25th November 2012

25th 41F, 5C. Gales and rain all day. I'll make it a rest day.

26th 5F, 7C, overnight storm has passed but it is still very windy though dry. Whole trees are rocking. The wind died down a bit by coffee time as I tidied the shed. Then a heavy shopping trip for 19 miles. Had I bought any more stuff I would have had to hold it in my teeth! I have increased the pressures in the Durano Plus to 90psi just as an experiment. It certainly makes them feel faster but there is more obvious jarring on lumps and bumps. With my weight distributed between three wheels there is no real need for rock hard tyres. As long as there are no pinch punctures, of course.

27th 42F, 6C, still, misty and grey. I'll wait for the mist to clear. Spent the day trying to tidy the shed. In the end I left after 3pm into the murky dusk. Came back in the pitch dark watching the speeding traffic in my rear view mirror with some trepidation. Only 13 miles.

28th 38F, 3C, misty, grey, drizzle. Rode to Assens to shop.  The latest winter jacket (Nalini 'Team') seems to be warm, wind proof and remarkably waterproof. I thought I'd be cold without the cycling cardigan underneath but wasn't. The SealSkinz gloves did well too. Only 20 miles.

29th 36F, 2C, heavy overcast, windy and spitting with rain. I spent the morning removing the 10th sprocket to move the axles back towards the middle position. Then I could refit the mudguards without alignment problems. I had moved the axle so far over to the right that the tyres did not properly align with the mudguards. Which risked the tyres rubbing on the mudguard bridges.

It should have taken no time at all but the fixed axle cup has a wonky thread. I tried running a couple of other well greased, fixed cups in there in the hope that the axle housing thread would sort itself out. But no. So I still ended up with a lockring to fill the space where the cup would not go right in. I don't have a decent 38mm spanner. Making do with a large adjustable spanner.

On a bike it would be a piece of cake to sort out but a trike axle is hemmed in by all the housing reinforcement loops. Later trikes (Trykit and Longstaff) very sensibly use circlips to hold the axle bearings in place. Apart from removing damageable threads from the equation this has the advantage of saving the weight of four bottom bracket cups.  As I struggled to turn the fixed cup in tiny increments I could see why oversized outside bearing bottom bracket fittings aren't used on trike axles. They would offer larger diameter, but lighter, hollow axles. With such poor access to the inner bearings it is hardly worth the trouble to research the possibility of using these bearings.

As of 1pm it has started sleeting. I still hope to go out after lunch. It snowed and it sleeted and it stabbed my eyes with icy needles. My feet were cold and wet despite mudguards and GripGrab rubber overshoes. The GripGrab Polaris gloves started out cold but slowly warmed up despite going dark with the wet. The gears were all over the place despite constant small adjustments. Too dark to see what was going on back there. Only 13 miles.

Another view of the Brahesborg lake.

I wonder if DHL are on strike? I have had a parcel sitting in Germany for 52 hours according to their own track and trace! I paid 22 Euros for delivery! That's 165DKK, £18GB or 35US! Nice work if you can get it! I checked Trust Pilot and see they (DHL) are rated almost as badly as UPS!

You wouldn't believe my last troubles with this very dodgy outfit. Fortunately the track and trace records saved me being ripped off by one of their hired crooks/drivers. He could hardly claim my packages weren't scanned onto his truck could he? He was so upset that he couldn't get away with such an obvious theft that he dropped all four boxes onto concrete from chest height right in front of me! His supervisor didn't give a shit when I rang up to complain! Completely disinterested.

Had I any choice I would completely refuse to buy anything from any dealer (or person) who uses DHL for delivery. Why encourage them when they obviously don't care a damn about service? Am I having fun yet?

An update: Two whole days and six hours later the package is finally reported to be in Denmark. I knew I should have fitted a rack on the trike. I could have cycled down there, picked up the parcel and returned home again in the time that DHL took just to move the package across Hamburg!

