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12-04-20 | 05:10 AM

#16

Geepig

Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2020

Posts: 745

Likes: 206

From: Eastern Poland

Bikes: Romet Jubilat x 4, Wigry x 1, Turing x 1

And so I continue to procrastinate.

Procrastination generates continued bad press from lazy gits. As an editor I get to read all kinds of interesting research, and some of the currently most relevant relates to the need for schools and universities to run courses online, where the time some teachers normally wasted on commuting they now spend on research, analysis and report writing. Anyway, it turns out that when a task is set online with a deadline the first people to finish are those who will get good grades, followed the middle runners who now have to contend with writing something that the front-runners had not already covered, and finally the just-in-timers, most of whom are the kind of people heading for a fail - and yet among them are the outliers who have spent the time turning over the problem consciously and subconsciously, and hence typically produce the most original work. Procrastination is thinking time, often confused with laziness or indecision by people so set on the goal that they miss the field. Think about it, why would we need a word like procrastination to cover laziness and indecision when we already have such great words for them?

Anyway, not too far away from where we live is a large wood with the exciting name of 'Stary Bór', or 'old forest'. It is not that large, and yet large enough for a lot of people to spend all day in the never-ending search for mushrooms (a national pastime) or just an hour or so jogging. Mostly flattish, with a minor slope up from the river to the east, bounded on two sides by the railway lines to Kraśnik and Warsaw, it is cut through by a grid of straight tracks to allow easy management of the timber This also makes it easy enough for me to navigate without much effort, although my wife, a city girl, finds the lack of track names at the junctions a bit inconvenient. In the slightly upper northwestern corner it becomes delightfully gullied as it approaches the Warsaw line and the lovely little valley on the other side of the tracks, with the paths tending to wander and the (even) sandier soil encouraging the growth of trees with little in the way of undergrowth. This makes it popular for joggers, walkers, kids and summer weekend MTB riders, while for the latter many trails feature regular felled trees as riding challenges. The two sides of the wood that fail to feature railways open out onto undulating fields, where corn sways in the warmer months and I can disappear to explore almost empty roads and field lanes.

Definitely my kind of area.

While I like to live on my wheels, wifie loves a spot of Nordic walking. When I say Nordic Walking please do not confuse it with Nordic Dragging, popular among older ladies looking for an excuse (I do not know why they need one) to go out for a walk. She is fast with those sticks, but not as fast as Tigger, so I have plenty of time to enjoy the treescape, disappear down side tracks and try out any other challenges I find along the way. Not all of the latter, of course, as me falling off a bike these days is like dropping a sack of wrenches, but much more painful. It also makes sense to undertake the more interesting ones when wifie is not looking; not that she is a particular control freak, but it breaks her heart if I get hurt.There is even more to see than trees, trains and mushroom pickers, because not so far away there is a small airfield for sporting enthusiasts, where every weekend there is gliding and parachuting, both of which involve the use of Russian Antonov AN-2 biplanes. You know when they are flying because you can hear the distinct beat of the nine cylinder radial engines as they fly low overhead. Who today gets to regularly enjoy a biplane drifting across the sky?

We folded the back seats down in the car, placed a rug in there, then folded Tigger and slipped it in as well. Maybe for Christmas I ought to invest 100 zloty in a canvas bag designed to fit and carry the slightly smaller Romet Wigry? Or maybe I should make my own? I had to take a 13mm spanner with me for the steering stem because I still need to order/find the kind of lever nut they commonly fitted on older models. Only for the steering, though, as the seat is normally in the lowest position anyway, a la BMX. I realised as we struggled to keep each half of the frame and a wayward front wheel together that some kind of strap would have been in order. I do have a pair of bungee straps somewhere that should do for now, but something smaller and less elastic would be nice, ideally that could be clipped on with one hand. Overall, it didn't take up much room in the car, which was pleasing as when we go on trips these days we put all our stuff in large beach bags instead of suitcases. Beach bags are very good if you travel a lot by car and do not need a suit with you, as you can easily sort which stuff you want to take up to your room and leave everything else in the car, and then if your room is tight on storage you just plonk the bag down on a chair or table and use it as your wardrobe. If we chucked a light rug over the bike, the bags could sit on top of it, without any rubbing or bumping noises.Maybe instead of a carrying bag I should be considering folding pedals?

There is just so much to procrastinate over.

Me with Tigger beside our car, Me with Tigger against a background of spoil from the rail track upgrades going on further in the background.
A short drive and we were there, with plenty of parking available in front of some nearby allotments. Tigger only took moments to unfurl, and then we were off, the bumpy entrance road to the parking now seeming smooth and merely undulating. What fun! One of the reasons for choosing the forest is that many of the tracks through it have been strengthened with grit or small rocks, which is excellent terrain for wifie's Nordic walking as well as Tigger on its road tires. I have been riding around our block and the local roads and car parks almost everyday since getting the wheels back on, experimenting with things like seat and handlebar height, but this was the first time off road. It did tend to spin the rear wheel on loose gravel and slide sideways sideways on steep and muddy cambers, but otherwise everything was fine.

More than fine, as small wheels and a short wheelbase make for ideal turning on narrow tracks, although using a coaster brake hub is an art in not back-pedalling unintentionally mid-maneuver. At one point I did get a wet foot when I accidentally stopped by back pedalling while attempting to ride between ruts, but other than that everything was as good as I could imagine it to be. As we were in the forest we did not have to wear masks, so when we were not passing other people I could pull mine down and help prevent my glasses from steaming up.

As the morning wore on I navigated us along a muddy track that took us straight toward a largely unsurfaced lane that runs along one side of Stary Bór, confusingly also called Stary Bór, and not far from the homestead of our niece's babcia, or grandma. She does not get to see many people now she is retired, and the pandemic does not help, and often she might only see her son and a neighbour throughout the day. She was therefore pleased to see us, and supplied us with food and tea while I showed her how to use her new food mixer. Her cottage is wooden, as is her barn, while her current problem is unwelcome visits from wild pigs that sleep deep in the forest by day, then get into her garden by night to 'pork' on whatever they can uproot. And they know everything worth knowing about uprooting.

After we had greeted the neighbour’s dog and investigated the collection of bicycles sheltering in the barn, we had to bid farewell, take our bicycle/sticks and set off along Stary Bór, alongside Stary Bór, past the cottages of other residents of this quiet corner of the city, until we arrived back at the car, tired but very pleased.
#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska