Search found 7716 matches

by Mike Sales
10 Apr 2024, 7:55pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Feeling bad and unable to go on
Replies: 12
Views: 295

Re: Feeling bad and unable to go on

I've bonked twice, both times because I did not eat enough. Both times I ended up lying in the road, I was unable to stand. After getting some food I could ride home. On one occasion I was given an energy bar, on the other I managed to flag down a lift to a caff. I don't know what metabolic event you would call this, but to me it felt like running out of fuel, and then getting a refill.
by Mike Sales
10 Apr 2024, 6:08pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: touring energy honey
Replies: 22
Views: 929

Re: touring energy honey

Eric Beard the fell runner seemed to do alright on honey butties.
His record feats speak for themselves: the Welsh Three Thousanders (five
hours nineteen minutes), the Skye Ridge (four hours nine minutes), the four
Cairngorm tops (four hours forty-one minutes), the incredible Lakeland
twenty-four-hour run (fifty-six summits, eighty-eight miles, 33,000 ft of ascent
and descent). Primed on honey butties and hot sweet tea, he remained fleet of
foot to the end, for shortly before his death in 1969 he had run from Ben Nevis to
Snowdon, taking in Scafell on the way; this to be followed by his run from
John o’Groats to Lands End with variations—-844 miles in eighteen days and
a few hours.
https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com/2012 ... dible-man/
by Mike Sales
10 Apr 2024, 5:50pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: How's your weather?
Replies: 1961
Views: 96452

Re: How's your weather?

Here's that Madame George line
On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row · Throwing pennies at the bridges down below. And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow. Say goodbye to Madame George dry your eyes for Madame George.
It rings around my head.
by Mike Sales
10 Apr 2024, 1:45pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Over-powerful LED lights
Replies: 114
Views: 8728

Re: Over-powerful LED lights

This is being discussed on The World at One.
It struck me in my few drives at night that the dazzle made it impossible for me to be sure that the road was clear of cyclists or other unlit obstacles. I was reluctant to slow suddenly because of vehicles behind. I posted about this some time ago.
Many cyclists are hit by drivers blinded, often by the sun, who are also reluctant to slow down to a safe speed.
by Mike Sales
10 Apr 2024, 12:41pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: How's your weather?
Replies: 1961
Views: 96452

Re: How's your weather?

Cowsham wrote: 10 Apr 2024, 12:30pm Unbelievably got grass cut on Monday morning before the rain arrived and it hasn't stopped since apart from a brief period last night where I got the electric bike out for the first time since last summer to give the new ( but cheap ball bearing ) pedals a test and get some shopping from town. Got home in the dark but still dry.

Back to torrential rain and high wind again today.
I have just listened to Astral Weeks (again) and I was struck by how often Van mentions rain or wet, and remembered other mentions, in other albums.
Others have noticed this too.

Anyone notice how many of Van's songs mention rain or rain in the gardens? Obviously this is one of his most famous lyrics but I’m realizing that it appears in multiple songs. Pretty cool. I guess Ireland is pretty rainy haha. If there’s any songs I missed please comment!

In the garden: obviously…

Sweet thing: “In gardens all wet with rain”

Madam George mentions rain once

The way young lovers do: “We strolled through fields all wet with rain”

Tir na nog: “We were standing in the garden wet with rain”

And it stoned me: mentions rain 3 times
Another line I remember
let it rain all over me
We just stood there getting wet
So it rains a bit in Norn Iron, Cowsham?
by Mike Sales
6 Apr 2024, 7:21pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 390
Views: 26485

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

Fasgadh wrote: 6 Apr 2024, 2:46pm famous mountain heights (4404).
I recognise that one.
How about 3210 or 3560?
Perhaps beneath a Scotsman's notice.
by Mike Sales
6 Apr 2024, 6:22pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Cycling doesn't have to be expensive
Replies: 16
Views: 922

Re: Cycling doesn't have to be expensive

Yes, framed pictures look so much better than those blu-tacked ro the wall. I find few in charity shops are to my taste, though I have found some nautical paintings or prints. I have an idea that a fellow sea-obsessive must have died recently. I also found a fine model yacht.
by Mike Sales
6 Apr 2024, 5:39pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Cycling doesn't have to be expensive
Replies: 16
Views: 922

Re: Cycling doesn't have to be expensive

al_yrpal wrote: 6 Apr 2024, 5:27pm Went for a grand tour of the charity shops and a great junk shop today. Clothes and books were purchased.

