Yet more bleak Fens - the GPS still works, but complains

It is amazing how time flies, especially as you get older - it seems like no time at all since we were welcoming in the new year and new decade and already it is the last day of the month. My Garmin Edge 605 GPS still continues to work, but still complains about the low battery level. despite that it operates for 2.5 hours at least in recording mode and over 16 hours when just on - not bad for a low level of charge in the battery. I am not sure quite what to do next:

• it is either the battery charge level detection that has gone wrong or


• has a programming fault or the battery has a problem, say a drop in voltage but still capable of storing charge
  
  (which would throw the battery sensing circuit but could still allow the GPS unit to function - they are pretty tolerant of precise voltage levels)


• a loose cable from the battery to the battery monitoring circuitry.

If it continues to work I will probably do nothing - but the next step is to see how long it will continue to record data before turning off. I am also going to send an email to Garmin support and post a note on one of the Garmin forums.

I also need to replace the bottom bracket on my Marin. I am not sure how far I have cycled on the Marin Hybrid - but probably around 5,000Km/3,000miles. I am a little surprised that the bottom bracket has gone so soon - but the bike does take a lot of punishment when cycling on the farm tracks. When on rough ground I generally stand on the pedals using my legs to take the bouncing which puts load into the bearing. I am hoping it will last a little longer though and then I will replace the chain and rear cogs as well and put some new mudguards on. I want to avoid all of that before the worst of the winter is over.

We have not had any more snow, it is colder though. The weather report suggested +3 during the day and -2C during the night. As I type this it is 0C. Yesterday's sprinkling of snow has melted in most places but is still in evidence in the shade. They have also gritted the roads after the reports of a number of accidents yesterday.

Funnily enough what got me out was, everyone else had gone out and the need to check out the GPS. I set off later than I had wanted so stuck with a quick zip through the Fens, but I did try to take some different scenes. Here are the remnants of yesterday's snow.

I did cycle up along some of the droves - this is a picture overlooking Commissioners' Drain by Split Drove near Reach. The water level is quite high. despite it being a bit gloomy the clouds in the sky were nicely lit by the sun.

This track does not have a name on the map I am using - although it is a continuation of Headlake Drove - it has been well used by the farm vehicles and there was a lot of the peat mud on the road. It was quite tricky cycling on the road not sure whether it was slippery mud, ice, frozen rutted mud or potholes causing the bike to jink around. Nothing untoward happened though, except for getting thoroughly spattered by the mud - the bike got its fair share of mud as well.

This patch of water lies on the Washes near Upware - it is quite shallow and is the first to freeze.

Some more bleak ploughed fields, although the clouds looked ominous it stayed dry.

Behind this ploughed field is Fodder Fen with the River Cam behind. I liked the pastel skies behind the clump of trees.

After passing through Wicken Fen it was time to negotiate the Highland Cattle. There was a young calf on the track is I approached it shot of, startled by me cycling by. Fortunately his mother did not see any need to chase me. If you look closely you can see mud all over the bike.

The skies were nicely reflected by Burwell Lode -these walkers on the bridge stayed fairly still as my camera took the seven pictures for the software to combine. It was still so the reflections of the clouds stand out.

Yesterday I saw a deer as I was passing down towards Burwell - it stayed still long enough for me to get my camera out and take its picture as it walked away. I saw another deer today, but was not quick enough to take its picture so yesterdays deer will have to do.

Once again my toes were like blocks of ice so the bike will have to wait until tomorrow for its hose down!

Gadgets - huh! Cold days and clear skies

It had to happen, no sooner had I mentioned that my Garmin EDGE 605 GPS was great and it has started playing up. The first problem is one I have gotten used to - it starts reporting memory full errors, even when there is a fair amount of memory free. I then generally delete the history of rides. As these are stored (and backed up) on my computer it is no big deal. Unfortunately my experience is that it only buys a short amount of time before reporting memory full errors again. At this point the work around is to do a power-on reset and re-enter various settings (metric, auto stop start, record every second...) and it is fine again. This problem has been around for quite a few revisions of the OS (Operating System) and is still there on version 3.1 - the current one. I've given up hoping that they will fix it. I don't think I am the only one to rack up around 15 hours per week of cycling (54,000 data points) and so cause the thing to fall over. I ought to report it - but my experience of reporting problems is patchy and life is to short when there is a work-around.

