28th April 2014 Camera Action!

Monday 28th 50F, 10C, light breeze, full sun. Another beautiful sunny day but with lighter winds promised. Gusting only to 20mph. I keep forgetting to record the peak temperature during this warm spell. My figures usually relate to the temperature as I scribble on my blog before leaving for a walk. Then the temperature when I return from my ride as I write up anything unusual. Or to try and express some thought which has popped into my vacuous noddle.

After my walk I shall be back to experimenting with the downward-pointing Sony Action Cam. Yesterday's results were spoilt by not being able to fix the camera anywhere useful. The camera is now firmly supported behind the saddle. The saddlebag and supporting "rack" are gone and the entire length of the seat stays and most of the rear axle should be clearly visible. Thanks to the wide angle lens and bright sunshine the image of the trike is nicely sharp. Though the road below is moving too fast to be properly captured. I just need to check with some short, trial videos that the camera is pointed correctly. Then I can do some hill climbing and sprinting to see what the rear end is actually doing. Each video has to be downloaded onto my computer for viewing so it is not exactly an "immediate" format. Better I suppose than the "good old days" when one waited for a lab to develop the film.

Well, I've now completely wasted a couple of hours on Sony's POS Non-Action Cam. Not only is it rattling its LCD screen (a well known fault which somehow escaped the multi-billion dollar Sony Corporation's, blind, deaf and dumb, product testing department) but the Play Memories Home software is also broken. I tried downloading an update but guess what? It automatically opens the software to install the update. Then tells me it can't install because the damned software is open!!!
  
It gets worse! I added a long tail for a completely different viewpoint. This proved to be the best length with the Sony's field of view.

What a total piece of crap this camera has proved to be! Half the time the micro smart card doesn't remain connected to its socket! This is totally unforgivable for a sports action camera. So hours of recording are never recorded! It is absolutely useless in anything but bright sunlight and then it paints the sky in lunatic LSD colours! I have another Sony product going back because it rattles like a bucket full of bolts. Is there any Sony Product which actually works as its hype department claims?

A whole day, only 9 miles covered but I eventually had two videos (almost) worth sharing. Albeit with absolutely appalling soundtracks! YT didn't like my second video and spent ages processing it after processing the first one "live" without so much as a pause before it was available for public viewing. Then the Itinerant went off! Weather apart, it has not been my day at all!

Top view:



Another view:




I have now added music to the videos to hide the mechanical racket and buzzing LCD screen and suggest you watch full screen in HD if you can. Though picture quality is still vastly inferior to the original videos in 1080p watched on my own computer. Despite appearances no part of the roads covered were flat. Given the tiny number of tricycling videos posted online I hope you consider my very amateur efforts worthwhile. There is a strange irony that there are literally hundreds of YouTube videos of adults playing on children's toys. Yet very few videos of touring and racing tricycles being ridden by "real" cyclists.  

Tuesday 29th 44-67F, 7-20C, still and sunny. Forecast is just as warm again but possibly cloudier than the clear blue skies we have been enjoying for days now. It became very warm and stayed sunny. Four and a half miles in a couple of hours wandering in the woods. I saw bullfinches feeding each other, a lot of different warblers, two Shelducks, a hare, three large deer and a buff coloured, middle sized, bird of prey. And two domestic cats hunting in the spray tracks.

This early in the morning the oil seed rape hardly smells. It is probably at its best right now with most flowers open right to the tips. The woods are glorious with new foliage lit by the low, bright sunshine. Though the camera makes a very poor job of capturing the beauty of it all. It lacks the range of contrast of the human eye and is easily burnt out by brighter highlights. 

Time for a ride. Rode to a plant nursery in bright warm sunshine. A blind, senile, drunken, retarded psychopath with a drug habit brushed past me at high speed on a wide open road in his car. How do I know he had all these excuses ready? Do you know any other reasons for such dangerous and anti-social behaviour? Why does the mere ownership of a car provide such a lethal weapon without security and psychological tests? If I owned (say) a large howitzer would I be allowed to wander the roads of the entire world without some kind of checks? Yet any fool can drive a car! And most of them do! 23 miles so far.

