6th November 2017 A proper ride?

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Monday 6th 34-45F, 1-6C, clear sky, white frost on the grass, calm and brightening to full sunshine. No walk, so I left about nine am. on the trike. Hint of a tailwind as I cruised comfortably at 14mph. The center of Odense is being dug up and it completely messed up all the cycle routes straight though the middle.

Shopped and then returned into a cold headwind to average about 10mph overall. The Vetta saddle wasn't too bad. Not too tired after a four hour ride with an hour for shopping and countless traffic lights. I made sure I ate my mature cheddar sandwich, two muesli choccy bars and a banana washed down with pure apple juice. 42 miles. I felt tired and headachy later so sipped water in case  I was dehydrated. It seemed to help.

Tuesday 7th 35-47F, 2-8C, white frost, clear skies and calm. It should be another pleasant day though remaining cool. The long range forecast is for a cold winter. It was quite chilly on my hands on my walk to the village. A gentle mist hung over the church pond but the sun was confusing the camera at the best angles. There were bullfinches in the hedge. A shopping ride for 7 miles. No ill effects from yesterday's ride.

Wednesday 8th 34-46F, 1-8C, white frost, calm but rather cloudy. Walked to the village and back. No ride today.

Thursday 9th 42F, 6C, heavy overcast, calm with wind and rain later. A 15 year old boy has been prosecuted for throwing chewing gum at motorway traffic. He was given a two weeks suspended prison sentence while his younger brother was beneath the age of criminal responsibility.

A terrorist, who threw a huge concrete block onto a German tourist's car, killing the mother and very seriously injuring the father, is still at large. Further stones have been thrown from bridges in the same area without identification of the perpetrators.

Danish bridges remain free of the potential dangers of security cameras. Cyclists or pedestrians should not take the law into their own hands by employing any cameras while crossing motorway bridges and should ideally turn them off. Otherwise they face the distinct risk of prosecution for disturbing the right to privacy of all terrorists.

Ironically, should a serious incident take place, the police will canvas camera owners who might <cough> "accidentally" have recorded a terrorist incident. Should the owner of these same images share them publicly they will still be prosecuted for a breach of all terrorist's basic human rights to absolute privacy while committing an act of terrorism.

A Danish council is being prosecuted for killing an 81-year-old when one of its signs blew down. I have had a couple of nasty moments when first, a temporary traffic light blew over right in front of my trike as I was riding along a main road. One second later and I would have been flattened! The crash suggested the top part weighed a ton. Last week, some deluded idiots who were setting up election placards and lost control and the placards blew down onto the road right in front of me.

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4th November 2017 Autumnal melancholy.

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Saturday 4th 48-50F, 9-10C, heavy overcast, light winds. There was shooting around local copses so I stopped to watch. The several dogs present were wildly enthusiastic but rather erratic. Perhaps it was because their ears were stuffed with ear protection? Several pheasants were brought down but one escaped numerous  wasted shots. I am always surprised by the huge variation in the noise made by the guns. Some seem almost slow while others make are very short 'crack.' A large bird of prey was watching from a local mound and seemed to be moving steadily closer. Fortunately it changed its mind and flew off in the opposite direction over the village.

Enjoyed my usual Saturday ride to more distant shops. Only 16 miles. Going well.

Sunday 5th 48-50F, 9-10C, heavy overcast, light winds, showers or rain are forecast. Though it stayed dry for a longer walk up through the woods and back long the quiet road. A couple of small deer dashed away as a female kestrel hovered busily. Until shooed away by a U-turn crow. The sodden ground squelched beneath my darkly wet boots. My flapping trouser legs blackened to the knees from brushing through unkempt reed on grassy, brambled, lumpy ways.

There is a delicious melancholy about the somber and muted tones of autumn. It is easy to become lost in nostalgia as the wind itself carries a forlorn mood under ragged skies. The dimly remembered chill cuts through thinning trees and straggly hedges and across sparsely cropped fields. Known landmarks sneak back into clear view in the absence of crops with the trees suddenly bereft of leaves.

Temporary field ponds reflect distant woods and dismal farms. Distant, newly naked, tree-lined lanes appear unexpectedly as the light is finally able to reach damp asphalt again. Small, mixed flocks of birds move nervously along hedgerows or scatter untidily across the wide spaces. Solitary crows flap like oily rags through the drab landscape under untidy, leaden clouds. On endless, unknown errands to be somewhere other than just here, right now.

