Evolution

Visited Ano Nuevo sanctuary the other day, just north west along the coast from santa cruz. The main thing there is elephant seals. These things grow to 5000lbs of blubber and are from the same stock as Grizzlies. And you can tell. When they fight to be alpha male they tear great big chunks out of each other. In an attenborough sense, its pretty amazing to watch. The babies pop out at a mere 90lbs and the mothers hold on to them only for 28 days or so and then ditch them. At this point they have to learn for themselves. They have however gained an immense amount of weight off mummies 50-60$ fat milk and despite being unable to swim, they have at this point a 50% survival chance for the coming year. Probably not bad in natures playground.

Other facts: mum can hold her breath for 2 hours and dive to 5000 feet below sea level. Thats a looooong way down...To do this she pumps all the air out of the lungs and reduces the heart rate from an average of 70bpm to 5, sort of sleeping every so often to keep organs at minimal requirement for blood. At the apex (?) of her dive she gobbles squid and sharks and such and then pops back to the surface.

Does it make you think that evolution is pushing itself pretty hard in some odd directions?

hmmmm.

Another new post

Took delivery of my Eriksen post today. Ti 400mm 27.2 and an exquisite mechanism for holding the rails...

So the IF gets a new on e and the moots gets slotted on to either the se7en or the ro sham bo, allowing the same saddle bar length on all 3 bikes and keeping me happy...

Kent and co were more than helpful and accommodating in geting me the post at the right time in the usa. If you need a dose of the grey metal, i'd suggest giving him a call.

Beer pucks and lena toast

Spent yesterday on a "no gears just beers" ride in the hills around santa cruz. The skin is holding together, and the slow, relaxed pace with frequent beer and vista stops was battery and soul recharging...mike's dog lena toast was the star of the show, finishing a mammoth 9 hour day cruising along side the bipeds on wheels with nary a complaint. Refuelled by 2 tacos i'm sure she could have run on through the night too...

Sanity Cruz

Welp. Got here, and having a quiet few days on account of being a bit stiff around he middle with the burns healing...but managed a wee pedal out on to the cliff top road with fine views of the wharf, the elephant seals, and the surfers who look kind of like seals dotted around the break...all good.

Found a good coffee spot, 2 good beer spots, some very interesting and lovely local folk, popped into the Santa Cruz factory and met a legend or 2 and today we are heading out to one of the nearer local parks.

I'm stocking up on americana bike parts...king cages, wtb 29er tyres, phil lubes and other oddities and just enjoying the time with my wife.

The rest and sea air seems to be doing the trick with the skin, and the constant lubing is keeping it from cracking so i have no doubt i'll get a proper ride in or 2 before the end of the fortnight.

The SSWC 07 announcement went down with the expected flurry of e mails and 'yays' so we're pretty stoked about that. Now a different sort of work will commence.

Trina is beginning to snap off some photos, with a new lens coming from B+H which should add a new dimension too, see her flickr linked through mine.

My Eriksen seat pin is en route, and oddly i am *just* going to miss Kent as he will be at the NAHBS which i'd love to see, but its just too close to the end of this trip...ach well, will wait for the photos...

Ok. we'd better hit highway 1 ...

There goes my hero

We all have a hero, more or less. At least i think we do. In different parts of our life i would think they could be different people too...Gandhi, dave grohl, Einstein, swamp thing etc etc.

In terms of bike racing my hero has to be travis brown.

Music collector, singlespeed racer, side burn grower, product developer and renaissance man.

4 am

No work for a week. No exercise for a week. Minimal movement from the house. Minimal movement in the house. Brain turning to mush. Awoke at 4am. Couldn't sleep and i am not tired. i'm not using any energy. i'm eating really well, lots of vitamins and minerals. It is all going well, the scars are healing. The itch is terrible but it is a small price to pay.

Watched kranked pregression. Kirt Voreis section was wonderful, Ryan Leech (although still gravity and physics defying) less so. Odd. Thought it would be the other way around...there you go...

Off to look at rOsHaMbO... think i'll still take it away, think i'll be able to ride soon...if slowly with no falling off whatsoever.

Over...

Spawn

Pretty sore today. i think my skin is at that stage where it is beginning to heal, but everytime i stand up or move it feels like it is splitting....not nice.

Still, it'll be fine, so no worries.

Been checking out this:

http://www.24hfinale.com/

It may be the chance to do a decent 24 solo...we'll see....

Solo

Over the last couple of years one of my distractions has been trying solo 24 hour races. They are as tough as you want them to be. You can go to bed, you can race in the daylight and dry only. Or you can tough it out to the level of your own pricipals.

A successful solo 24 hour *to me* is 24 + hours of racing, with no more than 30 min stopping, no sleeping, minimal sitting (yep) and ideally no support.

This is not a recipe for winning. It is not a recipe for everyone. However, it is what i aim for. Obviously as the last couple of years has shown, rain and foul conditions couped with none weatherproof courses (are there any other kind?) can easily scupper this paradigm.

At some point in my life (and that may well be this year, in Italy) i hope to squeeze out a decent performance. If i do, then i'm not sure i will rush to do many more. On the whole i prefer long rides which aren't many laps of a course i.e 100 mile races, and then moving to self supported bigger loops.

I am very much looking forward to watching this (if you don't have quicktime, try another). The battle between Gordon and Eatough was one i followed in real time via the internet and on the web and magazines after. Humbling, exhilarating and almost unbelievable physical performances by both men.

Strathpuffer ~ more!

