The Cycling Hippo

As well as having a few personal problems this month, we have had the heat and the rain. At one point, I felt that I would not do 500kms this month but somehow I ended on 921.06kms.
The Trek 7200 hybrid has been set up to my satisfaction and apart from a rack and panniers, it is now finished (famous last words!). I think my average speed seems to have improved after fitting the butterfly bars but am waiting for a ...

My main bike is a Trek 7200 hybrid; just over 12 months old and just over 7800kms on the clock. In a seach to make it an 'ideal' day tourer, I've made a few improvements; I'm one of those people who says 'If it works, don't fix it!' so all of the changes have be functional and not cosmetic.
The 'Before' picture.

This shows the original riser bars and the 'Grip Shift' gear levers. The risers are OK for ...

It’s been the hottest month of the year so far and my mileage is down on the two previous months. We have had Songkhran (Thai New Year) as well with the water throwing and during those three days, I managed to get out and back before the water games started.
I also managed to pop another spoke in the back wheel two days before the Songkhran holiday but had enough money on me to call into the LBS so that they could ...

It's been a funny old week here in Sunny Bangkok! The first three days we had not only the Thai New Year but also a state of emergency. In Thai, the new year festival is called 'Songkhran' but if you change the final 'n' to 'm', we get 'songkhram' which means 'war' so I guess we had songkhram in Songkhran!
I’ve cycled in most conditions but object to having buckets of water thrown over me so my rides over Songkhran were short to enable me to get back before the water throwing started. ...

I had a 'day off' on the 1st of March but was on the bike every other day in March. My lowest day's distance was on the 2nd (13.96 kms) when I was brought down by a motorbike at low speed; no damage to the bike, I had slight injuries to my right side.
Most of my trips were short because of the wind but did manage to do five over 60kms.
The strangest incident of the month was on the 25th when I heard a rhythmic ...