Pilgrim

In Nicks cove. Lovely place, amazing oysters, relaxed atmosphere. Still waking up at 5am, but then snoozing until we go and play out in mother nature's back yard. Yesterday, we kayak'd up the west side of the Tomales bay, and then fought against the tide back to the shore.

Today, we popped over to fairfax, briefly, then rode along the bolinas ridge, enjoying the spectacular surroundings and the red hawks aerobatic displays.

The cows? well, they *were* pretty aggressive. Mo' image on flickr.

Many thanks to Black mountain cycles Mike for the advice, a beautiful shop stuffed with eye wateringly fabulous old pott's bikes.

Porched

Bike packing clothing.

Thanks to Anja, my clothing system is complete. She managed to get a hold of some of this seasons new, and i think best yet, Icebreaker range. For those in the dark, Icebreaker make fantastic quality merino wool clothing of all types, weights, uses and sizes. In combination - especially when the wiff factor is so low - these pieces allow you to stay, warmer, drier, cooler, for longer with less muss, fuss and weight. Downside? well its not cheap, and it doesnt have the latest en vogue team print.

So: mid weight, 260g balaclava. Can be rolled into a hat, will be used on the coldest winter days.

Expedition weight 340g hooded, slim fit top. Riding in if cold, used in sleeping bag so a 3 season bag gains a few degrees of rating.

Thin, breathable 180g short sleeve top. For the warmer days, and as inner layer.

Combined with 3/4 wool underwear for night time, i think i have the clothes dialled..

Inevitable 2

I suppose it is part of becoming accepted from the leftfield that people copy your stuff. As it becomes more mainstream, over time, people start looking for the source (be it the source that re-introduced an old idea to a modern application, or the source of real live 'blue sky' ideas). Who knows. Perhaps it is only then that real recognition begins.

Take jeff jones, for example. I call jeff a friend. I strongly believe in his approach to bicycle design and building. His ideas on geometry, ergonomics and his philosophy of riding fits with me extremely well.

As outcast as his ideas were initially, the mainstream are taking notice and although it can be argued that imitation is a form of flattery, i do get a bit upset in the use of someones intelectual property with out so much as a nod.

Mary bars, G2 geometry, and now Skyde's run of H bars and combined bar stems seem to have cropped up without even a nod in jeff's direction.

Obviously, arguments over whether jeff "started" all this blah blah blah, are commonplace and i think the point is he realised the relevance to certain bikes and riding styles and was willing to go against the grain of accepted wisdom at the time.

So, chapeau jeff, long may innovation live.

Inevitable 1

pic stolen from shaderlab , who generally has some fab pics.

Why we are here.

Foskettset

Bordeaux

So its off to france for the wedding of my very good friends Caroline Juyon and Russell Cathcart.

The kilt is rolled (well, will be...), the hose and sporran at the ready.

Its time to celebrate the new alliance.

Want some?

Wiki-wiki-wiki

Through singleswizzle, i just hooked up with the wiki-wiki-wiki report. Go look...

Dejay, friend of the hairys and the scots is in joint first place with fuzzy for the NUE.

GO!

W 101

It has been hard for me to keep my eyes off the screen what with the NUE series heating up, and the imminent trip to the USA for the SSWC 08 and the SM 100. Sometimes it is hard to open yourself up and say "i am committing to this race - i want to do well" but there we go. The SM 100 is the one thing i want to give my all to this year.

I enjoyed the W 101 so much that i suspect if an when i can, ill be heading back to take in more appalachian beauty.

Contention

See, sometimes it becomes apparent that taking the passive route may not be the best route. I rode to work the other day, then to the PO box, then back to work. A grand total of 1 mile riding. Twice, drivers clapped eyes on me and then pulled out right in front of me. Once, someone didn't even look and pulled out. If i was a) less capable b) looking at something else for a split second - BAM!

When the 5-oh get in on the act, like this example taken from the gothamist/urban velo, weeeeeeelll i dont know ... you wonder what humanity is coming to.

JG Ballard often writes about the degradation of humanity within a split second of normality taking a back seat. A theme that another gotham resident is often tied up with.

Seems it is so very close to the surface sometimes.

E P I C

Epic designs can craft you a purposeful, custom super detailed and robust bag.

These are mine. See: epic gallery.

Give him a call.

Flux capacitator.

So they *haven't* switched CERN on yet. I got a mail from the loveliest of bikie chicks to let me know there have been some issues getting the bugger down below 2 kelvin. 2 kelvin by the way is colder than the near-vacuum that is outer space. Really fecking cold indeed.

