Four sets of essential points for cyclists to remember

If I need an excuse, it's to try out my new specs
which arrived from Wiggle on Thursday (complete with sweets - hurrah!) -
Madison D'Arcs, cheap and cheerful but with interchangeable lenses, and
after getting a fly in my eye at the top of a 17% descent last weekend I
know I definitely need them. Specs are something I would now add to any list
of essential cycling kit... along with bib shorts.

Quotes like that, you bad boy, means you are unlikely to be considered good by
the PSF, which means no sweeties for you from now on *and* a slabbing ;-)


I've found that too - I've always tried to give cyclists and horses a wide
berth but now I find I'm quite happy to sit behind them pottering along at
5mph for a couple of minutes just to make sure that when I do pass them
there is *plenty* of room and I'm not just squeezing by.

Yup, I think any of the pontificating twits in Another Place, who put the woes
of travel at the feet of cyclists & who moan about speed cameras as an unfair
tax should be nailed by the gonads to a Real Man Saddle as made by Sheldon
Brown. The gonads should only be removed from the saddle when they've learnt
how to be considerate road users. If they refuse to learn and remain selfish,
gonads should simply be removed... Oops, sorry, forgot, they don't have real
gonads to start off with ;-)


I'm gobsmacked to discover how much actual wildlife there really is out
there. The most amazing thing I've seen to date is an albino squirrel, which
I spotted in a hedgerow just a couple of weeks ago. I had to stop and rub my
eyes to check I wasn't imagining it.

It's lovely isn't it, when life is at that quieter, slower pace, and you are
still in contact with what is going on around - not insulated from it in a
motor vehicle. You do *see* more of what is going on around. My favourite
wildlife experience is when I sometimes get a barn owl flying alongside me when
I'm cycling a quiet lane - even if the owl is there for a fleeting moment, it's
quite special. The only albino I've seen was an albino male pheasant - quite
spectacular, but I actually did see that one when I was driving down a very
remote country lane

Cheers, helen s





--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
**$om $

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

"davek" writes:

Absolutely. I've had a cycling free weekend but I'm itching to get out and
now the clouds are disappearing I might just go for an early-evening whizz
round my 10-mile route. If I need an excuse, it's to try out my new specs
which arrived from Wiggle on Thursday (complete with sweets - hurrah!) -
Madison D'Arcs, cheap and cheerful but with interchangeable lenses, and
after getting a fly in my eye at the top of a 17% descent last weekend I
know I definitely need them.


My Madison D'Arcs, cheap and cheerful but with interchangeable lenses,
arrived from Wiggle on Thursday (complete with sweets - hurrah!)
too...

And I'm just off for a 10 mile 'first time this weekend' ride...

You haven't just ordered a Kryptonite wall thingy, cable and D lock
from them as well, have you?

David

"davek" writes:

Absolutely. I've had a cycling free weekend but I'm itching to get out and
now the clouds are disappearing I might just go for an early-evening whizz
round my 10-mile route. If I need an excuse, it's to try out my new specs
which arrived from Wiggle on Thursday (complete with sweets - hurrah!) -
Madison D'Arcs, cheap and cheerful but with interchangeable lenses, and
after getting a fly in my eye at the top of a 17% descent last weekend I
know I definitely need them.


My Madison D'Arcs, cheap and cheerful but with interchangeable lenses,
arrived from Wiggle on Thursday (complete with sweets - hurrah!)
too...

And I'm just off for a 10 mile 'first time this weekend' ride...

You haven't just ordered a Kryptonite wall thingy, cable and D lock
from them as well, have you?

David

Richard Goodman wrote:

I can't imagine any driver with passengers on board, some of whom will
be standing, deliberately hitting the brakes very hard just for the specific
purpose of causing problems to a drafting cyclist.

I never underestimate the psychopathic tendencies of bus drivers ;-)

Richard Goodman wrote:

I can't imagine any driver with passengers on board, some of whom will
be standing, deliberately hitting the brakes very hard just for the specific
purpose of causing problems to a drafting cyclist.

