I bottled it Jeff mate, as mentioned elsewhere. Pathetic effort I know. Rain Man Reg is happy with rain, but the thing is the main aim was to wander all over the mines/quarries and you know them as well as I do - lethal in the wet. The 65mph winds hammered the final nail in. Did you ride anywhere yesterday?! . "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back...."

Bloody August weather!

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:41 pm Did you ride anywhere yesterday?! . "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back...."

No, I've been away in Chester with the Mrs. Friday is looking likely for me, might go up high....

Taking it easy this week, as we're off on holiday next week. Three easy rides on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, although I felt utterly empty on Wednesday with extreme fatigue in the afternoon. Went to give blood yesterday, but was rejected due to low iron levels, which is slightly worrying as I take an iron supplement.

Felt a bit better today, although while the legs feel strong, the engine is just not there. The heat didn't help either, it's so hot out there. Lots of combine action the last few days, with loads of these in the local fields. Three went down the High St, one after the other, the other day, quite impressive.



Glad to get out and clear the head, also glad to be back and sitting on the sofa in this heat. Totally knackered now though.

Have a few beers KT - there's loads of iron in beer!!

<phone rings> "Hello? Hmm? Not much iron in beer at all you say? Oh. What? But Guinness has 0.3mg/pint? 3% RDA. Ok thanks".

34 pints of Guinness and you're sorted

RIP wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 3:37 pm 34 pints of Guinnessand you're sorted

Not sure my digestive system could cope with that much Guinness!

Thought i'd beat the heat and got out for a bit this morning on the Camino. Still sweated lots, but it was a beautiful ride up to the Wayfarer's Way via back lanes and byways and back again.

Went up on Conwy mountain at lunch, it's running lovely atm and looks the part with the heather flowering..
IMG_20200809_143250_165 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200809_143250_166 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

And this descent is friggin ace, don't look left! and castle right centre
IMG_20200809_143250_164 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Playing with the 360 camera and several mounts on my new local loop

https://youtu.be/G0gUn_Oct5o

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:41 pm I bottled it Jeff mate, as mentioned elsewhere. Pathetic effort I know. Rain Man Reg is happy with rain, but the thing is the main aim was to wander all over the mines/quarries and you know them as well as I do - lethal in the wet. The 65mph winds hammered the final nail in. Did you ride anywhere yesterday?! . "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back...."

Very wise Reg, you what happened to me wandering around quarries in the dark with 71 Mph winds!

I went back to Dinorwig quarry this afternoon. The forecast was poor (thunderstorms) but I took my chances. Very busy with tourist folk milling about in Llanberis. Took the track from near Nant Peris up the quarry with the distant sound of thunder getting closer every minute. Luckily my freehub decided to throw the towel in (which made the ride back intermittent) so I decided to head back down. The last few hundred yards of quarry track and the heavens opened and so did the lightening strikes, christ they were close!
20200810_151933 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Cho cho
20200810_151928 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200810_161604 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200810_155101 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Screenshot_20200810-170319_Chrome by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200810_180152_740 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

August, don't you just love it!
20200810_164408 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

That last picture!

Ya big loon Jeff! Yep, love that last picture.

Does anybody remember that Haywards Pickled Onions advert from wayback, with Vincent Price playing a "pickled onion test engineer"? Puts all his test clobber on, looking JUST like Jeff, goes into special test chamber, shuts door, opens jar, eats onion, big explosion, punchline: "Haywards - the first pickled onions to bite back".

I knew I'd find it somewhere! From the days of proper adverts . EXACTLY the same outfit as Jeff! In fact they could even be brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5JVbR_COJc

Ha, love it but not pickled onions!

Click on this linky (brief vid):
VID_104390820_231432_521 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Went out on the fat bike again over the local hill. Took it easy for the most part but strangely got a couple of PBs and some fast times, then again you’ve only really got one speed on a single speed, I suppose that’s how it gets its name

First descent of the ride, heads past the buildings to the left to get to the area of purple heather.



Then it was the first of the heathery stuff - it’s in full bloom at the moment and there’s a strong aroma.



After that I had the choice of turning left and dropping all the way to the valley floor but that would have meant a 300m climb to get back up so went right and headed back to the road and up this to head off up to the top of the hill.



After a bit of a sit down in the breeze by the trig point the rest of the ride would be mostly downhill, or at least some short easy climbs. The first part was back the way I came up but stopping at a memorial stone to a local man who died supplying the beacon that sat on top of the hill during the Napoleonic Wars. Then a chat with a bloke walking his dog, all this up here is cheeky but no-one really seems to mind.