I have to go out again. A lot of butterflies, insects and large flies about at the moment. One fly went right into my ear! I just hope it came back out again before it saw the light at the far end of the tunnel. Pardon? Another 7 miles in the afternoon. My "hip" was hurting again. I stopped to press my knee up to my chest and it improved after that.

Wednesday 30th 61-66F, 16-19C, thin, high cloud, warm and sunny, with light winds. Had a 3 mile walk. Recent spraying had re-opened the spray tracks beside the woods. Pig shit must be a valuable commodity now. I keep seeing vast, 6 axle, stainless steel tanker lorries stinking of the stuff. One tanker was being loaded beside one of the giant storage tanks at a huge pig farm. So there can be little doubt that shit is being ferried away from the originating farm.

I have a new pair of shorts from Wiggle. Thought I'd try their dhb Aeron race shorts for when I don't want (nor need) to wear my best bibs. The pad looks quite reasonable, perforated for airflow and the shorts material is multi-way stretchy and comfortable in a compression fit. So they shouldn't sag at the bum like my older shorts. Nor sweat like the awful Bontrager bibs with the frilly rubberised legs! I'm going out for a ride in my freshly laundered, new shorts after coffee and rolls.

The new shorts were more comfortable than any of my older ones but slightly too "grippy" on the Brooks saddle. After a few miles this seemed to wear off to some degree and I could adjust my position without lifting off. I presume that shorts are designed to work best on modern "plastic" saddles and their artificial coverings. These may be more slippery than solid, treated leather. Then again, the shorts may have picked up some free wax from the Brooks Proofide in this warm weather. Allowing them to slide more freely. 16 miles so far. Plus 13 more pm. I was unusually grateful for my water bottle today and kept taking swigs. (Of tap water)

It's not as if I normally ride like a basking shark but I still managed to get several large flies in my mouth today. The warm weather has produced too many of the things. The overall stench of weapons grade, pig shit might also have something to do with it. I must have seen over a dozen huge shit dribblers today but only one traditional muck spreader.

The new shorts are fine so far. The original grippy feeling on the saddle is now gone. They stayed cool and dry on what was quite a warm day. Nor did I have to keep pulling them up like the old ones. In fact I was looking for a pair of clip-on braces to wear with my original collection. Until my wife insisted I buy some new shorts. 

  Click on any image for an enlargement.

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22nd April 2014

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Tuesday 22nd 50-62F, 10-17C, early cloud cleared to sunshine. The Easterly wind is picking up again. A 3 mile stroll to start the day. My attempt to capture the weird sound in the woods was a barely audible failure. I used my camera's video function expecting something on the soundtrack. It could be a deer, or a fox. It sounds like a deep but sharp bark. Nothing like any dog I've ever heard though. Quite menacing, in a strangely alien way.

Three hares were pottering about together on the track leading to the woods. Too far away for a photograph. Every time I advanced a few steps, they retreated more. Plovers gave me a nice flying display on a newly tilled field. As did the skylarks. I knew Skylarks could climb fairly quickly but it was a shock to see them literally drop like a stone from a hundred feet and "flare out" just above the ground! An amazing feat of flying! A medium sized, all brown, bird of prey sailed low over my head with long, narrow wings extended to 'fingers.' It quickly disappeared over the tops of the trees. I am enjoying the way the oil seed rape is changing the landscape before it becomes too smelly.

It was windy but mostly sunny for my ride. Going quite well. Only 19 miles.

