[ see my 2009 Trail Blog ]
www.flickr.com
|
This t-shirt is for sale: please see my T-shirt sales page
20/12/2010: Set it straight.
Gosh my posting below hinted that I am way faster then the Moles on a mountain bike. No! Not true! I was faster yesterday simply because I suspect they had along quite a few people that had never ridden on snow before. Hence the moderation of pace as a group. I was riding at essentially normal speed, which as we saw in the summer, was and is perhaps 75% of their tempo when going for it. If you saw me on a bike, then some of those whippets, you'd instantly guess the truth. I was faster yesterday over one little section is all. As a solo rider it'd be hard, if not impossible, to be faster over distance than a core group of committed individuals.
Found the following image on the BBC website; much nicer than the munter above don't you think Dear Reader? Wonder if she was wearing jodpurs?
19/12/2010: It's jerks' like you!
-1 degree celsius when I set off this morning, and 10 centimetres of snow on the ground. Very slippy on the roads, but fine once off-road and onto the hills. Climbed the 300m to the top of the hill, and was taking some photographs when fifteen or so mountain bikers arrived. Turned out to be the Muddy Moles going for a spin prior to their Christmas lunch over at Headley. Had a quick chat, then rode with them for a bit but they were going slower than me, so I rode off - an odd experience that. Last time I was with them they really hammered away, but this time I couldn't really match their pace in the other direction and I was starting to get cold....
Where did I go? Nowhere really, just Banstead Heath for 150 minutes riding off piste through the wooded sections. Probably no more than 20 miles, but slow going in parts. Really good fun; you'd ride along, and the front would fail to make a turn. So I'd stop, adjust my trajectory and move off, all without unclipping or even putting a foot down. The snow was such that I could remain upright whilst still on the bike. The back Panaracer was an odd choice; sometimes it would grip, sometimes it wouldn't so it was a very unpredictable tyre. The front gripped until asked to make a tight turn, when it wouldn't. No real dramas out and about at all, just a happy part solo, part big group ride. The pedestrians that were out and about were friendly; two women even stopped to say how well I was doing. Yeah, right, like riding a bike is a skill. I dismissed them as nonces. In any case they were old and ugly and I didn't fancy making snow angels with them.
Banstead woods were interesting. As you may be able to see from my crap photograph below, the tree branches were so laden with snow that they were no more than a metre from the ground. Lots of snow went down my back, and when I removed my helmet at home I got a good handful out.
The other interesting thing was that I'd be riding along, then there'd be an ominous cracking sound. Sometimes nothing would happen, but quite a few times the cracking would get louder, then all of a sudden I'd drop five centimetres or so into the ground and brown goo would ooze up around me. Now I know these trails, and knew that these were just puddles, but I could imagine being somewhere new and suddenly disappearing. Could also imagine my wife and kids in, say, May wondering where dad has been all this time.
Only one snag; as I set off some pedestrian called out that: "it's jerks like you that cause accidents!" Now I've been spending a lot of time with my five year old boy, so my reply was, and I think Oscar Wilde would be proud of it: "no, it's jerks like you!" Clever that. Really witty. What I should have said was a more adult "fok off!"
Bike had a puncture prior to setting off, so I did a lazy fix on it; removed the valve core and filled it with tubeless sealant. Span the tyre up, puncture gone. Love that stuff.
Now Camelbaks are brilliant ideas. When it's warm. Today I went to take a swig of water, threw the end piece into my mouth and it was like chucking a rock in there. The end had leaked a bit, then frozen solid into a fair lump of ice. From then on each time I drank it was of slush puppy as all the water in the tube gradually froze.
Of course I got back, had a bit of lunch and the path needed clearing of snow. Did that, then took the kids out for a few hours. Got back, cleaned the path until about 4pm. Then our frankly lazy ass neighbours came out to play for their alloted 5 minutes prior to going back to bed [and we've been up since 7am against their 10am]. They wanted a snowball fight, but by then I'd been outside for over 6 hours at zero degrees celsius. Not in the mood I wasn't.
Our Google web page seems to have been attacked somehow. When I turned the PC on, something like www.669669.com came up instead. There I was, eating lunch, and the screen gradually filled up with naked ladies doing things.
18/12/2010: Folksy.
For the first time ever I've managed to get all of my t-shirt designs out for sale on-line at the same time! Somebody told me about a site called Folksy where people such as myself can sell their original 'craft' style goods. Mine qualify as they are hand-drawn then hand-printed here in the UK. It's not a bad site at all, and easier to use than eBay or even, dare I say it, my own web site. I'd like to sell more as then I could do a few more designs. In terms of making money from it, at the levels I do this is a no; my t-shirts are heavily subsidised from my own pocket - I just like doing them.
Actually I'm surprised that I've this many designs already. Looks kind of cool.
15/12/2010: Loons, the pair of 'em!
Night ride last night. Still a bit of ice aound, but not as much as on Sunday. Coming down Reigate Hill I had no grip, and had to really moderate my speed. Now on Sunday myself and AD flew down the same trail, with far more ice on it, in the top ring at more-or-less full speed. I don't know, but we must have really been in tune with the trail. Like one of those drives in Welsh mountains, when you just get the flow of the road right. Either that or we were a pair of nutters as last night the trail was in awful condition.
So apologies to Mr Swearing. I worked out that from the gate on Colley Hill to the Urban Kitchen took us around 6 minutes on Sunday [and that's being generous with the timings - think nearer 5]. Our average speed was perhaps 18mph over the mile. Mr Swearing was probably riding at walking speed, which that day would have been 3mph. He would have taken 20 minutes to cover the same distance. Whilst we waited 5 minutes for him, even that was well short of the 15 minutes we should have waited.
Again apologies to Mr Swearing; we did wait, but didn't realise what nutters we'd been that day.
Anyway, last night. Didn't feel cold but I was riding through a lot of frost and the puddles were covered in thin ice. I left my bike in the hall whilst I got changed, and it was OK initially. 5 minutes later it too had defrosted and left a large muddy puddle behind. Oops!
12/12/2010: An interesting ride.
Myself and AD out today, and not many others to be seen. Very poor turnout amongst the mountain bike brigade. Saw perhaps five others. One chap I stopped to talk to on a Superlight; gave him a compliment about his bike. He didn't return one about ours. Don't you hate that? Next time I'll just point out how brilliant my UK made bike is and ask why he's on old skool American crap with low grade Rock Shox forks. Should re-set the balance. Othe than that social faux pas he was a nice enough chap. Probably passes the port on the right.
Anyway, Dear Reader I hear you gagging to know how the 1.8" rear tyre got on. Very, very well. So well I'm going to take it off and will probably never use it again. Eh? Well it is fast rolling, and does indeed excel in the mud, finding grip anywhere. But, once you up the speed you enter snakebite territory real fast. Tree roots, rocks, all become dangers to avoid. Hmm, rocks, avoid. Tad hard in the mud on the North Downs; chalk and flint hills aren't they [this information for my multitude of Argentinian readers]. Chasing AD down Reigate Hill I hit a rock and had that lovely sensation of rock meeting rim. Didn't even bother to look down, just stopped there and then. Luckily I had a spare inner tube with me. Unluckily it has sat in my backpack for almost two years. It too had a snakebite puncture, which wasn't apparent until I'd put the whole kit and caboodle back together again. So I had to fix the fix. Faff central. But the result is that I'm going to remove said tyre and put my lovely fat Aspen back on. Pity really as the Aspen doesn't grip too well in the mud. It kind of makes the bike into a rear steering machine, which is odd but you get used to it. Sometimes it does drag the front off line. Perhaps I'm being a bit silly with it? I'll see what spare tyre I have in my stash.
Actually with the bike upside down the difference in volume between a skinny 1.8" and a fat 2.25" was obvious. The 1.8" appeared to be less than half the volume of t'other. No wonder I got a snakebite. But then you did predict that didn't you Dear Reader? After fixing it all I put my stuff away, mounted my bike [boy do you have a dirty mind!] and went to ride off only to notice my defunct inner tube on the ground. athe than put it back into my Camelbak I figured I'd tie it around my arm Tour de France Michelin man stylee. Have you ever tried such a thing? Probably OK with a skinny road tube but not a mountain bike one. I got it on happily enough, folded double, but once on it rode up a bit to under my ampits and constricted both my breathing and arm movement. Very silly.
The trails were odd. At the start we were wary of the remaining ice in the hollows, and expected horrid mud. But the trails were essentially dry with sections of slippery surface mud. We had quite a few front end slides, some at speed, but they were of the fun variety, not the "I'm going to hit a tree and break my face" type. By the end of the ride we couldn't give a toss about the ice, and just rode over it without any alteration in our speed. As mentioned, what mud there was, was a gooey slime but it was fairly energy sapping. I felt as though I'd done a much longer ride. AD pretended that he was fit as a fiddle, but I knew deep down he just wanted to cry in pain.
My chain oil - Finish Line ceramic wet lube - was lovely. I like it. Got back, washed the bike down, came up clean and fresh.
Somehow I broke my glasses. Probably age related, but no grief; they were only £30 and have lasted a few years of being bashed into trees.
