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The open road is dedicated to the bicycle, freedom, and the open road, but may
contain thoughts about any idle subject whatsoever...
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Outer Hebridean Cycling |  |
| Date: 2009-06-02 |
| I've been off on a 400-ish mile bike ride around Mull, Iona, Skye, Raasay and the Outer Hebrides (Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, down to South Uist). It rained a fair bit, it also blew a fair bit (yes, we cycled the wrong way down the Outer Hebrides - into the SW wind) but it also got reasonably hot and sunny a few days too. After a week and a half of cycling I do feel that I would much prefer to carry on biking up around the Orkneys. However, my gainful employment calls (can you leave a job to go biking in the middle of a recession? especially with as minimal a pension as I have so far managed to accumulate!). The highpoint was, I think, the sunset from the Isle of Raasay. Stunning. Good windsurfing conditions on many days, though I saw no windsurfing anywhere. Room for expansion there I think. After W Yorks the roads seemed incredibly quiet on the whole, though passing places are a bit fraught really - the big cars often seem to just ignore bikes and hurtle past while the granny in a Fiat Panda waits in a passing place for 5 mins just to make sure you can get past OK. A bit like politics - the rich grab the goods while the poor are feeling guilty asking for a pay rise (begging your pardon sir, and ever so humbly). Anyway, a great bike ride and I'll probably ramble on a bit more about this in a later blog. The photo is the sunset over Skye from Raasay. |
| Converting Flat Bars to Drops | |
| Date: 2009-05-18 |
| Sounds like a potentially tricky thing to do, and why do such a thing? Well, I got really fed up with the problem of dealing with rapid fire shifters when away from base - on a long tour you are going to have problems is a wire breaks off inside the rapid fire shifter. You cannot really take rapid fire shifters apart and tweak bits, especially miles from a bike shop. Secondly, flat bars give me arm aches after only a hundred miles or so - so I need more positions for my hands/arms. Thirdly, I also want to get the gears perfectly in line - which with rapid fire shifters is often not quite possible, they are digital when I want analog, so to speak. Anyway, by a combination of bar end shifters and Dia Compe brakes I am now pretty rapidly and easily back with drops on my main touring bike. So far so good, but it is early days. It'll be interesting to see how I get on over time - whether the Dia Compe brakes really have enough pull for V brakes. Seems so but... |
| Folders in North Devon |  |
| Date: 2009-05-11 |
Like Sybil Fawlty, I have to get away occasionally to North Devon (I think she used to reckon Bideford was lovely). Anyway, a coach holiday in Ilfracombe was great since I took a folding bike in my luggage. This was with Alfa, who don't seem to have a problem with bike wheels and folders, though their blurb says that they do not carry surfboards. Not possibly a logically consistent approach, but it does mean that you can bike happily via an Alfa coach trip.
I had a superb bike ride around Lynton and Lynmouth, which included probably the very best tea shop since I went to Betty's - and it is even more picturesque than any Betty's - Watersmeet National Trust. I did also do the coast path (accidentally) from Ilfracombe to Lee - going through two herds of suspicious cows. Some of that route is a bridleway. Very pleasant. Woolacombe seems to have succumbed to waves of massive 4WDs, though there are a few nice campervans mixed in. The bike route from Ilfracombe down to Braunton and on to, eventually, Torrington and beyond, is wonderful. I'll add a coastal photo.... |
| Climate Rush, etc | |
| Date: 2009-04-30 |
| I feel humbled by some of the people doing things to highlight, in amusing, clever and brilliantly subversive ways, the fact of climate change. I must admit that the people that painted 'every little hurts' on Tesco windows seem to me to be pretty spot on since Tesco does very little about climate change while being focussed on patterns of travel and consumption that are highly damaging. A token bike stand and the occasional bus to get you to the supermarket if you are very lucky. The response to several letters to my local Tesco store has never been anything other than either silence or tokenism. They are appallingly uninterested in being a responsible business. The acreage of car parking give out a much stronger message - you drive here! One crappy bike stand does not alter that message in the least. And then they'd sell you the death of a planet, if there is a profit at the end of the short term. As the UK biggest supermarket they are sadly a hopeless case. |
| Another Budget for the Rich? | |
| Date: 2009-04-20 |
| The trailing of various things that are going to be in the budget is a bit depressing. In Bradford, housing is still at record levels against wages - the average house is something like 8 x the average wage. Yet the government wants to kick start the housing market. Eh? Surely houses are shockingly overpriced at the moment and the last thing we need is a load of taxpayers money going to push up house prices. I guess it is evident that the priority of the government is in no way that of the modest to poor mass of the populace but that of those with considerable assets. Don't vote Labour anymore, it used to be a morally responsible choice but at some point it has become something quite different.... |
| Recommended Local Bike Ride... |  |
| Date: 2009-03-30 |