I never underestimate the psychopathic tendencies of bus drivers ;-)

On 18/4/04 4:37 pm, in article , "davek"
wrote:

I'm gobsmacked to discover how much actual wildlife there really is out
there. The most amazing thing I've seen to date is an albino squirrel, which
I spotted in a hedgerow just a couple of weeks ago. I had to stop and rub my
eyes to check I wasn't imagining it.

I took the bike out early on saturday. Most of the ride is on minor roads
and I would reckon I saw more live pheasant on the road than cars..

Absolutely gorgeous morning, pottering through minor roads to fill in some
of the blanks on the map.. Oh what the heck, here's a quick outline.

Left home about eightish.. up past B&Q and out towards Bridgefoot. Took a
left there on the off chance that a friend was mucking out her horse as I'd
been trying to get hold of some more manure for the allotment.
For some reason I was feeling good and pushing fairly hard.

Turned right at the end of the road, up a short bit I'd not been before.
Then onto known territory to turn right up towards Auchterhouse. I wanted to
check out the roads around Dronley wood as an evening circuit. Definitely
rolling! Saw a milk tanker plodding along.

Nipped down to the Broad to newtyle for a few hundred metres to take the
Lundie road. I last took this about a year ago and the climb nigh on
finished me off. This time I cruised it feeling really good.

Drop down into Lundie, this time following the road right the way to the end
of the village (I'd turned left too soon the last time). A sharp rising
hairpin bend and a short climb leads up eventually to the Coupar Angus road.
I'd seen an ermine here last time I came along.. no such luck today.

Not long on this road before I turn left. After a short rise there is the
descent towards Abernyte. Fairly long, fast and twisting, magical descent
alongside a stream. Definitely one for the brakes to get a good workout. I
saw a couple of deer at the bottom last time through.. not here today.

Down into Abernyte. As I'm taking the short ride today I turn left rather
than right. Just past the antiques centre is where I saw a buzzard by the
road last year. I looked. It wasn't there.

It is a fast drop down to the Horseshoe cafe (didn't stop), then over the
A90 (great that they put the new bridge in, saves playing frogger on a road
that is motorway in all but name) And now it is flat back to Dundee. And as
ever,m it is into the wind. Caught a glimpse of bright fluo yellow ahead and
pushed the legs to catch up and pass.. It felt really good until I looked at
the speedo and it was a struggle to keep it up to 30 .. kilometers an hour.

I'd been careful to try some neck tension relieving exercises en-route and
was feeling good except my legs. They just gave up on the climb past
ninewells hospital. I was crawling up in my lowest gear then dropped my
sunglasses. Got off to pick them up and found I could hardly walk.
But walk I did to the top of the hill and then it is only a mile to home and
breakfast. 45km on a good morning and feeling fine..

...d

On 18/4/04 4:37 pm, in article , "davek"
wrote:

I'm gobsmacked to discover how much actual wildlife there really is out
there. The most amazing thing I've seen to date is an albino squirrel, which
I spotted in a hedgerow just a couple of weeks ago. I had to stop and rub my
eyes to check I wasn't imagining it.

I took the bike out early on saturday. Most of the ride is on minor roads
and I would reckon I saw more live pheasant on the road than cars..

Absolutely gorgeous morning, pottering through minor roads to fill in some
of the blanks on the map.. Oh what the heck, here's a quick outline.

Left home about eightish.. up past B&Q and out towards Bridgefoot. Took a
left there on the off chance that a friend was mucking out her horse as I'd
been trying to get hold of some more manure for the allotment.
For some reason I was feeling good and pushing fairly hard.

Turned right at the end of the road, up a short bit I'd not been before.
Then onto known territory to turn right up towards Auchterhouse. I wanted to
check out the roads around Dronley wood as an evening circuit. Definitely
rolling! Saw a milk tanker plodding along.

