Author Topic: Utilitarian Adventures  (Read 152537 times)

ian

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #100 on: 22 March, 2016, 08:36:36 am »
Wow, that looks like Borneo or something. I thought you lived in Hampshire!

I find that many people from the north don't fully understand what the south of the country is like. Hampshire is mostly subtropical jungle. I remember when I came to London and the shock of seeing all that exotic fruit. Oranges, melons, you name it. The only fruit I had as a child was coal.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #101 on: 22 March, 2016, 08:39:23 am »
What!!!  I'm going up north next week. You mean I have to take fruit with me?  I can't just pluck it from trees? 

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #102 on: 22 March, 2016, 10:20:07 am »
What!!!  I'm going up north next week. You mean I have to take fruit with me?  I can't just pluck it from trees?

Depending on where you're going, be advised that some parts of the North, that they have now, worship the aubergine.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #103 on: 22 March, 2016, 05:23:57 pm »
I bloody did it! Successful utility ride (6 km e/w) into town to buy more sun cream. Will write more when I get keyboard.





Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #104 on: 22 March, 2016, 05:31:29 pm »
So what you're telling us, Pancho, is that you saw the next Anthony Martial* riding along the pavement and stole his bike so you could haul your gringo arse into town?

*Footballing reference, m'lud.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #105 on: 22 March, 2016, 05:33:31 pm »
Does that bicycle has any brakes?

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #106 on: 22 March, 2016, 05:39:46 pm »
It has a back pedal brake, doesn't it? Looks like a reaction arm under the chain stay.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #107 on: 22 March, 2016, 06:09:01 pm »
I thought the tertiary ablative braking system was de rigueur for that sort of thing...

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #108 on: 22 March, 2016, 06:26:05 pm »
Yup, back pedal brakes. What it doesn't have is any oil on the chain whatsoever. My attempt to jury rig a fix for this with coconut oil skin lotion was not a great success - and meet with disapproval from Mrs P, quartermaster of the diminishing stocks of the stuff.

Cycling in this heat requires a whole new set of strategies. Basically, stay at about fast walking pace and seek shade - whichever part of the road this means riding on. The roads outside of town are absolutely awful to ride a bike. Alternating between washboard ripples (awful to ride on), rocks and holes (awful to ride on), and invisible sand traps (impossible to ride on).

But mainly it was the heat that got me on the first attempt. I just set off at my normal utility pace and pretty soon felt seriously unwell. Thus time I prepared: hat, water, and early morning. I would have done evening but Miss P warned me of bandits.

I can assure you I won't be getting back on a bike until I'm home in Blighty. It's horribly unpleasant here. I was tricked by the large number of locals I'd seen riding around and reckoned a short utility ride would be just like home (but with a few more falling coconuts to dodge).

ian

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #109 on: 23 March, 2016, 09:12:41 am »
What!!!  I'm going up north next week. You mean I have to take fruit with me?  I can't just pluck it from trees?

Depending on where you're going, be advised that some parts of the North, that they have now, worship the aubergine.

In the deeper valleys, those older religions of turnip worship still persist.

I can assure you I won't be getting back on a bike until I'm home in Blighty. It's horribly unpleasant here. I was tricked by the large number of locals I'd seen riding around and reckoned a short utility ride would be just like home (but with a few more falling coconuts to dodge).

Heat is one of those things that takes (a) getting used to and (b) then avoiding. There's a good reason the locals sit around or go for a nap. That looks more like Costa Rica than Hampshire though. At least there are roads (and good god, is that a street light?) and you don't have to fight through a crowd of over-enthusiastically driven, under-maintained and overloaded geriatric minibuses.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #110 on: 23 March, 2016, 09:21:45 am »
The trick with sand is to keep going, keep all your weight as far back as possible so the rear wheel has traction and the front doesn't dig in, don't turn and don't brake. Once you stop you'll never get going again.

As for chain oil, surely motor oil or sewing machine oil (do people have sewing machines out there?) would do. Or even cooking oil would be, at least, cheaper and more plentiful than skin lotion.

Mostly, though, a dozen house points for even trying.  :thumbsup: 8)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #111 on: 23 March, 2016, 12:18:29 pm »
Trick with sand is to use somebody else's mountain bike.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
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Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #112 on: 23 March, 2016, 12:42:36 pm »
Trick with sand is to use somebody else's mountain bike.

and make them ride it.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #113 on: 23 March, 2016, 12:48:18 pm »
Hmm. I'm not sure I believe the sand is actually rideable. It just saps too much energy and generates too much heat. And that's if you don't fall off. My average speed for the trip was something like 5 mph [1] - anything more and I overheated. I had no heat headroom to put in more effort to deal with sand.

[1] It may have been more - the distance on the road sign may have been wrong.

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #114 on: 23 March, 2016, 01:19:29 pm »
Heat and sun like that - you need a hat. Must be pale in colour, preferably cloth so you can soak it (for cooling) and it wicks away sweat.

<i>Marmite slave</i>

simonp

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #115 on: 27 March, 2016, 09:14:00 pm »
Cycled to Bristol to meet up with the rowing club lot to watch the boat race. Got a proper soaking in Long Ashton on the way back.

