Bike Diary

Lovely afternoon, almost warm and mostly sunny. A light wind coming from the north. There can’t be many more days like this in the year so I took the afternoon off to do an eastbound fondo – the traditional, time-honoured route to Eastwell and back – except that I took a road called Narrow Lane on the way back; a lovely little stretch of road that I discovered on a fondo four weeks ago.

I was really enjoying myself until, eight miles from home on the way back, I noticed that my pedals didn’t seem to be engaging the back wheel. The chain was still properly attached at both ends. But the cassette was just spinning on the hub.

I stopped and examined it and the freehub was freely spinning both ways. I did manage to get it working briefly – but only very briefly; I got another half or mile or so out of it. So of course I called ‘er indoors and she came out to collect me. I walked the bike some of the way back, and even managed to roll down a couple of descents on it.

She was, I have to say, unimpressed. Naturally she wanted to know what I’d have done if it had happened in Wales or Norfolk. And it’s a fair question. I mean – statistically, proper mechanical breakdowns are very rare fortunately, but there’s no legislating against them.

Anyway the Internet tells me I may be able to fix the freehub by flushing it out with WD-40 then relubricating it. I’ll have a look next weekend maybe.

54.45 miles, 208 this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7855925438

A nice afternoon, very mild, very dry, light winds. Left work as early as I could in the hope of cranking out 30-odd miles. Decided to take the Tricross, since it hadn’t had a run out since April. Despite its weight it did roll along very pleasantly.

I did a Twycrosser, with a detour to Orton from Twycross. Went right down to Witherley, but came back up mainly along the main road. Hadn’t done that for a while. Very nice out there.

Conditions grew a bit dim over the last half hour of the ride which would have been fine, except that my rear light needs new batteries, apparently. Plenty of light to see the road in front of me (and my blinky front light was working properly) but I definitely felt a little insecure about traffic coming up behind me over the last couple of miles. It was twenty minutes after sunset before I got home. Fortunately it was very quiet along Heather Lane. I think I only got passed by a moped.

Listened mostly to various analysts and commentators on LBC, giving their opinion on the prospect of a thermonuclear exchange with Russia.

Back on 33.62 and that’s a measly 153 this month, but 4010 done this year now.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7846189383

September had already turned into a sort of damage limitation exercise by the time I came down with COVID a week ago, but this bank holiday weekend was at least an opportunity to clock up 100 miles or so. Wasn’t it? Nope, a suspected kidney stone kept me out of action on the Saturday and Sunday.

But I appear to be back to my normal self mostly today – whether the kidney stone has passed, just moved somewhere more comfortable or never actually existed I am yet to find out, but I decided I would attempt 25 miles or so this afternoon. The worry was that the pain would flare up again and I’d be incapacitated, an inconvenient distance from home. But a shortish Twycrosser seemed an acceptable risk.

Very light rain when I set off and it only got worse, at least for an hour. Then it stopped for an hour. Then it came back. I pressed on regardless, driven mainly by bloody-mindedness. I listened to coverage of the latter stages of the Queen’s funeral, the Windsor instalment.

It was eerily quiet out there.

Bit cold later on, even when it wasn’t raining. Not the most enjoyable ride, but glad to have got out on a bike again, for only the third time this month.

26.45 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7834155260

Got up at about 0945, didn’t feel like I had a lot of energy but I thought it would be best to get some exercise. I mounted the Cannondale not knowing if I’d be able to manage much more than 5 miles. Felt a bit shaky over the first 100 metres or so, and a bit zombified over the first couple of miles – almost like a lucid dream.

However I found that I wasn’t having any trouble going up hills so I took it easy, pressed on and did a shortish Twycrosser. Came back along Gibbet Lane to keep it short as a precaution but as I seemed to be doing fine I stretched the ride a bit by diverting through Burgoland and Swepstone, then Ibstock.

I did have a coughing fit like an old hag after I got off the bike, but I’m fine.

Decent weather, a mix of light wind and cloud. Just warm enough for bare legs.

