20th March 2013

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20th 28-30F, -2-1C, overcast, light snow falling. Another day of steady snowfall with subzero temperatures threatened well into April. There is high pressure over Scandinavia which is forcing cold air from the very cold east.

While I can usually get about I worry about impeding traffic and the increased risk as they desperately overtake on snow-narrowed, slippery roads. It is safer to stick to the minor roads and avoid the main roads where I can. Except that the minor roads are not usually cleared nearly as well. They often take meandering routes and can take hours longer to travel on drifting snow.

Which is precisely what I did! It was snowing steadily but I decided to go off to another village in search of a missing item. I rode through the forest for miles on hard packed snow. My hands were aching with cold on the way there despite two pairs of gloves. My feet were aching with cold on the way back despite overshoes. Too much walking on snow at the shops made my socks wet! Headwind coming home. I found what I wanted but I must be crackers in these conditions. My beard was solid ice when I finally arrived home. 22 miles. After lunch and change of socks,. gloves and jacket I went out again. Only 6 more miles.

21st 20F, -7C, bright, but with thin cloud and light snow falling. Very light winds so far. I left after coffee as is usual on these cold winter days. The downside is that the wind usually picks up later. I disturbed a mixed flock of Lapwings and Fieldfares foraging on the verge. They must have been tired or hungry because they hung about despite being nervous. Then I saw another flock of Fieldfares later. Grey with a cold headwind coming home. It was quite pleasant earlier in bright sunshine. 30 miles.


A short video about a Bob Jackson racing trike. Some of the information is a bit confused but he doesn't do a bad job of riding it at the end. 

22nd 26-29F, -3-2C, windy, sunny periods. The trike tyres were frozen to the floor of the shed and the icicles, from snow melt on the shed roof, are nearly two feet long. It was horribly cold again to day. Even with a side wind. By the time I turned for home it was a 30mph headwind. I was crawling along and my hands were freezing. Luckily I found a glazed bus shelter and the sun was still bright. So I warmed up by rubbing the thin inner gloves to together until my hands finally stopped hurting.

Back on with the thick gloves and I survived until the end. My face was stinging so much with the cold I had to splash warm water on it to make the pain go away. The daft thing is I have covered much the same ground for three days in a row. Just trying to catch different shops with silly opening hours and odd closed days. I never did find what I was looking for. Grrr! 38 miles.

Some roads have so little traffic and are dead ends so don't warrant snow clearance or salting. This was one of the few stretches where I felt the need for rear brakes. I locked up the front wheel trying to slow on a steep hill.

23rd 23-30F, -5-1C, sunny, breezy. 30mph headwinds forecast again for today. With temperatures never getting above -2C. I didn't bother taking the balaclava yesterday and missed it badly despite the wraparound GripGrab Aviator. I've read that polypropylene inner gloves are warm. They can hardly be worse than the things I'm wearing now!

Another day, another headwind. I rode down to the sea on my way to the shops expecting ice. Only a thin coating on the football sized rocks sticking out of the sea., The Cormorants glared at me. Unsure whether to take off or remain with their wings spread in the sub zero, roaring wind. I retraced my path along the uncleared road and back to civilisation. It was a straight on, bitterly cold 30mph headwind all the way home. I was frequently down to 6mph on the small ring just to make headway. 21 miles so far. Plus 7 more later.

24th 26-33F, -3+1C, windy, bright sunshine. I fought the wind on the way. Then dried my eyes for the dash back with a following wind.  An immature yob saw that I was already committed to entering a supermarket car park on the opposite side of the road. So he put his foot down to try and intimidate me. Had he owned anything more than a beaten up old rust bucket he might well have impressed his fellow village idiots. Having missed me, he sailed on through the shopping street at a casual 50mph. I saw the ugly miscreant  and his spotty entourage on the return journey. His exhaust sounding no better for having survived for the entire length of the village. And the clumsy U-turn to avoid the great unknown beyond the village boundary. Only 10 miles.

