All morons hate it when you call them a moron. - Holden Caulfield.
Today I rode with the Solo bunch. What an utter pleasure riding with those riders is. Sociable, courteous, caring and run with a velvet fist. Thanks guys and girls, I'll be back.
On Wednesday, I had a predawn ride with Mikeal, the man who shuffles his own deck. Hence forth him will have the additional honorific of Sid Too. The reasons for his new second title are as follows:-
Arrives in the dark with two bottles on his bike, we are about to ride and he mentions that he has no water in either. Better yet, he does have some drink powder in one. No water, but drink powder...How yummy would have been dry raro and salt?
Back light won't go, we ride down the road, and as we round the first corner backlight is ejected from the bike. Stop, pick up the pieces, carry on, sans one battery.
On return I find missing battery, no wonder light didn't go, battery had rust and corrosion on the anode.
Fair justification for a new title me thinks.
Life is almost back to normal, and I can start filling in the gaps on the interweb that I have been forced to let slip. This slippage was entirely due to working every given hour to get the house ready for sale. This weekend it hits the market and then a new chapter begins.Here's the shameless advertising bit.I did take a couple of breaks for an hour or two over the past few weeks, and went to a couple of events. These pics are from the Noth Shore Grand Prix, what a great event this is, well done Peter Ulmer. Excellent racing, huge crowds and beer delivered to me on request by Sid. It was also great to catch up witha few people I haven't seen for quite sometime.The other event I went to was the Kumeu Hotrod Show, and I'll post pics from that in a day or two. My riding has been meagre, although I did throw in a soul enhancing roll around the Karekare/Lone Kauri Road loop early one Sunday. When fit it's a great circuit, when less than fit, ridden at one's own pace, it's still a great circuit. I came back refreshed and ready for more plastering, sanding, painting, tool throwing mayhem.BTW these pics are available to all, like all the others on here, but if used, remember the Creative Commons License thingy. If any of the riders pictured would like a copy, just email me, also I do have a large number of other pics that I'm happy to share from this event.
This morning as I consumed my breakfast I was idly reading Wikipedia. The above screen dump is taken from their description of the picture of the day.Click on the above to read, or go here to read it in full (although it may well be changed PDQ).
The new year has started, with a hiss and a roar, much busyness for me. The weather has lent a kind hand to this, but it has been a time of true sweat and toil.The pox has departed from the household and only a few scabs remain to remind the midget of his affliction. These, too, will pass. Sunday was my first ride of Two Thousand and Ten. It was approximately one hundred kilometres of rolling bliss with Junior. We traipsed around the Ridge Road circuit and added in Wairere Road and the Bethall's Quarry for good measure. The weather was ideal and the ride was honest. It was truly good for my soul. We did encounter a rapidly rising spring tide on the Norwestern bikepath, which we watched with fascination as others rode through the sea water across the bike path and the still advancing tide, before we took the plunge and rachet pedalled our cautious way through. Arriving home the hose was used damn quickly to remove any salt water residue. I have encountered a few similar high tides on this particular piece of path before, but never sat and watched the rapid rise. A few days earlier, the Mistress and Commander had seen a school of Kahawai in close there on a rising tide, and on this particular day, it also looked "fishy". Fantastic to have that sort of wilderness as part of the inner city.A recent discussion with a magazine publisher may bear fruit, with some possible landscape photography work for moi. Normally I wouldn't mention this, but I need to to place context around Mikeal's strange statement. Not only is he rapid of the draw of his own weapon, he is an exhibitionist. I was aware of this, nothing new there, but when, in passing, I mentioned that I may be undertaking a bit of paid photography work in the field, he asked if "I would like to have a naked man running through the scene, and could he be that naked man?" I answered negative, so he asked again, he didn't ask for payment or the like, so I'd hazard his motivation is somewhat disturbing.Today, there was a massive ray of sunshine cast upon my day. A couple of months ago the front riv-nuts loosened on my Cannondale (only 6 months old) and as it was examined I noticed some paint issues and possible frame issues around the riv-nuts. The original retailer who I bought the frame through dropped the ball badly in terms of customer service when I sought assistance (It needs to be stated that there was a change of store ownership/management and when I originally bought the frame the staff at the store were excellent and a pleasure to deal with). After getting no response at all with said retailer, I took the issue to Planet Cycles on Dominion Rd. There Pete and Steve got onto the case, spoke to the NZ Cannondale dealer, W H Worralls, and the Worralls rep sorted out the riv-nut issue. Worralls stated they would examine the paint issue and advise me.Today, Steve from Planet Cycles rang me to tell me there was a replacement frame sitting in Planet Cycles for me. I'm delighted and over the moon. No fuss or drama, just good honest service from Planet Cycles, Worralls and Cannondale. Thank you all.
