Mark Szeliga Szolkowski's Blog

Tonight (yes, in the dark) I did a 7.1 mile round trip in the C5, to my Dad's and back. I wasn't getting great mileage out of the battery (a Halfords HB015) so this morning I bought a Numax L85 (Leisure, 85Ah) battery and ordered a wiring kit from Chris at C5Alive. However, I took the old battery out and checked the contacts which seemed OK (not corroded), so put it back together, and things seem better. Perhaps the contacts on the battery posts were a bit loose, leading to higher resistance and therefore a shorter battery life. Last night I was only getting half a mile before both green LEDs were out, but it was about 5 tonight.

Here are some highlights of the trip:

• Cycling uphill for the first time; downhill was pretty good though


• Crossing the main A56 road


• Negotiating half a mile of speed bumps (each way), and holding up plenty of cars in the process


• Being heckled by a gang of teenage lads outside an off-licence, asking for a go


• Turning right off a main road, and watching a mother and child grinning and pointing while in a car waiting to pull out


• Nearly having a car turn across my path


• Cars beeping and waving


• Wing mirror falling off going through a potholed section of road


• Gang of kids coming out of a church shouting, "I want one of those!"


• Gang of teenage girls asking me to stop so they could take photos with their mobile phones. One shouted, "See you, sexy!" - and I think she was talking to the C5...


• Being seen by one of my students! A rufty tufty rugby player type with two of his mates, one of whom shouted, "What the hell's going on?" when he saw the C5. I replied, "UFO". The student looked mortified, so I didn't say hello :-)

Those LED bulbs are cool - my Dad said he could see them from the other end of the road.