19°C, heavy showers.
Rode home in a river. Raindrops the size of golf-balls striking and rebounding up from strong flowing ribbons of water. Traction was good though and it’s not cold.
Ride in the river
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Category Archives: Cycling
Avian miracle II
23°C, wall to wall blue. CK:50 miles
Riding near Mawdsley Lancs., I saw a bird lying in the road. As I passed, it was obvious that it was still alive. So I turned around and went back, if left it would get driven over. It was a bull-finch, sitting in the pale sun-bleached tarmac with one leg sticking out at an awkward angle. So ( like last time) I picked it up with one hand, and suddenly it flew away towards a tree with other passerines swirling round.
Further proof that I can do miracles, as if any were needed.
I suppose it had an injured leg that prevented it jumping enough to take off. A very similar thing happened a few years ago in Leicestershire, I have blogged about it here but can’t locate it right now.
Index joy
28°C, crisp sun. CR:80.5 miles
The efforts on Tuesday have borne fruit; the Campy gears are not indexing perfectly but they have stopped slipping unpredictably. That does mean the summer bike is a pleasure to ride once more. How long has it been?
Cabled
16°C, showers.
Another one that I can’t name. It’s a climber with coiled up tendrils that hold onto other plants. The flowers are striking, though only about 1/2 inch long, shaped like little pitcher plants.
Gears’ index: I removed the cables and cleaned out every little connector, end stop and so on. It feels smooth now and the gear changes work properly. Caution though, they’ve been perfect while changing gears in the shed in the past. But on a longer ride, difficulty develops. Frustrating and mystifying in equal measure.
still no indexing
20C, 
.
Carpet cleaning machine: Rug-doctor is surprisingly effective. It’s noisy and can’t get into the pokiest corners of my attic but it does turn the soapy water into the appearance of old cold coffee. Strangely satisfying, in a domestic way.
Campag-8 gears still don’t index, even after replacing the cassette today. I’m just as puzzled and annoyed by this problem as the last time I posted about this. I really don’t want to upgrade the drivetrain to 10-speed or worse to get a slick gear-change. Those systems are fiddly, difficult to tune and unnecessary. There is really no need for more than 8 gears (x2) on my bike. I’m not just saying that just because I’m a single-speed bike rider.
What is the solution to this?
Indexing
18C, 
+ 1 shower, Sth wind, RA:60 miles
Summer bike: I used to regard this as my ‘best’ bike, it’s more difficult now while the gears persist in playing up. They still don’t index properly across the middle of the 8 cogs. It’s the middle three that give all the trouble, changing gear is fine at first, but after a few hundred yards the chain jumps onto the smaller cog. There could be a number of reasons for this:
- Worn cogs
- dropout alignment
- snagging inside the (new) cables
- dragging cable sheath underneath the handlebar tape
I remain baffled and slightly irritated by this. It’s going to take yet more time & money to fix. Oh well, next weekend I’ll ride the fixed-wheel.
electrical skies
21°C, close & warm, storms brewing.
Nearly two months of dry, now the lightening.
It has been a bad day for amphibians. He was only crossing to get to a stream, I tried to help. On the ride to work, he was flopping in the other lane. I grasped the brakes and put the bike down, turned and waited for the traffic to clear. the first few straddled him, then I looked left to check it was clear & looked back. Now he was lying on his back, all limp & lifeless. Damn, bad start to the day. I grieved quietly for him all day. I really wanted to save him.
Large globe raindrops now tap on glass and crackle in growing puddles. I shall go and listen.
Alternative Voting system has been rejected by voters tonight. Why, was it too complex? Did so few do the maths? I’ve waited 20 years to see some semblance of democracy appear in British politics: it seems that this nation will get the politicians it deserves. Don’t forget that Britain’s favourite newspaper is the Daily Mail.
cooling 49 miles
16°C, confused winds, CK:49 miles
Longer ride today on the Fixed, but less energy from me. Rode for 3 hours with slightly too-thin layers on. the effect is to drain away warmth that takes hours to replenish after getting home. I’m still a little chilly now. The, admittedly light, wind blew from the west today. But looking up at clouds that moved in another direction- is that what wind-shear is?
Have I really have got another 2 days off.
Riding in the o-zone
c24°C, clear but anvil clouds building. CK: 40miles
Met office have issued warning of smog over the weekend. they say that the still air and bright sunshine cause gasses in fumes to react and produce ozone. It’s a problem for asthmatics and kids, this is quite interesting. It’s interesting for me on days like this where I have been out on the bike. Sometimes, when I get home I have a little cough, a strange one that feels achey in my lungs. Could this be a hint of the “tightness” that asthmatics complain of?
Riding on the 16t: as the ride wore on, it started to feel right. There were a few difficult hills but I could touch 30mph on the descents so it’s all about compromise. Overall, the average speed should be up on the 17t cog. I bet that winter rides will need that 17t again though, the difficulty is spinning out on fast descents. I never can keep the speed up in the cold weather anyway.
Geraniacae
18°C, clear. Ck.53 miles
It’s not easy deciding which gear to put on the single-speed bike. In this hilly terrain, it’s useful to have a higher gear to make use of the descents and their higher speed. If it’s too high you can’t get up the climbs though, too low and your pegs# spin uncontrollably. On balance, I am going to revert to the 42×16 that the bike came with when I bought it last new-year.
#”Pegs” is a typo for legs, I decided to keep that one.
Micycle 