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #116 on: 27 March, 2016, 09:19:00 pm »
Cycled down to church for the Easter Sunday service. I managed to avoid the rain showers on both the outbound and return legs of a massive 0.9km :)
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #117 on: 28 March, 2016, 06:45:52 pm »
Pumped the tyres of Mrs As bike and for the first time in literally years she got on it and rode 2 miles.  Her aim is to start cycling to work again a distance of just over 2 miles.  She is not in great health for cardiovascular reasons so I hope it's a good decision.  It's a rather flat route so head winds will be her biggest challenge. 
Move Faster and Bake Things

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #118 on: 28 March, 2016, 07:46:29 pm »
Rode the Brommie to Bournville to play with cars.  Used the flat pedals and normal shoes for the first time in ages, as evidenced by my feet flying off the pedals as soon as I came to a hill.   :-[

slope

  • Inclined to distraction
    • Current pedalable joys
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #119 on: 28 March, 2016, 08:24:42 pm »
Cycled 11 miles to regular/usual Penrhyndeudraeth Rowlands pharmacy for prescription drugs wot they have dispensed for several months previously, to be told the 'manufacturer' can't supply until further notice - tough titties dear boy - sod off! Returned the long way 13 miles home sans 'gear'. Several phone calls later discover Boots in Caernarfon have a stash that's available and in stock. Next day cycle round trip over Drws Y Coed climb twice and 45 miles to score from Boots - which involved the high anxiety of locking 92' George Longstaff to a wooden bench that was only just in view from the back of said huge smelly over vile perfumed Boots. Pharmacist doesn't want to fill the scrip cos it's dated the day before! Slope puts on as much charm as he can muster, dressed in tweed plus twos during mid panic attack and succeeds in getting his pharma. Turns out that Rowlands only have a contract with one of two manufacturers (Accord) for particular drug - and that Boots score from the other manufacturer (Bristol-Myers Squibb) - and that Rowlands could deal with B-M-S, but it costs more. Given that the Welsh Assembly reimburse chemists for ALL prescriptions filled?

But hey, it's good to get the drugs and extra miles in :thumbsup:

Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #120 on: 28 March, 2016, 09:31:41 pm »
An urgent need for GOOD chocolate (I'm told it's for a cake!) on Easter Monday? OK, it's an ideal excuse to go and cycle around town for an hour. 25C, almost no cloud or breeze - no pedestrians, but four cyclists passing by.
A Dutch couple gently riding their traditional uprights down to the front, a Russian lady on a white bike, carrying her young child and a bored youngster on a BMX, looking for something to do.....

Nothing useful in the local Carrefour, so on to Lidl. The local Easter fair is on, but no activity at this time of day - then got held up at the barriers waiting for a tram full of visitors to pass by.

Success! Lidl had the 'right sort' of chocolate, so celebrated by having a coffee in the fish shop...pleasantly situated 50 yds from the Med 8)

A slightly faster pace back along the front, as plenty of local families were getting settled in the sun for a long, leisurely (and voluble!)lunch.

Just over 5km of easy riding on my handy little SS bike ::-)

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #121 on: 29 March, 2016, 07:14:23 pm »
I sallied forth earlier today on a hunt for a couple of plug&strainer combos for the kitchen sink and the bath.  It was lovely and sunny when I left home, and looked it it would last long enough.  I eventually ended up in a B&Q (it's easily been 15 years since I last foot on one) where I spent half an hour browsing and eventually finding what I needed (plus some other useful stuff I will pick up some other time.  A drizzle started as I left the store, and briefly became a downpour.  By the time I made it home it was sunny again.  Best of all, no idiot drivers / suicidal pedestrians encountered.  :thumbsup:
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #122 on: 05 April, 2016, 01:31:25 pm »
With the exception of my foray to foreign parts, my contributions to this thread are turning out to be as dull as I initially feared.

Today's report: 1 mile (total) to the village and back. Two fellow utilitarian adventurers (unemployed pub goers, I suspect) and about seven "cyclists".

First ride of the month and some warm Spring sun albeit with a backdrop of dark cloud towering to the West.

Further observations of riding abroad: an awful lot of utility riders. Girls with sun brollies, chaps with kids in tow, and blokes with half a tonne of bananas precariously aboard. Everything rusty and unoiled and a variety of home constructed trailers. Impressed. Also, around the towns, a fair few lycra-d roadies and MTB-ers. I am awed at their ability to do climbs (or the flat, even) in that unbearable heat. I also saw the utility types riding in rush hour (and it is a rush - total whacky races) in darkness - it was unnerving to even watch. The only lights I saw were on a lycra-d, serious looking commuter - and those were both white fore and aft.

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle in the UK and loving both!

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #123 on: 05 April, 2016, 01:41:13 pm »
Not sure this fully counts as I stuck these in on the way home from work, but as I at our town offices for once I detoured to do a bit of shopping. First some re-proofer for my rain jacket from millets, and then over to Morrisons for some stuff for dinner.

I was very impressed with the amount of stuff that fitted in my new Osprey Flapjack messenger bag :)
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Utilitarian Adventures
« Reply #124 on: 05 April, 2016, 06:21:49 pm »
At the weekend me and Penelope went down to Tesco and I filled one of their shallower trolleys with a load of root veg, a big bag of dried cat food, 4 bottles of beer plus 2 of wine, some milk and sundry other stuff.  I was a bit concerned it wouldn't all fit in two Ortlieb panniers plus the front tray.

But it did!  All that shopping amounted to Penelope's heaviest load to date which in turn compromised handling a bit due to frame flex but we both arrived home safe and sound as did the shopping!