Its not just about saving money, it also helps save the planet. We should all be doing this.

Al
I have rummaged charity shops in search of books for years. I suppose my large library will be back on their shelves before too long.
During lockdown, and now as I am less mobile, I have found that I have a better choice of reading on my own shelves than the town library or in Waterstones. Rereading old favourites has been rewarding. I had forgotten much, and not understood much that I discovered on rereading.
My more recent purchases have been framed pictures. I have replaced the original pictures with my collection of charts, photos and illustrations of my favourite places from books. This is much cheaper than getting them framed professionally.
I am running out of wall space, as well as shelf space.
An old fathoms chart of the Irish Sea is crisscrossed with the tracks of my boat which I have inked in. It is black and white with depths in fathoms; modern charts are metric and coloured.

"The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime."
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 9:17pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Why is the right at war with cyclists?... "
Replies: 51
Views: 3795

Re: "Why is the right at war with cyclists?... "

Because their instinct is always to bully the vulnerable.
And suck up to the powerful
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 9:02pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 390
Views: 26485

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

At school I was taught surveying. We mapped the rugby field using an actual chain, and its links were also a measure. We also learned to use a plane table.
I enjoyed it. I also found vectors pleasing, and took to navigation, in the hills and at sea, with enthusiasm.


100 links (4 poles, 22 yards or 66 feet) 1 chain
10 chains 1 furlong
80 chains 1 mile
chain.jpg
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 6:54pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 390
Views: 26485

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

My exercise books at school, many years ago, had tables of measures of distance, weight etc. which were obsolete even then.
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 6:44pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 390
Views: 26485

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

The kids today don't know what you mean by half a crown
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 5:53pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Cyclist dies after crashing into open car door
Replies: 69
Views: 3553

Re: Cyclist dies after crashing into open car door

peetee wrote: 5 Apr 2024, 5:38pm I used to ride around 12-15mph in town and when passing a vehicle I would look over my shoulder about 30m back, indicate and take a dead straight line towards the right of the car so I arrived in line with the outer door about two clear cars length back.
That is my technique too. I also use it when changing into the right hand lane for a turn, and any similar manoeuvre.
I find that my spectacle mirror is a great help. A much greater help than my ears in fact. I recommend a mirror to all cyclists, and I feel that to lack a mirror is rather more negligent than listening to Today. Sight is my premier sense for keeping me safe, and I would not think of changing my line without a glance behind, which a mirror greatly facilitates.
by Mike Sales
5 Apr 2024, 10:24am
Forum: Racing, Olympics, TdF, Competitive cycling
Topic: General racing chitchat
Replies: 82
Views: 35521

Elite cyclist to lead London race while living in asylum hotel

Mo Farah on wheels?
One of Ethiopia’s elite female cyclists will be pedalling at the front of one of London’s biggest bike races next month while living in an asylum seeker hotel on less than £10 a week.

Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22, rode a bicycle for the first time when she was 13 years old. She has achieved success in a range of competitions such as the African Continental Championships and the national championships of Ethiopia.

While in her home country, the gold-medal-winning cyclist had been offered opportunities to compete in elite international competitions in countries including Spain and Switzerland, but was not granted visas to attend.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ylum-hotel
by Mike Sales
1 Apr 2024, 3:03pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: What Has Made You Laugh Today ?
Replies: 1480
Views: 98234

Re: What Has Made You Laugh Today ?

Audax67 wrote: 1 Apr 2024, 2:46pm Heh. In the wee small hours during a 1000k 10 years ago I really did feel that another rider was with us and riding just out of sight, slightly behind and to my right. Chum who's a bit on the religious side said "well, somebody was". :facepalm:
Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a man or a woman —But who is that on the other side of you?
The Waste Land T.S.Eliot

Shackleton felt something like this on his small boat voyage to South Georgia.

https://www.rsgs.org/blog/sir-ernest-sh ... -third-man