This is getting silly. My last ride on any unicycle at all was on Tuesday 3rd January. On Thursday 5th january, I was seconded without warning to a job in Manchester that involved 6+ hours travelling a day. I got out of that after about 3 weeks by throwing my bricks out of the pram big-style, but it took a few days to get my normal routine back into order, and weekends were spoken for with visits to Ruth, catching up with family, etc.
Then the frosts came - so cold my car and scooter wouldn’t start. And then rain. And then a cold so bad I even had to miss dancing one week, which I never do. And just as I started to get better from that, more heavy rain and frost, and whenever I had time it was chucking it down with rain, and if the weather was fine I was either ill or committed to something else.
Then as the prospect of lighter evenings started to open up (the clocks went forward on Saturday) I developed the worst case of flu I’ve had for ages. All over eastern Europe and Asia, chickens are muttering fearfully about the spread of Mikefulian Flu, and the danger of it mutating and cross-infecting poultry.
And then today, at 4:45, I looked out of the office window. Sun shining, sky blue, barely a cloud to spoil the view… my flu is improved, and I decided i could manage a short ride… and I had a choice: an hour’s overtime or a ride, and I turned my back on mammon, and switched down the computer, tidied my desk, put on my jacket and bounded (slightly breathlessly) down the stairs to the scooter, only to find it was now absolutely siling down with rain, like April showers and March winds at the same time.
Why not ride in the rain? It’s not bad once you’re out there - not as nice as dry weather but better than no riding at all. As long as you keep warm while you’ve still got the lurgy it’ll do you good. Anyway, I thought you mentioned something about a coat you never get to use…
You’re asking the man who once did Orkney to Nottingham (555 miles) on a 2 stroke 250cc motorcycle in non stop rain in 11 hours, and once did Chichester to Lands End, also in pittling rain on the same machine. Riding in the rain on any contraption, one wheel or two (or even on occasion three), powered or pedalled, wears very thin after a while. I’m having a mid life crisis, not a lobotomy.
This was, perhaps a little too transparently, the main motive for starting the thread.
I’ve done more than my fair share of motorcycling in the worst of conditions (even snow, no fun whatsoever) and it does wear thin very quickly, even with the best of gear. I’ve found that the older I get the more of a fair weather adventurer I’ve become (thus weakening the whole concept of ‘adventure’).
It’ll be summer very soon and I’m sure we’ll be reading more of the famous Mikefule ride reports in the very near future.
You’re getting old father Mike !
though winter is my prefered season, this winter was Horribilis: I endured a recurrent bronchitis from november to february, I got the same flu as yours, then some gastric ailment that washed out 4 kilograms from me in just two days! -never recovered them!- then broke a toe … only the perspective of uniing kept alive the will of braving the elements!
So our craving is a good path to recovery!!! it should be paid for by National Health !
OK, I don’t ride in the rain out of choice, but if the options are getting wet or not riding for months, I’d choose the wet.
Anyway, hope you get a ride soon, whatever the weather.
Motorbikes are rubbish for the rain, cos you get cold. On a unicycle, if you’re getting cold, you’re not riding hard enough. Hockey was a bit slippy last night, but it was still way fun once you got started, and certainly no problems with being cold, we were wearing t-shirts.
The trick to not getting into a rut of not riding is simple, just any time you’ve said you’ll go on a ride, go out, whatever the weather / work etc. is trying to do to get in the way. If you plan your rides a day or two in advance, then you just have to go out and play in the rain when it rains. You can always grab some extra rides if it’s nice, but not riding just cos of weather is silly if you live in England.
You’ve made my day!
I thought it was only me.
11 winters of motorcycling in Poland in the past.
Good 5 winters of windsurfing in England when water was turning to ice on wet suit many a times.
So I thought english winters were very mild.
This winter I was very reluctant to go uniing.
I thought my inner heater was worn out.
Nice not to be ,totally, alone in this perception.
