And not just pedalling up and down them.
So, Saturday I planned to go on my most ambitious ride yet, more of a fact finding mission trying to find out how much effort it required to get to and from Stocks Reservoir (Gisburn Forest), than an intentional day out, I had to be back by mid afternoon to walk the dog. Now the route I had chose to take meant climbing from our village up to Bowland Knotts which is a non-insignificant hill and something that I have never ridden up before. It was hard work, and my gears were making unpleasant noises. Maybe I should have stopped and had a look, but I didn’t and then about of a third of the way up my chain snapped.
I had no way to repair the chain – I carry tools, but at that point I didn’t own a chain breaking tool or Master Link Pliers both of which I’d have needed to affect a repair, so I rolled back down the hill. As I walked up a bit of the lower section of the hill a lady on a bike passed me, then waited for me to reach where she was waiting. Turned out we both know the same local bike mechanic and she rang him to come and rescue me so after a quick chain change, I got home about an hour after setting off. Dr Velo is a king among bike mechanics. Thank you.
And if breaking my chain and having to return home with my tail figuratively tucked between my legs wasn’t enough, I also fell off my bike into a rather prickly gorse bush on the way home. Sunday, I did very little my legs were sore so I had a day of little energy expenditure, merely walking the dog in the afternoon otherwise mostly sleeping and dozing all day.
Monday, I went out twice once with the dog and once on my own – he tried to guilt trip me into taking him again, but I stood strong. I also got some more writing done, something that I had been slacking on since I got the bike, I tended to write most in the morning but since I got the bike, I have been so tired in the morning I have done little writing – I’m also still trying to get used to my new keyboard.
I started rewriting the story about my “super-mage” so as to fit her into Whateley-verse a little more logically. Her original origin is going to be fleshed out into a wholly different IP/setting, something I have been poking at since I first created her 10 or so years ago. So, the new “super-mage” is starting from a completely different start point and will have mutant abilities instead of being a super mage, some form of warping that breaks magic as opposed to abilities within magic that are far more advanced than what most earth WAU mages have.
And then last night (Monday evening) and this morning I worked a little on Hoodoo and her New York adventure, which I’m finding hard to write. Little bit of block, little bit of my thoughts going toward other characters. Then when I got up, I made bread – and did some more writing. After the bread came out of the oven, I cycled into settle to get the aforementioned MLP from the bike shop so I could combine the slightly too short chain that Dr Velo sold me, and the also slightly too short snapped chain into one of hopefully the correct length.
Then I spent a while talking to Tredz (where I bought the bike) trying to get help for my snapped chain and the inability to keep said chain on the chainring in the lower gears. After that was all sorted out – hopefully I’ll get back on my bike… after a short nap.
Bread was nice, though I’m now hungry for some more and I don’t want to eat any more till later in the day.