Life in the Bus Lane

At long last, I’ve finally managed to get a full-face helmet which actually fits my unfeasibly large head. Stif had some Fox Tracer helmets cheap, and luckily they do a XXL size which is big enough to fit me.

Went out on the crosser for my first proper ride for over two weeks tonight, it was slightly dampened by snapping a spoke after only a mile, and so having to head home to replace it as the wheel was rubbing. The second attempt was more successful, although the recent lack of riding was very noticeable in my lack of leg power.

Must ride more.

Now get on with some work you lazy sod.

There is a parcel on it’s way to me at the moment, but according to the online tracking for the courier company, it was delivered at the end of June 2003 to a company in Derbyshire. Something is amiss somewhere.

Took a rare trip to Ikea earlier, surprised myself by only spending £33 in the end, and most of that was on two new blinds. The food in the cafe wasn’t as good this time as previous trips, it’s still cheap though.

Nothing much has changed in the week I was off work. No surprise there really. I’ve almost caught up with a weeks worth of emails, only 150 or so left to deal with.

My finger still hurts after getting in the way of a lump hammer yesterday afternoon which is annoying, it’s amazing just how useful your index finger is, and how tricky some things are when you can’t use it very well.

Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France in a row today, beating the five wins of Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, and Eddy Merckx.

Is he the best rider ever? Probably not.
Is he the best Tour de France rider ever? Almost certainly.

Today was mostly spent helping to demolish most of a stone outbuilding in preparation for it’s conversion into a bike workshop. I now ache all over from 6 hours spent removing a roof and taking walls apart. At least I did get a nice dinner cooked for me afterwards.

However it meant that I didn’t get to ride a bike at all today, so it’s now nearly two weeks since I last rode a bike properly, something I must rectify tomorrow night.

After a week at scout camp, it was nice to return to civilisation and be able to have a shower and clean myself properly of a weeks worth of accumulated grime. Camp went reasonably well. The weather wasn’t great until today, and we had rivers of water running through the camp during one rather heavy downpour, but the scouts seemed to enjoy it, despite the Ticks (Tim had 11), and the cooking (they claimed the Army 24 hour ration packs were nicer). All that remains now it to pack everything away, and work my way through the mountain of washing accumulated over the last week. Sleeping in a proper bed tonight will be a nice luxury after a week of sleeping bags and airbeds.

Whilst I was away, the council saw fit to paint a selection of white lines in the parking bay near the house to delineate the spaces. Quite why they felt this to be necessary I don’t know. We’ve coped perfectly well without the lines in the 8 years or so that I’ve been living here, and no doubt for many years before that.

I’m attempting to pack for scout camp at the moment, but can’t escape the paranoid thought that no matter what I do, I’ll leave something vitally important at home. I keep wandering round and throwing various things into rucksacks or kit bags, hoping that by the time I leave there will be sufficient stuff in there to last me a week.

I managed to do what I hope was the last of my kit shopping last weekend, ending up with a new 30L Deuter rucksack, along with a couple of metal bottles for holding meths and stuff. The vital shopping for chocolate, crisps, and alcohol, was done after work tonight.

Having not done a full weeks camp for 12 years or so, I’m planning to camp in luxury this year. There will be a 4-man tent just for myself, along with table, chairs, espresso pot, air bed, all the trimmings. All being well it will allow me to get to the end of the week with mind and body still vaguely intact.

Shame the weather looks like it’s going to be shit though.

….on the bike.

First proper ride tonight for a week, so went for a gentle 20 mile spin on the cross bike. The first 5 miles were hell, but it got better after that. Stopped towards the end as we were meant to be sorting some kit out ready for scout camp at 19:30. 20 minutes later no-one had arrived so I headed home for a shower and some food.

My Inbred is three years old today.

Things must be getting bad with the mail, the postman delivered a package earlier this morning.

Is it really meant to be summer at the moment?

I’ve been neglecting the Stiffee recently, so as it happened to be in the way in the dining room, I decided to take it out for a gentle spin this evening. I ended up enjoying it so much, that I shall endeavour to ride it more often. The old Z1 Drop-Offs feel far better now that they’ve been fettled down to 110mm, and I’m beginning to like them a bit more.

Chances are I’ll take the Stiffee to Sleepless this year. The Craftworks is a tad on the heavy side, although certainly more comfortable, and the Inbred is a bit too rigid for my liking at the moment.

Well, on paper he’s already won it despite the last round being some 2 months away.

Peat currently leads the rankings by 263 points, and with a maximum of 250 points being available in the last round, could quite happily stay at home with a nice mug of tea (or more likely a can of Stella), and still win.

Hopefully he can do the double and manage to win the World Championships in September as well.

At last the working week is over. Today has been a day of bizarre weather. We’d get strong winds and torrential rain for about 30 seconds, then it would be glorious sunshine for a while, then wind and rain, then sunshine. Repeat as needed for 12 hours.

Popped into the LBS after work to pick up a new tyre for the back of the cross bike, the Conti Twister having worn almost down the center smooth after a mere 800 miles. Picked up a pair of IRC Mythos CX Slick tyres in a 38mm width, the only downside being very limited clearance for the back wheel now as they are quite a bit bigger than the 37mm Twister. I’ll run them for the summer and stick a Twister back on when things get gloopy under tyre again.

RIP Marlon Brando.

I think i might have found the next fork for the Craftworks.