10°C, sunny out but bands of drizzle in the afternoon, light S wind.
In the morning, feeling lively, I took on some hills – Dalton and Bannister. The Arrow is great for long steady miles. The steel frame soaks up the bumps along with 28C tyres set to 70psi. That was a nice ride, not even the rain made it cold.
The frame needs some attention. There are some rusty pits hidden beneath one of the tubes.
10°C, sun, light breeze and dry.
The photo was taken near an underground bunker by Elford. Such a strange structure which now has a visitor’s book. Not an official one, but an old sketchbook with a few mindless comments and badly drawn porn.
A slow and steady ride which passed Twycross Zoo. This time of year, their hedges are bare so you can see in. I looked in and two giraffes looked out.
Just like old times when I lived here, the miles effortlessly rolled by on he near empty roads. My mind wandered all over and the effort to ride got lighter and lighter. This bike used to by my steady winter ride (and commuter) but now I have others.
One thing I always like about these silhouette shots is the halo around my head. It’s something in the way leaves reflect light back along their path. I don’t mind the shallow ego boost nonetheless.
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.
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.
16°C, brisk SW, some light showers.
I can’t tell whether this canal is tidal. We have seen a huge amount of rain this week but the water level does seem to vary dramatically. Another factor is we’re approaching spring tides.
12°C, fog.
Only the second trip out with the new bars fitted. You probably can’t see but they’re flared bars. It’s subtle but a definite improvement, there is a larger flat section behind the hoods to rest hands which is nice. The wider hooks section is not as dramatic as my Kona Jake’s but it still gives benefits. There is more leverage for times when the surface is poor, potholes or long grass.
The drop is more too. The original.bars we shallow such that riding on the hooks was not much lower defeating those fast descents when you want to get your head down.
Micycle 