As I am unlikely to be able to cycle to work during bike week I decided to
do my rare summer bike commute this week. Other considerations meant that
I cycled in on Monday morning---when I had my unclipping incident---and I
cycled back home yesterday evening. It's around 25 hilly miles with the
trend being upwards on the way home (80m altitude in Durham, 425m at
home.) Mostly road but with a few miles of old railway track cycleway.
I decided to come home by avoiding the open moors and took in a wooded
valley. The first warning sign was the 15% gradient (down.) The next was a
bright yellow sign addressing cyclists! It warned me of very steep
descents and sharp bends. Two wussy bends later I wondered what all the
fuss was about when another gradient sign announced a 20% slope. Two
hairpin bends then appeared, those sort where the inside of the bend is
sort of vertical. As I finally heard running water and assumed I was near
the bottom I started to wory about the road *out* of the valley. I was
almost disappointed to find the valley side on the climb was shallower and
lower.
I then went through the wonderfully named Muggleswick, village on one side
of the road, open moorland on the other. I suddenly found myself
surrounded by flies. Two inch long things, though and inch of that was a
tail, with yellow and black striped abdomens. There were thousands of them
and they were all following the road. They were slow buggers and I spent
the next few miles swerving and ducking to avoid rear-ending them. I kept
my gob firmly shut. The local swallows and martins were having a field
day. I passed a mesmerised cat, it couldn't decide which one to go for.
After a few miles I finally emerged from the cloud. Whe I later checked,
at home, it turned out they way mayflies, destined for their mere 24 hours
of adulthood---those that avoided the swallows at any rate.
Finally, after almost three hours of cycling I arrived home. Then, just as
I approached my gate I noticed my left foot wouldn't unclip. Bugger! As I
got nearer the gate and realised my left foot wasn't going to come out of
the pedal I noticed the oncoming landrover of a neighbouring farmer. The
verge is soft but there was no way I was going to topple over in front of
Ian, so a last minute unclip of the right foot and a slightly less than
elegant dismount meant I could wave to him *and* remain upright. Luckily
he didn't stop to talk as I was still joined to the bike and would have
had to conduct the conversation in a very odd manner indeed. When I
finally wrenched my foot out it transpired that one of the bolts had come
out and the spd plate had turned. I think it's time for new platet and new
bolts!
I got the bus in this morning :-(
Colin