Where did we go? My default loop to Epsom Downs; I like it and AD has never attempted it. And yes we did stop at Ali's cafe. It's just a natural place to do so. Coffee still shite, and big bollocks was there again, shouting his obnoxious pudgy face off. However, AD was in chatty mode, and if you don't buy a cake it's cheap enough, so it was a happy stop. Made all the better when some young girl stopped to buy a burger. Blond, nice figure, face OK probably after five or six pints, if you work on an oil rig, submarine, or have been married as long as I have. See girls like that everywhere, especially in my dreams. What made this one a bit of a looker were the jodpurs. Don't know why, but a girl in smelly jodpurs does it for me. You always wonder if they're after a bit of rough man for a quick, dirty humpy pumpy in the hay. By Headley we do indeed look rough, even smell a bit horsey, and she was certainly giving me the eye. Me, and not AD you note. He's a bald munter whereas I look like an air brushed Brad Pitt.... However, there is also that worry that if you do get your man out for said humpy pumpy, here's a girl used to being around horses.... and it was a cold day....
After the little stop I went to put my Camelbak on. The bottom was wet, as it usually is at the start of a ride. Normally I put this down to being wet after filling, but 2 hours into a ride this excuse didn't hold... er... water. Anyway at home I had a look at the thing. Two holes in it near the cap - suspiciously like a snakebite puncture. I thought that these things never burst? Looked on-line and the resevoir is £30 on its' own. £30 for a bag! Dug out my £3 Tesco one. Should do the trick.
On the way back we bumped into a guy who was a bit lost. He asked how to get to Brighton. We were on Colley Hill at the time, and naturally asked if he was doing it off-road. "No I'm cun*ing f**king well f**king not" came the reply. I guessed he may have been a little stressed out. Turned out he was following the London to Brighton bike ride route and had got lost. Being on Colley Hill, off-road we were indeed able to confirm that he was indeed lost, and this knocked his confidence a bit. We've both done the L to B and know that it kind of goes via Coulsdon, Fanny's Farm, Merstham - so he wasn't that far off really; a mile at most. We gave him an idea which way to go, and suggested he follow us to the A217, which he did. He rode between us and commented on his journey: "F*cking bike went into a fri**ing tailslide and I co*king well c**ting fell off" type thing. To be honest he was a bit of a bore, but we let him ride with us as he was lost. At the gate he was still with us, and myself and AD rode off happily on the ice with a certain nonchalance borne of being out on it for ages. We waited at the Urban Kitchen for him, but he didn't turn up. Obviously his navigational skills were so poor that he couldn't even follow us along a single path. That or he f**king well c**ting gave the f**k up on us bas**rds and chose to c*cking well c**ting go f**king home.
18/12/2010: Folksy.
For the first time ever I've managed to get all of my t-shirt designs out for sale on-line at the same time! Somebody told me about a site called Folksy where people such as myself can sell their original 'craft' style goods. Mine qualify as they are hand-drawn then hand-printed here in the UK. It's not a bad site at all, and easier to use than eBay or even, dare I say it, my own web site. I'd like to sell more as then I could do a few more designs. In terms of making money from it, at the levels I do this is a no; my t-shirts are heavily subsidised from my own pocket - I just like doing them.
Actually I'm surprised that I've this many designs already. Looks kind of cool.
15/12/2010: Loons, the pair of 'em!
Night ride last night. Still a bit of ice aound, but not as much as on Sunday. Coming down Reigate Hill I had no grip, and had to really moderate my speed. Now on Sunday myself and AD flew down the same trail, with far more ice on it, in the top ring at more-or-less full speed. I don't know, but we must have really been in tune with the trail. Like one of those drives in Welsh mountains, when you just get the flow of the road right. Either that or we were a pair of nutters as last night the trail was in awful condition.
So apologies to Mr Swearing. I worked out that from the gate on Colley Hill to the Urban Kitchen took us around 6 minutes on Sunday [and that's being generous with the timings - think nearer 5]. Our average speed was perhaps 18mph over the mile. Mr Swearing was probably riding at walking speed, which that day would have been 3mph. He would have taken 20 minutes to cover the same distance. Whilst we waited 5 minutes for him, even that was well short of the 15 minutes we should have waited.
Again apologies to Mr Swearing; we did wait, but didn't realise what nutters we'd been that day.
Anyway, last night. Didn't feel cold but I was riding through a lot of frost and the puddles were covered in thin ice. I left my bike in the hall whilst I got changed, and it was OK initially. 5 minutes later it too had defrosted and left a large muddy puddle behind. Oops!
12/12/2010: An interesting ride.
Myself and AD out today, and not many others to be seen. Very poor turnout amongst the mountain bike brigade. Saw perhaps five others. One chap I stopped to talk to on a Superlight; gave him a compliment about his bike. He didn't return one about ours. Don't you hate that? Next time I'll just point out how brilliant my UK made bike is and ask why he's on old skool American crap with low grade Rock Shox forks. Should re-set the balance. Othe than that social faux pas he was a nice enough chap. Probably passes the port on the right.
Anyway, Dear Reader I hear you gagging to know how the 1.8" rear tyre got on. Very, very well. So well I'm going to take it off and will probably never use it again. Eh? Well it is fast rolling, and does indeed excel in the mud, finding grip anywhere. But, once you up the speed you enter snakebite territory real fast. Tree roots, rocks, all become dangers to avoid. Hmm, rocks, avoid. Tad hard in the mud on the North Downs; chalk and flint hills aren't they [this information for my multitude of Argentinian readers]. Chasing AD down Reigate Hill I hit a rock and had that lovely sensation of rock meeting rim. Didn't even bother to look down, just stopped there and then. Luckily I had a spare inner tube with me. Unluckily it has sat in my backpack for almost two years. It too had a snakebite puncture, which wasn't apparent until I'd put the whole kit and caboodle back together again. So I had to fix the fix. Faff central. But the result is that I'm going to remove said tyre and put my lovely fat Aspen back on. Pity really as the Aspen doesn't grip too well in the mud. It kind of makes the bike into a rear steering machine, which is odd but you get used to it. Sometimes it does drag the front off line. Perhaps I'm being a bit silly with it? I'll see what spare tyre I have in my stash.
Actually with the bike upside down the difference in volume between a skinny 1.8" and a fat 2.25" was obvious. The 1.8" appeared to be less than half the volume of t'other. No wonder I got a snakebite. But then you did predict that didn't you Dear Reader? After fixing it all I put my stuff away, mounted my bike [boy do you have a dirty mind!] and went to ride off only to notice my defunct inner tube on the ground. athe than put it back into my Camelbak I figured I'd tie it around my arm Tour de France Michelin man stylee. Have you ever tried such a thing? Probably OK with a skinny road tube but not a mountain bike one. I got it on happily enough, folded double, but once on it rode up a bit to under my ampits and constricted both my breathing and arm movement. Very silly.
The trails were odd. At the start we were wary of the remaining ice in the hollows, and expected horrid mud. But the trails were essentially dry with sections of slippery surface mud. We had quite a few front end slides, some at speed, but they were of the fun variety, not the "I'm going to hit a tree and break my face" type. By the end of the ride we couldn't give a toss about the ice, and just rode over it without any alteration in our speed. As mentioned, what mud there was, was a gooey slime but it was fairly energy sapping. I felt as though I'd done a much longer ride. AD pretended that he was fit as a fiddle, but I knew deep down he just wanted to cry in pain.
My chain oil - Finish Line ceramic wet lube - was lovely. I like it. Got back, washed the bike down, came up clean and fresh.
Somehow I broke my glasses. Probably age related, but no grief; they were only £30 and have lasted a few years of being bashed into trees.
Where did we go? My default loop to Epsom Downs; I like it and AD has never attempted it. And yes we did stop at Ali's cafe. It's just a natural place to do so. Coffee still shite, and big bollocks was there again, shouting his obnoxious pudgy face off. However, AD was in chatty mode, and if you don't buy a cake it's cheap enough, so it was a happy stop. Made all the better when some young girl stopped to buy a burger. Blond, nice figure, face OK probably after five or six pints, if you work on an oil rig, submarine, or have been married as long as I have. See girls like that everywhere, especially in my dreams. What made this one a bit of a looker were the jodpurs. Don't know why, but a girl in smelly jodpurs does it for me. You always wonder if they're after a bit of rough man for a quick, dirty humpy pumpy in the hay. By Headley we do indeed look rough, even smell a bit horsey, and she was certainly giving me the eye. Me, and not AD you note. He's a bald munter whereas I look like an air brushed Brad Pitt.... However, there is also that worry that if you do get your man out for said humpy pumpy, here's a girl used to being around horses.... and it was a cold day....
After the little stop I went to put my Camelbak on. The bottom was wet, as it usually is at the start of a ride. Normally I put this down to being wet after filling, but 2 hours into a ride this excuse didn't hold... er... water. Anyway at home I had a look at the thing. Two holes in it near the cap - suspiciously like a snakebite puncture. I thought that these things never burst? Looked on-line and the resevoir is £30 on its' own. £30 for a bag! Dug out my £3 Tesco one. Should do the trick.
