Category Archives: Cycling

Repair and ride

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7°C. Some rain, sun too.
A mending weekend: TV, laptop, bike, smoke detector, hair, shelves
TV makes a short high buzz with a few minutes of changing channel or starting a video. One web forum sort said unplug it for at least 4 hours to reset it. So far, no better, possibly getting worse.
Bike: has a new tyre to replace the one that gave trouble on Friday. It’s all shiny and clean now.
Laptop: frequently drops the internet connection. The router is okay, the desktop pc, phone and DVD player all work properly. Again, the web forums say install new network card drivers. Done, and it’s better but still cuts sometimes.
Not the best way to spend a December weekend. Cycling is the best but I have a cough and listless.
So, housemaking it is.

Twist, hiss and thump.

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4°C, NNW. brisk.
Twist: I set off 15  mins to make up for the strong wind. Not ten minutes into my ride to work, the bike grinds to a halt. The bunge cord had wrapped itself round the cogs. It took ages to pull the shredded fibres out.
Hiss: once back on the road I set a pace to pull back the lost time. Six miles later the front Tyre started to feel soft. Great, a puncture. Only a few miles from work, I decided to blow up the tyre and ride on before it goes back down.
Thump: fixed the tube at break and set off at 5. The tyre wasn’t seated properly, or so it seems. Each turn made a thump, it’s got a sort of flat spot, not the rim, the tyre.
Odd, nervous miles. Please don’t blowout.

Hospital Food

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0~4°C, clear, calm.
First ice: just runoff from fields, so I walked a few short stretches this morning. As I rode in, the moon set in the north west. The self-same moon rose on the way home. I wondered about that, does the moon set at exactly sunrise when it’s full? I bet it’s not that simple.
The ride home was colourful- I got shouted at after weaving through stationary traffic. It sounded like the guy had prepared his piece in advance:

“DO YOU LIKE HOSPITAL FOOD” He yelled on stopping at the lights. I admit to being rather puzzled by this. He shouted some more, stuff about cyclists’ reputations. No wonder…

Sounded like a prejudice affirmed. I suspect a Daily Mail reader on a rant. I had maneuvered round his car while it was boxed in by another turning right. Was I then, a scapegoat for his frustration at that sticking point on the road. Certainly I did nothing that affected his journey, there was no risk to me- both cars were stationary.

Bad mood.

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7°C, rain.
Arrived at work in quite a bad mood. The bike felt like it was falling apart, the rear axle didn’t grip the drop-out properly so it wobbled. The wheel is quite new and it seems that the axle needs a spacer.
The result was that the bike felt quite unstable, and then consequently I felt unsafe. I get stressed by that feeling. I stopped half a dozen times on that ride trying to fix it, but after any uphill pull, the axel lost the grip on the dropout again.

Dark road.

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10°C, mild and SW getting stronger.
Drive today, much to my frustration. The Met-office have issued a rain warning for this afternoon. I dread riding on the dark, wet A-roads in poor visibility. Every winter hosts these pent up frustrations. The coming storm is no monster, but its timing is poor tonight.
I just don’t feel safe, but I’m always resentful when I have to drive a car.

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Dawn

So I set off for work feeling a bit put out. Nearing work, I followed an old Ford Fiesta. The brake light clusters were half full of water which sloped one way then the other as the car drove round corners. Each time the car stopped, the water would rock back & forth, damping away. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a floating object in there that looks like a fish.

Red clay roads

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CR:52 Miles. Rain later.
This ride wasn’t too cold but it did rain on the return leg. I could have avoided it but for the roads. The mud was as bad as it can be, the back wheel skitted about alarming me enough to get off and walk. I had to walk a few times on this ride, even that was less than easy in cycling shoes. The shoe-plate is not intended for walking and are treacherous on slippery surfaces. The delay added up enough to allow the rain clouds to build. Now it has started, the rainfall should do a decent job and wash that mud away.
The Racelite bike is definitely the wrong mount for these conditions, the mud built up under the brakes such that I had to stop twice to clear it. Tyre levers are good for flicking mud out to free the wheels.
Now shut up, I need to go out and hose the bike down.

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Tyrannosaur

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8°C, fog.
Thick fog: can’t see the road outside. There is fog dripping off tree’s branches, the washing line and the gutters. It taps irregularly on an upturned bucket.
I shall give it a chance to clear before riding later.
Tyrannosaur: I’ve had this bluray disc for over a month and now, finally, watched it. Stunning film, I highly recommend it to most people. It’s not an easy film to sit through, so be careful who you encourage to watch it. The reviews online are correspondingly varied.
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As you can see I have been playing with a bitmap editor called Pixlr. It consists of 3 sets of adjustment layers on three themes- frames, lighting and texture. No doubt there will be more to come from me, especially since it’s an app that can be run on Google Chrome on the computer too.
It’s interesting because it affects the way you take photos. This offsets the accusation that I make of myself that I’m jumping on a bandwagon. And since it’s on your phone, you can get results fairly quickly. This picture is of an abandoned educational institution near my regular dog walk. The place has an interesting garden which is simultaneously entering both Autumn and a period of neglect. This shot shows a fennel plant at near full size.
I now have one for my garden too.

That’s why I’m so hungry

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12°C, no wind, sunny. CR˜61.4 miles.
I feel this way every week when I get back. Some slight aches, thirsty and refreshed. Above all- hungry.
The phone app says I used up 3,227 calories on this ride alone. Hence this insatiable hunger. No matter how much I eat, even with a full belly the hunger is still there.
The phone app is probably more trustworthy than the speedo that claims to record calories. It can’t because it doesn’t know my weight, nor does it record hill climbs. The app does both, so I’m inclined to believe it.
Anyway, good ride and dinner is in the oven.