No ride today but I may be allowed out for a longer ride tomorrow. Sunshine promised all day with light winds and a trip to the city in prospect. 40-45 miles should still be well within my capacity despite tailing off my mileage this year. The Vetta SL saddle hasn't been a pain yet. At least, not on shorter rides.

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3rd November 2017: Bags I, going Overboard.

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Friday 3rd 45F, 7C, overcast but dry. A short, grey walk counting McSlob's McMulti-Litter.

The Danish news tells us that, on average, a stone is thrown at traffic every four days by fuckwitted copycats in Denmark. The latest 'victim' worthy of the headlines, was a stone breaking the roof window of a bus. I wonder how that score's on the fuckwitted, young cave person's register of success? Does it score as highly as [say] a stone through the windscreen which kills the driver? As one did the poor German women and which left her husband in a coma and a child without parents. No cameras? No crime. No results. The perfect terrorist murder is as close as the nearest motorway bridge!

In Denmark, the fuckwit terrorist's basic human rights to privacy exceed all other's right to life. So no security cameras are allowed on motorway footbridges. That's alright then. I'd dangle the fuckwits by a rope from the same motorway bridge on which they were caught.[If ever!] Then let articulated lorries play 'conkers' with them.

The serial McSlobs litterer is continuing its campaign. I counted five items within a couple of square yards/meters from one simpleton's lardy, face filler.

You only need one graphic example to put the fear of maturity into these brain dead, plagiarist, rock throwing scum. What part of "terrorism" don't the politicooze understand? If it's carrying a loaded gun in a public space then it's a bløødy terrorist. Not just another brain dead, drooling gang member. If its hurling large rocks off bridges onto oncoming traffic then its a bløødy terrorist. Not some immature, human excrement playing silly boy's games to impress their fellow morons.

The election placards, demanding another free pass to the corruption of the gravy train, are littering the lampposts and verges at the moment. To be left to rot in the winter rain once the 'musical chairs' results are handed out. Democracy? Isn't that where individual elected members of an assembly get a vote in making decisions based on their conscience? I don't know they they bother with elections. What the party leader says is Law. Disagree and the member is no longer a loyal, party drone. So they might as well print cardboard cutouts of the party leader to place on all the plush, musical chairs.

The sky was black to the north as I set off in golden, afternoon sunshine. With the autumn woods lit up with an LSD color pallet against the blue-black sky. It remained dry until just after I returned seven miles later. A crosswind going both ways.

Still enjoying the big, yellow "Overboard" saddlebag. I can hardly believe the years of using recycled [charity shop] sports bags hooked and swinging freely over the saddle pin. Then the sports bags hanging over the "shrunken head" Carradice "Bijou" Camper Longflap. With too little room for even a single row of 1L milk cartons!

The "floor space" of the Overboard duffel bag allows two full rows, plus loads of other stuff. There is so much room the shopping can be sorted and resorted, at will, without damage. The Super Dreadnought Abus Mini-U Ship's Ballast lock sits silently, immovably and readily available in the rubberized, external, net pocket on top of the bag with Velcro security top closure.

Lots of reflective surfaces and bright yellow is as high visibility as you could ever hope for to defend you against White Van Man and deluded Audi driving psychopaths. There are black and blue options of the Overboard Duffel Bag if you are feeling suicidally "Sky Team" over the winter. Though you'll probably end up black and blue yourself if you're really that daft!

The image left shows the bag fully raised for loading. The mouth of the bag is wide open for feeding its hungry maw. In theory it could be used stuffed right to the top, just like this, but the top straps are too short to allow secure closure. The side straps are supposed to pull the rolled top down tight to make it fully waterproof but they just flap in the spokes unless I tuck them away around the buckles. The length of the unwanted side straps would have been much better used to extend the top straps to make them much more useful.

This is about the only criticism I have of the 40L Overboard Duffel bag. Every touring tricyclist should have one! You do need a proper trike luggage rack and I have extended my Trykit rack with a a cut-off draining board tray for more even support.

I use the cloth carrying strap over the saddle pin to keep the bag securely on the tray. Without a rack the bag is probably too soft to avoid the whirling circular saws of the cassette just below. I know from long experience that you can't rely on the trike's top axle loop to keep a loaded, soft bag safe from a chainsaw massacre!

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