A positive thread

[Patrickpioneer]

Just back from the supermarket ride, seen one bench mark, two waterfalls, three mad squirrels and a little chat with two dog walkers.
cool
OH! and i spent less than twenty quid

[Cyril Haearn]

Went to a free concert, got chatting to an e-bike rider after, she said she was no longer strong enough to ride a normal bike, she does 60 km a week, showed me the display with 120 km left (riding gently)
Picked up the machine, felt like 25 kg plus
"We have a garage, I couldnae get it up and down steps' she explained

[John1054]

Yesterday - lovely ride, perfect temperature, not too windy, friendly exchanges with several folk and best of all, felt stronger and fitter than recently. What could be better!

[Cyril Haearn]

Cycled home in the rain, few other cyclists about, got thoroughly rinsed for free, my bike too, let it dry overnight, just need to oil the chain
Rain stopped soon after I got home

[gaz]

Replaced the tyres on the tandem.

The tandem sees extremely occasional use but I like it to be ready to go, the tyres were twenty+ years old and whilst they had plenty of tread I didn't feel able to trust them.

Interesting job. The labelled size of the new tyres (700x35) was smaller than the old ones (700x37), not so the measured size.

The fork crown fitting for the front mudguard needed filing out to gain sufficient clearance. The rear required longer stays and adjustments to both bridge fittings. I took the opportunity to fit some secu-clips to the front mudguard too, without them I'd have needed longer stays there as well.

Raising the mudguards necessitated adjustments to the brakes, so the cantilever yokes would clear.

Freewheel sounded somewhat rough. Stripped the sprockets to run some oil in (lube port located under the sprockets). Hasn't made a difference which leaves me wondering whether the noise is coming from something else, possibly the drag brake.

Next time one of the solos needs new guards (700x32) I'll consider switching the guards from the tandem instead, they look a little narrow for these tyres.

Ready to run and although such an event remains unlikely I'm glad I did the work.

[Graham]

Yes, there are glow worms around these parts. To end my day I cycled over to a Wildlife Trust reserve near Selborne.

The luminescent beetles were quite sparsely distributed but delightfully visible.

This was a bit of a trip down Memory Lane. About forty years ago I found a colony whilst walking along the cliff-top at Durdle Dor.
That time it was completely unexpected and delightful. ( I hope they are still surviving/thriving there. )
Apart from that strong memory, I haven't got the faintest idea about why I was walking along that cliff-top in near darkness.

[Mick F]

We regularly used to see glow worms walking back from the Queen's Head in the old days. Never see them now because they've installed damned street lights.

We used to see them on the left against the bank. Drakewalls Mine workings there.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.51387 ... 312!8i6656

[al_yrpal]

Yes, there are glow worms around these parts. To end my day I cycled over to a Wildlife Trust reserve near Selborne.

The luminescent beetles were quite sparsely distributed but delightfully visible.

Oo, Gilbert White territory!

Al

[Graham]

Oo, Gilbert White territory!

Yes, attributed as the father-figure of the naturalists.

I tried to read through his collected writings and was left with two strong historical images :-
1) The countryside teeming with wildlife everywhere.

2) No supermarkets brimming with infinite choice ( of course ). If one found a suitable animal, it was shot and put in the cooking pot.

GW's "wildlife walks " were often shooting forays.

[Cyril Haearn]

Our Boys won the cricket world cup by hitting more boundaries than NZ

Seems fair, after all we devised cricket

[Vorpal]

I dug up our (new) potatoes yesterday. I also had an abundance of fresh coriander (leaves), so I made a curry and homemade parathas. It was very tasty.

[Cugel]

Our Boys won the cricket world cup by hitting more boundaries than NZ

Seems fair, after all we devised cricket

Them's not My Boys, being neither boys nor members of my slave-train, which I have not yet appointed as no one seems willing.

These bat & ball games that infest the British summer times! Or that golf, the most ridiculous of bat & ball games. Most ridiculous of all .. hordes of "fans" getting all damp and excited as they watch someone else doing a pointless sport. No, no - worst of the lot is someone listening to another over-excited fellow watching others bat & balling and talking about it hysterically on the wireless!

Mind, I been watching the highlights of Le Tour, which includes the hysterical chatter of two boy-men stating the obvious. This comes to about 15 minutes of actual Tour riding, in between the thousands of adverts (well, the same 4 repeated tediously again and again) and various bits of cliched yatter about Tour "history". Happily one may record the hour and whizz the tedious stuff with the dross-accelerator button.

We have a guest just now who watches that tennis. I weed the garden then go to the woodworking shed.

Cugel, being negative in the positive thread so expecting a ticking-off.

[Vorpal]

I record it each day and fast forward through the bits that aren't so interesting for me. The Norwegian announcers are pretty good. But they still say some fairly inane things once in a while, just to fill the time when it's nothing but watching wheels go round.

We used to get the Greg LeMond show on Eurosport, but they don't seem to be running it in Norway anymore. I liked that, even if LeMond can say inane things with the best of them I like his analysis, and his success in road racing was what interested me in it when I was a teenager.

It's relaxing to sit and watch in the evenings, and if I have a bit too much to do one day, I can catch up on the next.

[pwa]

I went out for a sedate(ish) 35 miler around lunch time and took my butties with me. I ate them while sitting on a bench in a quiet village, the experience marred only by the pungency of a particularly pongy batch of slurry that had been spread on nearby fields. With a temperature of 23c in the shade (a bit too warm for me) I kept to low gears when climbing, so I kept the sweating to a minimum. It was very pleasant. And the other road users on the lanes were all behaving, everybody keen to pull in a wait for each other.

I felt a bit sorry for a string of teenagers I passed. They had rucksacks and were, I think, doing the D of E stuff. They looked a bit overheated.

[Grandad]

Went out for the second hillier than usual ride in the last 3 days. Had to cut out part of each -no such trouble last year so it must be an age thing.

Good evidence towards strengthening the case for an e-bike

Every cloud has a silver lining.