Life in the Bus Lane

Connor Andrew Doig was born at 8:53 this morning, weighing 7lb 12oz.

Didn’t quite go to plan tonight, after a pun-tastic evening we lost 5-2. It was the last game of the season, and wasn’t really going to affect the league tables much, but it was a fun evening.

Half and Half took 8 points, Housing Admin took 2.

Roll on next Thursday and the teams annual dinner.

Nothing seemed to go right. The server replication software stopped over night, once I restarted it the performance of the servers reached an all-time low. After chasing around trying to sort out the cause of the problems I ended up stripping and rebuilding a SAN storage unit to balance the IO across the disks better. Everything finally seems to be remirroring properly which means I can strip, replace, and rebuild the other storage unit over the next few days.

At least the rain did hold out long enough today for me to get out for an hour or so on the Inbred. Did 12 miles in the end with a bit of random exploring in the woods for good measure.

Part way to work, the “Curse of Truvativ” strikes and my left-hand crank falls off. Guess who doesn’t carry an 8mm allen-key in his courier bag? I only seem to have ISIS crank problems with Truvativ cranks on Truvativ BB’s, my Raceface/Raceface combo has been fine for the last 2.5 years and has had far more use than the Truvativ/Truvativ combo.

The advantage of starting work at 8am is that I can finish at 4pm, head home, and be back out on the bike by 4:30. I was lazy today and it was about 4:40 before I headed out on the cross bike, ostensibly to check out a route for a planned scout hike. Good job I checked as it wasn’t really long enough and so I needed to tack another couple of miles onto the route. I rode a nice gentle 14 miles in the end and I was back home before 6pm, which still leaves the evening free for lounging around doing nothing in particular.

Not quite such a nice day today, still warm but a little overcast at times. Spent a large proportion of the day sat in the garden reading books, just relaxing after a late night last night partly caused by a lack of keys (not mine). Eventually went out about 4:30 on the singlespeed for the first time in ages and did pretty much the same route as yesterday. It’s hard work on a rigid singlespeed, the 2.4″ tyres grip well and give a nice solid feel to the ride, but are hard work on the climbs. I might try some Diesels instead of the Fire FR’s if I get around to getting another pair.

Summertime made a welcome appearance today. Hot and sunny all day, the first ride of the year with just a short-sleeve top and no base layer. After that it was nice to spend a few hours just lazing around in the garden enjoying the sun. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more of the same.

A close game, but not quite close enough. We lost two legs on a tie, and lost the game 5-4.

Bath Hospitals took 8 points, Housing Admin took 4.

Only one game left this season, away to Half and Half next Thursday.

I’m in the process of replacing our main mailservers. I’ve stripped all the users off one of them, and about a third off the second, so just to piss me off, the second one decides to fall over as it’s database has gone over the 16GB limit.

Grrrr.

After a two-week layoff, it took a while to get back into the swing of things. Thanfully it didn’t take too long, and we took a nice and convincing 5-1victory.

Housing Admin took 8 points, Half and Half took 1.

The new wheels are built and look rather nice. The front one went quite smoothly, however I managed to incorrectly lace the rear wheel three times before getting it right. Only time will tell if I’ve got the tension right, or if I’ve made a complete arse of it.

Thursday night I got a phone call asking if I could help take the Explorer Scouts camping this weekend due to a lack of leaders. Semi-reluctantly I agreed, partly as it was only for 24 hours or so. Saturday lunchtime rolled around and I arrived at my old scout hut to meet the others. There were only 4 scouts going, and 3 leaders, so I’m not quite sure why I was needed. We drove to the the site and set up camp which didn’t take us too long. The afternoon activity was raft building, the aim was to build a fire on a raft and burn through the finish line down stream. In the end only one raft still had a fire going when it crossed the line, however it didn’t burn through.

