Brummies! I'm coming to see you!

[CAMRAMan]

If you decide to do the Anchor in Leek Wootton, I shall probably only be able to make the social stage of the event. I will have to juggle ballet & swimming commitments (the kids, not me - you wouldn't want to see me in a tutu), meaning I'll be available for selection around 7pm, perhaps a little earlier.

If that suits, someone PM me and I'll let you have a mobile number. Not far from Leek Wootton there is a great bridleway taking you all the way to Kenilworth Castle or vice versa. Even with last night's rain it should be OK. There is also a new greenway from Balsall common or Berkswell to Kenilworth. They only put a bridge in a couple of weeks ago & opened it up. Details here.

[Kim]

Okay, I'm setting off for Berkswell now...

[why1040]

I'm allegedly 20 mins away by car and have n+1pm board but am a little apprehensive about a longish ride on a bike I've had 10 mins! Still, on my way and will see how I get on!

[Tim Hall]

Excellent! I'm in my hotel, having got round the fact that whomever made my reservation made it for last night. Oops.

Just getting my stuff together.

[CAMRAMan]

I'm allegedly 20 mins away by car and have n+1pm board but am a little apprehensive about a longish ride on a bike I've had 10 mins! Still, on my way and will see how I get on!

Vi ses pa The Anchor pub i Leek Wooton om en timme ungefar...

The roads are flattish round there and mainly quiet country lanes. It will, however, be dark. I don't propose a long ride myself, but I'll dig out the Hope Vision 1 or use the Orion with hub dynamo.

[Kim]

That was pretty successful, I thought.  Well done to why1040 for venturing out into the dark on an unproven n+1.  Looks like you've got a decent bargain there.  Here's the GPS track, if you were wondering where we'd been - it was just short of 15km each way.

The Anchor seems like a decent enough destination for some sort of midlandsy rides in future.  I also note that the extremely conveniently timed train back to Mordor Central was painless (and indeed ticket-inspectorless).  I should really make more use of the local trains, as I do find that I get put off exploring a lot of the surrounding area by the prospect of having to ride across large chunks of Birmingham, especially on the way back.

[Wowbagger]

So what is Chris's n+1? Only two Saturdays ago when we were discussing it on the WARTY this seemed to be an idea waiting to develop and suddenly it's a bike!

[why1040]

Got home safe and sound!

Wow: I found a bargain 6 month old Claude Butler on Ebay and as the only bidder got it for a song.  The only question mark really was collecting it in Birmingham, but with my little Fiesta that's cost me less than £20 and I got a fun ride too!  It even fits inside the car with a bit of manhandling!

Thank you for looking after me so well guys, I hope I didn't slow you down too much!  A small amount of adjusting of gears will be needed-and that saddle HAS to go!     But other than that, it's a real find!  It was certainly a much more skittish ride compared to the Pilen, but then it's well under half the weight, much thinner tyres and just a different type of bike altogether!  I still found it remarkably comfortable to ride once I started to feel relatively confident about the gearing!

A real pleasure meeting everyone and having a great laugh! 

[CrinklyLion]

why, why1040, i do believe you may have officially had a Silly_Bike_Adventure!

[why1040]

I think you may be right!   

[CAMRAMan]

Good to meet you all last night! I still feel a fraud as my ride back was downhill with a tailwind & I was home in <15 mins! Glad to hear you got back safely.

There are lots of quiet country roads near Solihull and Warwick. The motorways don't exactly get in the way, but are an ever-present noise.

The Chiltern Railways line from Birmingham Moor Street opens up many of these routes and there's a good ride to be had from Banbury along the canal & country roads back to Warwick. There are plenty of watering holes en route.

Nick, I'll give you the details of the Hooky Trail next time I'm over your way or you're over here. The short version is that we did a lot of cycling to closed pubs!

[Kim]

I was thwarted from adding this to my last post by our-favourite-telco, but two entertaining things happened on the way home:

1) After having the usual recumbent conversation with random bloke on the train, he wished me luck with my epic 3 mile ride home?!?

2) I finally got to appear in a speed camera photograph.  That I was going at least 10mph too slowly to have triggered it is cancelled out by the schadenfreude of it being set off by Impatient Driver who had given up on revving and hooting at me for Being A Cyclist and got flashed mid stupid overtake. 