I have been following the CERN Large Hadron Collider thing for awhile. In essence, they are trying to look into the finer aspects of sub atomic physics by accelerating particles at each other as fast as possible and noting the effects of the collision, with particular focus on working out the relationship between electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces. This is part of trying to ascertain a Grand Unification Theory. I wont go into details, but its all pretty fascinating. As a side effect, or perhaps the word would be additional effect, there is the chance they will create black holes which should allow study of what is currently theory once you pass the event horizon (see last paragraph regarding 'beyond general relativity), prior to their theorized evaporation.

Pretty cool stuff. Except, once you think about it, and cogitate the creation of mini black holes, you get a bit freaked. The question arises, is there a precedent for this? I mean is it safe?

Well, theory is that these mini black holes are being created all the time, evaporating super fast and as such dont cause any problems as far as we know, so ones *we* make are likely to be fine too....

Cool eh?

Its got that de lorean time machine thing about it...

gah!

Structures

Despite still being under the cosh of a mild bug, i decided to head out and try and get some miles in. The weather was best east, so off i went to spend the day in the pentlands. Initially, and as is my want, i headed up stoorie b to get some technical riding in. Needless, to say the fact i couldnt get the heart rate over 170 without feeling like i was going to pass out hampered my moves. Blah. Managed to drop a few slidy trails and pop over a few rocks, then headed out to cammo and from thence to the pentland hills.

A peaceful day in the hills, except for the incessant creak and knock of the fork. I tore the headset apart the other day as it is the source of the creaking. The pace fork steerer is notched from headset play, so the Foskett-set will be nary too soon. Meanwhile i have to put up with knocking and juddering despite perfect preload. Ah well.

On the way up to Harlaw, i found this wigwam. The trails leading to it are amazing, the woods would make a great bivvy spot too.

Climbing up, up and away with the top of caerketton hill as my far spot, before turning round and then down and following the water of leith back into edinburgh via spylaw. All in all, 50 miles, 6 hours and some heavy legs. Shenandoah is creeping up fast. So far i know what bike i am taking, and what pack/food/hydration i'll use. My fitness may be good, but if it is, it is well hidden at the moment.

We'll see.

K tree

Is chewing tobacco UCI legal?


Thursday: pack lots of stuff into bags, ti bike is out of commission as i havent had the time to sort brakes or forks which are sounding creaky with the headset. Pink bike put into action by removing racks.

Friday: run around like mad, pack up stuff into car and belt down to Kirroughtree. Meet up with Dave, Hamish, Damo and marty, Anja and Phil and after a late evening phone call Mel and shaggy turned up about 4am. Oddly, the last of us had gone to bed not long before that in a late night beer frenzy.

Saturday: against all the odds, sunshine. The course was rockier, and even less forgiving than last year, but somehow managed to be even better in terms of quality riding and singletrack. The climbing all seemed to be hidden in short sharp rises, and there was the fantastic, swooping final decent all present and correct.

3-4 hours in: 4 laps done, hadnt seen many kent faces on course, but i had seen several broken chains for others. Amazing. I have never snapped a chain other than at the same event last year. In total, i saw 6 snapped chains. Indeed andy, who was racing with shaggy as replacement for an absent team member, snapped a chain, fixed it then re-snapped it in the car park, causing the inevitable knee/concrete interface and bam, he was out of the game.

Meanwhile, jac was plugging away, as was marty resplendent in the VC Moulin colours, joining anja+phil in mixed pairs, and andy wardman and steevo going for the win with the pairs also for VC Moulin.

Damo, knackered from building a huge bridge across the Tyne, and dave, were just about to tuck into their first beers, chilling in the sun and considering further laps.

Hour 8 or so: 7 laps done, a huge dehydration collapse* and a very sore back. Jac looking like a win, marty unknown, anjaphil duking it out for somewhere around 6th in pairs, whilst comfortably winning the mixed pairs, and steevowardman still fighting it out for a pairs win.

Hour 10: eventually, i got it together to go out and do an 8th, jac came in a fine first, marty clocked up his 7th and winning mixed for anjaphil and steevoandy taking second in pairs.

Needless to say, the fine mix of marinated meats, salads and beer trina, mel and heather had waiting barely touched the sides and we had a long evening, chatting and enjoying the sun. Hamish, shaggy and myself closed the celebrations down around 3 am.

A top time had id say.

`*huge dehydration collapse.

This race was acting as a prep for the shenandoah 100 in september. I was trying to race with several new routines.

Water only.
Energy spooch only.
No wingnut, just bottles.
A lower gear.

Pretty much all of the above were less than ideal. Still, i have gained some important knowledge.

Rouleur

Soon, the web will have its own beautifully crafted and cerebral version of the coveted magazine.

http://rouleur.cc/

The Ride

Get it.

It's been a while...

So. Here we are, Russell's stag do has been and gone. A top time had, with go kart racing at Knockhill, too much beer and meat, and table tennis, boxing and laughing on the side. All good.