25th 32-34F, 0+1C, windy, overcast. Another horribly cold day. Both my hands and feet were cold. My face felt like it was being cut  by the wind. Double gloves, balaclava under my warmest scull cap and overshoes with very thick socks didn't help. 17 miles.



A brilliant film from 1963 of the trike racing on the IOM. With grateful thanks to Barry's Dad for the camera work and to Barry for sharing it. 

26th 32-36F, 0+2C, sunny, becoming windy. More of the same with gusts to 25mph. Fighting through clouds of salt as juggernauts roared past at well above the speed limit. Not so cold today. 18 miles.

27th 33F, +1C, windy, mostly sunny. Heavily laden. The Cateye Cadence computer is getting more unreliable. It dropped ten miles again today without losing the digits. It also keeps forgetting to indicate the speed. Perhaps a dry contact in the shoe is causing the latter. No excuse for losing ten miles! 13 miles by GPS.

28th 37F, +3C, breezy, bright overcast. It is a bank holiday so I'm not sure how many shops will be open. A rest day.

29th 31F, -1C, heavy overcast, breezy, light snow falling on a fresh fall of an inch or two of snow. Another bank holiday.

I saw an advert for an Abus Diims. A small, light security device which sends out a radio signal to passing Danish Post Office vans. When the vans return to base the signals are downloaded onto a website. The idea is that if one's bike/trike is stolen then a van will probably have passed it somewhere. You check the website and can track the missing item's location. To within what radius I wonder?

Several (other) obvious problems here: Many of the quality bikes in DK are reportedly stolen by East European professional bike thieves. It's a basic human right under EU law. So the police are powerless to stop them. The stolen bikes go into a lorry and are driven away. What happens once the device is out of the country or on a motorway where PO vans do not routinely travel?

You'd still need another "proper" lock to stop "casual" theft. "Casual" as in a psychological condition which makes you break the law with total disregard for other's rights. It used to be called being a psychopath. Now it's called sociopathy. I call it potentially life-changing theft. May your next fix be a crippling overdose.

Why would a professional thief not be aware of the tracking device and simply remove it? No doubt the instructions for finding and removing them are already on YouTube thanks to some sick fuckwit helpful soul. The cost of the device is about £50 plus £12 a year in old money. I suppose it might be easier than carrying an Abus U-lock which weighs more than your entire bike! Do you think I am getting too cynical in my old age? ;ø) 12 miles.

30th 33F, +1C, breezy, overcast with bright periods and occasional light snow showers. The wintry forecast is unchanged for the next week! I rode to Assens via Ebberup. Ebberup has become the tank training ground of Denmark. More potholes than tarmac! Most of the shops were already closed except for the supermarkets.  Headwind coming home with frozen rain stinging my eyes and face. 20 miles. Plus 6 more after lunch.

31st 32F, 0C, still and sunny. Most of our few neighbours have been away for Easter. No acrid smoke pouring endlessly from their tar-blackened chimneys from soggy, fresh-cut wood from the forest. Nor the burning of painted demolition timbers and waste industrial pallets.

No car doors slamming repeatedly, literally all day and all night. While engines are routinely left running for half an hour, year round. No badly silenced chainsaws running 24x7. Nor the endless scream of circular saws fuelling the black economy at our expense.

Not even the ceaseless howling and barking of abandoned dogs in unheated sheds or cages. Perhaps they died a lingering death from malnutrition and cold? Our neighbours seem to get through dogs like they get through cars. Only one dog has ever ventured beyond the boundaries of their stinking, turd-studded lawns in all the years we have lived in this tiny hamlet.  

It's been almost a  week of complete peace and clean air now. Don't ever mention rural Denmark and the environment in the same breath! You'd be talking rubbish.

