Busy bee.

Less blog posts usually means ive been doing more stuff. I have. Been pondering: i want to muck around with bigger/lower pressure tyres. To this end, i have ordered a 29er uma rim from speedway cycles, alaska. This, built onto a currently unused dt 240 i have sitting around (i know, i know) will allow an experiment in low pressure. How low? word is <20psi is possible in the dirt with the bead glued. We'll see.

Why? well, doing shenandoah again is the primary reason. The ti fork i recently received is beautiful. To look at and to ride. There is plenty of steering accuracy, with a subtle give afforded, i think primarily, to the crown arrangement. There is a little more offset than the pace to, to sharpen the steering a touch. Darren crisp has hit the nail squarely on the head with this one, and if anyone is looking for a forgiving, well made, light and beautiful rigid fork, id heartily recommend him. He is an artisan. But with shenandoah, the search is on for even more comfort. Indeed, i even mooted a bike frame for a suspension fork, or down tuning a reba or fox to 50mm travel to work with the non-suspension corrected geometry.



Once i get the wheel built ill decide.

What else~? riding...where? not telling. I reckon the trails im riding on at the moment are particularly sensitive to increased use. So, either you are reading this and know where i am riding, or you arent living anywhere near, or maybe you are reading this on a random. Whichever, all i can say is steep, slidey, tight trees and quick moves. Nice.



Leave has been organised from work and so far, bristol 12 and the worlds, and shenadoah are all on the cards. Kirroughtree is probable, and Chris and myself have some unfinished business to attend to in Knoydart. Then in may biff and myself are hitting the picos de europa in northern spain for some bikepacking/refuge stuff. Maps procured, and all i need is some time to look at them and start the mind wandering.

Also im in bike lust mode. As part of poking around at snow rims, i found this...9:zero:7. Built by merlin. snow bike and can be run with 29er fats too. Imagine....



Cooking. Trying a few new things. Pasta with italian wine, spicy sausage, venison and rosemary today in a tomato based sauce. Good. The other day i made a peach and southern comfort sticky goo, which i splooched over smokey, griddled meat and with a warming salsa boracho it was super. Along with this, rice, with cilantro, red pepper, green onions, peas and pineaple which had been griddled in kahlua. This is part of my january assault on veggies and carbos. I have a winter coat i need to lose.



Im also going to be doing another sports science project with esteemed andy cathcart. This time aerobic versus anaerobic sprints. Sir Chris hoy had better watch out, im comin'.



In the odd "i was looking back at you to see you looking back at me to see me looking back at you" files....we have this from arctic glass blogger and ghost trails author jill homer....