The dark and the mud

Goals and challenges always seem like such a good idea at the time. The idea in the pub that refuses to go away, that kind of thing. So when I decided a couple of months ago to try and get the mileage for my road bike to 5000 miles before the end of the year it seemed like a really good idea. The reality is a little different. It means riding every few days or so just so I can get the weekly distance I need without the necessity of riding silly distances all in one go. After all the idea was to maintain my consistency of riding!

On the other hand I should be honest. I actually quite like riding in the dark. I like to ride in the mornings before work. Up at 6 and away as soon as I can get my body into the lycra and out of the house. This operation usually takes 15-25 minutes. So it's somewhere between 6:20 and 6:30 when I arrive at my usual start points. And then it's off for 20, 25 miles of fairly sedate riding usually. I've decided that I'm just going to concentrate on getting the miles in until the 5000 mark has been reached. Then I will re-focus and start doing the silly hill repeats etc.

This decision is probably a good thing. It also lets me decide where I want to ride and, more specifically, which roads I want to ride on. And this brings me to the unpleasant part of riding at this time of year. Mud. Actually, a lot of mud. Around here that also includes a lot of sand. Both earthy deposits have similar characteristics that I've become aware of. When wet a brown film covers the road and makes some of the riding rather slippery and sometimes a little slidey as well. Still, that should improve my bike handling and road condition awareness. And then sometimes you get really large deposits of mud or sand on the road. As far as I can see, regardless of whether these are wet or not, they serve the purpose of trying to dismount the rider. And sometimes they cause the bike to give you a really good bashing around the backside. It all adds up to tremendous fun. Around here right now most of the back roads have at least one large stretch of mud and most of the main roads are prone to some run off from the fields.

I live, and ride, in a rural environment. And my biggest gripe is that no-one seems to care about the state of our roads. While mud and water are unpleasant and dangerous for the cyclist I don't think we are the only ones at risk. Cars can easily slide and some of the larger pieces of mud would do serious damage to any vehicle unlucky enough to have the vehicle in front pick one up and sling it out the back of the wheel. It isn't just short-term neglect that bothers me either. There are a couple of stretches of road now that have had mud and sand on them for around a year now. Being fair those stretches are not too bad because I know where they are. I hope no-one comes across them unaware though. In both cases it could be really nasty.

So at the moment I'm in a pattern of ride, clean, ride, despair, clean again..... Here's some evidence.

Chainstays after yesterdays ride

And the front forks

I cleaned it and brought it up to a nice standard of whiteness again. I don't really know why I bothered. This was the result of this morning's ride!

Dirty again

Rides

I'm not going to say much about the rides themselves. Different in flavour, as almost every ride is even if it is on the same roads, but since I last blogged here's the summary and a little description for each one.

A real tester this one. We had a fog which left me able to see more without my glasses than with. On the first trip up to Strathkinness I had no idea where I was on the road at one point. The bike was truly filthy after this one; the front wheel rim was black. That's the problem with local rides like this; I use the brakes more. Not so good in the wet.



After the previous ride this was a delight. Dark, slightly cold but super. I can't really put it into words but all the way around this I was thinking about trying to write a poem about riding from the dark into the dawn and beyond into the light. I might have to try at some point and you can all have a laugh.



This ride was a real mudfest. Especially on the roads north of Cupar. Perhaps the farmers south of Cupar clean the roads, but the ones north certainly don't. I couldn't blame run off here for the state of some of the tarmac. In fact in one place near Rathillet there was no tarmac to be seen. Just a lumpy, wet 100 yards or so of mud. I have to admit to taking it rather easily through this section and even then the bike was threatening to throw me off. Scary, very scary. And it made the bike filthy!



Back out for a slightly lighter morning run as I enjoyed the fact we have turned the clocks back an hour. A ride notable for two things: my rear mudguard sheared in the middle (the back half is now in a bin in Ceres), and the Idiot Road User award for this blog entry. A real cracker.

Idiot Road User for the Post

I had begun to think I'd seen it all. Apart from actually being hit which I'd rather not experience thank you. But no, apparently I hadn't. I'm one closer now I think.

Coming up the hill from Cupar to Pitscottie I was getting closer to the top of the long drag. And there was a fair amount of commuter traffic. I'd rather be on lesser used roads but I refer you to my comments above. A white van was coming towards me nicely positioned on his side of the road and I'm occupying my usual, slightly assertive position about 1 meter to 1.5 metres out from the gutter. This hill isn't the best road surface (I prefer to go up it rather than down for this reason) and I'm aware of a vehicle coming up behind. The next thing I know is that a motorcyclist has overtaken me by going between the van and me. And not slowly although I'm not sure how much of a difference that would actually have made. Even now, later in the day, I still shudder to think what would have happened if I'd hit a pothole and bumped a little to my right. A very, very frightening thought.

For me what makes the above incident even more annoying is the amount of education car drivers (of which I am one) have had over the years about respecting motorcyclists on the road. And then this. I have to say that it isn't an isolated case either; the case for friendly overtakes by motorcyclists is distinctly underwhelming. If you read this and ride a motorbike, please help to redress that.