Cross

Cross season approaches all too rapidly. There are 15, count them 15!, races this year in scotland. Last night i did a bit of running....and soon ill slap the 38 tooth on the ro sham bo and twisters and that'll get me in a 60" gear anaerobic mess come october the 7th.

Rumour has it a skull and cross bikes on burns night, somewhere in kingdom of fife.

More on this sometime soon.

Conundrum

So, back home from pub and it seems someone took a liking to my vw front badge and so i have an empty grill on my car. Blah, blah im going to break the arms of people standing near my car/oh its just a car, it isn't important/ still feel like i want to kill, maim, destroy.....


And so it goes.

I'm not even that 'car proud', but i deeply, truly HATE people taking things that dont belong to them. So, balaclava and baseball bat....

Impediment

Got out for a ride today. No agenda, just enjoy it and bed in the cleaned EBB, re-installed cranks, and new stem. Wow! the body felt like it wasn't connected to the brain today. Poor technical riding, dreadfully high heart rate with multiple rest stops on the climbs and short lived power.

I'm either under the weather or i am unfit. Either are possibilities - it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks - but it needs turned around as all too soon, its cross season. This year there are 15 races and i'm hoping to hit as many as i can, and hit them running, too.

(Image is either steve m's or simon b's.....either way...thats me freezing my tits off after the first Skull and Cross Bikes race. When will round 3 be?)

Hayden

Congratulations to Holly and Buck on the arrival of Hayden. I can already see a mischievous glint in his eye! I hope Mom and Dad don't mind me using this picture.

Buff Ghandi

So, back to the real world, and back to the kettle bells. Helen Marie had me snatching and pressing 24kg today, amongst other torture. After a 2 week lay off it was a surprise i could even swing that, let alone snatch it (swing kettlebell from between legs, in a crouched position, snap hips and stand straight with kettle bell arcing infront of you, then coming to a stop as arm outstretched straight upwards ~ all in one fluid motion). To give you some indication that meaty chap there probably has a 20 or maybe a 24kg kettle bell in his hand...the biggest? well, that'd be 48 kg....eeep! Some way to go then.

Changes everything

I received the long awaited ti moots/ti open face plate stem through the post today. Perfecto....120mm length, 12 degree rise.

This is the result of falling out with my x4 stem, and being keen for a little more rise.

Its a nice piece of work, and complements the bike well. Of course the proof will be in the riding...which will be soon. I may remove 2mm spacer from under the stem, i may not.

The second pic is how the bike looks now. Since i first built it, the xtr bb is phil wood, changed out the moots for a kent eriksen post, removed some stickers, and went to the DT thru axle RWS system.

The latter rocks. Hard. The steering is so precise, whilst losing none of the suppleness of the pace fork, and the rear end feels like its 2" further towards me. Hard to believe it can all make so much difference.

Done? Probably. I can see some 35mm wide rims at some point in the future, maybe. We'll see. I'll have ago on Look's quartz pedals when they arrive too. Then i think its there...

Cog

Damo just left on his way to dismantle a bamboo structure in Strasbourg. Our good friend Damian is also having some bikes made under the name Cog bicycles, by renowned frame builder Ewen Gellie. Well worth checking out

See here.

He is also a super good bike packer. You may notice if you look close that there are 2 bikes in that box!

s s w c pictures.

I am going to try and keep an updated list of pictures of the s s w c, not least for my viewing pleasure.

The above picture is steve makin's. He has a super fine eye for a photo, and the technique to back it up...His photos are accessed on the flickr sswc group.

SSWC - rock n' roll circus

Its done.

A huge thank you to one and all.

I think it rocked.

Napa 2008. Go Curtis!