The rain has been falling pretty continuously - great prep for this weekends 10 at K-tree. Always good. I had fitted some Avid bb7 road discs to the bike in order to ustilise the cantilever paul brake levers. These have a nicer profile compared to the 2.5 finger v brake levers i usually use, but need the road discs as they have less cable pull. It works, but to be honest, even with a 185mm rotor, they dont have the best modulation. With a smaller wheel, a lighter rider or different levers, the story may be different, as it stands im going back to the standard bb7's.

In saying that i aint going to have time to do the swap before K-tree, so ill ride the pinkster...to be honest, after slogging it out last time in the mud, i may well appreciate the lower gear i generally run on it anyway...

Why in such a rush? I have been devoting the spare time to organising to have some packs made by epic designs in alaska, as i have settled on a general luggage system for touring. So, 3 bags are to be ordered and ill go into details when i get em.

Jenn has been rocking the GDR and despite a bout of giardia, she is still knocking out the miles - twiglet legs and all. I know there are lots of us on the edge of our seats rooting for her...its a few hundred miles to go, which in the scope of the 2700 miles or so she is set to do, is a small percentage and rumour has it the riding is easier, but nothing is for free...

I have also been spending a bit more time with shaggy and niggle on the king headset project. It looks like we may have got the bugs sorted. Next step, whirring up the lathe...again, more as i have it...

What was the motivation?

cyclingtattoogallery.blogspot.com

Goodtimes

Goodtimes.

Satan's emissary on earth.

Bit of an odd 24 hours. Building a wheel last night, and, well, im sheepish to admit i kindof laced it worng, and got a drive side swapped with a non for 2 adjacent spoke holes. I had been using the DT swiss calculator and erred on the short side, as i quite often find i run out of thread because i use relatively high spoke tensions...so, there i go, bringing in the radial and *BANG* a nipple flies past the left side of my head and impacts on the wall. it had split in half leaving a powdery lump af aluminium on the nipple. Took me a while to realise what i had done, and it seems i left a score at the wrong angle on the DT 240 flange. i hope itll be fine, im sure it will...eeek!

Chipps sent me a book the other day on wheel building and it is a good one, and its odd, cos i scanned the whole thing and the bit that stuck for me was dont tension with yer eyes close to the nipple holes. Good idea...

Shaggy and mel are here at a wedding, they stayed over last night and i got lots of useful chat with shaggy about bike stuff...all good.

Awoke this morning with the vague memory i was doing another fitness test today. Bugger. A busy morning and a quiet afternoon had me totally thrilled to be heading to the gym. Really. Anyways, i managed a 7 minute reduction and felt comfortable all the way except on the 30-40th presses where my arms were again fatigued and at meter 400-600 on the 8% run. 20 mins dead.
As a feed up i plan to inhale 4 chicken breasts i have steeping in mesquite flavouring. A poor substitute for the real thing, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut its pishing down. So, that, corn, some sloppy salsa and peas with pitta breads and for after, white russian. I made a special stop to get some finlandia vodka, which is a favourite for the white russians. Turns out, the geezer in the offy was a bit of a lebowski buff and a vodka lover. Thus ensued a great conversation about which vodkas we prefer for what. Scary knowledge probably, but good at the same time.

Right. Meat. Chilis. Beers, a bad film and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Damo in town.

Well, in the toon anyways...he's over building a bamboo structure at the sage in newcastle, a bridge over the tyne. Yep really.

Sounds like it will be well worth seeing...beauty, natural materials and damn big.

Photo shows damo and a fellow bambuco team member, nicked from fotobamba.

What else? fitted some road bb7s and a set of my old paul canti -levers to the tIf...looks nice, improved ergo/reach we'll see how the power is. Should be ok from a survey of folk, especially sam's input from singular cycles. If not i can bung a bigger rotor up front.

If its nice, the pinkster will be swapped also. The spare brakes are now on the dambala again, on which im testing a headset currently. It has been a relative bugger (if there can be such a thing) to fit but once on, it seems nice. A good compression mechanism without the use of an angled compression ring...we'll see how it holds up.

That bike seems nice in a funny way, the green is kind of absinthe-metallic, i like it.

All i need to do is build a new rear wheel and its all go...hopefully in time to lend shaggy, who is visiting us with the lovely mel this week end, and i reckon with a squeeze anja will fit on it too to try the big wheels...should be good.

Seem to have spent a lot of time futzing with stuff in the bike room recently. I'm enjoying it...i like working on bikes.

Also, well, its prolly not a suprise, but a jeff fork in 135 and fat front wheel may be wending their way to me soon. But thats a whole different story...

Mud wrestling...

Back from red bull. Trina, anja and myself headed down with a surprisingly efficient packed car to ledbury, southern england for the 11th staging of the Mountain Mayhem. I joined team mates keith b, chipps and brian and set up camp. Brian had broken his wrist riding the course, so chipps had set up a few ringers to take some of the strain, but i guess we werent entirely serious about our placing so no worries.

