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'Falling off a bike' started as an experience of cycling through a thunderstorm. Today, I cycled through another one, this time on a mountain bike, with some wet weather gear and mudguards on the bike.
The storm today wasn't as bad in that the rain was less torrential, however, I was plodding up a long steep hill, which goes on for about two miles. The rain, wind and tide rushing down the road, did not make it any easier and the white socks I was wearing, were black by the time we stopped for a cuppa at the top.
The top is known as Hardy's Monument, which is folly tower built on top of the hill, commemorating Captain (later admiral) Sir Thomas Hardy, who was Nelson's flag captain on board HMS Victory at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He came from the nearby village of Portesham which is just down the hill.
After a cuppa and a bacon roll, at the snack van, we moved on through Portesham to Abbotsbury. The rain had set in for the day and some of the country lanes were muddy and dangerous. In the muddiest one, as I turned a corner my drink bottle decided to jump off and roll in the mud and assorted animal excrement. I stopped to pick it up, but I did think twice about it!
Thankfully that was all the mishap I suffered apart from getting wet, waterproofs will only keep determined rain out for so long. We stopped for lunch at Abbotsbury and while indoors the rain stopped. It started again as soon as we began the homeward journey.
This involved riding up a hill known locally as 'the limekiln' because there was one nearly half way up it. I have yet to ride over this hill without doing a bit in 'walking gear', today was no exception, although the one compensation was that I am pretty sure I saw a red kite as I plodded up the steepest part of the hill. The ride down the other side past Hardy's Monument, was more fun than the ascent although spots of rain hitting you in the face at 30mph, hurts. The spray off the wheels also makes you very wet and dirty. I was thus dirty but exhilarated.
Thoroughly soaked by the time I came home, as I walked through the garden gate, the sun began to shine. Grrrrr! better late than never I suppose. I should have known better, it is a bank holiday weekend, and so was bound to rain.
Comments
What?!
Silly girl! Don't you know that people run you down when you're on a bicycle in the rain? Then what would I do for a big sister?
Now you probably catch your death, and I'll have to send flowers or sumpin'. If you die I'll never let you hear the end of it!
Karen J.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
Janis Joplin
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
30 MPH downhill in the Rain?
Um, caliper or disk brakes on your mountainbike? Unlikely to be a drum brake.
When the rims get wet even the best pads and the stiffest of calipers don't work too well, ever heard of hydroplaning? Plus the pavement near road intersections is often oily from leaking fluids from motorvehicles. I used to commute with a mountainbike and rain was a pain. Early and often on the brakes, to squeegee off the water from the rims helped but had it's limitations.
The newer disk brakes supposedly work better. The neigbor has a recumbent that uses them.
You're a maniac, Ang.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Wil This Become Apart Of
Your Bike series?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
It is part of my next Gabysode
I've incorporated the downhill as part of my next, Whatever Next, which I haven't finished yet.
Angharad
Angharad
Whatever Next off to proofers
It's finished and off to the backroom crew to make something out of nothing. Well, I exaggerate, it's simply making sense of my ramblings before I unleash it on an unsuspecting public.
Angharad
Angharad
I know that lot
We, um-m-m, I mean They are slow. Don't get excited just yet.
Karen J.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
Janis Joplin
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Anghard, Knowing You, Poor Drew Has Another Misadventure
I am just wondering what he gets into this time. And no doubt Maddy is involved in it too knowing her.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Time for my bike story
I'm also from the frozen north like John. I went to college in Madison WI and rode a bike to the campus anytime the snow wasn't too deep to get the wheels on the road. One winter I was teaching a 7:45 am class (to engineering students of course, who else would come in that early?) and in a cold snap where the temps got below zero degrees F I found that I got to class with icicles in my beard that were so embedded that they wouldn't comb out. Ended up going into class with water dripping from my face as the ice melted. Must have presented a very strange image to the students but of course that early, they probably weren't awake enough to notice. Other hazard to winter bike riding was the railroad tracks that went diagonally across the road. He!! to ride across when there was snow on the road. Street was sometimes too busy to easily turn and hit them perpendicular. Hope you enjoyed your mountain bike ride. Winter riding in Madison would have been far more pleasant if I'd had a mountain bike instead of a road bike at the time.