Today was supposed to be a day off, however with eggs reaching dangerously low levels, the weekend being on the horizon and my feeling uncharacteristically refreshed after a solid (if shorter than optimal) kip following yesterday's efforts, I dragged the Genesis out again post-brunch. It was the usual meander down to Fyfield then the long route home round the top of Abingdon, Radley, Kennington then up past Bagley wood and back home along the bridleway.
It was once more bloody hot and I passed many cyclists; most of whom were happy and receptive to a wave, smile or nod of the head. Less pleased to see me was the miserable sod in Cumnor Post Office, whose refusal to allow me into the (near-empty) shop with my bike led to a few choice words before I left; unable to post the package I'd optimistically taken with me. Granted I was chancing my arm in the face of general shop policy, but what harm would it have done - especially in the current atmosphere of bikes being the world's saviour..?
Thankfully the main mission was more successful; leaving the farm with another 30 quality eggs that should should see me through the next week or two. In-keeping with the generally good nature of those encountered today I even got a "thanks mate" and thumbs-up from a builder's / scaffolder's van I pulled in to let pass me from behind on a stretch of narrow road en-route to the farm.
The rest of the journey was reasonably uneventful; a bit of a headwind in places but I was fairly defiant and ended up ramping up the effort for much of the latter half of the ride. Once more the bike performed wonderfully off-road; somehow seeming more comfortable over the rough surfaces. I'm not sure if this was because I was travelling faster, my arse has become more battle-hardened or just the subjective nature of one ride compared to the next, but I'll take it where I can..
I've also been enjoying my cheapo, bundled bell since I fitted it a while ago; having got into the habit of giving it a tickle when I'm maybe 20-30yd behind people - most of whom have clearly heard it at this distance and are quick to get out of the way. I was looking for something a bit more "up market" but tbh the freebie is fairly low profile, looks decent enough and sounds fine, so in the interest of saving a load of money on an artisanal alternative it can stay (at least for as long as the live plastic hinge on the striker lasts).
I did find myself blinded by sweat at numerous points along the ride thanks to the temperature and effort but that aside it was pretty pleasant, and of course worthy since it had additional practical value. The bulk-purchase of eggs direct probably saved me about £9 compared to what I'd pay for similar in Waitrose, while the fuel to get to the farm and back would have been another couple of quid - so a tenner saved
Eggs sorted, thanks to the abortive Post Office trip and the need to visit the bank I found myself needing a trip to town. Since I don't leave the Genesis unattended anywhere I dived home, dropped off the eggs, rinsed my face, grabbed a few bits and was out again on the ofo in a matter of minutes.. what a stark contrast that was!
A few hundred yards in my smugness that I'd remembered everything was shattered by the realisation that I was still wearing my cycling shoes; although the cleats did OK on the ofo's flat pedals and I didn't have time to go back in any case since I only had about 20 minutes until the bank shut.
Inevitably the bank wasn't fun; the reasonable wait to see a cashier perpetuated and punctuated by the very loud phone conversation of another non-too-bright-sounding customer who was evidently having significant issues verifying his personal data, along with a woman whose whole existance seemed to be to endlessly count her way through a wad of £20's, coming up short by one note on every count
This coupled with the selection on banal, "inoffensive" '90's pop classics dribbling out of the speakers only served to raise my blood pressure; my rage thankfully being placated by the swift application of some choice selections from NIN's
The Downward Spiral on my MP3 player while I waited. After 20 minutes of my time had been pissed away on the simple task of chucking some more of our increasingly worthless Fiat tokens into the insatiable, gaping mouth of our overlord financiers, I made my way to the Post Office to be served by the same woman as last time. Thankfully she was evidently in a better mood on this occasion, although seemingly just as inept
I unlocked the ofo and headed back towards home; my time on foot serving to reset my expectation of the bike (after getting straight on it after the Genesis) and remind me that the correct mindset is "it's just like walking, only you're sat down and a bit quicker" rather than trying to cane it everywhere.. a true wafter indeed.
This fresh mindset in place I took the long route back across Port Meadow (which was quite busy, not that the photo corroborates this), through Wolvercote and Wytham:
The egg run turned out at a little under 25 miles and about 450ft at 14.7mph and 140bpm, the town run maybe 10 very sedate miles at sub-10mph. This brings me to only 60-odd recorded miles so far this week, but over 500 "official" miles for the month - which I think is probably a new personal record
It was nice to get out and to use the bikes for something productive, although I'm not really feeling like doing much else for the rest of the day!
) before joining the A458 for a short stretch. I'm not overly keen on this stretch of road because it's not as wide as the motorists think it is, so you get silly passes - alright today though.
Time to change back to leather (except my brother currently has the B17N I took off this bike 
).
