As anticipated, I found an opportunity to ride the bicycle yesterday. It was to my daughter’s home and back, a total of about four and a half miles. Most of the route was along a main road through the suburbs of Cardiff. I picked the early afternoon for the ride when traffic would be as light as could be expected on that route.
It is a ride that I would like to do more often, not just for the obvious reason but because it includes the biggest challenge in the neighbourhood – for “challenge” read “hill”. It is about one third of a mile long but quite steep and I cannot arrive at it fresh as I will have done a bit of hill climbing on the way, whichever way I approach it. Once again it has been more than three weeks since I cycled so I can hardly expect to achieve any sort of fitness improvement or weight loss on that schedule. Therefore, one third of the way up the hill I was off the bike and pushing. Even so, after another third I had to stop for a short rest – just pushing the bike was hard work. At the top of the steep slope is a more gradual gradient for another quarter or third of a mile and this is easy to cycle. After that it is level for a while and then downhill all the way, partly sharing a bus lane, and easy to reach 18-19 miles per hour for quite long stretches without really trying. This makes a change, bearing in mind that my normal average is 10mph – which is, of course, quite right and proper for a member of the Slow Bicycle Movement.
The return journey was totally enjoyable. Once clear of a very busy and awkward junction (which I walked) near the beginning of the journey, it was a steady but gentle climb which was enough to provide exercise without overtaxing, and partly on a bus lane. Cyclists share bus lanes in Cardiff and the only bus that passed me allowed me almost the entire lane to myself. Then the end of the return journey is down steep hills – almost as if to encourage me to come out and play again!
On the level section of the route there were hardly any pedestrians except for two boys, walking towards me on the pavement on my left. I guess that they would have been about 13 years old and I may not have noticed them had there been more people about. As I passed them the one nearer to me carried on walking but the other dropped back and dashed towards me as if to knock me off the bike. I wobbled a bit in anticipation of an impact but all he did was tap me on the arm, as if playing tag, before running away. It was unnerving but no harm was done. It might have been otherwise. Only three or four seconds later I was overtaken by a van.
I hope this is not the start of another of those dangerous crazes among the halfwits who give the younger generation such a bad name.
bicycling
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Normal service was resumed today when I took the bike out for the first time in over a month. I have done very little of anything since mid-September thanks to a rather persistent cold and complications but they are all history now.
Today was brilliant. It was sunny and calm and very mild, indeed almost chilly at first as I set off on a trial ride to discover how unfit I had become. The chosen route was such that I could shorten it at several places without covering the same ground twice and in fact I did so today so that my total distance was around 5-6 miles. Unfortunately the section of the route that I cut out included the long level part which also provides the nicest scenery. However, it also leads to the longest hill that I have tackled so far since I started cycling again back in May and it was soon apparent that I was not ready for that one today. I even took a rest on a shorter hill that I would normally complete in one go but was pleased with today’s achievement just the same.
Traffic was light, even on the supposedly busiest road on my route (shown in the picture) but I have the luxury of being able to choose both the route and the time of day. Early afternoon seems to be the best time for cycling and perhaps it is because it is such a relaxed time of day that drivers are so very considerate. Then, just as I was within a couple of hundred yards of home our two local Police officers appeared on their bicycles, pedalling hard up a steep hill (as I went the opposite way) but both of them still able to smile and shout a greeting and wave to me. It’s great being a cyclist isn’t it!
I wonder what other people carry with them on short bicycle trips? The question arose a couple of days ago when I brought the bike back from its first service and then tried to sort out the extra bits and pieces that I had bought for it. Where to put everything? Was I carrying too much? What do other people do?
All of my riding so far, and for a few months yet, will be short leisure trips of up to 2-3 hours and I am now carrying quite a long list of items with me as follows:
Puncture repair kit, spare innertube, a toolkit comprising standard and pointed pliers, Allen keys as required for my particular bike, bicycle spanner and small adjustable spanner, flat and Philips screwdrivers, tyre levers, cable lock, D-lock and cable, yellow waterproof jacket rolled up tightly and stowed in its own hood, Cardiff A-Z Atlas and the local Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (needed because I don’t know the area at all well yet).
It looks like a lot of tools on my list but they all fit into a standard soft fabric pencil case. I might be persuaded to reduce their number if I could find a multitool of decent quality with the right combination of tools. Meanwhile I will go on wondering why bicycles are designed to need so many tools.