| I've now done an afternoon bike ride at weekends over Warley Moor a couple of times. As a way of getting that delightful feeling that you're right out of the Bradford urban sprawl, it is superb. It has one or two disadvantages - you have to cycle through Allerton which seems to have even more crazy drivers (yes, the usual young males driving surprisingly expensive cars...) than elsewhere in the city - and there is a lot of uphill to get out of Bradford. But a bit of care and foresight can get you up into the moorland safely and the climbing is doing you good, honestly!Oxenhope has a nice cafe at the Keighley Worth Valley Railway which is pleasant - and you can stop there before tackling the final bigg-ish climb up onto Warley Moor. The moor itself it lovely (on a sunny-ish day) - wind turbines, a reservoir (good for windsurfing, though very brackish and peaty as you'd expect, I've windsurfed there a couple of times) and a rough stony road. I suppose it is not quite as 'away from it all' as the tracks on Ilkley Moor, but the views are as good and it's a fascinating place. The Pennine Way runs nearby plus there lots of on-road and off-road possibilities on the moor. I like the odd cobbled track that leads down to Ogden Reservoir - great if you have suspension, a nice walk if, like me, you haven't. I guess this track has an interesting history since it looks like an ancient road predating most of the ones in the area. Anyway, a recommended route. [update...]Just rode this again, this last weekend 5th April. Tried a route via Bingley then up via St. Ives, Cullingworth, the Great (sic) Northern Trail (which comprises a very short bit of cycleway over a couple of viaducts - the second truly impressive), Oxenhope, Warley Moor and back the usual way down the stone track behind Withens to Ogen Reservoir. Wonderful. My bike's back wheel is getting a bit buckled though and my gear cable broke at Bingley - so not so good mechanically. But I persisted. Why do they make rapid-fire gear levers so much harder to change the cable than the old down tube levers? Ah, progress.... Anyhow, give me down tube anyway... Still have not got the bit of broken cable out of the recesses of the alivio (yes, very cheap) 8 speed gear lever.... But a great ride. Hmmm, not too impressed by the Great Northern Trail though, not enough great in it. |
| Creative Disengagement | |
| Date: 2009-03-12 |
Given the sludge of car fumes, SMS messages, mobile phone noise, irritating music and car fumes we live amongst these days, I guess I should be suprised that there aren't a lot more loony people. I think there is an easy-ish way to start solving this.
- No mobile phone, or always switched off
- No TV - crucial
- Bike or walk, don't drive
- Refuse to go near cities
- Don't buy more stuff - it only encourages them
- Engage with dirt, mud, water, air in as primeval a way as possible - climb hills, bike, swim outdoors
- Don't read a newspaper - above all don't read about celebs, their news, etc, etc
- If you can give up your job and grow your own life
- Make your own music, switch off the charts such as exist
- Find a cranky instrument that you can devote hours to - e.g. a concertina or a mandolin
Hmmm, this may take some time. Still, it is an interesting agenda. |
| Bikes, plus some familiar thoughts on commuting | |
| Date: 2009-03-09 |
| Went off to N Yorks and biked around the Vale of York and the N York Moors. The trip around Leeming Bar (to see the Wensleydale Railway) and Northallerton was pretty cold and blustery. I lay for a while on the banks of the River Swale, on a heap of pebbles because I felt sleepy most of the day. I guess I probably looked quite odd - sunbathing without any sun, with a temperature of about 5 centigrade. Then there was a sunnier bike ride around Sutton Bank, Hawnby (a great tea shop - at the former post office - perfect for warming up and always seems to be open). Both rides probably nudged about 40 miles, with the latter being pretty hilly (well, Sutton bank is not exactly flat country). I'll find a photo.Commuting home on the bus today, I was sandwiched between someone who was loudly complaining about her arranged marriage (a Pakistani lady) - with good cause I think - though by the end the whole bus could have recited the life history of her ex-husband - and a man smelling of spirits and cigarettes. It is pretty clear that one reason why no-one feels life has improved since the 1970s is simply that we used to have all that time we've lost doing the daily commute... Progress or regress? |
| Tesco, Sainsbury's and Buying British | |
| Date: 2009-02-10 |
| Coming from Stoke-on-Trent, the Potteries, I'm usually trying to buy crockery made in the UK and preferably in Stoke. But try and find a British item in Tesco or Sainsbury's and you will start to understand why the jobs are/have disappeared in our economy and reappeared in China, though the price you pay for your crockery will not be much cheaper - the additional money they make just goes into dividends and bigger salaries for the managers. So it's about time we asked that supermarkets didn't just buy local produce in the greengrocery section but for exactly the same reasons they should buy local china, fabrics, and so forth. Obviously bringing a plate from China uses hugely more CO2 than bringing it from Stoke. So it's time for supermarkets to act consistently. |
| Winter Cycling in the Dales | |
| Date: 2009-02-02 |
| I decided to kick off my cycling in the dales a bit earlier than usual this year - and went for a bike ride over Tan Hill on Saturday. I was wearing many layers but the icy blast coming down Arkengarthdale was pretty painful at times, though at least it wasn't snowing! Actually it was a fun ride, and it was a better day to do it than Sunday, when there was light snow drifting gently down - I avoided the high tops that day. Going along the valley from Reeth to Keld was pleasant however, and the sun shone a fair bit. One of those days when your hands get very cold, hurt a bit and then get warm again. Perhaps I should have had two pairs of gloves on.
