Author Archives: essiep

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.

Related articles

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.

First 100

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8°C, mild wet and windy.
Soaked riding in yesterday. A short sharp one hit half-way to work. The sky was clear when I set off, and again when I got there. But the shower was so heavy that cold trickles ran down my neck inside my shirt and down my arms. For a few minutes, I was forced to stop because I could not see. That was the hail part.
Still, the week’s total stands at one hundred miles. A good start.

First ride

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6°C, V. Windy, sun. CK:43miles
Rode a loop in Lancashire- Parbold and the flatlands by Bank. The hedges were low and sparse so no shelter from a strong westerly. Those last miles were hard and slow even on the 42×17. I was standing on the pedals even on level roads.
I have lost form, even though I was reluctant to admit it.
Next week, I should do the same milage and see how it feels. Then, if that’s okay, add 10 more the week after.

You do too much exercise.

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-4°C, calm & icy.
Last day of snow, a heavy fall is coming this afternoon.
More turbo time to keep me sane but…
A colleague said in a firm voice that:

(I)” you do too much exercise, half an hour a few times a week is enough”.

Only a few decades ago, millions of men would work 10 or more hours a day burning far more calories than I do on the bikes. It was normal then. Now it’s normal to do barely any and shorten their lives by 10 years. I said that it’s un-natural to do none and our bodies suffer long term (and short).
Besides, it’s fun.