30th 31-32C,  0C, breezy intervals, mostly sunny with occasional plates of cloud. My package arrived in the post. Which explains why it wasn't updated by DHL beyond arrival in Denmark. My blog has locked me out all day! I checked the help forums and found that I needed to turn off Draft.blogger in Settings. That fixed the problem. A rather cold day. Particularly when I had to ride into the northerly wind. The Aesse jacket worked beautifully under these conditions. As did the Dintex scooterist's gloves. Gears still not right. I think the rear changer is probably twisted on the bolt-on hanger again.

I rode to Assens to do some more shopping. 25 miles. Having shoved a massive 6 metre ladder up the roof yesterday, I had to follow the professional sweep to finish the job properly! He left a lot of flaky stuff up near the top. But at least he isn't a racist, bullying vandal like his boss. So I was already aching before I carried 24x10kg bags of fuel, twice, for the woodburning stove. Poor old devil! :-)


http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/6512/cycling/the-miraculous-powers-of-the-media-cycle-helmet/

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20th November 2012

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20th 45-46F, 7-8C, heavy grey overcast, windy but dry. The internet was off again! Only for a few minutes. Probably just the CIA getting their wires crossed. ;-)

The Higgins cockpit. Cadence/Revcounter on the left reads in tenths. Would prefer digits of the same size but beggars can't be choosers at this price point. (£10 equiv each at Bauhaus) The mileages are now well out of date! As is the untidy wiring. 

Another shopping trip for 21 miles. 8 kilos! Going out again after coffee.  Plus 17 more miles with 10 kilos of shopping this time. Just catching up with low price, special offers of long lasting stuff to go on the shelf. It was getting windier all the time but still not very cold.

I have been researching crank length. Since changing to 175mm on the Shimano MTB chainset cranks I have never felt completely comfortable when pedalling at my usual rate. (95rpm) Previously, all my cranks have been 170mm.

As usual, "expert" opinion on crank length is highly polarised. The majority are claiming miraculous results from shorter cranks. Some of this same majority are also pushing ridiculously expensive product!

A couple of nay-sayers claim that longer cranks are the way forwards. My own situation shows that this is simply not true. Except (perhaps) for those who push high gears for maximum power at lower pedal rpm.

Twiddlers, like myself, do not feel comfortable with this long crank advice. From 170 to 175mm is actually less than a quarter of an inch. Though the difference over entire pedal circle is twice that. The long crank exponent suggests that I should indeed be using 175mm cranks with my 32" inside leg measurement. I have to disagree. I am always conscious of turning the pedals through a large circle. (with 175mm cranks) Rather than being able to completely ignore them as  natural part of pedalling. If I'm doing 5 million pedal rotations per year I really ought to know about these things. Nobody should dictate to me what I need.

My search for further information on useful touring ratios (with my limited bottom gear sprocket size of 26T) inevitably brought me to SpaCyles. They sell the Sugino, Stronglight (and their own XD-2) chainsets. The only obvious difference between them, apart from the graphics, is the available ring choice on offer. Oh, and crank length! Down to 160mm if desired. They even sell the cranks separately at only £20 squid a pair! (in limited lengths) So, once one has purchased a chainset (i.e.suitable set of chainrings with the necessary fixing bolts and one set of cranks) one can mix and match crank length for remarkably low cost. The only boring bit is swapping rings and pedals between cranks.  But it makes one think furiously about discovering the perfect crank length for yours truly... and not a moment too soon. :-)

www.spacycles.co.uk chainsets

Spa list, but don't illustrate the Stronglight Impact Kid chainset. So I borrowed this image from the Stronglight website:

www.stronglight.ImpactKid

This is their later New Impact style with 5 visible fixing points. What a gorgeous, incredibly affordable, chainset! I'm not sure how long the cranks are on this image as they appear far longer than expected even for a 42T chainring. As it clearly shows 48T stamped on the outer ring I think we can safely assume a mistake on the Stronglight website. This is probably just a New Impact double under the wrong website heading.

What a shame that every website, worldwide, of those selling the 'Kid' have opted to use exactly the same wrong image from Stronglight. After wading through endless pages of Google hits I still haven't found a single image of the Stronglight 'Kid' chainset! I have emailed Stronglight asking them to correct their image of the 'Kid' chainset.