After the usual late night with friends, which turned into an early morning and a wobbly walk back to the tent, we arose to sunshine and hurried preparations for the race start. Unfortunately, pat adams, larger than life organising legend was in hospital so after a quick rules and regs by chipps, off we all went.

As usual the le mans start was a pretty horrific affair with elbows out, acid in the throat and stiff soled running shoes knocking the feet to bits. After getting on the bike, i had the pleasure of riding with phil moore for the initial part of the lap, and then we hit the technical stuff and the traffic started.

A bench cut narrow single track had been cut out of the clay hill side after a series of steps on a built up section of trail. A tricky right hander was the entry and the exit was guarded by gnarly old trees with sharp branches.

Needless to say, the traffic here was pretty severe, and the alarm bells were ringing for the almost inevitable rain.

Laps progressed, food eaten, ringers found and a few pretty quick laps, with less efficient handovers followed. Then at 10 pm after i had dropped a thin wind proof off at the camp site to head out again, BAM! the heavens opened. The course had been increasingly slidey and sticky (yes, both! its a magical property of clay...) but the rain made everything go bananas. It took extreme power to drive the gear up the hills, with the rear slipping constantly and the technical stuff began to deteriorate. At one point, keith needed to lassoo a tree with his front wheel in order to get back up to a walkable section after spending 5 minutes doing some form of mc escher routine of trying to climb up only to slide down again. Hideous, but sort of challenging and perhaps a glimmer of fun in there.

At 3.30am, we called it a night, as double laps were becoming very tough and without those, any rest was out of the question in the rain.

Needless to say, in true mayhem tradition, the sun came out and the latter stages of the race were glorious and the sunday night again gave us all chance to bbq food, chew the fat and drink the left over beers.

After last years mud bath, i said never again. Well, seems i wasnt speaking sooth...there is a papuan tradition in the chimbu region to cover the face with mud in order to celebrate the dead...i dunno, maybe there is something in that...

GDR

Just in case you didnt know Jenn is in the GDR this year. She is doing well, 5 days in to a likely ~20 day ride...go girl!

Sunday night, monday morning.

After getting on the wrong train from haymarket i doubled back and got back to glasgow with enough time to hurriedly pack up the pinkster and get out for a bivvy ride. When i decided to bed down somewhere near the whangie ( a large split in the rock caused by the devils tail as he flew to a witches coven meeting...apparently) it began to rain. It was 11 oclock and i was pretty bushed and didnt feel like getting wet, so i didnt pay much attention to the ground, covered as it was in a thick coat of grass.






Needless to say, the grass hid several 6" high, hemispherical mounds, positioned in such a way that i never really got comfortable all night. Hey ho.

The packing aim for this trip was as light as possible. As such the complete weight of the bike, racks, waterbottles and kit was 17kg. The bike and racks weigh 12 kg so given the 2.25kg of water on the bike, thats pretty damned light. My ruck sack was a little heavier than i wanted, with 3kg of water. Fully dressed i had 8kg of kit on my person. Soooooooo, subtracting the H2O, shoes etc i had about 6-7kg of stuff. Not bad, and right where i was aiming for. I can go lighter, but not much without sacrificing certain comforts (coffee, hot food).

The packing was a different matter. I had less stuff on the racks initially - bad idea, and i also didnt have enough dry bags to keep the sleeping bag totally dry -bad idea 2. Live and learn.

A winding 50 or so miles through the roads and hills with a drop down to clachan of campsie had me back home and sorting out the bike for this week ends mountain mayhem. New tyres were needed on the tif as i spotted the tyre had bugun to split, and i took the opportunity to true and tension the wheels. Good work. Time for bed...

24 solo, the film fest and a wombat in edinburgh.

Sunday i met up with fellow tspc squadders marty, chris and jac, A quick pint of thrappledouser and we headed into the film house to see 24 solo. This was supposed to be a trek vehicle for eatough (eat-off, as in a PLATE)....see at conyers in 2006 he was heading for a 7th solo 24 hour world championships. But an unknown from australia pitched up and shoved a huge, great big spanner into the works. The pace in the early part of the race was truly frightening, and both the aussie, craig gordon, and eatough pushed it as far as i have seen any athletes. In the end, one man destroyed himself to beat the other. A truly epic battle and fortunately not spoiled by the trek-centric viewpoint. Well worth seeing.

As we sat down to catch the film, in walked jacquie phelan. She is over here promoting bicycles and teaching riding skills etc to kids. It was fab to have chance for a catch up and a pint or 2 after the film..

Dad day.

Went through on saturday and caught up with mum and dad, on the eve of fathers day. Here's to my dad!...(thats him, taking the photo!)