Nipped down to the Broad to newtyle for a few hundred metres to take the
Lundie road. I last took this about a year ago and the climb nigh on
finished me off. This time I cruised it feeling really good.

Drop down into Lundie, this time following the road right the way to the end
of the village (I'd turned left too soon the last time). A sharp rising
hairpin bend and a short climb leads up eventually to the Coupar Angus road.
I'd seen an ermine here last time I came along.. no such luck today.

Not long on this road before I turn left. After a short rise there is the
descent towards Abernyte. Fairly long, fast and twisting, magical descent
alongside a stream. Definitely one for the brakes to get a good workout. I
saw a couple of deer at the bottom last time through.. not here today.

Down into Abernyte. As I'm taking the short ride today I turn left rather
than right. Just past the antiques centre is where I saw a buzzard by the
road last year. I looked. It wasn't there.

It is a fast drop down to the Horseshoe cafe (didn't stop), then over the
A90 (great that they put the new bridge in, saves playing frogger on a road
that is motorway in all but name) And now it is flat back to Dundee. And as
ever,m it is into the wind. Caught a glimpse of bright fluo yellow ahead and
pushed the legs to catch up and pass.. It felt really good until I looked at
the speedo and it was a struggle to keep it up to 30 .. kilometers an hour.

I'd been careful to try some neck tension relieving exercises en-route and
was feeling good except my legs. They just gave up on the climb past
ninewells hospital. I was crawling up in my lowest gear then dropped my
sunglasses. Got off to pick them up and found I could hardly walk.
But walk I did to the top of the hill and then it is only a mile to home and
breakfast. 45km on a good morning and feeling fine..

...d

Quotes like that, you bad boy, means you are unlikely to be considered
good by
the PSF, which means no sweeties for you from now on *and* a slabbing ;-)

Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't mean it really. Honest.

It's lovely isn't it, when life is at that quieter, slower pace, and you
are
still in contact with what is going on around - not insulated from it in a
motor vehicle.

I saw the funniest thing when I was out this evening - laughed so much I
almost fell off my bike.

I was passing a field full of sheep and I noticed that one was lying on its
back, legs in the air, completely still. Several other sheep were standing
in a group nearby looking at it and gradually creeping closer towards it.
They could tell something was up, and I was a bit concerned - should I try
to find a farmer and let him know one of his sheep was lying dead in a
field?

Just as I was mulling over what I should do, the 'dead' sheep just rolled
over and leapt up, scaring its mates half to death. I could almost swear it
was standing there laughing as all the other sheep ran away...

d.

Quotes like that, you bad boy, means you are unlikely to be considered
good by
the PSF, which means no sweeties for you from now on *and* a slabbing ;-)

Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't mean it really. Honest.

It's lovely isn't it, when life is at that quieter, slower pace, and you
are
still in contact with what is going on around - not insulated from it in a
motor vehicle.

I saw the funniest thing when I was out this evening - laughed so much I
almost fell off my bike.

I was passing a field full of sheep and I noticed that one was lying on its
back, legs in the air, completely still. Several other sheep were standing
in a group nearby looking at it and gradually creeping closer towards it.
They could tell something was up, and I was a bit concerned - should I try
to find a farmer and let him know one of his sheep was lying dead in a
field?

Just as I was mulling over what I should do, the 'dead' sheep just rolled
over and leapt up, scaring its mates half to death. I could almost swear it
was standing there laughing as all the other sheep ran away...

d.

And I'm just off for a 10 mile 'first time this weekend' ride...

Spooky. Actually, my 10 mile ride turned into 26 miles - mainly because my
10 mile route would have involved a return leg into a stiff-ish headwind.
Instead I went the other way and had the wind behind me all the way home...
WHEEEEEE!

The D'Arcs are nice - quite comfortable and don't obscure your vision at
all. Already very glad I got them.

You haven't just ordered a Kryptonite wall thingy, cable and D lock
from them as well, have you?

I don't think so, but maybe I'd better check...

d.