Author Archives: essiep

Was it a good ride?

Posted on by
5

…not really.

11°C, W wind with clear sky. Dry of course.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3281311537
Broken valve.

Not the ride I wanted. The canal section was spoiled by a fishing competition and then a puncture. The self-sealing tubes failed to seal the leak. I blew the tyre up and rode as far as the pressure allowed and then inflated it again. Eventually the valve broke off inside the pump (see above). That stopped everything; no longer was there a possibility of swapping the tube or patching because there was no way to pump it up. The walk home was 2 miles. The sun shone.

Cross the chase, December.

Posted on by
Reply

11°C, sun and cold wind. Rain to finish.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3280048873

Besides that, here’s an anecedote. The bike got quite muddy on this outing so normally I’d hose it down. Today, I have no access to a hose. Instead, I used a watering can and.poured it from height. Soon it stopped with a blockage. In the nozzle was a little face poking out.

The can was stored near the bins along with another one so I swapped them. The face was a field mouse that must have drowned. A sad and sorry end. Worse though, the other watering can also had a mouse’s corpse. I think we should store the cans inverted I told mum.

Towpath in darkness

Posted on by
Reply

8°C, clear sky with brisk W wind and cold.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3279276373

Here’s a first, an off-road ride in the dark . The hard contrast from the light make ruts and pits easy to spot. Last night’s rain made the surface quite squelchy, that back wheel didn’t always follow the front. I did not fall.

It’s been a fun day. First thing, I visited a geology muse in Birmingham, The Lapworth Museum. This fossil as a cast, you can see that in close-up. Bits of white plaster show between the grey. I think the grey is graphite powder that was rubbed in.

Anyway, Lapworth us a well laid out museum with plenty of interesting exhibits. I highly recommend it. There is a rock wall made of samples and a key. I played the game of guessing and then looked up each type to make a score. I got about 1/3 correct. Clearly, I need to read up on peridotite.

DIY: Plumbing, a leaking radiator.

Posted on by
Reply

6°C, becoming greyer but still dry.

Much as I hate DIY plumbing, this one job has to be done. The kitchen radiator has left little puddles beneath when I get home. The system pressure would drop enough to shut down the boiler by the end of the the week.

After trying loosening and re-tightening the nuts on the valve for no improvement, I bought a replacement valve. This is a basic thermostatic valve and looked like the right size to fit onto the same nuts and olives.

Here is the old valve without the thermostat. Water leaked from the centre of the black top

Now that the heating system is a closed loop combi-boiler, draining didn’t take long.

The pipe looks scruffy but I can clean it up when I decorate. Perhaps Emery paper then varnish it to keep the copper colour.

Cost of repair? Just over £6.50. Boom!

At the same time, I have put together an emergency pipe repair kit: some pipe, compression joints, PTFE tape and a pipe cutter. Oh and a flexible pipe, that should be enough should the worst happen this winter.

Heavy wind and strong rain

Posted on by
Reply

5°C, stormy return in headwind.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3266109343

The idea was to ride to the beach machines and drop into the bank. Actually, that went to plan but the rain arrived early. Then the return was a slog into the wind and rain where speed dropped as low as 7mph. The route was flat too, a-hem. Both hands and feet were cold by the finish, more because of the wet despite extra layers.