Offered in 44/34 and 42/34  sizes and 110PCD the Kid comes in crank lengths right down to 130mm! Twiddlers, everywhere, spin your hearts out! :-)

However, the 'Kid' seems not to be available as a triple. I have emailed SpaCycles to have them confirm this. There are conversion or adaptor rings listed on the Spa website to make triples out of doubles. I thought I'd try to obtain a triple in 150mm crank size if available. For no other reason that it seems like a nice round number and I am rather scared of going any shorter! Fuzzy logic suggests the addition of a 24T inner ring to make a nicely compact triple of 24/34/44. The 24T would suit my need for low gears while limited to 26T at the rear.

21st 42F, 6C, very windy, heavy grey overcast.  I tootled down to Assens. As I rode out of some woods I found a very large deer looking back at me from less than 10 yards away! It seemed quite unmoved and went on nibbling the farmer's juvenile crop. It obviously hadn't heard that animals are supposed to notice trikes but not bikes. Horses often watch me pass and dogs go rapid as I ride past. Lots of birds of prey about today. Brought back 10 more kilos of shopping. 20 miles so far. Going out again after lunch.

It never did get light today. My eyes and nose were streaming this afternoon while riding into the cold wind. The SealSkinz must have been slightly damp from this morning. Because my hands were freezing cold riding into that nasty headwind. The trees were roaring on the way back but I was enjoying the helping hand. Another 10 miles on the Higgins mule. It is just as well I don't have a rack any more or I'd have been tempted to carry even more weight! Since covering distance is more important than weight carrying capacity I shall limit myself to 10kgs.

The lake at Brahesborg Gods.

22nd 47F, 8C, heavy overcast, early rain clearing. DMI promise sunshine later. It's always a toss-up between later wind and enjoying some weak sunshine. Or going much earlier in the semi-darkness and grey overcast, but usually less windy, early morning. I can actually see blue sky out of the window now! I wonder if I can (gently) persuade the Head Gardener to make early coffee and toasted rolls? :-) The answer was yes, so I was able to get a ride in before lunch in full sunshine. Rather windy but mostly from the side.

I was overtaken by a sociopathic drunken driver travelling at very high speed on the straight into a 30mph village boundary. The lights on the T-junction ahead had just changed to red but he made no attempt to slow at the village speed limit signs. An old lady, bent double with severe spinal curvature was already crossing the road long before he and I approached. He swerved right around her, to the opposite kerb, while passing a crossroads, before finally braking to a stop at the traffic lights.

I pulled up alongside his filthy estate car on my trike but could see nothing through the illegally dark, passenger windows. I wonder how he gets through the biennial vehicle inspection? I rode just past and looked back through the windscreen. All I could see was a moron listening to his wholly inadequate audio system thumping monotonically away to itself. There was absolutely no sign of an adult driver anywhere in the vehicle! I wish I'd had a decent camera to share his utterly moronic behaviour with the YouTube watchers.

Only 14 miles but I have to go out again. This is due to their having no stock at the coop supermarket yet again. So much for special offers, eh? I wonder if the countless staff, constantly blocking the aisles with their new stock, remember that it is only ever coop supermarkets which close down? Plus 18 more miles under steadily darkening skies. I should count myself lucky I'm not 'enjoying' the severe storm in the UK! Over 70mph winds and heavy rain causing flooding.

23rd 40F, 4C, windy already, with pretty pink stripes across the sky. I fancy a ride to Odense to buy some tools. I need to be able to use my torque wrenches with hex key and Torx drivers. With a strong southerly wind it would be easy going there but quite a struggle coming back.  Though not the usual headwinds.

I was just smiling at a piece on the online TV news about the new bicycle lighting rules. People are questioning whether the new rules can even be checked in a serious way. Should the constable stand and wait 5 hours while the light slowly dims to ensure the 5 hours battery rule applied? Shall the constable tell the cyclist to wait, right there, while he walks 300 metres away to check the beam can actually reach that far?