Then one of the nice tracks through the heather to get back to the road home. It’s like skiing purple powder!



I need an ice cream

Make sure it's straight vanilla ("vanilla" vanilla?), Bob, made properly. That flavoured stuff's for amateurs .

Not sure about that red 'GTi' bartape - very yuppie. Got the matching braces?

Today rode to nearest other town to get a 6-year old gigglebox beginner to ride, and Bikeability L2 for a lad who wants to ride to school. 26 mile round trip in this lunatic weather, madness.

This afternoon Brompton'd round to Travis Perkins to get some wooden hand rail. Only do it in 4m long size mate. Erm, go on then. But I'll have 25% off please 'cos the end's bent. Ok, but only 'cos I like your bike.

Oops. So now we have to get a 4m pole back through town one-handed, to sundry ribald comments about bike-jousting. Probably just as well I'd taken my Bikeability hivis off by this point . I reckon that's a good game for the next BBB meet, but maybe with tarp poles.

'Reg'

Not today - But yesterday
Not a ride - But a float

But Alec of here is on the water with me.
Here's one of yesterdays 3 drop run in Packrafts at Llangollen's Mile End Mill's play area
https://youtu.be/Ob2RqImw8Wc?t=22

Took the 'skinny' bike out first thing...
IMG_20200813_114859_588 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Scouting out the best watery bits for a float on Saturday

DSC_1481 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

DSC_1478 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

What could possibly go wrong?

If you're not "newly wed" you'll escape unscathed?

Increased my 'postie & collection services' range by a good 150ish miles. It was a jersey with the Yorskhire rose stanped in its back. Packed in the Apidura saddlepack.

I rode it through Wombwell and Swadlincote. Rawmarsh and Whiston with a bit of Stavely between, I think.... whatever. Up Carr Lane and through Hardwick Park. Through Belper, Derby and Barton on the Beans. Through Ashby de la Zouch and Market Bosworth. Past Royal Leamington Spa and walked up Edge Hill with it. Thankfully it was still in my pack and reasonably when I got to Lieghton Buzzard and my Wahoo gps device clearly wasn't. It was tired just like me, but it was determined to get hand delivered status. So at some point I removed the down jacket that it was cuddled up against, so the jacket could give my bladder a cuddle (thanks JamesO, it works wonders even in 40c).

Ate an orange at 14 hours in and 'sayed' my prayers. Rode it over gravel-dashery near Potters Bar and protected it from the eyes of any (well, 'most') miserable Londoners. Then as if by teleportation, 27 hours later it finally materialised in a house in Ilford. Then I had a shower and a kip before going out to assess the real extent of the problem of miserable London.

On my way to the station, armed with 3 hours of sleep I greeted 'good morning' to anyone I saw. I obviously had my 'morning' and 'afternoon' mixed up. So to be sure I changed it to 'hi' or 'hallo' at the top of my voice. I had my very own Yorkshire jersey with its special rose plastered to its back, so I had to make an effort to spread the joy.

In case you're wondering 95% (miserable or non respondents) is the answer. So I got me and my Egen on a train, smiled, and came home. Back to sunny Yorkshire where everyone shouts 'hallo' at the top of their voice and greets everyone with a morning or afternoon regardless of what time it is.

Postal range now 237 miles, which admittedly isn't very cost effective. At least it's hard to best so I'll not try that any time soon...

Top effort that man. A veritable roll-call of quaint English village names - Barton-in-the-Beans is a cracker. Was at my parents or I would have fanfared you through LB .

Reg... Dont worry about the fanfair/clap thing (though it would've been lovely and an honour getting fanfared from yourself) as I was having tracking/gps locator issues anyway. Pretty certain the Life360 app is drawing more more but giving less accuracy than it used to so phone was dead (didn't have continuous on but checking in every so often but had to use the wifi along with gps and data for a decent fix!) well before LB. What a beautiful and tidy place (well done), through even the centre (well where the 2 petrol stations were).

Regards the gps/tracker thing. I think its definitely answered my question of using SpotWalla (if I manage to get to stwrt line) on the DD600. All my electrics will be dead in no time (by using up the powerbank!)...

Barton In the Beans... lol... Always feel like stopping to take a pic with my Egen/Earnie/inconsolable (or whichever bike's ridden past) but worry it'll break Strava...

like Karl said Shaf, you are nails mate. well done.

Well done Shaf, you're an inspiration