8°C, light NW wind, milky sun.
Not ridden for a week due to another exhausting cold. One day, I even suspected I had Corona virus when a cough suddenly started. Today, suddenly, I feel better, so that was a false alarm.
False crown
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Category Archives: cyclocross
Hour and a half mudding.
7°C, sunny with light wind
Coming to the end of the wettest autumn I can remember. Black gritty mud coats most roads and puddles hide portholes. When I get time, I’ll put CX tyres on the commuter.
What about this little painting? It’s acrylic onto A5, painted while the others were watching Strictly. That makes it about 1 ½ hours or so. It needs a little work around the left eye and hand; about another half hour.
I found this quite tough in comparison to oil paint.
- Sometimes you go back to a colour on the palette and it has dried up,
- blending is rough when applying new colour to dry paint,
- the colour changes as it dries,
- the surface is chalky,
Most of these problems could be solved by using a slowing agent, the problem they introduce is that they look milky. All of those problems could be solved by using oil paint.
That’s why I bought the Jake.
7°C, quiet and cool.
A fine November day, surface water everywhere after recent downpours. I felt the magic on this ride – so that’s why I bought this bike. The poor machine got caked in mud especially after plunging into a deep rut. It then looked like gravy.
What a satisfying day, the distance is not great but it took 3 ½ hours.
Cross in mud
14°C, bright start but rain later, becoming heavy.
This poor neglected bike needs a service. Most specifically, the gear and brake cables are a bit sticky. It’s still good fun to ride but it’s half-term now. What a dreary day too. After the photo, the rain arrived and turned quite heavy towards the end
The correct way to start a Saturday.
12°C, bright and dry. Light wind.
The sea defences are made of muddy clay. Today the surface is firm gum and deeply rutted by cattle hooves. That’s quite a difficult surface for a ‘cross bike even with 38mm tyres. I had to walk some sections. If you have front suspension, you wouldn’t have any trouble with this surface.
Ribble nature reserve
16°C, bright sun and dry
Not a long ride but I’ve clocked up well over 100 miles in the last few days. The trips to work have been quick except the return home yesterday. My legs were just empty and it was a drag to get back. Perhaps my diet was not optimal the day before.
Anyway, I decided to ride the ‘cross on my day off. It’s always refreshing and doesn’t demand much stamina.
Beach pipe
12°C, light rain, N.
What is that thing? I features in the background of some of my beach shots. From a distance, especially in poor conditions, it can look sinister.
This rain is an escape from the severe storms south:
This picture is from much later, so glad I got out in time. Those heavy.rains have caused havoc in the south. Think of the DofE groups out in that
Crunchy sands
16°C, blazing sun with crisp shadows.
A gentle outing along the coast. Much of the ground has dried out, that thick gummy mud has set leaving soft loose sand in places. This was a pleasant relaxing ride.
Those dark bands are coal. Yes, it surprised me but they may date from the last war. Further up the coast are bands of rounded house bricks. Apparently, they were Ribble from the Liverpool blitz.
Good Thursday.
19°C, milky sin, warm dry with medium E breeze.
Gravel Roads: this route never strayed far from home but was a decent outing. These gravel roads may need tougher tyres, winter CX tyres are fine on wet grass but some of the stones are sharp.
Fylde Coastal path.
6°C, E wind, sunny and dry.
Cold with a piercing E wind. The ground is hard now so a bike with some suspension would help. There are sections where the ridges in the dyke forced me to get off and walk. It’s gorgeous here with a feeling of vast space.
After this section, I headed along the Southport sea wall to the green machines. There are only 4 that I use. Anchor points are visible in the concrete ground, at least 4 have been removed over the years. I can’t imagine them being replaced even with a local coastal funding package from the lottery fund.
Micycle 