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Tiny Moments #98 - Coos

As mentioned previously, there was a time, many years ago, when the climb of Dundonald Hill was an almost everyday occurrence. Seldom was the main focus the pleasure of riding a bicycle, although admittedly that was the somewhat masochistic by-product. Once I recall that Scott and I rode over from this side in the big ring, just to prove something or other to ourselves, each other, and no-one. This would have meant a lowest gear of 52-20, which seems inexplicably enormous as I spin away on a 34-18 today. By the time I reach the summit and enjoy the view across to Arran I’m not convinced that I’ve gone appreciably slower, either. I say as much to the cows grazing above me on the hillside but they are as interested an audience as you, so I clip back into my pedals and coast down to Loans, the ghosts of teenage memories following in my wake.

 

 

Tiny Moments #97 - warmers

I think the last time I ventured out in gilet, arm and knee warmers would have been on an early morning commute back in late April. This, however, is what it means to be riding in the West coast of Scotland at the end of July. Happy holidays. 

 

Tiny Moments #96 - groaning

An infected blister on my toe has kept me off the bike for a week, but I am determined to reach the goal for the Strava Alpe D’Huez challenge and so I turn up Holbeck Lane towards Kirkstone Pass. Quickly I drop down the gears and rise out of the saddle. Over the first incline I’m keeping a reasonable cadence, but I groan inwardly that I must already be in the bottom sprocket. Glancing down at the cassette it appears I still have three more to go, and the inner groan turns to something approaching smugness. It doesn’t last. On the way back over the pass from Patterdale I’m in the 28 before the sign says 13%. When the next sign tells me to expect 20% the groan of desperation is back. This time it’s not even hidden inside.

 

Resilience

let me feel an everlasting sun

Fear - The Sun Days (from 'Album' LP. Bandcamp)
Rest & Be Thankful - Linden (from 'Rest And be Thankful' LP. YouTube)
Get Away From Me Right Now - Flemmings (from 'Shake Well Before Use' EP. Bandcamp)
Champion Fullback - Teaser Pony (from 'Teaser Pony' EP. Bandcamp)
Kathleen Sat on the Arm of Her Favourite Chair - Hooton Tennis Club (from 7" and digital single)
I Can’t Wait - Dean Wareham (from 'Luna Demos 1991'. Bandcamp)
Overgrow - Talking Bush (from 'Ordinary Unusual' EP. Shelflife. YouTube)
Swallow - A Riot of Colour (from 'Everywhere A Maltby' retrospective. Soundcloud)
Wheezer - Tigercats (from 'Indietracks 2015' compilation. Bandcamp)
It’s Not Yourself But It’s Future - Hedgehog (from 'Neurons' LP. Bandcamp)
Hippies - Drug Train (from 'Free Hippy' EP. Bandcamp)
Hey Rusty - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (from 'Mainstream' LP)
Kimberley - Clinic (from 'Clinic' LP YouTube)
Memory - Death Masks (from 'Queen's Language' EP. Bandcamp)
Weakdays - Gurgles (from 'Gurglefirst' LP. Bandcamp)
Atlantic City - Allo Darlin’ (from 'Play Some Pool, Skip Some School, Act Real Cool' LP. Bandcamp)
Basic Economics - Owl and Mouse (from 'Departures' LP. Bandcamp)
Resilience - Two White Cranes (from 'Radisson Blue' LP. Bandcamp)
Atlasmuren - Azure Blue (from 'Beneath The Hill I Smell The Sea' LP. Bandcamp)
Closing Time at the Punk Rock Hotel - Edwin Collins, Carwyn Ellis, Sebastian Lewsley (from 'The Possibilities Are Endless' soundtrack LP)

we can for a walk in the park, or maybe go swimming

Tiny Moments #95 - we’re not in Devon anymore

Admittedly, I am never quite sure which County I am in at any one point during my ride today. Am I in Hampshire? Berkshire? Surrey? One signs even says ‘welcome to West Sussex’. What I do know for sure is that I am not in Devon. Sometimes, in the lanes, it feels familiar: High hedges, short sharp ramps and endless fields. Yet there are constant reminders that this is a land that seems to exude wealth from every pore. Whereas in Devon I would be passing messy, working farms with muddy, rusted tractors in the yards, here every single building I pass is never less that perfectly kept. Expensive sports cars and SUVs sit on gravelled driveways. At one point I emerge from a wooded glade into a quintessential scene of Village Green, but inhabited entirely by expensive looking horses being fussed over by expensive looking girls in jodhpurs whilst the entire Green itself appears to be circled by gleaming Range Rovers and Mercedes estate cars. It occurs to me that whilst my own car would not necessarily look out of place, it would certainly barely clear the bar of minimum requirements for entry into the club. I pedal grimly on, thinking it’s hardly a club I should like membership of anyway.

 

Tiny Moments #94 - Skinny Hoods

Something else I really like about the Dura-Ace Di2 system is the skinny brake levers that remind me of what brake hoods felt like back in the days before they chunked out with all the SIS mechanical gubbins. This is a good thing, particularly as I generally spend a lot of time riding on the hoods.

 

Which reminds me - I read an article the other evening about 20 words/phrases that you’ll know if you are a ‘real’ cyclist. For the most part it was all somewhat obviously accurate, except that the writers suggested that ‘tops’ meant the brake hoods. How insanely stupid is that? ‘Tops’ is quite clearly the tops of the handlebars, whilst the brake hoods is clearly ‘hoods’. No argument. 

 

 

Tiny Moments #93 - Train Above The City

There is a banner positioned high on the fencing of the tennis courts just after the roundabout by the Leisure Centre. From my eye level on a bike it is just on the line of the hill beyond. Each time I ride past my brain is tricked into thinking it is some moving vehicle travelling on a raised trackway, like a glorious ghost of a New York elevated railway from the thirties.

 

 

Tiny Moments #92 - A welcome excuse

I have half a mind to press on for a decent time on the Green Lane segment tonight but slowing to pass some dog walkers sees my resolve wobble. It fails completely a moment later as an enormous tractor and a trailer full of muck approaches along the single lane track. Unclipped, I pull myself as far onto the verge as I dare without risking plummeting into the ditch. The tractor driver gives a wave of thanks and I nod in return, secretly grateful for an excuse to knock off the gas and soft peddle the remaining two and a half kilometres home.

 

Tiny Moments #91 - Electronical

These electonical dérailleurs are really quite something. The chaps in the bike shop assured me that I would find myself changing gear more often than previously and despite my initial scepticism I find this is indeed true. Some of the subtle changes in gradient on the valley road are perfect for putting this into practice and I’m conscious of using more sprockets on the cassette than previously. It all makes me wonder how on earth we ever managed with down-tube mounted friction shifters and five speed freewheels.

 

Tiny Moments #90 - Flurry

Anyone who commutes by bicycle will tell you that you quickly get to recognise the other regulars who pass on the other side of the road. There is a chap who rides the valley road who I normally see in the mornings, but tonight our timings obviously coincide on the return journey for he zips by on the run along towards Ashley. We pass in a flurry of pink - me in my Strava Gran Fondo jersey and Rapha team socks and him in his classic Maglia Rosa.