Clean sprockets

In the last seven days I have reached my second highest weekly mileage so far. That was mainly down to a very long ride on Sunday, with a little bit of topping up over the rest of the week. So I'm satisfied in terms of distance covered, but on the other hand, I'm not making any real progress on my average speed.

However, I did make time to clean four months, and more than a thousand miles worth of gunk from the bicycle chain, and I have patched a few bits of Maidenhead that were missing from Open Street Map.

So it hasn't been a bad week on the whole. My mellow frame of mind isn't entirely down to a few glasses of wine over an excellent dinner.

Agley

Plan-A for today was to cycle over to meet up with an old friend for lunch, at a pub about 9 miles away. Apart from a good chat, that would have put about 18 miles on the clock.

Then, I started to dither about whether I could afford the time, and wondered if I should take the car instead. So Plan-B was to squash the doubts by booking the car in for it's MOT test - which meant I would have to ride.

Unfortunately my friend had to back out at the last minute.

So instead I invoked Plan-C and spent lunch-time cleaning the bike. I paid particular attention to removing muck from the chain, which had become something of a mess. Then later I took the bike to go and pick up the car from its MOT. On the way I pootled around a few more back streeets that haven't yet made it onto Open Street Map.

So in the end, it was a lot less than 18 miles, but at least I did get out. I also have a clean bike, and the car is signed off by the Ministry of Transport. Unfortunately, as the final cock-up of the day, I messed up the GPS, and lost today's track. So I will have to re-work the back streets if I'm going to plot them.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley

The lords debate cycling

If you are interested, then Hansard has the detail, but the bottom line is that they are in favour.

Florence

After my long haul on Sunday, I've only done a bit of pootling about locally on the last couple of evenings. In the process, I've tracked a few local roads that were previously missing from Open Street Map, and I added most of them to the map yesterday. That means that I was just in time to catch this week's rendering (which happens on a Wednesday).

So now my additions are available for everyone to see - complete with a stupid spelling mistake. I have fixed it now, but it will stay there for everyone else to spot until the tiles are rendered again next Wednesday. Oh well.

Adding up the distance I have ridden since January, it would get me as far as Florence on my virtual tour of Europe. No time to virtually admire the statues though - I'm now virtually heading for Rome.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the London Naked Bike Ride is only a few weeks away. Apparently "the ride is easy and upbeat, and riders decorate their bodies and bikes with messages of protest against oil dependency and car culture". There were 1,000 participants last year. I suspect I will be missing it again this time round.

P.S. This is my 100th post on this blog. How about that.

Today's route

This is today's route on Google Earth. Maidenhead is just out of sight on the right. I travelled anti-clockwise.

First I went westwards (diagonally from the bottom right of the image), then I turned north, and crossed the Thames near Hambleden. After working further north, the next left turn took me (more-or-less) westwards in a straight line through Turville, up the long climb to Christmas Common, then down a sharp drop into Watlington.

The first squiggle at the top of the picture shows where I explored Watlington. Then I worked southwest (horizontally in the image) to Ewelme, at the top of the circuit. There is another squiggle as I explored the village.

The rest of the route follows national cycle route 5 down to the bottom-left, through Caversham and Reading. There is a small loop where I lost my way.

I found it much easier to follow the route along the river Thames through Reading from West to East. Across the bottom of the picture I followed national cycle route 4 to Wargrave. Instead of continuing to follow route 4 (the more scenic way), I stayed on the A4 beyond Wargrave and tolerated the traffic for a faster journey home to dinner.

Ewelme, St Mary

Today I reached St Mary at Ewelme, the last of the twelve notable churches that I have been trying to reach this year by bike. The church and its setting are lovely. It also contains a number of interesting carvings, the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer's son, and this magnificant font cover.

As the crow flies, Ewelme is fifteen miles away, but the round trip was 60 miles, and involved a fair amount of climbing. Going out, I went up through Hambleden, and Turville, then over Christmas Common, to Watlington, before coming down to Ewelme. Coming back I followed national cycle route 5 to Reading, then route 4 to Maidenhead (more or less).

The weather was almost perfect: sunny but cool, though the wind was fairly strong at times. Apart from setting a new record distance for myself, this is the second time that I have ridden more than my age in miles, and my Eddington number has moved up a notch. My average speed wasn't much better than normal, though given the distance and the amount of climbing I'm fairly relaxed about that. This wasn't the right outing to try going more quickly.

Local politics

There is a cycle route from Maidenhead to Cookham, which runs across fields along Green Way. It isn't the most glorious route in the area, but it is pleasant enough, and promises a traffic-free alternative route. Except that it suffers from one serious flaw. There are a number of gates at various points, designed to stop vehicles from using the path. Every one of them is too restrictive to get my bike through, and I have to lift it over each gate.

Until last night, I assumed this was some cock-up that nobody could afford to fix. Then I found the minutes of the last Windsor and Maidenhead Cycle Forum in January. This is a body which advises the Council and its partners on cycling matters.

It seems that the story is a little more complicated...

"MB highlighted the on-going problems with cycle access across North Town Moor. A permitted path across the Moor was secured as a condition of planning permission, with access for pedestrians and cyclists. Barriers were erected following problems with motorcycle access. These restrict access for cyclists and the disabled to the permitted path and also to a public right of way. An additional barrier has recently been installed.

The landowner has indicated that he would be prepared to fully withdraw the permitted path should the Council take enforcement action to remove the barriers on the grounds that it would allow access for unauthorised vehicles. However, a road has been constructed across the Moor to provide access to the Cricket Club somewhat negating the argument.

Several meetings have been held with the landowner to resolve the situation and the Chief Executive had promised to write to the landowner on behalf of the Council. Cllr Maxwell/ GO to review the situation with the Borough’s Legal Team and identify a way forward.

Good luck Cllr Maxwell and Gordon Oliver (GO). Tlatet is on your side, and we look forward to hearing the next installment.