Category Archives: Travel

Zing: Metric century

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16°C, light NW-N breeze, cloudy and clearing.

Spring tide – in.

A multi-bike ride again. Arrow-Zing-Arrow. 30 mile son the Zing in a loop. 2x 16 mile rides on the Arrow to my place and the rest on the new bike on a flat route. The gear change is still not perfect, one factor could be that the chain is too long.

The return included an amusing incident.On the long flat return from the coast along The Moss, I spotted a car partly blocking the single track road. It’s inside wheels were off the edge and two young women were there in a flap. The driver agreed to try when I offered a push. The younger looking one went slightly down the bank to push from the side. I warned her that it wasn’t safe, the car could slide down the bank on top of her. The car was solid with the inside front wheel spinning in clear air. The car was probably lifted on its suspension without any grip on the front wheel.
They asked whether I though it was recoverable- I thought so. Her boyfriend was on his way so I suggested he bring a plank to use ass a ramp. The worst that could happen is that te rope may break. If it does, I suggested and pointed towards a farm, try asking if they had a tractor to pull it out.
There wasn’t much I couold do, so I set off home. They were grateful though.

Kona Zing on the Australia route.

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22°C, light NW, no cloud.

Kona on a fuel stop

Yesterday was workshop time for the Zing. I swapped the wheels by putting Mavic Aksiums on and swapped tyres. While on that, I relaid the rear gear cable with a sheath under the bottom bracket. The hope is that it will reduce friction in an area vulnerable to road-muck. I had some frustration with indexing afterwards. However….

The gear cables seemed to bed-in during this ride to some extent. Perhaps internal cables are vulnerable to friction and trouble like this is normal, I dunno. As the miles rolled by, the gears seemed more accurate and gave no trouble on the climbs. Oh yes, I went up Bannister Lane climb. That went well. I’m getting a sense of this machine’s value.

3 rides.

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23°C, light NE, no cloud.

Formby wreck

I don’t know how this can happen, it’s not what I call ‘Parked‘. Clearly, there is a gouge where the car skidded off the road but no rubber on the road.

Anyway, I rode on the fixed to get my new Zing bike for a loop. It’s running well apart from sticky gears. The upshift is worst which suggests a snagging cable. The fit is good now too.

New stem, but still the Shimano RS100 wheels.

Blencathra

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24°C, light breeze, full sun.

This was the first proper walk of the season. As you can see, the weather was perfect, 24°C lowland with very little breeze. The time on the picture includes at.least 1 ½ hours stops, food, nav etcetera. It’s been such a long time since the last quality mountain day. THe focus was on Sharp Edge scramble which was fun but over too soon. There is some variety in the routes up there so a return trip is not out of the question. However, there is probably more variety on Tryfan, another 100 mile drive from home.

Ordinary commute with a fire

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23°C, light Sth, full sun.

What’s that fire?

The oily black cloud of smoke seems to originate in South Lancashire. It seems too dark for a moorland fire. The plume trails all the way towards the lake District.

Later: news reports of an industrial fire in Newton-le-Willows, about 30 miles south of the place this photo was taken.

Zing the First

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15°C, light NW breeze, light cloud and dry.

First Zing ride

First outing on the Zing. There are some changes due melon – a new saddle, stem and bar tape are in the post. It should be more comfortable after that. This afternoon I went out with a Raleigh saddle which was murder. Apart from that, it handled well, especially on corners; I came home happy.

Missing lockdown

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12°C, brisk NW, bright sun. Dry

Many busy roads, even starting out- my road as so full I had to wait for a gap. On quieter roads,drivers took the opportunity to put their foot down. I miss lockdown. Let’s have one every year, pandemic or not.

The new bike is not quite ready to do a proper ride but this was good.

Kona Zing (2015)

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Having sat on this frame for a year, I have finally built it.

Zing 2015
First ride in the Zing

I decided on this bike after hiring one on holiday in Corsica last year. After all this time, it’s now ridable. Fitting cables into he hidden cable routes was the most fiddly part. I had no reason to rush so I took plenty of time. It looks like a good job, I’d say.

There remains a shopping list: Speedo, longer stem, another bottle cage, pedals. All the local bike shops have closed for lockdown so my only recourse is online.

Rode to a bike shop, it was shut.