On biking to a different metric

 It would appear I am a distracted twit.

I had mislaid my bike computer and rather than get stressed about finding it on Friday evening, I arranged to borrow the identical one I had given to Désirée a few years back. When I got to North Hatley, Mummy gave it to me and I carefully, or in fact not so carefully, set it to my tire size. Not so carefully as I managed to reset the whole thing from zero.

The next morning, Mummy and I set off from Coaticook. I decided to get my tires pumped up which took a few minutes so Mummy had a head start. After climbing out of Coaticook, I pedalled along the country road taking in the views and sunshine. I looked down and was surprised to find that I was only going in the teens which didn't fell right at all. I pushed a bit more and I still was going slowly for the effort I was putting in. Even in a slight downhill, I wasn't going much above 20. Something was wrong. When, I caught up with Mummy, I asked her how many kilometers she had gone so far. She said about 6. My computer said about 4. Clearly, something was off. My immediate suspicion was that I had entered the size of my wheel as 214 rather than 314. I would have adjusted the tire setting but I didn't have the right tool to hand. It was only a half hour later when I stopped at a dépanneur for some ice tea, that I could borrow a pen and set the computer to 700 which should have made the computer give the proper readings. 

It didn't. I worried that I was seriously out of shape or that there was something wrong with Victor von Fleddermoose which causing drag. 

As I approached East Hereford, I stopped for a break. A thought struck me. I took off my sunglasses and put on my reading glasses and closely inspected the various modes of the bike computer. It was measuring distance in miles, not kilometers! Boy, did I feel sheepish.

The rest of day went better, though it was a bit tricky to judge where I was at in the route as I am not used to traveling in miles, so I wasn't sure just how fast I was going. 

It was a warm humid day and the hills were rather trying. Mummy opted for a shorter version of "only" 88.54 km, avg 15.6, max 48.1.  My numbers were 65.99 miles, average speed of 12.3 mph with a maximum of 36.8 mph. Translated into metric 106.1 km, average 19.8 km/h, 59.2 km/h max.

On an only semi-related note, biking in rural areas, I often wonder what the dynamic behind the agricultural signs are. That is, the signs on the edge of fields which say "Pioneer W188535" or similar. I believe that they are there to indicate what brand, species and variety of seeds have been sown in the field, but to what purpose? Are they there to advertise to other farmers? Do other farmers pay attention? And who gets what out of the deal? 

Furthermore, there was one sign that seemed very odd:

 "Dagon" is clearly a brand or variety. But why say "blé panifiable"? "Panifiable" means you can make bread out of it, though Google Translate gives the phrase the translation of "bread wheat". Surely you can make bread about just about any kind of wheat?