It’s Saturday afternoon (or it was when I wrote this) and my half-term break from social media (see previous post) encouraged me to get back out on Dale, the Cannondale… He’s been shamelessly inactive in recent months but this final week in February has finally seen some action! Nothing too adventurous; a ride to the heights of the Pennines at Buckstones, another to and from Halifax, a couple of cycles to see family in nearby Elland and then today, a train/cycle trip to Saltaire to pick him up after his post-purchase service at All Terrain Cycles at Salts Mill. Here he is in a rather wet Lister Park…

…and the observant amongst you will notice that, in addition to some nice mud, he has inherited Reggie’s Crane bell, a sign that when it comes to riding out for the day, Dale is my current bike of preference. Note also the rear bag which I bought today. It’s a Topeak ‘DynaPack’ and can carry up to 4.5kg according to the packaging. Bearing in mind that its capacity is 4 litres, you’d have to find something fairly dense to put strain on the ‘QuickClick’ clamp. That’s certainly not going to be my wallet after paying nearly 50 quid for the pleasure of calling it my own. The bike shop wins again…

Note: The Brooks saddle was an earlier purchase after finding the standard Cannondale saddle too painful for words.