Company

On monday i had the pleasure of team giant's company...or at least some of them. After the world cup in fort bill i got a call from adam as he was passing through glasgow and was keen to get out for a pedal. Adam is a super good bloke... and i have one or two spare bikes, so we were going to head out with jared rando and amiel cavalier for a quick blast around the local trails. Unfortunately, roadworks held them up so we stopped in at monkey with team road manager elke brutsaert for some lunch instead...

they then flew off to italy for the val di sole world champs....Allez!

Mavic'd

Dunno if this will work....


Went looking for ERD data as i am going to build a new rear wheel up...bought myself a pressie...

Mavic have a tech area, with lots of info about the rims, other stuff, and a pretty nice spoke calculator...

try here...

Went looking for ERD data as i am going to build a new rear wheel up...bought myself a pressie...

B12

Down to bristol on friday evening. The plane was relatively painless, and we were kindly delivered to chez mel and shaggy by mel's dad. After a feed of curry courtesy of the legendary mel cooking skillz, we had a few beers, some good chat and some hearty laughs. Phil and gareth jones were there and tymo was manning the tent area at the race venue - ashton court.

After 4 hours sleep we hit the ground running and packed the beasts of burden whilst sipping espresso in the warmth of the morning sun. Ace.

By the time we hit the venue, the race was pretty close to starting. After a quick strawberry fruli, Tymo kicked off and with short laps of 30 mins, we were scheduling doubles. We waited for tymo to come round but after the field sped through with no sign of him, we realised something was up. Turns out that due to clipping the scaffolding structure of the fly-over bridge, tymos finger consisted of several more bones than was strictly required...damn! i rushed to get ready and headed out as the unfortunate tym was taken to hospital to be put back together. Needless to say, the course rocked. Roots, swoops, rocks, short power climbs and sweeping loose corners. All good: the pink beast came into its...there's something about 50mm of offset...



Handing over to phil, gareth then shaggy, we battered around the course for the first 9 laps, and the heat began to rise. The huge cooler was put to work, and a constant supply of frosty beverages kept us working hard. Mel tended the bbq and friends visited, matt carr and ian leitch ripped around in the solo cat and heckles were in full effect. All good.





6 hours in: having lost a lap due to tyms injury and shaggy snapping a skewer, we felt that we probably needed to decrease the pressure slightly. The pugsley was drafted into service, and we enjoyed a few chilled laps before the end of the race. With the focus on the Bbq, beer, friends, laughs and chat, we were stoked to hear emily and team mate made the podium, and freaked out when we heard we had too! 3rd in the singlespeed team class...

The celebrations continued into the wee hours and when we finally awoke the sun continued to beat down. We watched the 6 hour race kick off and enjoyed the last of the meat and beer. The world can be so good sometimes.



Extra double meaty thanks to mel and shaggy, and the team, with gareth stepping in to tyms not insignificantly well shod and speedy shoes.

P-phone learns to do the flap.

Bo Diddley rocks on...

Daily bread and butter

Had an odd episode with the cat the other night. After getting the train back from edinburgh, then catching up on some emails later on at night, the p phone decided to join me. It was dark and i forgot i had put a beer on the computer desk, which slides the keyboard in and out. Needless to say i pushed the keyboard in, the beer glass tips and poors sierra nevada from head to tail down persephone's back. Suffice to say, she wasnt thrilled. After we finally stopped her tearing around the flat, she had her first shower...which wasnt as bad as i thought it might be, still - not to be repeated beer spillage that! (not our cat - happy robots from flickr....)

Looks like daily bread cycles is happening...good. quite fancy that frame, if they make one smaller.

Racing in Bristol this weekend...excited, pinkster got slotted into the trico and i have a computer on the bike which i am sort of working with at the moment. will be interesting to see if it helps stop me blowing up.

Ride

Looks like dejay and rebecca and others did the 24 hours of finale and did well....it is a great race...maybe a revisit...

Chipps was up and we took off for the midge infested north for a ride. A great loop, in excellent condition. All good. Perhaps you'll see some of it in singletrack soon....keep your eyes peeled.

Heading down to the bristol 12 this weekend coming. Doing the 12 hr race with shaggy, tymo, and phil. Although i may struggle to keep up, im stoked to be racing...especially as mel and brah shaggy are now engaged to be married...will be great to see them...bravo!

The pink bike will be my companion for that, so ill re-gear it and remove the racks...the Looks seem to be much friendlier after this last ~80 miles or so...seems if its a vague clip in, you should re-clip in and its all good. MUCH more stable for pushing hard, and not so many unplanned un clips. It seems to be a bedding in process is taking place, or maybe im just getting used to them. But, i certainly will not be going back now.

Unfair advantage...

Advantage

Pick up sticks.

Had the g and h funks for dinner. Pick up sticks got a little boring, after a few margaritas, so we evolved....