Andy the vegan singlespeeder slapped down a massive 15 laps for 5th place solo...That man deserves a serious beer and a hand shake.

Fixing

It's been a day of fixing. Fixing me and fixing gadgets and fixing bike things. The early part of the morning was spent in Canniesburn burn unit at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. There, the dead surface layer of skin was peeled off my leg and hip and more bandaging layers applied. Everything seems to be beginning to heal, but i suspect my initial optmism of being back to work (and, soon after, riding) by the end of the week was a little, uh, optimistic. Still the wee chap is healing well, and lets face it thats all that matters.

After collecting a large bag of wrapping and spooching stuff, i got the tube home. Walking is not an option, either is driving and cycling is obviously out. So i jolted around and had everyone stare at my impressive limp (which is half from pain, and half from the amount of bandaging i need) and went home to inspect the remains of my bike. i popped the rear wheel out and pulled off the casette body, easily (one of the many benefits of DT hubs). Everything was a bit dirty but no issues/wear or roughness to the bearing. The axles feels a little dry in the hub. After a quick chat to the fountain of all bike knowledge that is honest, sensible and insightful (dave at alpinebikes) i will book the wheel in for a bearing check and re-grease. It feels fine, not gritty - just dry...dave reckons this may be from the grease getting melted out on the disc side from all the fruitless braking at Strathpuffer. He should know, we were team mates afterall.

The next thing needing my attention was my mp3 player. Unfortunately as often happens when a liberal dose of chaos and mud is mixed with 5 blokes in a camper van, my mp3 had got a bath in beer. Guess what? it wasn't working so well! so in a fit of confidence, i decided i'd strip the bugger and clean it out with isopropyl alcohol. Finding all the tiny screws Sony had used to hold the thing together was tricky, and there was the usual "oop! a bits dropped out, where the hell did that come from?" but it seems to work now, so i'm pretty stoked...

Tomorrow off to see my GP and explain myself...and prolly cabin fever.

Still...at least i'll heal.

Strathpuffer photos up

See Northsport: some good/some scary.

New post?

Out with the old, in with the new...













The Moots post will be gong on the Seven cross/road/thing. the in line Thomson just doesn't work with the h bars on the 120mm stem. A 130mm stem is too long, so there you go. the layback will give a nice position for singlespeeding as i prefer a slacker effective seatangle for transitioning between seated and standing climbing: lets you use different sets of muscles.

To replace it on the IF there will soon be a Kent Eriksen seatpost. same idea, better clamp design, and longer (400mm) so it'll have a little more supoort in the frame.

Of course a bit of tlc will have to be lavished to get the IF working after a fairly heinous Strathpuffer as mentioned. Certainly needs a brake strip and possibly new cables....yes, the Nokon seals were indeed insufficient against Scotland's worst...but to be fair, anything would have been other than hydraulic...

Strathpuffer suffer

Back from potentially the hardest 24 hour race in the ?world. January Scottish winter conditions. Moonless night. Technical course with 18 or so hours of darkness. It was excellent. We rode under the banner of team Singletrack Savalas. Team roster: Johnny Dangerous, Dave Macdonald, the Marquis of Darkness, and Enrico 'Jesus' Gonzales. We ripped, quite frankly, to a 7th place finish despite 20 hours of (heavy) rain, snow and hail. The course ate brake pads for breakfast: for us a set of sintered pads was lasting 2 laps. Granite grinding paste will do that. The mostly fireroad uphill gave way to a rocky and technical downhill which had exposed slabs to narrow bridges over ever filling streams with rocks like marshmallows in chocolate. Only harder. Much harder.

Our man Phil the horse, racing solo singlespeed, had an excellent start and then the reality of a stomach complaint, the battering weather and changing disc pads near every lap bit home. At the rate he was going I would have predicted a win for sure, but as is the way with 24 hour racing it is unpredictable.

There will no doubt be fuller information on Singletrack and the Strathpuffer website (see linkys to the right). Me? I'm nursing around 2 square feet of burn after a litre of coffee upturned into my lap due to stupidity and bad luck. A day in Raigmore A&E left me with a midriff of swaddling to soak up the exudate from the burns and peeing out of a hole cut into an extra from "the Mummy Returns". Ach well, its not as bad as it could have been...

Back in the day

This was it. From Yeti shorts to razor blades. Axos to bum bags. Wow.

Swobo

Got my new J mac knickers. They are indeed the 'bomb'. Wore them for the whole hogmanay period recently in Aviemore (except, oddly, when actually riding. And yes i did sleep in them).

If you are not reading 'how to avoid the bummer life', then you really, really ought to be.

Music week

From Gilles Peterson's epic 2 hour tribute to James Brown on the BBC's radio1 , to me finally tracking down a nd buying a copy of Ape vs Mo wax, it has been a week about music.

My personal listening has roamed freely between Slipknot to Depeche Mode, to The Roots.

Trina also finally purchased a speaker system which - through a transmitter which can be plugged into either a computer, stereo or an MP3 player - will produce good quality sound from a portable speaker (albeit one that has to be plugged into a power source, which is worth it for improved bass sound).

What else? working on 0UtCaSt stuff....issue 19 soon...

James Brown

There will never be another. Rest in peace.

The devil is in the details

And although she may wear Prada, she prolly weilds a set of vernier gauges too.

I went to change the aluminium blocks that hold the rails of the saddle and allow rotational adjustment on my Moots seatpin today. See, the rear sections had distorted around the saddle rails and I had wondered if I had, y'know, over torqued the bugger.




























