~o~
Up at 7am after another quiet night. I am going for a walk. I seem to have broken the habit lately. I'd better wear a high viz jacket. To give the drivers a clearer target.
It didn't work. They all gave me a wide berth. Complete invisibility of receding cars was down to 100 meters in places. The sun broke through at 8.15 but remained an ill defined brightness. Some of the hedgerow elders were showing bright colours. These will vanish when the hedge slasher does the rounds.
I walked to the lanes to check on progress at the old house. The overgrown garden and hoarded waste is all but clear. A pheasant was caught in the open as I passed a field entrance. It started running and then stopped to watch me pass. Two neighbour's dogs greeted me. Just another day.
9.45 Full sunshine. Mist clearing quickly. I have updated yesterday's post with images of the saddle at its raised and lowered positions. This dropper post has 125mm or 5" of travel. This varies with model and manufacturer. No all, long travel, dropper posts can be accommodated in all bike frames. So check carefully before ordering.
I highly recommend dropper posts for safety when coming to a stop. It is not always convenient [or even possible] to put one or both feet down from a raised [normal] seat height. Sliding off the nose of the saddle may not be remotely possible as you try to maintain balance. The very [user unfriendly] bar chicanes on many Danish bicycle paths can be lethal. As can a sudden, unexpected stop in traffic. Usually in completely the wrong [high] gear for a safe pull away.
I find the worst situation is when one cannot turn left at a Danish traffic light on a bike. One must ride straight cross the junction on green. Then indicate right and make a sharp circle on the road in front of the waiting traffic on the right. Then wait for the lights to change to green again. Before pulling straight across the junction or cross as if you had planed to turn left all the time but weren't allowed to. The motorized traffic turns left on green. The cyclist in Denmark waits TWICE on green.
I could easily stay with the traffic as it accelerates when turning left at the lights. NOT ALLOWED! Not in Denmark! Oh, and by the way. Every traffic light is ALWAYS at red in Denmark when you are cycling. There are no exceptions. This is why Denmark produces so many good sprinters.They have years of practice sprinting away from the gaggle/bunch. After waiting interminably and patiently at red lights. Until they eventually change to green.
Cycling friendly Denmark? Yeah, right! It can take twenty minutes to ride a single kilometer in a city like Odense. All the main roads are festooned with traffic lights. [All at red] Which is why Danish racing cyclists are so prone to hypothermia when they are out training. Ideally they'd wear puff jackets for waiting TWICE at every traffic light. However, the wind resistance and loss of insulation, when wet, would be a bit of a damper.
10.15 49F/9C. It's a lovely morning for a ride now. I need groceries but the local supermarkets don't stock what I need. So I shall enjoy a ride in the sunshine to the next village north. I might even detour to another village. I'll see how I feel. My nether regions may not have forgiven me for yesterday's outing!
12.00 Back from a 20km ride. The panniers were stuffed full. So I came straight home. Going well. Though it felt like a headwind going both ways. Yet all the wind turbines are completely still. As were the few pennants. [Pl.Vimpler in Danish]
The new saddle height immediately felt very natural. If the old saddle height was too high then I may have been rocking my hips. Which would tend to increase saddle friction.
17.00 Our hero tidied the greenhouse. Mowed the parking space and drive. Took down the second and last layer of greenhouse shade net and washed up the mounting backlog.
Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast with halved tomatoes.
~o~
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