6.10.2024 Glavendrup Stones.

 ~o~

  Sunday 6th 40F/4C [8.15] Thick mist again. A sunny morning is possible if the mist clears. Last of the pleasant autumn days before rain arrives. 

 Up at 6.45 after another quiet night with complex, illogical dreams.

 Should I risk another ride? I love the beautiful, Danish countryside in sunshine. The winding and undulating lanes are a delight. A walk first.

 9.00 Back from a walk to the lanes as the mist lifted. Hanging on only in thin stripes here and there. Made more scenic by distance. A distant tower incongruously lifted into visibility by its elevation. I wore gloves and was irritated. By their inability to function with my phone and its camera.

 MacLardy's inbreds had been carpet bombing the verges again. New evidence of their crippling handicaps strewn for hundreds of meters. The transparency of MacLardy's sales pitch. Openly exhibited in the infantile colours of their globally scattered debris.  Akin to graffiti artist's daubs but with even less creativity. Nor even the remotest hint of any inherent talent. While I am all for inclusivity, I question why both types must ruin the peace of our co-existence. If pig transporters are limited to endurance. Do MacLardy's customer's enjoy the same benefits? 
   
10.00 The conditions are simply far too perfect not to have a ride.

  15.15 Returned from a 95km/59mile ride. A fully sunny morning but the cumulus started to clump and hide the sun after lunch time. I headed north east until I reach the Glavendrup Stones. Just north of Søndersø. It is a Viking monument with the longest Runic text found so far. A series of stones forms the shape of a ship. With the main, inscribed stone at the prow. The site had been badly damaged by removal of many stones for local building work at a much later date. It is not recorded whether the dire warning inscribed on the stone came to pass.

Glavendrup stone - Wikipedia

 After that I kept heading west. Until I could turn back south by narrow lanes. Then on home by familiar roads. I was feeling strong throughout. Though I suffered from sitting on the Brooks B67 for 5 hours. No friction thanks to Assos cream and my best bibs. [Padded cycling shorts with fixed braces.] I saw a lot of cyclists today.  

 Dinner was a mountain of salad. The boiled eggs had 15 minutes. It could have been a little less.

 

  ~o~

5.10.2024 A bit of a damper.

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 Saturday 5th 40F/4C. [8.00] Thick mist. It is even visible across the garden.

 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. 

 Similarly, there are external and internal operated dropper posts. Even variations on handlebar lever orientation. Rear suspension pivots and frame curvature can play havoc with seat post clearance. Then there's seat post diameter to worry about. Best to see how far down a standard seat post will go. Mark that point with tape or a permanent marker. Then double check the actuator mechanism, on an internal seat post, will still clear.

 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.

 No point in going out after lunch. All the ordinary shops are closed on Saturday afternoon. Only the big shed stores and supermarkets are open. It has become cloudy. I'll have to close the greenhouse door to keep the coolth in. 75F in the greenhouse. 62F indoors.[ 24C:17C] It's not enough to raise the indoor temperature and makes it feel cold instead.

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~

 

4.10.2024 Another 68km and the 0.885 constant.

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  Friday 4th 39F/4C [8.20] Misty [300m] with a thick mist warning. We are on the eastern edge of the affected area. Another sunny day promised after a cold night. First autumn frost in some places. A very light, northerly breeze.

 Up at 7.30 after an unusually quiet night with weird dreams. Lower back pain again.

 Given the perfect weather conditions I ought to have a ride. Dressed warmly. Don't ask me where. I'll have a look at Google Maps. Eeny-meany...

 14.15 Returned from a 68km ride. The wind was so light that all the turbines were still. I looped around the familiar charity shops to my north. Not that I found anything interesting to buy. I disturbed a male kestrel sitting on a lamppost. It decided it was a hare, or a pheasant and flew alongside me for quite some distance. I have been inundated with pheasants at home but I digress.

 I started feeling saddle sensitivity at 25km. After that it just got much worse. I tried adjusting saddle height repeatedly. This being easy to manage with a dropper post with a little practice. Press the lever gently and let yourself sink ever so slightly. It's not very accurate but certainly worth a try.  

 Sometimes it helped. At others not at all. While raising the saddle to its original height also helped at other times. I was wearing Wiggle's DHB racing shorts under my cargo trousers. The idea being to avoid friction.

 YouTube spontaneously produced a couple of helpful videos. One young lady mentioned measuring leg length with a book under the crutch. Then marking the wall with a pencil at the [book] spine. Heels against the wall in sock feet. It took several attempts before the marks closely agreed. 

 I then used her multiplier of 0.885 to find my saddle was [theoretically] 2cm too high. Almost an inch in olde money. Assuming she was right of course. I've never heard of the 0.885 rule before. I'll give it a try tomorrow. My choice of shoes also affects matters. My Sorel winter boots have much thicker soles than my trainers.

 My saddle is deliberately set nose up. Only today did I bother to check the ground was actually level under the bike wheels. Which was certainly a first for me! The builder's level showed it was roughly 2cm higher at the front wheel. So I added a 2cm board under the back wheel and rechecked the saddle. Still nose up. I carry the correct hex key in my jacket pocket. It fits both the saddle clamp and the frame clamp. Handy.

 Interestingly [?] the dropper post's collar is now resting on the frame clamp. It is unable to go any lower at minimum extension. Which gives me the minimum possible saddle height when fully lowered. For safely reaching the ground while at a standstill. 

 Any height, down to the minimum, is possible with a touch of the handlebar lever while riding normally. Ideal for those who prefer the "BMX look." I find that lowering the saddle below optimum feels very unnatural. It is as if my my knees are up in the air.

 Dinner was fried chicken, mushrooms and oven ready chips. All in sunflower oil. The jury is still out on whether this is healthy.

 

 ~o~