On tour with my Enigma

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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sussex cyclist
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by sussex cyclist »

rareposter wrote: 3 Feb 2022, 12:00pm Bodiam Castle. Kind of appropriate for the frame really, they're both ruined...
That picture, which I almost didn't get, doesn't do it justice. It really is lovely shimmering in the moat on a spring or summer's day, and wants a brilliant blue sky. It also looks solid from the front, but as you say, is a real fixer-upper once you start perambulating.

It belongs to the National Trust. This presented a problem, as one cannot enter the property without an outlay of funds I was unwilling to part with for such a quick visit, or a magic membership card (I gave mine up when Covid came calling and haven’t yet renewed).

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It's not like they have guards at the entrance to the grounds, but waltzing in with a bike frame wasn't exactly inconspicuous. I had just about contented myself with this

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when I bumped into an employee on his way through a locked gate. After a friendly chat he granted me a photo op.

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Waiting its turn

I stopped by the pillbox on my way out – thankfully no longer manned to deter cheapskates –

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Deceptively spacious

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Locked and loaded

then took a stroll to the nearby heritage railway station, which the peeps on TripAdvisor seem to rate.

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All in all it was a splendid afternoon.
mattheus wrote: 3 Feb 2022, 12:26pm
sussex cyclist wrote: 1 Feb 2022, 1:31pm Just because my Enigma is no longer rideable,
Have you tried?
I'll give it another go right after I take this out for a spin.

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mattheus
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by mattheus »

That's the spirit!
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sussex cyclist
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

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The tour continues. First, if you read one thing about gypsum today, make it this. I'll wait.

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All done? Congratulations, you now know what this is:

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Tl;dr: It's part of a 4.7km long conveyor belt hauling plasterboard-to-be
The discovery of 4 seams of gypsum in the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Formation led to the establishment of the Sub Wealden Gypsum Company Limited which is now part of British Gypsum owned by the French multinational Saint-Gobain SA.

The manufacture of plasterboard in East Sussex remains an important industry providing essential products for the internal lining and finishing of most of domestic and commercial buildings in the south and southeast of England.
across this patch of the East Sussex countryside. No, they don't offer the public rides on it, though it would be a nice little earner. Rides underneath it, however, are free. While taking that picture I had to quickly get out of the way of these guys racing past.

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It is a great place to take your bike. You like hills, don't you? Stay tuned, there are more ahead of us.
pwa
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by pwa »

Well, that's my gypsum reading done for the day.

I like your posts. They make me smile.
Bonefishblues
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by Bonefishblues »

TBF your bike's still putting in the miles - just not quite as its designer intended...
iandriver
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by iandriver »

Just a thought, if you really can't bear to lay the enigma to rest, perhaps the head tube and top tube suitably chopped off would make a nice walking stick. ( Admittedly, you may have to get a specialist to saw it for you, or plasma it off). Feels a bit like having your dead pet stuffed, but if you just can't bear to be parted.

Should add, actually loving the thread :D

And an idea for the rear triangle https://www.adventurecycling.org/resour ... ike-frame/
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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Cowsham
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by Cowsham »

sussex cyclist wrote: 5 Feb 2022, 4:25am The tour continues. First, if you read one thing about gypsum today, make it this. I'll wait.

Image

All done? Congratulations, you now know what this is:

Image

Tl;dr: It's part of a 4.7km long conveyor belt hauling plasterboard-to-be
The discovery of 4 seams of gypsum in the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Formation led to the establishment of the Sub Wealden Gypsum Company Limited which is now part of British Gypsum owned by the French multinational Saint-Gobain SA.

The manufacture of plasterboard in East Sussex remains an important industry providing essential products for the internal lining and finishing of most of domestic and commercial buildings in the south and southeast of England.
across this patch of the East Sussex countryside. No, they don't offer the public rides on it, though it would be a nice little earner. Rides underneath it, however, are free. While taking that picture I had to quickly get out of the way of these guys racing past.

Image

It is a great place to take your bike. You like hills, don't you? Stay tuned, there are more ahead of us.
I'd love to know what was going through the passing cyclists mind when he saw you taking pictures of the frame. :D
I am here. Where are you?
pwa
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by pwa »

What's titanium like for sawing? I bet you could get a set of wind chimes out of that.
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sussex cyclist
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by sussex cyclist »

pwa wrote: 5 Feb 2022, 5:53pm I bet you could get a set of wind chimes out of that.
I compare wind chimes to what it may be like in Hastings (no insult to any residents of that fine coastal town who may be reading): nice to visit, but not sure I'd want to live there. Bill Burr on wind chimes. Warning: he swears more than Tony Soprano.