I commute to work by bus - the only pleasant bike route takes about 2 hours minimum for me and that's a bit long each way for me to get to work - but I noticed quite a few bikes out today in the slush and snow. One was fearlessly on a mountain bike going round the inner ring road in the rush hour. A hero (or heroine)! Given the recession, this could be a great year for cycling - a year of people tuning off the media networks, and starting to live life first hand - out there reconnecting with reality, on a bike. |
| bikes, libraries, banks | |
| Date: 2009-01-30 |
| Just very short bike rides around Bradford recently, apart from a 30 mile wander around my mum's in Staffordshire - muddy and gloomy and I forgot my front light so the whole thing was speedier than I intended so I didn't bike in the dark. It is curious how many dim LEDs there now are - I guess people think that they last for ever, not just a few hundred hours. I replaced the batteries in my back light - and now it can be seen from space I should guess...I got two books declared lost in one week by local libraries I bet someone has managed better than that since so much is missing. Bradford library catalogue is a work of fiction all by itself - a huge number are either misplaced, stolen or lost. It is evident that literacy is valued much less than fixing up internet sessions for people. I feel for the professional librarians there...Curious that the people who made money selling junk finance are not being made to return their extravagant salaries of the last few years. Even odder that the answer to too much credit is encouraging more credit. And strange that people leaving Labour think voting Tory is better - why not move allegiance to the Greens, who at least are not hooked up to the idea that all that matters is ever increasing consumption damn the environment. I am reading Monbiot - Bring 0n the Apocalypse and he has it pretty much correct. Recommended reading! |
| Linux Scanning, Printing, etc | |
| Date: 2009-01-07 |
Just got a multifunction printer/copier/scanner for use with my Fedora 10 install. It works excellently - and the HP Utils that HP's sourceforge project produce are very good. So if you are looking for a cheap multifunction device I'd recommend the HP C5280 - which I got for about 50 quid.
Still recovering from Christmas - I have gained two pounds in weight, so the 50 miles or so I did over the Christmas week in short bursts of North Staffs countryside just held me back from an even bigger gain. Cycling at this time of year has a strange attraction - lots of stunning frosty trees. I will add a photo.[Later...] Still discovering new nice tweaks in Fedora. Setting up printing doesn't require the root password, doesn't throw Selinux errors (as my Fed 9 did), my wireless card was automatically detected (a Ralink one), seems super easy to set up dialup+ethernet+wireless connections and switch between them. The graphics are lovely - solar flare, almost as good as the old sea horses that I loved deeply. But then, I liked the infinity theme too! OpenOffice 3.0 is excellent - looks nice, seems to be getting faster, does the tedious MS formats (docx) that people will persist in using (and will send you even when they know you use linux and may not find it easy to open them - ha, I'll send them a odt file...). KDE 4.1 seems very stable, after the instability of 4.0, and Konqueror has the web search box back which disappeared on 4.0. Having tried the Java development environment yet, but it was nice to see Java applets working straightaway in Firefox. I guess they've gone for Sun's version of Java now it's free, as in speech. Talking of which I'm playing with webcams and Java reading mjpeg streams (you can extract individual images quite easily from it), but that's another story... Back to bike stuff next time. |
| Debt and the Archbishop | |
| Date: 2008-12-18 |
| Rowan Williams is, I think, largely a sound character. But his recent comments on debt are particularly appreciated - apparently he 'He said the British Government's efforts to stabilise the economy using more debt was akin to an addict returning to the drug.'. Pretty sound. Not that this will stop (prudent?) Gordon. Still, Rowan is saying what is very widely said around the UK, that debt is benefitting a few (notably bankers) at the expense of the many, and particularly at the expense of the planet (I thought we were all meant to be going green to save the planet from meltdown and mass species extinction?). The curious attitude to debt is all the more notable when you see the Bank of England cutting rates in expectation of lower inflation (which probably won't turn up soon, if ever) - though the never put up interest rates in expectation of higher inflation. A notable doublethink. A euro per pound is no doubt just about here. |
| Fedora 10 - a superb linux distro | |
| Date: 2008-12-16 |
| I have just installed Fedora 10 - and it's great! I think it's the best fedora distro since perhaps 4 or 5 - that one with the sea horses...