Apart from the D-lock, which has its own mount for which I found space below the saddle on the frame, everything on this list has to be stowed either in a 9-litre Carradice saddlebag, which is then full to capacity, leaving no room for my camera or anything else, or in my cheap and cheerful but perfectly functional panniers.
Of course I could use the panniers full-time (leaving the saddlebag at home) which would allow me ample spare carrying capacity for picnics, art equipment or a bit of shopping on my travels.
The bike is beginning to look like a mobile hardware store now that I have added a D-lock to the other “extras”, including a stand, a bell, a computer, front and rear lights, a mirror and a waterbottle with holder.
It feels like a lot of equipment but I have left out the fridge, microwave and kitchen sink! Don’t laugh – we had all three of these to spare until a couple of weeks ago!
I had every intention of putting several hours into painting over the weekend, even sacrificing an outing or two on the bike to make the necessary time. Well, I tried. I tried on Saturday but I can’t say that those ducks in my previous post were a resounding success. I tried again on Sunday but just couldn’t settle to the task.
Today I found out why: It’s that time of year again when the grandchildren are back at school, coughs and colds are spreading like wildfire and grandparents are not immune. While my wife has been coughing in a most determined fashion for a couple of days already, it was not until this afternoon that I became aware of a thick head, a runny nose and a sore throat. By that time we had already completed one local errand in the car and, after lunch, I had taken the bike back to “my” bike shop, a few miles across Cardiff, for its somewhat overdue first service.
Today it took only a few minutes to put the roof bars/bike rack assembly back on the car and the bike rode exceedingly steadily across Cardiff to its appointment with Damian Harris in Whitchurch, Cardiff. This was pleasing as I needed confidence in the rack, which had cost so little on Ebay that I had bought three of them so as to carry my daughter’s and son-in-law’s bikes as well should the need arise. This was not as rash as it seems but more a matter of grabbing the opportunity – finding such equipment specifically designed to fit my 20-year-old BMW has been almost a lost cause for some years.
Needless to say, while at Damian’s shop I managed to tick off a few more items on my shopping list, spare innertubes, a bike pump and another lock. Now I can be more confident about securing the entire bike, including the Brooks saddle, when visiting the local shops.
So I achieved something useful today and I might be able to bring the bike home again tomorrow.
By this evening I was tired and in no mood to concentrate on my Doodle-a-Day or on painting. I was looking on the web for more information about painting, and especially about transparent versus opaque colours, when I came across Bill Martin’s Guide to Oil Painting, which I had not seen before. This seemed to me to be a useful source of information for beginners though the information does refer to conventional oils. I use water-mixable oils in which fewer colours are available (though there are more than enough) and I would not recommend hog brushes (which don’t like prolonged exposure to water) but prefer synthetics. That is another story. The point here is that there is a particularly good page on Bill Martin’s site on the subject of colour matching. It is good because it condenses widely available information and manages to present it in a way that is memorable (and if you knew anything about my memory, you would know that that is quite an achievement).
It is several weeks since I bought roof bars and three bike racks. At last I have got around to building the assembly with just one bike rack and fitting it to the car so that I will know how to do it at short notice if necessary.
I started by assembling the bars and trial fitting them on the car so as to establish how far apart the clamps needed to be to fit around the roof gutters. Then, back on the ground, I added the bike rack to the bars. The hinged clamping arms attached easily to the frame just below the water bottle. The bike stands in a metal channel which is in two halves, joined together by two nuts and bolts through a choice of holes which enable the channel to be short or long to suit the size of the bike.
Straps are supplied to secure the wheels in the channel.
Having taken the picture I removed the bike from the rack and then added the whole assembly to the car, wondering as I did so whether I would be strong enough, and be able to reach far enough, to lift the bike on to the rack and hold it while attaching the main clamp to the frame. In fact it wasn’t too difficult and will get easier with practice.
Apart from that I haven’t touched the bike since Sunday but I have arranged to take it back to “my” bike shop next week for a few adjustments to be made by the professionals. Then I will be happier about taking it out again and I have worked out a new route for my next major ride already. How did we manage before Google Earth made it all so interesting?
After several disappointing weeks as the extended spring seemed to be turning directly into autumn, we have had a few decent days recently. This morning’s bright sunshine and almost complete calm convinced me to get out on the bike or else put it, and all its accessories, on Ebay right away and call it a day.
I went out on the bike. The total mileage today was 17.75 and most of it was through the familiar territory to the east of Cardiff, that is, St Mellons, Marshfield, along Broadway and then the B4239 to St Brides Wentlooge where I turned off towards the sea and found The Lighthouse public house. By then I was getting short of time. A cursory look around revealed only a pay-as-you-stay car park next to what was probably the sea wall but no obvious sign of a cycle path.
