7th August 2017 "You keep off my mowing grass!"

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Monday 7th 55-62F, 13C, bright with a light breeze. It has reached a scorching 62F with a decent breeze now I am back from my walk. Got a wave from the driver of combine harvester towing its lawnmower drum along the lane. The mink gulls were squabbling over their personal inadequacies. Not much else to say for the moment. The garden is packed to the gills with large peacock butterflies. Mostly on the purple budlias. The sky was full of swallows flying up to 500 ft or more.

Whether 'tis nobler to drive on the grassy slope, or to boldly go where farmer's ire is wont to clash with the evil, trespassing  public. The lateral [sideways] slope is so severe that 4WD tire tracks have cut deep into the crop to avoid toppling over. "You keep off my mowing grass!" [Unless it's huntsmen's 4WDs on their way to feed the pheasants and ducks to provide welcome cannon fodder.]

Just a short ride to the shops. Warm but windy. Lots of harvesters busy now.  7 miles.

Tuesday 8th 59-74F, 15-23C, overcast with a light breeze. Should stay dry until later this afternoon. Early  walk with several circling birds of prey out over the harvested fields. Probably hoping for  takeaway breakfast. Late morning ride to the shops. Brought back my yellow, Overboard bag. 7 miles.

First image, deflated and limp immediately after arrival. The yellow has a slight hint of orange but is still very high viz. Smells of PVC tent groundsheets. Seems good quality on first inspection. But as suspected, there is nowhere to fix my Asbo Mini 5cwt U-lock.

 After a bit of fiddling I found a way of fixing the bag using two rings and two toe-straps wrapped around the rack. [Ringed, right.]

Zip-ties could be used instead but would mean a real struggle to remove the bag in an emergency.  A longer top bar for my rack would really help. I'll see if I have any tube to slip over the present SS bar as an extension on each end. Then the bag rings can slide over the tube and the toe straps will pull straighter, instead of inwards.



The bag now seems stable enough for use and the handles could be hooked over the saddle pin for extra support. Which is what I usually did with the black 'bank' sports bag. Though the OB handles are a bit longer. I have removed the Carradice Camper in anticipation of using the OB as a fixed 'saddlebag.'

The next images show the bag stuffed to a comfortable level for the photo-shoot. Still plenty of room in there. It really is big even compared with the similar sized 'bank' sports bag. I think it looks the part. Though the cloth handles are more of a nuisance than  anything with a fixed bag.

The OB bag is actually quite floppy. So needs a plywood or plastic[?] board to rest its 30cm depth on the 15cm deep Trykit rack shelf. I am still searching for something useful for this task which wont quickly wear the cloth or mark the bag in normal use. Aluminium blackens everything it touches. As I quickly discovered when I made my first 'low rider' saddlebag crossbar.

Click on any image for an enlargement. 

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