Life in the Bus Lane

A crap month.

My new camera bag arrived today. It’s a Domke F-1X copy made by Safrotto. Apparently they are virtually identical to the old Domke bags, and supposedly better made than the newer ones although the dividers inside aren’t quite as good. The best bit though was the price, the Domke is £170 over here, this cost me £18 plus postage from the US. The postage actually cost more than the bag itself, I think it worked out at about £50 in the end for the bag, delivered to the UK.

Another night, another trip round the Uni.

Thanks to the rain and wind since Sunday tonights ride was a bit odd. The muddy bits were a lot muddiers, but the "dry" bits were a lot drier. It was a nice spin round the 12 mile loop despite the brief rain storm as I rode across the top of the hill. I had to stop on the way into the Uni to put my waterproof on. I made the obligatory stop on the downs for a sup from the hip flask which contained Port tonight for a change. I think I prefer whiskey mid-ride though.

It’s time to wash all the mud off and get ready for beer and video night. Tonight we’re watching Army of Darkness.

I’ve just had my first mince pie of the season. Anyone would think that christmas was on it’s way.

I hate playing in the Nomination Cup with a passion you can only dream of. Despite that, I actually did OK in the first two legs then went down hill a bit which coincided with our first lost leg. Luckily it was the only leg we lost and we went on to win 5-1.

Housing Admin advance to the semi-finals which will be played on a neutral alley. The Treasurers are saved from the torture of another Nomination Cup match until next season. However both teams went home hungry because the club forgot to cook any food for us.

I’ve ordered a box of bits from On-One comprising a 20" 456, a Twelfty seatpost, and Bignose saddle. Hopefully it’ll all arrive in time for my birthday. All the rest of the bits will come from the Stiffee with the possible exception of the headset.

Whilst a Cotic BFe or Santa Cruz Chameleon would have been nicer, they would also have cost over twice as much, and I’m not sure how much I’ll actually ride a geared hardtail given my current preference for a fully rigid singlespeed.

It was my first proper offroad ride for several weeks today. For once it wasn’t windy or raining so I took the Unit out for a spin round the Uni. It was really muddy in places which was fun, but the mud was sloppy enough not to clog everything up. My brakes do a good impression of a banshee when wet though, but my pads seem to last somewhat longer than Matt’s do.

32:18 is still proving to be a rather agreeable gear for winter use, although a little bit spinny on the canal coming home. Project "Stiffee replacement" is progressing slowly, I’m currently debating the merits of pre-ordering an On-One 456, against saving a bit more money and getting a Cotic BFe in the new year.

In other news, nothing of any interest at all has happened in the last week.

Apparently we lost 5-3 last week, partly due to only managing to find 7 players instead of the requisite 8.

Tonight was a somewhat better match. We should have won 5-1 but the bottom half cocked things up a bit meaning we only won 5-3. Fortunately that meant we were in control of the table when our badly cooked sausage and chips turned up.

Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Larks took 2.

This is a somewhat belated report due to the fact that for the first time in several years I actually missed a game. The match took place last Thursday and not entirely unsurprisingly we lost. The return match starts in about 45 minutes and hopefully my return to the team will rejuvenate us and bring a nice victory.

Somehow I doubt it though.

I’ve not ridden a bike since the deluge Wednesday night. Most of the weekend has been spent lazing around although I did head out for an hour or so this afternoon clutching a camera just as the light started to fade.

It was a bit of an ordeal tonight. I headed out to meet Ian for what’s quickly becoming our new usual route. It wasn’t raining much to start with, but it was pretty wet under tyre. However once we went our separate ways at the Pink House the rain got heavier. The mile long climb out of the valley is usually quite nice, but with the rain coming down it became a bit of a slog. The descent back into town was almost the worst bit, the standing water soaked me to the skin, I’m sure I wrung at least a pint out of each sock.

By far the worst part though was the fact that the rain nicely rehydrated the dried sweat in my helmet pads, and gave a constant stream of salty water down my face and into my nose and mouth. It was very very unpleasant, I’m having to force myself to wash the taste away with an emergency beer or three.

At least my front light lasted for a complete ride this time.

I am now fully illuminated again, or at least I will be when the battery finished charging.

My new battery and charger arrived today. I took the battery out of it’s bottle and stuck it into the Lumicycle battery bag which fits perfectly, plugged it into the lamp to check it works, and now it’s on charge. Weather permitting it’ll get a proper test tomorrow night.

After my last few dark rides, I finally ordered a new Li-Ion battery and charger which should be with me early next week. Theoretically it’ll give me 5 hours of run time instead of the 45 minutes I get at the moment. It’ll be nice to finish a ride with working lights for a change.

I might look at sending my Lumicycle battery back for a service, I suspect one of the cells has died lowering the output voltage to the point where it can’t power the HID lamp for long enough.

Tonight my HID light lasted 45 minutes of a 90 minute ride. Thanks to the loan of Ians spare light, and judicious use of the 12W Lumi light I’d fortuitously remembered to fit, I made it home without too much trouble and without falling off the road.

I chased The Rush up today about a replacement battery, they are meant to be checking availability tonight, failiing that I’ll order a new Lumicycle battery tomorrow so that I can ride again next week.

On better news, I rode the Trek XO through it’s 2000th mile tonight. I think that deserves a celebration.

This time it was my Lumicycle battery pack. It seems to be somewhat past it’s best and instead of lasting nearly four hours, my front light cut out after only an hour. Other than that it was was a very nice ride. 32:18 is a rather agreeable gear for winter use, and my new Groundeffect Ranchsliders are rather nice indeed. Riding across the golf course in thick fog was quite amusing, I kept getting lost much to the annoyance of the rider who was following me because he didn’t know where he was going.

All I need to do now is replace my battery pack. Lumicycle charge £80, but I’ve emailed The Rush to see if they sell their Li-Ion battery pack and chargers on their own.

It’s cold and foggy out, so foggy infact that I can barely see past the house at the other end of the garden and it’s even worse up on top of the hill. I think I’ll stay home in the warm tonight.

If I can find the bits, I’ll change the Unit over to 32:18 tonight to make things a little easier on the knees.

Tonights trip to the supermarket furnished me with two small bags of assorted groceries, and sixty cans of Stella Artois.

I’d have bought more Stella but thought that it would make me look greedy.

I’ve just ridden into work (my knee can just about cope with that) and my fingers have gone completely numb which makes for a interesting experience trying to type things. It’s obviously time to dig out the proper winter gloves from wherever it was I left them back in March.

I’m now the owner of a rather nice Canon EOS 30D camera for the bargain price of £743, less the £100 cash back I’m about to claim. The next step is probably to pick up a BG-E2 grip for it via eBay.