After that tense, breath held moment of forcing open the top clamp area, I pushed in 2 similar clamps I had left over from an old Control Tech seat pin and which I had decided were the same thing.

Hah! Nope, one was, the other was not...see it seems the top half and the bottom half on the moots are not the same. One has a chamfered edge, the other not, one is narrower than the other also. The 2 from the control tech seatpin were both non-chamfered edge, and thus the overall diameter of the barrel thus formed holding the rails was greater than the originals. So, I sent another quiet 10minutes changing them back again.

Oh well.

Just a few things that have been going through my head recently

1) Dignity: Leaving rubbish around. Claiming you are something you are not. Stepping on others on the way up. Politicians lying. Only seeing what is right in front of your eyes, not the milieu it is part of. Poisoning our children's world. A lack of dignity in all.

2) Time: Too little of it spent with family, friends, self. Ignoring the personal development time known in Zen as 'mindfulness'. The seepage of time as your goals edge further away and deadlines creep closer.

3) Happiness: Is not directly correlated to money. Seemingly this has been proven by studies in the UK showing the National Wealth has more than doubled, yet people are less happy. Is the distribution even vaguely fair? Does gaining wealth beyond a certain point lead to an emptying of the soul? See point 1.

Winter coat

Despite the best intentions, I was always going to don the winter coat as the weather turns nasty and the food and alcohol began to pile up around my ears.

I niggling voice is asking me just what I want to do with next season. Do I want to race? If so what? And if so, how hard? Should I (gasp) train?

Lots of questions and as yet no answers. However, I did invest in some new running shoes. It was one of those afternoons and I just needed to run, but the only shoes I have are trail runners and they rip my ankles to shreds on the roads. So I popped by a running shop called Achilles Heel and got the full intro to running shoes and then tried out a few with the friendly, non pressurising staff. Got me a pair of Asics with an extra squishey sole. I am fortunate (I think) to have non pronating, wide feet so I don't tend to tip over. I am still unclear if this is the case when under the influence.

Anyways, put an hour of tarmac pounding into them and whaddayaknow? they are pretty soft and forgiving. Definitely a step up...(ha ha!)

The thing that I found out whilst embarking on the early season running was that my non generic ipod mp3 thing (made by sony) needs some way to attach to my person that does not utilise the finger and hair elastic method. This is not confidence inspiring and can lead to an mp3 player nasal passage interface if one is not careful. Fortunately, Santa was listening and I am the proud owner of a wee clippity thing which will attach said black box of rock to my chest.

In the past 48 hours I have slept 25 hours. It seems cooking crimbo tea is just too much for a softy like me, and I couldn't cope with the chef's specials all afternoon as I chopped and whisked. So more early nights and looking forward to hogmanay.

What are your plans for the coming 12 months?

Roasted

So we are cooking for crimbo this year. Me and trina and david (trina's bro). We decided on roast beef, as lets face it turkey is always a little dry and disappointing. Red meat also goes better with red wine, and that is the only thing that will save me from a Bloody Mary induced coma, so that is it.

It's been a steep learning curve tho'. We have never roasted anything but chicken and assorted fowl, so beef was a shocker. How hot? how long? how prepare? and how do you time the tatties and veggies.

I sort of felt that because of my chromosome arrangement I would have an innate ability to cook meat by roasting. I s'pose it should be the dowry with willies on shouldn't it? but having studied the usual texts I am faced with trial and error. Today's effort was passable. Not rare enough, too little oil on the bits and bobs in the roasting tray, but the Madeira gravy was good, if a little short on fat.

So: we are almost there, with no more practice runs and a 3kg block of Scotland's finest rolled sirloin to go...

Wish me luck.

Too much, too much

Several things:

Calderfest this last week end. Huge fun, huge riding, huge laughing, huge smiles.

I feel sure the tales will be spun for some time to come...

See flickr for photos: these borrowed from Makinster and Philipdiprose1974


























If you happen to be finishing off a wheel (like, say, my DT rim to DT hub....) and find there is a flat spot in the rim when you have got to the end of radial truing, I found this can be alleviated. Use a 2cm or so doweling and run it perpendicular between the spokes - stand on it, then pull with all your might upwards. At the point you feel you are about to pop out a hernia, you may have a round rim again, like the DT turned out.

Shaggy is a double world champion adventure racer after this week end. Check his blog. I'm sure he'll update when he wakes up. In the meantime, hardcore brah.

Calderfest also saw the first Skull and Cross bikes.

No rules, no entry just horrific weather, super hard course and a few very stalwart gentlemen.

Hardcore indeed.

S S W C 2 0 0 7

As you may well know, I am one of 3 who are organising sswc2007.

So, we put up a wee flag in the corner of the internet and called it our own.


sswc2007

More as soon as it happens.

Shine

Building another wheel. I found the front wheel I was using on my Seven road/cross/road thing was, lets say, less than smooth. the bearings were gubbed, and the axle was bent. Yep, bent. Anyone bent a front axle recently? weird. It was a deore hub, so no great loss.

I decided to build a lighter/better wheel for replacing it, and thanks to dave at Alpine Bikes, I picked up a DT RR 1.1 single eyelet front rim, and a DT 340 road front hub. Together with comp spokes and steel nips this should be a long lasting tough wheel.










The rim has been interesting to build with. I haven't built many wheels that have had anything other than mavic rims and there does seem to be differences in building 'experience'. How this translates into feel whilst riding and or durability I have yet to see.

