a steel shell, dripping with oil and dirty water. Some of them viewed the horrors outside through telescopic gun-sights.
The sense of claustrophobia is similar: though I say that, the tank looked bigger inside than I would have expected. The stress and conflict between the crew was there too.
So yeah, a good film.

Rage road.

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Movement within a roundabout in a country wher...

Movement within a roundabout in a country where traffic drives on the left. Note the clockwise circulation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

+4°C, clear icy strong wind.
Not safe to ride this morning- black ice covers more than usual today- roads as well as pavements.
Not safe to drive either, look…
Near home there is a tee-junction with a roundabout for left or right. So I got in the right lane and joined the other cars waiting. Then just as I turned, a guy in the left turning lane server right in front of me. Annoyed, I blew the horn and flash lights.
As I follow him onto the turning he stopped. I braked and blew the horn again; is he just not looking or what? Then he moved and stopped again. Horn again, he started then stopped once more, but for longer, much longer.
Then he actually got out or his car. I could see him mouthing something, pointing at the roundabout and waving arms. He’s trying to communicate; I hit the central locking. No point interacting with this life-form. The traffic built up behind jamming the roundabout.
What a puzzling experience. A driver is in such a rush that he doesn’t mind treading on toes. He’s in such an adrenaline haze that he stopped to have a tantrum and wasted his own time as well as ours.
What a depressing way to run your life.
Strange thought though, is the stretch of road where this all happened. I have been subject to three road rage incidents over the last ten years. All of them on this half-mile section of road. Beware.

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Fix the head-wind.

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I rode fixed gear 42×17. MapMyRide! Distance: 43.36mi, time: 03:27:35, pace: 4:47min/mi, speed: 12.53mi/h. http://mapmyride.com/view_route?r=620135990495698553
Took a similar route to last week after I said I should do the same distance. Difference was that I rode up Bannister Hill (without a stop). The hill felt fine. No, that hill never feels fine, but it didn’t make me feel sick or wobbly afterwards. So that as fine as it can be. Even the wind failed to reduce my progress as much as last week. I could still pump the pedals round rather than grind them over on each stroke. I give myself a pat on the head for all that. Even the post ride recovery was reasonably painless. Okay, the road speed was low, but I argue that the air-speed was much higher in that westerly wind.

Ince Blundell

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4°C, NW breeze. CK: 22.3 miles.

Fixed 42×17 gear rode with MapMyRide! Distance: 22.31mi, time: 01:35:22, pace: 4:16min/mi, speed: 14.04mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/view_route?r=948135982116619097

Ince Blundell is, today, a newly added shortcut away from the Formby-Southport dragstrip. What a funny place though, it has lots of bungalows, and what appears to be bytes large cemetery. So, a place to go to in your latter years. I would be nervous buying there: it’s so flat, low and near the sea.

Good to ride in the sun even if a bit cold without my warmest kit.