Bike

My old bike that I'd used for 'the thick end' of 15 years, without any real hassles, was well and truly knackered.

A trusty Raleigh Dakota. The gear train was completely shot and both the wheels weren't round any more.

I always had the feeling though that the frame was a little small so on my birthday I treated myself to a new, larger bike.

Nothing flash, something sturdy that could handle roads and not-roads for the daily commute to work.

A round trip of nearly nine miles a day, a bit more if I wanted to struggle over Harrow Hill.

The local 'Cycle King' were having a sale. Now, this bike shop used to be run by real bike enthusiasts. Every time I had visited I came away with the feeling that they knew what they were talking about.

This was before Cycle King took over.

Any road up, I took the plunge and bought a 23" 'Professional Reaction'  "hybrid" (doesn't look like one to me) for the ridiculously low sum of £109.

That should have been my first clue.

When it's working it's great, I like it. However...

This week the rear axle snapped as I was riding home. Good job I wasn't hurtling down Harrow Hill!

In the nearly two and a half years I have owned the bike, apart from the usual wear and tear and the almost monthly broken spoke or two, it is now on its...

• second pair of brake adjusters - thread stripped inside two months. Now fitted with a stainless steel set,
• third set of peddles - bearings became loose in their housings,
• second set of headstock bearings - bearing shells completely disintegrated,
• second bottom bracket bearings - bearing shells split,
• third rear wheel - first wheel: bearing cups disintegrated, second: shaft snapped and damaged bearing cups,
• third cassette - clutch failures,
• second ring gear - slippage between crank and ring gear,
• second chain - changed when the ring gear failed.

Is it me?

Maybe I should have bought a more expensive bike....

Sunset

At the end last week I had the intention of getting up early and climbing Harrow Hill to watch the Sun rise.

 

By Sunday I knew that was not going to happen.

So I had a thought of watching the sun set!

Of course!

Obvious, really.

My wife joined me.

 

She was glad she came.

So was I.

Very relaxing.

I quite like the rainbow effect of the clouds on the left hand side of the first picture.

Father's Day - the Summer Solstice

My son came home from uni this weekend, after three years study.

The two brothers together again. They have such fun together, like they've never been apart.

At dinner we were joined by the fifth member of our family, Sunayana, another uni veteran. What a good evening.

Sunday I was up early and took a 4 1/2 mile stroll around Bentley Priory with my better half, that was so nice.

The afternoon lunch was crowned by surprise gifts and cards from the offspring. I felt thoroughly spoilt. Even an apologetic phone call from a mate asking for a tow off the A406 didn't dampen my spirits.

---

Saturday I'd visited my wreck of a Sunbeam at AV Classic Cars to see how the resto was progressing. It was good to see that finally the 40+ years of weather induced rot was being dealt with. and I got to meet my newly rebuilt carburettors!

 

 

The only dampener are the aches in my leg muscles from all the training I'm doing, getting fit for Scotland!

 

Ah well, can't have it all... 

Wainwright's Coast to Coast

Just so I can remember where to find it, here's a link to an on-line map of the C 2 C, including OS maps down to 1:50 000 by a chap called Mickey. (no relation)

He posted on the excellent SherpaVan hosted C 2 C forum.

And talking of on-line maps, I found out the OS is phasing out its well-useful Getamap service (maps down to 1:25 000) and replacing it with an OpenStreetmap style of map (with NO contour lines or other relief information. If you want proper maps you have to subscribe. With money.).

I can see why they've done this, to make more money. Getamap, although you have to be able to run Silverlight (so that basically means a Windows computer), was quite handy to just quickly check out a route when no map was to hand. You could even draw and save your own routes.

If you wanted to use it properly, you could subscribe and get full features and full page printing.

This new OSMaps is not nearly as useful. Also with Bing using OS mapping and OpenStreetmap showing contour lines on their Cycle Maps layer, I can't see there being many takers.

Walk Highlands uses excellent maps.

Interesting bit

Rant over.

By the way, Mike Knipe uses http://www.plotaroute.com/

Start of training

Last weekend I filled 'Old Trusty', my 20 year old Karrimor Jaguar with 15 kg of 'stuff' to start training.

The plan is to use the footbridge over the A.40 near work to get fit for the Summer walk.

It's 6 m high. If I can build up to climbing the thing a mere 221 times then that will ensure I can climb Ben Nevis!

Well, that's my lunch times sorted for the next three months...

But before I start, I tried Harrow Hill.

Carnage and violence in the kitchen

One of the best things my wife has bought is our bread maker.

We must have had it for over 15 years now.

You would think that after all that time we would have got used to the smell of fresh bread in the morning and we would have developed some degree of decorum and self control.

Apparently not.

I could only guess at the feverish fight to consume a slice(!) of bread that resulted in the remains that greeted me when I got home...

Apologies for the quality, the photos were taken with my phone, while I still had the chance.

Testing testing...

I went on a test stroll Easter Monday to check how unfit I am, to gauge how much work I have to do before the Summer.

Data courtesy of Ordnance Survey

Eight miles around Ivanhoe Beacon.

I thought I'd get away from the crowds.

Hah!