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What's titanium like for sawing?
Probably easier once a start has been made for you.

Music to listen to when contemplating fissures:

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Cowsham wrote: 5 Feb 2022, 5:30pm I'd love to know what was going through the passing cyclists mind when he saw you taking pictures of the frame. :D
Me too. Unfortunately he was going too fast for me to flag him down, which I wouldn't have a problem doing. Note that I have form for approaching people with this frame.

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"999? We've got a bad break here."

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The Countryside Code says leave bike bits where you find them
iandriver wrote: 5 Feb 2022, 4:30pm Just a thought, if you really can't bear to lay the enigma to rest, perhaps the head tube and top tube suitably chopped off would make a nice walking stick. ( Admittedly, you may have to get a specialist to saw it for you, or plasma it off). Feels a bit like having your dead pet stuffed, but if you just can't bear to be parted.
Am liking that DIY project in your link btw, which reminds me of this, seen in an antique shop:

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Last edited by sussex cyclist on 7 Feb 2022, 5:20am, edited 1 time in total.
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sussex cyclist
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by sussex cyclist »

A short detour on the way to the hills. Bike frame as art project:

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Could you please direct me to the octopus's garden in the sea?

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Derivative, said the critics

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I call this one 'Pay Machines In Lobby'. Tate here I come.

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This practically names itself: 'It's just not cricket'

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Admittedly I took some artistic licence here.

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Reminds me of Hirst's infamous Cracked Period

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But is it art?

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Never pass up a photo op

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"I'm not sure we have a frame for that...

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but we'll try."

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"Do I have permission to wee on it?"
Jdsk
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by Jdsk »

Please could we have one of a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside the Enigma?

Thanks

Jonathan
scottg
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by scottg »

Jdsk wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 9:36am Please could we have one of a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside the Enigma?

Thanks

Jonathan
Putting the riddle into the Enigma now.....
2022-01-26_13-55-40.jpg
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Cowsham
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by Cowsham »

20220207_165344.jpg
I am here. Where are you?
Bonefishblues
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by Bonefishblues »

sussex cyclist wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 4:47am

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"Do I have permission to wee on it?"
I was only poodling along when it broke.
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sussex cyclist
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Re: On tour with my Enigma

Post by sussex cyclist »

Cowsham wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 4:55pm "Help! My husband has been radicalised"
I hate to be a pedant when it comes to captioning, but they were brother and sister. Here they are again, their eyes inexplicably drawn to the bottom bracket.

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Bonefishblues wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 5:34pm I was only poodling along when it broke.
Actually I was honking. Unfortunately the frame hasn't yet been introduced to a goose. A horse, on the other hand...

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sussex cyclist wrote:
scottg wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 2:26pm
Jdsk wrote: 7 Feb 2022, 9:36am Please could we have one of a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside the Enigma?

Thanks

Jonathan
Putting the riddle into the Enigma now.....
(Beverly Hills computer)
I had to put on my thinking cap for this.
1. The riddle
With 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 different riddles to choose from, more or less, I grabbed the first that popped up on Google: "I wear a rosy hat but have no head; I'm sharp but have no brain. I can say anything, but will never speak a word."

Spoiler: a pencil.

2. The mystery
I've got a lot of books,
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but no mysteries for some reason. Or at least none to be found in the time allotted to this task; there are probably some serving as loft insulation. Employing a bit of creative problem solving, I came up with this,

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because many things about the UK are a mystery to the average American tourist (though having lived here for over 25 years now, I've well overstayed my visa).

A common shortlist, for the record:
• Putting the date before the month
• Taps with different temperatures
• Washing machines in the kitchen
• Calling the bathroom the toilet
• No screens to keep the bugs out
• Adding seemingly random u's to words
• Cricket

That the quote came from Churchill, whose mom hailed from across the pond, was a nice coincidence.

3. Enigma
There are by my count three ways to get something inside this bike: the head tube, the bottom bracket, and within the bounds of the diamond frame itself.

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(Apparantly nobody has been daft enough to attempt to hula hoop using a bike frame and upload it to YouTube. Pity.)

The bottom bracket is currently taken as I can't budge the thing, and do not wish to add to the damage that fate has already introduced. I decided on the head tube to fulfil your request, Jonathan.

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Zooming in for fine detail:

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How about a riddle to wrap this up?

I point to the sky,
and hold an odd guy
who liked to build follies
because he could, that's why.
What am I?



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