Christmas is over

And the new year is here! And what a buenos new year it promises to be!

The last weeks since I last posted have been rather cold and inclement which has confined me to the boat more than usual.

Warm boat, happy boater

The changes I’ve made are starting to pay off, and the boat feels much warmer now.

About this time last year, I fitted double glazed windows.

Mooring at Forge Farm

It took me about a week to fit them, and it snowed whilst I was doing it.

Once they were in, I didn’t really notice the difference. That’s because I was just getting home from work most of the time, lighting the fire, throwing a bit of fuel on and going to bed. Rinse and repeat.

The windows themselves don’t warm the boat up, except that they let more sunlight in without people gongoozling through them, they just keep heat inside the boat from escaping.

Given a couple of hours to warm up, I can realise now that they are much, much better than the old ones.

Winter scene
Winter scene
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Bicycle repairs a la Milton Keynes

I’ve moved up so far as to say I’m in Milton Keynes proper now.

Had one stop in-between. That was at somewhere called ‘Peartree Bridge’ which I guess is the South East edge of Milton Keynes. It’s on the edge of a park, surprise surprise. I didn’t mind it there. My bike wasn’t quite working, and I didn’t really have chance to do anything cycling wise, so there aren’t many pictures or adventures.

Mooring at Peartree Bridge - Milton Keynes
Mooring at Peartree Bridge – Milton Keynes

I did manage to fix the problems with my Trek hybrid bike, that was that the gears were shifting, also they would crunch and the chain would jump off of the front sprocket, or chainring, as they call it on pushbikes.

Fixing the ‘Ghost-shifting’ on my bike

Problems first started when I replaced the rear wheel. I replaced the chain shortly after.

After this, the new chain used to jump continuously off the front or back sprockets and make a crunching sound under any pressure. This made it impossible to ride up hills and unsafe to ride in traffic.

I used Gemini AI, and we gently worked through the problems. These are the steps I took to repair the problem.

  1. SRAM 8 speed chainFit new chain: 8 speed chain from Halfords. Didn’t sort the problem, made it worse. Split pin chain, anyone can fit one of these although it is fiddly. Cost £9.
  2. SHIMANO FC TY501 Vierkant 6/7/8 Fit new front chain-ring: This is the front set of gears. I have three rings. The original gears made it difficult on steep slopes, (28x38x48t). When I replaced the front chainring, I got a higher geared alternative (24x34x42t). I also increased the stem size on the crank by 5mm. This is not noticeable, but it meant I could get the gearing I wanted. I bought it off Amazon. Cost £27.79. Also required a Crank Puller to get it off. Total Cost £3.99 + £27.79
  3. SHIMANO Altus Front Derailleur FD-M310Replace front derailleur: After I changed the front chainring, a problem developed. It would no longer shift gears. I had to buy a new front derailleur that was compatible with the new number of teeth. Once I’d done this, it shifted correctly. Cost £18.25
  4. LANXUANR 8 Speed Mountain Bicycle Cassette Rear cassette: The chain was still jumping. Ghost shifting. I put it to Google what the problem might be. As a result of me having carried out all the previous steps above, which I’d fed back, Gemini was fairly convinced that the problem would be a worn rear cassette. I replaced the rear cassette with an identical (spec) one from Amazon. Cost £19.88

When I followed all of these steps, the problem was solved! I did all the work myself, of course. A total cost of £78.91

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Simpson Manor, Caldecotte Lake and Toilet repairs in Tinkers Bridge

That’s where I am now. It’s south Milton Keynes. Not seen any tinkers around yet. I have located the bridge.

Alan Turing’s house whilst he worked on the Bletchley Park enigma code is just around the corner. It’s a thatched cottage.

Alan Turing's old house in Simpson near Milton Keynes
Alan Turing’s old house in Simpson near Milton Keynes

It’s close to a large lake and park here and I went for a walk around the today whilst it wasn’t raining which it was trying to do in the morning and couldn’t make it’s mind up for the rest of the day.

Worked out to be around 5 miles, so quite a long walk.

Simpson Manor

On the way down, you walk past the location of an old, and no longer existant, regency home named Simpson Manor. Mentioned in the Doomsday archive, Edward the Confessor’s wife, Edith used to live here before the Norman conquests.

Simpson Manor – site of the old house
Location of the older settlement with the fish ponds to the left
Continue reading “Simpson Manor, Caldecotte Lake and Toilet repairs in Tinkers Bridge”

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford

At the bottom end of Milton Keynes.

This is somewhere I passed through many years ago. https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/bourne-end-weedon/

That time, I didn’t really stop in Milton Keynes. I remember coming through and stopping at the Tesco in Leighton Buzzard.

The canals on the Grand Union are a lot deeper. There’s absolutely 0 chance you’d be able to cover that amount of distance on the narrow-gauge canals of the Lower Oxford. The small and convenient size of the Oxford Canal locks are more than off-set by the forced low cruising speed in the 3-4 deep water.

Bike is fixed!

Mostly fixed… After disassembling the rear wheel, I saw that the bearings housing was deteriorated to the point of flaking off into the bearings, which is why it was making the squeaking and crunching.

I looked into the new wheel option. Halfords was not the cheapest. But, unlike Tredz, they offer a click and collect service, rather than delivery by DPD which has always represented a pain in the ass in the past.

I think it was £5 more. Not a lot really. Arrived at the Halfords store after a few days for me to pick up.

New rear wheel - KX 700c from Halfords
New rear wheel – KX 700c from Halfords

More or less slotted it in using the tools I’d purchased beforehand.

The only other thing was applying RIM TAPE, I looked around in Halfords and online, and it seemed overpriced, £7 for some what looks around 2m of electrical tape. The old wheel had it’s RIM TAPE intact. Rather than buy some, just gently pried it off the old wheel and slipped it onto the new wheel. Worked like a dream….

The bearings were ready greased and once the cassette was on, it was ready to roll. Literally. Took about 25 minutes.

Chain whip SRAM spanner fitting
Chain whip SRAM spanner fitting

The repair in total cost £10 for the tools. £55 for the wheel.

Went for a ride up the canal towpath toward Wolverton first day when the rain had stopped.

Everything worked perfect. Job done!

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Old Linslade to Stoke Hammond

I’m going to stick to moving every two weeks. I know on the Oxford most people make it 3, if they move at all. Most of the boaters I’ve talked to here tend to at least SAY they move every two weeks. There are people who just stay as long as they want, for whatever reason, but I’ve never been one of those. I used to drag it out a bit in the winter and when the weather was cold, simply because it was more convenient, and safer to stay put.

The weather isn’t that bad, and I don’t mind moving around.

The new place I’m in is called Stoke Hammond. It’s over the border from Bedfordshire. I’m now in Buckinghamshire! How exciting!

Mobile signal is slightly more consistent with 5G speeds. The village has a convience store, a post office, (in one shop), and a pub and church.

There’s a nice walk up a hill to a nearby village which commands view over the Vale of Aylesbury, which is where I am now, if you want to call it that.

This is what's know as the Vale of Aylesbury
This is what’s know as the Vale of Aylesbury

It’s called Brickhill. As you can see it’s got nice views.

Towpath and upkeep

Of the waterways.

Went to empty my waste and do some recycling as I went through the locks.

Overfilled bins
Is this all from boaters…. I don’t know….

I get the suspiscion that punters pull up in the pub car park, which adjoins, and dump their rubbish in these bins.

I know they used to do this at Long Buckby, on the Grand Union further up.

Pretty sure all this waste isn’t coming from boaters….

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