The second problem is a new one. I normally charge the EDGE by leaving it connected to my computer after being plugged in to download data. Well one morning it reported that the battery level was low after a full nights charge. My first thought was maybe I have a problem with the USB port on my computer and tried it with the mains charger. It still refused to charge. At this point I was starting to get annoyed, the unit is around 16 months old - not much beyond its warranty period. Surely electronics kit like this should be good for a longer period.

The next step was to re-cycle the battery - it might possibly be the electronics that monitors the state of the battery that had gotten into the wrong state. So I left it on and disconnected from a charger - it lasted around 15 hours before turning off- hum not bad for a battery with no charge. I then connected it to my mains charger for 5 hours and it showed it was charging, but only ended up with a minuscule amount of charge. I then took it out in the car and let it run for an hour on and recording - it was fine. Hum it pints to a problem with the sensing of the charge level rather than the actual charge. I let it charge again and tried it out on a cycle ride.

It managed to record 3 hours of data - although it did report a low battery level after 30 minutes. I have since downloaded the data and it is fine. So I now wonder if it is a problem with a connection to the battery since it seems to take charge and will run the unit for some time - yet all the while report little battery charge. At this point I am going to try it out for a bit longer - it might be related to the latest version of the OS - 3.1 which I loaded at the end of last year - sometime in the first week of December. If it continues to fail than I might try a re-cycle of the battery again and after that the option has to be surgery.

I have been checking various websites and I will take it apart and check for loose wires and perhaps replace the battery - new ones seem to be available for around £10 - much less than the cost of a replacement Edge 605.

I have also bought a book on HTML and CSS - the wonders of Amazon and have been writing my own HTML and checking out the results. I am hoping that this will allow me to add richer content to this Blog - but so far it looks pretty straightforward. Although not a programmer I have used text markup languages - the first time around 1980, it was a program called ECCE. Edinburgh Context Compatible Editor - I think. They have not changed a whole lot in the intervening 30 years - the content has gotten richer though and the ways in which you call it a bit more sophisticated.

When I woke this morning my first though was - humm the mornings are getting brighter - my wife then, after peeping out of the curtains, told me it had snowed overnight. Although it was not a lot of snow, the roads around where I live had not been gritted and despite cars driving over them they were still white. The weather has turned quite cold and so the snow was not really melting. Fortunately it was also sunny today an despite the cold weather rather nice. We go a reminder of the dangers when we stopped at a set of traffic lights - just before we arrived a lorry had skidded on the back ice and knocked over one of the lights.

Although the roads were icy and there were reports of a lot of small accidents when I went out this afternoon the roads were ok for cycling along - with a little care. The skies were interesting with sun and cloud and some rich red colours as the sun set.

When they build the Connect 2 bridge over Swaffham Bulbeck Lode as part of the plan to develop my pedestrian//cycle/horse access to the fens the left behind some pools = which will over time develop into a wildlife habitat. Here is one of those pools under a dark brooding cloudy sky - mind you the sun shining in under the clouds was almost warm. You can see some of the sprinkling of snow we had on the edges of the pool.

Other parts of the sky were blue though with puffy clouds. This is a farm-track I sometimes cycle along - although not today - the puddles were frozen and the path itself still had snow on.

The fields had a dusting of snow, it was left in the ruts. I like this picture - a pity that there is the green splodge on the right - caused by some internal reflections in the lens.

A close-up of the field without the green splodge.

I have cycled past these buildings, near the Wicken Fen village many times and it was only when I was checking out a route by viewing it in Google earth that I saw a link to the building. It turns out to be a Farm, which offers Bed and Breakfast and is based around an Abbey founded around 1200 AD. A previous owner was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell There is more detail on the Spinney Abbey website.

The other side of Wicken Fen village are some electricity pylons marching down towards Burwell. I tried to show this as if the pylons were on the march down the footpath. You can see how the sky was already taking on an interesting colour - although the sun had not yet set.

The Lode at Wicken Fen - further up the lode had frozen.

