But no …

Yesterday when I was getting Stella (my fixed bicycle) ready for the summer (I simply haven’t been on her since I got the Tank, my Surly Long Haul Trucker last year) I got the pump out and while I was at it, I thought that it would be a great idea to check the Tank over since it had been a while since I last checked its tyres. The pressure was only 5-10psi under what I normally run, so not too bad. It was a quick top-up.

But, this morning when I rolled the Tank out of the front door, I noticed that the fairies had paid a visit. A quick check, and the tyre wasn’t totally flat, so I decided that I would just top it up and hope that it would last until I got to work. I’d fix the visitation in my lunch break. But half way there I had to stop and apply a bit more air, which only lasted a few more miles before I was gliding all over the place.

Since it was clear that I had a flat, I got the OK from my co worker to quickly swap inner tubes, so that we could get going. Check the tyre and rim tape and there were no foreign objects, so I fitted my spare and 10min later we were rolling.

At lunch I pumped up my inner tube which clearly should have traces of a visitation and it just sat there looking at me. Nothing, nada, zilch it just kept the air inside it. I pumped it at bit more and had a good sniff, feel and listen and yet still nothing to be found.

This is the second time I have had a ghost visitation. A few months back it happened and that time I thought that it was real too, since my tyre was getting a bit worn. En route to the pub I started to glide around, so pumped it up. A few minutes later I was gliding again, so I swapped the inner tube. The tyre lasted until I got to the pub. After a quick pint I found that the tyre was flat again. Bugger.

Thinking that in the hurry to get to the pub I must have mixed up my spare with inner tube that I just took out, I managed to limp home with a few stops to re-fuel the inner tube with air. I sat down to patch up the visitations, only to find that only one of the inner tubes had a visit. I swapped the old tyre to my new Marathon +’s and checked every thing over just to be sure, to be sure.

Today’s visit is clearly telling me that I still need to do my offering to the p*nct*ure fairies even in my line of work. And it does tell me no matter how well protected you are with Kevlar etc they will still get to you if you forget.

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I jumped on the canal in NW6 and started to ride on what I really hoped would be a pleasant ride across London. Away from the cold north westerly wind and traffic, the sun even came out to play a few times on my journey. This part of London is generally very nice and at bit of nature in the city especially in the spring and summer. Spring hasn’t arrived yet in London. A wee bit late because it’s been cold for a loooong time and we even had snow that lasted more than a few hours. The canal does cut through a few parks and next to other green areas like a golf course, so plenty of green to look at. Even the odd wildlife like ducks, swans and the odd heron.

The various councils or the waterways people have been on the canal and cut back the foliage which made the ride much easier than in the summer where it narrows down the path quite a lot.

That also helped me to see the areas that the green leaves in the summer cover, and I really got depressed. The best way to describe what I saw is a landfill, pretty much like the photo. Under and next to bridges, behind and over back fences of factories and private homes and generally just scattered around.

There were piles of junk food packing, tins, cigarette boxes and then all the other garbage. Some places it was clearly people who had come down to the canal to sit on the benches that had just dumped their leftovers. Other places it was companies that just tipped it over the fence – “no-one will know”. And all over it was just drop, no that is a wrong word, thrown out stuff that someone couldn’t be arsed carry to the nearest bin. Yes I know the UK and especially London have a lack of bins, but then carry it with you, take it home and use the bin there.

Some of the saddest sights was the coots building a nest in and with the garbage.

This is not the only place in London where it is bad. The Welsh Harp in NW2, is a big park and reservoir with a walk and cycle way all around. The same goes there, plenty of just thrown stuff and fly tipping. It will take months if not years to clear this up.

At the end of the six or so miles I rather enjoyed getting back onto the busy roads, simply because I could not see this depressing sight.

Do we not care at all ?

On a lighter note: When arrived at the depot and handed over my paperwork so that I could get my parcel, the man behind the counter went into the back office only to come back and look at me a bit confused. He then asked if I had come all the way from SW6 out to Greenford? Yes, I answered. By bus or car? No, on my bicycle and I pointed to my Surly leaning up against the window outside.

You must be fit, man! He said in a very strong Jamaican accent.

Only a round trip of 23-25miles including work that day.

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So today I started to do a wee bit searching on the net and came up to a few things I could do. Armed with a Phillips screwdriver and my solar light cap I set to work. Pulled out the washing machine, took off the back panel and started to poke around, well I knew what I was looking for. I managed to get the jubilee clip off the last bit of hose before the pump, there is probably a technical name for that bit.

And in there I found a few hair bands, curtain hooks, some paper/plastic bits and 50p in change :)

Oh yeah the washing machine still blinked but it started.

UPDATE : at it finished its circle it made some worrying noises …

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I have done my fair share of cycling in the snow and snow storms where I couldn’t see further than 50 metres ahead. Quite often I had to stop to remove the snow out of the wheels and away from the brakes. The most “fun” to ride on is when there is one layer of snow that have plenty of tracks from people moving about on bicycles or foot. Which slightly thaws doing the day only to freeze during the night while getting a new dusting of snow.

The main trick to cycling in the snow is pretty much the same when it comes to “normal” cycling.

1/ Don’t brake when you turn, do that before. And don’t slam on your brakes you will only skid.
2/ Cycle at a speed where you have control of your bicycle. Don’t cycle above your skills.
3/ Keep the momentum, not racing, but keep the bicycle going.
4/ Look ahead and around you, so you know what is going around you so that you can plan your route.
5/ If your bicycle is drifting/sliding the wrong way let it do so, don’t fight it, you will get where you want to go soon enough.
6/ Cycle in a lower gear than normally, you will have better control of your bicycle
7/ Have lower pressure in your tyres or even fit wider tyres.

These are only some pointers but above all – take easy and take care. And you will arrive at your destination with a smile on your face and before people in cars or on public transport. Today I took extra time to go 9 and a bit miles but because of the gridlock I made good time.

Oh I forgot one extra point, be prepared to get hit by a snow ball at any time. For some reason cyclist in the snow is a prime target for anyone carrying a snow ball. They must think that we are nuts and therefore needs snow ball in our back.

The Surly is just a dream to ride, because you don’t have to worry about your balance the LHT does that for you. Or all that other work you have to do on other bicycles, it does the riding for you. All you need to think about what tune you want to whistle and where you are going. As I have said before the LHT is like “riding a sofa with four wheels” but in the snow it is “with four wheel drive”.

Though if you cycle in an area where they salt the roads, it is a good idea to give your bicycle a quick wash after your ride.

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Here is a little background on why I did what I did last night. I ride in a zen-like way and don’t let others egg me on, because when I’ve arrived at my destination I really don’t want to spend time calming down again. Because my work and my friends do not want to hear me ranting along about the bad behaviour of some stupid plonker of a driver, pedestrian or cyclist.

So yesterday we had a day out with great friends and a beautiful ride and were on our way over to some good friends for a cup of tea and cake. This great day I was not in mood to be ruined because of some plonker with no road sense. So therefore I rode ‘zen’ and just wanted to get on with it and continue to enjoy this wonderful day.

I have read quite a few stories online about incidents when no one was hurt and the police just said ‘move along’. At the best if the police can find the plonker, they might go around and have a word. And honestly I find that worthless, if the plonker was dumb enough to do what he did, I don’t think ‘a word’ would stop him from doing it again. But to get to that you have to endure the police who are busy with other things. You really have to push the issue. And I really didn’t want to end a good day out in a police station filling in forms, to maybe have just a word spoken to the plonker.

So what happened yesterday, we were on Pope’s Lane coming up to the junction of South Ealing Road heading straight over to Little Ealing Lane. I was in front at the stop line, around 3-4 feet out from the kerb. Wow was behind me, around 4-5 feet away from the kerb, with Peli behind. Behind us was a row of cars and the first in line was Mr. Plonker. The stop line is set back some yards from the junction to let buses turn into Pope’s Lane. We are heading straight into Little Ealing Lane, where there is a narrowing with bollards in the middle of the road for pedestrians and traffic lights.

All three of us were in secondary to primary position of the lane and when it turned green we all set off. Though the plonker tried his best to overtake. But, he then figured out he couldn’t overtake, given the narrowing of the road ahead, and the oncoming traffic who were turning right. So, Mr and Mrs Plonker started to shout at us and pull in towards us, but had me and Wow shouting back and Peli squeezed at the back. He managed to push past, since we cyclists are soft targets and moved away. Mrs Plonker was also so busy shouting out the window while giving us the “reverse victory salute” though her hand got stuck in the window while rolling it up and she couldn’t pull her hand back in.

This of course made me laugh out loud. Since I have thought about it, I know laughing wasn’t a smart move. I should have kept quiet and I’m sure that the plonker would have zoomed along and out of our way. But my burst of laughter caused Mr Plonker to slam on the brakes and jump out of the car. Mr Plonker jumped out, headed towards me (I was still on the bike) with a large amount of aggression and gave me a good shove on the shoulder, which pushed me into the lane of oncoming traffic. Fortunately no cars were coming, and I did not fall off the bicycle. I did not physically retaliate. This is the point when I should have stopped and called the police and reported the assault, but read the above again.

