A ride with Andy and Rob.

I am Getting Older and should Know Better.

2010-04-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

I am getting older and should know better.
It was the only sunny Sat. in a spell of shite weather. Me, Bazza and Gordon had a ride out to Deal through the lanes, very pleasant passing through the Kent landscape chatting. This is where being on the road bikes is better, than off road. Off road there seems so many interruptions and conversations get truncated and left hanging without finishing them, you start saying something and you never make your point because you find yourself on a ‘white knuckle ride’ down some rutted flinty valley slope. Or the single track becomes so overgrown the vegetation wants to pull you off your bike and concentration levels required are way too high to do a second task like speaking as well. On the road you can indulge in pretty much uninterrupted chat, usually rubbish but that’s OK.

That was our outward ride news, views, gossip and lots of Boclolks about nothing in particular. We kept it one notch above what I call steady for most of the way. Then on the approach to Deal predictably one of us (not Barry he’s way too sensible for this old malarkey) steps it right up for a city centre finish. Just my cup of tea and it isn’t often I get the chance to muller the rider in question so I sat on his wheel and smashed it into the town centre opening a big gap in a very short space of time. Alarmingly I rounded a bend at approx 30mph into a queue of stationary traffic waiting at a set of lights, which rather slowed me down and we rolled up to the cafe.
So were are setting off home now, across the golf course and what little wind there is pretty much against us and there is a pain behind my knees already. I had not recovered from the explosive effort of the city centre finish. One of the riders kept it more than steady over every rise on the way home (not Barry he’s way too sensible for this old malarkey) and I’m beginning to resent the constant pain now because we have a long way to go.

I am starting to have to dig deeper than I want to and as we approach the time for Barry to swing off home it’s disintegrated into the usual situation where I’m on my limit and 30 yards behind. Stupidly I decided to not let this gap any bigger because I was going to wind it up one last time and show there was life in the old dog yet. This meant a couple of miles of agony to keep the target within reachable distance and I mistimed my charge to the turn off, I left it a little too late as I was completely sharthered and I needed a little more road. But it was all too late. This effort was pointless stupid and I should have known better, but I was resentful for being pushed outside of what was comfortable for so long. The result was the last leg of the ride I was in total agony. I had cramp so badly that if I had got off my bike and tried to walk it would have probably looked something like a cross between Max Wall and John Clease. I had to miss the ride the following day as I could hardly walk, I was close to incontinence for two days, actually vomited after taking the dog for a walk and had to go to work digging out sapling trees and going to grown up meetings where I was supposed to think and function coherently.

Total nightmare.
I proved to myself again, that my memory of what my body can do, and what it can actually do are not the same. I had learned that, but ignored it. What I have learned is that my body can not recover from what it can do.
So next time you will understand why I’m keeping it steady.
Tail Light.

A ride to Deal with pictures.

2010-02-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

Thought I would show you my spanners. Needed to pull my gear cable through a bit before I left. My road bike requires such low maintenance compared to my mountain bike. I must remember to adjust my pedal as one makes my right shoe squeak. I wear the same shoes on my mountain bike with no squeak, so by process of elimination it must be my road bike pedal!

Hicks Forstall I find I ride down this road a lot it is a conduit to many rides.

This boatyard at Grove ferry is something else, it used to have a Morris Traveller under a load of stuff, but I noticed it had gone, so this junk does shift or has a turn over?

I see these sign posts and now and again I just go 'yeh, I'll see what that place looks like'. I should do it more but for some reason I regard it as time wasting??.

I always take a photo of this windmill every time I go past. In fact I go past it to take a photo of it on most road bike rides.

The Power Station: I like the to twin this with the windmill, so take a photo every ride. It pretty much dominates the east Kent landscape. I should do some drawings of it!

And I deliberately decided not to go down Hicks Forstall on the final section of the ride home, as I thought I wanted to look at the horses instead. Now, what would your mountain bike mates say if you said 'Guys I wont to go down here and pat those horses on the nose'. FECK OFF EQUIPHILE.

Apart from Andy whose road bike is still where he left in bits in his garage, there are no guys who step off and just look at stuff. Which reminds me, no one over-took me on the ride, which was hard on the way back as the wind was against me.

The Waters of Woe

2010-01-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

How hard can these things be? I got to clam down because this new GPS gizmo is brain damage. Adventurer 2800. The bewilderment and frustration is ...........well boclkols I am going to talk about my successes instead. My brakes, I thought I'd fixed em a couple of days ago, but I had to revisit them tonight and I have repositioned them and they working really well, better than they ever have.

