Posts tagged with “cycling” and “tandem”

June 16

A salutary tale

I have developed [a coping strategy](http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/819878-A-coping-strategy-that-seems-to-help-me "forum post that explains this strategy") for my cycling... well for the times when I feel danger has been inflicted upon me, for want of a better expression. My normal experiences of this are depressingly abusive towards myself - for example recently I was cut up by a driver, quite badly as she turned left despite my loud proclamation, "Please do not cut me up!" an don drawing level with her at the traffic lights she discarded a fag butt in my general direction and told me to "F**K Off" before I could even ask if she knew she had cut me up (obviously it was intentional). I was left feeling shitty despite my best efforts to drop her aura of shittiness all over me..... But then a couple of days ago things turned out with a most expected outcome... I was travelling up the first hill on my commute and a car seemed to whizz by about 18 inches off my elbow, which is enough to get my ire up... I managed to get a wriggle on and catch him in a queue of traffic on the other side of the hill... at first the driver appeared to be your usual, and showed no signs of hearing my complaint of less than three feet clearance on overtaking. Things seemed promising when he volunteered to pull over to discuss. We continued to dispute reasonably and I thanked him for taking the time to pull over. Not long after that he said "You don't know who I am do you?" and proceeded to reveal he was manager of [[Herne Hill Velodrome]]! He explained an oncoming car had been signalling left and then come straight on, combined with my perhaps not "keeping my line" and he had thought I was downshifting with my bike being a tourer etc. My mind was already thrown into turmoil and I sort of almost offered a salute. He asked if I had taken part in the recent "night ride" and I said not this year, but did it last year on our tandem. Before long we were comparing tandem tales, it turned out he once managed a 30 miles in a sub hour time and held a record on a day when that particular record was broken six times! Sadly his wife sold the tandem after apparently throwing up behind him, which I can imagine would be a pretty off-putting experience all round. But the tale is salutary in more ways than my involuntary salute I think... Given we one day hope to plan a tandem club ride involving a Velodrome stop for the café I am sure this could actually be the first time a positive new contact has been made in such apparently adverse circumstances.
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December 10

Christmas

How to offset the cycling obsession? Icy weather is likely to make a natural intervention sooner or later at this time of year. It is a time to look towards making things special for the ones I love. For the first time I can remember I seem to have actually bought all the presents for Christmas before my birthday! I do need to think of a better present for my partner than a rear wheel with drum brake for the tandem though, to give that could result in murder at Christmas! Oddly I have ended up with an "orphan present", a volume of poetry called "the Bees" by Carol Ann Duffy. It was such a beautiful book I could not resist it and although I could give it to my daughter's mother it does not seem appropriate. Perhaps I shall keep it as an indulgence to myself, or perhaps someone will present themselves as suitable to be the recipient. This is a far less thoughtful or creative or eccentric post than I should like, it feels mundane. I shall set myself the task of writing something poetic next time about parents who "give too much" at this time of year and the dangers inherent (I'm very conscious of this after braking the bank to get my daughter a laptop far superior to anything any of the grown-ups can afford!)
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October 27

"Two Tumbles" and "Home Within an Hour of Sunset - NOT!"

We still managed to take a break with our trusty tandem and the fabulous Aero has hit upon the idea we should give our rides "titles" to make them personally memorable after all if riders "en masse" can enjoy the "[[Dunwich Dynamo]]", say, then why not have "The Sydenham Slam" or something for a great ride we enjoy? I think you get the idea.... so coming to the title of tis post... We managed to fit in a couple of rides and covered 90 miles over the first two days of our break (the third was pent shopping!) to be continued
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September 30

Derek's plans thwarted!

Well... not content with cycling the byways of Northern Normandy, Derek returns and has ambitions to cycle as far back as he can without recourse to a passport. In fact within sight of the very cliff tops visited by Rory, to the island of Guernsey. The hopeful plan was to get as far as Poole and then unload Derek and be riding for the rest of a short break holiday, over on the ferry and then having our tandem to hand on the island as transport. This would have the benefit of placing us as foot passengers with a cycle on the ferry - which usually means quite a saving I believe. Well the bast laid plans, as they say. It seem this is not possible, at least not this time. Derek must be a creature of habit though, since he is now considering returning to the venue for the Easter tandem rally, in Arundel. It will be interesting seeing how the area is when it is NOT bluebell season! We seem to have notched up close on one and a half thousand miles in our first year of tandem riding. Not bad, and a thousand of those on Derek in a fairly short time - though I was slightly distressed to see signs of wear beyond the chain on the transmission - I do hope we get at least another couple of years wear out of those cogs! Going to take Derek for a service soon at Brixton Bikes - so watch this space!
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September 06
Derek.jpg
Derek en vacance en France! ====================================== Not only that but pictured at the crossroads of a "[voie verte](http://www.wikimanche.fr/V%C3%A9loroutes "nearest I could find to describing them....")" with identifying signing and the typical architecture replete with mandatory geraniums. What is it that makes France quite so much enjoy geraniums and marigolds? It's as though this were the compulsory "national flower", but then again perhaps they might see the hollyhock in a similar light for us in our country villages I suppose. My oh my what a time we had! Despite her injuries and a tooth that was troublesome the mighty Aero managed to power on for almost 150 miles of French roads, tracks, and even the odd tidal path and hillside! What really put the icing on the cake though was that I had also taken a solo ride (my Raleigh Aero, AKA Rory) and this meant I could be up at dawn and making reconnaissance rides in the surrounding areas before we were out there in the full sun with places to go and food to meet! It was some time before I discovered what I felt turned out to be the best ride though, although I had been into [Carteret](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneville-Carteret "yes, I have seen the view pictured on Wikipedia too!") early in the holiday and discovered the "Ruse de Cap" which was an extremely good training climb to the lighthouse I had not been back. On returning I headed across the busy D900 (I think) which traversed the backs of the cliff-tops, my destination being Paix. I was not disappointed in finding some decent climbs, but the road was horribly busy and slightly brutal (though discovering the "Maison des Biscuits" was a lighter moment!). But I did notice many side roads seemed to join up and had signing that indicated some sites of tourist interest, so made a decent to Rozelle. The descent was t blast! Made slightly dangerous by the garbage truck that insisted on overtaking me, only to be able to keep to about my own speed for the rest of the way.... Not complaining though, it was his brake lights that told me when the decent had to end (rather that than a challenging T junction!). The next day I was back to explore the "tour des caps" road which had the brown tourist signs. Turns out this is a fabulous winding roadway through all the coastal towns, ascending and descending for eack and taking in a few beachsides along the way, along with towns that I could not help smiling at the names of, notably "Certainville" and "Ferme de Paul". I never did get to show Aero the hair raising climbs or descents to be found there, but that did not stop us setting a new speed record on our way to the biggest climb Derek made. This was up to the restored and fully working windmill in the heights of the [[Cotentine]] region. We bought the flour to prove it and there was nothing to compare with the arrival from the rear of the car park to round the corner and be confronted with a fully working windmill in full sail on a lovely sunny cloudless and windless day! Yes, you heard right, it was windless and they were using an electric motor to power the sails and demonstrate the windmill for the tourists! With nary a drop of rain, fabulous food accompanied by decent wine at a bargain price, and roads that were to die for in terms of their quality and scenery and most of all the lack of car traffic (and what there was extremely respectful, unlike England) I would unhesitatingly recommend this part of Normandy for a cycling holiday.
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April 21