Why is it that 95% of all drivers in Denmark exceed the speed limit for 95% of the time, with apparently complete impunity. It seems as if it is a breach of human rights to be stopped in Denmark while speeding. So much so that the police must publicise where they are going to park their disguised radar vans. While cyclists are being constantly harassed and fined for far less dangerous activities! How many cyclists killed pedestrians or other cyclists in the last 100 years?

While I am in Odense I am always terrified of a £70 fine for riding in the pedestrianised areas. While cars, vans and vast, articulated lorries may safely use these same spaces as and when they like. Provided, only, that they pretend to be delivering to local businesses. So I have to get off and push my trike. While simultaneously avoiding heavy, two-way traffic on exactly the same stretch of  pavement! Something is certainly not right in the State of Denmark!

<Cough!> The Miljø/Environment minister is talking about increasing car taxes for petrol and diesel cars while reducing it for hybrids, gas powered cars and the like. Many diesel cars have had chip tuning for increased power while greatly increasingly their damaging effect on the environment and people's health with soot particles. Why did they begin to drive diesels? Because the politic-ooze deliberately lowered taxes on diesel cars and even on their fuel. </cough!>

No problem getting there (Odense) but the wind had picked up on the way back. It felt freezing cold on my face but the rest of me was well protected. I had a long chat/argument with a pro bike mechanic on Shimergo. I don't think I convinced him of the merits. Though he could see how I was limited to Shimano splines on the trike. I was tired and a bit hungry on the way back. 43 miles. After six hours in the bib shorts I can manage six straight verses of "Oh for the wings of a dove" (boy soprano) without a bum  note!

I ordered a 46/34/24 XD-2 chainset with 160mm cranks from Spa Cycles in the UK. Hopefully this will put an end to my aching legs and knees. If I find I need smaller ring sizes with these shorter cranks I can always buy new rings.

Image from Spa's website:

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s109p2002

24th 41F, 5C, grey, still and misty. (but the mist is clearing quickly) Tomorrow promises up to 50mph gusts and heavy rain all day so I have to make up for it today! Where shall I go? Bogense. (pronounced BOW-uns-uh.) A small harbour town on the north coast of fyn. Very unspoilt with lots old  houses. I was fine going but the moment I turned for home realised there would be a steady 10-15 headwind all the way home. I was very tired and achy for a while but it gradually passed. Bogense has the advantage that it isn't on a main road to anywhere. So it is very relaxed with lots of people enjoying Saturday morning at the small independent shops. The high street has been kept largely free of chains and supermarkets. The sky is still horribly grey with none of the promised sunshine. 52 miles. Just passed 15,000 kilometres for this year. First use of my Smart lights this winter. Batteries still strong from new. Brilliant lights!


http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/6512/cycling/the-miraculous-powers-of-the-media-cycle-helmet/

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15th November 2012

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A gorgeous example of Geoff Booker's trike building skills. Made of Reynolds R931 seamless, stainless steel. Even the Trykit rear rack is made of stainless steel. To provide a long life while safely avoiding the usual paint rubbing away to bare metal and the inevitable rust which follows. Who wouldn't be proud to own and ride such a perfect example of the tricycle builder's art? Do you know any other bespoke frame builders who can make axles, hubs, 2WD freehubs and racks as part of their trade? Trykit

15th 46F, 8C, heavy grey overcast, winds light. The grey skies continue. Shopping in Assens. Only 19 miles so far. I had to smile smugly to myself today. I was in a supermarket looking for suitable bread to replace the discontinued stuff we had enjoyed for years. The replacement, aerated cardboard crap was obviously not selling! It had all been reduced to small change to clear the shelf of old stock. This never happened with the original loaves! Customer ½ Supermarkets Ø!

In case you were wondering what relevance bread has to cycling you must have missed the point of cycling for improved health. (rather than an excuse for drug abuse) Real bread is a valuable source of fibre and nutrients. It reaches the parts that the fat and salt takeaway merchants and sugar recyclers haven't even dreamed of using in their false advertising.

