diary @ telent

Forgive me Fedi, it has been 27 days since my last ride#

Sat Nov 16 19:07:47 2024

Topics: ride-report motorbike

Forgive me Fedi, it has been 27 days since my last ride

... and I don't even have a theme for this one, nor any pictures. An unexpected opportunity arose for an unplanned quick Saturday afternoon ride out up to Abridge then Theydon Bois, Waltham Abbey and home. Navigation almost entirely by road signs, which was refreshingly low tech.

Well, I say "quick" but according to Kurviger I did 24 miles in 1h11 so on average not even that. Quick in (a few) places, but there was a lot of traffic and almost none of it seemed to be in any kind of hurry.

Maybe L is for "Lighting up time". First ever motorbike ride where it was dark before I got back.

Outside temperature of 10° today, the bike took noticeably longer to come up to temperature from starting (and the engine felt very lumpy until it did). The oil temperature gauge said 85 for most of the ride, which is about 5-10° lower than I usually see it.

It does seem to be making a few odd (and mostly indescribable) noises that I don't remember it making last time I rode, but honestly I don't know enough to know if I should worry about any of them. Perhaps I should take it to a garage and see what they say

L is for Lych gate#

Sat Nov 30 17:46:11 2024

Topics: ride-report motorbike

 The back wheel, swingarm and chain of a very muddy motorcycle I didn't go offroading today, but there was enough mud, gravel and water on the roads I did go on that it might be hard to tell the difference. Lesson: Kurviger is not for winter.

A roofed gate in front of the path to a church L is for "Lych-gate", with a side order of L is for "Light is fading fast" and of course L is for "Liquid" (see previous post).

According to reliable sources on the internet(sic), lychgates (from the Anglo Saxon word 'lich' meaning corpse) outside churches mark the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, and are so called because in a funeral ceremony that's where the coffin bearers and the body would wait for the priest. Assuming that I didn't get terribly terribly lost and end up at the wrong church completely, this is St Mary's in Great Canfield

Many years of street skating has given me a pretty good feel for the amount of grip available on different road surfaces, and the surfaces today were wet greasy muddy and generally yuck. I do suspect that there is still more traction available from a big fat sportsbike tyre than from 4x110mm plastic wheels and I was being probably way too cautious - but I know of no non-catastrophic way of finding out just how much more, so there we are