Naturally I was careful to retain an appropriate distance from other persons at all times, including the bloke who was leaning against the driver’s side of his van while it was parked on Measham Road. Gave him a very wide berth.

Anyway I did 28.42 miles. 257 still to do to meet my target for September and I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. Got other commitments next weekend and it’s a 30 day month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7812684673

At last, an opportunity to get out on a bike in September. With the wind coming from the NE I decided a trip up over Swarkestone Bridge then west along the Beloved A Road was in order. What I wanted to do, at least roughly, was repeat my ride from the 3rd of August in which I’d got a fondo distance out of riding to a village called Marston Montgomery.

Very light drizzle when I set off but since the forecast was mainly dry I tolerated it, in the hope that it would go away. It didn’t though, it got worse. Persistent light rain by the time I was rolling through Coleorton. It lasted no more than half an hour though, and after that the temperature climbed a bit and I dried off fairly quickly in the warm breeze. I was too warm in the end actually. I’d opted for bare legs but had three layers on top. I took one of them off and stuffed it in my backpack, which helped.

I thought I’d be able to remember the route easily enough, but I failed to take a turn at Hatton and found myself in Foston. I had a break there, for a pasty – there’s a very comfortable bench next to a bus stop – and plotted a course back onto my intended route using Google Maps.

Since I’d added a couple of miles by unintentionally diverting to Foston, I didn’t go all the way to Marston Montgomery.

Rotter’s Rise, my regular nemesis south of Melbourne was a bit of a struggle. Whether that’s early onset of COVID, loss of fitness incurred by not riding a bike for 11 days or residual debilitation from ingesting an excess of alcohol on holiday, I don’t know.

I was waved at by a tiny tot, being held by her grandfather (I assume) at the front gate of a terraced house near Hatton. She was waving at all the passing traffic. It’s a hobby I suppose! Of course I smiled and waved back.

Back on 64.78 miles, a decent bite out of September’s modest target (350).

https://www.strava.com/activities/7786004335

Quite a decent cycling day – cooler, but warm enough for bare legs. However I have a long day tomorrow and other things to do today so I only wanted to do 25 or so this afternoon. I’d intended to set off after the Artemis I launch, but when it was delayed I guessed it was probably going to be scrubbed for today, so I set off at about 12:55pm.

A moderate wind was coming from the east, but since I wasn’t going far I decided I’d do a Twycrosser. I was going to come back along Gibbet Lane but changed my mind and did a u-turn on Burton Road to take the route back through Carlton.

Listened mostly to Sangita Myska on LBC, sitting in for Shelagh Fogarty and I must admit I had steam coming out of my ears after about half an hour of it. She either misunderstood or laughably misrepresented every topic she wanted to talk about, as she entertained a series of hysterically moronic callers. I so wish everyone didn’t get to vote, only a very few of us really know what we’re doing in a polling booth.

I got rained on, but only lightly and only for a few minutes. Mostly cloudy but the sun came out for the last two miles.

28.17 miles, bringing the total for August to 557 and that’ll be it for this month. If I hit the (pretty modest) targets for the remaining months, 2022 will be my third best year so far in distance terms.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7720312751

I’m on call at the moment, but it’s been very quiet. So quiet in fact that I was tempted to do a fondo. Not the sort of messing-around fondo that involves a sort of orbital or criss-cross route intended to keep me within 15 miles or so of base, but a proper one, in which I cycle in roughly the same direction for 31 miles, then come back.

A beautiful day for cycling; warm and sunny with a light wind coming from the east. No risk of rain, according to the forecast. I took the S Works since I’d only been out on it four times this year and of course the Summer of 2022 is, alas, drawing to a close.

As a sort of gesture to fortune, I expanded the ride a bit over the first 25 miles or so – by taking the long way up through Diseworth and Long Whatton to Zouch, then by detouring through Wymeswold between Cotes and Six Hills. This would enable me to turn back a mile or two closer to home.