So I turned for home, following the same route back to Marshfield and then going straight on to Castleton, where, to my great surprise, I climbed the hill to the junction at Newport Road without needing my lowest gear.
It seems pathetic to complain about the weather here in the UK when blogging friends in the USA have been confronted with a couple of hurricanes in the past fortnight or so and almost certainly have more to come. However, summer 2008 never really made it on to the stage here. By some time in July the best it could do was limp on from the wings, mutter a few lines, splutter and cough, and beat a hasty retreat before yet more heavy cloud formations marched in from the south-west to give us an almost unprecedented soaking and deprive us of daylight at the same time.
That is why this blog has been a bit quiet about cycling lately and, if the medium range weather forecast is any guide, may well remain so until after my next trip into the city when I will look for some waterproofs. I am wondering what to buy. My cycling is of the relatively unhurried leisure variety for which I wear everyday clothes. Overtrousers seem to be a good idea and I think probably a jacket rather than a cape, although I found the latter quite effective years ago.
This morning I did my frequent tour of the blogs linked to this one and was disappointed by a few where there have been no new posts for several weeks. I do not want my list of links to become too long – and I would prefer my links to be reciprocated wherever possible. So I have decided that where a blog is not linked to this one, and has been inactive for six weeks or more, I will delete the link. It will all be reversible of course should the circumstances change.
Headlines are supposed to catch your attention and “Fat Police Weighing Down Patrol Cars” in the Telegraph today certainly did that.
Apparently, some police officers are so overweight that, in combination with the long list of equipment carried in police cars these days, some of their cars are within around 14 stone of their weight limit even before they have a suspect on board. The cars specifically referred to here are the 1.6-litre Ford Focus and the 1.3-litre Vauxhall Astra. So one force has already issued instructions that only one suspect can be carried at a time. I am trying to keep a straight face as I write this because it is a serious matter. An overloaded car will handle badly and will require longer stopping distances. In the event of an accident there could be legal consequences for the officers involved and for the force as a whole.
OK, so we need to spend more on our police cars so that they are suitable for the anticipated loads or have been adequately upgraded. Perhaps the police ought to review the equipment carried – is it all really necessary?
As for the “Fat police” – I think this is probably unfair. It seems to me that hefty police officers, who keep themselves fit, are a good thing when dealing with equally hefty villians, and that such officers could well be overweight by average standards for their height but they are not necessarily fat.
A suggestion, apparently from the Liberal Democrats, that all officers on the beat should have an annual fitness check-up and be given a desk job if they fail, has missed a useful point. By all means give them free annual check-ups but there is already too much paperwork and it won’t help them to get fit again. Most officers would rather be out there doing practical policing, so let them do that, but on bicycles. They would probably get to like it.
Having returned to cycling only a couple of months ago after a break of more than 30 years, I wanted to find out what I could about cycling on the public highway in modern conditions. For more than half a century a book called Roadcraft has been the motorist’s bible, even though relatively few motorists have bothered to read it. I discovered recently that cyclists have had their equivalent for several years and, logically enough, it is called Cyclecraft (by John Franklin). For the past ten years it has been published by The Stationery Office (the UK government’s official bookshop) and it is recommended reading for the National Cycle Training Standard, known as Bikeability.
I do not propose to offer a detailed review of Cyclecraft here. Suffice it to say that it is a substantial book in more ways than one. After several short reading sessions I am only halfway through it. It requires and deserves to be read slowly and thoughtfully. In my opinion, any cyclist who deprives himself or herself of the knowledge contained within its 240 pages is already suffering a serious disadvantage in today’s road and traffic conditions. End of sermon!
Among the particularly interesting topics that I have come across in Cyclecraft so far is a description of the powers of observation of typical drivers. This led on to the importance of positioning on the road for cyclists. Here I was introduced to a concept that differed very sharply from my understanding of correct cyclists’ behaviour – namely the uses of primary and secondary riding positions. Here the secondary riding position was what we would have considered the norm 50 years ago, that is, 2-3 feet from the kerb except when overtaking obstacles or preparing to turn right. The primary riding position is new to me. It is in the middle of the lane of moving traffic that you, as a cyclist, are sharing with motor vehicles. It aims to put you where following drivers cannot fail to see you and where they cannot overtake you within the same lane. In a nutshell, it is the safest position for the cyclists in several situations which are clearly described and illustrated in Cyclecraft.