On the way back we bumped into a guy who was a bit lost. He asked how to get to Brighton. We were on Colley Hill at the time, and naturally asked if he was doing it off-road. "No I'm cun*ing f**king well f**king not" came the reply. I guessed he may have been a little stressed out. Turned out he was following the London to Brighton bike ride route and had got lost. Being on Colley Hill, off-road we were indeed able to confirm that he was indeed lost, and this knocked his confidence a bit. We've both done the L to B and know that it kind of goes via Coulsdon, Fanny's Farm, Merstham - so he wasn't that far off really; a mile at most. We gave him an idea which way to go, and suggested he follow us to the A217, which he did. He rode between us and commented on his journey: "F*cking bike went into a fri**ing tailslide and I co*king well c**ting fell off" type thing. To be honest he was a bit of a bore, but we let him ride with us as he was lost. At the gate he was still with us, and myself and AD rode off happily on the ice with a certain nonchalance borne of being out on it for ages. We waited at the Urban Kitchen for him, but he didn't turn up. Obviously his navigational skills were so poor that he couldn't even follow us along a single path. That or he f**king well c**ting gave the f**k up on us bas**rds and chose to c*cking well c**ting go f**king home.
10/12/2010: And the point is?
Yesterday in Clapham saw a guy ride past on his mountain bike. "Man that's wierd!" I hear you say, and you'd be correct for his bike was shod with ice tyres. You could hear him zinging along with the characteristic noise that they make; kind of like a metallic bean bag being rustled. 1) Why have them? 2) Where did he get them - I want some now!
Anyway, the bin men came today, first time in two weeks. Made me think about the council, and their £5m plan to change to a two week collection. Er, why not just stop the weekly collections and be done with it? That would cost nowt. Our bin was still only 3/4 full, as were many others. If your bin overflows, then you have to walk it to the tip yourself. Simple? How does that cost £5m?
Prince Charles - he couldn't give a toss could he? I looked at the photographs and he was so cool about being attacked in his armour plated car.
Looking on some of the blogs it seems that last Sunday was just a shit day to be a mountain biker. They all seemed to make out that they were having fun developing their core skills, but I can read between the lines. Talk of "pushing all the time" and "face planted" kind of gives the game away. Basically they went for short walks with their bikes in the slush and had a miserable time of it. Sometimes you've just got to give it a miss.
7/12/2010: Silly boy.
Went out for a night ride. Zero degrees C, ice everywhere, should be fine. D'oh! Not. Roads slippery as hell, but I figured the trails may be OK. They were shit. Complete ice rink and I was all over the shop. Managed 50 minutes before I gave up. No grip, no traction, no idea. Loved it! Brilliant night to be out. OK I cut it short, but if it wasn't for the ice I'd still be out now. Clear, frosty, quiet.
5/12/2010: Was it my fault?
Bit of snow here, so nobody could leave the town. Children wanted to go out on the sled that I made in February, so we did. However, it proved to be a bit small for a 7 year old, let alone be large enough to pull two children at the same time. So, as mentioned below, I built another bigger, more solid, and more importantly, faster one. Building it larger meant that there is a fair bit of age redundancy; it'll last until they are into their teens... indeed it was big enough for me to use provided that I lay down on it. So, Friday off to the park with my daughter and two friends in tow. All was going well; we'd built a reasonable run in the park. However, I then had a go. Great fun, so naturally my daughter decided to sit on my back. That went well, so well that the other two piled on as well.
That was bad.
Going down the slope, we did it unharmed a good few times. However we gradually made the track longer and faster. That was good. What was bad was that one girl couldn't take the fun, so stuck her foot out to slow us down. Big crash; moi a broken rib, daughter a broken toe.
It wasn't the sled's fault. And next time I will be a bit more careful in trying to engage essentially a cry baby in a rough and tumble activity. Right from the start she only came out as she thought she was missing out on something, not because she'd enjoy it. Moaned the whole time. My fault as I should have recognised the symptoms and stopped it early on. My lying down with a child on my back may also have been a tad silly, but what are dad's for?
Bloody good sled though. Looks factory with some varnish on. Want to build a go-kart now, but prams ae in short supply. Big kid, me?
Hate to say it, but this is the third time I've cracked a rib in three years. Three years' ago I dislocated my daughter's arm trying to stop her falling off a bed, and two years' ago I broke a finger trying to stop my boy falling on to some rocks. Er, he was on my shoulders at the time and it was actually I that fell over. I put my hand between him and a hurting place. Finger snapped. The first time I broke a rib was over guilt; I felt sorry for my daughters arm, so acted the goon on the beach, falling over when she pushed me. It was a sandy beach, but naturally when I fell I landed on the only rock around. I hate broken ribs; how do you sleep or sneeze? And the only person to go to hospital? My daughter. I'm one of those twats that leaves things to heal, and in any case there's not much to do with a busted rib now is there?
Anyway, my point is that in 20 years of doing what is called an extreme sport of mountain biking, I've only had a few cuts and bruises. I take risks, but I know where to push and where to back off a bit. It's doing silly things where I get hurt; mainly it seems innocently trying to entertain my children. One suspects that a 20 year old, or even 30 year old dad would just bounce where I crack. Broken rib from a sled ride in the park? Is there such a thing as social services for parents, 'cause I need some protection! Mainly from myself...
Worked out that in 45 years I've broken 11 bones doing completely stupid things. The most stupid of which was the first, when I was 6. Wanted to see how much hurt I'd be in if I ran into a wall and didn't protect myself at all. That broke my nose, took out three front teeth and left me with lacerations to face and chest. Bloody didn't describe that one, and I still have the scars and one broken tooth. Naturally my caring mom gave me a tissue and told me to go away for being daft. The second most stupid one was when I had some back teeth removed. Eating a peanut afterwards, it went into one of the holes, I bit down on it, bust my jaw. In anger I hit a wall; bust my hand. I'd love to be making this stuff up.
Snow gone. Wife got in a panic over the crap 23 year old car I have lying around. Not been started since temperatures were in the mid teens. I said it'd be fine; big old battery, no electronics working away silently. She said no, you should look at it just in case. Just in case of what? I don't use it too often, and it's literally got a bin load of rubbish inside. She won. Huh, so off I trudged to find it; surprising where these things end up isn't it? 15 minutes walk away it was in the end [for 5 minutes I'd thought it stolen], down some side street practically in the next town. Dumped. Anyway, naturally it started fine and I felt as though I'd wasted 30 minutes of my life. Rather be varnishing the sled from Hell. The car by the way was parked next to something a few decades younger; it looked hideous. What possessed me to buy it? Beer! eBay! Late night!
No ride today; I don't do slush.
Oddly enough myself and AD were in the same building for 2 hours at the same event but did not see each other. I dropped my son off for a party, decided not to go home, but went instead to the cafe inside the sportshall. AD dropped his son off for the same party, and stayed. Normally the women folk do the party runs, so I'd made the assumption that this would be the case here, as possibly did AD. Parents don't normally stay on for such events. Huh; we could have had a right old moan over a coffee. Ah well, ships in the night, but a bit disappointing. I could have done with some company; a sportshall cafe is not my destination of choice.
2/12/2010: Get over it.
"Always coped when I was younger. Schools never closed. Could get to work..." Blah, blah, blah. Much of it is true, but back then people didn't have to travel huge distances to work every day. One invariably worked in the same town; journeys were at most 5 miles, but mainly just a few. People walked and just accepted a bit of lateness. My walk to school was 4 miles; I was 11. No big deal. Now people come in from all over the place; I've worked in London with people that commuted in from the Isle of Wight. Delays add up, eventually the delay becomes the day itself. Plus modern cars insulate people so well they act like right dumb arses behind the wheel when the weather turns sour. Such is life these days.
So, we get snow, we're screwed. Just accept it as a fact of modern life. Unless you get a job closer to home, or ensure that everybody knows how to drive in the snow, then give up. Buy some chocolate, beer, get a film in and get to know your neighbours. Actually that last point is moot. Lots of people seem to have just closed the curtains and stopped in for three days; the only people I've seen out have been a few norms and quite a lot of care in the community. But I'm from the Midlands; I care not who I speak to so long as they don't moither me.
Anyway, here once we'd gotten over being a bit stir crazy [funny, but we'd probably not have gone anywhere, but being told you can't grates a bit] we've had fun. I got the toboggan out that I'd made last year, discovered it was too small, so made another. Made using traditional ingredients; two carpet runners bought for £1.69 and any old wood that happens to be lying around. This time a gravel board, the protective side guard from a child's bed that had been disguarded, and a broom handle. Made it so strong that four of us were able to use it, crash, then do it again and again. I ache all over and my toe refuses to stop bleeding, but, like a dog being asked for a walk, I'd go out again right now.
And before you say that it looks like a piece of shit, well, actually it does as I painted it brown! When you're having fun, who cares what things look like?