A bridge over Burwell Lode - which features a lot in my pictures. Here the sun was nicely positioned to appear under the bridge.

The same aspect, but with more zoom. The sky was a nice mix of blue gradually changing into orange.

By the time I had reached Swaffham Bulbeck Lode the sky was turning pink.

It was dark before I got home and although it was not windy my toes felt frozen - it was great to soak in a hot bath.

Back up the route of the Cambridge Guided Busway - thawed?

For some reason I had decided that it had pretty much thawed here in the Flatlands - pretty much all the snow has gone in the garden and on the roads and paths. There is a sprinkling in the fields. So, ignoring the fact that the South West of England has had a load of traffic-disrupting snow and we were predicted to get light snow in Cambridge I thought I would check out the route of the Cambridge Guided Busway (CBG) again.

My goal was to make the entire journey without resorting to riding on the concrete "rails" and to take a few more pictures of the route. Unfortunately by the time I set of it had already started snowing again and was pretty gloomy - not good for photography. I wore some sunglasses - not for snow blindness - but to stop the snow flakes going into my eyes. It is pretty unpleasant and almost impossible to keep the affected eye open. There was also a bit of wind that increased the wind chill factor - so I wrapped up well, but my feet weren't looking forward to the ride too much.

This time around I managed to find the entrance to the CBG off Milton Road. The reason I had missed it before was because the cycle path goes under the old railway line and yes I missed the obvious. Actually it is not that easy to get to from when heading out of town. On the way it was also an opportunity to get a picture of the "new" pedestrian/cycleway bridge across the Cam known as Riverside bridge and opened in June 2008. (See Wikipedia for Cambridge Bridges.) One of its features is that it separates cycles from pedestrians on the span across the river and it also serves to block Riverside as a through road for cars. This part of the Cam has quite a few boats moored up. One of the occupants of one of the boats seems to repair bicycles.

The first bit of the path from Milton Road to Histon is very chunky - I believe that it will have a tarmac surface and so this is a temporary layer. It is quite hard work. Not surprisingly you see a few cyclists on the concrete tracks along here. I was also surprised at how much snow there was still on the path. It was not too bad, I did not have any traction problems and I did stick to the path and not resort to the concrete track. This part also seemed popular with dog walkers - I hope they pick up after their little "friends"!

On my way out past Histon I followed a couple of horse-riders - the surface was not too bad at first and they trotted along - not quite as fast as I would cycle but not too unpleasant. Their trotting speed was around 15Km/10mph. Mind you when they got to a more snow covered surface they had to slow right down. Who would want to be a horse carrying someone and having to walk on ice huh? It is clearly a popular place to ride along though.

Soon the Tripod came into view - this bit of the track was pretty much covered in snow - but not too bad for cycling. I do not think this bit is getting any tarmac - it is slightly easier to cycle on - but still energy sapping. The people of Cambridge will be glad to hear that work has re-started on the CGB after Christmas - I saw at least 5 or 6 gangs along different parts. One group at the Milton end working on the car-trap areas. Out in the sticks there was some work on a nearby path with stuff being loaded onto a lorry for removal. I also passed two guys fixing a fence. The track serves as a maintenance track as well as a route for cyclists/pedestrians/horse-riders The Contractors were always very careful when they went by me and invariably waved. It was a cold day to be working outside digging holes in the ground.

The Parish Church of St Andrew in Swavesey soon came into view. It occupies some slightly higher ground.

I was soon approaching the lakes of Fen Drayton. This was impassable the last time I cycled along here. I was determined to do better this time. As it was snowing some of the flooded parts of the track looked more solid and I cycled over them only to realise that I was cycling on a thin layer of snow on top of an unknown thickness of ice on top of an unknown thickness of water. I was not worried it would be dangerously deep - I was worried about falling off into the cold water though. I tended to cycle at the edge of the path.

It soon got to the point where I did not want to risk falling through the ice. In places maintenance vehicles had crunched up the ice and it had re-frozen, that was even harder to cycle on and not as thick either. I ended up cycling along the concrete track for the last bit into St Ives. Being a weekday I only passed a handful of people out dog-walking and bird-watching and the track itself was pretty much free of ice except for a bridge near St Ives. I was hoping to suss out how deep the tracks were flooded - I don't mind cycling through water, as long as the surface underneath is ok and the water is not too deep.