Wednesday 23rd 46F, 8C, heavy grey overcast, light rain and a light breeze. Showers or rain forecast until after lunch. No walk. A mid afternoon ride coincided with renewed rain. I managed to get quite soggy in a short time despite the Aldi rain jacket. I'm getting quite good at removing and refitting the Crud mudguard. I don't know why I bother to take it off because it weighs almost nothing, is almost invisible and offers very little drag. 7 miles. Much better weather promised for tomorrow.

Thursday 24th 42F, 6C, overcast, light breeze. Showers possible? Where is the promised sunshine? It didn't brighten up for my 3 mile walk. I was walking towards home when a pigshit spreader entered the field. So I had to make a serious detour to avoid it. Arrived home to enjoy the full bouquet! Yeuk! The whole area now stinks of weapons grade pig shit! As if that wasn't bad enough 173 pig farmers have been reported to the police for punishing pigs. With 7500 suspected attacks which caused sores and wounds very likely to have been inflicted by humans. Many wounds suggest that pigs have been beaten with chains, spanners and hammers. A huge fraction of all pigs die prematurely. You'll never guess what they have written on the side of the huge, slaughterhouse transporters? Thriving (animals) means healthy (animals). Yeah right! Enjoy your bacon!

Left mid afternoon for Assens. No sign of sunshine but I was cruising at 20mph + going. Rather slower coming back into the wind by another route. Finding stock in the supermarkets is a complete lottery! Only 19 miles.

Friday 25th 46-60(?)F, 8-16(?)C, windy, sunny. A 3 mile walk. A hare ran almost right up to me. Sat down, stared for quite a few seconds, then ran like hell!

I left after morning coffee for Middelfart. As I rode at speed, close to the salt marshes, I was being sandblasted by flies. I couldn't find what I wanted in Middelfart so rode on to Fredericia. Where they obviously haven't resurfaced the cycle paths since the Old Bridge was built! [1935] I seemed to be fighting the wind all day long. My plan was to ride back via the main road but it was far too noisy with constant traffic and an exhausting head/crosswind. It always irritates me that the road surface is absolutely perfect. While the cycle path is all lumps and holes! So I turned off and detoured through several villages to gather shopping as I went. Each village has different supermarkets amongst the small number of national chains.

Like a fool I didn't eat until 3pm and then only had a cheese roll and small box of orange juice. So I was getting a bit tired by then. I bought some bananas and ate one. I looked at the vast sweet racks in several supermarkets but nothing appealed. So I bought some digestives but they were like eating sawdust without a drink. All my own fault. I could easily have bought something. My moral sense will not bring me to drink sugar-loaded, fizzy crap. Though I could have bought some apple or orange juice nobody sells small boxes of the organic. I would have had to buy a litre but had no storage space left in the pint-sized Carradice Camper.

65 miles, pushing hard all the time, particularly into the wind, is only a test of stamina if you eat correctly. I was starving by the time I got home and stuffed my face with assorted sandwiches. With lots of tea to help it down. Then a good soak in the bath followed by a half hour nap and I was almost back to what passes as normal for me. Drinking tap water during the evening helped me to rehydrate. I was given some free rehydration salts by a bike shop once but they gave me leg pain each time I tried them. 

Saturday 26th, 45-65(?)F, 7-18(?)C, windy, full sun. The easterly wind already looks stronger than the peak forecast for later. Temperatures are supposed to rise rapidly to the high 60s. No (obvious) ill effects from yesterday's foolishness. I'll start with a walk. Warm sunshine and lots of birdsong. A hare came quite close again. My Lumix TZ7 camera isn't very sharp when hand held at full zoom. It really needs a DSLR with a long lens to do these more distant subjects proper justice. This is a beautiful time of year to live in the countryside. [Pigshit notwithstanding.]

It felt almost summery as I rode to the shops. Climbing quite well. So I did an extra climbing detour while still loaded with shopping. The first ride this year wearing only a cycling jersey and shorts. 19 miles.