A little help from our friends?

By an odd coincidence the title of the last book group read was "The Help".  Although I have barely begun the book I am firmly committed to finishing it eventually because it was unanimously approved by the reading group members and I have a hunch it would do me good to get out of a slight rut I have been in with reading.

But that is hopefully the only rut I have been stuck in, because cycling seems to go from strength to strength.  This weekend sees us travel with our car bearing the tandem for the first time to Sussex where there is a Tandem Club Rally.  No doubt there will be a blog post or two after the event to elaborate and describe anything remarkable after we have been!  We are spoiling ourselves a little at the Burpham Manor Hotel though, so it will not all be tandem rides and downland!

Last but not least I do have to say that on the subject of "friends" not all is well with the world when it comes to my membership of "the society".... Although having said that it is lovely to see people I know personally sponsor me to complete my ride (see above) and I am certain thius if nothing else will draw me back to my local meeting after the event is complete, when I shall want to thank them.  And since it really does behove me to be bigger than the problems I have had with membership, hopefully that will follow too!

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January 24

Hurrah! We made it!

Not so long ago I posted a link post contemplating an organised cycle run with the tandem club (South East London Region).

I thought I should post an update to say we managed the ride, and to quote from the email I sent the organiser:

just to let you know that we made it back and Ann and Tim arrived at
 London Bridge along with us just around four to catch a train.

 Our new front chain managed to detach itself from the idler as we began
 our crossing of London Bridge and the chain was derailed as we descended
 to the traffic lights.  It almost felt as if the bike had decided we
 ought to catch the train (which we had already decided to do!).

 Tim very kindly laced the chain on again before I could get my rubber
 gloves out - and advised us to take the initiative on catching a train
 before they departed for theirs.

 Many of the riders were at pains to tell us there were not usually so
 many stops, but we were just busy taking it all in and I was impressed
 by your organisation of the lunch stop and the general level of planning
 and organisation.  Everyone was most friendly and helpful; it was an
 enjoyable ride for us despite the slightly chilly conditions.

 As a new member of the tandem club I wanted you to have the positive
 feedback since I know it is valuable best written now, before the week
 begins and other things take over.

 Hope to see you again on another ride with London South East or another
 group soon (we had not realised the Sussex and Surrey groups overlapped)

So in addition to my  literary blog posts there could be an increasing number of reviews of various rides, and if I do make posts on those I shall try and give informative tips and links to help learn from the journey as we made it.

In this instance the information I would impart is NOT to rely on the Greenwich Foot tunnel for a planned journey/.  Not only were the stairs announced as out of order, but the lift failed on the day, which meant the main "pelleton" had to retrace their steps for Charlton House whilst we made a breakaway party with another couple on a recumbent tandem for London Bridge at dusk!

It was all very exciting for me and the last bit gave me a welcome chance to get a little pace and warm us up after a chilly day!

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September 04

Categories of Engagement

It is not too often the personal intrudes on this blog (I hope!) But today I would like to indulge myself a little.  Anyone who has been here before will perhaps notice that there are a couple of new categories creeping in here.

One is cycling - and the tandem features (Now enhanced with lights and super bell and ready to roll!).

The other is marriage - and this is because I am now engaged to be wed, I have plighted my troth!  It will be a long engagement, but if any matters come up which I think I can talk about here (or even if I read anything which seems connected) then I may post to this category.

On which subject my fiancee thinks this blog would reach a much wider audience and I can see what she means (though am uncertain I really want the world and it's brother to be reading this - my hosting could not cope for a start!).  BUT I have decided to see if I can register the domain "eclectic.me" as a possible alternative.

UNLESS anyone has any better ideas for the name of this blog?  AND YES; I do realise the heading banner and design would be due for a complete overhaul as a result, then again I am quite keen to improve the site's accessibility and so should not mind this.

A post should be forthcomng to review the book "Chicago" soon and not sure what will follow from that, perhaps a thrilling account of the first tandem tour involving panniers and distance!

 

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August 07
Uploaded pictures of our wonderful tandem from both sides, taken by the previous owners who clearly took good care of her!
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