Break in a Mustang,

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19°C, sunny with brisk S wind.

I rode Raleigh Mustang with MapMyRide+! Distance: 62.68km, time: 03:00:20, pace: 2:53min/km, speed: 20.86km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1740798932

In a word- versatile. On its first outing, I went on trail, road, beach and canal. This bike handled all with ease. It was a good choice.

In this photo, taken by the canal, the steerer is visible above the stem. I finished the ride with it lowered as far as possible.​

As for the ride, I sampled every terrain: road, towpath, gravel trail and beach. The Southport Air Show interrupted the route. Passing through the town, I looked down a side street, above a Lancaster readily moved south. A Spitfire and Hurricane was there too, so I turned towards the sea. Plenty of other people gadwtgd same idea. The big bird flew up and down a few times and eventually left to the north. Visibility was crystal clear, Blackpool Tower seemed closer than ever.
Back on the bike and to the north end of the beach, a chance to ride on the sand.
The sea seemed to have gone all the way to Ireland. A small jet whizzed overhead.
A friendly looking couple used kid beach as their viewpoint. I asked “is that a Mig 15?”. They thought so. Never have I seem one in the air before. On the ground, they are tiny.My mission for the day was still incomplete, the bike shop. On the way back to base, the route crossed a canal and the towpath appeared inviting. There were fewer fishermen than usual. That’s good because they have an annoying habit of blocking the path with very long poles. Wind blew strong.
I was a bit disappointed by the milage (39 miles) but I did sample the thrills of an airshow.

Mio Cyclo 100

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I picked up the new bike today. Beforehand, I put in a short list of extras to include: pedals, mud-guards and a rack. I forgot about the bottle cage and cycle-computer. There is a spare cage in the shed, so use that. The computer doesn’t need to be anything grand, a really simple one would do.

The one I walked away with, or rode actually, is not basic.
This Mio is a Chinese import and seems reasonably good. A gps speedo needs no cable wheel magnet or fork transmitter. Sounds good then, the forks on the new bike are quite deep, so fitting may be tricky.
Fitting this device is tricky in its own way however.

Out of the box, the setup is not ideal. There are four screens to show ride details live. By default, the units are strange and illogical. It’s worth spending time setting the number of data fields to display in each window. There are dozens to choose from. Since the device tracks and records gps tracks, I can put this into my rucksack to record hikes. The battery promises to last 28 hours. Let’s see.

Raleigh Mustang, got it!

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17°C, band of rain cleared to sun.
At last, I have it. I’ve brought it up north to ride and make fine adjustments. The bars were too high and the front brake rubbed.​

Here it is today with mudguards and the rack. I’ve lowered the bars and the handling is good.
Looking over it, you could summarise it as a top-quality frame with room to upgrade components. Most conspicuously, the wheels are heavy and the chainset is rather basic. Delivered, it has 175mm cranks and even with mud-guards, there is room for longer cranks. Remember, I use 180mm cranks on the older bikes. SRAM do such a crank-set which includes an external bearing bottom bracket.
While in the shop, I picked up a speedo. They pulled out a gps cycle computer from the back. I have posted about it separately.

Crippling taxation.

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17°C, humid and rain
I’ve had that car a year now and the first tax renewal has arrived. £20 whole pounds! What am I going to do? There is, hidden in there, the option to pay £1.75 a month.

One year on, the car still seems like the best choice. The only problem is the occasional lack of power in some circumstances. While travelling by myself, low power does not matter. It’s when you carry passengers that you feel it. Overall, I get 68 miles per gallon. On some motorway runs, the gauge reaches 74mpg. The best ever was 86mpg.
This is why the car tax is so low.

Decent ride on the Racelite.

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I rode Racelite with MapMyRide+! Distance: 58.87km, time: 02:29:01, pace: 2:32min/km, speed: 23.70km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1721092376

Getting back into cycling. I always forget how long it takes to return to form. This time, the layoff includes weeks of hiking so it’s different exercise ratios than a real layoff.​

I may actually receive that new bike tomorrow, the Raleigh Mustang.It will come with a rack and mudguards. I have an old seat-pack but no speedo yet.

Wasps’ nest

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23°C, clearing to blue sky. No real wind.
I have a wasps’ nest in my house. It’s actually in an air-brick to the front room. Last year, I blocked the air-brick because ivy was growing through into the room right behind my stereo.
I discovered the nest yesterday when trimming a sapling Ash tree which is trying to establish itself next to the house.
Early in the morning, strange scratching sounds house can be heard from behind the stereo. Moving closer, you could clearly hear buzzing.
I presume they were warming themselves up for the day, or even cooling the nest because the sun shone on the vent.

This presents a problem- what to do, if anything, about it. Continue reading →