I rode with Andy to check out what looked like standing stones, turns out its a ruined medieval thing called Wells Chapel? A stream runs close by known locally as 'the Waters of Woe'. This 'waters of woe' thing is lingering in my head, its a great title, a bit of a downer as I imagine a well not of healing spa waters but waters of bad luck and a whole cursed negative Tutankhaman vibe. There used to be a hamlet called 'Well' nearby and I've got this vision of the people struggling to farm the land, droughts, bad weather and poorly children. Circumstances forcing the people to move away from their small doomed community. All because they drank from this water source.

Andy's so bloody happy he's talking about early spring, magnolia buds, innovative ideas and he is dancing on those pedals. His woes are gone and he's happy. I'm working on a couple of projects which require more effort than I was willing to give, but I have stepped up a gear or two and I am turning the corner on them now. I need to win another job to fill my time for max earning capacity and Arsenal lost 3-1to Stoke. Shocker.

A wet Weekend.

2010-01-18T16:48:00.001-08:00

Part A

The Paris Roubaix

I was out on my road bike Sat. in the rain, it was bad...and I saw the peleton coming towards me. Fella on the front out of the sadle with a river of grit running off his nose and chin. I turn round and chase onto the back of the group I look round quickly to see if I towed the straglers up as well and saw a ring of standing stones in a field? This breakaway group is hacking it and I settle down into a rythym and all I can do is watch the muddy water casscade off everyones bottom brackets onto the road. I realise a podium finish is slipping away as I know I cant help myself peeling off to the left at the T junction ahead. They go to Canturbury and I went left utterly mashed. I had to stop and turn round at this church. Patrixbourne or somewhere?

It was a couple of miles maximum back to where I saw the standing stones? Less than two, shocking....I dont know what they are? But not standing stones I think I would have seen them marked on a map. I will come back on my mountain bike and have a look at them another time.

Part B

The Mud Bath.

I met Andy and the group, we had a great ride in the mud. Andy's off in a large puddle already, then 20 minutes later were approaching another monster, he says 'How deep can it be'? What he should have said is, 'dont go through it because there is a hidden silver birch tree submerged in there'. We're both off and through the ice floating on the top.

We had 2-3 punctures and I rode over half the ride with no stopping power whatsoever, as the mud finally finished my brake pads off. I'll have to sort it. Great ride lots of chat and a lot of mud.

The two rides I've been on recently.

2010-01-03T15:13:00.001-08:00

The ride I went on today with the group.

The ride I went on last Monday by myself.

This included Andy, who is fine and well and watched Gavin and Stacey. He also wants to ride as far as he can during the hours of daylight on the two solstices. This is a left field idea which I think should be encouraged. The North Downs Way was mentioned, something I will be thinking about very seriously as there will be a commissioned artwork at Dover marking the end of the north downs way.

Quite a bit of snow today and I have left my bike out in it?

I wrote a short play about an incident on my ride to deal.

2010-01-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

I have writen a very short play when I tried unsuccessfully to take photos of two bi-planes which had taken off seconds before.
I had got off and tried to photograph them.

Cast
rider 1 (me)
rider 2 ( someone I have riden with before in a larger group)
Plus riders 3 and 4 accompanying rider no 2.

Rider No1
putting my camera back in my back pocket and just about to remount and carry on home.
'oh hi'
as I recognise a guy in black on a black bike.

rider no.2
'Hi rob'
slows down at the junction, then rolls across it.

I hear rider rider no.3 say...'do you want to stop'.

As rider no.2 rolls across the junction I hear him say..'No'

and all 3 riders carry on towards Hoath.

Decorations for the new year!

2009-12-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

I had to wait a couple of days before I could get back to the burnt out van because of constant rain. I did manage to get their today.

One person walked past me while I was drawing on the van. He had a pair of binoculars around his neck and said good afternoon.

I wonder how long the van will be there before the council remove it? I was thinking of doing the other side. The side nearest the hedge which is still clear. Maybe the rain will wash it all off and I can do another make over soon?

to see more photos of the drawn on van see

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc3/robturner/New%20year%20decorations%20for%20a%20burnt%20out%20van/

and 'Happy New Year' to any readers I may have.

The derelict power station and cooling towers dominate the landscape.

2009-12-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

I was out out on my road bike then today. I went to Deal, through the lanes. It was a nice ride, and I enjoyed looking around. I only had one speed like a default setting, but I kept it steady and no problems.

I saw everyone out doing 'leisure activities' today, horse rinding, golf, micro lite flying, falconry, motor bike riding, bird watching, walking, fishing, bike riding and even flying bi-planes. I also saw some very self important people wearing very smart clothes, driving top of the range large black 4x4's. Why do these people think they have to go first. I made a big effort to stop them passing me through the narrow streets of Sandwich. When I got home my family had been shopping.

