Tag: bag

March 6th – On roads across Cannock Chase, an experiment is underway. These wooden staves with white bags on top are a trial to see if they reduce vehicle-deer road collisions in the area.

It was discovered accidentally in the US that deer were apparently deterred by the sight of a white bag on a post, although nobody knows why, deer experts who’ve tried this have found it appears to work – it will be very interesting to see if the tactic works here, too.

My overriding feeling is the deer will probably get used to it, and they have to cross the roads somewhere, so I can’t see much long term benefit, but it’s a very interesting experiment and I salute the rangers for trying it out.

July 27th – It’s the time of year when I dread getting stopped by the police.

The cowslips I loved so much in the spring are now seeding, and I have in my pocket a growing bag of little black seeds, like these. I pluck a seed head or two from each clump (careful to leave enough to seed next year), and collect the wee black dots that shake out.

When I have a decent quantity, I’ll spread a few new patches in barren spots or places that would benefit from a little cowslip love.

These flowers cheer me so much, it’s like repaying my debt to them. I invite you to do the same.

August 6th – This is in response to a recent request by top bloke and Brum social media whizz John Hickman. This is a saddlebag vomit.

Don’t be alarmed, is a meme, or idea carried from something common elsewhere – handbag vomit/daily carry – where someone posts pictures of what they carry in their bag daily. 

Here, minus personal stuff like paperwork and work junk, is what I carry daily in my saddlebag. I regard these things as essential. I suspect some folk will find them surprising.

The items are, in roughly back to front order:

  • 1l flask of earl grey or chai, sugar and milk
  • Sharpie marker
  • Cheapo multitool thing
  • 2 spare tubes for different bikes
  • Apple mac network adaptor
  • clean paper towels and disposable gloves for mechanicals
  • Emergency sweets (milk gums) for bonks and sugar crashes
  • Pack of self-ahesive patches still in blister as case is crap and they pop open
  • Muji box with sheets/tubes of meds – Sudocrem, painkillers, hay fever pills etc.
  • Nasal decongestant for troublesome sinuses
  • Pedro’s tyre levers – the best I’ve found
  • Aquapac for keeping phone dry in the wet
  • 2 Rema conventional puncture kits
  • Spokey spoke wrench (again, the best there is)
  • Emergency work phone
  • Camera
  • Bahco mini socket, ratchet spanner and bit set. Brilliantly useful.
  • 15mm stubby spanner
  • Spare camera, GoPro and GPS batteries
  • Mini torch
  • Memory cards and sticks in waterproof box
  • Various everyday USB and charging leads on a keyring with thumb drive
  • Huawei 4g mobile WiFi router with selection of SIM cards for different networks
  • 7000mAH USB battery for charging phone etc.
  • Google tablet (interchangeable with iPad/macbook air depending on work requirements)
  • Not shown: cable ties, pager, security access cards, clean socks and about 100g of assorted detritus

The tools and survival items have evolved over years and changes of bike. Surprisingly, this lot doesn’t weigh much and leaves plenty of space for the junk of the day and shopping if necessary.

Is this the geekiest saddlebag out there? What do you lot carry?

May 6th – A lovely ride on on a sunny, bright spring day. Wildlife and rural charm all around. To be in England, in springtime.

I find it all the more perplexing, then, why someone would take their dog for a walk, bag up their dog’s poo, and just toss the bag on the canal towpath, without disposing of it properly. Now we not only have a health risk, we have it packaged in such a way that it’ll not rot down. Archeologists of the future are going to be utterly perplexed as to why they keep digging up random bags containing canine excrement.

Have the arseholes that do this got shit for brains? In this camp I also place those idiots who festoon hedges and trees with these revolting parcels.