i'm a little teapot - in my la gazzetta della bici shirt.
31 May 2010
the welsh ride thing
a quick post with more words than pictures because i'm tired...
this weekend mike and i dipped our toe* into an event called the welsh ride thing. it is organised by a bloke called stuart who runs forest freeride in pennant, mid-wales.
what happens is that you pay some cash to the welsh air ambulance charity and send him an email. a month before the event, he sends you a list of 13 grid references.
your task is to visit as many of these as you can between 2pm on saturday afternoon and 2pm on bank holiday monday. you are encouraged to be self-sufficient, carrying bivvying kit, food, water etc on the bike. cunningly, each checkpoint lurks at the end of a decent bit of trail or a nice downhill. you pretty much can't fail to put together a decent ride between them.
*we dipped our toe because we both had commitments on bank holiday monday and so could only do one night.
as usual, my work/life/riding balance meant that i did very little preparation for the event. mike however, put all of this mountain leadership skills into action and came up with a fantastic ride, cutting out the thigh deep bogs and the worst of the river crossings (as it happened, saturday was so wet that river crossings and bogs would have made little difference).
it rained all the way to wales. and it rained all the way to the bothy on saturday night. the bothy was a real experience with some drunken mountain bothy association men getting a little over-friendly with us as we decided whether we should stay and brave their company or go and sleep outside in the rain. it was a close call...
we were quietly very grateful when some fellow riders turned up later on.
sunday was much better apart from a problem with my bike that i won't go into. we ended up covering 6 checkpoints and 100km in just less than 24 hours. people who were there for the duration covered over 200km and visited all checkpoints - chapeau to them!
it is a great event. the best thing about it being that you get out of it what you put in. stuart and dee were lovely people and i wish them luck with whatever they have planned next.
this weekend mike and i dipped our toe* into an event called the welsh ride thing. it is organised by a bloke called stuart who runs forest freeride in pennant, mid-wales.
what happens is that you pay some cash to the welsh air ambulance charity and send him an email. a month before the event, he sends you a list of 13 grid references.
your task is to visit as many of these as you can between 2pm on saturday afternoon and 2pm on bank holiday monday. you are encouraged to be self-sufficient, carrying bivvying kit, food, water etc on the bike. cunningly, each checkpoint lurks at the end of a decent bit of trail or a nice downhill. you pretty much can't fail to put together a decent ride between them.
*we dipped our toe because we both had commitments on bank holiday monday and so could only do one night.
as usual, my work/life/riding balance meant that i did very little preparation for the event. mike however, put all of this mountain leadership skills into action and came up with a fantastic ride, cutting out the thigh deep bogs and the worst of the river crossings (as it happened, saturday was so wet that river crossings and bogs would have made little difference).
it rained all the way to wales. and it rained all the way to the bothy on saturday night. the bothy was a real experience with some drunken mountain bothy association men getting a little over-friendly with us as we decided whether we should stay and brave their company or go and sleep outside in the rain. it was a close call...
we were quietly very grateful when some fellow riders turned up later on.
sunday was much better apart from a problem with my bike that i won't go into. we ended up covering 6 checkpoints and 100km in just less than 24 hours. people who were there for the duration covered over 200km and visited all checkpoints - chapeau to them!
it is a great event. the best thing about it being that you get out of it what you put in. stuart and dee were lovely people and i wish them luck with whatever they have planned next.
28 May 2010
(doin' the) boom boom
a couple of nice things in the post today.
massage oil from simon at la gazzetta della bici and a related jersey from the most excellent shutt velo rapide.
in other news, my newly built golden brown pompino was featured on the on-one website - strange to be called a. bicycle photographer and b. of placid casual...
finally, all the gear is now in the car ready to head to wales first thing to take part in the welsh ride thing.
praying for decent weather...
26 May 2010
lays me down with my mind she runs
the chainring bolts finally showed up today and i could finish the build of my latest project. it has a neat rear hub that switches between fixed and free just by pulling a ring around the sprocket.
can't wait to take it out next week...
24 May 2010
sad to say i must be on my way
catlike whisper plus - a review (of sorts)
i have a new helmet. having a new helmet is quite an event. i'll probably have it for the next 2 years or so and in that time do 18-20,000km in it. we'll go through hours of fun, pain, sunshine and rain together...
as you can see i've bought a catlike whisper plus. you'll know that even from a distance because nothing else looks quite like them. you may have seen king carlos and his cervelo team using them.
rather than the usual, angular vents and pointy back-end of modern helmets, the whisper plus has 39 rounded vents providing its unusual looks and massive air flow.
out of the box, two things struck me. firstly the light weight. i've read that 270g isn't as light as the class leaders. all i can tell you is that compared to the giro ionos that is replaces, it is noticeably lighter and that was by no means a heavyweight. the second is just how well finished it seems to be. the edges of the plastic cover are bonded perfectly to the polystyrene inner. the in-moulding process perfected.
the fit is very good too. the outer dimensions are much smaller than the ionos - less mushroomheaded - and it feels like it when you put it on. it seems that your head is in it rather than it being on your head (do you follow?).
initial set-up of the straps was done really quickly and easily although the straps don't sit quite as close to the face as others - maybe they'll mould into shape through the months of use.