On the subject of going out, have you seen the number of people who have absolutely no suitable clothing for the winter? Indeed some people have, say, a single jumper or jacket that suits them for all weather conditions come what may. T-shirt, jumper or jacket, away they go no matter what the elements are doing. Guess whatever rocks their particular boat, but personally I'm much happier being warm when it's cold, and dry when it rains, and put up with slight storage problems, than just own the single jumper or jacket. We had a friend once whose idea of winter clothing was a scarf. All he owned were a selection of t-shirts and a little leather jacket. When it got cold, out came the scarf. Boy did he suffer. But fair play, he's now living in Australia so perhaps he had a point after all.
30/11/2010: I was out.....
Slushy snow of the day turned into proper snow of the evening, along with a temperature of zero C. My cold seemed to have gone as well, so out came the bike and out went I. The snow was perhaps 8cm deep and still falling, but Redhill was gridlocked on the A23. Traffic not moving at all. So I carried on past and up Reigate Hill off road. Took me quite some considerable time and was very hard going. Not just trying to force the padals around, but in trying to balance grip against slip for both front and rear tyres. Took me perhaps an hour to climb the hill. An hour. It normally takes around 20 to 30 minutes right to the top. Anyway, all quiet until I got to the A217 bridge. Man that was chaos. The M25 was moving, but nobody was brave enough to join it so just stopped on the island at the top. Gatton Bottom looked awful as usual. There were a couple of 4x4 rock crawler type vehicles playing in the snow, and they made it look easy. Did hear somebody coming up Dangerous Hill using what sounded like chains; never saw them as they couldn't climb up. Lots of lorries just sitting on the pavement. Ah well, time to go back. Er, well I tried but it was as hard going downhill as it was coming up. My transmission was all frozen up so I had no gears, and the front brake was to be avoided at all costs. Naturally my back brake worked, but only marginally. Managed to get down still clipped in, but my shoulders ache from the effort of constantly catching front end slides. And my helmet light wouldn't work for some reason and I couldn't figure out why. Finally realised that it was also packed out with snow.
A jolly good 2 hour ride, but an awful drive.
Just a thought; why isn't it law to carry a bag of grit in the car come the winter? If each car did its' bit, then all would be fine.
30/11/2010: The D list.
Wife came home early due to the snow, so off we went into town for a coffee. Sitting there she said "Look!" all of a sudden in one of those stage whispers. I looked and it was only Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee less than two metres away. Naturally they heard the whisper and looked at me. What do you do? Smile? Ignore them? Look at said wife and hope a black hole opens up beneath her? Because I've made a lot of wishes lately, the black hole did indeed open up, so now I have to tell my kids that Mommy won't be coming home again because she embarassed me in town. One can never acknowledge a celebrity can one? So infra dig.
Must say that when I'm 70 odd I want to look as fit and healthy as he does. Not a lot of people can say that. And yes he did look like a man who gets to shag a woman 30 years younger than himself. You would too - shes fit looking in the flesh.
After I'd finished my by now lone coffee I popped into Marks & Spensive to see what new clothes they have. Walking around it dawned on me that I am no longer fashionable and am fast approaching 50. Why? I was wearing current range M&S socks, jeans, pants, shirt, jumper and jacket. I looked like a walking manequin. I could have hidden from people just by standing still. Really I need to shop out of Redhill a bit more often. ASDA perhaps?
30/11/2010: Not quite a lot of snow.
I think it's a guy called "Honest John" who is now saying that UK drivers should fit winter tyres to their cars. Yeah right. So you have a fully equiped 4x4, or a car fitted with winter tyres, but there's a moron in front, what do you do. Example: EF55 EOM, black Fiesta trying to park in my road today. Young girl driving, one handed as she's on the 'phone. Wants to park, finds a place, jams on the brakes and skids for all of half a metre. Stops dead, gets out of the car and walks off, leaving the car in the middle of the road, whilst still on the 'phone. Cars back up behind her, and she asks the first driver if he can move her car as she cannot. At no point did she stop her 'phone conversation. There are others, like the people in my street that work or shop in town - it's 1,000m away, so not a big drive is it? Yet they drive in. Or our neighbour who is so time constrained she drives the 250m to the post box at the end of the street. Remove these people from the roads before going out and buying a 4x4.
I've got a cold, so I'm grumpy. Head cold, so my balance isn't quite right. Looks as though my night ride is off for the moment, and I've quite gotten used to it. May go tomorrow instead. Also the snow is just that slushy stuff that's no fun to ride on.
Back to 'phones. I was in a coffee shop yesterday and next to me was a young couple with a two year old child. This child was biting my table, and seemed for want of a better word, retarded. I then noticed that neither parent had stopped their conversations on their mobiles. Not only were they not talking to each other, they weren't talking to the child either. Child wasn't retarded, just completely ignored. Both parents had the manner of people of little income, yet they had iPhones and fashionable clothing on, so I'm guessing the little girl was the final accessory in that picture. Mad me feel really sorry for the little girl.
Bought a folding snow shovel today. The latent Action Man in me has always fancied one, although for the life of me I have no idea when I'll use it. Anyway, the instructions state to keep out of the reach of children, and to store in a cool place away from sunlight. Why? It's a spade made of metal. I keep mine in the garden. What do children build sandcastles or dams with on a beach?
And that thing they say; you know; each snowflake is different and two are never the same. How do they know that as a truth? Is there some worldwide government department that checks? I don't believe it. It's a nonesense thing to say isn't it? May as well say that all dinosaurs were left handed, or that rocks prefer the colour blue. Can't disprove or prove such a thing.
28/11/2010: I cried.
OK let's get the bad bit out of the way. Ali's cafe at Headley. I've come to the conclusion that it's a bit shit. Indeed it's a lot shit, and I've demoted it to crappy roadside cafe status. As such I'll not be going back.
Gosh! What brought this on? Well today I stood patiently waiting to be served. The obnoxious man with the massive hernia was in shouty mode and stood in a position dominating the serving aea. The woman in front of me was dithering, so I had to stand back a little. No problem. It was my turn to be served, and Ali turned around, patently ignored me, stuck he head way out and called out to some dogists on my left as to what they wanted. They gave their order whilst looking at me for the loser I patently was. Hmmm. Anyway being alone and forced to watch the operation I finally saw it for what it is; very cheap food being sold at premium prices to ignorant people. Fair play, the cyclists that were there were very friendly, but eveybody else were obnoxious tossers. I wouldn't mind, but I was in a good mood when I got there and pleased to see it open again. I left grumpy and determined never to go again.
Point one: the food. The cakes are just sugary, flavourless lumps. The coffee is half a teaspoon of commercial grade Nescafe with hot water poured over it. That is not coffee. I managed to spill mine and was annoyed for a micro second before I realised that it was just slightly flavoured warm water. I worked out that the raw materials cost are probably in the order of 10p for both the cake and coffee. For that I paid £2.70. Now the Urban Kitchen over in Reigate have been dissed on several websites for being expensive; I too moaned about them. But on reflection they do serve a proper cup of coffee, and the food is of good quality. They pay rent, rates, employ people, and have invested in coffee machines. They get my money from now on.
Point two: Ali. She's very friendly on the face of things, but obviously favours the dogists over lone cyclists. Dogists are all obnoxious, selfish individuals. Before you moan and say that I'm biased, I've had three dogs. I know deep within that once you own a dog, you become selfish. Point of fact.
Point three: The location. Really good. An ideal spot. So why serve such crap produce other than to screw your customers? I love roadside cafes, and have been to hundreds. Most are shitty places, but a few do really good food. Ali is average quality food at best, with indifferent quality coffee. She smiles because she knows she's just stiffed you.
So sorry Ali, but I'm not going to spend any more money with you. You're the ideal stop point mid-ride from Reigate, but you're just too shitty for me.
Now the ride. Loved it. -2 degrees C when I set off, ground frozen solid. I expected my rear Maxxis Medusa 1.8 tyre to squirm a lot, and to spoil the ride. It didn't at all. Indeed I didn't notice the thing which is always good. It held up very well, didn't squirm or lose traction at all. OK it was a bit harsh over some of the bumps, and my bike looks psycho with it on, but it's going to stop on now for the winter. This cold spell shouldn't last very long, or if it does then it should involve some snow, at which point a mud tyre should work wonders. Talking of which, you just try buying a studdied tyre now - either unavailable, or really expensive at £50 a pop. Not that I'd buy a set. Cheapo moi. Actually I'm not that cheap; the Medusa was £30 which is the most I've ever spent on a tyre. Normally I buy two for £30. Tyres are black round things aren't they?
Out on the trail everybody [bar anybody within 500m of Reigate Hill car park as they are always miserablists] was friendly, especially the horse riders who couldn't have been nicer. Very few walkers out and about, and I didn't see that many cyclists. One guy I literally almost ran into on the NDW; he was hacking down hill whilst I was going up, fair enough, but he was slightly out of control and didn't give me much confidence in his abilities, so I jumped out of the way. He passed me at speed with a cheery if fixed smile, but I heard the clatter of rocks as he locked his back brake up in a big panic trying to stop. All the gear, no idea. One other group I put down as being from inside the M25 as they were pricks. They were stationary on the trail, a few had lain their bikes down on it right in the middle, whilst the last one was standing in front of the swing gate I had to use. Would any of them move out of the way? Nope. I'm not saying the rest of the riders I saw greeted me like a long lost brother, but all said a cheery "hello" so I was happy with that. I don't expect much, but the negativity from the M25 lot was palpable. Perhaps they'd brought along a tag along rider and he'd spoilt things as they did look as though they'd been there some time? And there were some alarmingly 'earliest' riders out; I saw two coming off Reigate Hill at speed at 9am - they were going at speed simply becasue it appeared that their fingers would no longer work, so they couldn't brake. The guy in the lead was blue with cold. Ominous.