Wow had now come up front of the car to block it from moving, and Peli was behind the car taking photos. Mr Plonker now was busy telling Wow where we should cycle on the road and I went over to tell him that he was wrong. In the car the Mrs Plonker was busy getting her phone out to take photos along with an approximately twelve-year old child we assume was their son. Wow also took out his camera to take photos.

Peli then moved up to front of the car on the inside of the car, and slightly nudged the car’s wheel arch with her pedal. This caused Mrs Plonker to jump out and shriek that Peli had damaged her car. Little Plonker was also out of the car trying to find the camera function on his phone. Mr. Plonker then rushed over to stand in front of Peli, blocking her way, shouting and swearing very aggressively in her face to hand over her license details. I had now parked up my bicycle and moved next to Mr. Plonker and he started to claim the same as Mrs Plonker: that the car was damaged. When Peli had parked her bicycle up she told Mrs and Mr Plonker that she was happy to call the police there and then, and got out her phone. He suddenly changed his tune and said he didn’t want the police involved. When I asked him to show me the damage to his car, he began to claim he could not understand my accent.

Wow, Peli and I were now all off our bicycles, taking photos and talking about calling the police. Mr and Mrs Plonker quickly got into the car and started to drive off at speed, before Little Plonker had got into the car properly which caused the kid to dangle out of the door for a metre or so, before they stopped to let him in.

This is the first time I had someone jumping out of their car and come at me. Plenty of swear words and hand gestures and then drive off, but never physical contact. I do hope this is a one off to never to be repeated.

This was clearly not a good way to end a fantastic day out. Honestly, spending a few hours in the police station in the hope that something came of it was not how I wanted to end the day. The main question is, is it worth it? Would a right plonker like him learn from it? I really doubt it.

I just hope that karma gets to him before he gets to others.

Anyway here is Mr and Miss Plonker in their car, Y509RLK.

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The weather was just brilliant, sunny (though a bit low a times) and nice and fresh (which some would have called blooming freezing) and six wonderful people out for a ride with you.

The plan was to head straight to the pub but the consensus quickly turned to tea and cake, it is a yacf ride after all. A stop in Hampton Court coffee room with hot chocolate for me and tea and coffee for the others. With scones and a chocolate brownie which you would be hard pressed to put more chocolate into, and the odd slice of cake.

Then we headed straight to Cobham and The Running Mare where we had wonderful food, some more than others I’m looking at you Jane :) My Shepherd’s Pie was numnum with veggies that were cooked just perfect. Peli’s mushroom pasta thing was very creamy and tasted of mushrooms. How do I know this? Well I had what she couldn’t eat, burp :)

The ride back was through unknown territories for me and others, what looked on the online maps to be fairly good cycle lanes turned out to be quite dirty mud tracks. So two of our party bailed out, sorry NSTN and four of us continued where wowbagger’s studded tyres were probably the best choice. But Jane on her skinny tyres took on the mud in the rather nice sunset in the forest with us.

The last 10 miles or so was on roads again and in Richmond Jane left the pack and we were only three left. We arrived at C and J’s and had some rather splendid iced chrimbo cake, warm tea by the litre and we had a look at their new feathered flock.

44′ish miles in very good company with new and old friends and a wonderful brrr day.

Clicky here to see all the photos

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A grand total of 5,915.65 miles for me last year and 2564 of them were done on my new touring bicycle only had it for five months. It just seems like I can’t get off that Long Haul Trucker. I do need to get onto my other bicycles not just to remove the cobwebs but also because I do enjoy riding them.

Though I’m 1000 miles down on the target I had set for the year. The reason for that is that I’m working weekends and therefore not out cycling. Hopefully that will change this year, with some more rides with my wonderful riding partner Peli.

Last year took us to Scotland (Grand tour of Edinburgh) , Wales (3 wet days loop), Surrey Hills (3 days tour with TEA), Isle of Wight (one small wet ride), Pyrenees (more up hills than you can shake a stick at) and Denmark (flatter than flat rides) and a few more day trips and pootles here and there.

I wonder where this year will take us ?

Happy riding all.

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But the sun was out and we had a nice 28+ miles pootle around town. We didn’t have to worry about anything other than tourists walking around photographing the empty streets. Plenty of pubs, restaurants and cafes were open in the centre of town. And of course every corner shop worth its weight in gold, e.g. cashing in on the “feed the little one some candy while out on a walk” and the “oh feck I forgot x, y, z, quick down to the shop” shoppers.

Oxford Street was total naked of its normal red snake of buses stretching from end to end (well, as far as the crowd and buses will let you see). We had a little stop on Oxford Circus, where we and other cyclists and tourists were busy taking pictures of the car-free zone. All the cyclists we saw were clearly out enjoying the sun and the empty streets: a cycling utopia.