I was busy all day so only 8 miles. After a cold start it was a sunny, pleasant day.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

11th March 2013

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11th 20-28F, -6-2C, winds slightly lower today, bright but cloudy. Thankfully there is no sign of the promised snow with heavy drifting. It fell further east of here causing lots of accidents. Particularly amongst those who think they are invulnerable and need not engage their brains before setting off in their cars to do some texting.

We've all seen them. Flying past at well above the legal speed limit into zero visibility. Thick fog, standing water, torrential rain, blizzards and heavy spray are all taken without a concern in the world. They know their amazing superpowers will save them from any risk to their comprehensively insured paintwork. There is absolutely no (obvious) risk at all.

And what if nature does conspire against the innocent to cause a "slight accident" at 90+mph? Well then they will have their impregnable collection of safety features to protect themselves from needing even so much as a manicurist. Though an emergency visit to the hairdressers might well be in order. A small price to pay for the convenience of mobility without responsibility.

Suddenly increased bragging rights at the office or pub are not something to be sniffed at. You'll want to look your best as you hand around your iSlave showing all the gory details. If you are really lucky there will be a slight dent in the exclusive titanium finish. So you can even claim it saved your life. When in fact the dent was caused as it shot out of your hand as the car rolled. It's still got be worth a few free rounds at lunchtime before heading off for your next appointment.

The latest model has much improved acceleration and top speed over last year's thanks to the new turbo management. A full racing pedigree is a vital feature of any car with sporting pretensions. It makes all the difference when you take that racing line through the chicane in the shopping centre.

It was well worth going for the optional low profile tyres and racing alloys. They'll look really smart as you shoot past the crematorium. Those idiots shouldn't have been driving so damned slowly! Or they would still be here now! Besides they were driving some old rust bucket. They should have a law against those. No protection when they are torpedoed from the side as they dawdle across at the lights. Bløødy death traps!

10 miles. The wind was just as cold. My front Durano Plus tyre keeps losing contact with the rim. Making it bump on the road as I ride along. I'm only using 85psi so it can't be that. I'll have to let the air out and try to reseat the tyre on the rim.

12th 12-31F, -11-1C, still, clear and sunny with a white frost on the grass. Just a mad dash around the lanes in the sunshine getting too hot. 15 miles.

Pm. I was working on the trike's gear cables and discovered something interesting.(?) Campag Ergo levers can very easily have the gear cables wrongly threaded if you are not very careful.  In fact it is far easier to get it wrong than to do it correctly!

The bare end of the inner cable is fed in from underneath through a 3mm hole provided in the underside of the lever body. The problem is that the lever body and innards are all matt black plastic with very poor visibility. The tough rubber lever hood also gets in the way unless you roll it back. I have rolled it into the midriff of the lever by lifting it very gently over the thumb lever with a screwdriver. There are several pips which must carefully moved out of holes in the plastic lever body. New hoods are expensive so be gentle with them.

The best trick is to remove the lever from the bars first. Though this may not be convenient if the bars are already neatly taped. There is a very small hole just inside the larger hole through which the bare end of the cable must be pushed. This is only possible if you have repeatedly pressed the thumb button until it will click down no more. Otherwise the black plastic ratchet disk, through which the cable inner is threaded, will have rotated completely out of the way. Offering no hope of threading the inner cable properly. Note that no cable tension is needed to click the thumb lever to the last position. It is not a friction device like most older gear levers. The ratchets can be activated by both thumb lever and long gear lever. Though not simultaneously or they will lock.

It is very easy to miss the tiny hole in the black ratchet disk unless one is very careful. It feels as if the cable has threaded through the lever correctly but it has probably gone around the disk instead of through it. Then as soon as you try to change gear, with the long lever, the nipple will simply bypass the internal mechanism and lodge above it inside the body. Except that you can't see any of this if the lever is still on the bars!

A mirror and torch may help as you start the cable on its journey thorough the lever. Though I highly recommend you take the lever off its handlebar clamp with a Torx screwdriver. Then you can see exactly what you are doing and where the nipple ends up whether you get it right or wrong. You must have the lever off the bars to be able to look inside the lever body at the black disk so you can see where the cable should go. And, to rescue the nipple from where it is lodged in the upper part of the lever body if you don't.