So far the salsa delgado disc are holding up well, and the 29mm width is so good, allowing super floatation and low pressure. They were pretty malleable to build with which was quite nice, as they didn't seem to spring out of true when approaching final tweaks. The DT, somewhere inbetween I'd say.










I do have a dream wheel in me somewhere, and that is a DT 190 ceramic centreloc front with comps to a delgado with alloy nips. I know I can do it, and make it strong, but the consequences of screwing it up would be pretty har$h...

Speedgoat

Speedgoat is a shop in PA, USA. They have exceptional stock and excellent knowledge. They do a top website too, with a good blog-read-thing.

I am going to copy and paste one of their entries here, as it made me laugh out loud. I hope that isn't interwebrude, and I would encourage one and all to check it out every now and then...

TECH QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q: Number one, on a scale from one to ten how likely would you say it would be to taco this wheel? I ruined my front wheel on my Unit 29 3 days after getting it, and I want to get a new wheelset that I won`t have to worry about. I`ll take some added weight to get a set that is bomb-proof. I don`t really do anything too crazy, but I will be doing stairs and two-foot drops. Also, are the inside of the rims drilled or not? i.e.I want them to be tubeless ready. Thanks for the help.

A: The first part of your question would be completely ridiculous even if you had included your weight and all the other pertinent information necessary to begin to help you with this, but, as you haven`t included any of that information, and it`s very late at night as I`m answering this, I`m going to go ahead and fill in some details and then attempt to answer it.

For the sake of argument, assume these variables:

The "it" in your sentence is Lemmy from Motorhead, who weighs (for the sake of this example) 92.08 kilograms.

If Lemmy, traveling at a velocity of 34.4kph toward an elevation with an overall height of 4.8 meters consisting of steps with tread measurements of 30cm each and numbering in total five, were to be riding your Unit (not bloody likely Lemmy`d be on another guy`s unit, but you know, hypothetically here) equipped with Industry 9 All Mountain single-speed wheels purchased at Speedgoat, and built by a guy named Steve at Industry 9 on a Tuesday with high humidity and consisting of a rigid bicycle frame and fork manufactured of a steel-based alloy consisting of 0.31% carbon, 0.6% manganese, 0.9% chromium, 0.2% molybdenum, 0.04% phosphorus, 0.04% sulfur, and 0.3% silicon and welded with appropriate rod, not exceeding recommended temperatures, wearing an 859g fur costume depicting the character "Ren" from the Ren & Stimpy cartoon show and the 294g habit of a nun as protective headgear, were to impact said elevation in a body position that placed 43.4% of his weight forward of the bicycle`s bottom-bracket shell, and 56.6% of his weight behind the center of the bicycle`s bottom-bracket shell, I would estimate that the answer, using your system of 1-10, would be 6.

Obviously, though, the details matter.

Seriously, you are in danger of becoming lost in a wilderness somewhere between Mountain Bike Action and reality, and we must act quickly to save you! First, you need to experiment with tubeless setups about as much as you need to try snorkeling with that Kona. There is no consistently reliable tubeless system for 29er use (so, no, the i9 wheels aren`t made for tubeless) and conversions are strictly for the 145lb racer geek riding in a well groomed area--preferably indoors (see previous blogs about this). You do not appear to be said scrawny racer-boy, have roached at least one wheel already (albeit a factory-built wheel that wasn`t very strong), and do not want to experiment with lower air pressures. Did you know you can pinch flat your tire with no tubes in it? How about ripping it right off the rim when cornering? Then there`s the delirious joy of the burp, when a rock, impact, or just a corner rolls the edge of your tire just enough to send a delicate spray of liquid latex into the face of the guy behind you (not the bad part yet) and instantly drop your tire pressure down to a rock-crawly 5psi (the bad part).

So stick with tubes for now, and, if durability is your primary goal, get some Chris King hubs laced with 14/15 spokes and brass nipples (not alloy), 3-cross all around, to Sun Rhyno Lite 36-hole rims. You can build them in our Wheelbuilder.

That`s durable. But please also type "industry 9" into our blog`s search and you`ll see that I`m using these i9s on my rigid 29er single, and they kick ass. Ample rock garden use, and I`m 205lbs. Do I think you`ll bust them? I have absolutely no idea what you`re capable of, but are the i9s solid wheels based on what we can tell so far? Yep.

Sustrans

On Monday I cycled to Edinburgh and then back to Glasgow, on my trusty road rat. For the most part I used the National Cycling Network route 75. I have had a mixed time with the Sustrans routes. They make for interesting rides for the most part, and offer a good guide for long distance commuting (I had a *big* timbuk 2 of stuff to take with me and bring back) but they are exasperating sometimes too.

I lost the route a total of 5 times. Of these, I was able to re-find the route 3 times. Unfortunately, when it really mattered, after 9+ hours of riding with a heavy bag, on a 48:18 into the teeth of a very strong headwind (the weather was 'challenging' on Monday to say the least: the reason I had not run to the hills...) and I had been riding (with no lights as I had forgotten them) for 4 hours in total darkness.

It was very pleasant riding past Hillend Loch with a full moon, and then as I came into Airdrie, bam, the route came out onto a road in a new development of housing and it just disappeared. Obviously I didn't want to do the last 15+ miles on busy dual carriageways, in the heavy rain, with a gusting strong headwind and a heavy bag and no lights, so I spent 30mins looking for the route. I went down every side street and did several laps of the area looking for where it restarted. Nope.

