Graham needs a Jag, he's got that look.Originally Posted by noel
Graham needs a Jag, he's got that look.
Few things in life are certain, other than taxes and death, but another is that I will never ever drive a Jaguar (only suitable for spivs and cads) or a BMW (only for boy-racers) or anything Japanese (too ugly).
In my formative years I did drive a Cosworth Scorpio (the acceleration!) and a Citroen XM, the last decent car Citroen made before they became rebadged Peugeots, after which I settled for the gravitas of the Mercedes C Class and for 28 years I have driven no other. (Well I did hire a Mustang once when in Colorado - but I was on holiday).
I understand you drive a Porsche and I must admit the 928 was a lovely looking car as was the Maserati engined Citroen SM, ah but...
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 20-11-2021 at 10:55 PM.
Beautiful cold day with clear air. It’s just after 2pm. I’m only going out for about two hours, I don’t need a map because I won’t be going anywhere that I don’t know.
. . . Ooh, that track looks interesting, I haven’t been down there before. The sign says that it’s a public byway for 420 metres, then a public footpath. I’ll go and explore anyway. It’s a well-made farm track for well over 420m, and there’s even a public footpath sign at one point. But eventually it ends up in a field, although there’s a wide strip of unploughed land along the side of the field. Carry on along there; watch out for those little hawthorns. Hmmm, I can’t see any way out of this field. Back the way I came.
About 5 miles later, and still about 5 miles from home. I can feel the bumps in the road under my back wheel. It’s getting dark, I don’t want to fiddle around taking the wheel off to replace the inner tube. I’ll just pump it up and see how far I can get before it needs pumping again. A mile and a half later, stop to pump up again. Another mile and a half, and the tyre’s not looking good after the descent of Whittle Hill. Walk the remaining two miles home.
But I still wouldn’t have missed being out on such a beautiful afternoon.
Reading your post below, a thought 🤔.
Brought on by the fact our car, neither a jag, citroen or mustang (ok, it is a japanese thingy but forget what) has lots of warning lights flashing, quite festive for the time of year, but the garage cannot look at them for 3 weeks.
When will a cycle manufacturer start installing warning lights for malfunctioning parts? Imagine the fun of flashing handlebar lights and the tales to tell in the pub after a ride.
Yep!
I will get on to Cycling Weekly right now.
Puncture repair time this morning. Find the thorn stuck in the tyre; start trying to remove it, then realise that this old, worn tyre really needs replacing. Down to the bike shop on my other bike; find it shuttered, with a notice saying that from 1st November it will be closed on Mondays.
Nothing is ever straightforward in bike maintenance.
By the way, Monday seems a particularly bad day to be closed, given that most incidents requiring kit to be replaced will have occurred at the weekend.
You're right. Maybe the bike shop owner needs Mondays to fix their bike after weekend rides.
Or maybe he is banking all the money he extracted from the previous week's gullible fools?
Twenty one miles (1300 feet) along some local roads I haven't ridden for a month; so I noticed all the new road signs that have suddenly appeared. I now know one of the, very short, hills is 14%. If this road has been 14% since the Roman legions tramped along it I wonder what prompted the Highways Agency, or West Yorkshire CC, to suddenly decide that this information is now important enough to warrant a sign. Sign or no sign it felt much the same climb to me. As did the drizzle as damp, cold and fed up I finished in the dark.
In terms of pleasure I think this cycling lark is overrated.
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 25-11-2021 at 01:00 AM.
Hear, Hear, Graham.
Having not run for 12 days, due to the calf playing silly buggers again, I have, over the last six days been on 3 bike rides totalling 108 miles and with 8'500 feet of ascent. Most of the time I have either been sweating my b******'s off going uphill or freezing them off on the descents.
I just cannot seem to get my cycling layers just right and this was without the fear of rain of which I encountered zero.
There were small pleasures to be had however. 5 new TP's bringing me up to 88 different ones for the year and a delicious cup of coffee at The Sycamore Inn at Parwich.
I had my booster yesterday and seem to have got away with just a sore arm for 24hrs. A 7 miles walk with the dogs this afternoon and felt OK so up to Bleaklow tomorrow for a bit of a wander and try and get my bearings for the Trigger.
Dressing for running is so much more straightforward.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
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