Teratoma

As ever, lots going on. Trina and myself joined the birthday celebrations for Ruth and Biff...an 80's themed party, that went to extraordinary lengths to recreate that decade. Bubble machines, thatcher, amazing grazing food, muzak, disco, you-name-it. A superb time had.

Also a mention for Jenn, who is leaving very shortly for gdr. Good luck, girl, we'll all be rooting for you.

Then we popped to london town, and caught up with our friend nonni who is leaving soon for finland, and will be back with a wee baby girl sometime soon. She is in fine fettle and it was lovely to catch up - its been too long.

We stomped around in the rain, and i was all too aware my good friend chipps was with good friends martin and chris up north riding in cloudless skies...ill direct you to some pics once they get flickerized.

Needless to say, there are plans afoot for riding as ive got 2 days off to go play in the hills, too. Unfortunately, the weather is dreich at the mo, so we are going easy today and will do a large loop from kinlochleven manana. Should be a goody.

The cat - well, the wee poppit had a bit of an issue. She was catsat by our downstairs neighbours while we were away and she managed to whisk a frozen chicken breast off the counter through sunday evening. She was a it peekie when we arrived late monday and yesterday she yacked up a hairball, lots of mucus and some meat and then produced a pool of slurry that took a pretty good sense of humour to clean up. Thank the dark lord for plastic gloves.

Ok - i need more coffee....lots of stuff on the horizon. Im going to do some playing around with a heart rate monitor over the next few weeks, as ill be doing the bulk of the races i will do this year, and it will be pretty interesting to see how close to a heart attack i can get.

Im trying to find out more about headsets, specifically bearing angles on the king versus others, and the results of that are going to be lead to another project...more soon....

oh, and the fitness test? 27 minutes with about a minute and a half of messing about aiting for machines to come free.

The stats:
1.5km cycle - level 6 - 2 mins and change
500m row - level 10 - 1.32 secs
then 40 lat pull downs to nips - 30kg - this was a killer
40 full press ups - minutes, arms lactated to buggery by the above
50 step ups onto a 2 foot step with 10kg in each hand. Again the grip killed me..my arms were fried
From there to 40 shoulder presses with 35kg. Same story...arms a mess
50 sit ups - ok - pretty quick
800m run at 8% on the treadmill - not as bad as expected - 5 mins 30 secs
bench presses with 25kg - sounds so little, but my arms were gone by now

Disappointed. i wanted 5 mins faster at least. It was interesting how tired my arms got, but i suppose although i work hard with the kettlebells, they are never single muscle group use, so i wasnt prepared really. Also i warmed up by spinning 24 kg kettles for 5 mins, running then rowing 500m as fast as i could, and then lots of stretches. That on top of a boozy week end probably cost me a minute. In addition i tried to do sets of 10 at each weight as fast as possible, then rest for 3-4 breathes - i reckon this was a poor strategy, as i slowed anyway, the breathers cost more time than they saved. Needless to say, i aint done with this one yet.

The pic? its either the cats vom, or me after the gym sesh...

Lots and lots and lots.

Went to the gym this morning, and incorporated a new aspect into the routine. Interspersed sets of running and kettlebells. So, 4 x 500m runs at 14+ kph and varying of gradient, then sets of swings and clean and presses. Repeat for an hour.

It would have to be said, this leads to a fair old heart rate and lactic tolerance work out.

There is a motive behind all this. The gym are running a fitness challenge (as they sometimes do) and i think i may have a bash at this one. The previous one was centered around the tour de france, but riding on a machine is never the best, so this will be my first. I can feel the competitiveness in me beginning to stir - leading to all sorts of failure/self analytical moments. I reckon i should do ok, but the fastest so far (set by a triathlete dude) is pretty quick.

So: cycle 1.5km on level 6, then row 500m at full resistance, lat pull downs with 36kg (i think), 40 press ups onto a 5kg weight so chest drop is measurable, 50 abs crunches, 50 steps, shoulder press with 35kg/40 reps, then an 800m run at 8% gradient and a 40 rep bench press with the olympic bar and 12.5kg on either end to finish.

The record so far is 17 mins. Ouch.

I reckon i will be 20 or so mins...the run i did after the k-bells today was 800m at 8.5% and it took 4.13mins so, the row will be under 4.30mins i would hope, maybe even less, giving me 11 minutes for the rest. Easey peasey right?

Date - next Tuesday, and ill try not to be shy with the time. I might aim to do it twice, as a preliminary run through may be good...the actual compo is 5th july, which ill miss, but its all about a healthy comparison, no?

What else? ive been tooling around on the ro sham bo with the best pair of Times i have. Its been like trying to balance my foot on a ball bearing...horrible. So it will be interesting how i get on with the Looks after a bit more time (ha!), as i dont think there is any going back. If Look follow every other manufacturer they will add a tension adjust at some point and i can ramp it up...