Bugger.

Of course, if I had a route guide it might have helped. But I'm not stupid, its should have been slightly more obvious where it went. Ach well...

11 hours on the bike: 120+ miles with the first 60 taking 3.5 hours and the rest, well, the rest. Yep, it was a strong wind.

S m all

It is amazing how incredibly small things can have a much bigger impact. The butterfly effect? maybe...

Or maybe it is simply because we are all so used to things working well, and therefore being inconspicuous, that when they *don't* work, we sit up and take notice.

Either way.

Went for a ride today. Classic Scottish, high winds, very wet under tyre, rocks, roots, waterfall crossings on small shelves, Loch side beautiful...

Also was riding the indyfab, and (no sniggering now) the front brake wasn't up to scratch. it felt for all the world like there was some contamination in the cables. After the amount of effort I put in to get those cables routed and sealed I was a bit pissed off. Still, I reasoned, there may be a simple and easily remediable solutions. And so there was....

It transpires that the inner cable 'sleeve', which I had cut at an angle in order to thread it through the stainless steel conduit and the Avid BB7 body, was protruding by around half a millimeter out of the tiny rubber 'boot' at the bottom of the cable stop on the BB7 casting.

When I actuated the brake, the rubber slightly compressed and the angular cut meant that the rubber pushed directly against the cable as it slid through the sleeve. the more I pulled the brake lever, the more friction.

So, I trimmed the sleeve to a straight cut, replaced the rubber booty and BAM! brakes are 100% again.

That just goes to show...take care of the pennies and the pounds look after themselves, or something....

Seven morphed

While I'm about it, this is the current incarnation of my Seven...it is doing duty at the moment as a cross bike. Singled with a 38:18, and a hotch potch of stuff in order to make 700c wheels work on a 26" frame. It was a custom geometry bike built around an 80mm travel fork, but it works nicely with my Rick Hunter brazed 5 piece 440mm a-c gem of a fork and the ever-so-useful Paul brake combo...quick steering, very fast and excellent power transfer.

Growing a moustache

Recently I sold a 94 Kona kilauea and bought a Cotic Roadrat. The main reason was my growing love of 700c wheels.

Initially, I had a set of flat bars and a long-ish (Steelman) stem on it.

Then I added bar ends, as I am so used to my Jones bars, the 'elbows out' position afforded by flat bars is now uncomfortable.

The Jones bars are far too po$h to use on a town bike, so I picked up some nitto moustache bars.

Here's the results:

Bodge

One of the difficult things about using Jones bars is attaching a race number to your bars. This may infact be the *only* difficult thing about Jones bars, apart from the fact they ruin you for other bars.
I have been messing about in my 'garage' for a bit. tidying up, throwing rubbish away, sweeping and putting up hundreds of butchers hooks on metal tubing attached to the shelving in there with screw in circular fittings. This allows me to hang up everything I need to and then some. Bags, both Timbuk2 and ruck sacks, tools, dry bags, even stem and handlebar combo's that are waiting to be used again.
Almost immediately I started clearing things up a bit, I found a rear reflector bracket. One of those generic kind you find on 99% of bikes sold these days. It has an adjustable reflector on an 'elbow' and a circular bracket for grappling whatever frame tube is nearest. The bolts are cheesy cross-head and the nuts thin and recessed in hexagonal, err, recesses.
So - I sat there looking at it thinking it really needs to get binned, but something clicked in my head. Maybe, just maybe I could find a good use for it.
I checked things out and found that, yes, with a little strip of rubber inbetween the bracket and the Jones 25.4mm 'middle' tube, I was able to orientate the adjustable elbow section (once I had removed the reflector) in such a way that 2 holes pointed directly forwards.
After replacing the cheesy bolts with decent M5 allen key bolts, and the thin nuts with nylocs, I had a 'bodge' part.
The next stage is to utilise the 2 forward facing holes and some wire to allow a relatively rigid number plate holding structure. It will be light, re-usable and most importantly it will mean I never have to zip-tie a number to my cables and race in fear of it catching the front tyre, rubbing all race or worse getting trapped between the tyre and the fork (and yes, in a strong wind, that did indeed happen to me once).
All good. Finished pictures when it is finished.

Apophenia

The Middle East.
Oil running out.
Ex KGB agents being poisoned with Thalium.
Muslim persecution.
The West's Leaders a laughing stock.
Public Opinion ignored.

Apophenia.

Dock cross

Just back from Rosyth docks cross race. Great course shimmied around an area of waste ground, car park and green belt. Winding slimey off camber singletrack and 2 steep climbs. Excellent stuff. Its always so good to ride in the least expected places and find it to be gruelling and fun all at the same time.

The race started very fast with a road flat and climb linking us all into the course. Obviously this favoured a geared rider and the Savalas Players were behind a morass of racers. The next section was the technical singletrack, which was obviously a challenge to some as there were men down everywhere. A few bursts of speed had me sitting in 14th or so, with Chris and Jac not far behind. The carpark and waste section ended in a set of steps, that if you timed well, you could just ride the left side of the steps, preventing a dismount and run - far faster.

From here the course climbed to it's highpoint through trees before a winding descent to the car park again. This was obviously a good spot to rev up and pass riders before the singletrack - where it was very difficult to pass. This I managed on a couple of occasions and after a relatively strong mid race (for me) I was up in tenth. I had lost touch with Chris who was suffering on his 32:18 on the relatively flat and fast course. Jac was leading the ladies, despite feeling a little under the weather.