The cold wasn't that big a deal though once out and about, so I couldn't see why those guys were blue with cold. Sure the first four kilometers had me wondering why I was out and about, but after that I warmed up nicely. Perhaps I was even over dressed as my back got all sweaty. Guess it's better to be slightly warm than slightly cold. The first bridge over the M25 was a worry as it was all iced up, but from then on the trails were perfect. My new Fox 3/4 length inner lines worked wonderfully. The only thing that I thought could have been better was if I'd used my full suspension bike instead of the PACE. The trails were summer dry, but very rutted and so a touch bumpy. The PACE had me bouncing all over the shop, more than can be accounted for by the narrow tyre alone. I didn't take the Klein as it has virtually slick summer tyres fitted, but they'd have coped very, very well today. I'd have been way faster on that bike.
There are also misgivings about the Finish Line Ceramic wet lube. It went black very quickly, with what appeared to be little bits of sand in it. The chain felt very graunchy, as if I'd been riding on a beach. Fair play, this stuff may have been hidden in the chain links to start with, so tonight I took the chain off and did the plastic milk bottle routine.
You don't know what that is? Oh, sorry.
Old plastic 1 litre milk bottle. Remove chain from bike. Put chain into the bottle, half fill with degreaser [I use brush cleaner as it's dead cheap] then shake the chain until you're really bored. Empty the cleaner of choice back into the original bottle for re-use. Then you have to get rid of the degreaser that's on the chain - car shampoo [salt free] into the bottle, then half fill with hot water. Shake again. Empty, then keep re-filling with hot water until the water runs clean when the bottle is emptied. Remove chain and dry with a cloth. Clean bike transmission. Re-fit chain to bike using a KMC 7/8/9 link pin. Then lube. Sounds a faff but it is by far and away the quickest way to clean a chain properly.
Got it? Anyway I've done that and re-applied the ceramic lubricant. Now spins free and easy. If it goes graunchy next week then I'll bin the lube and go back to my beloved wax.
The other thing that kind of spoiled things today, oddly, was the sun. Coming up out of Epsom Downs the sun was low in the sky and right in my face. For about a mile all I could look at was my handlebar stem. Have you ever done that? Boy is it hard to do off-road. You have no way of knowing what is coming up. When I did try and see where I was going the glare was very disorientating and I ended up riding off the track. But the sun glinting off the frost, with a slight mist in the air, was utterly beautiful and more than made up for my wibbly riding style. Oh and I cleared the little rooty section for once. Pity I was alone so nobody could see my low cunning.
And I cried? Yup; the cold at times was so intense that when I went up to anything above 25mph my eyes ran so badly that the tears splashed onto my glasses and left salt rings as it dried off.
Next time I intend on totally improving this particular circular ride by not stopping at Ali's cafe at all. It would be 100% perfect then.
27/11/2010: Oh. Dear.
Temperature here today never got above 1 degree C, so tomorrow looks to be cold. So, the mud will be frozen. Who has just now fitted a narrow mud tyre to his bike? Ho hum. Actually the trails should not be frozen solid, so I'm expecting some areas to be a film of ice over yeuky stuff. Well, ambitiously hoping. Perhaps I should just change the tyre back? Dunno. Ultimately I don't really give a toss as the ride will just be a cold one.
I was reminded today as to how far mountain bikes have come in the past ten years or so. It wasn't that long ago we were using narrow, hard compound tyres that didn't grip; cantilever brakes that never braked or squealed like a pig or caused the forks to vibrate alarmingly; we had our gear shifters above the handlebars. Said handlebars were usually very narrow, attached to the bike by a stem that could be 150mm long. Pedals were plastic affairs. Most rides involved a fair element of fear; would the bike grip? Would it even stop? Most of the time our rudimentary suspension systems usually bounced us right off the bikes. For around six years, between 1993 and 1999, I went through two forks per year on my bikes as none of them really worked. Wibbly, flexible things with no damping. At one point in 1996 I went back to rigid blades and instantly went faster. I think the RC36 was my first suspension fork that worked, but even they had dire teething troubles with the seals. By then I'd been through the silly [Quasar Linx Evo], the imported [Manitou from America - and always the import duties doubled the price of the forks] and sale items from the UK. Roughly £600 per year, and all were crap but the idea was good. Now I think riders are a bit spoilt; disc brakes that stop in all conditions, ultra grippy tyres, fast gear changes, and suspension that suspends. Forks never seem to require a service, and when they do you can swop them out for new ones for not much more cash. Indeed with the development of the internet when your forks need a service, just rip them off the bike and sell them on to some muppet who doesn't care. Of course one could ride a cross bike if the early MTB days need to be recreated! The only thing that hasn't really changed too much are bike weights. Surely our bikes should be sub 11kg by now?
25/11/2010: Three end, one begins.
It's not easy being a mountain biker. A few weeks ago a cyclo cross rider looked at me as though I was a twat as I struggled up the Pilgrim's Way at Merstham. My rear tyre had packed down with mud and clogged the frame on my Pace, meaning no forward momentum so I stalled half way up, just as he came down. That annoyed me, so this week I bought a Maxxis Medusa 1.8. Tonight I figured on spending ten minutes fitting it. Took the wheel off, tried to take the back tyre off. Stuck on with Stans No Tubes latex. Tightly stuck on. In trying to remove it I punched a hole in the rubber sealing strip; £20 down the drain right there. Plus a tyre lever bent. Bear in mind I use metal core levers..... Eventually got the tyre off after ten minutes, and decided there and then to give up - again - on tubeless. Life really is too short. And how long did it take to fit the new tyre? Not using tyre levers, 2 minutes. Another nail in the coffin for tubeless.
The tyre on looks really weedy. It is a full inch shorter than the Aspen in height, and perhaps 60% less air volume. Now my bike looks really freaky, with a fat front tyre and narrow rear. Whatever it takes to cut through the mud. I can't be alone in going this way, otherwise why would Maxxis produce a 1.8 in the first place?
The second thing to go were the flat pedals. [And doesn't 'pedal' look just wrong written down?] Really they're not me. I can see the point, but I've been physically attached to the bike now for so long that I'm well down the road of being a one system kind of guy on that score.
Third thing to go was the Rock and Roll lubricant. I may use it again in the summer, perhaps, or as a cable lube, but for almost 40 years I've been lovingly applying lube to one roller then wiping the excess off. This "pour a tenth of a bottle on each time you use the bike" is daft in my humble.
So: Tubeless gone. Flatties gone. Rock and Roll gone. I'm not counting the Aspen experiment as gone - man I love that tyre to bits, but the claggy clay is just too claggy this year. But another experiment begins - the 1.8 tyre. Actually is this a beginning or going back to the old ways? Near 20 years ago narrow winter tyres were the norm for the clag. We'll see as the volume really is small.
Going to try the climb out of Merstahm this weekend to assess my tyre choice. I'm guessing the cold may well dry the trails out though. Oh and I'm the Lone Rider again; AD is in Barbados and KD [when was the last time he came out??] is in Belgium.
23/11/2010: 5 degrees C when I left, 5 degrees C when I got back.
Getting colder here folks. Last night was pretty constant at 5 degrees C - so at least I got to find out at what temperature my Endura top works at. The night didn't feel cold, but wife moaned when I opened the door when I got back. Possibly she was moaning that I was actually back? Anyway, getting used to this night riding thingie and went a bit further for a bit longer. Turns out that the houses between Colley Hill and Reigate Hill let their yapping toy dog out at night, so the little shit was free to hassle me as I rode past. One suspects me shouting "f**k off you little c*****g s**t" at the top of my voice was something to be heard in the quiet. Other than that it was quite a pleasant night to be out; relatively clear skies and a bright moon. So bright I turned my lights down to conserve power.
Got back, had a bit of nosh only to notice that my rear tyre had gone flat. Was OK out and about. Huh. I'm a bit lazy with tyres these days. Normal thing would be to take the tyre off, patch the flat and re-assemble. Don't do that so much now. Instead I remove the valve core, add 50cc of Stans' No Flats and pump the tyre up. Figure that if that doesn't work then OK I'll fix the puncture with a proper kit. However this lazy fix invariably works, and means that the tube has some latent protection against flats in the future.
Still not sure about this Rock and Roll lubricant. I'm getting through the bottle at a fair old rate and it's working out at £1 per ride, which is daft as that means over £100 per year on lubricant. I can think of only one type of lube where spending £100 anually would bring joy, and it's not on a bike! Call me a traditionalist, but I'm only happy with bike lube if it gets applied one drop per link. The Rock and Roll you have to liberally apply then completely wipe off. I'm finding that silly as it literally means throwing 99% of the stuff away. How commercially and environmentally sound is that? Actually the environment bit I'm not too bothered about; sploshing it everywhere and watching my cash disappear for needless reasons I am.
