To Voucher Or Not To Voucher - That Is The Question

I got an email yesterday.
Decathlon reminding me that I have a voucher that is about to expire.
Given that today is the last day of the month, I guess the exoiry date will be today!

Hmm.
Whether to redeem or not?

Question 1: Trust.
This is always the biggie for dealing with folks and companies!
What do I think of Decathlon?
Do I think they sell great stuff, or junk?

I Went Quiet - What I Have Been Up To?

I've mostly been writing on my my sports-orientated blog.
That andd I fell off my bike, breaking my shoulder blade/

So here is a little list of article there, in case you are interested:

A running footpod (clips onto you running shoes to measure cadence)
Compatability worries about Ant+ sports tech?
The relative importance of power and aerodynamics in cycling
Review of my (cycling) turbo trainer
Four cheap ways to lose weight from your bicycle
Fitting short - really short - cranks to my bike
My favourite Training Peaks features
Training tips, with the case study of a real 100km (62 mile) ride
Why I don't own a "proper" road bike
My 2017 training plan, and training tips
Issues with chainline
My big bike crash (I broke my shoulder blade)
The importance of "rest" days
Editing activities in Training Peaks
Setting custom zones in Training Peaks
A review of my cycling year - 2016
My progress since the crash

So I've been quite busy, really!

Short Crank Database

Hi.
Today I'm going to talk about short cranks.

There are lots of reasons why folks want shorter-than-normal cranks.

• some folks are petite - the 5 ft rider has shorter legs than the 6 ft rider!
• some folks ride TT, and shorter cranks allow a more aero position
• some folks have injuries - longer cranks result in a more acture knee angle

How short is short?
Just about every makers covers 170-175mm.
A great many cover 165mm cranks, too.
So I'm going to concentrate here on cranks of 160mm length or less
(btw, I'm currently running a 152mm crankset on my bike, even though I am 6 feet 3 inches tall!)

Getting Some Country Air

A nice little ride out to Quainton.
The "tower" is the remains of a windmill, and look like it has been converted into a tall, thin, circular, house.
(Must be fun putting shelves on the walls!)

Today's ride starts off with the infrastructure I mentioned a few days ago.
The route runs clockwise, and the long, straight line is "Sapphire Way", then "Pebble Way".
I continued on Pebble Way right through Stone to the very end of that cycle route, though.
(Map is a crop of the "Garmin Connect" map for the ride, and handily contains weather information!)

Infrastructure Showcase - Martin Dalby Way

Funny name for a road that no-one lives on.
Probably some local politician.
I tend not to remember them all.
Just the pro-cycling head of the county council :-)

On to Martin Dalby Way, then.

Here, we are going through Buckingham Park, a new housing development on the North of the town, built over the last 6 years or so.
For our purposes, this roundabout marks one end of Martin Dalby Way, but I am pretty sure the cartographers have it going for another 100 yards ro so to the right.
If you look carefully, just to the right of the tree in the centre of the picture is the wind turbine. More about that later.

Hoppy parked up at the top of Martin Dalby Way.
 To the right of the pic, just about the fence, you can see the turbine again.
The wide-angle setting of the camera makes it look smaller.
The dual use path is visible - as wide as a whole traffic lane on the road.

Zoomed in from the same position.
The largest onshore wind turbinr in the UK.
For scale, the height, including the blades, is about the same as the Empire State Building.
It never looks as big as it is, but it does that tall building thing where as you get closer, it doesn't get much bigger.
It is actually set back a good bit further from the road than it looks, and is clearly visible for miles around.

The white building is a new high school.
This is at the other end of Martin Dalby Way, where an extensive new housing development (known as "BerryFields") is taking place.
The crossing shown allows folks to get from the dual-use path to the school.
Although not mant folks are about on a cold Saturday lunchtime in December, quite a lot of young people use Martin Dalby Way to get from where they live in Buckingham Park to the new school.
The blue "dismount" sign is a bit of an oddity.
I am advised that it has no legal standing, and might as well say "eat more cheese".
Especially odd placement as the crossing is a special "mixed" crossing, where cycling is allowed.

Close up on the crossing controls, clearly showing it is a special "xyxling and pedestrian" crossing.
The different types of crossings have fancy names, and I think this type is a "Toucan" (perhaps a pun is intended).
But the names are just an extra - what matters is knowing how to use each type, and they are are pretty similar, except for the type of users expected to cross (some allow horse riders to cross, for example).

Same position as above, looking back up Martin Dalby Way in the direction we have already come.
For our purposes, that roundabout marks the end of Martin Dalby Way, but again I think the cartographers draw in another couple of hundreds of yards this side of the roundabout as having the same name.

Coming along adjacent to the roundabout, we see the turbine again ...

Here we are going up Martin Dalby Way. Between the two roundabouts, there is almost a mile-and-a-half of decent cycling/running/walking/whatever, with no side turnings!

Martin Dalby Way runs through a rural section between the two housing areas.
Urban, yet right next to rural, Aylesbury is a popular place to live.

Perhaps a clearer shopt of the giant turbine. Empire State Building, sized, remember.

Looking towards the top and Buckingham Park again.
The modest hill at the end adds to the challenge of this multi-user path as a training route.
Just go up and down it half a dozen times each way, and it'll soon toughen you up.

Looking back the other way, back to Berryfields, the low white building to the left is the new school, and the housing is the Berryfields housing area.
Martin Dalby Way is such a good training route that a number of runners sneaked past the builder's fences on some Sundays
(when the builder;s weren't there!) and started posting Strava segments on the route before it was even open for public access!