4°C, cold SE, dry.
Kona Jake: A cold ride that got colder. there are more flooded fields around formby than I expefcted. The pumps are working at it though.
2025, first ride.
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Category Archives: Cycling
Cycling 2024
Total 5,750 km
2024: Last ride
Mustang, 9°C, moderate SW, bright with white cloud.
Last ride of the year, tomorrow there’s a rainstorm coming with strong winds. I was a little reluctant to go this morning so I missed the chance to go to the café.
December fog, day 2.
Mustang, 4°C, still with dense fog.
Poor visibility and wet roads doesn’t encourage bigger milage. Note, foggy weather tomorrow but then the high pressure system breaks.
Christmas day ride.
Kona Jake, 7°C, light SW, sunny & dry.
I don’t often get out on Christmas day, but it’s more likely on days with good weather. The roads were surprisingly busy, not what I expected. Yesterday’s ride was quiet, almost lockdown quiet.
Jake: Cannock Chase,
5°C, light cloud, muddy & cold. Still.
Kona Jake: this short but sweet. Even though my ankle was sore, it felt fine once riding even though the start was immediately a climb. Sunset is early around now (15.55) so I was.glad to get an hour’s ride. The whole time, I only saw half a dozen people. There was mud, mostly decaying leaves on the trails. Around the Rifle Range area, there were cleared forests and huge piles of trunks by the trail sides. Rifle Range Corner itself was closed by cones when I got to it from the north. The area will look different when the DofE season starts next year.
An excellent outing, worth the struggle to change in the changing robe.
Fixie mended
13°C, light breeze & sunny. Warm!
Surprisingly warm for the start of December. Anyway, changing that screw-on cog was easier than I expected. Now the chain is rolling smoothly, unlike yesterday. It was so bad, I thought the chainring would need a change too. Not necessary.
Paddy Wagon: mechanicals.
Kona Paddy Wagon, 14C, no rain but muddy, light SSE wind.
It has a new chain but it doesn’t ride well over the teeth. Under load, each tooth clicks. I should have changed the rear cog (and I expect the chainring has gone also). Last time this happened, I couldn’t get the cog off with the chain-whip. Fixie cogs screw on, but as you ride them, the thread tightens. By tyhe time the teeth are worm out, the cog is too tight to remove. The bike shop had to practicaly break the cog off in a vice, it was that bad.
Furthermore, the rear tyre has a slow puncture that didn’t bubble in the bucket so I replaced the valve. Yet, it still slowly deflates.
November has been an odd month, it started and ended warm with an icy week 3. That makes acclimatising difficult.
Mustang: in fog
9°C, still with some sunshine, later – must turning into fog
Mustang: We’ve had a dry & warm November so far. It’s changing now and fog marks the change. As I’m on the mustang with Schwalbe CX30 tyres. I took a route off road in parts. Near Burscough, I turned down a tow paths through the worst of the fog. Mist turned to fog very quickly but there was no mention on the weather sites (BBC & Metoffice). The last 5 miles was rather stressful with the visibility. It’s not my view but that of any following vehicles that’s a concern.
The Arrow bike is in a bit of a state. I stopped riding it when the bottom bracket stripped the threads in the frame. Today, I pulled it out to clean it up. The chain is worn and the frame looks tatty, there are spots of rust in the paint. Should I scrap it?
Fixie: a cautious ride
12°C, no wind or rain or sun.
Tendonitis: it’s flared up again but is currently waning. So the idea was to do a 2 hour ride on the flat while there’s no wind. On turning north from Rufford, a group of cyclists tagged on. Then one took the lead to up the pace. I held on without too much difficulty.
They were quite complimentary about.my keeping pace. They were on nice modern Ridley carbon bikes and me a 14 year old steel single-speed. I don’t suppose they realise that a single speed is more efficient when the cadence, gearing and incline are ideal.
The above data is wrong because the app paused after the cafe stop. The total distance should be 52km.
Micycle 