Cyclokairos

The back garden. Around the centre of the picture there’s a gap between two rows of purple beech hedging. Pass through it and the section of the garden beyond was once lined with box. Perhaps 20 shrubs in total that I grew from tip cuttings some 15 or so years ago. As they grew, they merged and with my best attempts, read mediocre, at cloud pruning, I had two undulating lengths of the stuff. Then, 3 years ago, the box moth arrived and their caterpillars can’t half munch their way through the shrubs. Indigenous to East Asia, UK birds don’t touch the caterpillars and my interventions – traps for the moths, biological insecticide and good old mechanical means (i.e. scissors) for the caterpillars – were laborious and ultimately futile. I ripped out the shrubs over the winter – so it goes, nothing lasts. In their place, shrubby honeysuckle, for now, problem free in the UK.

The photo above shows the tattered remains of the box moth caterpillar’s feeding. It’s a hedge in Snitterfield (guess which letter wags change the ‘n’ to), but half a mile away, a stretch of well established box at Snitterfield Bushes is untouched. And yes, The Purple Bike (that is also white) has had an airing – it must be a year since I’ve ridden it. It still rides as well as it ever did. Not quite Green-Bike-Sprightly but sprightly nonetheless. The riding position is more upright than The Green Bike, and on a short descent close to home I was reaching non-existent drops. I spend most of my time when riding it with my hands on the curves beyond the brake levers (the handlebar is a Nitto Albatross). It’s a bike I really should ride more often – I wouldn’t change a thing about it (well apart from the colour, perhaps – mixed feelings there, but it was on sale and I bit).

IN CONTRAST – The Black Bike. That had a recent outing too and from the off it was anything but sprightly. Headed to The Grand Union Canal, the handling was in line with that of a narrow boat (if not an oil tanker). It’s been a love-hate relationship since I’ve had it. The notorious Surly Natch tubing ensures spirited riding is a fanciful dream and with all its accoutrements, it is basically a tank. When building it, I had in mind some sort of 650b randonneur/tourer but with that tubing and lack of low trail, it’s from a nimble Rene Herse. The disc brakes mean the fork is robust in order to withstand the forces applied at its dropouts (compare the slender, tapered thing of beauty on The Green Bike). The rack adds more weight upfront too, and doesn’t handle this load as well as The Purple Bike (that is also white). Maybe it’s time to get rid. What purpose does it serve? On this ride, it worked on the slow trundle along the canal towpath, but on the sealed roads sections it was cumbersome, and it did the job during last year’s two day tour in Wales too – but can’t my other bikes do these? Or am I just angling for an excuse for a new frame? A Fairlight Faran would pretty much mean a straight swap of components, or for something that really appeals to my bike aesthetics – a Tunk.