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

Motorway meander#

Tue Jun 3 22:02:29 2025

Still planning to do the donkey mill and/or the duckpond, but I note in passing that D is also for Dull. Perhaps an expert in unicode can explain how to generate a D-MT-N-FH ligature, for Dull, yet Mildly Terrifying, Noisy and also Fuel-Hungry, which was my experience coming home on the M11 when I went out for a meander this evening. The "low fuel" light came on just after I'd passed the petrol station that I refueled at on A-is-for-Airfield, and was flashing zero bars 32km later when I reached the next petrol station that I knew the location of.

Action items

• buy earplugs
• figure out the trip counter, so I have more advance warning of how much fuel I have left

https://www.openstreetmap.org/directions?engine=fossgis_osrm_car&route=51.71163%2C0.24537%3B51.60336%2C-0.01784#map=11/51.6682/0.1136

on the Airfield route I rode along Manor Road here and took the left onto Hook Lane, which is one of my favourite local roads as a cyclist. I remember noticing at the time that the road I turned off was NSL, so today I thought I'd go straight on instead and see if I could open the throttle a bit.

No. The right angle turns are a lot sharper on the ground than they look on the map.

Z is for Zoo#

Sat Jun 7 17:25:08 2025

Z is for Zoo and we have reached the end of the alphabet. For the first time in a while, able to get a photo which depicts both the bike and the place I rode to

Ride out was fairly relaxed. Couldn't figure why it took me into some random housing estate and then said "do a u turn" until I realised that was where I'd placed the shaping point on the route in Kurviger.

Didnt do a u-turn there but did do one later. Still proud that I can.

Torrential rain on the way home was a fun experience - and with new tyres. I haven't thought for several months about getting a Pinlock insert but I could have done with one today

Mildly concerned, when I got home and was revving/slipping the clutch to get the bike up the kerb, to get what looked like a cloud of smoke and a burning smell from the front end. I am hoping it was steam and the smell was oily water evaporating off the exhaust headers - apparently this is is not uncommon. I can't see anything that looks melted, anyway.

When I got home I let the bike stand for a while and then wiped most of the water off it with a cloth, then inside for kids' bedtime. Just as I was about to go out and put the cover back on, the heavens opened again. No point covering a wet bike :-(

So the next day I washed it and replaced all the windscreen screws with new stainless screws. The rain had already rinsed away most of the dead insects that had been stuck to the front ...

There's no sign of anything melted. Out of consideration to my neighbours on a Sunday morning (on which I'd already mowed the lawn :-) I didn't start it to see whether smoke billows out or not. Fingers crossed