in action, this helmet is all about ventilation. as i said earlier, the flow of air through the helmet is huge, so much so, that if you turn you head slightly when travelling at speed, you can hear the turbulence in it as the air can't travel in the straight lines that it wants to.
i hope i'll never find out if the crash protection rating is accurate, but for now i'll settle for great performance and PRO as fck looks.
i have a new helmet. having a new helmet is quite an event. i'll probably have it for the next 2 years or so and in that time do 18-20,000km in it. we'll go through hours of fun, pain, sunshine and rain together...
as you can see i've bought a catlike whisper plus. you'll know that even from a distance because nothing else looks quite like them. you may have seen king carlos and his cervelo team using them.
rather than the usual, angular vents and pointy back-end of modern helmets, the whisper plus has 39 rounded vents providing its unusual looks and massive air flow.
out of the box, two things struck me. firstly the light weight. i've read that 270g isn't as light as the class leaders. all i can tell you is that compared to the giro ionos that is replaces, it is noticeably lighter and that was by no means a heavyweight. the second is just how well finished it seems to be. the edges of the plastic cover are bonded perfectly to the polystyrene inner. the in-moulding process perfected.
the fit is very good too. the outer dimensions are much smaller than the ionos - less mushroomheaded - and it feels like it when you put it on. it seems that your head is in it rather than it being on your head (do you follow?).
initial set-up of the straps was done really quickly and easily although the straps don't sit quite as close to the face as others - maybe they'll mould into shape through the months of use.
in action, this helmet is all about ventilation. as i said earlier, the flow of air through the helmet is huge, so much so, that if you turn you head slightly when travelling at speed, you can hear the turbulence in it as the air can't travel in the straight lines that it wants to.
i hope i'll never find out if the crash protection rating is accurate, but for now i'll settle for great performance and PRO as fck looks.
22 May 2010
preaching the converted
most of the people who read my little blog probably already ride bikes. if you don't, this piece that i prepared as part of a bike to work event last year is especially for you...
do you remember that feeling of freedom you experienced when riding your bike when you were a kid? the feeling of the wind on your face and the road buzzing by beneath you, the smells of cut grass, warm tarmac and wild garlic drifting through the air? did you ever experience coming around a corner on your bike and seeing a fox or a deer by the road, with that split second of startled recognition as your eyes met? or maybe it was a beautiful sunset that you stopped and took the time to watch as the sky change colour from blue through orange and pink. did you ever ride you bicycle all the way across town, further than you’d ever gone before under your own power, exploring strange neighbourhoods as if you were on an expedition?
now here's cyclists' big secret: those aren’t just memories, you can have those experiences right now. we bicycle riders have many experiences such as these on a regular basis. all you have to do is get out there and ride your bicycle every day with an attitude of adventure. and there’s no better way to fit this in to your schedule than to ride your bike to work. what else could be simpler and provide such a huge payback in so many ways?
21 May 2010
this is a bright but haunted age...
a panda portrait from a couple of years ago - before i discovered more tasteful riding kit and the idea of colour co-ordination!
18 May 2010
hot summer, what a bummer
lovely morning this morning so i rode halfway to work with gosia and then headed for the hill for a quick workout on polly bott's lane.
that's the other colour scheme for la squadra/nonna's team kit
my new catlike whisper plus helmet. you either like the styling of them or you don't. i love them. we'll see how it feels on the bike in the morning...
17 May 2010
14 May 2010
number 35 in your festive fifty...
it's friday, it's been a long week and i have a big ride planned for tomorrow. so today's ride to work was a sedate affair on the pop.
unlike yesterday's trip....
13 May 2010
12 May 2010
the foxes desperately need a hero
chris newton on his way to victory in sunday's lincoln grand prix.
it is a fantastic event with 11 laps of an 8 mile circuit. this means that the riders are around every 20 minutes or so with fun and games up the 1 in 6 cobbled climb of michealgate.
some big names were riding and a massive crowd got close to the action - a little too close sometimes like the woman above...
more pictures here
11 May 2010
you don't see rabbits being walked down the street...
i first saw these over on simon's website and when i got a message from prendas saying that they had put a little extra in my latest order i secretly wished it would be one of these...
amazing the pleasure such a simple thing can bring...
oh and the shorts are great too!
27 years later - a photo project.
27 years later and i finally get another pearlescent white road bike.
simon, over at la gazzetta della bici was so taken by my picture showing what 27 years of growing
we'd like you to do something similar to that above. two pictures, one old, one up to date, ideally recreating the pose.
email them to me yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah@gmail.com or simon lagazzettadellabici@gmail.com and we'll post them up for all to see.
chapeau!
10 May 2010
shopping for kicks, got the weekend to get through
anyone who has spent more than 30 seconds on my blog, blip or flickr photostream will know that i have an on-one il pompino fixed gear. it is the best bike i have ever owned and the thing i have wasted more pixels on than anything else.
well listeners, there has been a development. being assembled right now in our shed is another pompino. this one is metallic chocolate brown and is being built up as a 63inch geared, fixed off-road machine.
oh, and it has a gold groupset!
lots more to come...
6 May 2010
5 May 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)