Who Are You Again?

Ah yes, I remember now...

I've been terribly busy slack in the past couple of months, which is no sort of excuse really now is it?

A quick recap:

• I now have a new commuting bike. It's a Trek 1st District with a spangly (but actually slightly matt) belt driven single gear. The belt means that there's no sticky oil to get all over the place (trouser legs, dining room carpet, the boy's hands) and that there's also zero maintenance. It's fit and forget for a couple of years for the belt til it needs to be replaced, and that's a pretty easy job. Other than that it's a bit more suited to commuting than the Giant was in that it's more suited to mudguards and has less spine-compressing tyres on it. So far it's sweet and I'm not finding the lack of gears to be much of an issue. I do run out of gears on the flat, and it's more effort uphill but the compromise is worth it and I don't really notice it at all.
• Dr G, the Dutchman and I rode over Garburn pass a few weeks ago when Dutch came up for a visit from Wales. It was a lovely sunny day and the route took us up round the top of Windermere with great views over the lake, stretching up to the Kirkstone pass. This was followed by a drop down into Kentmere with the final leg going along the reverse of the start of the route we did earlier in the year. The reverse route is much better.
• We have a new addition to the family, with the missus giving birth to a beautiful baby girl earlier in June. My riding has been curtailed but I don't mind :-) And I've been on paternity leave with slightly altered priorities.
• I shall have a rant about people drafting me on the way to and from work tomorrow...