My choice of the Seven with a 38:18 was paying dividends in that I was able to spin fast enough to not get dropped on the road section. Enjoying the swoopy technical stuff, and being au fait with the roots leaves and off camber corners allowed me to sit behind others and pressurise them before quick sprints to gap them. It worked well, and soon enough I was up in 8th.

At this point with around 10 minutes to go I caught the 7th placed rider, and sat on his wheel as he was racing cannily and I could not find the power for a pass. 2 laps whisked by and then the bell. Still I was sat behind and really needed a mistake on his behalf to make the pass, but it was not to be.

At the end there was a little confusion regarding the placings, and I'm still unclear whether I was 7th or 8th. Chris was a little back, but smiling since he had regained his jacket (it was so very very cold) and Jac took the win.

Best heckle goes to stalwart support Player Marty with 'eye of the tiger, bring it home'.

See naegears pics.

IF update

So how is it going? In short, so far, so good. Several good long rides, in conditions varying from deep mud, to wet sandy grit to moist loam. No mechanical issues (which is nice) and no odd quirks.

The steering is gorgeous. Really, really confidence inspiring in technical situations and at speed. It feels light and maneuverable without being in any way skittish. The ride in general is very forgiving. The Moots post does the job it was meant to and flexes perceptibly, soaking up chatter and bumps. The frame itself is also very compliant in the way that good ti frames seem to be.

The parts are also performing well. The magmaa saddle is the most comfortable I have used. A real find. The stem hasn't slipped (yet), making it considerably less of a pain than the wedge type. The rims do seem flexable. Probably not surprising given the weight and width. But no issues with coming out of true and the softness is probably a virtue given the full rigid chassis.

DT - the best. That's all. The brakes are superb, still light and very responsive with good modulation. With the longer 2 1/2 finger levers on the Paul brakes the system is a quantum improvement over the RoShamBo brakes. The fork. Ah yes, the fork.

I'll tell you no lies: I have never trusted Pace stuff particularly. I think because I have witnessed several of their forks being less than durable. And, of course, there is that old bugbear of the British Engineering thing. But: it rocks. Light, comfortable, excellent tracking and looking good. Time will tell..., but so far I feel misguided at least on the rigid fork.

It is a very, very good bike. As it should be, but I am privileged to have it.

Auchentoshan cross

The Auchentoshan cross event came and went this last Sunday. It was wet, it was windy, it was dark and I was liquid burping tequila. The tequila in question was provided the night prior by my very lovely friend G funk savalas. He happens to have a bottle of competition standard, single village tequila. It is beautiful, rich, sipping tequila totally removed from the rubbish used for slamming. Beautiful it may be, but it isn't the best being burped up on a start line all too early having forcibly ejected myself from my kipsack.

Bang! off we go, to the woeful tunes and Jammie Johnson, the ever ruddy MC, and for once I got a so-so start. Chris on his amazing brown humu kona cruiser cross beast, Jac, going for gold, and Dave rocking the full rigid rig were right there too.

We zipped around the super, if muddy, course and the 20m run up was as hard as it ever is. A nice addition to the course was the double gates, a fluid dismount leap and remount style was rewarded.

The rain battered down mid race but relented as we closed, with poor Chris puncturing on his last lap. Odd given the shear girth of his cruiser beast tyres, and more than a pain in the deep mud he rode it in on floppy rubber. Jac snatched the second place, which must leave her well up in the overalls, and Dave whipped in to finish his first cross race in some style.

All good.

I.P.A

Anyone who knows me will know that I love bitter. Bitter beer is the best. IPA is probably my favourite of the style. Created tosurvive the long voyage from Britain to India, IPA has a particularly high concentration of Hops added. This is the preservative for most modern beers (some fruits and other odd things such as heather have been used in the dim and distant past).

Goose Island IPA is new to me, but having enjoyed their Honkers Ale i was definately keen to try it.

Summary: recommended.
Detail: 5.9% ~ relatively strong compare to most UK IPA's but not unsettlingly so.
Colour: deep, rich and pleasing.
Heft: pretty strong in any quantity for a school night or afternoon, perfect evening beer.

Swiped from Kelvin on the other place

Futura 2000: the name conjures beautiful abstract paintings, odd, spikey alien lobster-clawed figures, record covers for Mo Wax, and Maharashi. An excellent fix for the addict.

Mid term

Interesting results in the Mid term's in America. What can it mean? What is in the near future? Does this reprasent the masses voice in any way? or is it just politics?

Who knows: but I know my ears have perked up to the sound of change...

But the best...

Has to be Elsewhere...

Original?

Watch and weep...

STOP. Hammer time...

Have you seen me dance?

One of those days

Met my brah chris in Aviemore this morning with a view to checking out some trails I found the other day. The sun was shining as I drove up the road, needing a stout cup of coffee. The clouds were ripping across the sky which was corn flower blue. We met in the Mountain Cafe and indulged in the well brewed joe available there. After a brief natter, we hit the trails - it is all too easy to get too comfortable in the Cafe and disappear the whole day.

I'm not sure I could put a figure to it, but my suspicion is that there are very few really world class days (as in *whole* days) riding in the average riders life. This was definitely one of mine.

Everywhere we looked there were singletrack trails, firm, slightly sandy and covered in pine needles snaking off between the trees. Every one is a peach.

Nestled back in the Mountain Cafe, hoovering more coffee and lamb and mint burgers, I don't think the smile slipped for more than a few seconds...

Blessed days.