The bare end of the cable inner also wants to be neatly cut to get through the tiny hole inside the disk. Be careful that the forked, cream plastic insert is not dislodged and lost as the bare end of the inner cable rises through the lever. It is just pushed in as a cable guide. With a choice of two exit points to allow the gear cables to be arranged along the handlebars to taste.

The cable end must then be bent gently downward to exit though yet another tiny hole. Use only the very end of the cable to achieve this. You don't want to kink the inner cable anywhere else along its length. Or it will spoil the gear change. Which will almost certainly happen if you make a loop to get some slack and then pull the loop tight. Low cable friction is vital with multiple indexed gears. The more gears the more important the cable runs smoothly to achieve crisp and positive changes.

Until I discovered the tiny hole in the black disk I made a complete mess of threading both levers while they were still on the bars. I had to go right back to the beginning after fitting them right through all the outers and adjusters and then clamped off to both gear mechs. The nipple pulled past the internal mechanism in both levers as I tried changing gears!

I had to take both levers off the bars and play with the long gear change lever and thumb button. Just to allow the nipples to slide back down past the internal mechanisms and out of the bottom of the lever bodies again. Only then could I completely withdrew the inner cables and thread them correctly. Before fitting both levers back onto their respective handlebar clamps. It's easy when you know how! ;ø|

Workshop: How To Fit Campagnolo Ergo Levers - BikeRadar

13th 33F, +1C, heavy overcast, light winds and an inch of overnight snow lying. Probably a rest day while continuing to work on the poor old Higgins. I had to work on the brakes as well as the gears. Everything has been attacked by road salt and is either stuck or rusting.

The Schwalbe Durano Plus tyre on the front is very odd. The bead was actually hanging over the edge of rim in one place!

The image alongside shows the results of trying to even out the tyre eccentricity. The inner edge of the tire was quite literally visible. That is not brake block wear. It is just how the tyre looks right now. 

I was alerted by the tyre suddenly bumping badly just before I reached home. Presumably the bead was still just tight enough that the inner tube could not quite escape and burst.   Which would have been very nasty on a quick descent or in traffic! The tyre actually seems to be asymmetric. As if the whole thing had rolled from one side to the other all the way round. There are two raised rings clearly visible at the rim on one side wall. Only one ring can be seen on the other side. Which is just normal. (see image below)

I let most of the air out and tried to roll the tyre back again but it had absolutely no effect. It seems to be stuck in this strangely unbalanced state. My guess is that the flexible bead has weakened, broken or is growing longer on one side. This is allowing the tyre to lift off the rim on that side alone without affecting the other side at all. Which is still seated normally according to the ring.

Re-inflating to 80psi lifted the bead again. So it looks terminal. The tyre is rated to 115psi. I think it would go bang long before I reached that pressure! Better not to risk it! I'm not having much luck with tyres, am I? I returned the Continental S tyres in the post and never heard a thing from the dealer! The snow evaporated of its own accord during the day despite it hovering around freezing. The sun came out later and I was able to work outdoors without gloves. A rest day off the trike. 0 Miles.

14th 23F, -5C, rather cloudy with light snow falling. The bleached, pale yellow grass is white with frost rather than snow this morning. I have to go out today to catch up on the shopping. I hope Mr Higgins is now more roadworthy. From an efficiency rather than a safety point of view. Though I still have to buy new brake blocks and change the front wheel or perhaps just the tyre.I really have run the poor old Higgins into the ground.

Without the mockery and critical eye of others my cleaning and maintenance discipline have never really developed. I would much rather be riding than sloshing about with soapy water and cleaning rags. And it shows! It may make theft less likely but I get filthy every time I touch the trike. I never want to change the chain because the salted roads immediately tun the new one rusty. It hardly seems worth bothering provided the old chain doesn't jump over the rear cogs. So every year I wait in vain for spring to arrive before I make the change.