Sunday 27th 46-65(?)F, 8-18(?)C, windy, full sun. Same forecast as yesterday but windier. My 3.5 mile walk in an hour and half seemed much warmer than the indicated temperature [58F] even though I was just ambling along. The oil seed rape has reached shoulder height and firmly closed the spray tracks.  I saw a Jay and a Blackcap today but no hares. I have also seen several cyclists out training already.

We are having an amazing run of fine weather. Except that it is slightly too windy.  Cycling into a headwind, while I am still fresh, doesn't make it any easier until I turn around and come back. Which is a bit like stating the obvious unless it is a major part of one's daily cycling experience. Doing it the other way around is even sillier. A sin of which I seem frequently guilty.

I ought to go out after the morning ritual of coffee and marmalade covered rolls. Just to celebrate the sunshine. I have caught some sun on my forearms but my legs are still very pale brown. Probably from last year. I still have a phobia about having white legs from kids shouting at me as I raced past them as a teenager. I still haven't decided whether I dare defy the wrath of SWMBO about shaving my legs. I'd better wait until they are toasty brown to reduce the chance of discovery.

I managed two rides today without going very far. Chased a couple of riders for a couple of miles but had to turn off to the shops just before I caught them. I doubt they were really trying.

Later I attached a Sony Action Cam to the seat tube to capture the gear change and my flailing feet. The Sony handlebar clamp is not very suitable for such activities due to its fixed lateral angle. So I have now added a right angle bracket and a steady bar and mounted the camera just behind the saddle. I shall hopefully have a more useful video tomorrow than those I have captured so far.

The 16:9 format wants to run along the length of the trike rather than across the track. The camera also needs to be raised to somewhere around the saddle height. Otherwise the camera does not capture the correct area of interest or enough of it. It was the continuing bright sunshine which inspired me to try this. The Sony's video performance in overcast conditions is very poor indeed.

My thinking is that a firmly fixed camera should capture any flexure of the rear axle relative to the diamond "bike" part of the frame. (If any!) Unfortunately there isn't anywhere suitable to dangle the camera except behind the saddle. Though it has a wide angle of view it still needs to point at the right area. Avoiding my flailing feet and the trike frame completely filling the screen has been difficult so far.

This is the first time I have ridden my Trykit trike stripped of all the usual ballast of saddlebag, tool kit, rack and heavy U-lock and I still only managed 16 miles today. Though I was trying really hard most of the time. Cruising at 20-26mph  on the 46t chainwheel uphill and down dale riding with the wind. Only 12-16mph coming back into a headwind but I was climbing well when out of the saddle. Something I have been practising a lot lately.

I keep pushing my pain tolerance in the hope of more effortless range on longer hills. My quads seem to have developed more as a result. They say you should remain seated on a trike but I actually enjoy the feeling of standing up on the pedals despite the pain. Now I attack every slight rise to try and improve my range before I have to sit down again and twiddle to the top. My hip pain seems to have receded again. It is usually brought on by lifting heavy weights. Probably the sciatic nerve complaining.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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21st April 2014 [Getting my daily fix]

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Easter Monday 21st 51F, 11C, overcast, breezy. Possible showers this morning.

Apparently I am an exercise self-abuser. As dependent on cycling as a drug addict is on toxic chemicals. It must be true because it is all over the Danish papers. Continuing to exercise while injured is a sure sign. As is the feeling of the day being completely empty without a ride. The guilt associated with taking a rest day is another.

Picture of a hare in a spray track. What hare? Suddenly everybody's a critic!

Thank goodness I am cycling on public roads and not training on a turbo under some rusting bridge in a run-down, industrial backwater. Or hiding my guilty secret in a dark corner of a seedy gym or (groan) pedalling away my dwindling self-esteem at home alone!

The really funny, but achingly tragic part of all of this, is that rest is "a good thing." It gives the mind, body and muscles time to repair themselves. Probably leading to better performance than continuing to train without a rest. Try telling that to a habitual addict with the skinny arms, bumpy legs and protruding veins to prove it! Oh, the awful shame!

