U is for Underground#

Mon May 5 19:16:26 2025

While looking back through my photos I realised I hadn't said anything about "U is for Underground" which was last Saturdays ride because this Saturday was all about brake lines.

This is Scotts Grotto near Hertford. Its a collection of small chambers with shell-lined walls connected by tunnels, which was built in the 1760s by John Scott, a Quaker poet and landowner. It's very dark.

Twas a fun route both there and back as I had the time not to have to rush back down the A10 and was able to appreciate the handling improvements from having had the suspension setup. On the way back I followed a Porsche Targa through the twisty bit, but the driver was doing 50 in the NSL (60 mph) sections and 40 in the 50 limits. From which we can clearly conclude that a Honda CBR600f is better than a Porsche (/s)

V is for Viaduct#

Sun May 11 12:30:03 2025

Says wikipedia:

The railway initially planned to build the viaduct with laminated timber but Bruff opted for brick to reduce the cost.

V is for Viaduct. Chappel Viaduct is probably the fifth largest brick-built structure in the UK, using seven million bricks to span 320 metres. Each pillar has an ovaloid cutout in it so you can stand underneath it in the middle and look through the pillars to either end

The trip there was via everybody's favourite road the B184 which I am gradually learning to remember (but still got lost in Dunmow) then a bit of dual carriageway and then some quite narrow gravely roads through villages all called Something Colne (I may be wrong about that last bit, the sun was shining on the screen so I couldn't see the map. There was definitely gravel, though.

Had to park on the grass when I got there, but with the lack of rain recently the earth is baked hard, so no risk of the side stand sinking into the ground

Images are all of the viaduct from various angles

W is for Windmill#

Sat May 17 14:42:12 2025

W is for Windmill. A traditional windmill made of wood and painted a kind of creamy colour. It has four wooden vanes, attached to the central point with what looks like a mechanism to change the angle of the vane and so speed up/slow down rotation. It was stopped when I saw it.

It's in Mountnessing, in a park and across the road from a pub which served me a perfectly-Coke-flavoured glass of Coke.

Dropped the bike on the way home :-(. It was a basic mistake (put my foot down, the ground was a bit further away than I thought) but it did kind of put a damper on the rest of the journey home. No damage to the bike (thanks crash bungs!) but my airbag did go off as I inelegantly dismounted to the side. Notes to self: find out how to replace the airbag cartridge.

My lower back feels a bit funny, I think from where I was trying to save the bike from falling, but yoga will fix that

Y is for Yacht#

Sat May 31 19:50:15 2025

Y is for Yacht. This is Heybridge Basin, which is where the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation (a canal) meets the Blackwater estuary. The three photos all show boats of one kind or another: I am 90% sure that the kind is "yacht" in the first one, but the second is a confusion of moored vessels and a tangle of masts - I think some of those boats are cruisers - and I don't know for certain but I think the third one might be a Thames sailing barge

Getting there took a lot longer than I'd have liked, because (1) my helmet headset stopped working, so no voice navigation prompts[*]; (2) the sun was too bright to be able to see the screen clearly; (3) when I'd missed enough turnings due to (1) and (2) that I was nowhere near the planned route, Kurviger was unable to replan it as I'd ridden into a place with no mobile coverage. So, there was more than one occasion of pulling over and taking gloves off to poke at the screen.

Arrived at Heybridge at ~ 4:15, found the pub carpark which turned out to be gravelled, parked my bike carefully with a palm-sized flat rock under the kickstand, downed a pint of coke, took photos and set straight off back home by means of following road signs for (a) Chelmsford; (b) London until I reached the A12. Back home just in time to light the barbecue and cook dinner.

Plus points: didn't drop the bike, no airbag inflations. Properly setup suspension ... the novelty has still not worn off. Remembered the sidestand every time I put the bike into gear (on the foundation of such small victories are great habits built). Performed a couple of pleasingly revvy 1st gear overtakes on drivers who were doing 25 on 60mph roads. The rattling noise from last time has gone away after I replaced a missing fairing bolt. (Admittedly I did swap it from the place of a different fairing bolt but the other one seems less critical. I need to order replacements for that and a couple of other fasteners)

I only have Z left now before I have to think of a different theme for picking Saturday afternoon destinations.

[*] Apparently the volume had muted itself, is all. The hardware volume controls on this phone are blocked by the case, so I guess I need some other way to change that conveniently