I removed my £5 (flea market) Shimano front wheel and fitted a wheel from another flea market, £5 "racing" bike. Careful examination of the side-wall on the Durano Plus showed the bead was trying to escape over the edge of the rim again. The weird thing is that both back tyres have the same double rings as the front one. The Durano Plus have now done 2760 miles with very mixed puncture performance over time. Wear and tread damage seems quite reasonable. There should have been a couple of thousand more miles in it at this rate of wear. The substandard Continental 4000S looked worse than this after the first ride!

I am sorely tempted to buy some more Bontrager Race Lite if I can find them. They lasted for thousands of miles with only pinch punctures because I ran them at too low a pressure. That was due to an industrial repetitive strain injury. Which made it almost impossible to pump my tires really hard. I never had a flint or thorn get through them despite regularly going off road on horribly rocky, gravel farm tracks. The dealer where I usually bought them hasn't had any new stock for ages. Otherwise I'd still be riding on them and not desperately searching for something better. The far more expensive Bontrager X-lites were dreadful things. I could never get them to sit straight on the rim. I didn't like the gimmicky, one-sided stripe either.

This is how the Durano Plus looked when I got home! It had lifted itself over the edge of the rim all by itself.

The expectation of a sharp exit after coffee is on hold due to a blizzard! It has all turned white again in under 10 minutes. Bøgger! The sky is now alternating between blue and blue-black with watery sunshine. The wind is supposed to pick up this afternoon so I ought to go now. It kept trying to snow so I left after lunch. Came back with three things missing from my shopping list. No stock. The lumpy Schwalbe Durano Plus tyre had fallen off the rim and the inner tube exploded while I was out. It is just as well I didn't leave it on the trike! 21 miles.

This is what it did to the inner tube! I had inflated the tyre to 85psi using my Topeak floor pump and then double checked with the digital pressure gauge. Just in case the dial on the track pump was faulty. It wasn't.

15th 24F, -4C, sunny, still. Snow and strong winds forecast for this afternoon. Worked on the brakes with new brake blocks. I was fed up with sawing lumps off brand new brake blocks. With the risk of them falling out of their shoes. So I moved the front centre pull brake forwards using a longer brake bolt and spacers. The pitch seems the same but brake bolts have a larger diameter than similar metric threads. I didn't want to risk the front brake pulling out of the Higgins hex bar extension. Finally I can fit standard brake blocks side by side without them interfering with each other. Bright sunshine but still a bitterly cold headwind. 23 miles.

16th 32F, 0C, overcast, blowing a gale! Snow forecast for this afternoon. I went out early and it was horrible! Eye wateringly cold thanks to the wind chill factor. It was so unpleasant I came straight back home instead of adding some miles. No tyres were hurt in the making of this journey. Only 10 miles. The snow was quite light and late to arrive but with the strong wind it looks like a blizzard.


Brown topsoil coating wave-like drifts off the fields.  Note the deliberate mistake in forgetting to refit the rear mudguards! 

17th 33-36F, +1+2C, 45mph gales, sunny. There must have been 3-4" of snow yesterday but it had drifted and been scoured away in many places. Plenty of snow on the roads where it had been blown off the fields. Long runs of standing water, mud and slush. The wind was fierce but not so cold as it has been lately. There is 4"  more snow forecast for tomorrow and a real snowstorm on Tuesday! With up to a foot of snow possible and high winds causing drifting. The forecast keeps changing with Monday offering serious snow and high winds. 19 miles.

18th 32F, 0C, overcast, severe gales, snow forecast. Even without the snow, 35mph steady winds with gusts to 50mph do not a happy tricyclist make! It is late arriving but the DMI's radar shows a large area of falling snow just south of us as it  moves north. The snow finally arrived at 8.30 but was travelling so fast it never reached the ground! The snow finally petered out late afternoon and the wind dropped after dinner. Another rest day. Mudguards back on.

