Storms Barbara and Connor swept through Shetland over the xmas period, and I went out for a walk down to my office in winds between 40 and 50 mph. It was a mile walk each way and was really hard going getting there, but much easier on the way back. I settled down in the house feeling sorry for myself due to a bad cough, which had been recurring in bouts for a couple of months. With the wind gusting up to 90 mph at times I didn’t plan to go anywhere, despite the cabin fever.
In the run up to xmas items started to arrive in the post including a medium Topeak wedge, which is probably a bit on the small size for what I wanted to put in it. I also bought a small pump, spare tubes for the bike, replacement tyres and tubes for the trailer, and 3 spare spokes for each wheel, having broken a spoke before. I will have to investigate how the rear sprocket comes off to get a spoke in from that direction if needed. I couldn’t get the fulcrum arm off when I needed to. I have resisted buying another spare battery yet, but have been advised to look on eBay as they are somewhat cheaper than the ARCC, (25%), although some of them do not have a Bosch logo, so presumably although they look like Bosch, they aren’t Bosch. I also bought a stubby 15mm ratchet spanner for tightening the rear spindle nuts. I straightened out the bent fulcrum arm on the rear hub as much as I could. The damage had been caused by the safety wire from the trailer getting wrapped up in the rear sprocket/chain I suppose. I haven’t made a great job of it, but it is better than it was. I ended up ordering a waterproof box from Solent Plastics. I went for the larger one. After it arrived I did some research on it and it turns out to be made as a side bin for military trucks, so really designed to be used on its side and bolted up through the side to the underside of the truck. It is not a perfect solution as I will be using it face up, against the manufacturers advice, but there is a rubber door seal, which should keep the water out, although some water may get into a small channel between the door and body. As anything electrical will be bagged inside, if only in a rucksack, I don’t think that there is a great need to worry. I wrote to the vendor and suggested they make buyers more aware that the bin is not designed to be used upright. I said that it wasn’t worth the time and effort of sending it back, so as a goodwill gesture they refunded the shipping costs, which I thought was very reasonable of them. The box is certainly robust and should see me out. In fact I might even ask to be folded a few times and buried in it!
I always carry a camera with a me, a small Canon compact camera (S95 for those it might matter to). The problem is that I rarely get it out of my bag. To encourage me to take more photos I have decided to geotag the pictures and the system for this will be a Columbus V990 GPS datalogger, which will be carried in an Aloksak bag in my pocket. I have often ridden in weather so bad that I have puddles of water in my pockets. The Columbus V990 has a removable microSD card, so has the opportunity for water ingress, which I would like to avoid. I exclusively use Mac hardware for personal use. It’s Windows PCs at work, but I make sure that I wash my hands thoroughly after using them! The software that I chose for the geotagging process is HoudahGeo, which has a viewer for the photo collection built in, imports the datalogger GPS track logs, then marries up images to locations, which then can be viewed on a map. Why am I telling you all this? I was recently reading a blog about a couple of women who cycled toured on Shetland, and they went to places that I have not even visited, and I have lived here for over a decade, and I tend to be better travelled than the locals, about their island group. Their story encouraged me to get out on the bike, when the weather is better and get some photos taken. Adding mapping to them could make them more interesting.
The SKS mudguards, which Moulton resellers sell at fantastic amounts of money, and not fantastic in a good sense, have a drawback. Between the upper chain stays on the Moulton a bridge has been welded, which has a hole in it, designed for attaching rim brakes and mudguard brackets to some years ago. Sadly, the SKS mudguards are not fitted with a bracket to fit here so my probably badly warped mudguard can’t be forced to follow the line of the wheel. The front mudguard is perfect though. Neither of the bike shops locally had 20” mudguards for sale so a trip to eBay was called for. I found only one pair that had this bracket fitted at a tenner a pair, which seemed great, but as they are coming from Germany they have added £17 postage. I will probably just use the rear one. It was just a case of bending over and accepting the cost!
When I bought the Pearl Rivet saddle I made sure to get plenty of Brooks Proofide into it, and it has turned out to be worthwhile. The difference between this saddle and a standard Brooks B17 is like night and day for me. I find the B17 to be crippling. Without padded cycle shorts the 18 mile commute is do-able, but with cycle shorts it is not bad at all. I hide them under trousers so that no-one is faced with seeing an old bloke in lycra. It’s not a good way to start your day.
I still need to get the pannier rack modified to take into account the extra width needed by the ePod unit and battery. I will probably get this done locally as it would be unfair to expect someone to do it by measurements that I send that might not be accurate.
I had some shower caps delivered, which make great saddle covers for when I leave the bike outside in the rain. I also need to buy a spoke key, but otherwise it is all coming together. Gear-wise I have been suffering from wet feet as my Karrimor boots come to the end of their life, but as I got them, and two further pairs presumably mis-priced in the sale, at £16 a pair, I can hardly complain. I used to only wear Berghaus boots, but when they shot up from £90 a pair (RRP, but often sold at £68 in the sales), to about £120 a pair, I decided to give them a swerve. I have bought myself a couple of pairs of Karrimor eVent lined boots at £50 a pair from Field and Trek, part of the same group as Sports Direct, infamous for their staff’s zero hours contracts. Karrimor boots wear very quickly, so if you decided to try them expect to wear the bottoms out whilst the uppers still look new. Otherwise the jacket is Karrimor eVent, and waterproof trousers are Berghaus gore-tex. The hat is a cheap baseball hat, which is fairly useless and could do duties as a sponge, and so will be swapped out for a Sealskinz beanie as long as it doesn’t get too hot. By the time the commute is over I am usually sweating like a pig, but in the rain that we had in the run up to xmas, little in the way of breathable clothing would be effective.