The evening meal was chicken risotto, which was actually quite nice for camp food, followed by cake and custard. A late night run to the chip shop was well timed to coincide with them closing, so we stuffed ourselves again on fish, sausage, burgers, and chips, most of which was free. The only downside was that it started raining about 7pm, and didn’t really stop until around 6am, then it started again about 10:30 and carried on until long after I got home. This meant breaking camp in pouring rain, which is always fun, however the drying of most of the tents is fortunately someone elses problem, I just have to find somewhere to dry mine.

In all, apart from the incessant rain, it was a good weekend. I might even be pursuaded to do it again one day.

After a wait of a mere 30 days, my 105 hubs finally arrived at the LBS completing the parts needed to build up my new wheels. No time to start building today as I’m off camping with the scouts in a couple of hours, but I’ll hopefully start tomorrow.

The finished product will be black Mavic CXP33 rims, black spokes, and black Shimano 105 hubs. Lets hope my wheel building prowess will do the parts justice.

I think the postie must have been half asleep this morning, he managed to delivery letters correctly, but packages were all delivered about two doors out. At least mine has now appeared from somewhere further down the street.

I rode home from work today in jeans and a t-shirt without the need for a jacket that’s been essential up until now. Even had a nice ride into town after work to pick up a package from the post office. I just hope this weather lasts for a few days longer.

I’ve never really been happy with the Univega frame I rebuilt as a hack bike last year, so this afternoon I resurrected the Orange Clockwork and built it up with a full compliment of gears and slick(ish) tyres. It still has the original Pace RC35 forks on it, along with the original Suntour XC-Comp front mech, everything else is slightly more modern than it’s 1992 vintage. It could do with better forks, but it’s tricky to find anything with a 1inch steerer these days which won’t upset the handling too much.

All I need to finish it off is to get a new rear brake cable, and fit some pedals. Some of the other cabling could do with being tidied up, but it’ll do the job whilst I see how I get on with it. If all goes well it might actually get it’s original rigid forks back, and gain some mudguards before the autumn arrives.

This must be something of a miracle, two dry bank holidays is a row. Left the house at a disgustingly early hour to ride out to Timsbury, the Trek sounded like a bag of spanners, mainly due to a slightly lose crank arm which I couldn’t tighten enough. It was a nice ride though, the weather was overcast to start but cleared up to give nice blue skies by the time I got home. A nice gentle 34 miles in the end, fueled by tea and cakes at Chew Valley Lake.

Apparently we have to leave Ian’s house by 9:15 at the latest tomorrow morning, which means I’ll have to leave here by 8:30 to give me time to ride out there.

8:30 on a bank holiday? It doesn’t exist, it shouldn’t be allowed. Best set the alarm before I go to bed then.

Spent most of the day watching coverage of Parix - Roubaix on Eurosport, Roger Hammond even came close to winning but was out-sprinted in the velodrome at the end.

Weather permitting I’ll get out for a spin on the cross bike tomorrow, probably down to the lake for tea and cakes, a very civilised way to spend a bank holiday Monday.

Vague plans are afoot to rebuild the road bike for commuting purposes, this may necessitate converting the cross bike to 9spd depending on what STI levers I can aquire cheaply.

Had a call from the LBS at 9:30 this morning to get me to fix the computer again. After fighting my way round Sainsburys I dug the Stiffee out and rode down. Having not ridden the Stiffee for a while I took some repeated shifting, and the odd kick here and there to get the rear mech to work again, and the front disk was rubbing causing a horrendous constant squeeling noise. At least it cleared pedestrians out of the way as they ran away with their hands over their ears.

I get the computer a good kicking and got it working again, and ended up coming away with a new front wheel to match the rear one I picked up last week. I suppose I ought to sort out the brakes on the Stiffee then swap the wheel over this afternoon.

Took the Craftworks for a spin on the way to a scout planning meeting tonight, a nice gentle 13 miles. Took the naughty route down through the woods as it’s been failry dry the last few days. The Diesel tyres don’t grip quite as well as the Fire FR’s in the damp lose soil which make it a little tricky, but the roll much better on hardpack surfaces. I might try playing around with tyre pressures a bit to see what happens.

