Full Metal Wheelbarrow

Rob has just acquired a new camcorder to run on his trike - here's today's ride through Calke Park

And now, some pictures!

( Trike, tomatoes and triffids :) )

Yesterday we embarked on extensive weeding of the back garden. Which oughtn't to take very long, said back garden being somewhat on the tiny side, but there were a lot of tiny weeds that had to be extricated from among the flowers :)

When we built the big raised bed in the back garden, one of the first things that we planted in it was a Euphorbia Griffithii "Fireglow". Rob likes Euphorbias and this one has pretty red flowers and attractive red-edged leaves. Alas, after several years it was showing signs of plotting to Take Over The World, Pinky, so we reluctantly decided it was time for it to go. It fought back valiantly, and I suspect there are still rogue bits of root in the soil which will grow back in the coming seasons, but the bulk of it is now residing in the green waste bin (which is, of course, brown).

It's had its revenge already, as I woke up this morning with a pain in my left hip, which I strongly suspect comes from pulling up the little blighter's roots!

Rob went out riding this morning, intending to go up to the cafe at Flash Bar where he had been several times on the Glyde but not yet on the Evo.

Alas, this state of affairs still prevails, as 8 miles from home, his chain derailed and he lacked a sharp implement with which to free it from the ruins of his homemade chainguard, so the International Rescue (alias me) were called out once more….

Once back at home though, repairs were effected with comparative ease and a new shiny Leatherman has been ordered to make up the shortage in the on-trike toolkit.

In other news, my cheesegrater is still missing.

 Robin Williams was right. The "0" in 05:00 stands for "O my god, it's early!!!!".

Rob got back safely on Saturday, and having ridden nearly three hundred miles over the previous three days had a nice quiet day on Sunday :)

(  New trike picture )

 Rob has called from Germany and he has his Evo-K, and is all sorted in his hotel for the night. And the trike safely locked in the hotel bike shed - they're sensible about such things on the Continong :)

Tomorrow he starts riding back to the ferry port. In theory he could do the journey fairly easily in a day, but as he'll be getting used to a new machine he's staying in another hotel in the Netherlands tomorrow night and catching the ferry back to Hull on Friday night, then riding home from Hull on Saturday.

 Dropped Rob off at the airport at Stupid O'Clock this morning to catch a flight to Amsterdam whence he will get a train and eventually a taxi to Straelen in Germany where he will, all being well, collect his new shiny velomobile from the nice folk at Go-One. Hopefully he will call me this evening to tell me that all has gone smoothly. 

Rob was planning to go on a long ride today, but yesterday, as I was helping him oil the suspension, the right hand steering rod came adrift from the frame - it was attached by means of a bolt on which it pivoted, which helpfully sheared and then refused to come out of either of the bits of trike to which it was attached.

So today he has mostly been trying to separate the head end of the bolt from the steering rod by means of WD40, 3-in-1 oil and, when those didn't work, heating it up on the gas hob and then pouring cold water over it, which finally did the trick.

So tomorrow, he has the equally fun job of trying to extract the other half from the frame. Joy.

On the plus side, at least it happened here, rather than when he was swooshing down a hill at 40+mph...

The plan for today was to go cycle racing at Castle Combe in Wiltshire.

Well, we went to Castle Combe…as far as the racing was concerned though , the weather had other ideas.

I have this to say about the weather :- Blargle. Also, ick. It rained. A lot. And the wind blew it sideways. Several different sidewayses, in fact, sometimes simultaneously :(

The valiant organisator went out for a spin round the track and was much dismayed. He proposed that folk might go for a test lap and see what they thought of it all. Rob duly went out and trundled round and reported that neither the wind nor the rain was any hindrance to him, but the inside of his windscreen fogging up so that he could see neither the track, nor his fellow riders was somewhat more problematic. At this point he decided that actual racing would be an exercise in not being at all sensible, and we packed in for the day.

So I have no race photos for you today - instead, I offer a Red Thing :-

( Cut for photographicals )

Some consolation for lack of racing was derived from having passed through the gloriously named villages of Cockadilly and Tiddleywink. And on the way home we paid a brief visit to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre where we had a cup of tea and watched the flamingoes. It's not every day you get to do that :)

Glad to be home after all that driving in the rain and spray though.

Yesterday we went down to That London for the first BHPC race of the year.

Fun was had on the M1 where the utter inability of the British driver to merge properly when lane restrictions occur was once again graphically demonstrated, meaning that the half hour earlier start we'd made was absorbed by the delay. Bah!

Once at the track things were further enlivened by a nasty crash in the first fast race which rendered three of the fastest unfaired riders hors de combat for the rest of the day. I hope they're all feeling rather better today, poor chaps. In the same race, our friend Ian, in the orange machine behind Rob in the picture below, lost the lid of his machine to the wind and also retired for the day in a state of disgruntlement.

<

And then, just as folk were lining up for the second slow race, some numpty decided to drive their car onto the track…Fortunately they drove off again without any problems other than holding up the race. They were insisting that our organisator tell them where the barbecue they were looking for was being held - because of course, he knows the details of every social engagement in a five mile radius, doesn't he? Honestly, you really have to wonder what some people use for brains….

Aside from that the racing went fairly well, although I seem to have failed to take a picture of the enterprising bloke who made himself a tailbox out of copious amounts of cardboard and then sellotaped it around his torso for each race.

Rob did well - he was eighth overall and averaged 25mph in both races, so he was a happy bunny.

Twas a long day though - the delay meant we didn't get home until nearly half past seven. Zzzzz!