Even Old Compton Street in Soho was dead as a Dodo, but China Town and the Maccy D on Leicester Square was full to the brim, how very Chirstmassy, insert “a rolling your eyes smiley” here.

The further we got away from the tourist traps the emptier the roads became. :)

At the half way point we stopped chez a very good friend, who offered us warm tea and me a bit of rum, which warmed us up nicely. As the dark set in, we headed back through London. The streets were fairly empty and the journey took just over an hour where normally the ride back would take an hour and 20+min.

And we arrived home in time for Doctor Who, and chunk of the chocolate and peanut cake we had left over from yesterday. Nomnom.

LINK : click here to see more photos of our little ride.

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Part I : As you know I got the SuperNova E3 but I haven’t really tested the light, a bit hard in central London. Too bad last night we had a bit of cloud cover which did give a bit of glare in the park. So I think that I could cycle around the “yellow brick road” without any light. Though I would probably not be going too fast or have spotted the man walking his dog, without the light. But it was dark enough to give a good idea how this light would work in pitch black. The SuperNova gives a very good cover and the colour warmth is spot on for me. So I can look into the light and not be total blinded when looking outside the light glare. I like the idea of being able to see what is going on around me. So still top marks for this light.

Part II : I also invested in the SuperNova rear light. Not that I could see it while riding, but I was told that it was very bright and clear from these three little lights. The only problem is that there is not much light to be seen from the sides. Though top marks for the neat design, a more detailed review to come when I have fitted it to the racks.

Part III : I finally got a new waterproof dhb Wickham eVENT Waterproof Cycling Jacket from wiggle.co.uk. The main reason was to test out how warm it would be and how it handles sweat :) And it did very well and again a full write up when I have tried it out in some rain.

A top 15 miles spin on paths in parts of the park I haven’t been before.

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No clear signs for a cyclist from Greenwich town centre and the closer we got we only got a dual carriage way and signs for the dome erm the O2′s parking lots, for cars that is. After been told at one car par that we couldn’t get in there, we doubled back and found a cycle path. This cycle path were not clearly marked as road marking had worn of and there was plenty of grit, gravel and glass on it.

We then by asking found our way to the bicycle parking, quite a few unused Sheffield stands, only used by 10 or so motorbikes and only our bicycles. That told us that the O2 is not a cycling destination :)

We then walked over to the O2 under a marquee which would be a great cover for our bicycles. Walking in it looked like mini Vegas (though I have never been there) with all that light and big screens. The escalators up to the different levels was in full use and pretty much no none was on the stairs. Inside there was good signs and help full staff telling us where to go.

EDIT : I forgot the security check. For some reason the drinks bottles you can take into the arena have to have their caps removed. But if you take your sports drink bottle you are a ok, eh? I can only see one problem with that, these drinks are going to spilled all over the place. Guess what happened, on the table next to us the security lady removed the caps on two coke bottles. She then managed to knocked one of them over and spill it all over the legs and shoes of an other lady.

And we sat down in the “gods” and was entertained by Eddie Izzard for the next few hours. Simply genius, smart and funny, do go if you can you are in for a treat.

Leaving the O2 was not a treat, we where by the look of it funnelled out the back of the arena and through out the indoor high street. Which clearly wasn’t built to handle 20+ thousand people leaving at the same time. The O2 is not fully build up and coming down the stairs we were looking down to want best could be described as a derelict building sight. Quite a contrast to the brand new, high tech arena we had just been in.

I spotted an exit which I quickly learned that we couldn’t use. And once outside I could see a whole “avenue” that was empty and could easy handle the flow of people. Yes you might say that the reason for pushing us into the high street was that O2 and its bar, restaurants could make a wee bit of cash before we all left the peninsula. Then if that was the reason why weren’t the amusement rides and all the market stalls open when we left ?

Naa everyone was clearly in a rush to go and stand in the queue for the underground or the queue for the parking tickets and subsequently the queue to leave the car park.

We found and unlocked our bicycles and hit the gridlocked roads. But it was not pleasant journey, yes there is the cycle path which we could use. The road was full with people who just wanted to get home out of the queue away from the crowds and therefore were not really looking out for cyclist. So we took the cycle path which was full with pedestrians walking all over the place, since the marking aren’t clear. And also full of glass and grit, which put our anti puncture tyres through their paces. And the other road users were in a hurry to leave the car parks and were not really looking out for cyclist on the cycle path they were crossing.

So in short, the O2 is a great arena for shows but if you are on your bicycle take your time and care arriving and leaving.

Oh and while there at the O2 I didn’t have any NETWORK on my MOBILE PHONE and I use… well have a guess and you will soon spot the irony.

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