It’s a bank holiday, and it’s not raining which is a bit of a shock. Went for a spin on the crossbike with Ian this morning, onky a gentle 21.75 miles with the added bonus of having to ride up Brassknocker Hill. Hopefully I’ll squeeze another 13 mile ride in this evening if the weather holds out.

Back into work this morning for a meeting/sales pitch. Unfortunately one guy couldn’t make it, and the only software they were pitching to us was something that I’ve been using for four years already. Bit of a waste of time really, but at least I managed to sort out a few other things while I was there.

No call from the LBS so it looks like my new hubs still haven’t turned up. Getting a bit annoyed with it all now. Vet appointment later as Hobbes is unwell again, old age must be catching up with him.

Excellent. It’s Jackie Chan night on Five, then Dawn of the Dead is on BBC2. That’ll keep me occupied all evening.

Nothing exciting happening at the moment. Spent a few hours shopping in town today, ended up with 6 DH inner tubes and some books. Went for a spin on the crossbike towards the end of the afternoon. As always it was a fantastic ride, nice and sunny with only a brief spot of rain to spoil it. The trails were nicely muddy under tyre and occasionally blocked by cows. I might have to do the same route again tomorrow night. A few obligatory ride pics are over here

Treated the cross bike to some TLC in the form of GT85 and Finish Line lube this morning. The wetness of yesterday had rinsed every drop of lube from the drivetrain causing all manner of expensive sounding squeeks and griding noises. A few minutes fettling and it sounds much better.

Whilst I had the workstand out I decided to make the Inbred a little more “different” in the hope that I’ll then ride it more. It now has the rigid forks back on it, and the Conti Verts have been replaced with the Panaracer Fire FR’s which used to live on the Craftworks. A quick blast up the road and back felt promising, I’ll take it for a proper spin later today or more likely tomorrow.

What can I say other than “feck that hurt”.

When I did HonC three years ago, we did 60km or more and I really struggled whilst Ian was fine. This time around the roles were reversed.

On the way up north the weather looked perfect so amidst discussion of fantasy breakfasts (bacon, egg, sausage etc) we agreed to attempt the 100km route despite the fact that I’d never actually ridden that far in one go before, and the others hadn’t ridden much this year. We started out en-mass at 9am, and for the first 40km I ruled the descents, owned the flat bits, and even had a controlling interest in the climbs. However due to the rain over the last few days, the offroad parts were quite soft and sapped your energy, almost to the point of having to pedal downhill. The wind was also beginning to pick up and was orientated so as to provide an almost endless headwind. The last 15-20km to the “lunch” stop started to hurt a bit, and a quick straw poll amongst the three of us (myself, Ian, and Matt) unanimously voted for the short route back to Winchcombe after the stop. Finally after 57km we arrived in Guiting Power for much needed tea, cakes, and toilets.

Once refueled we set off on the second half of the 50km route which would bring the total to 83km, however someone had stolen all our energy at the break and the slightest incline brought all three of us to an near stop, which together with the incessant headwind meant that progress was slow. 5km into the route back we came to a T-junction. The GPS told us to turn left for the remaining 20km or so, but the road sign pointed right and said “Winchcombe 5 miles”, guess which won?

5.5 miles of headwind ended with a very welcome 2 mile descent, and brought us back into Winchcombe after 44 miles of riding in 5 hours 45 minutes. First stop was the burger van for a bacon and egg roll.

I think we’ll opt for the 50km route next time.

I finally got fed up with snapping spokes in the rear wheel on my cross bike, so I popped down to the LBS and picked up a cheap Cannondale Earth/Mach 1 CFX wheel which should cope somewhat better with the stresses of tomorrow. I might rebuild the old wheel at some point in the hope that it will stop snapping spokes so often.

All that is left now it to pack everything ready for the morning, and hope I don’t forget something important.

Another spoke in the rear wheel on the cross bike snapped today. Thats the third one this year, and the second one in the last couple of weeks. Doesn’t bode well for them surviving HonC on Sunday.