ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
The transition between saddle and lack-of-saddle just looks a bit 'sudden'! Those edges look sharp ...
I have a cut-out on the Specialized saddle on my Cannondale but that cut-out has padded, rounded edges. TBH - I am not sure that it is any more comfortable than the Arione saddles on my other bikes. I think I might swap the Arione from my MTB with the Specialized saddle.
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No photos from my ride today because the light wasn't good and I use my phone's camera which is better when the sun shines. I'll just mention a few things that happened on my very hilly 23-miler ...
(1) A driver behaved unpredictably when I was lost in my thoughts and we had a near-miss! I am willing to accept 1/3 to 1/2 responsibility for what nearly happened because I should have spotted what he was doing before he did it. See what you think ...
I was entering the village of Midgley on a narrow road. There is a road coming up a steep hill to that road from the right. A driver spotted me coming, but shot out of the junction and then slowed down in front of me. I remember being irritated that he didn't wait a few seconds for me to pass, and thinking that I would be quicker through the village than he was, which turned out to be true - I had to freewheel and brake to avoid catching up with him. The driver was well aware that I was behind him.
He went round a couple of bends and then signalled right as he approached a parked vehicle on the left. There are no roads to the right to turn down. In my distracted state, I felt that he was signalling to show he was passing the parked vehicle.
He suddenly stopped, and I slowed to a walking pace as I approached his now stationary car. I saw his reversing lights come on, and he manoeuvred back in front of the parked car and stopped.
In my mind, he had parked, but his right indicator was still flashing. I assumed that he had forgotten to cancel it. I went to pass him and he suddenly shot back out and began to turn in front of me down a narrow driveway on the right!
I braked and swerved. He looked surprised to see me looming up.
I reckon he didn't know where the driveway was and had overshot it. He was concentrating on getting himself into a position to make his turn and had simply forgotten that I was there.
I think what he did was pretty stupid, but he was signalling and I wasn't really paying enough attention. I accept a slap on my wrist!
(2) I went up some very steep little climbs on my Cannondale. I am obviously fit enough to do this now, but it felt like I wasn't doing my body any favours. My heart rhythm has been a bit irregular since I got home. I am definitely going to put a triple on the bike so I can spin up those 20% brutes rather than having to grind my way up them.
(3) I was doing much of my normal loop in the opposite direction. It is amazing how different familiar countryside looks from an alternative viewpoint. I stopped a couple of times to look around and could scarcely believe that I was on a road that I must have ridden on at least 200 times before!
If you want a change from routes that you are getting bored with, try doing them the other way round and see what you think.
(4) I got hunted by a half-wolf, half-border collie! He was much whiter than a normal collie, and bigger. I reckon he was a cross between a collie and something like an albino German shepherd dog! I spotted him in a field next to the lane I was riding down. I know how to read dog's body language and could see that he was interested in me. He waited until I passed and then started running down the field in the direction in which I was travelling. I thought I was ok because there was a fence along the back of the dry stone wall, but he found a gap in it and leapt over the wall and came running down the road after me. I had the feeling that I was soon going to be getting my ankles nipped unless I took action so I looked over my shoulder and shouted "No - go back into the field!" He stopped dead in his tracks, gave me a mischievous look, turned and did as instructed ...
(5) Mutant dog watch continued ... My older sister has a border collie/St Bernard 50-50 cross which is very border collie-like, only much bigger than you'd expect and with a squarer head. Well, on today's ride, I saw one of them on steroids! I reckon it was a 25-75 cross - bloody massive! It was more like the size of a pony than a dog!
(6) I have been getting a mysterious clicking sound from the bike. I think I have finally worked out what is causing it... I have a Deda Dog Fang on the bike to stop the chain getting trapped down the inside of the little ring. There are a lot of steep-sided valleys round here which I power down into on the big ring to get maximum momentum to help me up the other side. I often have to change down to the little ring in a hurry if I can't quite make it to the top of the climb and the DDF is an insurance policy to stop the chain over-shooting, falling off and getting stuck.
I think even the stiffness of the Cannondale is not enough to stop a small amount of flex when I am standing up in bottom gear on steep climbs. I think the chain moves over enough to contact the DF. It certainly looks like it has been worn down significantly. I'll go and adjust it now that I have remembered that it needs looking at.
That's my last ride now until the Spring Into The Dales audax ride on Sunday which I will be doing with a few other CycleChatters. I will be writing that one up in the dedicated thread. I will be very interested to see how I cope with that since I had been struggling with it in the years leading up to my illness and it is 8 years since I rode it at this weight.
but there was a cold breeze and so I went for 2 layers and a spare layer was put into my rack pack. I would be glad of that later as you will find out!
. It would have been bad enough if it was just the car, but he was carrying bikes for goodness sake!! A bit of common sense is surely not too much to expect 
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) before returning the way we'd come.
while later another forced their way past with only a couple of inches to spare.
My speedo shows 27.3 miles for Doug and I at 11.6 mph average.
