16°C, strong W, gusts 40mph+, dry though.
The cafes are reopening. I went to my favourite, the Velo Café at Twin Lakes just as they were closing up. John let me in for an espresso.
Arrow: cafe visit
Reply
Author Archives: essiep
Grrr, bark, woof!
15°C, strong WSW but mostly dry. 40+mph gusts. Rather grey.
What a miserable morning! We’ve has 3 days of rain which left me with so much pent up energy in my legs. This ride cleared it.
The Speedo didn’t wake up today. It has a remote sensor on the fork that sends a signal to the unit via a radio link, it’s wireless. I suspect that the sensor’s battery has failed.
Warm under leaden sky.
20°C, brisk S, dry humid and dull.
A warm humid air dominates today’s mood. Warm and heavy, the rain was an empty threat. He gears are still indexing badly.
‘Cross and 3 punctures.
15°C, light S wind, dry but for rain in the last mile.
A ride ruined. I stopped after 2 miles with a soft tyre to blow it back up. 2 miles later, it had lost pressure as I got onto the gravel section. The inner tubes are slime filled which seals punctures but I was thought the valve was bunged up. It certainly looked green (the colour of the slime).
Eventually, I took the tube out and found 2 needle-like thorns. Okay, 1 more try… No better. Being 10 miles from home, I put a normal tube in. Meanwhile the clouds loomed dark.
I’m now taking a break at home because I’m having troubles finding the holes to patch.
Thunder
20°C, dry spell between thunder clouds
Dodging showers today, in fact there were deep rumbles inland from thunderstorms that were to miss us. They passed going north but further inland. Hardly any rain fell here – I could have gone out on the Zing.
I don’t know what’s going on with this speedo, it gets stuck sometimes on a high speed and the distance is then wrong. As you can see, it’s parked going 36mph!
Zing: Metric century
16°C, light NW-N breeze, cloudy and clearing.
A multi-bike ride again. Arrow-Zing-Arrow. 30 mile son the Zing in a loop. 2x 16 mile rides on the Arrow to my place and the rest on the new bike on a flat route. The gear change is still not perfect, one factor could be that the chain is too long.
The return included an amusing incident.On the long flat return from the coast along The Moss, I spotted a car partly blocking the single track road. It’s inside wheels were off the edge and two young women were there in a flap. The driver agreed to try when I offered a push. The younger looking one went slightly down the bank to push from the side. I warned her that it wasn’t safe, the car could slide down the bank on top of her. The car was solid with the inside front wheel spinning in clear air. The car was probably lifted on its suspension without any grip on the front wheel.
They asked whether I though it was recoverable- I thought so. Her boyfriend was on his way so I suggested he bring a plank to use ass a ramp. The worst that could happen is that te rope may break. If it does, I suggested and pointed towards a farm, try asking if they had a tractor to pull it out.
There wasn’t much I couold do, so I set off home. They were grateful though.
Kona Zing on the Australia route.
22°C, light NW, no cloud.
Yesterday was workshop time for the Zing. I swapped the wheels by putting Mavic Aksiums on and swapped tyres. While on that, I relaid the rear gear cable with a sheath under the bottom bracket. The hope is that it will reduce friction in an area vulnerable to road-muck. I had some frustration with indexing afterwards. However….
The gear cables seemed to bed-in during this ride to some extent. Perhaps internal cables are vulnerable to friction and trouble like this is normal, I dunno. As the miles rolled by, the gears seemed more accurate and gave no trouble on the climbs. Oh yes, I went up Bannister Lane climb. That went well. I’m getting a sense of this machine’s value.
3 rides.
23°C, light NE, no cloud.
I don’t know how this can happen, it’s not what I call ‘Parked‘. Clearly, there is a gouge where the car skidded off the road but no rubber on the road.
Anyway, I rode on the fixed to get my new Zing bike for a loop. It’s running well apart from sticky gears. The upshift is worst which suggests a snagging cable. The fit is good now too.
Blencathra
24°C, light breeze, full sun.
This was the first proper walk of the season. As you can see, the weather was perfect, 24°C lowland with very little breeze. The time on the picture includes at.least 1 ½ hours stops, food, nav etcetera. It’s been such a long time since the last quality mountain day. THe focus was on Sharp Edge scramble which was fun but over too soon. There is some variety in the routes up there so a return trip is not out of the question. However, there is probably more variety on Tryfan, another 100 mile drive from home.
Zing; Proper ride
16°C, light breeze and no cloud
I put more effort in this time. The bike is still waiting for a longer stem, Speedo and bar-tape. They are all due tomorrow
Micycle 