Monthly Archives: Jun 2014

Fixed the longest.

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18C, N breeze, bright sun.
I rode fixed- Distance: 72.17mi, time: 04:42:03, pace: 3:54min/mi, speed: 15.3mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/626397815
This is most likely my longest ride on a fixed gear bike. I sometimes claim that riding fixed is worth about 10% distance on top of a geared ride. Also, I got up Bannister hill without too much difficulty. I got over the top gasping, but not painfully so. Not bad when I am still over 15 stone.
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A great day in the saddle.

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No wonder!

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15°C, heavy rain, dramatic thunderstorm.

No wonder I was tired yesterday. This week, I have ridden nearly 200 miles.week'sRides27june14 I decided to take the day off the bike today and drive to work.
There is no certainty in my mind, that I have shed any weight. I am carrying about 3/4 stone more than my ideal summer weight. When I am under 200 pounds, cycling is so much more fun. I whiz along and enjoy the hills more. Last weekend’s 80 miles was a good distance, but the speed was relatively low. I could have ridden a century if there was no reason to worry about work on Monday.
The summer will, no doubt, offer chances to do some century rides.

Midsummer dreams.

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Rain, after 2 weeks of dry.
June dreams. My curtains are not dense enough. These early light mornings spoil sleep for many, me included. This week included the earliest sunrise of the year. There is a bonus, I often wake remembering dreams. It’s quite rare for me to be aware of dreams. Sunrise and the dawn chorus interrupt the usual sleep pattern. However, dreams are quite a revelation. I better not post details here though.

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Picture– taken on a bike ride home. This has been a high milage week for me, in excess of 180 miles. Quite a lot outside holiday periods. My legs are getting sore.

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Long, slow and hot.

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23C, still and sunny.
Rode summer bike: Distance: 79.75mi, time: 05:23:29, pace: 4:03min/mi, speed: 14.8mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/617338239
Passed through Heather with a tall oily black column of smoke from the north. It looked as if it came from a farmyard near the open cast quarry. Watching the billowing, almost solid looking forms developing from the deep orange flames was strangely fascinating.
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later, on mile 68, I overtook some portly blokes on bikes who were weaving about noticeably. I gave then a wide berth. They startled me after a few minutes by passing me at speed. They still rode bow-legged on their basic looking mountain bikes. But there was something different about them, they made a whirring noise and had huge front hubs. They were on electric bikes! Both caught up with other similar looking men who were also distinctly fat.
I would be impressed if the bikes could charge up on descents, or from rider’s effort. It would be great if they had started the ride with no charge today.
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Here is another view of the fire from about 3/4 mile.
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Tin Wifi booster.

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22C, soft breeze, sun.
Mid-summer’s day: a day of rest and fixing stuff about the house. Take time out with a cup of tea and watch YouTube. Found by chance, a video claiming to cleverly fix Wifi reception problems. image
I certainly do have patchy signal reception in this house. The idea is to partly cut open a drink tin and shape it round the aerial to focus the emitted signal from the router.

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I used a Wifi app on my phone to measure the result. The theory sounds likely, but I saw no change in any way.
There was a more measurable result when the phone is put inside the tin. Gain was about 6Db, and turning the tin changed the result too. Perhaps the signal from the router is polarized. The tin is curved in only one direction, it’s not like a satellite dish. This could be useful, if it worked, to get the best out of a mains powered booster, a repeater. That device relies on reception from the router, then re-transmit it at higher power. Trouble is, the connection between the devices does fail sometimes. So, repeater does not offer much reliability.
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Steam-punk.

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Rode fixed: Distance: 46.23mi, time: 02:50:29, pace: 3:41min/mi, speed: 16.27mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/608547833
Had quite a pacey ride today after a sluggish morning.

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This is a picture from a school trip last Tuesday. Birmingham museum has a range of Victorian, steam machines. Currently, this stuff is quite fashionable- steam-punk. The style appears in another graphics andgame design. Games like Bioshock make it a central feature. I have to admit, there is something appealing about the hand-made look of brass and iron components.
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29um,

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16C, no wind, feels warmer.
29miles fixed.
Back on the bike. it’s been a week since the last ride, and three weeks since that cold came on. That makes today’s ride a recovery one. They are characterised by a feeling of sluggishness. You have to push in an unnatural way.
Hay-fever is in full force. It must look like I am crying.
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The flats behind Churchtown in Southport. I like this area, big skies.

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General summary.

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2 days of warm sun, and now- thunder.
First DofE trip camping trip of the year. Sun is strong, and pollen dense. Day two was remote supervision, and for a change, there was a lot to do.

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Worcestershire is a very attractive county. Britain is in full bloom so fields are blazing yellow with buttercups and all the rest.
Young cattle were pleased to have visitors to their fields. They all came in our direction. A herd must weigh in over 10 tonnes, I was nervous. I turned to face them, hands on hips and in unison- they all did a u-turn. This gave my group of teenagers time to clamber over the stile.

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Bumbus nesting.

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21C, no wind, few slow clouds.
Rode 8speed, Distance: 32.91mi, time: 02:16:09, pace: 4:08min/mi, speed: 14.50mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/590941255
Another slow ride; I bet this feeling drags on for another week. The sun shone brightly though.

Meanwhile on the home front- my immediate neighbours warned me about a wasps’ nest in my roof. Today it became clear that they are not wasps but bees. White-tail bumble bees. I hope the summer works out well for them.
Last year, there was a similar nest. It was ousted by wasps though, which seemed a pity.
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