I also took a peek at the bottom of my new riding shoes. Huh again. They're getting chewed up from the V8's I've fitted. It also seems silly having differing systems on differing bikes. Plus I'm a bit old for flatties aint I? I'll chop them out this weekend. Also on the agenda is a change of rear tyre for the PACE. Whilst I still love the Aspen, and can't really fault it, there isn't a fat lot of clearance at the rear and I'm tired of mud clogs. So I've just ordered a Maxxis Medusa 1.8 mud tyre for the rear. 1.8 seems narow, but about ten years ago it all made sense for the winter. It's only recently that we've all got accustomed to big fat tyres. This makes sense people. Look at cross bikes, or full on rally cars; they all go thin when it gets muddy or snowy. I may put the grippy 42a Maxxis downhill tyre on to the front though, especially if this winter gets as cold as predicted. Snow tyres for cars are essentially of a soft rubber compound, so the same theory should hold true for an MTB?
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Never ending isn't it?
Talking of lube, have you ever been into Anne Summers? I do as part of my job, and have no problems and can happily spend hours in there measuring things against my standard 14 incher. However you just try going in as a punter. I walked past one six times before I went in, and then bought something at random - possibly the cleaners mop as I threw it away afterwards. Wife tut tutted me, as they do. One day she was in Epsom and remembering me, went in. Well, she tried to, but gave up after walking past it several times! British? Reserved? No way!
21/11/2010: Lies, lies and statistics.
For want of something better to do, I've just spent 5 minutes of my ebbing away life looking through my web statistics. Now it's not that interesting a tale Dear Reader, but worthy of mention here. My biggest readership is here in the UK. Natural enough. My next biggest at one third the size of my UK hits is the good old United States of America. Now I've been there about 15 or so times, and love it to bits so I'm happy with that one. But where do you think we go from there? Yes, you guessed; my next biggest in terms of readership is good old Argentina. Er, say it again? UK 1st, USA 2nd, Argentina 3rd? Yes, 'tis true Dear Reader.
Follows the ratio 3:1 then 4:1. Is that 3:4:1 then? Don't know, but here is my maths: For every 300 UK readers I have 100 American ones. For every 100 American readers I have 25 Argentinian ones. I've just looked at the statistics for the past two weeks or so, so it may not be accurate for a whole year, but having Argentinian readers is pretty cool. God bless Argentina!
Guess the places I most want to visit in the world? Goes: Poland / Alaska / Iceland (again 'cause it's so bloomin' brilliant) / Argentina / Oregon in no particular order. So Dear Argentinian Readers if you have four airline tickets to your fine country that you wish to pass on free to me, then do go ahead. Don't let me hold you back.
Going back a bit. You ask: You have 300 UK readers, in 2 weeks? Well, yes I do. In fact I have over 600 'hits' in that time period. I don't advertise this site anywhere. All the hits are from Google searches [OK yes I hear the comments already: Search for "sad tosser"]. The web is a wonderful place isn't it?
21/11/2010: Not many out there? Fade to grey or leaden skies?
Very grey day today, and I suspect this culled a lot of the mountain bikers as the trails were bereft of souls. I saw a few; one woman alone really hacking down to Epsom along the flint path, three at Haedley [well two and one extremely hacked off and tired looking follower] and two others. These last two, curiously, I saw pushing their bikes up Reigate Hill only to see them 3 hours later pushing them down again. Why take them?
I did a bit of a tortuous, circular loop to Headley via Banstead Heath and Epsom Downs [similar to last Sunday but with a few "I'm on my own" exploration detours]. I was alone, and had left base camp at 9am, so a good 45 minutes earlier than normal, hence the big loop out as a time in-fill. Actually what I'd planned was a big loop, a short stop at Ali's cafe, then a quick NDW blast home via the golf course. So there I was, 150 minuites of riding out, coming up to Ali's for a steaming coffee and stodgy cake. Really looking forward to it in an "I've been out for a long time, alone with a bag of water for company, and I'm getting tired and cold and need cake" kind of way.
Closed.
Bugger. So I had a sip of mouldy Camelbak water and half an energy bar. Really is there anything so dispiriting than a cold enegy bar eaten alone at a closed cafe? True I could have been in Weston-Super-Mare or Wolverhampton and been really disappointed with life, so it wasn't that bad, but.... I take a thermometer out with me [as one does] and it registered 6 degrees C on Headley Heath. For food all I had was a protein energy bar that I'd stuffed into my pack in May. It was pretty much rock solid and tasted of cardboard. Not that I've eaten cardboard, but you get the picture.
Cold energy bar, mouldy water, alone in the cold. 'nuff said on that one. Come back Ali! Who goes on holiday in November I ask?
Very muddy out, but in places it was a thick, semi-dry sandy mud. Naturally where it was a bit dry it was essentially thick sand and leaf mulch. Naturaly these zones were after wet mud sessions. It all combined together into one big horrid mess. I must have carried a kilo of the stuff home. And why does a British built bike, the Pace RC303, have such limited frame clearance? The amount of times I clogged up and stalled was ridiculous. The rear tyre is only a 2.25" aspen. Not a big tyre at all. At least the chain kept running smoothly with my new lube.
Talking of which, how many hobbies have grown men openly discussing which lube they use? AD told me that he uses one that goes on wet, dries quickly and results in a good, long ride with little friction and leaves things clean afterwards.
The Rock 'n' Roll Extreme seemed good stuff, although I am a little wary of how quickly the bottle is emptying itself. Looks like £1 a ride in lube use alone? Better buy the bigger bottle next time. Actually I may not seeing as how today I ordered a bottle of that new Finish Line ceramic wet lube. Heard some good reports about it, so may as well give it a go. Can't hurt now can it?
And silly though it is, the rear Maxxis Aspen found grip in the most unlikely of places. True with a more grippy tyre I could have gotten through some deeper mire, but as such bits were probably less than 10m in length over the whole ride, then I'm happy to lose a bit of grip now and then for a lot of acceleration all the time. Of course things weren't helped that when I set off there were only 10psi thingies in the rear tyre; so in a fit of haste i pumped it up to 38psi thingies. 38psi thingies is waaaaay too hard for me; 30psi thingies is more me. Man that wasa solid back end that bounced a lot. I've a normal, grippy front but this was of no help coming down the tree roots on Reigate Hill. It was like trying to pilot a canoe up rapids. The bike was all over the place. I suspect that sometimes the back end loses grip and drags the front off course. Had a few near misses, but in a curously detached way, as if somebody else was having the accident. Suspect if I'd actually hit a tree the curiously detached attitude would no longer prevail.
The other nagging thing was a finger. I don't bite my nails, but during the week had a little spur sticking out the side so bit it off roughly. On my ride the finger started to hurt more and more. When I got home it was swollen red with a white centre. Oh. Dear. Got a pin out, jabbed it and a good ooze of pus came out. Quite delightful in a male kind of way.
Sorry to say, and apologies to all the hardened MTB'ers out there, but I cleaned the Pace. Really my excuse being that it was minging and covered in crap. More apologies, and this was really unwarranted but my latent OCD came to the fore.... Got a can of pledge out and cleaned the forks. And spokes. And rims. But I stopped short of actually cleaning the frame. I'm not a girl!!
The best thing I saw was a woman clearly at ease with herself and not out to bag a male fancier. Why do I say this? Well in a manner equally as nice as my finger of pus, she'd hung one of those little plastic bags full of warm dog turd from the front zip of her jacket. Said zip was done all the way up as it wasn't that warm a day. So hanging from her neck was a bag of dog eggs.
20/11/1020: Blackberry friendly.
I have been asked by the Blackberry people to cap my 2010 blog as it doesn't open on the train to work. So here is my new Blog Lite. I'll do a 7 day blog, then archive it in the 2010 blog. Happy now Blackberryists? Good!
Bought another camera from the charity shop, this time an APS Canon Ixus L-1 for the grand total of £5, in the rarer black. Came with the remote control unit as well. Still a Billy Bargain as the remote can sell for £5 alone. I had an APS years ago when they first came out, and that cost me something daft like £200. The APS system itself was always a bit crap, but I didn't buy it as a quality item; I bought it as the whole unit weighs less than 200g so I can happily carry it out on my mountain bike. And it must be said that I'm not a professional photographer, and neither do I submit images to Getty for re-sale, so quality isn't that important to me. Recording an event a bit more so, but I'm not one of those that has to photograph everything. Have you noticed those that do engage in recording every detail of something, they actually miss out on being a part of that something? Life through a lens baby!
Interestingly Dear Reader you are not alone. One could say that you're part of the Workshopmanualman Massive. Well one could if one was uncouth. Anyway it would appear that there are 70 or so regular readers out there. So welcome to you the other 69 newbies! I suspect that I'm getting some fallout from my two local and direct web competitors going through, for want of a better word, bit of a boring patch. The Moles, well no idea what gives there but their posting rate has dropped dramatically, whilst poor old Diary is getting over an injury. Good luck to you Sir. Whatever I am happy to have you all here.
