Ride Entry – 17th January 2010
Bike: Pimpino
Distance: 26 miles
I did intend to go for a proper long ride but various incidents sapped my will to ride any further so I turned for home like a gayer.
Incident 1.
Impressively close to my house this one. I was riding along Wigan road towards Borsdane woods and needed to turn right into a side road. Checked over my shoulder, there’s a Zafira miles away coming towards me, no problem. Nothing coming the other way so I stick my right hand out for a second or two. Check over my shoulder again, the Zafira is closer but still loads of room so I move into the middle of the road, hand still out. I approach the junction and just as I’m about to make the turn I do a lifesaver[1] and as I’m turning my head the zafira clips my fingertips of my right hand. He’s FUCKING OVERTAKEN ME! I nearly shit myself it was so unexpected. I mean, it’s not really unexpected, it is sunday morning so all the god botherers are driving off to their mornings hypocrisy but FUCK! I shouted a string of obscenities after him but I doubt he even noticed. I was properly shaken for ten minutes afterwards. Daft old twat.
[1] Lifesaver – For those not in the know, you should be. It’s taught in motorcycle and cycle proficiency classes and it’s a look over your shoulder just before you turn just in case SOME STUPID HALF ASLEEP OLD CUNT WITH HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS decides to overtake you despite you signalling right because for some reason what you’re doing is of no importance to him. The fact that you’re highly likely to turn right in front of him and go straight under his car is clearly too difficult for him to anticipate.
Incident 2
This is actually a series of incidents. Has the snow and ice gone round your way? It has round ours mostly but Borsdane woods is 2 miles of sheet ice covering the entire path. I lost count of how many falls I had. I was getting very bored with coming off by the end. Plus I’ve apparentl forgotten how to speak Wigan as at least three blokes talked to me, presumably to impart their opinion of me trying to ride a bike along a river of bumpy ice and I couldn’t understand any of them. (That’s not really an incident, more of an observation)
Incident 3
This was really the decider. ANOTHER FUCKING PUNCTURE!!!! That’s 4 in three rides. Piss off. And these Halo rims are quite narrow so once the tyre starts to lose pressure the tyre squirms around like crazy. Need to find what’s doing it today.
In other news….
I’ve finally got a storage hook at the Velodrome, not that I’m going much at the moment but it means I can stop all that messing about with carting the bike backwards and forwards when I do go. It’s a right earner for the drome too. They’ve turned someone’s office into a storage room, lets say they can get 50 bikes in there, they charge £100 for each hook for a year (and they go lightning fast – the girl phoned while I was out on my bike to say there were only 25 left from the original 50 and when I phoned back about an hour later there was only 5 left). So that’s 5 grand a year for a room that would normally be stood empty. And they don’t have to bother heating it any more.
I still haven’t sorted most of the site out neither. I must admit, I’m struggling to understand why the header image won’t display, I’d best have a look at that now.
January 17, 2010 1:15 pm 4 Comments
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By Simon, January 17, 2010 @ 1:32 pm
Site working fine here Jon – looks good.
Incident 1 is fucking crazy. Glad you got away with it.
By matt, January 17, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
BLUE IT’S ALL VERY BLUE!
I’ve had a few 1’s but not too many, but I’ve not ridden on the road for 18+ months now, I expect that’ll change when I return.
and.. erm. something else I’ve forgotten that I started this comment to say.
By samuri, January 17, 2010 @ 5:41 pm
Yeah, site seems mostly sorted now.
By Mark, January 17, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
“I must admit, I’m struggling to understand why the header image won’t display, I’d best have a look at that now.”
Glad you sorted it – good photo indeed!