Wymeswold is an inexplicably complicated village to navigate, and by approaching it from an unfamiliar direction, I managed to get lost. Instead of exiting it along my usual route (East Road), I found myself on a very pleasant, leafy and quiet country lane. I had no idea in which direction I was headed at this point but in a spirit of adventure, I decided to just keep going and see where it took me. In fact three miles later it took me to my usual road out east, near Six Hills.

I realised then that I had pedalled along a road called Narrow Lane – I’d seen it on a map often, but I’d always ignored it because it’s not particularly useful. The usual route out of Wymeswold (ie the one that had eluded me) is more efficient. There’s only three miles of Narrow Lane and it’s a bit up-and-down-ish. But it is very quiet (unsurprisingly, because it runs parallel to a faster road going in the same direction) so I may well do it again some time.

I was of course, a little nervous about being a considerable distance from home and on call at the same time. The insistent voice of my conscience on my right shoulder (not really, this is a metaphor just to be clear) kept whispering in my ear: “What are you going to do if you get a call 25 miles from home, and it’s an emergency? Turn back now!” But the voice on my other shoulder reminded me that I almost never get a call on a Saturday afternoon, and anyway (it continued), I could always say my phone was broken.

So I kept going. In fact I kept going for about a mile past the half-fondo distance before turning for home, to give myself the option of taking a more direct route back. I did do Narrow Lane again (and stopped there to take the pic above), but I came through Wymeswold and Rempstone the traditional way rather than going down to Cotes. I also didn’t bother with the Diseworth detour on the way back. At Zouch I realised that I’d be back home a mile short of a fondo, so I detoured into the outskirts of Coalville over the last couple of miles.

I didn’t get a call, fortunately.

Listened mostly to footy chat on 5 Live. I’d been looking forward to Liverpool vs Bournemouth, the featured commentary game at 3pm, but Liverpool took the suspense out of it by scoring twice in the first six minutes. So I switched over to Gilles Peterson on 6 Music, a decision that I regretted later when I heard that Liverpool had scored nine goals. What that match lacked in suspense, it might well have made up for in entertainment.

Gilles had an interview with Kahil El’Zabar, a talented musician for sure but a bit of a hippy. He told us about “the vibration of energy” and that his saxophone player’s parts were “the expression of the universe through human configuration”.

Back on 62.26 miles and that’s the fourth (and last) fondo this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7709732392

Plenty of rain this morning but by 4pm I’d decided that the roads had dried out enough for a run out on a bike. The wind was coming from the west, very roughly, and I decided I’d do the Beloved A Road for a bit. Not long after I’d turned left onto it from Swarkestone Bridge, I had the idea of taking a right turn toward Derby then finding my way back to Swarkestone from there, perhaps via the ring road and down through Chellaston. I felt like indulging my inner Derby resident.

I took a right turn called Frizams Lane. This took me to Stenson and past a pub called The Bubble, where I used to go occasionally 30 years ago, and have been to once or twice on a bike in recent years. From there I followed a sign to Derby which took me, less than a mile later, to a very pleasant A road. This confused me a bit. Where was I? Why have I never been along this road before? But about a mile later I realised that I’d looped back onto the same (Beloved) A Road. All I’d done, effectively, was a sort of elaborate U turn.

No matter – I continued back to Swarkestone. I had a few options to extend the ride a bit from there. I could continue on to Shardlow, or to Isley Walton again for example. Instead I decided to keep going to the A50 roundabout then hang a left onto Infinity Park Way, a road on the very outskirts of Derby built to service industrial units and new housing, and which leads to the Rolls-Royce test facility (pictured below). I’ve just read that it was only opened last year, and yet I’m sure it was there when I last pedalled that way and I’m sure that was more than three years ago.

I turned back from here and came home the usual way from Swarkestone. I didn’t really fancy Rotter’s Rise after Melbourne, but it wasn’t too bad.

Stopped at a big log at the edge of Spring Wood near the Derbyshire border and ate a cheese pasty sitting there in the evening sunshine. Lovely.

Very nice run out. Nice to visit Derby again, even though I only penetrated her lightly.  I do get quite sentimental when I think about living there in the early ’90s, when it was still new to me.

