Handlebars, headset & bottom bracket.

Handlebars removed from the stem with a little persuasion.

 Bottom bracket and head set removed, apart from the fixed bearing cups. These will be cleaned and may be reused if not too worn or damaged. So far there seems to be little evidence of pitting, and no sign of cracks. If they look too worn it may be worth getting the local bike shop to extract the remaining fixtures and fit sealed bearing head set and bottom bracket.

My Go-To book, helpful words and plenty of pictures.

 

Never used a crank puller before.

 

Starting the strip down

 Still the handlebars, head set, pedals, cranks and bottom bracket to go. And the bell.

Somewhat neglected Dawes Galaxy.

In 1984 I bought a Dawes Galaxy. It served me very well, seeing two trips to France and many miles commuting across Bristol. It has now spent about 20 years in the back of the garage but I'm going to try and rebuild it. No promises; it may not work or (more probably) I might lack the skills. Current state as below.

Bike Hangar Test

A survey test on bike hangar provision in Devizes. Feel free to fill it in. Now removed and posted to the Cycle Friendly Devizes blog. 

Cargo Bike Survey Test

This wss a test survey for a possible cargo bike service in Devizes. Any responses in this test will be useful to see if it works, but will be disregarded in the final results. Now removed.

 

Figs

 

A good first crop of figs. I have three fig trees on the plot, all grown from small plants from a home wares shop. The largest is now over 6 feet tall and gives the most fruit, the other two are catching up. Figs are supposed to be grown with restricted roots to encourage fruit but these seem to do well as free range trees. The branches are starting to get crowded and will need a pruning after the crop is done.

Cycling Survey

This is a test run for a survey to assess local cycling demand; feel free to try it out, especially if you live in mid-Wiltshire. This will be pulled out and relaunched elsewhere after testing. 

 

Update........... the test survey has now been stood down. Thank you if you tried it out, this was a new venture and I'm pleased with how it is working so far.

Courgettes

Most of the plot is grass. The other bit has a few vegetables: today was a good day for courgettes.

Dragonfly.

This dragonfly flew past me when cycling by. It waited on a bush while I took a photograph.

Alton Barnes Airfield.

Alton Barnes was a wartime airfield although originally established as a relief landing ground in 1935. The remaining buildings are some gun posts, an air raid shelter and this building which housed the Link Trainer.

Blue

Painted blue and in the station yard.

Three wheeler

A whitemetal kit from the secondhand bits box at a model railway exhibition. It took a bit of bending and filing to get it to fit together.  It would look good in green, very good in red, but will probably end up blue. Probably a three wheeler Morgan F4.

Raspberry

The first raspberry crop from the allotment, and the resulting raspberry and elderflower granita.

Alton Barnes & Alton Priors

Two churches a short walk apart in the Vale of Pewsey. Alton Barnes church is Saxon but is still younger than the yew tree in the church yard. They are overlooked by the Alton Barnes White Horse.

Walks in the Vale of Pewsey.

Some walks in Pewsey Vale, to Knap Hill and Huish.

Blue Stilton

Blue Stilton from the market. Gentle, creamy and spreads like butter.

Lily

A picture from last year of Lily on a works train.

Progress with the station.

Progress with the station. Placing the buildings to decide the layout before starting on landscaping.