I rode every (working) day this week, and loved it. Just for a change I left home each day in plenty of time, so I wasn't in a rush. I enjoyed the ride more but oddly, I did the trip in about the same time, and arrived just as sweaty. So much for trying to go faster.

I learned about Eddington Numbers recently, which sound like a fun motivator. I'm currently playing with my ride database - every bike ride for the last 10 years (obsessive much?) - to calculate mine.

Back on the Horse

I've been ignoring this blog for way too long. One of my "new life resolutions" is to be more reflective, and keep a journal of the things that are going on in my life.

I'm already keeping a paper journal of the chronic medical things, about which more later (perhaps), but seeing as how I already have this blog, I may as well use it to document the cycling side of my life. It may start as just a log of my daily commute, which is what most of my riding comprises, but I hope to develop it into something more than that.

That said, I haven't actually been doing any riding lately!  I took a couple of weeks off commuting, for reasons I may write about later, and instead my daughter Claire has been driving me to and from work.

So I should have been back on my bike this week, but that didn't happen. I strained my lower back moving a heavy pot in the garden, so I'm off work this week. I should be back at work next week and riding every day.

So stay tuned!

Trial to destruction

Think Danny MacAskill's pretty good? Check this out (lovers of vintage ladies' bicycles should probably not watch)...

Stringbike

This looks interesting - Stringbike - a completely new design for a bicycle drive system, low complexity, low maintenance. The gear shifting mechanism looks particularly elegant.

WIRED has a review here.

Three videos

ACHSM Blog has a post featuring three videos on how to do bicycle infrastructure. Well worth watching if you want to see the positive effect that well-planned paths can have on a city.

'via Blog this'

Science, Reason and Critical Thinking: The Crudity of Early Home Computing

I'm pretty sure Sir Clive didn't put anything cruder than "POKE" on the Spectrum, but if he had, I think he would have at least checked his spelling first.

Radiation

Randall Munroe, who writes and draws the excellent webcomic xkcd has created this chart showing radiation doses experienced by real people doing real things. Great way to get some perspective.