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What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread


outlaw118

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 Also making me grin was being equal first on a Strava section through Delamere Forest on my mountain bike at 41mph today!

 

I had a big grin moment when I got a KoM on one of the tough climbs in Coed y Brenin couple of weeks ago. I'd been gradually working my way up the list, so went on a short ride purely to go balls out and get the first place. It felt a bit hollow when I realised the guy I'd beaten had done it as part of a 40 mile ride, so he was *probably* pacing himself rather more than I was :oops:

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One of those things though. I'm 8th out of 875 (or something like that) on a road section near here that involves a long descent and a half decent climb. The bloke that is KOM averaged it at near on 50mph, it just hasn't happened I reckon. I mailed him and politely asked what his secret was, but he never got back to me. It's possible he did it but he should be in the British cycling team if he did. If I was to be cynical I'd suggest he'd done it in his car, as his other times are all pretty average.

 

Anyhow with the right build up (traffic, traffic lights and current fitness) I reckon I could crack top five on my Wilier if I'm absolutely nailing it. We'll see though! 

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I got on the bike for the first time in about 5 years yesterday. I did about 6-7 miles at a reasonable pace and I was surprised at how easy it was. I was expecting all my leg muscles to asplode.

 

When I got home I was walking about all pleased with myself and how unexpectedly fit I was right up until I decided to go up stairs at which point I learned what it would be like it my legs were made of liquorice and jellied eels.

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Those DRKs look like great fun. I bet a Gordini example is an absolute riot on a twisty back road.

 

They meet up every month at a pub in Antrobus, which isn't far from where my folks live. I chatted with Rob Callister (he built the cars with his brother Brian) and I might see if I can blag a go in one.

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MOT testers response to wheeling this out of the transit today

 

''You got papers for that mate''

nKn6nwHl.jpg

*Latest I could find pic, Imagine the same bike but with more wear and wheels.

 

Despite the looks, abuse, last minute fixeration and the slight cat C mishap late last year it's another clean sweep with no advisorys for the old donk. It has had hours and some not insignificant monies spent on it this year so I was quietly confidant though never the less dead chuffed with the result. Just need to fine tune the suspension and then I'll concentrate on building up the spare lump as a hot (luke warm would do) motor top starve of lay up time when the one pot lump eventually boils it's swede.

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Re Strava stuff on the pushbike: I'm usually somewhere a third-to-halfway down the leaderboard most of my routes where it's uphill, and in the bottom quarter when it's steeper than 1in10...but then I pop up top twenty or top ten on a fair few of the downhill sections - being 17 stone has to have some advantages!

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Fit bird at work had a momentary wardrobe malfunction today, which involved her getting up from her chair and her skirt failing to immediately follow suit.  Several gentlemen in the office had smug smirks on their faces for the rest of the afternoon.

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I went to my Welsh class this evening. The chap who organises it showed us around his local chapel - a Methodist one built in 1870. Has a lovely harmonium in it (foot powered organ). It was let slip that I own one, so I was asked to play a tune. I eventually settled on Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence. It seemed to go down well. The harmonium sounded gorgeous, with fabulous meaty bass tones. Yum Yum. 

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I went to my Welsh class this evening. The chap who organises it showed us around his local chapel - a Methodist one built in 1870. Has a lovely harmonium in it (foot powered organ). It was let slip that I own one, so I was asked to play a tune. I eventually settled on Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence. It seemed to go down well. The harmonium sounded gorgeous, with fabulous meaty bass tones. Yum Yum. 

I do like a nice harmonium.  They seem to come up ridiculously cheap on eBay on quite a regular basis too.  Sadly I have no space for any more instruments.

 

How's the Cymraeg coming along?  I was chatting to a Welsh bird not so long ago who was trying to get me to pronounce place names properly, but I found that I had neither enough phlegm nor enough spittle to make a decent attempt.

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"Guys. Sales are slipping, we need to rebrand. Who can we get on board to give an impression of reliability and longevity?"

"Erm, how about Sony?"

"No chance. They'll sue us. Come on, think long life and faultless performance"

"OK, plan B it is then....."

 

IMG_20140627_124537.jpg

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I do like a nice harmonium.  They seem to come up ridiculously cheap on eBay on quite a regular basis too.  Sadly I have no space for any more instruments.

 

How's the Cymraeg coming along?  I was chatting to a Welsh bird not so long ago who was trying to get me to pronounce place names properly, but I found that I had neither enough phlegm nor enough spittle to make a decent attempt.

 

Very slowly. These aren't structured lessons (I have learning) but more like a bi-lingual history group. The chap tells us about local history in Welsh, then in English a couple of sentences at a time. We'd had about six meetings now and it's amazing what I can understand already. Getting pronunciations right is very difficult. Some of the group have been learning Welsh for 20 years and can't do it! It's like any language though - they appreciate that you make the effort at all. My French isn't too hot, but you get a better response lobbing a bit of Franglais at them than shouting in English. 

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Our Saab 9-5 ( modern or not ? ) never ceases to amaze me with its fuel consumption. Round local in Cornwall , a county not conducive to good economy , it does 30mpg all the time. On a run it's up to 40mpg . I'm not a particularly fast driver but it's mapped to 235 bhp now so that does get used a bit.

 

I always think that that's really good for the size and comfort of the car and cos petrol is cheaper than diesel it's not really far off some of the diesels I've had.

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Today myself and my brother's family visited a local place that offers light aircraft lessons and a field to let them play in.  Of the many items of Aeroshite on display there were two things of significant note.

 

This 1920s Swift was really rather exceptional and not on display, it had very clear signs of being in moderately regular use.

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I do wonder if the owner of the Swift was also the pilot of this biplane that we watched taxi on the runway before taking off. Both biplane and Swift had gone when we all departed.

post-5335-0-09655100-1404322139_thumb.jpg

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Have been getting annoyed with the CG125 lately - it's still sat waiting for the V5 to come through so I can tax it.   It was running perfectly until last weekend when it flatly refused to so much as cough - all I could get out of it was a massive backfire when I tried bump starting it.  Since then, not a jot.  

 

Today a couple of parts turned up so I decided to get them fitted.  Gave up on the condenser as I couldn't get the cam cover off without a proper tool so I moved on to the spark plug - it put up a fight but came free in the end.

 

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How it ever ran at all with that I do not know.  The person who had the bike before me had spray painted the frame and engine in situ - and very, very badly.  There's silver overspray on everything including the thick layers of dirt and grease inside the cam cover.  I found silver paint right up to the edge of the spark plug hole so scraped that off to get bare metal, tested the new plug and couldn't see much of a spark held against the engine until I scraped an area clean of paint and then got a nice clean blue spark.  Put it back in and it started on the second kick.  Result!

 

Funny that it ran fine one day and then not at all the next but I'm not complaining.  The HT lead is a horrible mess so I'll probably change that when it turns up, the rest of the bits can go to one side as spares just in case.

 

I've also taken off the two-piece chain cover.  Like the engine, it's been badly painted in bright silver over rust and dirt and it rattles against the chain, plus it just looks awful anyway.  I'll rub it down properly and give it a coat of black hammerite at some point but it's doing no harm leaving it off for now.

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