Jesse's riding tips

Today I are been mainly riding... a tandem!

A 50 mile ride on a George Longstaff double gents' marathon, with my mate Bob (Reading's best blind
bike mechanic and owner of the bike) stoking.

I was wearing my old leather cycling shoes, the tandem has toeclips and straps. By the coffee stop
(the Rainforest near Newbury) my feet were completely numb. Five minutes later I wished they still
were! But the rest of the day they didn't get that cold. My Sub Zero Tactel undershirt is amazing -
that, a short-sleeved shirt and a nylon jacket was sufficient even though the temperature was
initially below zero.

Lots of ice on the roads, several places where we had to pick our way along the bits of road which
had the sun on them, and in one case this meant riding along in flowing water down one side of the
road, the rest of which was under ice. This was OK until the surface we were riding on vanished into
a pothole....

Got through it fine, though, without actually falling off. Lunch at the Red Lion at Chieveley
(monster amounts of food, very cheap!), a nice day out, finished with a fast run up the A4 from
Theale[1], which blew the cobwebs out

Jumped back on the solo to ride home and it felt *really* strange! I nearly fell off at one point
because the back felt as if it had a phantom stoker on it.

[1] Spillchucker suggests "the ale" instead of Theale which is, apparently, exactly how it got the
name, there being a brewery there.

Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony. http://www.chapmancentral.com (BT ADSL and
dynamic DNS permitting)
NOTE: BT Openworld have now blocked port 25 (without notice), so old mail addresses may no longer
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> Jumped back on the solo to ride home and it felt *really* strange! I nearly fell off at one point
> because the back felt as if it had a phantom stoker on it.
>
I always find it really weird getting back on the solo after the tandem. I remember after doing a
two week tandem tour and then getting on the solo to go to work the steering felt so wobbly it was
like the bike had the palsey or something.

> [1] Spillchucker suggests "the ale" instead of Theale which is, apparently, exactly how it got the
> name, there being a brewery there.
>
> Guy
> ===
> ** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony. http://www.chapmancentral.com (BT ADSL and
> dynamic DNS permitting)
> NOTE: BT Openworld have now blocked port 25 (without notice), so old mail addresses may no longer
> work. Apologies.