Red Wine Lips.

I've been after one of these bad boys ever since my Italian friend used one on a mountain biking trip a few years ago. It seemed a complicated and potentially dangerous way to make coffee.

But that was before I became a coffee snob...

red lorry, yellow lorry

kaffenback and bob yak

Come play with me.

The last few years of my life* reduced to four and a half minutes.

*I should point out that there are a few sets of event photos in there where I have taken pictures of all the riders in an event. I'm not so nuts for people in lycra and pointy hats...

we'll see to that cuz we hate you

full-screen please people...

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

The Chap - We'll See To Your Breakdown from Lo+LOAF TV on Vimeo.

That's Playing At The Wrong Speed.

the sun sets on what was one what was a fairly average day at work, that was book-ended by bike rides under staggeringly beautiful skies.

Let the boys all sing and let the boys all shout for tomorrow..

A cold commute on the Raleigh. Rob brakes suit the icy conditions as there is no chance of ever locking a wheel with them.

One of the most beautiful mornings ever though. Constantly changing colours in the sky. It set me wondering, why don't more people commute by bicycle?

Boing Boom Tschak

The full moon sets over Cropston reservoir.
Reason #594 why I ride a bike to work...

More news from Leicester Critical Mass...

Critical Mass Leicester brings you…

Comical Mass

January 28th, 2011

The final 3 months of 2010 saw the birth and first tentative steps of Leicester Critical Mass. But by our second ride we were already the second largest Critical Mass ride in Britain with more than 120 riders.

If you've missed out, Critical Mass is a celebration of cycling. It is a way for the bike riding folk of Leicester and the Shire to show that there is an alternative to the car in our city and so on the last Friday of each month we ride from Curve for 3-4 miles around town, enjoying the safety that a large group brings. We show the city that bikes are traffic too.

The level of support we have received from not only pedestrians and other cyclists, but motorists alike has been staggering. The friendly waves, the smiles and positive press have all shown that we're onto something special here. The city is ready for change.

You don't have to be a cyclist to join us. If you own a bike, enjoy the freedom that giving up the car and riding instead gives you then come along.
We've themed each ride so far. October had a hallowe'en theme and was the Monster Mass. November's Mass'Tache raised awareness for the Movember prostate cancer appeal and December saw santas, angels and elves celebrate Christ-Mass.

We have big plans for the rides this year and aim to make it the biggest in the UK and with the friendliness, good nature and positivity we enjoy on our rides, there's no reason why we shouldn't. What better way to continue this two-wheeled charm offensive than by celebrating Comical Mass to tie in with the 18th birthday of the Leicester Comedy Festival. The festival begins a few days after January's Critical Mass and will feature over 350 shows at 50 venues across the city and county.
Festival director Geoff Rowe is very supportive of the Comical Mass and says
“It’s great that we can help support the brilliant Critical Mass and tie it in with our 18th birthday celebrations. The Leicester Comedy Festival has developed and grown over the last 18 years exactly because of the involvement of loads of groups and organisations across the county. We’re working on various ways to lower the carbon footprint of the festival and I hope that we can work closer with critical mass in future years.

Over Christmas, I took my bike out of the shed and plan to use it more throughout the year. I may even make the comical mass on the 28th January. Unless it rains. In which case I’ll be sat in a warm dry place.”

So join us at Curve (Orton Square, LE1 1SB) at 6pm on Friday 28th January and come dressed as your favourite funny-person and join the fastest growing social cycling group there is...
Prizes for the biggest clowns!
For more information search for Critical Mass Leicester on Facebook and http://www.comedy-festival.co.uk/

One Way or Another II

Taken on the way back from a chat about getting involved in organising the Bike Film Festival in August.
It sounds a really exciting project. That weekend will be massive. A band and some cycling films on Thursday. Critical Mass on Friday, followed by some cycling films.
Saturday sees our club's open 10TT event, followed by some cycling films. Sunday is SKYride in Leicester, followed by some cycling films...

One Way or Another...

They get to sit in a queue. I get to ride 20 miles.

Monday morning will always be miserable.

But to varying degrees...

Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure.
That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.
The Rider - Tim Krabbe.

I'll try to remember this on my rides in this week...

Rice Boy Sleeps

Monday morning on my first commute of the year. There was less light than this picture shows...

Get ready to shield yourself from the night of the lotus eaters.

Last year (2010) was one of the best I ever had for adventure. Some of these were multi-day trips into wild areas while others were microadventures such as simply walking to work, going somewhere new for breakfast or even sleeping in the garden.
I've gone on about the reasons for doing these things and what it adds to my life. I've also explained the inspiration that Alastair Humphreys has given me.
Well, the reason I'm directing you over to his site again is to share his manifesto for 2011. Have a read and see what you think and check out your Death Clock...

Sit right down my wicked son and let me tell you a story...

My first ride of 2011 was another adventure through the snow and ice of Central Poland. It was a beautiful, crisp morning with a solar eclipse to see me off. Compared to last week's ride in -8 Celsius, today's -3 was positively balmy...

The roads are suffering from a couple of months of a snow, thaw, freeze cycle that just builds up layer upon layer of ice. Imagine this in the UK? People would be writing to their MP.

There seem to be plenty of marked cycle routes in the area. I just need to find a map showing where they go...

Time to get off and walk...

Most of the pictures that have been taken for this blog and a few I've had published in magazines have been taken with my Panasonic Lumix FX-35. I knew carrying it in my hip pocket was a bad a idea and sure enough, when I came off on the ice a few miles into the ride, I landed full on it. The case and screen are scratched and the Crumpler case has yet more battle scars, but the camera still seems to work. In fact, all of the picture in this post (apart from the last one obviously) were taken after I dropped 85 kilos onto it.
The route on Bikely.com.

Linger on your pale blue eyes...

After New Year's eve in Wrocław we spent the first few days of the New Year in Janské Lázně in the Czech Republic.


It was one hell of a party with 10,000 people in the beautiful square to see the best in Polish pop before Ace Of Base finished things off (apparently. We'd already found sanctuary from the remorseless drivel a bar in a side street).
What no-one could complain about were the fireworks. Without doubt, the best I ever saw...


And so to Janské Lázně in the Krkonoše Mountains. It is a beautiful region. Nothing too steep or high, just rolling wooded hill-sides with pretty villages dotted around the valleys. It has cycle routes for both tourers and MTBs everywhere. I'd love to go back in the summer and explore.


The skiing on Černá Hora is nothing too difficult, even for an Englishman (as I can stand up on skis, I may be close to the British olympic team), but enough to keep us entertained for a couple of days.


The food is great. I could live (in fact I did) on two of the specialities, garlic soup with fried bread followed by Smažený sýr washed down with Gambrinus, all for a couple of quid. You've got to love countries who still don't have the Euro...


My favourite photograph of the trip was this one. It was taken next to the TV mast on top of Černá Hora. All civil works built in the Czech, such as this or an new motorway junction must have a portion of their budget set aside for a piece of art. This one is a mother and child shivering in the elements...