Month: April 2012

April 9th – A wet, but warm day with quite a strong southerly wind. I only set out to go round Chasewater, but the riding was good and the weather didn’t seem so bad, so after a hearty lunch at the cafe, I headed up over Shute Hill and Chorley to Farewell, then down through Longdon Green, Hanch, Seedy Mill, Curborough and Lichfield, before returning through Abnalls and Fulfen. I got soaked, but there was hardly anyone around, and the roads were fast and challenging. Poor bank holiday weather by any standards, but I enjoyed the ride anyway.

April 9th – one for the Bob watchers. This narrowboat, which has illicited some passing interest locally, being recorded near Riddians Bridge, Longwood and Anglesey Basin, has moved to Brownhills Canoe and Outdoor Centre at Silver Street, Brownhills. It had been near Chasewater for a couple of weeks, but seems to be on the move again. Never actually caught the owner, but it’s a lovely boat. Certainly brightened up the start of a rather wet bank holiday ride…

April 8th – Heres a cycling one for the tech heads. Sorry, but it may save some folk hassle.

Disc brake pads. Don’t skimp on them, it’s just not worth it.Two of my bikes have Avid BB7  units fitted. One bike has original factory-fitted Avid brand pads, and the other, which is older, after the originals wore out had some Kool Stop ones, which were good at first but glazed over, reducing the stopping performance. I replaced those with some cheap ones from Decathlon as I was passing at the time and it was easy. They were awful. I was noticing that the Avid pads on the newer bike were far better than the others. Eventually, after cleaning and roughening discs, adjustments and degreasing, I gave up, and ordered some original Avid sintered metal pads. Performance restored.
The moral of all this is that your brakes are your life. Don’t waste time with cheap shit. 

April 8th – It’s all about the cows, lately. Cattle have been introduced to the heaths at Chasewater for a few years now. They were brought in to manage the heathland – cows hooves churn up the soft earth, and their grazing and cow pats stifle the bracken and more voracious plants , giving the heather and more delicate specimens a chance to grow. The brown an white Chasewater animals – five in total – are supplied by a local farmer, and the young beasts look in fine condition, and don’t seem to mind the public too much. 

Today, I also noticed someone was keeping a small herd of black cows in the field on the common behind the derelict Rising Sun pub. This is a new development, and I haven’t seen cows here for years. Wonder whose they are?

April 7th – Since the day was grey and overcast, I went with the flow. The weather gradually cleared, and I explored the completed dam works at Chasewater. One of the greater sadnesses of the place is the tumbledown cottage at the north end of the dam. Slowly falling into itself, I have no idea who owns it, or how it came to be in this condition. It’s neighbour – a near identical home – is in beautiful condition and very much still inhabited and looked after. I know the cottages to have been built to serve the mine, but other than that, I’m aware of little of their history.

April 7th – As is customary when you buy a new camera, one of two things happens. It’s either dull and overcast for days afterwards, rendering all your handiwork and testing grey and horrid, or you take hundreds of pics not having spotted the packaging fluff on the lens wrecking every image. I think this time, we’re settling for the ‘dull’ option. I set out yesterday lunchtime with a heavy heart; it was drizzling steadily and Brownhills looked dark and moody. 

I was cheered, however, by Mrs. Swan, who was still sitting intently in her impressive nest at the canal bank at the rear of Saddler Road. She’s had a couple of dry runs in previous years, but I think this could be her first clutch. She seems to be shuffling a lot, and quite concerned for what’s beneath her. In previous years, pairs of swans here have had broods as great as ten. I feel unusually gripped by this… it’ll be interesting to see how the couple do this year. At least the nest this time is well out of reach of foxes and rats.

April 6th – Back on the canal at Rushall Junction, going up the Rushall Extension through Park Hall, the wildlife seems to be about again. I think this is my first heron photo this year, and he was a bit jumpy, to be frank. There don’t seem to be many of these about on the canals right now. The other little chap is the deceptively named Grey Wagtail, who seemed to be engaged in courting behaviour. A charming little bird, he bobbed about for a while utterly unconcerned by the cyclist looking on, fascinated.

April 6th – I came out of Birmingham on cycle route 5, up the canal to Smethwick’s Galton Bridge, then up through the Sandwell Valley to Rushall Junction on the canal. Galton bridge is a historic, very high bridge over the mainline canal. Built in 1829 by Thomas Telford, it’s a classic of its kind and the views from it are fantastic. The canal here is lovely to cycle, and steeped in industrial history. Well worth a wander if you get chance. Travel writer and culvert crawler Nick Crane came this way in his book ‘Two Degrees West’ and pointed out that the arrangement of canals (2, side by side at different levels), Railways (2 different lines at different levels) and road bridges made the physical geography here so complex that he had to draw it out on paper. He’s right.

6th April – New camera day. I’ve been using Panasonic cameras for a while now – built like brick shithouses, they offer a good feature set, remarkable zoom range and good picture quality, all in a package small enough to pop into a pocket and always carry with you. I’d been eyeing up the TZ30 for a while – I’d had a TZ20, and liked it, but there were a few extra features in the new model – 20x optical zoom, sweep panorama, better low-light performance and so on – that I quite fancied. Able to hand down the old one, I found a camera store in Birmingham had stock and a decent offer, so I cycled into town and picked one up.

I always love a ride round Brum, and took advantage of the opportunity. Near Edgbaston Street, I realised how far Birmingham had come as a cycling city: the bike racks were full. This is in spite of, rather than because of anything the council have done. Birmingham City Council’s support for cyclists is legendarily awful, yet Brum is developing an engaging, active cycling community.