A different viewpoint

This is a dude in Aviemore. He can ride a bike...

Chris Cross

First cross race of the season for me yesterday. Mugdock Park. My Mum tells me it was a seat of Graham of Monteith (my Tartan ) so it was clearly important to do the ancestors well.

As such we had the Telly Savalas Overalls on, (Chris went for a couple of years later in the TSPC wardrobe with Gillette Advert 70's Sportswear tm) did 10 spins (standing with arms above head looking at hands) on the start line and after the dizziness settled hit the course dead f'n last.

We raged, we stormed, we careered. Through the mud, over roots and up walls. Results soon, but it was worth it for the beer hand ups alone.




See more on Singlespeedwidow's flickr, and check out Rose...*just* as sweet as mummy and daddy.

Stern

So the Stern report is almost done. Interesting to see if anything changes from this one. Howard Stern is a King Poobah economist. In essence, his report looks at whether it is *economically* viable to reduce global atmospheric pollution. The answer (will be) a resounding yes if the journalists who have seen the summarised pre-release are correct. In short it would cost 1% GDP of he UK to stop a catastrophic change equivalent to a great depression, or a world war. This is suggested to be equivalent to a drop in GDP of over 20%.

So what do you think will happen? posturing and waffle? or some actual action ?
The Government have appointed Al Gore, hot on the heals of An inconvenient Truth, as an advisor. Difficult to draw conclusions here, as Ol' Al may well be posturing to further a future political stand, and Gordon Brown may well be doing the same...

Time will tell. But it must be noted time cannot be turned back. Choices taken now will affect the future, our children and the life sustaining properties of this planet.

Time to think carefully then.

No kon

Spent an hour last night re-cabling the RoShamBo to get it ready for cross. I tried originally to clean and re-use the original nokons, that have been on there since errrr, well last April. No go. Still crappy performance.

So a new lot went on...I'll admit it is a pain in the arse putting nokon together, and getting it right, but once on it really is good stuff. You might also notice that despite good, wet, muddy and gritty Scottish weather, they last for a while too...

Next, mount up the 37c twister tyres and pump up to 290 psi...First cross of the season for me is Sunday at Mugdock. The TSPC will be in effect...paint us white, give us beer hand ups, and get ready to spin...

La buena vida

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Negra Modelo with lime...takes me back to La Buena Vida... just polished off some excellent pico de gallo (my wife makes a mean salsa), soft flour tortillas with a juicy, griddled steak...top that off with some sport peppers and I'm there...

Back in black

'lo.

Been away, in London. Seeing a man about a head. Well, two men actually.

What was broken is fixed, and that means more. More fun, more time, more riding, more working, more home improvements. Just more.

What else? Went for a ride with Biff as he passed through Edinburgh this morning. It started in the dark, involved slipping and sliding over and around rocks and roots in the dark and wet. It ended with one of the funniest bike related moments of my life. Ever, so much so that I am not going to mention it here, just yet...we'll see where it all goes.

What I will say is I need to true up my front wheel, fix a puncture, wash my breeks and remember that size, sometimes is everything. Or call it volume, whatever.

What else? 26" town bike I think has seen it's day. Investigating this and this...We'll see, but do they have to be that short? Of course they will be stripped bare and modified to make a fast simple, light and singlespeed townie (judicious use of a file may be required...) for use and abuse over winter...any thoughts?

If anyone is interested in a '94 tange concept prestige kona, 18" painted and stickered proper in british racing green (with slightly annoying rear drops...more info on request) or a super dooper dahon vitesse folder stickered up something rotten, lemme know...

Where does one stop

For North Korea? who knows. I was disappointed to hear about the nuclear testing, even if it may have been a false alarm if the initial blast didn't start the chain reaction. Personally i just think it is yet another bad sign for the human race. Another nail in the coffin.

On a brighter note, as part of my learning process for the new bike, I put some information together about the outboard bearing cranks. Blackspire are making replacement rings for xtr m960 cranks. Got to be good compared to the crap that's on there when you buy them. They come as singlespeed or geared. Magic.

Next. It can also be argued that the current crop of outboard bearing cranks have less than durable bearings and seals. Peter Verdone, who seems to be really pretty bright at this sort of thing, paints a bleak picture. It is interesting and it does make me wonder if Race Face are throwing bad money after terrible money with the x type bottom brackets (lets face it, isis was a debacle). Shimano don't come out much better, *but* Phil Wood to the rescue! A new tool to fit their new bearings and as ever, the tool is worth owning just for the classic Phil attention to detail and beautiful shineyness. I will be investing when the time comes.

Lastly, fitting correctly is important with *any* bicycle component. So when you are tensioning the bearings on m960, consider using the Park Tool BBT-9. This has a fitting for a torque wrench in order to do it properly. See the Park website for details. I feel you can never do yourself a disservice if you invest in decent tools.

Ok.

Congratulations to singlespeeder Team Dicky on becoming the singlespeed worlds 24 hour racing champ. Rock on.

Soon, once thoughts gathered and scatter brain has settled: riding a Jones one; riding a TiF; other randomness.

And if you haven't already get yourself the OuTcAsT interbike sheet...

Tractor

My new bike is a tractor. All 'roll over stuff, and faster than you'd expect'. Got it together this morning and popped out for a 5 hour shake down...saddle comfy and now horizontal (oops!), disc brakes scrubbed in, reach perfect (71.7cm if you want to know), bar angle magic, bottom bracket rotated for a good position over the pedals (way further back than you might guess). Go.