Bread can be used for a whole variety of things other than sandwiches. Toast, doorstops, winter bird fodder, Frisbee throwing at ducks, puddings... It is very light and has even been known to be transported by cyclists as a filling snack. All without having to throw sandbags out to compensate for its extra weight as they float away into the sky on their bloated, carbon fibre monstrosities.

Plus 12 more miles pm to finish the shopping and collect my new Class10 SanDisk Ultra micro SDHC card for my Medion inaction camera. The SanDisk card reader turned out to be as small as the end of my finger! I seriously doubt the new card will make the camera any more sensitive. Which means it is still useless unless the sun is actually shining. Though not directly into the lens! If the card can remove the endless zebra artefacts it will be something.

I bought the memory card online. With free freight and no card charges for a third of the price of local shops. I will no longer deal with any online company which charges for using debit  and credit cards. Why can't these crooks add their fixed charges directly to their online prices? Why does the customer have to wait until the very last stage of purchase to see how much they have been fleeced? In my opinion they have dug their own graves, shot themselves in the head and fallen face down into the hole!

I had to collect the package from a local shop of my own choosing. The online dealer uses the GLS Pakke-Shop service. Hardly any effort for me to pick up a package given my freedom of mobility. The shop staff are always very pleasant. The GLS service also offers excellent tracking and a final email update of readiness for collection. The Postal service can take four days to deliver a small packet from within Denmark! Which means four days of hanging about waiting for the non-existent delivery. Most of their staff think the world owes them a living. No matter how poor their service or how much they may scowl at the awful injustice of having to be a postperson in a modern van.

The Brooks B17 'Select' with a central line drawn on the image. At least the left skirt has now dropped to a more normal position. It was sticking out sideways for most of its short life. Perhaps the increased tension is pulling the leather straight? It is still a thing of great beauty. 

We used to have only three or four postal deliveries per week. You could tell what day it was by the absence of post. The online service was two working days from ordering for stock items and three for remote-stock. So far they have kept their word and left me in complete control of my own choices and actions. I like that a lot. I have given them top marks on the online review service. Praise due where it is earned.

16th 44F, 7C, grey overcast, light winds. There is a promise of a glimpse of sun later. I'm not sure whether to be grateful or start worrying about the temporarily delayed winter. I may not have mentioned that I have been wearing the Sealskinz gloves for over a week. Their lack of insulation was compensated for by their high level of dexterity and the continuing very mild conditions. The lack of any padding has been of little concern with the new handlebars well padded with gel strips. I doubt the clingy rubber is any softer than taped alloy bar but it increases the area on which the hands normally rest. Though sold by bike outlets the Sealskinz have no padding of their own and a rather limited low temperature range. Moisture inside the gloves must be strictly avoided!

Just another shopping loop for 20 miles. Today I could more easily see that the flocks of nervous birds were Fieldfares. There are also incredible numbers of gulls hanging around in flocks. They were swarming around a mink farm like bees around a honey pot. The faster memory card had little or no effect on the Medion camera's 'zebra stripe' artefacts.

17th 36-38F, 2-3C, a cold, grey, raw day. We have been promised some sunshine but it looks as if I shall be queueing for another refund. Going out after coffee as it drizzled earlier. I had an idea to rotate the saddle slightly to the left to see if it will help it straighten itself out. Nothing ventured...Only 14 miles so far. I have to go out again after lunch. Plus another 13 miles later. I was glad for the warmer GripGrab scull cap today. The SealSkinz gloves were okay this morning. However, the slight damp from this morning's ride made them feel cold this afternoon. Fortunately they soon warmed up.

18th 42F, 6C, quite still, overcast, grey with light rain or drizzle forecast for this morning. If I am to reach 10k this year I need to maintain an average of 30 miles per day with no rest days. More easily done in summer than winter. It doesn't help when Sunday mornings aren't very promising for a longer ride. It has been continuously windy this year which has often limited potential routes. As I sit at my computer I often look out of the window at the trees in the garden. The Birches, in particular, are only rarely completely still. Today they are, but the sky remains grey and brooding. I don't even enjoy photography when there is no colour or sharpness to the light.

