December 1st – It was still very cold on Friday evening, and again taking the canal to Walsall Wood – this time from Aldridge – I was reminded of the perils of black ice. Hitting this frozen puddle at speed, in the dark? I didn’t take a spill, but I did feel the back wheel slip.
Ever year there’s a little warning to be more sensible.
Take care if you’re out when it’s frosty, folks…
November 30th – Heading home that evening I hit the canal at the Black Cock Bridge and rode into Brownhills in peaceful, cold darkness.
I stopped to have a go at one of my favourite muses – Clayhanger Bridge by night – and by removing the bike light, putting it on full and shining round, I don’t think I got a bad pic.
That’s ice on the canal, by the way.
November 30th – In Telford mid morning again, and fascinated to note that on what had been a very cold night, there still wasn’t a great deal of surface frost due to the dry conditions, which pleased me as I haven’t yet got the studded winter tyres on.
Also, I think that’s probably the last vestige of Autumn now and we’re well into winter… oh well, soon be time for a break.
November 29th – As I got to Redditch, the frost was still quite pronounced and coated grass and fallen leaves. It’s been a bit of a shock this year, we’ve been plunged into comparatively cold weather surprisingly quickly in the season after several mild winters with only a few really cold days.
I do hope this is a portent and we have lots of cold weather to come – maybe even a decent fall of snow…
November 29th – A very cold, frosty morning, but thankfully the roads weren’t terribly icy due to the dry weather, but a morning journey to the station was taken carefully, particularly down the backlanes.
Waiting for my train, I caught the sun rising behind Hill Hook and the Sutton Transmitter, and thought how long it’s been since I saw this at dawn.
A great view, but also rather chilly.
November 28th – In winter, as I’ve often observed, you have to take beauty where you can find it, and to find it one must maintain a keen eye.
Hurrying into Wednesbury today, I noticed this confused thistle, in perfect full bloom. It was immaculate, this king of the wasteland, and made my day.
I must have passed this a few times and not noticed, like so many must. I need to sharpen my eye, and keep my sense of wonder in these coming dark months. Doing so it what keeps me going.
November 28th – Probably the coldest commute of the winter so far, yet no ice, which was a bit odd – but the wind was bitter. Luckily I was wrapped up warm and didn’t really feel it much.
What there was though, were gorgeous azure blue skies silhouetting the shivering trees, now mostly devoid of leaves for winter.
‘I awoke this morning, and found a frost perched on the town’ wrote Joni Mitchell. The was no frost, but I know what she meant.
Oh well, onwards – soon be Christmas.
November 27th – A snatched, quick photo taken just after dawn in Jockey Meadows, between Shelfield and Walsall Wood. A pair of grey partridges, fluffed up in the cold, and sheltering from the wind in a tracker tire-rut.
It’s been years since I noticed partridges up here. Good to see them on a Monday morning.
November 27th – Been a while since I discussed brakes here, but the glazing issue of the rear pads I had – I think I’ve cracked it. And built Frankenbrake as a result.
I, like many utility and commuter cyclists, like to ride a bike that’s essentially a tourer. I like the bars, the variety of positions, and I like that Shimano finally made hydraulic brakes for road and cyclocross bikes with the same bars.
The trouble with tourers for years has been that they’re mongrels. No one groupset (ie. drivetrain with brakes and controls) is wholly suitable. Tourers carry load, don’t mind a heavier bike as it’s sturdy and stable. They like a wide gear range – preferably a triple front ring. And solid wheels with damn good brakes.
So a good tourer may have utlegra, SLX, XT and 105 series parts all working together.
Brake options have traditionally been anything you want as long as it’s canti, but since road discs and suitable frames appeared – first cable, then hydraulic – our braking options have improved.
My rear brake – A Shimano R785 lever with a BR785 calliper – has been eating pads. They appear to glaze, loose all friction, and no matter how well cleaned, filed or surface ground, never regain bite. Pads are not cheap. I thought I’d cracked it using Uberbike pads – but the last two sets have gone really quickly.
The last set went a week after fitting, and without the same happening on the front, I decided to solve the issue. I’ve been using a primitive parking brake on trains – I use a rubber loop to keep the back brake on to stop the bike rolling about. It turns out that the brakes aren’t designed for continual operation like that, and the vibration from rocking was weeping fluid out of the piston seals, on to the back of the pad plate, and dropping the odd drip of fluid onto the rotors.
I’ll stop using the band. But that left me with a possibly faulty rear calliper, which has never been quite as snappy as I’d like. And Shimano are transferring to flat mount – a format incompatible with my frame – for their 785 replacements.
I knew the 785 was a variant of the XT mountain bike, 2 piston brake with slight design changes in shape. Reading about, I found people who’d put Shimano 4 piston callipers on XT levers for mountain bike use, so I figured a 4 piston Saint calliper should therefore work with a 785 road lever, as the same oil volume was being moved as the XT model, if you see what I mean. They all use the same hoses and fluid, a light mineral oil.
So I ordered a saint calliper, got the bleed kit out, and got oily. The result is that the Saint calliper works really well, has a much bigger pad friction area, and is nice and firm, yet progressive. It’s a bit more fiddly to set up as the piston stroke isn’t as large, but it’s working well with patience.
To any home mechanic who’s thinking about this, it’s an excellent upgrade – but as with any brake fluid operation, remove pads and keep well away from the disc as you will spill oil everywhere.
Meanwhile, a slow handclap for Halfords. When on the off chance I called in for a bottle of Shimano mineral oil brake fluid, the twit behind the counter said ‘Use Dot 4 – it’s all the same stuff.’ – it so isn’t. Dot 4 is Glycol, not oil, and will swell and perish Shimano seals and cause premature failure. Urrrghh.
Now, let’s see how well these pads last…
November 26th – Another day of beautiful light, but cold. Probably not cold for the time of year, but after recent mild weeks it seems to be positively arctic.
I’d been doing a lot of mechanical work on the bike in recent days, and needed to test it with a shortish run with plenty of good hill action, so I went out early afternoon, over to Shenstone, Weeford, Hints, Hopwas, up the canal to Hademore and back in darkness through Wall and Chesterfield.
I took time to study the churches at Shenstone, Weeford and Hopwas – from the hideous but triumphant Gothic of Shenstone, to the farmhouse twee of Hopwas, all three are classics. All within a short distance.
Staffordshire is unusually blessed with a stunning and varied ecclesiastical architectural tradition.
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