[CAMRAMan]

Whereabouts on your route did 2) happen? I'm guessing Balsall Common high street...

[Kim]

Whereabouts on your route did 2) happen? I'm guessing Balsall Common high street...

Bristol Road.

[CAMRAMan]

Hope you were smiling as it flashed...

[Crumbling Nick]

Hope you were smiling as it flashed...

[Crumbling Nick]

That was first class pootle. Thanks to Tim for setting it up and gently nudging things forward to the point where we all knew it was going to happen.

It was good to meet you all. Putting faces to names and talking in a convivial environment is invariably one of the best parts of yacf rides.

why1040, I'm pleased you made it home OK. I suspect that the department of successful silly adventures is populated by those who are well prepared. I didn't feel you were slowing me down. I'm just not used to judging the dynamics of a group with good front lights at night. I was also utterly knackered by the time I got home, so I didn't even pace myself correctly.

Kim, I didn't get to ask you but I was seriously impressed with your front lights. It's the first time time I've ridden in front of someone whose lights swamp the Cyo, which is going some. What are they?

And the other unforgettable bits...
It was a glorious clear, dry starlit night. Truly perfect weather for an autumn pootle. On the return from the Anchor we had cause to stop at a point where the rising last quarter of the moon was framed between trees. There was a thin strip of cloud cutting across, making it difficult to identify at a glance, which caused some discussion.
Tim, why1040 & I had arrived a bit early at the meet point and were waiting for Kim, when 2 cyclists appeared (albeit on uprights) and we greeted them, presuming they were Kim+1 (there really isn't a smiley for this one).

[Crumbling Nick]

<snip>
There are lots of quiet country roads near Solihull and Warwick. The motorways don't exactly get in the way, but are an ever-present noise.

The Chiltern Railways line from Birmingham Moor Street opens up many of these routes and there's a good ride to be had from Banbury along the canal & country roads back to Warwick. There are plenty of watering holes en route.
<snip>

+1
After you had left for family duties we floated the idea of a Midlands ride. The Meriden gap is a good cycling area, with access to large rural areas to the north & south for a longer ride.

[Kim]

Kim, I didn't get to ask you but I was seriously impressed with your front lights. It's the first time time I've ridden in front of someone whose lights swamp the Cyo, which is going some. What are they?

Cyo R and an Ixon IQ (which spent the whole evening on low power) aimed slightly above it.  Though I lent the Ixon to why1040 for most of the way out, as her Smart-alike was misbehaving (they conveniently use the same brackets).

Also a Ptezl Tikka XP2 on my head, for reading the computer/GPS and, crucially, seeing what I'm riding into on sharp corners^[1].  That's certainly no brighter than the Cyo, though.



_{[1] Slightly subtle feature of boom-mounted lighting on recumbents, especially SWB ones, this.  If you've got decent lights, the front wheel ends up in an alarming patch of blackness when you go round a bend.}

[Tim Hall]

Well!  That was excellent fun. I think it's all been covered up there ^.

Random things that stuck in my head:

Polite children:"Hello cyclists!", which someone answered with a "ting ting" of their bell. "Thank you for ringing your bell."  A vast improvement on "cyclewankers".

Deciding, bit by bit, that the bike locked up in the pub garden was AWL's

"Its got on-one forks."
"It's gota front disc."
"And a hub dynamo"
"Not a BSO then" 

Ordering Ham Egg and Chips. Getting Fish and Chips.  They sound so similar.

Watching the moon rise.

Being highly impressed by why1040's ease at tackling her n+1. It's all Charlotte's fault.

The chatter, the company, the ride. 

[Kim]

Polite children:"Hello cyclists!", which someone answered with a "ting ting" of their bell. "Thank you for ringing your bell."  A vast improvement on "cyclewankers".

The main reason I have a bell (apart from to protect an expensive bar-end shifter when dropping the bike to the left) is to ring it cheerfully at small children who like the weird looking bike.  Or, as happened on the recent Milton Keynes ride, to return fire at children strafing me with a toy machine gun.   

Watching the moon rise.

That was a weird one.  There was some debate as to whether it was a well-lit windmill for a while, but the Garmin confirmed its lunar credentials, and it soon took on an unambiguous moon shape.