18/11/2010: I was wrong.
No not about the runners. I still find them annoying, what with their sweaty bodies, silly shaped water bottles and resistance to actually deviate from the fastest, most efficient route. No I was wrong about changing my domain name. Turns out it is entirely in my control; so I've done it. I'm www.MuddyGround.com - well will be in 48 hours when the change takes place. How cool is that? Just think in 20 years time you Dear Reader can reflect back on the time when you first heard that name. You can then ponder at leasure on either: a) my enormous success and resultant wealth creation or: b) wonder what ever happened to the officious little prick.
Stop looking for the posted ride of Tuesday night. My bike was still in for repair then. On Wednesday it rained; I don't do rain after work. Weekends fine, nights no thanks. Anyway Lee at C & N Redhill did a fine job of servicing my Fox forks for £80. OK I could have done it myself, but they'd still be in bits and social services would be around questioning why there was so much shouting t'other day. Are my kids being treated right?! In any case, £80 for a full annual service isn't bad when you consider that they have to strip and rebuild the front end. Just don't tell the house financial advisor that I spent money on myself 5 weeks before chrimbo. Getting the bike back was interesting. In one week I've gotten used to fat tyres; my Tassajara has skinny 2.1's on it and I was worried that they'd be too harsh to ride. Twat. But go on, admit it; 2.1's don't half look skinny. As for the flat, narrow bars.... Naturally once I did ride it the forks felt exactly the same as they did prior to the service.
Update! I somehow screwed up - well it is a learning curve. What am I on about? Well, Dear Reader have you got 5 minutes? Jolly good! I want to be a .com on my website. So I registered that, then I set the shop up to suit. My shop is hosted, and to change the .com to the host cost me £24. OK so far? Well, turns out that a .com address has to be owned for 60 days prior to change. I've owned it 7. So now I've paid £20 for the .com address, and £24 to change it over, only to find that there was no need to register it in the first instance, and that in any case I can't do anything with it for 53 days. So my 6 weeks estimate was far too short a time span. A real D'oh! moment, but then where do you learn about this stuff? School of life it seems, and I'm well on my way to a honours degree there. Thus I am still: http://www.ekmpowershop19.com/ekmps/shops/tulpen/index.asp
Been looking at some local websites [Muddy Moles and Diary of...]. Both seem a bit timid these days, perhaps due to the onset of winter, but nobody has much to say. I don't look to them for inspiration, or as some psychologists would have you believe as surrogate friends or father figures, more that sometimes work is just so dull that any deviation from work is a bonus. But of late the deviation has been way more boring than work. Come on; cheer up and write some decent prose.
17/11/2010: My new web site!
Well I've finally pulled my finger out and have a new web site that goes by the rather catchy name of:
http://www.ekmpowershop19.com/ekmps/shops/tulpen/index.asp
Runs off the tip of the tongue don't you think? Er not! I do have www.muddyground.com ready to go, and it's only a question of getting one corporate giant to change something trivial on their server to do so. Should take about six weeks. What it does mean is that I've removed from Workshopmanualman all sales. As I am not sponsored, or receive advertising revenue for this site, then it is fully independent. I can say what I like. Quite a few mountain bike sites are starting to take money in order to pay for themselves. I can see the sense in it, but it's a bit tawdry isn't it? There you are, looking for a ride around Dorking or such, but there's a banner advert for Tampax, or weight loss pills, or, well anything floating above the guide. A bit off in my opinion. Possibly that's the price you have to pay for some of these sites that feature active reader blogs? How can you accept their product reviews as being accurate?
On the subject of Muddy Ground, yes I do realise it's a bit close to Muddy Moles, another local website, for comfort. However, I've had the name for years against a t-shirt and mug design - you know the score; I've spent ages doing the work on that so have gone too far down that path to change! I'd put all that together before I discovered the Moles. Hey Ho! What do you do? Accept that one looks like a copy cat and stiff it out, or go back to square one? Sometimes name options just present themselves for a similar resolution. And anyway, who cares?
16/11/2010: Tate Gallery.
Another day another London. This time I'd located a nice Starbucks by the Tate that opened at 7am. What this meant was that I could get into London nice and early, missing the packed trains. Take a few photographs of the sun rising above Tower Bridge, then retire for coffee and a muffin whilst reading the paper. How civilised is that? More so; crossing the Millenium Wobbly bridge [it still wobbles by the way] I saw Ben the chewing gum painter at work. I was seriously impressed. On reflection he may be sponsored by the Tate now, but I was pleased to see him at work.
Now I had a few walks down the Thames path. So my question is; what is it with runners? Why do they all exclusively feel that they own the path and have the predominant right of way? As a walker I've lost count of the number of times they expect me to give way. "Oh, you run this path every morning do you? Fine, sorry. Didn't realise that use meant ownership. In that case I lay claim to all of the trails featured here on my website. Now you can all go away and stop using them please." Really, runners on the Thames can be tossers at times. Unlike us walkers, who are lovely and don't get in the way at all.
15/11/2010: This mortal coil.
You know that age is creeping up on you when people you knew from college start to die from natural causes. I was on a computer forensics course today, and bumped into somebody I knew from 20 years ago. When asked if she'd seen any of the old crowd, the answer was yes; at a funeral. Eek! How do you follow that? Turns out that the woman who died, at 42, had changed career to being one of those life advisers that you hear about. Possibly something ironic there? Also another guy I knew at the same time has recently had a heart transplant and was given a year to live before he had it. He's in his 30's but apparently looks 70. Blimey.
Now I'm not about to go all maudlin on you Dear Reader. Well, actually why not?
We're all gonna die! Die I tell you, die! There's no point living. I'm gonna die. You're gonna die.
There, got that off my chest.
Normal service [oops, bad word] will be resumed.
Fo some eason my keyboad doesn't type the lette ' ' and I don't know why. It's a new keyboad so should be fine. Annoying. My typing is like listening to Jonathon oss speak. Met him once; my doesn't he swea a lot? Fecking this, fecking that. And this, mind, was at a copoate do. Perhaps if I hit the r key a bit harder it will work?
C-c-cold this morning. Hope it dries the trails out for the weekend.
14/11/2010: Glastonbury.
Mud was the theme for today. Lots of it everywhere resulting in no grip from either the front or rear tyres for much of the ride, as the mud was either a quite fine clay and chalk mix, or just plain clay or chalk. One of those days where you had to predict to where the front would slide to, then kind of aim your bike to that point. On some chalk covered tree roots on Colley Hill the front washed out and I ended up actually jumping over the handlebars, which was an odd experience. Often we'd be travelling along at 45 degrees to the trail as our rear tyres struggled to find grip. A real test of technique. I was OK at the start, managing to balance torque output against slip but gradually as I tired out I lost the plot and ended up walking through the worst of it at the end. It didn't help that at the start of the ride it was almost ten degrees C, rose a little but then dropped to six degrees C towards mid-day as the rain picked up.
At the start of the ride there were two of us; myself and AD. But at one point unbeknown to me his clipless pedals were giving him grief and he'd slowed down. Naturally this was staight after he'd answered one of my questions, so I assumed he was right behind me. We got split up and both independently employed the same techniques to find the other. This, of course, meant that we never did find each other and both continued on independently. I think that my trail guiding must work as in the end we both got back to Reigate within 5 minutes of each other after nearly 150 minutes of riding. Perhaps I should have just taken a mobile 'phone though.
This is one of my favourite routes around here, and I've logged it as the Epsom Massive on @Trip. Not sure when I'll be doing this one again, but I may well post it up on some forum to try and get a few other random strangers out. You can see on the @trip data where I lost AD!
One of the things I did today was change to a wet lube. The bottle said it was for extreme use. I'll not say what it was here [OK it was White Lightning Wet Ride] but it lasted 2 miles and one wet puddle. Not really extreme was it? I don't call 2 miles of road use in the dry and one little puddle extreme. AD suggested getting some Rock and Roll, but he moaned at the price of £9.50 for a 4oz bottle. So off I went to Wiggle land and found it for £6. Also got some new 3/4 inner liners for my shorts as I'm a bit tired of cold legs. Another £50 spent, ho hum. Hopefully I'll not be spending any more dosh on bikes this side of Christmas. There are other things in life.
Talking of shorts. Why do we wear them on mountain bikes? Mine are of a cargo design, with multi pockets. I've never used the pockets, so they are redundant aren't they? As are the shorts really. When I first started MTB'ing I used the bib shorts, and they were ideal. Warm and would dry quickly when it rained. I got tired of contorting my body into a 'C' shape to wee though. I understand roadies wee down their legs when wearing them, but I'm not about to do that now am I? I don't do that even after ten pints of Old Stoggie.
The flat pedals and Shimano DX shoes? Took a bit of getting used to after years of being clipped in, but I got the hang of it. Ended up being the clever choice. AD had trouble with his clips, and myself when my bike slipped my foot was instantly off the pedal. As mentioned at one point the front washed out and I just jumped over the handlebars. Normally that kind of thing results in a big tumble. My feet were also toastie warm. The only negative was a lack of grip when walking, but then I am supposed to be riding.
