January 7th – But there’s always brightness, and just now, everywhere reminders that while still not here, spring is only just around the corner.
In a garden in kings Hill where in summer I see old Sam the cat, pots of flowers – fancy miniature daffodils and primroses of some sort I think.
Whatever they are, they cheered me right up. Thank you!
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January 7th – I rode in to work from Walsall along the canal for the first time in a few weeks – it wasn’t;t a bad ride, though I forgot how grey it can be on a dull, overcast winter day.
Nice to see Canal and River Trust litter picking crews out at the birch ills end, and hopefully they can clear some of the mess left by the magnet fishers – what a pain in the backside they are.
At Bently Bridge the view was trying to be green, but it’s heart wasn’t;t in it, sadly. Maybe some sun tomorrow…
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January 6th – A fast, long ride over Cannock Chase from Pye green, down Sherbrook Valley, down Pepper Slade and Abrahams Valley, back to Stepping Stones and over Milford and Shugborough saw me riding the canal back to Armitage in darkness.
The ride on a dull but very warm day had not been great for photos, but the canal around Rugeley and Armitage more than made up for it.
A 48 mile ride on a grey but lovely day was just what I needed. Longer rides are making me feel better again.
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January 6th – One thing this journal is known for is the pictures of cats I meet in my daily life.
Sadly, my cat radar has been off this winter. I’ve hardly seen any – despite the warm weather, Felis Catus has apparently been at home, napping. Which you can understand, really.
Sunday though, was positively tropical and in a short run up the canal to Chasewater I spotted these three fine specimens. The pair apparently having a union meeting were on the canal bank by Deakin Avenue, and the gorgeous, grumpy looking raccoon cat was near Newtown Bridge. Great face markings.
Nice to spot some cats again.
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January 5th – Heading back up the High Street to get a takeaway, I passed the now well-lit Morris with the lights on the surrounding trees looking beautiful.
I will never tire of photographing this statue. Is is by turns, dramatic, beautiful, ridiculously out of place, preposterous and wonderful.
Fantastic by day, even better by night. Morris symbolises home and the town I love.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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January 5th – I had intended to go for a long ride – but the weather was grey and miserable and it was cold, so I stayed indoors until darkness, then slipped out on some errands.
Some long exposure photos on the canal between the Jolly Collier and old cement works bridges came out really well – thirty seconds with the camera on timer held solidly to guard rails gave excellent results in what was otherwise pretty much urban darkness.
Sometimes the short journeys turn out to be the most rewarding.
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January 4th – A stop on the way home on the North Street Bridge, the crossing point between Walsall’s Butts area and Birchills. The view from the railway bridge to the new college and town has always been great at night.
But sadly, no more.
The welcome electrification of the Chase Line railway below has had an unfortunate side effect of ruining the shot, with the overhead gantry stealing the foreground. But I don’t mind – I’d rather have the more reliable commuter service.
The college anyway was dull and in darkness, clearly not open yet from the Christmas break, and Austin House with it’s peculiar white halo was stark in the darkness.
Ah well, change is what happens while you’re not looking… There are other aspects on this view, I guess…
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January 4th – In Kings Hill Park again at lunchtime heading for B&Q, I stopped to note that ostensibly, it was very much winter, and the park looked as darkly green and growthless as it always does at this time every year.
But wait up.
Stop and look, and honey fungus is growing in the grass – and bedgraggled daisies are still very much in bloom. But better than these side effects of a so far warm winter, the spring flowers are coming now: They have stirred in the death and are sending green shoots upwards.
Soon, there will be flowers.
My heart sang.
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January 3rd – On my way home, I crossed Kings Hill Park. I expected this cold, harsh evening to have much clearer air, but it was in fact quite misty and the view of the twin sisters of Wednesbury I’d hoped for – clear and well defined – was actually a murky grey image in shades of grey and very pale yellow electric light.
But it was rather beautiful in a very dark, Turner-is way.
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January 3rd – One of my bikes uses a Shimano Di2 hub gear – an Alfine 705. This is the original Di2 11 speed hub and has its own pros and cons, but on the whole it’s reliable and workmanlike, and apart from a somewhat fiddly oil change when the shifting gets lumpy, requires little in the way of mechanical attention during it’s lifetime.
Generally, the life I’ve found is about 15-25,000 miles. This hub has been through a lot, and more than 3 wheel builds, but I’m happy with the wheel it’s in now, which was why it was so annoying when it suffered a serious failure on Christmas Day. I lost about half the gears which just spun out when selected – 3,4,5, 9 and 11 I think. An oil change and filling with cleaning oil hadn’t helped at all. The hub was knackered.
There’s not much I don’t know about this system; I’ve been using it in different iterations for over a decade and I’ve got to know the tricks and fiddles and advanced maintenance procedures – both by reading manufacturer documentation and by trial and error. The internal mechanism of the hub is easy to remove and change for another – you remove the wheel, take off the changer mechanism, sprocket and disk brake. You then remove the non drive side cone and locknut, then unscrew the plastic retainer and oil seal on the drive side – I have the right tool for this but a strap wrench will do it fine too, but the key bit is it’s a left hand thread. Once it’s off, the whole gubbins will come out, the oil can be cleaned out and a new mechanism can be put back, or the old one repaired and refitted.
There was a snag. The 705 is no longer available, but there is a new version, the 7051. I didn’t want to rebuild the wheel. I scoured fleabay and the web for a 705. No dice. I found a brand new 7051 in Germany for about £250, which is a great price. I poured over Shimano drawings of the two hubs. I decided to risk ordering the 7051 and trying to swap the innards. If they didn’t fit I could always reassemble it and build a new wheel.
In time the hub arrived, and the good news is it fitted exactly the same. On the rare chance that anyone ever reads this wondering if it’s possible to swap the two, yes it is. I swapped the guts, but also the non drive side bearing and oil seal too – be careful popping that out as they’re easy to damage and if no longer flat, oil will leak from the cone.
The 7051 hub has an upgraded clutch, smother shifting and performs better changing under loading. I have to say, fitting it back was a dream, and it runs well. Once the factory stiffness had gone, changes are much smoother and there’s far less clatter when doing so.
The old hub mechanism I plan to dismantle to see what’s gone. Looks like I’ll be spending some time in the garage with the tools…
This post has been created on the off change anyone ever wonders the same thing: I would say this also applies to the non-Di2 cable variants too.
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