Being highly impressed by why1040's ease at tackling her n+1.

Indeed!  It was the skill with which she removed an inhaler from her jacket's zip-up rear pocket, used it, and returned it while riding a bike that she'd described as much twitchier than she was used to that impressed me.  Apparently it's much trickier on a horse 

It's all Charlotte's fault.

It very frequently is...

[CAMRAMan]

Well!  That was excellent fun. I think it's all been covered up there ^.

Random things that stuck in my head:

Polite children:"Hello cyclists!", which someone answered with a "ting ting" of their bell. "Thank you for ringing your bell."  A vast improvement on "cyclewankers".

Deciding, bit by bit, that the bike locked up in the pub garden was AWL's

"Its got on-one forks."
"It's gota front disc."
"And a hub dynamo"
"Not a BSO then" 

Ordering Ham Egg and Chips. Getting Fish and Chips.  They sound so similar.

The chatter, the company, the ride. 

Ditto the last points.

I was passing some sprogs on my ride today in my Foska skeleton jacket and was complimented on it as I rode past them. I'm so used to abuse that I switch off to comments, so I was 30 yards away before it dawned on me they were being nice!

You don't know how proud I was when I heard the Orbit called a "proper bike" as you entered the Anchor.

EDIT: Bit upset you didn't mention the 3M spoke reflectors!

[Crumbling Nick]

Kim, I didn't get to ask you but I was seriously impressed with your front lights. It's the first time time I've ridden in front of someone whose lights swamp the Cyo, which is going some. What are they?

Cyo R and an Ixon IQ (which spent the whole evening on low power) aimed slightly above it.  Though I lent the Ixon to why1040 for most of the way out, as her Smart-alike was misbehaving (they conveniently use the same brackets).

Thanks. It's not what I expected, which is especially useful.

Also a Ptezl Tikka XP2 on my head, for reading the computer/GPS and, crucially, seeing what I'm riding into on sharp corners^[1].  That's certainly no brighter than the Cyo, though.

I was using a Tikka XP, which (on NiMH cells) has been somewhat less bright than the Cyo N, though on the ride it seemed similar. Time to look for corroded contacts/wires, methinks...

_{[1] Slightly subtle feature of boom-mounted lighting on recumbents, especially SWB ones, this.  If you've got decent lights, the front wheel ends up in an alarming patch of blackness when you go round a bend.}

I would be tempted to seek a mechanical solution to this. IIRC one of Citroen's cars (XM?) had headlights that rotated with the steering. I'd guess that they turned further than the front wheels, since it's both practical & optimal. It should work well on a SWB recumbent. Also it'd be a useful improvement over normal upright lights. Has it been tried already?

[rower40]

I finally got to appear in a speed camera photograph.  That I was going at least 10mph too slowly to have triggered it is cancelled out by the schadenfreude of it being set off by Impatient Driver who had given up on revving and hooting at me for Being A Cyclist and got flashed mid stupid overtake. 

That is just so full of WIN.  Can you request the photographic evidence?  Using the "Useless without pictures" gambit?

[Kim]

Thanks. It's not what I expected, which is especially useful.

People dismiss the Cyo R because of the lower lux rating.  I find that the lack of a hot spot makes for excellent seeing-in-the-dark in the real world.  The Ixon doesn't contribute all that much to my setup most of the time, but becomes useful when: a) crawling up long hills, where the output from a dynamo lamp becomes feeble and the wowbadgers attack  b) turned to high power for extra distance illumination on fast descents.

I would be tempted to seek a mechanical solution to this. IIRC one of Citroen's cars (XM?) had headlights that rotated with the steering. I'd guess that they turned further than the front wheels, since it's both practical & optimal. It should work well on a SWB recumbent. Also it'd be a useful improvement over normal upright lights. Has it been tried already?

The obvious solution is to mount some lighting on the fork, of course, but you then start casting shadows of the boom, so it needs to be in addition to what you have already.  Steerable headlights on the boom (which would presumably be a case of some gear cable and appropriate fittings) would have to be clear of the chainrings (and probably feet) to be effective.

I reckon the headtorch solution works well enough, though.  It has all the usual headtorch advantages going for it (not least, ability to read the GPS/computer screens), with a minimum of engineering.