I was excited to see what effect today's partial eclipse had on our solar generation - seems the angle of the dangle for our roof mounted panels was a bit too south facing for the event and there was no impact 🤷 Still another bonkers day with 42 kWh of generation- total so far is 19.5 MWh - mega!

Fab ride to work this morning, then a trip to the pub after work. After _some_ red wine and an extra glass the option was 40 min ride from Hertford, or wait 20 mins for a train to watton for a shorter ride. No brainer 😜

However, getting out in the sticks means more walking away from the riverbank, often on roads, as there is an increased amount of private property adjacent to the river, as well as the odd closure (presumably on safety grounds). Our route was 9 out of 24km on roads- boo!

Another 20km of Thames Path in the bag last week - that's 185km so far. Oxfordshire gets us back to linear walks as the train line is always near the river, but we are getting further from home - this walk was ~4 hours travelling, which only just counts for our "must walk for longer" rule...

End of our first stay-cation week for a long time - lots of walking and stuff that we've thought of doing for ages but not got around to. Today's adventure was to the west end, and a fabulous production of Cyrano de Bergerac by the RSC - with @adrianlester.bsky.social doing what he does so well

Threatened in the Hertfordshire desert today, but never materialised - this is as close as it came (all sliding NE). Bike trails getting dustier - hit 50kph down a gravel farm track this evening - great fun but needed total concentration for the dust dunes

ooh, ooh, oooooh - we *might* get a 40% chance of rain in 7 days time in Hertfordshire. Excuse me if I don't hold my breath... In other news, the riding trails are so dusty they are grabbing my gravel tyres - needs some concentration as I daren't fall off... ...and the bitumen continues to wilt...

I'm troubled by the weather pattern this year in the UK - too hot, too dry, just not temperate at all! But today was my best solar PV panel day of the year in my eyes, after 2-3 months of mostly unbroken sunshine. It wasn't the biggest kWH day, it wasn't the longest day, but it was the best curve

It looks worse than it is (it isn't that red), but my new record scorching for 2026. Now to work on maintaining the tan line...

Today's choice of coffee stop is heavily influenced by making sure my bike is always in clear view and safe-ish, ie I'd back myself to catch anyone who tried to take it despite it not being locked up

Wasn't paying attention and my bike GPS ran out of battery, told me as I tried to switch it on for the ride. Easily done, it has a solar charger built in, and had been running for nearly 70 hours of riding last charged😮 So tracked with my watch - but was a bit freaked with no data in front of me 🤷😬🚴

Another one of these... Salsa Fargo Ti (intended for drop bars, takes flat bars) Rohloff hub gear + belt drive hope parts where it matters bombproof Bike of choice for majority riding the great divide - gnarly gravel-tastic. Done 8,000km now, and not looking back... (yeah - a lottery win helps)

Mojo-tastic - starting to have proper fun here - might even have to start stretching after a ride soon... ...but I've got a slight crank creak, gonna have to roll out another of my bikes - haven't been on the trail bike for 13 months 😮🙃😱 and that was a blast around Llandegla - time to re-trail it!

Stumbled across this when walking around Walthamstow on Friday.- a really pleasant surprise - Fact checked - it is true ✅ - My reaction - how comes I didn't know this 😬

Can I ride to Alexandra Palace and back on cycleway C20 in my lunch break - absolutely

We've all lost our mojo on the bike from time to time when it isn't much fun anymore, it is hard to get out and when you do it is a proper grind. Then there is the magic moment when you drag yourself out with no pretense to having any sort of fun... 1/3

In a digression from rambling on about bikes and stuff, here is a geek-fest for climate folks. I've got lots of fine grained data from my solar PV system. I've also got a hot tub that is set to 39C. Last Thursday the hot tub heater didn't come on for 24 hours 😬 the ambient heat was good enough!

Ramble around N London with some mates, then back home from the station - no idea what we were doing for the 6 hours we were stationary 🤔

Topping up the lycra tan lines - although as I was on my Brompton I was wearing baggies out of respect for the brand, but did roll them up a bit so the bottom of my shorts were showing for the ☀️☀️☀️ (I wonder if you can get tweed baggies?)

...and added to Strava - don't often list my bikes after the manufacturer or model , but seemed appropriate in this case...

New bike first ride time has arrived - lurgi over ✅ - bike unfolded with no loss of body parts inc skin ✅ - saddle position set to match all my other bikes ✅ - bike computer mount fitted (some finger bruising) ✅ - first time on flat pedals for ages ✅ Bonus - sunshine for gravel test ✅ Happy 😁😁😁

Blimey - that box is bigger than I expected. Never had a folding bike, now looking forward to new and exciting adventures 🚴 #newbikeday #N_plus_one_bikes_is_the_right_number ...and haven't thought about it, but need to secure the new bike and have run out of ground and wall anchors 🤔

Reminded me of the spitting image scene with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Laurence Olivier - "there is no need to shout!" (ok - might have embellished that one a bit, but dear, dear, johnny...)

Great day rambling around the New Forest, amazing environment, rain didn't matter, capped off with a fab sunset after a great pub meal and _some_ wine. What can you see in the ice crystals? (see alt text)

"entrance hall with plenty of room for coats and hiking shoes"... Yeah, right - glad it is summer! How many makes/models can you spot 😜

Thought I'd strava the walk back from the pub tonight, so we'd be sure to meet our reservation tomorrow. Traffic free, one dog "pick up" needed, 2-3 marvelling at the sunset, got back in less than 12 mins. Strava privacy settings means it is pointless to post cos there is only a few metres to show 😳

I've had a Thule towbar 4 bike carrier for 10+ years. First I could easily fit 4 bikes on it - one might have been a teen MTB, but they fitted. In 2016 I went to the alps with a mate, 2 x full suss trail bikes, 2 x road bikes - fine. Today - carnage fitting a current touring MTB + gravel bike... 1/2

I never used to stop on rides much, but I saw what I was missing out on (a nice rest mainly for me), and now I'm making up for lost time and stopping at nearly every opportunity ☕️☕️☕️

Donation day number 32 in my modern donation era (had around 20 40 years ago, but the blood folks lost my records, so I had to start from zero again). Slightly tense after my "failed vein" last time - looks like it might have been too cold that day for shorts and a t-shirt - it was only about 8C 😬🩸

We've increased the capacity of our domestic solar PV installation, and I'm monitoring the stats. Installed in Dec 2023, 16 panels - and today I notice on the phone app it records the total generation - 16.8 MWh - wow - at today's UK charges of 25p per unit, that's £4200 of electricity! 1/3