From install through to playing DVDs and mp3s - a matter of minutes. And a huge library of software including Firefox 3, OpenOffice 3.0 and so on. Wow! A great point to try linux or to upgrade to. |
| Mid November Cycling |  |
| Date: 2008-11-16 |
| Since my usual cycling is around Bradford, it was very lovely to do some cycling around the Lake District - I did the Honister Pass twice during the last week, plus a few others. It was a bit wet, and going uphill against a gale of wind is never that easy, but wow, it was rate grand compared with doing the shopping at Sainsbury's. I will find a suitable picture of high fells and driving cloud and rain.... The picture is looking down the Honister Pass towards Buttermere. Wow, what a climb! And an excellent day - quiet roads (compared with West Yorkshire) and stunning views. |
| Virtual Recessions | |
| Date: 2008-11-06 |
| It's all a bit like Baudrillard - we are not yet in a recession but all the indicators are gloomy so we should behave as though we are. In particular, people (well, people borrowing money that is) are desperate to get back to cheap money (which I thought caused the problem in the first place?!). It all happened very like this a few years ago - when interest rates dropped because of the dangers of a return to economic reality, and we got a speculative credit boom. So no interest rate cuts please! |
| Boom and BUST!! | |
| Date: 2008-10-27 |
| Mr Brown, noted for his statement concerning the end of boom and bust, has surely got some explaining to do! The moment that he said this was, of course, during the last election - in fact, I think I even saw this on an election poster in 2005. Can he be sued for false promises? He said this, naturally enough, during a boom when it was exactly what people would like to believe - your house price can go up forever, etc, etc.Although he can do the media stuff of looking statesman-like at a time of crisis, it remains true that he seems to have led us to the biggest bust for some considerable time. Admittedly,the sort of credit led boom he presided over was born in America with the midwife called Alan Greenspan, but I think he should take sufficient of the blame to make him an electoral liability rather than a hero.... Even if he throws another heap of credit at the system, it only defers the eco-crash that our economics of growth is starting to sense, just within historical sniffing distance. |
| Mr Brown's Answer to a Credit Crisis? More Credit! | |
| Date: 2008-10-14 |
| Sounds dumb to me. Surely the answer to a crisis brought about by excessive credit would be financial prudence and sobriety, plus a bit of reworking the economy so that it can cope with the changes necessary to reduce global warming. But no, it is, apparently, to get credit going again. Weird. Of course, the astute noticed, way back in about 2001, when the Stock Market went through some jitters, that we nearly had the credit crisis then but they dropped interest rates like crazy (3% I think they reached in the UK) and the credit boom continued only to get to a worse state now. Quite a few people argued, then, that they should have pricked the bubble. Not Mr Brown, of course. I suspect there was an election in the offing. Anyway, this bit of stock market history will be written up with not much credit to Blair and Brown. But now, for the sake of the economy, credit should surely not be eased at all, and (as George Monbiot says in the Guardian today) we should start preparing for the much bigger crisis - the hitting of the environmental buffers scheduled a couple or so decades down the road from where we are now.... |
| Credit and Debt | |
| Date: 2008-10-09 |
| The government is playing the current debt crisis as if it is a liquidity crisis - it's a nicer name for debt. And above all it hides the fact that just about everybody knew that low interest rates and high levels of borrowing were completely unsustainable. Oh but the bankers didn't. Well, actually they knew perfectly well but they were making too much money out of it to kick the habit. So it is curious that now they get to keep the bonuses from the good years, while the savers who have had ludicrously low interest rates for years, and the first time buyers who were priced out of the market are to remain out of favour - lowering the cost of borrowing will do nothing to make housing cheaper and nothing to give savers a decent return (i.e. greater than inflation) on their cash. Whereas it continues the devaluation of cash and the overvaluation of assets (basically houses) that we've seen for the last 15 and more years. Pretty hopeless. A recession now just might give us enough room not to push global warming to critical point, but economics (in some rather sick sense) apparently disallows such a thing. |
| You Do Count After All | |
| Date: 2008-09-26 |
| There's a nice story on slashdot about how close the US elections have been over the years. Turns out that quite a few would have been swung by 1% or less of the vote. So that sense that there's no point in voting because you are just a dot is not really accurate. A nice argument against that wearisome fatalism so many people have - 'well I couldn't do anything about it', etc. Of course, one of the most disgusting bit of US election history - what looks like the cheating of Al Gore of his election success by a mix of gerrymandering and getting votes NOT to be counted - is in there as needing only 269 votes to go to Gore to have given the world President Gore (which it certainly needed, rather than that skivvy of the petroleum industry, Mr Bush). |
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