This month has seen me make four outings on my bike after a long period of foul weather and weariness put me off going out at all. 
Some improvement in my sleep paterns has given me a bit more energy and made me alert enough to get a few things done.
First time out I had expected teething troubles: loose sadle,
balancing, broken lights etc. A lot of the tow paths have been improved while I have been ‘hibernating’ and after putting air back in the tyres I found the cycling wasn’t as bad as I had expected. I covered quite a distance without any mishaps other than the saddle moving an irritating amount. Later inspection showed the ususal bolt bracket had been replaced with a Philips head screw, which had clearly worked free and now refusess to tighten sufficiently to keep the seat in the upright posisiton.
I still have hope of one day making the journey back down to Birmingham and so my second outing was down to the Cosley tunnel. I had lashed out on a magnificent £1 front light from poundland and was all set to see how far I could get along the Birmingham route. I found the light adequate but, the tow path was as bumpy as ever through the tunnel and once or twice I found myslef nearly catapulted into the canal.
Once through I made pretty good progress and only stopped at the Tipton Railway Bridge as I remembered there were quite a few locks on this stretch and was begining to wonder how I stand up to climbing back up and getting home. I think I may have been over cautious as on the next outing when I met up with Andrew at Wednesfield I was hardly tested at all despite the stronger winds.
21st August for the last outing – very windy but, reasonably sunny despite a warning of rain later. I decided to go out again along the Curly Wirley and see how far I got. On the whole the outward journey wasn’t too bad but, the return journey seemed to take me back headlong into the wind and it started to rain. By now the seat was swinging in all sorts of directions again – really must fix this before the next trip. I cut off back onto the main Bilston road and managed to get back home before the rain.
Who knows when we will get some reasonable weather again? The bike cut be back in the shed for months again.