A google map of the area only shows lakes on one side of the track, a Google Satellite view shows lakes on both sides. The lakes were also partly frozen.

I cycled along the snow-covered path here - but you can see this bird-watcher in the distance took to the concrete track. It seems as if the paths are bound to flood as they are so low-lying. Wherever a path comes into the CBG from the side it is generally on higher ground.

I cycled along this bit as well, it was not too bad - the ice creaked once or twice and I did jump off onto the side at one point. As I mentioned not the end of the world to get wet - but it would have been unpleasant. I was wearing waterproof socks - but only just past my ankles. Thinking back I am very glad I did not have any problems as even without dipping my feet in they were frozen by the time I got home.

When the weather thaws out I must start putting together some circular routes returning back through the lakes. In fact I must try and cycle this route at least once a month and photograph the changes. Unless I find it too unpleasant when the buses start running - I am hoping it won't be too bad though.

Cycling after the Snow

At the moment in the UK the News bulletins are dominated by news of the icy temperatures and snow falls that we have been having. However here in the flatlands it has not been that snowy after the first sprinkle the other week. Although it has been quite cold - down to around -2C overnight there are parts of the UK which have been down to -156C apparently. So it feels as if the weather has passed us by. The schools are open, the roads aren't too bad - although there were reports of a multi-car accident on the M11 motorway near Stansted, which is not far away.

There was another bit of non-news - some more about the Cambridge Guided Busway appeared - to say that there is no fixed date for when it might be ready. The |Cambridge Evening News ran a piece - "Parties meet but no date for busway yet". It seems as if there is a stand-off between the Council and the Contractors. Each is suggesting the other has to commit to a date! Sigh - they seem to forget the ultimate customer in all of this - us the public.

This afternoon we got some more snow, I was not going to go out for a ride, there were other chores to be done, such as putting away the Christmas decorations for another year. But we had a bit of snow and then despite it being latish in the afternoon some clear, bright weather. I could not resist going out on my bike to check it out and carry on with my HDR experiments. (I am gathering pictures at the moment). I read the manual on my camera and set it to take 7 pictures of varying exposure when bracketing. Yesterday's experiments showed I was too conservative in my range of exposures.

Snow is not too bad to cycle on, it is the ice underneath that is the problem and oh yes, the ridges left by other vehicles as they plough though. Here is White Fen Droveway turns into Sandy Road on a bit of the Connect2 program for these parts. This is not a through road for motorised vehicles and so there are not many vehicle tracks. I cycled down the middle of the snow - which was around 1"/2.5cm thick - there is a soft scrunching sound when cycling through new snow, every now and then I would grab the back brake to see how slippy the surface really was. I tend to start of slow, then speed up, have a bit a of scare as the bike slides and slow down. Of course this repeats through the cycle ride. This picture was taken , along with the same scene with different exposures for my HDR experiments - so far I have managed to create a rather blurry picture far worse than the average exposure.

The fields were also covered in a thin layer of snow along with the country roads. The main roads were pretty clear though. I did find myself avoiding the cycle path when there was a choice between a snowy cycle path and a clear piece of road.

Another picture taken for experimental purposes. I wanted to be able to show the dramatic sky along with the white snow and drainage ditch.

Headlake Drove - although this is really only used by farm vehicles there were tracks on the road - the challenge is that this road is not at all flat and there are dips were puddles and mud congregate. This makes cycling a form of lucky dip when there is a covering of snow. It is probably good for improving bike control though.

Baker's Fen - another subject for the HDR experiments - although don't hold your breath on this.

I returned along more major roads - at night the bike lights bleach out the snow and the road and make it hard to see what you are cycling along. I did skid up to a junction in Burwell as the road surface was covered in a layer of black ice. I managed to steer into the skid and then steer the bike over some untouched snow which gave enough traction to slow the bike down without me having to jump off.

I also find that I cycle slower in the snow - and I tense up more, my stomach muscles "knew" they had been out riding today - which is most unusual. Another side effect of going more slowly is that I get colder (because I generate less heat). My feet were frozen by the time I got home and even my fingertips were tingling.