The blame for my downward spiral into my chronic cycle of exercise self-abuse can be laid squarely at the feet of the bankers. They brought about the recession and the constant pressure to export as many jobs as possible to the slave labour countries. Otherwise a company's quarterly results [and thus their share price] would go down in the nano-second between electronic trading cycles! Now add in the politic-ooze's shallow attempts to curry favour with white trash voters by openly punishing the unemployed. Ensure there are no jobs (at all) at the hilariously misnamed "Job Centres"  and over-staff them to the gunwales with fully paid up members of the New Nazi Youth. Arbeit Macht Frei! Now you know why I started fixing on cycling!

Discarded, like so many others, onto the growing unemployment register, it was required that I sought three job interviews per week. I was 63 when I was made redundant along with many others in my age group and many of my former colleagues. Worse,  I was crippled with RSI from decades of serious manual overload. But too unfit for early retirement on the grounds of ill health.

I was two years away from normal retirement age with few useful job or Danish language skills to offer. So I was arguably less attractive to any employer than a habitual drunk with a swastika tattooed on my forehead and a ring in my nose. And, if that made me attractive then I would still be right at the back of the queue of swastika bearing, ring-nosed drunks!

To avoid the heavy financial burden of driving everywhere in my old car I rode my trike to every failing, windblown, industrial estate, solitary unkempt factory and weed infested, rural business. Usually to be told that they were "already downsizing."

Thus began my fall into chronic self-abuse by over-training on my trike. I went out in blizzards at temperatures down to -15C to prove I was actively job seeking. I used every psychological trick to help me to keep up this strangely eccentric behaviour. Rather than lapse into nihilistic depression. Or an uncontrollable rage at the intolerable unfairness of life, the universe and everything.

I actually imagined I had gained some status as a cyclist. Rather than having no status at all as an unemployed nobody. I blogged and scribbled down my mileage to prove how serious I was. I took self portraits in roadside hazard mirrors to prove I was actually out there in the wind and the rain. I kept lists of businesses I visited and constantly changed my routes as I searched for any potential place of employment.

No jobs were ever offered but I seemed to amuse those I met. I may have actually served a far more vital role as a tricycling clown by providing spontaneous entertainment therapy to depressed businesses. The rest is blogging history. Until, that is, I was eventually informed that I had officially retired. Having escaped from the dole queue I unaccountably kept up the daily tricycling fix. Though  not on a fixie, I hasten to add. One still has some pride! 

Thanks to the headlines I am now (no doubt) quite widely known as a cycling self-abuser. It is difficult to avoid this conclusion as I leave home most days dressed like a Tour de France racer. But incongruously mounted on such an unlikely steed as an adult trike. Does not compute!!

What price my status now? I see my role as one of low impact, self-preservation and bugger the tabloid press! I exercise. Therefore I am. I avoid sugar and other crap non-foods and should thus be a lighter burden on the health service. Not to mention being lighter on my feet. My constant exercise [albeit self-abuse in journalsleeze] keeps me amused rather than bored out of my tiny skull.

A 3 mile walk through woods and fields in an hour and half, soaking up the spring countryside, watching birds and counting hares. I met a black cat on a spray track a good mile from any house. It began to rain gently in the last mile.

I shall be self-abusing on my filthy, tricycling habit after lunch. Well, no matter how low I sink, at least I'm not a banker. Nor a "musical chairs" politician. Nor an, equally worthless, journalist. Nor, god forbid, a member of the insecurity services. ['Scuse my language!)  ;ø))

Despite the strong, gusty wind I still managed 21 miles of excessive exercise. I saw a Blackcap right beside the road and a pair of Red kites alighting on a midfield copse. Traffic was very light. I have just passed 2000 miles for the year. It's going to be a poor year indeed unless I increase my overdoses of completely inexcusable exercise.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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