Cyclecraft is, in effect, the nearest thing we have in the UK to an official government manual on cycling and what it is saying is that in various situations on the road we cyclists should adopt the primary riding position, thus deliberately obstructing the progress of other traffic, when necessary in order to give priority to our own safety. To put it in the vernacular “I don’t have a problem with that”…
…except that there is no mention of primary and secondary riding positions in The Highway Code. This small book, which is the minimum required reading for anyone wishing to pass the UK driving test, indicates that the old golden rule still applies, that is (Rule 160) “Once moving you should keep to the left…” and also that everyone is expected to drive (or, presumably, cycle) with reasonable consideration for other road users. Very many drivers of motor vehicles, and especially those who already mistakenly believe that they are entitled to priority over cyclists, will regard it as anything but “reasonable consideration” when a cyclist judges it necessary to adopt the primary riding position – even when the manoeuvre is carried out with due attention to prior observation, signalling etc. Furthermore, although Roadcraft is recommended to “Any driver wishing to develop their skills and safety to a more advanced level”, the only reference to cyclists that I have found is where we are listed among roadside hazards – which hardly amounts to an advanced level of information about how cyclists can be expected to behave.
Cyclecraft, Roadcraft, and The Highway Code are all published by The Stationery Office and all three were revised in 2007. It seems to me that those responsible for The Highway Code and for Roadcraft are lagging behind in their understanding of best practice in cycling. Either that or Cyclecraft, despite being the recommended Bikeability handbook, has got it wrong.
If there have been changes in the behaviour which cyclists are entitled, and officially encouraged, to adopt for their own safety, surely it is high time that drivers were made aware of these changes. Given the current increasing popularity of cycling, and its further enhanced profile thanks to our brilliant Olympians, this seems to me to be an excellent time to launch a more thorough revision of The Highway Code (and of Roadcraft) in conjunction with a high profile publicity campaign.
My dear daughter, whose blog at Jennieworld Today has just been nominated for the Kick Ass Blogger award, has followed up by nominating Just Williams for the same award. That was very kind of her and I am sure I don’t really deserve it but thanks anyway Jennie. It looks like a rather clever idea and a bit of fun as well.
Though the title sounds a touch basic, the idea is rather good. It is in fact a nice way to inform owners of your favourite blogs that you like what they do and it enables them to bring their blogs to the attention of still more viewers. Each recipient of a nomination is asked to link back to the person who nominated them, and to www.mammadawg.com the originator of the award. Then they choose five of their favourite blogs to nominate (informing each of them by a comment or an email) and then go the Kick Ass Blogger HQ to sign on to “Mr Linky”, thus joining the network of scores of bloggers who have followed up their nominations. There is also a graphic that can be added to your blog to say that you have won the award. The net result of all this is that each participating blog will (presumably) benefit from more visitors from actual bloggers and from search engines – which must be a good thing since there is little point in blogging if you don’t want to encourage visitors. Incidentally, this blog passed the 2,000 views landmark a couple of days ago, less than a month after the 1,000 was reached. Exchanging links with other blogs really works.
Now I have the none too easy task of picking just five blogs to nominate from the four dozen or so that I visit frequently. The main theme of this blog so far has been cycling and my most frequently visited blogs cover the same subject. I note that one of my favourites, CyclePig, has been nominated already and deservedly so. Also among my favourites are Copenhagen Cycling Culture, Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Amsterdamize but all of these blogs are widely read by leisure and utility cycling bloggers already, so I feel that my nominations should go to individual bloggers who may not yet be as widely read but who are making a useful contribution to the internet discussion of everyday cycling.
My five nominations are as follows:
Cyclemania which is always well written and interesting and high on my list for a frequent visit.
Cycling in 4×4 Country who is very committed to promoting cycling and environmental issues and while I don’t always agree entirely with her I do admire the effort she puts into her blogs which are always interesting.
Digital Dame is another dedicated cyclist and blogger with sound views on various issues. ie. we seem to agree quite a lot!
Old Bike Blog is a recent discovery with an attractive design and very interesting content including an ongoing restoration of an old bicycle, a brave project in my opinion.
Town Mouse is another favourite, not least because she has moved out of the big city to a remote rural location – something I did 20 years ago, so I (and many others I am sure) can relate to her story – and it is not exclusively about cycling either.
I hope that all my nominees will choose to join the Kick Ass Blogger network so that more non-cyclists will have opportunities to discover the sheer enjoyment and other benefits of cycling that they are missing.
Just Williams 