I had no speed at all, might have 'kept my heels down' going over small rises, but that was all I could manage. One guy whooshed by, he had lettering all over his clothing. I accelerated fast enough to get on his wheel, but after about 200 yards I had to let him go, I cant keep that up for long.

I enjoyed taking photos and can not possibly show them all. But the disused cooling towers dominated the landscape virtually the whole ride. I also passed a car breakers yard called 'Zen Motors' which reminded me Dave has not given me back my copy of Zen and the art of motor cycle maintenance yet and he has had it about 4-5 months. That is the second copy I have lent and it not been returned!

I also saw a single bed in road and a burned out van. I will return to the burned out van tommorrow and draw on it. This will add one more to the 6 or so burned out cars I have previously drawn on.

Xmas is over

2009-12-26T15:57:00.000-08:00

I wore my suit on xmas day and if I did the two jacket buttons up, then pushed my bloated my stomach out I could see my shirt peeping through the 4 inches or so between the buttons. This reminded me of Oliver Hardy and actually shocked me a little. So getting the bike into my life style is important if things are to change.

I know some of my bike mates will be out tommorrow (the hard core) the ones out 2-3-4 times a week types. I've been out about twice since I got back from holiday end Oct.
I know I will get that hot peptic sensation if I try and keep up with them tommorrow. They like off road and I know I will also get wet and covered in mud. I expect they will have new cycling clothes, equipment and may be even new bikes from Santa. I got a book on totem poles, some David Attenbourough natural history DVD's and some red indian flute music. I would rather spend time looking at these presants than charge round the woods in the mud.

So after some consideration I have decided not to go with them and will aim to get out on my own during the week!

The best laid plans of mice and men?

2009-12-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

This blog is not turning out the way I thought it might, I have only had one ride with Andy since it started. I have had several rides with Andy, but with the rest of the group as well!

And there lies the rub: the rest of the group, they want to go fast, they have no time to chat, ponder or wonder about anything. Riding is all, and riding fast.

So I have decided to keep to my original plan, that was to photograph the kent countryside over the course of one year and combine the photos with the typical 'bolcloks' me and Andy talk. I will do exactly that, exept that the 'blocloks' spoken will be all mine?

I have no doubt I will ride with the group again, but this blog may be more solitary than I planned.

2009-07-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

So the first ride with Andy and Rob was not with Andy?

A guest apperance from an old friend, who came to stay for a week, who I have known since nursery school. Ian brought his bike with him and we did several low key outings, just local they became known as 'the tour'.

The experiences and references we have in common from growing up together is what we mostly chuntered on about, kind of reminding our selves of stuff that happened to us, and its not often someone shares your memories and understands them so readily. Easy to make each other laugh with memories from school. I think we probably would have bored other people rigid, so it was best Andy's road bike is still unrepaired and out of action.

His health is poor now and we kept it steady on his single speed. But if you had been with us pottering around the lanes you would have heard his story about when he beat the famous Belgian cyclist, Patric Sercu an olympic gold medal winner, and holder of the record for the most wins in 6 day track races, 88 wins, twice world sprint champion and he also won the green jersey in the tour de france in 1974.

My mate Ian totally mullered him in a one on one 400 meter handicap sprint, part of a points race at Herne Hill. It is all true, but what he might have left right till the end of his story, when you were really impresed was a detail on the length of the handicap...................

......................................................................................................................

....................................................................................

....................................................................

...................................................

...................................

.......................

.............

........

...

200 meters!

Introduction

2009-05-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

There are times in my life when I have never even owned a bike. Others when I took it all far too seriously. Riding has been a key activity in my life and I own two bikes at the moment. One road bike and one off road bike. Niether getting much use, but this blog I hope will change that.

There are three types of bike rides in my opinion, wobbly ones when you are with the kids, fast ones when you are with cyclist nutters when you can’t see, can’t breathe, can’t think. Then there are the thoughtful ones, where the destination is not important, when you stop to look at trees, flowers and fields and experience the journeys and the conversations that journeys inspire. Lets spin those miles and let the ramblings begin.

There is the fourth bike; thats the one your were riding when Francesco Moser could'nt chase you down in the last mile and a half, the one you rode over Mount Ventoux with Lucien Van Impe, the one Freddy Maertens nearly brought you down from when he managed to get round you and beat you by half a wheel. In fact it's the same bike you were riding when you got promoted to that directorship. When you bought a new set of wheels for it you had just gone self employed and had turned over a hundred and eighty three grand in 18 months. You put some paniers on it one year and had that fantastic family holiday in New Zealand.

Yeh; I was looking for that bike a couple of days ago!