The bike packing hasnt been forgotten either. I may be heading out with chipps for a longer than average run next week, so it may well get pushed into service then, and in order to minimise packed weight and volume, ive been playing around with a few things. Now the temperatures are up, i think i can get away with a sleeping bag liner and the clothes i will always carry in case of surprise scottish weather, a hat and gloves. This will decrease weight by a pound. In order to do this I will keep the double skin tent, but i think i will pack the poles and the fabric separately. That will allow a much smaller volume behind the saddle. I noticed when i was riding staircase style technical stuff, i was tending to sit on the rear rack and its load, which was not ideal in terms of positioning or stess on the rack...its a project anyway.

The other thing is ditching the number of extras. Pad/pen/treats/Some extra clothing (again, the warmth at present will give me this ability). We'll see.

A concept or two has been germinating in my mind. One: at some point i want to own a Cog bike courtesy of cog bike cafe/damo. He is well into the 69er bike and i think a technical woods style bike may be the thing. As in a singlespeed rear freehub with maybe a single, or maybe 3-4 speeds - 26" with a 3"+ tyre - coupled with a jones front fork, 135mm spaced (perhaps with a different gear, or perhaps a full on wide hub he is having made by paul components), and a endo morph. Super low slung, ideally with a 2 step, or perhaps a crank bros dropping seat post, if they hold up...Oh yeah! take me to the woods!...the pic is from a guy called tison....

The other is the continuation of the lefty equipped racing bike. In order to get faster i will need to work on not only fitness (encompassing nutrition and rest), reducing the effects of day to day life (if youknowwhatimean) and i think i will need gears. Although i only have about 5 photos up of 245, i spent a couple sundays ago doing a bit of support for anja, who was racing the drumlanrig NPS race. It was interesting to see people go *fast*. Although some of us who ride singlespeeds (perhaps with the exception of the lalondes) might kid ourselves we push harder than geared riders, the truth is that *fast* geared riders push as hard, in a bigger gear a lot of the time. Coupled with suspension a 4-5 speeds would be a probable benefit. If and its a big 'if' i continue to try and do the odd short fast race (anything up to 65miles or so...over this i think the speed i would go would not be overly affected...unless i got a *lot* stronger). The lefty is the best suspension fork i have ridden for the weight at 2.7lbs minimum. Add this to a bb30/SI crank with 1 or maybe 2 speeds, and a 4 speed rear, the weight will be a negligible increase over singlespeed/rigid.

We'll see. First gots to pays the ways for sswc08 and shenandoah...and a kitchen!

Kelli

Heston

Ok, im going to get all Heston Blumenthal on you. Recently, i have had one or two poor bloody mary's. So has trina. It is a drink close to my heart, and as such i have been working long and hard to mix what i consider to be the best. I know g-funk has been doing the same. Over the last few months i have hit upon what i consider to be my quintessential 'mary, and in the spirit of hemingway (who was a great fan of the bloody mary) i want to share the recipe with you. Bear in mind this was not initially made by measurements. The measurements are represenatations of a free form cocktail mixing style.

Ingredients:
Organic lemon and lime
clamato (or, tomato juice)
stolichnaya vodka
lea and perrins worcestershire sauce
tabasco

Mix 350ml of clamato with 100ml of vodka over 4-5 cracked ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. Ideally the vodka should be frozen and the clamato refrigerated.
Add the juice of half a lemon, seeds and all.
Add 25 ml of lea and perrins, then 5ml of tabasco.

Shake.

Let stand.

Cut a quarter lime and squeeze into a highball glass.

Shake the shaker. Think like tom cruise for just a second. Gurn a little.

Pour into the glass - take a deep breath and be transported into a brave new world.

Bluebells

First: happy birthday, mum!
Second: fixed cog is riding well. quiet and im finally getting used to the action. I have no idea how people ride fixed with no brakes. There is no way on earth you can stop as quickly and more importantly with as much control. I *may* end up taking the rear brake off, and that would primarily be to stop me wearing through the rim, which is, errr, on the concave side, but the front, nope.
Third: Look pedals. Much more solid interface when climbing. Pedal without curling toes, which causes less foot fatigue. I do unclip in technical situations sometimes. I think this is because i am used to being able to rock my feet around all over with the times. As i get into a ride, it lessens. I reckon with a bit of time ill get used to it. The disengagement is soft. I was riding with dave no chops the other day and he felt similarly. Less definite than shimano and egg. Havent ridden in any real mud, but to be honest i have no worries about that, there not really very much of them. So, not all rosy, but time will tell.
Fourth: briefly rode dave's hi-fi pro 29. Interesting bike. Smooth like buttah....screams through mild rock gardens, low bb, i feel like there is a lot of bike behind me...well worth checking out.
Fifth: Phil and anja off to etape caledonia, hamish for the bealach beag. Good luck one and all.
Sixth: seems that i will be heading to bristol bike fest to have a go at the 12 hour race with shaggy, phil and tymo. Thence to mountain mayhem for a bit of posing on an all-star team...aim is to ride this one, and minimise the mayhem....
Seventh: need to plan another overnighter. Bikepacking (as it seems to be being called) is definitely the way forward. A thread on mtbr started by who else but mikesee, is definite inspiration. Next time, ill be trying to lessen the load. I was a little perturbed at weigh in about the girth of my kit. IIRC the whole was 9.5kg 4.5 on my back, 5 on the bike. That did include all bags, tools, tubes etc. The aim is to drop at least 2.5kg from that. I dont *need* to, but i want to. Half the fun in doing all this is actually the planning and messing about.