The winds will be dropping to low to mid 20s over the next few days, so I might get to ride home on the bike at last, if the chest will handle the strain.
In the run up to xmas items started to arrive in the post including a medium Topeak wedge, which is probably a bit on the small size for what I wanted to put in it. I also bought a small pump, spare tubes for the bike, replacement tyres and tubes for the trailer, and 3 spare spokes for each wheel, having broken a spoke before. I will have to investigate how the rear sprocket comes off to get a spoke in from that direction if needed. I couldn’t get the fulcrum arm off when I needed to. I have resisted buying another spare battery yet, but have been advised to look on eBay as they are somewhat cheaper than the ARCC, (25%), although some of them do not have a Bosch logo, so presumably although they look like Bosch, they aren’t Bosch. I also bought a stubby 15mm ratchet spanner for tightening the rear spindle nuts. I straightened out the bent fulcrum arm on the rear hub as much as I could. The damage had been caused by the safety wire from the trailer getting wrapped up in the rear sprocket/chain I suppose. I haven’t made a great job of it, but it is better than it was. I ended up ordering a waterproof box from Solent Plastics. I went for the larger one. After it arrived I did some research on it and it turns out to be made as a side bin for military trucks, so really designed to be used on its side and bolted up through the side to the underside of the truck. It is not a perfect solution as I will be using it face up, against the manufacturers advice, but there is a rubber door seal, which should keep the water out, although some water may get into a small channel between the door and body. As anything electrical will be bagged inside, if only in a rucksack, I don’t think that there is a great need to worry. I wrote to the vendor and suggested they make buyers more aware that the bin is not designed to be used upright. I said that it wasn’t worth the time and effort of sending it back, so as a goodwill gesture they refunded the shipping costs, which I thought was very reasonable of them. The box is certainly robust and should see me out. In fact I might even ask to be folded a few times and buried in it!
I always carry a camera with a me, a small Canon compact camera (S95 for those it might matter to). The problem is that I rarely get it out of my bag. To encourage me to take more photos I have decided to geotag the pictures and the system for this will be a Columbus V990 GPS datalogger, which will be carried in an Aloksak bag in my pocket. I have often ridden in weather so bad that I have puddles of water in my pockets. The Columbus V990 has a removable microSD card, so has the opportunity for water ingress, which I would like to avoid. I exclusively use Mac hardware for personal use. It’s Windows PCs at work, but I make sure that I wash my hands thoroughly after using them! The software that I chose for the geotagging process is HoudahGeo, which has a viewer for the photo collection built in, imports the datalogger GPS track logs, then marries up images to locations, which then can be viewed on a map. Why am I telling you all this? I was recently reading a blog about a couple of women who cycled toured on Shetland, and they went to places that I have not even visited, and I have lived here for over a decade, and I tend to be better travelled than the locals, about their island group. Their story encouraged me to get out on the bike, when the weather is better and get some photos taken. Adding mapping to them could make them more interesting.
The SKS mudguards, which Moulton resellers sell at fantastic amounts of money, and not fantastic in a good sense, have a drawback. Between the upper chain stays on the Moulton a bridge has been welded, which has a hole in it, designed for attaching rim brakes and mudguard brackets to some years ago. Sadly, the SKS mudguards are not fitted with a bracket to fit here so my probably badly warped mudguard can’t be forced to follow the line of the wheel. The front mudguard is perfect though. Neither of the bike shops locally had 20” mudguards for sale so a trip to eBay was called for. I found only one pair that had this bracket fitted at a tenner a pair, which seemed great, but as they are coming from Germany they have added £17 postage. I will probably just use the rear one. It was just a case of bending over and accepting the cost!
When I bought the Pearl Rivet saddle I made sure to get plenty of Brooks Proofide into it, and it has turned out to be worthwhile. The difference between this saddle and a standard Brooks B17 is like night and day for me. I find the B17 to be crippling. Without padded cycle shorts the 18 mile commute is do-able, but with cycle shorts it is not bad at all. I hide them under trousers so that no-one is faced with seeing an old bloke in lycra. It’s not a good way to start your day.
I still need to get the pannier rack modified to take into account the extra width needed by the ePod unit and battery. I will probably get this done locally as it would be unfair to expect someone to do it by measurements that I send that might not be accurate.
I had some shower caps delivered, which make great saddle covers for when I leave the bike outside in the rain. I also need to buy a spoke key, but otherwise it is all coming together. Gear-wise I have been suffering from wet feet as my Karrimor boots come to the end of their life, but as I got them, and two further pairs presumably mis-priced in the sale, at £16 a pair, I can hardly complain. I used to only wear Berghaus boots, but when they shot up from £90 a pair (RRP, but often sold at £68 in the sales), to about £120 a pair, I decided to give them a swerve. I have bought myself a couple of pairs of Karrimor eVent lined boots at £50 a pair from Field and Trek, part of the same group as Sports Direct, infamous for their staff’s zero hours contracts. Karrimor boots wear very quickly, so if you decided to try them expect to wear the bottoms out whilst the uppers still look new. Otherwise the jacket is Karrimor eVent, and waterproof trousers are Berghaus gore-tex. The hat is a cheap baseball hat, which is fairly useless and could do duties as a sponge, and so will be swapped out for a Sealskinz beanie as long as it doesn’t get too hot. By the time the commute is over I am usually sweating like a pig, but in the rain that we had in the run up to xmas, little in the way of breathable clothing would be effective.
The winds will be dropping to low to mid 20s over the next few days, so I might get to ride home on the bike at last, if the chest will handle the strain.
