6°C, light SW, dry but flooding everywhere.
I’m impressed with this new light. It offers up to 600 Lumin for only £30. For my needs, the spread of light is a little more than ideal. I want a second light to have plenty of reach. The other lamp illuminates potholes and the road kerb
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.
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.
11°C, gales from the west. Otherwise sunny
This house in Formby is under renovation at last. The designs are on a board by the road and it keeps some of the original. There are big modern metal and glass things to bolt on. They’re not exactly subtle integration, but at.least something is happening.
6°C, cold and dry.
A 1½ hours after work. This is a return ride after over a week of feeling poorly. I’ve really felt the cold but, unsurprisingly, it’s not noticeable after the ride.
As you can see, the speeds are quite low, partly because of restrictive warm clothing. Ironic that I overheated slightly. A week of no exercise does make the cold air more biting.
6°C, fresh breeze from NW. Dry.
I still like cycling at night. This is late twilight, about 6pm.
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.
11°C, some sunny bits, but you know – it’s November.
Nothing seriously wrong but I didn’t have a lot of energy on tap. The ride was nearly 50 miles but I avoided the bigger hills because of that empty legs thing.
This old Arrow bike is running nicely with its new brakes, chainset and BB. The next bit to fail will be the Sora shifters, they are quite loose now after 20 years use. This used to be my main commuter and winter bike so it has some huge miles in its history.
11°C, some SE breeze, dry but damp.
What a dull day to end October on. There will be much more dank, dreary and cold ones to come this winter. The return route was better with a tailwind. I could enjoy those long level straights and work on the edge of anaerobic.
8°C, bright after a morning of heavy rain. Cold though
Something I do actually like about the autumn is the hedgerows loaded with rubies. Okay, they’re not rubies, they’re hawthorn berries.
11°C sunny but cool. Brisk S.
A fresh cool day where I rode to my house and in this ride, rode back. I headed south through Southport towards Formby. Then I heard a sellotape sound. There was a chemical spillage in the left hand side of the road. In some places, it was a few cm deep. Traffic had gone through it and spread it for a few kilometres to Ainsdale.
On narrow bike wheels, it felt unsafe. I couldn’t tell whether it was greasy, corrosive or what. It was viscose and odourless. Very strange. I tried dialling 101, the non-emergency police number I was.put onto hold for a very long time.
In the end, I gave up and rode on the pavement
Micycle 