I also need to find out how dejay, rebecca tomawikiwikiwiki got on in finale doing the 24 hour race there...


Go. Ride. Smile.

F.B.R.O.T.Y

First big ride of the year.

Glasgow>milngavie, 60% off road

West highland way to inversnaid, all off road except 2-3 miles after taking the lambing detour round conic hill, thankfully.

Take road for 3.5 miles of tortured climbing from inversnaid>stronachlachar.

Drop into forest and pop out at aberfoyle for some refueling.

Head out and over to drymen, to re-join west highland way back to glasgow.

91/2 hours with sun the whole way. Tired now, cat on lap, both sleepy.

Power to the pedal.

Since i very first started using clipless pedals i have used Time, and only Time. I have at times used different generations, other peoples, and even have a set of gary fishers Time pedals - don't ask...

So it was with mixed feelings last year that i decided to start looking for a new pedal to use. Things were not so rosy. The cleats wear quickly, and the new square retention wires are more stable initially but also wear quickly leading to slop and unexpected disengagements - which are never timely...

The first thought was eggbeaters. But they fall apart. Then there was shimano, especially the xtr. But i have always been put off by the number of small screws, bits and bobs. Then i heard look was going to be bringing out a new pedal which would use the egg beater cleats. Time went by and just as it seemed that the wait would be over, look recalled the pedals and redesigned the cleat to be more Time-like and less egg-like.

So a set of quartz pedals arrived. They are light. They are incredibly open. They are very grey. The cleats are large and flat, and there is a well described system for mounting them so that there is zero slop. This can be adjusted as your shoe wears.

As you can see from the photos, the shoe sits directly on the pedal with no movement on the look, whereas on the Time, there is a big gap. The Time is used, but not old, or particularly worn, the cleats are brand new and the sidis aren't that old either...mind the gap!

So, give me a year and we'll see....

Apocalypse

I suspect there were several of us at the ssuk who wondered what we could expect. Its been 20 years since MBUK first came out. A lot of things have changed - and - a lot of things have not. People still love a reason to gather in a field somewhere and eat, drink and ride and race bicycles. There is something energizing about it, something that sweeps through the soul, removing cobwebs and shadows.

But, this singlespeed thing...how long can it last? There is no doubt there is a new guard these days. Fortunately, it would seem they have a damn fine outlook on what they want these events to represent.

Drumlanrig castle is a world class venue for any race. The grounds are beautiful, the castle has excellent facilities whilst retaining a real "away from the city" feel. The riding there is excellent, as is the proximity to other riding areas, and the course is fun. By fun i mean capital letters fun. Winding ribbons of dirt through old trees. Technical features which are not of the perfect-radiused-cookie-cutter-trail center variety. However, it retains a very important element in my book: flow.

We arrived on friday evening, pitched tent at outcast/cheeky corner and went to work. Beer, meat chat, whisky, guffaws, pictures, candles, raised eyebrows, new faces, well loved faces, carnage, memory loss, giggles. All good. Saturday saw a group of us taking in the fantastic sun dappled trails at a leisurely pace with many opportunities to stop, chat, laugh, and partake of the odd nip.

Sam, kenny, julie, tom and rik had put on a ceilidh for the saturday night and several of us whirled and burled into the wee hours, whilst others just collapsed at the campsite. All was well with the world.

The forecast had been terrible, and although none of the gales or downpours materialised, sunday was damp and the course is always much more of a strain when the roots are slippy and the ground sucky. 3 laps for us with a traditional le mans start, a bike pile (this year it was 69ers) and a huge rammy for the singletrack. Some 250 racers battled around the course, with anja and phil the horse giving us winning performances.

The after party is always a fine affair with a bbq provided, beer, prizes from ever-generous sponsors, a lot of yelling and a band leading to some extremely dodgy dancing.

All too soon, it was time to pack up and move leaving me with a feeling that, at least for a while, the future is in good hands.

SSUK

Off to ssuk...

More after.