36.33 miles, 467 this month. If I hit all of my (pretty modest) monthly targets for the rest of the year, I’ll end up doing more miles this year than last. No big deal, but nice to have. Actually I’m 484 miles ahead of this time last year.

I got another 2 hrs, 24 minutes from the AAs in my Roberts DAB before they finally died – bringing the total to an extraordinary 30 hours, 31 minutes.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7699934193

Rain this morning and mostly a pretty dismal day early on, so I was a bit surprised to discover that it was rather warm out there when I left the house. Almost scorchio, and the sun had come out.

Today’s plan was to do the southbound route for a bit, then come back the same way. I got to Stoney Stanton on about 18 miles and was about to turn back, when – on a whim – I decided to take the right turn at the roundabout and find a different way home. I’d come home that way a few times in the past so it was really just a question of remembering the route. Which I didn’t. Instead I found myself, after a while, on a fairly busy A road which I remembered from the days when I used to commute to Coventry by car, over ten years ago. I must confess that I used the cycle lane. I don’t usually do that as a rule, but it looked nice and clear of gravel and debris. And pedestrians.

I came to a big roundabout next to a Morrisons and I thought I knew the way from there from my old commute, but I took a wrong turn, through Stoke Golding. This took me to Fenn Lanes a few miles further on though, very familiar territory. I took the left turn off Fenn Lanes toward Shenton and sat for a while on the Judith Birch bench, munching a cheese pasty and idly watching the sheep in the field opposite.

The road from Shenton to Bosworth was blocked by a flood (as documented photographically below) so I backtracked and took a road signposted to Sutton Cheney at the previous junction. This was quite fortuitous as it took me along Albion Lane. I’ve done that a couple of times in the past and remembered it as being pleasant, but wasn’t sure where it was when I’ve thought of doing it again. So I found it without actually looking for it. It leads right to the junction where one of my favourite benches at Sutton is situated. I must remember that.

Back the usual way, or one of them, from there. Very nice run out, a nice adventure. I’ll try to devise a route that takes in the pleasant stretch of road near Stoke Golding while avoiding the A road with the cycle lane.

I overheated a little at first but was very comfortable later on. A thick layer of cloud rolled over before long and I thought it might rain, but it didn’t.

Amazingly my Roberts personal DAB has got another 4 hours, 22 minutes out of its first pair of AAs, bringing the total to more than 28 hours. I would have been happy with 10 hours, and surprised with 15. And the batteries aren’t done yet. I must remember to put a glowing review on Amazon.

42.59 miles which takes me to 430 this month and 35,000 since I started doing this regularly in January 2015.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7688687537

A pleasantly warm, mostly sunny afternoon with a light wind coming from the west. My first idea was to do some of the Lower Westbound route and come back the same way. But when I got to the crossroads at Gallows Lane I decided I didn’t really feel like doing that, and I set off down through Twycross, thinking of doing some of the Dad’s Army route.

However I failed to take the correct turn for that at Pinwall Lane, and ended up going east along Fenn Lanes. From there I continued on to Kirkby Mallory and came back the usual (southbound route) way from there.

Really very pleasant out there, especially with footy on the DAB radio. I listened to Leeds vs Chelsea, very entertaining. Lovely to have that fixture back in the top tier, especially at Elland Road.

Noticed a couple of light planes and powered hang gliders parked up in the air field along Fenn Lanes, so I stopped to take a pic there. Must have been an air festival on this weekend, or something.

Passing a field near Kirkby Mallory I saw a miniature tornado whirling up bits of wheat chaff and dust. Never seen anything like it, quite remarkable. It had a really well-defined acute funnel shape, very narrow and pointy at the base where it connected with the ground. I stopped to watch it but unfortunately it had died before I could get a pic.

Astonishingly, my Roberts DAB personal has now given me nearly 24 hours from the same pair of alkaline batteries, and it still hasn’t finished them off.

Back on 39.60 miles, 388 this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7676801912