Two months of no riding has now passed. Really missing being able to swing a leg over the bike and go riding. I’m not remotely motivated to do any remedial maintenance or cleaning of my bikes either.

I haven’t touched a bike in weeks, not even to clean one, a job I’ve been putting off (repeatedly). The government mishandling of a potential strike by fuel truck drivers and the media shit storm that’s resulted from it has resulted in panic fuel buying here in central Manchester. My wife went out before 7am this morning to fill up and found our coal Esso station completely drained of fuel and all the pumps therefore marked as out of order.

The whole thing’s quite bizarre as the first news item I heard essentially said that Army drivers had been given training to ensure fuel deliveries continued during potential strike action. Yet as the mess has unfolded the government is now saying everyone should top up if their fuel tanks reach half full. Filling up is an expensive business as my pal Dave in scotland has just discovered:

The whole thing is a great way for the government to fill the coffers as the tax of fuel is a fixed-rate on the underlying oil price and is a very large proportion of the cost consumers pay. The result is that it’s gone mental.

Now this whole business doesn’t really affect me, I drive my son to nursery each morning which is probably only 2 miles each way. Once I’m recovered we’ll be biking that, so the fuel cost will be nil. I perhaps put some fuel in the tank each month, but may be only £30. In fact I’ve never filled the tank, but I bet it wouldn’t be cheap!

As I walked into work this morning fuelled by coffee and dodging a £1.70 bus fare each way, I realised that single occupancy commuting is the norm here. No car-share commuting for folk in Manchester. Or park and ride. The city needs a plan, because let’s be honest fuel prices are only going in one direction in future. Up.

Went in to hosiptal for an operation on the 24th Ferbruary to get treatment for an ailment that wouldn’t go away. One of those things you kind of shrug off, but it’s not gone away in ten years so I’ve decided to get it ‘fixed’ as it’s had an impact on biking which is starting to affect other things in life too. It means no riding for the a month or so whilst things heal up. This means that in the short term things suck, but long term is looking brighter. Gotta focus on that.

There’s some irony in the fact that the one day I managed to ride to work this week not only did I get rained on commuting home, but some genius in a white Transit van tried to kill me by not signalling and turning right as if they were parking up alongside the kerb and then swinging left across the road into a driveway. The ultimate cut up. Still not like a bus driver tried to kill me.

I’ve done some power output efforts on the Watt Bike trials a few times, but I’ll never come close to this: 2,500W power. Awesome (even for an Aussie).

Managed to ride three days out of five last week which seems to be about average at the moment. I suspect I will probably struggle to match it this week. It’s been cold on the bike too. Cold enough to arrive at the destination of the ride with an ice cream headache even with a Giro merino cap on under the lid. I may have to resort to the standard issue merino fleece lined beanie if the temperature stays sub zero.

The weather turned from cold to snow on Saturday here in Manchester. It started falling around midday and stuck straight away. We were heading up to Carnforth and as we drove out of the city on the M61 there was a lot of slush and poor driving conditions. The Bridgestone A001 winter rubber was great and was a sound investment. Ironically the conditions just south of the lakes were snow free and 3 degrees warmer (albeit still on the cold side of nought degrees).

Whilst the thaw started late Sunday, there is still plenty of snow on the ground. I’m still hoping to get out for a proper ride soon. Fingers crossed.