Writing
Worked on part 2 of my Arcane tribute character for WAU (as a WhatIF), I’m currently struggling with pushing her through New York, currently planning on working through New York in two stages, the part I’m working on now will be the stage where we explore Hoodoo’s powers and show a bit of her combat prowess. While part 2 of New York (part 3 overall) will be showing how she tracks down her brother and the fallout of that. And for some reason I’m struggling to actually write about the city, though it’s going it’s slower than when I was writing about the city that later became Portland, Oregon.
I’ve also dabbled in a different character who is based on the physical form of a Greater Devoured which was a boss mob in the MMO City of Heroes, mostly as I have wanted to write one for a while and feel like trying a character with major GSD (Gross Structural Dystrophy). And lastly working a little on an entirely different thing which is a LitRPG where the game mechanic is based around the collection of power gems and then upgrading them and your skills through practice and training.
Cycling
Went out with the dog, did our normal loop met a nice young lady – called Cinamon, who is a local girl who isn’t entirely sure she likes Stan, and Stan only seems to care for her when she’s in season so I guess I see her point. Then after I had had a short break and a cuppa I decided that as it was a nice afternoon/evening I’d go out again for a short ride… maybe just up to Wharfe, when I got to Warfe I thought I might just try riding up to the Washdubs. And then when I got there I wasn’t even slightly tired so I thought I’d see if I could get up onto the tops via the bridleway that goes past Crummack farm.
Then when I got up there – beast of a steep hill – I wanted to try out a track that used to lead to an old shooting hut on the Three Peaks Path (hut is a ruin now) however the track leads to the hut but there isn’t a continuation of the track to go any further so I should have then turned round and gone back. As the wicked type that I am I took the footpath that is the actual Three Peaks Route instead and cycled down that until I reached the track that takes me off to Selside (or the road to Selside anyway). And then because it was still a nice evening and not yet even especially dark, I set out for Ribblehead.
By the time I got to Ribblehead I was about as far from home as I could get and not much harder to carry on and come home via Ingleton rather than turning round and going home via Austwick as I originally planned. So, I went home via Clapham and Austwick and reached home after dark, thankfully I remembered to have my lights with me and my hi-vis vest (that lives on my bike TBH). All in all I did around 22 miles in ~2.25hrs. Yes it’s pedal assisted, but I spend a lot of time pushing against the motor pegged out at 16MPH/25KMH. I always said that I thought 25kmh was a fine speed to cap the pedal assist at, I now think that a higher cap would be better… maybe 35kmh.
I still need to get my dropper post installed; it’s not something I am terribly comfortable doing myself as I think I need a few more tools that I don’t yet have, a cable cutter specifically and a torx wrench to drop the motor. But I might also need a crank puller for this bike (I have one for the old bikes) so I can get to the Torx bolt in the first place. So I will have to get the dropper fitted by one of the shops… I’ve been quoted by one shop at £60 and I have to wait until after the 17th. I’m hoping that Three Peaks Cycles in Settle can do it sooner, but I expect it’ll cost about the same.
Also planning on picking up a track stand to make maintaining my bike a little bit easier, some new under shorts and a sheet of aluminium to make the water bottle mount I am planning on making to get the best use out of the modular rail system that the bike uses.