Stopped off at Ideal Bikes on the way home to see if it would be possible to put wider handlebars (as my hands don't really fit with my waterproof neoprene gloves on) and a longer stem on when the cyclocross brakes come in. Mike recommended sanding off the skin on my hands as a simple short term measure to solve the problem, but assured me there were quite possibly one or two spare handlebars kicking around - and that there were cyclocross brakes in stock, he just had to find them.
Had a fun little interlude going
across Joe Howe Drive from Bayer's Road when my chain snapped in the middle of the intersection. I coasted over to the other side, then crossed back with my bike and waited for the lights to change so I could safely dash over and grab my chain. I'm not sure what happened, it's a
KMC Z chain which I've used before without a problem. I put it back together with a Masterlink and headed off.
Up on the fire trail I encountered the muppets of the day; a couple with two dogs that I've
encountered before. This time one of the dogs was defecating by the side of the trail while the muppets wandered on obliviously, but one of them must have heard me coming as when he looked back and saw me coming he ran over with a plastic bag to clean up. As I passed the muppets I saw the other dog wandering across the path and said to the female muppet, "your dog is supposed to be on a leash". She then yelled out what sounded like "
Blowers all a grass!". Puzzled, I stopped and had the following conversation:
Me: "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Female Muppet: "Blow it out your ass!"
Me: "Your dogs are a hazard, and they're legally required to be on a leash on this trail."
FM: "I recognise you! You go too fast on this trail! We've got witnesses that say so!"
Me: "No, with the trail the state it's in it's not possible to go fast."
Male Muppet: "You go over the speed limit on here all the time!"
This confused me, as there's no speed limit on this trail.
Me: "Really? There's no speed limit on here that I'm aware of, where's it posted?"
MM: "You know you exceed the speed limit! We've got witnesses that say so!"
Me: "OK, what's the speed limit on here, then?"
MM: "I don't know, but you're exceeding it!"
Me: "Well, let me know what it is. In the meantime, if your dogs come at me, I'm going to boot them out of the way, I'm fed up with being attacked by dogs."
MM: "You do that and it'll be the last boot you'll do, because I'll boot with my boot so you won't boot no more!"
At that point, it was fairly obvious these people really weren't worth wasting my time on, so I just waved them off and continued on. Unsurprisingly enough, one of the dogs chose to leap out at me (although I'm sure they would consider it my fault for riding in the wrong direction); this time I didn't bother to swerve out of the way, and discovered that the little yapper actually had a survival instinct of sorts and got out of the way. I heard a "
Fhtagn!" behind me but decided to continue on before things got
any worse.
The rest of the ride with, in contrast, quite pleasant; joggers who smiled and said "good morning" to me, some arboreal workers trimming back the trees who advised me to contact HRM to get the trail repaired, and a class of children that chanted "ding ding!" to me as I rang my bell to warn them I was coming up behind.
Swapped the chain out when I got home for an SRAM chain I had kicking around, and just for kicks put on the old 28c Continental tyres with a tyre liner to see how the bike would do with skinnier tyres.
Distance logged: 12.469km
Time: 42:28
Average speed: 17.6km/hr
Max speed: 47 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, breezy, occasional drizzle
Cumulative distance: 2500.794km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 467.172km
Monthly cost per km: $0.69
