It’s going to be a short and sweet one this week, mainly because as I sit here on Sunday afternoon, I can’t actually think of anything to write about. Sometimes the words seem to flow onto the page like a leaking pipe soaking into your carpet, and other times it’s like getting blood out of “The Emma” (nigh on impossible apparently). I was off work last week (just to fit in with “The Emma’s” leave) so you would think that I would have loads to tell you about, and in fact I was incredibly busy, it’s just that none of it’s really newsworthy or particularly interesting. And for some strange reason, I don’t even seem to have many pictures from my endeavours to share! Most of what I have been up to, has been catching up on odd jobs and finishing off other things that should have been finished ages ago, in an attempt to clear a bit of the backlog before I start anything else. For instance, I’ve finally got round to fitting the carpet into the airing cupboards, and refitted the trims around the front door, both jobs that have been outstanding since “The Carpet Caper” back in April. I’ve also tidied out the storage garage and fitted shelving down one side so that I can actually get in there now, and at the same time thrown away loads of junk that I’d been saving for some unknown reason, neither of which jobs are particularly exciting. Whilst we're talking about unexciting jobs, the workshop window has been letting in moisture for a couple of years, where the frame wasn't sealed to the wall properly. So I spent half a day digging out all the old, perished, sealant, repointing some of the brickwork and resealing it properly, which will hopefully stop the damp which is creeping down the wall. Although only time will tell if that’s been successful. I’ve had a couple of mornings on the Allotment and in the gardens at home too, tidying up ready for the winter. The Tomatoes and Cucumbers have finally come to an end in the greenhouse, so they've been cut down and added to the compost heap, and the Courgettes have also met the same fate. The Squashes (Butternut and Autumn Crown?) have been harvested and are currently in the cold frame hardening off before I bring them home for storage (hopefully before the first frosts) and I’ve had a good general tidy up too. Oh, and the Chilli plants are fully laden with fruit still, some of which has ripened up already. Hopefully, if the weather stays mild it might still be warm enough for some more to ripen up before the frost gets them too. The other job that’s been ongoing all week has involved making some new end panels for the kitchen to replace the ones I showed the other week which have delaminated. Now this is the sort of little project that I normally get loads of photos for as it’s not too involved and easy to document. For some reason though this time there’s none, so you’ll just have to take my word for it on that one, and if they turn out OK then I’ll stick some pictures up when I come to fit them. (They best had, because getting the paint matched to the other units cost a large fortune) And when you look at it like that, it doesn’t sound like I’ve done much with my week off, but I haven’t stopped. I’ve been struggling to keep my eyes open much after 9 O’clock every evening, and I’m almost tempted to say that I’ll be glad to go back to work for a rest, although that’s so far from the truth it’s unbelievable!
The good news from a blog perspective though, is I’ve got cycling fun lined up for the next 4 or 5 weekends, so I should be back to having something to talk about again, and weather permitting a few more pictures to share. But before I go, and while I’m talking about bikes. I’ve come to the conclusion that this cycling lark is blooming expensive, and I’m pretty much convinced that commuting to work by bike (or at least across the distance that I do) isn’t any cheaper than driving to work. In fact, I’d wager that it costs more in the long run, especially as I still need to run a car for other stuff (I can’t do the shopping on my bike because there’s nowhere safe to park it (thanks supermarkets and thieving scumbags) and I can’t go to the rubbish tip on my bike, because a sofa won’t fit and they don’t like my van, and I can’t, well you get the idea). When you take in to account the wear and tear on my bike from riding it in all weathers, and the need for extra clothes, and the wear and tear on them, it soon adds up. For instance this month my body warmer finally gave up the ghost (the back ripped as I took it off) and I had to replace a jacket that wasn’t going to see me through another winter (I knew that was knackered when I stopped using it in the spring, so that wasn't unexpected). However, the cost of those 2 small purchases alone would have filled my car up at least twice at the current cost of petrol, so that's probably 3 months worth of commuting to work if I went by car. And that's before we even start thinking about the cost of winter boots, summer shoes, long and short cycling bottoms, waterproof jackets, gloves, helmets, decent lights and the other multitude of things that are required to cycle any sort of distance all year round, none of which would be required if I made the trip by car! What actually got me thinking about the cost of my daily cycle commute wasn't my torn body warmer though, it was the bottom bracket on my commuting bike. When I was giving it a quick clean the other day I noticed that the top derailleur pulley was seized. Now that’s not an unusual occurrence, they’re cheap bearings and they’re exposed to all the grit, grime and rain that gets thrown around by the wheels and chain. Sometimes, I can free them off by prizing the bearing grease seals off, cleaning the bearings out and re-greasing them, which usually gets a few more miles out of them. And if that doesn't work, it’s just about possible to replace the bearings if you're careful, but that only works once as the originals are moulded in as part of the manufacturing process, so it does a bit of damage swapping them (they're clearly not designed to be replaced). Anyway, I digress, because whilst I was fixing the derailleur pulley I noticed that the Bottom Bracket bearings were knackered too. Luckily I had a spare one, so swapping it over wasn’t a big job, but what is annoying was the fact that I was sure that I only replaced that a few months ago. In fact I even remembered doing it one evening in the winter! Which was what set me off on the rant about cycling to work being expensive in the first place. Now, a while ago, because I seemed to be forever replacing bike parts, I started keeping track of what got replaced on which bike and when, and its made for some quite interesting discoveries. So once I’d got cleaned up I had a look, and guess what I discovered? It wasn’t this spring that I replaced that bottom bracket, it was actually February 2022 on that bike, and since then it’s done 5856 miles. That’s 5856 miles in all weathers, which is probably more than most bikes do in their lifetime, and whilst I throw a bit of oil on it on a regular basis, it’s a workhorse not a racehorse, and gets treated as such. So Mr Shimano, I guess I owe you an apology for ranting about your rubbish bearings, it would appear that they’re actually quite good (although if you fitted grease shields to both sides of the bottom bracket bearing then they’d probably last even longer)! But my original point still stands. It's blinking expensive this cycling lark, I mean, how can it possibly be £100 for a jacket with no arms, it's less than that for one with arms!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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