19th 28F, -2C, overcast, windy. It is supposed to blow to "only" 30mph today with continuous light snow and drifting. I don't need to go out shopping so will probably take another rest day. The forecast is for another week of freezing temperatures and windy with occasional snow showers. The snow stopped falling after morning coffee so I went out. Some drifting on the very wet roads. Glad for the mudguards today. Only 6 miles. Got very sideways on a hard packed snow drift but just managed to correct! I was only doing 12mph!

The leader of a political party in the Danish parliament suggests that police should stop giving cyclists a hard time. They should concentrate on the shooting war between armed gangs in the capital. Parts of Copenhagen are becoming battle grounds. With the locals afraid to go out for fear of flying bullets and missiles.

Meanwhile the police are stopping cyclists for having improper lights. It's always a matter of priorities and failed attempts to win dirt cheap votes. The police react to political pressure from their masters. Their master, or rather mistress in this case, prefers to swing her collection of very expensive, designer handbags at cyclists. She travels everywhere by private plane. Setting new records with each outing. Meanwhile the shootings, beatings and stabbings go on, and on.  The headmistress now has the lowest level of public support of any leader in Danish history. So much so, that in local elections they were desperate for her not to turn up in support of their campaigns. Let's be careful out there! ;-)

Click on any image for an enlargement.
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March 1st 2013

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1st 30-43F, -1+6C, sunny, frosty, still. Light winds and full sunshine promised. A cold headwind but bright sunshine and even milder. Rode to Assens going the wrong way for a change of scenery. The snow is all but gone but the lakes and ponds are still solid with ice. The saddle is too high after changing the broken saddle pin. Suddenly have knee pain again after completely forgetting about it. It's only a matter of having the correct saddle height. Idiot! I shall have to double check how high I had the saddle on the old pin. I usually stick a bit of tape on the pin as a marker. It may still be attached. 24 miles.

Longstaff long barrow on eBay: 

George Longstaff Tandem Tricycle | eBay

You're looking at a beautifully hand built tandem trike by George Longstaff, the Reynolds 531 frame is 22.5" front and rear, it was built for two 5'9" height riders.

It comes with a Brooks Professional leather saddle, a ladies gel saddle, bottle carriers, pump, basic cycle computer and lights.  This is a 2 wheel drive trike with rear hub braking and twin brakes on the front.  It has a TA triple chain-set with Shimano gearing.
Wheel size is 700c with a 40 spoke front wheel, 36 spoke rear wheels, a removable carrier is at the rear.


2nd 30-40F, -1+4C, windy turning to westerly gales, heavy overcast. I managed to avoid a headwind until the last leg. Which was a freezing, eye watering struggle to exceed 8mph. I saw a bunch of clubmen out training. They were going the opposite way, downhill with a tailwind. Dropping the saddle by half an inch solved the knee problem. 26 miles.

3rd 33-41F, 1+5C, breezy, full sun. An overnight frost had left the roads wet. Still some strips of snow where it cannot be reached by the sunshine. Ponds beginning to melt. I am getting back my desire to go faster. It is shame my legs aren't up to it. I was overtaken by a girl on a mountain bike and could make no impression on her speed.  Going up a long hill she just rode away from me. 38 miles. Plus 10 more miles after lunch.

4th 28-41F, -2+5C, still, full sun. The early mist cleared quickly but the white frost is hanging on. It stayed sunny with a fairly gentle wind picking up a bit later. The loose gravel drives, laybys and car parks are turning to wet mush as the permafrost melts. It is like riding through thick treacle! 19 miles.

5th 45-41F, 7-5C, bright sunshine, light winds. Just a mid afternoon tootle for 10 miles. The first two vehicle I met were, quite inexplicably, more than half their width across the double white lines on a perfectly straight road. Weird!

