“We all do stupid things…
“We all do stupid things, it’s how we cover them up that maketh the man” - Alun J. Evans 2008
Happy New Year everyone!
The fresh-faced year arrived whimpering and mumbling on Aberystwyth sea front, with revellers just about out-numbering the three pairs of police patrolling the promenade. I’m not complaining - I had a lovely time with some great friends - but it was something of a stark contrast to last year when I saw the fireworks of the London Eye, and the ensuing four hour journey between human tides moving in various directions to get back to Poppy’s house (usually more like a 45 minute journey).
I think I may have one or two resolutions which have not yet been broken, but they don’t quite include:
- Cycling every day
- Eating fruit and vegetables every day
Never mind. I still have those goals in mind. In other news I’ve managed to put on about 6kg (1 stone) since a couple of months ago. Not that I have any need to loose it again. But I want to get much fitter than I am, with the Ride The Lobster race in Canada in June and Unicon world championships Marathon in August to look forward to!
And another new thing for the new year: a puncture. I’ve never had a puncture in my big wheel while riding before, in over 6000 miles. I was having a nice pootle along to Machynlleth this afternoon when the gentle hum of my tyre against the smooth resurfaced road gradually got louder. It became a rather rasping grind - very odd. Then I started having trouble keeping the wheel going in a straight line, until rather like a single-wheeled Bucking Broncho, it forced a swift dismount onto the verge.
Luckily I’d made it about 14 of the 18.5 miles from Aberystwyth. I gave the tyre about a hundred quick blasts of my rather small capacity pump and tried riding again. After another half a mile the tyre was again doing a passable pancake impression.
Right. More pumping this time. I pumped and pumped until my arms wouldn’t take any more, and the tyre had got back to the ‘quite hard’ stage. Like this it lasted over one mile. More pumping. More pedalling. More riding in a less-than-straight line. Eventually it got me to within walking range of the glorious town of Mach, and I gave up with it.
But at least it has exciting new Wellgo MG1 Magnesium pedals (380g/pair - light considering they’re comfy platform pedals which are needed for unicycling) in pimp-tastic white to bling it up. You know what that means… faster, faster!
