I guess my new sunglasses are still a bit confused about how to act. It's like a newborn baby that needs to get acquinted with day- and nightcycles. They scream SUMMER all over with their dark shade lenses, yet nature decides different...
Just this week, I got the privilige of meeting with my new glasses: the BBB optiview PH with photocromatic lenses and a removable inlay for prescription lenses. I wanted simple looking glasses with transparent photocromatic lenses. I'd seent this model on the Velofollies fair in Kortrijk last January, but buying some turned out to be a real quest. Some stores did not run this optiview series, others were sold out, so I turned to the online market soon after. Spying on some websites of neighbouring countries I learned that belgian stores were the most expensive BBB dealers. Where I would have paid 140 euro for the glasses in any belgian store, the price decreased up to 50% in Germany and UK. In the end, I bought it with rose.de, with a discount of 80 euro... I have a visit planned with the optician tomorrow, to have the prescription lenses made. So in a short while, I will be able again to recognize waving people on my rides :)
Anyway, the photocromatic lenses work perfectly, turning black or transparent in approximately 12 seconds (not the 8 like in the add) according to weather conditions. Just what I needed.
A true snowstorm has passed over Belgium last two nights, covering all in a thick layer of snowy white stuffing. I've truely never seen that much snow in Belgium in my whole 31 years of existence.
Last night was still easy to ride with the Kettwiesel. I suffered a tad bit of a cold bum, since my bike was snowed in in the cycle shed. The glasses also proved excellent eye shelter for snow and ice storms.
Sound reason for bad brake behaviour
This morning though, I experienced a whole new level of power training. It was like riding on a sandy beach. The summer feeling was long gone though. I had to stop over several times because traffic was jamming behind me as I rode the middle of the streets where the soft snow turned hard the most or because I simply got stuck in up to 40 cms of snow.
The main part of my 12 km commute, I could ride the Kettwiesel, but after a good slope downwards in Moorslede, the snow was piled up high again where the road started to ascend. So I had to walk the last 2 kms. When I could, I walked the roads, but due to traffic, I also had to labor through half a meter of snow on the sidewalks. If my fat rate has not decreased tonight, I don't know what else I can do the lower it.... I guess I'll just smash the scale, because surely, somethings seriously wrong with it.
It was only in the last part that I thought about the spiked tires we have at home. Originally bought for the Quest, but also fitted for my Kettwiesel. I should have just returned home this morning and put them on.
Anyway, I enjoyed the ride this morning. It was one hell of a commute, arriving with shaky legs from the efforts, but nature is at its best right now. Covered in a beautiful blanket turning all peacefull and quiet.
icicle monsters!
Neighbours plowing through the snow
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