November 16th – Getting home, I looked at the GPS and noticed sunset – which I hadn’t really been tracking this year at all over much – was now at 4:14pm. I think it tends to peak at about 3:50pm, so I guess we have a further 25 minute slide before things inexorably start to improve – and that’s only just over a month away.
Bring it on!
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November 15th – The bikes are suffering in the bad weather.
A continual spray of road water containing grit, balsam, leaf litter and road salt is getting into the brakes, frame and drivetrain. The pads and brake discs are wearing fast.
I need to get on with some TLC and show my steeds some love.
But while the bad weather persists, anything other than essential work seems like a losing battle.
It’s not just the rider that needs some dry weather….
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September 27th – Slipping out late on an errand, I thought I’d really give night mode on the phone a go.
You know what? I’m not struck. It generates very colourful, sharp images – but also, very noisy. It is indeed a triumph of software over physical limitation – but it’s nowhere near as good as using a dedicated camera.
It will be handy, but I think it needs some refinement to be honest.
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August 18th – A ride up over the Chase to Milford for a much-needed burger meant a return via the A513 through Satnall Hills between Shugborough and Severn Springs. This fast stretch of road is sadly notable for its high number of deer-vehicle collisions.
I notice an electronic deer deterrent is being tried here. I’ll be honest: I’m sceptical of these things. When I rode past at dusk, the units were just beginning to activate as they only operate from dusk until dawn.
It seems that when they detect vehicles, they emit a weird bird-chirp style noise and flash blue lights. They charge via a small solar cell, and are spaced every 15 metres or so.
The manufacturers IPTE say on their website:
‘The flashing lights of the warning sequence are intended to capture the attention of the animals while the acoustic sound makes the animals feel uncomfortable and stop and leave the roadside area.’
Ignoring the painful tautology of ‘Acoustic sound’ it’s an interesting idea that was tried on the Chasetown bypass but the units were vandalised. I did see a stag in the scrub at the roadside here, but on my appearance he ran back up the hillside.
I guess unless we give it a try we’ll never know if it works. It’ll be interesting to see the results.
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June 20th – Another dusk departure from work gave me chance to take some pictures of networking equipment causing some bizarre consternation locally at the moment.
A handful of local residents have spent some time in the dafter enclaves of social media and decided these white boxes and antenna on lamp columns, traffic signals and street furniture in Walsall are the rollout equipment for the fifth-generation telecoms network.
For some reason conspiracy theorists are given to believe the fifth generation network will be harmful to health, is a plot to test radiation on the population and an effort to spy on us all. Oh, and it’s somehow all connected with low energy LED street lighting.
Well, these boxes and aerials are far more mundane: They are actually pretty much high speed WiFi like we have in our homes, but designed as a specific, peer to peer network for traffic signals and other on-street infrastructure that benefits from central control.
It’s called Mesh4G and you can see it here.
As signals, junctions, crossings, air monitoring and traffic cameras are updated across Walsall, more of these relay units will appear, allowing traffic folk to monitor, modify and control their equipment without having to leave the office.
Which is interesting to me as a geek, but far more mundane than conspiracies would have us believe.
And I’ll still be waiting ages at the Bull Stake junction in Darlaston…
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#365daysofbiking Clarity:
November 14th – I’m finding the Canon G1X a bit of a conundrum: The smaller, more limited G7X was a lot easier to take low-light images with, but the pictures were not as good in my opinion. I had expected to flow from one camera to the other seamlessly, but that’s not been the case.
But I’m learning. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
On this warm, breezy but glass-clear evening, I couldn’t resist hopping up onto Catshill Junction Bridge for a shot of the moon over the canal, before heading back to Brownhills.
#365daysofbiking I dream of wires:
September 10th – Two things I thought I’d never see in my lifetime are the Chase Line Electrification and the creation of the pedestrian bridge to cross the tracks at Moors Gorse instead of the level crossing, but here I am, taking pictures of one from the other.
Interesting to see how far advanced the electrification of this busy passenger railway from Walsall to Rugeley now is – the catenaries are in, strainers all fitted and it seems here very close to functional.
I note the blue earth bonds to prevent the overheads going live while being worked on, and the curious block communing point on the track not yet connected to anything, but with the coil of bonding cable nearby ready. Wonder what that’s actually for? It looks like there’s some kind of sensor built into it.
Never seen those before and I’m curious.
April 27th – Spotted passing through Telford, a concrete pump unfolding and deploying for use.
Fascinating and very clever items of plant. The gentleness, care and grace of the operator has to be complimented.
December 13th – The snow, ice and road grit is destroying the brakes on two bikes at the moment. This rear disc is now wearing considerably, and is about 0.3mm thinner than it was new, and the front, 0.7mm. That doesn’t sound much, but once you get to about 1mm worn off, the discs get so thin they buckle and become useless.
One thing about cycling through the winter: It isn’t cheap!
November 9th – Whilst at the war memorial, I spotted a bit of an anachronism outside the Post Office in Darlaston – this really reminded me of the heady days of the early internet revolution.
This red K6 phonebox has a banner sticker at the top pointing out you could once email and text from the phone there. I believe that was a late 90s/early 2000s thing and required a special phone to be installed in the phone booth with a qwerty keyboard – but I could be wrong.
However it worked, I doubt theres a use for such things today with the rise of the smartphone – and I don’t know about you, but the very sight of someone using a phonebox these days looks a bit… shifty.
How fast times have changed from ‘Press button A’!
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 