6th 53F, 12C, still and mostly sunny. A warmer day for a change but I was too busy to go out on my trike. Time for a rest day anyway. My last rest day was 8th February which is rather silly. I am still ignoring the need for proper rest and recuperation. It is no wonder my average speeds are so low. It may even explain my endless rants and constant irritation with idiot drivers. Not to mention the lack of photographic inspiration.

I am really trying to get re-involved in my other lifelong hobbies. This will help to fill the large holes in my days when I don't ride. It really does feel like a vacuum (sometimes) on rest days. Part of the problem was my deliberate use of tri-cycling to regain some of my sense of lost status when I was made redundant. I used a number of reinforcement strategies to ensure a daily ride of sufficient length to have real meaning. Even if it was only for myself.

Now I am officially retired I really ought to re-assess my reasons for cycling. Not to give up all the health benefits and savings over daily motoring. But to adapt psychologically to the new lack of imperative. I no longer have to search endlessly for possible employment by "getting on my trike". This at a time of severe economic downturn when I was already close to retirement age. While simultaneously watching the industrial estates turning into employment deserts.

What now? I'll let you know if I discover anything useful. Though I'm certainly not giving up tricycling. It will become just one of the many things I do regularly. And, I still have that target of 100 miles on a trike in one day. ;-)

7th 40F, 4C, severe gales, cloudy with brighter moments. Wind base of 20 mph with 40 mph gusts. Nice! <sigh> Rest day.

8th 34-36F, +1+2C, overcast but brightening, 40mph winds again! Forecast to blow continuously from the east for at least 2 more days. My back is feeling better today after the bout of unaccustomed alternative hobby activity. I'll see how I feel after coffee whether I want to go out.

After coffee I rode with the wind and struggled to stay under 20mph uphill and down. On the way back it was  more of a 7mph crawl with moments of 5mph while hiding under the top tube and pedalling foolishly slowly on the small chainring! Photo Tagger has lost its Google Maps Key(again). So I can't download today's route map. 20 miles by bike computer. Later it proved possible to download the mileage from the GPS logger.

9th 32-35F, 0+2C, cloudy but bright, windy. Slowly climbing above an overnight frost. A horrible day for  a ride. With a ridiculously strong, bitterly cold, blustery wind. 23 miles, but it felt as if I travelled twice that distance.

10th 25-29F, -4-2C, gales, cloudy, but distinct threat of brightening up. The forecast was for 4" of snow and drifting. There are a few flakes in the air but that is about all. Let us hope it stays that way! There were a few flurries but the fierce and gusty wind made life far more difficult. Every time I was riding sideways to the wind I was having to lean over. At one point the only way to stay on the road was to hold the drops on on side and the stem with the other hand. It was almost impossible to pedal. I wore a balaclava under the GripGrab Aviator cap and my face and ears were still cold. 17 miles.

This village pond has been frozen for so long it is covered in debris and vegetation.  Making it look almost solid. A number of ponds have signs warning of a fine for walking on the ice.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

853 Longstaff trike on eBay

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George Longstaff Racing Tricycle in Reynolds 853 with Shimano 105 | eBay

A really lovely George Longstaff Racing Tricycle in Reynolds 853. http://reynoldstechnology.biz/our_materials_853.php

These trikes are almost rarer than hens teeth.
Top Tube 54.5cm (c-c)
Seat Tube 56.4cm
Top Tube Stand over height 73.5cm
Would Suite 5ft 9 - 6ft 2.
Running 26" wheels to lower the centre of gravity and make cornering more efficient. Mavic Rims
Full Shimano 10 speed 105 throughout. It is not a compact chainset.

One Wheel Drive
Twin brakes on the front

This trike is dynamite - it just flys as you would expect with this specification. It is not for the faint hearted!

Add caption

I hope I have done justice to this pretty trike. A bargain at the starting price.
I have cropped and brightened the auction images for the blog format.
If only every eBay auction was companied by such superb photography! 
Enjoy.

This trike remained unsold. Always a risk with a high starting price. [£700]

Click on any image for an enlargement

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