Riding home on a bike with the seat at it’s absolute lowest is not a comfortable experience.

The weekly email newsletter has just been sent round at work, proudly stating that:

Free breakfast for staff who cycle to work
On Wednesday 17 June, staff will be able to enjoy a free breakfast as a reward for cycling to work.

.
I shall bear that in mind for 2015.

In advance of a trip to Welshland next week, it seemed sensible to resurrect a bike with gears. Whilst the 69er is a fantastic bike, a singlespeed would probably not be ideal for Afan. So the 456 was retrieved from it’s resting place, the tyres were pumped up, and the chain even received some oil in anticipation of a ride to work today.

The bike felt very odd to start with, however I quickly decided the saddle was an inch or so too low. Once at work out came the multitool, and the saddle duly move up an inch, however on tightening up the seatclamp both bolts stripped, making the ride home an interesting proposition.

I blame all this on what I suspect is a slightly shonky seattube in the 456. The Thomson seatpost continually slips, and to keep it in place I had to resort to a slightly OTT DMR double clamp done up to the official "bastard tight" level.

It’s cycle to work day today which usually means that I walk in just to be awkward, however I actually rode in today and didn’t even claim my free breakfast. The fact that it’s cycle to work day is probably the reason why it was pouring with rain on my way home after work.

The view from above

Landing

Flame on

More photos: Cub Hot Air Ballooning

Hot air balloons are hard work. I helped out tonight doing a dozen or so tethered flights for the scouts, and bumped into someone I’ve not seen since school, it proved to be hard work holding the balloon down for every changeover, so I suspect my shoulders will ache a bit tomorrow.

Photos tomorrow, probably.

Say “what” again. Say “what” again! I dare you! I double-dare you, motherfucker! Say “what” one more goddamn time!

After discovering a pool of water on the floor in the kitchen, it quickly became apparent why my beer hadn’t been as cold as usual the last few nights, the fridge/freezer had died. Fortunately there wasn’t too much in the freezer, so I’ve not had to throw much away.

A couple of hours and £300 later there’s a shiny new silver fridge/freezer in place, and in half an hour I can turn it on to see if it works.

Thursday saw my first proper off-road ride with the Jones bars on the Unit. Whilst they are very comfortable they don’t work so well on the Unit which has stupidly short forks fitted. With sub-400mm forks the front end is way too low, even with a good couple of cm of spacers under the stem. For the moment I’ll go back to the 2" riser bars and ponder the addition of some longer, and possibly bouncy, forks in the future.

Now I’m aware that I like my food and eat a fair amount, but did they really need to put 5 identical takeaway menus through the door earlier?