7th February 2014

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Bringing home some free wooden storage boxes for the bike shed on an already laden Trykit.
The Brooks B17 has its rain hat on as the photo was taken on a wet day.
Note how minimalist the excellent Crud RR2 front mudguard looks.
You would hardly notice it was there at a glance.

Friday 7th 38-42F, 3-6C, raining, windy, heavy overcast. The rain is supposed to minimize around lunch time before restarting in the afternoon. I left late morning in spitting rain and quite a strong wind. It rained on and off but nothing too worrying. Another supermarket were advertising special offers without having any stock, again. It's a shame there is no consumer protection in Denmark. The Dintex gloves I had been offered by the European importers have arrived. A perfect fit just like last year's. Excellent service! I wish GripGrab would get a grip on its sizing. It grows ever more ridiculous by the day! I am now struggling into new overshoes for size EU50! (I take a EU45 in normal shoes) The rubber uppers hardly reach the soles of my cycling shoes. Only 10 miles.

Having got my frustrations with Odense off my chest I have removed the previous post. I have watched a number of YT videos about cycling in various cities and will just have to face the fact that riding slowly is the norm. The cycling infrastructure is designed as a traffic calming measure for all cyclists regardless of ability. By providing ridiculously narrow cycle paths and banning cyclists from using the roads alongside for overtaking the cyclist is reduced to the lowest common denominator. The slowest, the most abusive of space, the bad mannered and the truly ignorant rule the cycle paths. All because of the lack of space for greater speed. A greater knowledge of the city's layout would, no doubt, provide faster routes.

If I want to travel more quickly then I shall just have to resort to a bike or do a great deal of research on alternative routes. Or just avoid the city altogether. The irony is that cities without "proper" cycling facilities better suit the faster rider. They are not limited to an inadequate cycle path system and may freely use the city's roads and streets to travel at their own pace. Albeit with a much greater risk of contact with faster moving traffic with which they must compete for space. In organised cycling cities, like Odense, the tricycle is as out of place as a dinosaur. And we all know what happened to dinosaurs, don't we?

It's odd that vast, 6-axle lorries now have free reign in the cities, town and villages. Once upon a time a small or medium sized van was used for local deliveries. The arrival of nationwide store chains has "forced" the economies of 40' container lorries to ensure maximum profits for their shareholders.

The number of huge, articulated lorries using the local roads has risen several thousands % in the time we have lived here. It was exactly the same when we lived in the wilds of rural UK. In ten years there we went from noticing a passing car or tractor, every other hour, to the constant roar of traffic.

Only inherited barriers, like unusually low railway bridges, protect us from the full force of transcontinental traffic now. For all its benefits GPS has an awful lot to answer for in pushing damaging levels of heavy goods traffic onto completely unsuitable roads!

Saturday 8th 36F, 2C, breezy, heavy overcast. Promised brightness at first with rain this afternoon. I'd better take a torch in case I can't find the trike shed in the gloom!

First I explored some different woods for a couple of hours. Taking photographs and covering 4.5 miles. It had brightened up quite a lot by the time I returned. Though still no sunshine.

This is one of the weirder things I've ever seen on my walks A crystal clear, ice oval a couple of feet long with an almost square cross section. It was just lying on flat ground, on a muddy track in the woods. It could not have been formed by a puddle. Very odd indeed! How had it survived without melting? There was no snow left anywhere this morning and the ground was very wet and soft. The ice probably formed in something which has now gone. There was obviously a lot of recent forestry work going on to clear all of the storm-felled trees. 

I wasn't intending to go far today but a lack of stock in one shop forced me to ride to another village. I was hoping to find some at another branch of the supermarket and was lucky this time. No point in wasting a tailwind when ground has to be covered.. A peloton of club cyclists in Danish colours went past just after I stopped beside the road. The leader shouted "Go' tur!"[Have a good ride!] Rain on the last leg but the tailwind made short work of it. 30 miles.

Sunday 9th 38F, 3C, overcast, windy, with a wet start. It is supposed to clear up later this morning. With rain on the windows at 9.30 I am delaying the start of my walk as the trees thrash about in the garden. After three weeks of continuous cold symptoms I have a tickly, wet cough today.

It stayed dry while I had a three mile walk around the fields in an hour. Wet underfoot, rather windy and very grey. It was still grey and windy when I left on the trike. The world is suddenly short of bananas! Not one poisoned one, let alone organic. No red tomatoes either. It rained just as I arrived home. Only 9 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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