At least the damage done by the Nidd saddle has subsided. I think it must be the lamination on the underside which has killed any potential flexibility or comfort. The leather is easily thick enough for any saddle to hold its form. The Brooks 'Select' hardly transmits the lumps and bumps of the road. The Nidd offered no such suspension and would hammer the sit bones relentlessly. Which is a great shame. The Nidd saddle has so much potential for a long and comfortable life on a serious touring machine.

I was trying to think of a way of exercising the Nidd without my being actively involved. I thought a hinged, weighted arm, pressing two sit bone spaced lumps accurately and repeatedly might work. The weight being lifted and lowered by the constantly rocking trees. The problem was weatherproofing the apparatus so that leather did not become soaked and damaged. I didn't fancy making holes in the shed to allow a rope to pass. An electric motor would do as well but the cost of electricity and potential fire risk, while absent on a ride, put me off that idea. You can tell how serious the Nidd comfort problem is that I should waste any time on such endeavours! :-)

Wind turbine towers at Vissenberg awaiting painting. The works is very close to the motorway. Handy when the loads are so large that normal road transport is all but impossible.

The Durano Plus tyres also do their bit for riding comfort. I regularly have to cross brick-sized cobbles but can hardly believe the improvement in comfort over the GP4000. The selfish farmer's lumpy mud pats used to be almost unrideable and unbearable. They would jar me horribly! Throwing the trike viciously in all directions. Now I hardly bother to avoid many of these former irritations. The perennial moraines, of  loose stones and gravel found on many corners and junctions, would always force me out into the passing traffic. As would the countless sunken drains and manhole covers. Now I hardly notice their presence. Even ride over them to see how much I can still tolerate. There were times, with the GP4000, when I really feared for my teeth falling out and my eyeballs rattling onto my cheeks!

The odd thing is how lively the Duranos feel. Provided they have over 80psi in them they have a magical ability to roll seemingly effortlessly. This may be an illusion produced by their greater comfort of course. Yet they don't feel slow as a result of their construction and ride quality. As soon as I leave the house to roll down our rutted, gravelled drive I can feel their willingness to get going. The GP4000s felt as if they had to stop and examine every single piece of gravel along the drive. Why anyone would use them for serious racing on cobbles I have absolutely no idea. They shake the rider so much that all forward motion is forgotten!

Well, now it is finally brightening up. So I can stop boring all my readers to death and get ready for a ride. Which recycled jacket shall I wear today? Eeeny, meeny, miney.. I left very late as the sun came out for a few moments to taunt us and then disappeared for the test of the day. With so little time to play I just rode a roughly circular route. The bib shorts were very comfortable but caused the usual problems at nature stops. By the time I reached home I was ready to play the boy soprano part. Interestingly (?) I had to tip the saddle back a little to cope with the slippery shorts. I already had about 12 kilos of shopping on by half way. Fortunately the wind was very light so I hardly noticed the extra weight.  Now, as the sun sets at 4pm, the sky is covered in orange fluffy stripes. Only 36 miles.

I looked at my mileage page again and worked out that I had averaged 28 miles per day for the entire year so far. 196 miles average per week. With 6 weeks left and maintaining my present averages I should easily manage 10k. Weather permitting of course. My wife said that I didn't have to reach 10,000 at all. That I was in charge and that it was a personal choice whether to ride or not. Isn't that a bit like putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum? :-)

19th 36-41F, 2-5C, an overnight, white frost. With clear skies at the moment. Cloudy and windy is promised by the DMI. The wind was light at first but increased. The sun turned to overcast and cleared again. I had a ton of shopping on board today. 30 miles.

A Higgins Ultralite Tandem trike has come up on eBay:

Higgins Ultralight Tandem Trike | eBay

Presently sporting 3 gears and a rear drum brake.

The seller hasn't mentioned it but, unless I'm very mistaken, it has 2WD via a Higgins differential. Which probably means finding a screw-on block to get more gears.

Isn't it delightful to see large flange hubs?  They have rather gone out of favour in recent times but were absolutely de rigueur in my youth.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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