Cyclokairos

In ‘Saving Time’, Jenny Odell quotes Ajahn Chah:

“You see this goblet? I love this glass. It holds the water admirably. When the sun shines in, it reflects the light beautifully. When I tap it, it has a lovely ring. Yet for me this glass is already broken. When the wind knocks it over, my elbow knocks it off the shelf, and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course’. But when I understand that this glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious”

I think I get it – live in the moment, right? Don’t spoil the present by getting hung up on what’s to come.

A dry spell of late, following a wet winter and early spring. A dusting off of the summer bike (still has a set of mudguards of course), a.k.a. The Purple Bike (That Is Also White) – a Brother Cycles’ Kepler (from when it was canti).

I’d forgotten how well it rides. It’s the best riding bike I have. There’s a spring to it that The Black Bike (a Surly Midnight Special) lacks. The tubing, I’m assuming, is pretty much the same, 4130 chromoly, and the front triangle double butted in each case. A difference in the thinness of the tubes? I doubt it. The difference in the geometry? Maybe. The fork could be a factor. The Midnight Special has disc brakes, and with the braking force being applied closer to the hub than with the Kelper’s cantilever brakes, it will be more robust at the fork ends. The handlebars too will help, Nitto Albatross versus Velo Orange Nouveau Randonneur.

I spend most of the time on the curved section, beyond the brake levers, of the Albatross bars, rather than holding their taped section. Not a place to feel the full flex of the bars but more than on the hoods of the Nouveau Randonneur bars. There’s something about having a bag up front too. A convenience when riding or stopped that a saddle bag lacks. One for the n+1 list, a low trail bike for which a randonneur bag is perfectly suited.

I headed off to a bridleway near Aston Cantlow, that I’ve ridden past countless times but never investigated. With the dry spell, I was hopeful of a lack of mud. I wasn’t disappointed.

The promising start led to more firmness under tyre.

Then a short, steep ride up into the wood that sits on the narrow escarpment of Rough Hills.

I’m always interested to learn what’s beneath, and the British Geological Survey’s app iGeology fills in the details: Lias group sedimentary rock from 200 million or so years ago. This land, or what became this land, was once submerged under shallow seas. Once through the wood, it was out into farmland.

No more than 10 mins riding – that’s typical around here for venturing off sealed roads. But these moments will do.