First impressions:
a) disc brakes rawk.
b) wide rims rawk.
c) good ti frames (utilising the properties of the metal) rawk.
d) the tractor likes to fly. jumpin' and pumpin' off everything. Stoorie Brae acted as a the initial site of riding (as ever) and I felt 100% comfortable hitting all the slidey, rocky, steep and nasty stuff straight away.
e) the steering geometry is noticeably different from the RoShamBo. Better I think. It feels lighter to steer, and not in any way slow, but it is very obvious the front wheel is further out in front of me.
f) I don't know how If did it, but this bike rips around tight turns. Especially obvious when there is a tree at the apex you are trying to miss...Reminiscent of Biff's Jones. There must be something more to this...hmm.
g) *Comfort* over the distance. It wasn't a massive ride today, but zero feeling of being vibrated by the trail, which in places was pretty buzzy and rocky.

So, yes I like it. A lot. I suspect this may well be the best realisation of everything I have learned, ridden and asked about so far. And rightly so! it has been a pretty decent investment both financially and in terms of effort and time!

So: stoked. Big rides and races and everything. Bring it on. The tractor is good to go.






























See here for more.

Aviemore cross country

Pictures, courtesy of trina, of the Aviemore SXC race and some others...showcasing everything that is beautiful. Oh, and me in a doorway. The new Jones moded xtr m960's are on the IF. should get a shake down ride manana. More pics then. Meanwhile, clicky for biggee...

Photo credit

The credit for the Moots and the Eriksen photo is twentynineinches
who I think have done some really nice photos if you like the 29"er thing....def-o worth a look..

In terms of those bikes, I am particularly interested in the Eriksen seatpin...it uses headset top caps to clamp the rails, so I'm thinking it must use some sort of sideways binding mechanism on the rails...hmmmmmmmm.

Out with the old, in with the new...

..trina breaks out the big gun

..once..

..more..

..be..

..will..

..there..

..and..

Better pics to follow....

More routing

Well, today led to a little more fettling of the brake cable routing. It might seem pedantic but I am very keen that the brakes work well. Really, really well. See, if they don't, I'll be wondering why I didn't get hydraulic brakes. There are 3 reasons. One: Paul Price. Two: I don't fancy ripping a hydraulic hose asunder in the Highlands. Three: ease of work for me. So, you can see, there is a lot 'riding' (bwahahahahahahaha!) on the brakes working well and for a long time.

Anyways, today was for the Nokon sections. I had not quite decided on how I was going to route the cable past the seat tube. Initially I went right, then I went left. The latter is better in every way. I used a combination of small and large segments of Nokon cable with 2 sections I can split on the top tube for lubing (if you have never used Boeshield, find some and use, frequently, for your cable brakes). The front brake goes from Nokon with shrink wrap next to the lever (to prevent kinking, which I have had on the RoShamBo a fair amount, to the stage that the inner has split now) then a run of Nokon to another section shrink wrapped immediately prior to an Avis link pipe onto the Full Metal Jacket. This is kept in place by the funny loop the FMJ comes with and I used a Snap On tube bender to achieve a curve so that the FMJ can directly go to the Avid BB7 caliper. I revised the curve after reviewing the pics I have collected of Jeff Jones built bikes (I am not too proud to admit I keep an archive of these pics for just such occasions....bloody OCD). It feels like there is no cable friction whatsoever.

The rear is more complicated. Again a shrink wrapped Nokon section, then free, then shrink wrapped again to prevent head tube scuffing. Then I used an alloy cable stop so I didn't have to run outer along the top tube. All I had to do was pop out the inner guide tube they were sold with and run the Nokon inner straight through. This was repeated at the rear, then I initially routed around the right side of the seat tube, but changed to the left to get a smoother line.

The join between the last section of FMJ, which has a 3d bend in it to run straight to the caliper, was done twice. Again the initial shrink wrap used the Avid supplied adhesive stuff which proved too stiff and led to a sharp cable bend. I used the shrink wrap (throughout) I obtained from Maplins (7mm, shrinks to half that minimum at 125degrees c....I used a hairdryer) and got a much better line.

I was pleased by the whole thing...now all I have to do is square away the rhythmical rubbing on the rear disc and wait for the cranks...

Tube bender

So I managed to get the discs on (only getting a wee spot of grease on the rotor and pads ... sheesh, thank goodness for iso-propyl alcohol). I got the steerer of the Pace forks cut, and filed and a star fangled nut fitted and then using the king headset spacers, arrived at a good handlebar height.

From there it was all about the 3/16" stainless steel tubes and a tube bender. Photos will follow, but I currently have a nice run with one bend directly to the front caliper, awaiting the Nokon top section from brake lever. The rear was a bit more complex. There are 2 guides for hose on the left seatstay, so i had to employ an s bend at the bottom to route directly into the caliper and then a very slight bend at the top (at 90 degrees, to follow the angle of the seatstay as it moves toward the seat tube). This will then accept a small Nokon section from the rearward cable stop on the top tube, with cable and the Nokon liner until i use another Nokon loop at the front to the rear brake lever.

It should (a-ha-ha) all look neat and tidy and work powerfully and be relatively impervious to dirt ingress. Should be. I *may* have made the bends a bit tight, and as such the brakes *may* be a little stiff. Fingers crossed.

The only bit I'm pretty sure I am not happy with is the top section of the rear brakes s bend. It is a little angular, not smooth, gentle and radiused like I wanted. May alter it, we'll see.