13/11/2010: Sometimes one can't stop being a bit OCD about things.
I went from a wax lube on the Tassajara to an oil based one last week, so it only seemed fitting to do same for the PACE RC303. Well, there's two hours wasted for you. The PACE I don't clean so often; quite frankly if I did, and the bike could talk, it would call me a poof for doing so. It just seems right to be a bit dirty. But in changing from wax to oil lubrication the chain needs cleaning. Now that wax is all pervasive. Naturally the chain was gunked up with it, as were the sprockets and rear mech. But also the rear rim was covered in droplets of the stuff, as were the spokes and frame. Have you ever tried to clean wax off anything? Well imagine trying with a wax designed to be sticky and not come off. Took bloomin' ages. In the end the whole bike got a clean and polish. It is now sulking in the corner, not happy with the shine it has. Sorry bike. Didn't mean it. It'll probably give me a good kicking tomorrow.
On the tube the other day I got to think of the residue that travellers leave behind. Bit of hair, some skin, sweat, sick; a tube carriage must be full of small, personal stuff that can tell a story. Then I got to think, well what if the CSI people looked in detail at a bit of trail we use. How much information could they get from our passing?
"Here's a guy who uses wax lubricant in the winter. He's also got a semi-slick tyre. What kind of sicko freak are we dealing with here? Hey look! Clearly his Camelbak resevoir is all gunked up - look at the yeuk that's in his sweat as a result. Bet he's never cleaned it out. Not sure what bike he's riding, but he must be a bit of a lard arse judging by how deeply his tracks have gone into the mud. Here's some yellow wee - when was the last time this freak drank? And he's a bit of a crappy rider; look at the line he took here - all over the shop. Clearly we're dealing with a guy that works in an office during the week, eats muffins for beakfast and is generally lazy with his kit. Narrows it down to 95% of the riders out there."
Watched Under Siege 2 last night, the one where Seagal is on a train. Boy do they ham it up. "But Bobby, how can I run a restaurant? The patriots only come here for you!" And Seagal takes himself so seriously that I actually find the films kind of funny. I mean they're awful really - a SEAL chef? One who catches a train and ends up saving the world? Happened to me only last week on the way to Horley. Surely it happens to you as well? No? Boy are you fucked up.
Sometimes the way that newspaper stories are written interests me for the style, not the story. Take this one for instance:
"A man has been killed and his wife critically injured in an attack by a bull in Nottinghamshire.
The couple, wearing walking gear, were near the Leicestershire border at about 1630 GMT on Friday when it happened."
Well what has them wearing walking clothing got to do with the bull attacking them? Didn't it like Karrimore then? The other one I liked concerned a 62 year old woman near Weymouth. The story reported that her friend's became worried when they couldn't find he one day. They were so concerned that the local search and rescue were about to be mobilised. Turned out that she'd gone for a walk and came back a little later. You'd like to live there wouldn't you? Pop out for a paper and coffee in the morning, come home to find sniffer dogs in your garden and a helicopter hovering overhead. I'd never leave home.12/11/2010: One to Islington please.
Went on my corporate branding event today. Every bit as boring as it sounds; some senior Policeman moaning to us in a shouty voice that there's no joined up thinking. Couldn't stop thinking of Life on Mars. Where do they get senior Policemen from? Must breed them 'specially. I looked around the room during the lectures and every single person was bored. Most were sending texts. I suspect that the speakers knew this, and possibly getting onto the speaking circuit may be a good gig. Anyway, discovered 3 things; that looking at the designer stuff from around the world, in terms of t-shirts mine are as good as anybodies. 2: That even senior industry people are in awe of Jay-Z. I mean really in awe. He must be some man? And 3: boy isn't Islington an interesting place?
So, Islington. OK it was dusk on a winter's night, a time when I feel that cities are at their best, but there was a real mix to the place that I found charming. Coming from Surrey I'm used to seeing expensive houses, but some of the ones in Islington were clearly in a different league money wise. OK you get your £20m mansions here, but they are the exception. Today there were hundreds of what looked like £3m town houses dotted around. Big piles right next to the Emirates stadium. But typical of London next door could be a squat for Israelis or whatever. So you'd have big houses with rich people, and the little bijou shops and snug restaurants associated with old money, but they'd be mixed in with kebab shops, dry cleaners, or Asian supermarkets. Really why have I never noticed this place before? When I first came to London we moved to Sutton. How interesting a place is Sutton? It isn't. From there to Redhill. Why didn't we just buy North of the river? Instead of relaxing into suburbia we could now be trading upwards into the property market, and be in a million pound flat. OK there are downsides, like London is fundamentally a shit hole unless you have real cash to burn, and if you did live centrally you'd have to join the 'Chi' set and decamp to a beach house at weekends.
I've lived in and around London for 20 years now. My job involves being out and about, and I know South London as well as any cabbie. Plonk me down anywhere blindfolded and I can find my way back pretty quickly, or plot you a route to somewhere better. Today near the Emirates I got comprehensively and luxuriantly lost. It's been a long time since I've been lost in London, and I enjoyed trying to find my way around and back out entirely on foot. OK I could have bought an A to Z, or asked somebody, or used Google mapping, or got a taxi/bus/tube but where's the fun in that? How can you find stuff out if you're just finding instant and obvious answers by googling it? Nope, much better to get lost every so often. In the end it only took me 45 minutes to find a way out, and I'm as ignorant as to North London now as I've ever been, but at least now I know what lies within a mile radius of the Emirates.
Got my Shimano DX shoes. Children commented that they look daft. I'm 45. I should know better than buy something that would appeal to a 19 year old. Fitted flat pedals to the PACE. Good idea, but don't like it in the flesh. 15 years of being clipped in gone in a flash. Bound to ride like a twat now. Actually 100% confident of that; I ride like a twat all the time anyway.
And my new t-shirt and mug prototype underground design arrived. Like it a lot, but needs work. Mug kind of stunning. Really proud of that one. I like doing stuff; no point having an idea sit in your head. Around here we have lots of people on silly money; think of a big number. Go on; £250,000 per annum? Not big enough; our doctor earns that. £250k is peanuts to some people here. I know a guy with a few million pounds worth of photographic negatives in his loft. Anyway, my point is that one would assume that such people are different, somehow special and beyond us mere mortals. Yet show them something that you've made, or designed from scratch and you can instantly see them being genuinely impressed. OK they're not about to let me sleep with their trophy wives, or take their Ferrari or Veyron [2 up the road from me at one point] out for a spin, or name their first born after me, but you get the point? They may make oodles of money, but they're still people who can be impressed with stuff you do. Naturally I'm not talking about bankers or politicians; they seem to be a different race of beings entirely. A race fuelled by testostarone and bullshit, and our money.
Did you see that student throw a fire extinguisher off that building? Man that was bad. Those Police were really lucky. If that'd hit properly they'd have been mash. Guy deserves to go down for a long, long time for that one.
Still can't get interested in F1. Alonso will probably do the deed. To me F1 needs either 2 guys fighting it out [Alonso v Schumacker / Mansell v Senna / Hamilton v. Anybody] to be interesting, or have some guy like Schumacker rub it in everybodies faces every two weeks. I think Alonso, when his head is screwed on the right way around, is probably the best driver ever of the modern F1 era. Hamilton is a genious, Senna was sublime, Schuey a complete and utter c**t, but Alonso seems to have it all in one big F1 package. But in just doing f1 none of them can ever claim to be the best driver ever can they? Jim Clark, Stirling Moss etc. did it all didn't they? And did it after shagging every woman in sight whilst swigging on Jim Bean and smoking woodbines. Alonso comes into the room, you'd be impressed for ten minutes then you'd get bored of the man. Stirling Moss came in and started chatting away, he'd never stop and you'd never want him to.
10/11/2010: Bit boring innit?
Today I set aside ten minutes to clean the Tassajara after last nights mud fest. I don't need to say that it took 30 minutes just to clean the chain now do I? I use Squirt through the summer, which is a dry, wax based chain lubricant. My normal cleaning routine doesn't wash the wax off, so it gradually builds up. Everywhere. It's not a problem during the summer, as it does disappear one assumes due to the heat and friction. But in the winter it just builds up. Quite horrid to look at, and can't be too efficient. So, seeing as how it is November, I've gone over to the heavier winter lubricant. No recommendations here as I use any old stuff that I have lying around. Took the bike for a short spin afterwards and it felt really smooth with no transmission noise. I also checked the Fulcrum Red Metal 5 wheels out; no lose spokes and the bearings run true and smooth. For the £160 or so they cost two years ago, they are brilliant. Really brilliant wheels.
As I'd spent an hour cleaning the bike to almost perfection, it seemed only fair to get the Fox F90RL forks serviced, so off I popped to C & N in Redhill with the bike in tow. Yes I know I should do it myself, but years of stripping motorcycle forks down has shown me one thing; it can take ages to do, you can get messy, and invariably you'll be missing a part that take 3 days to arrive by post, so just find a competent mechanic to do it instead! Go on, call me lazy if you will. I don't mind doing a lot of things on the bike, but some I just can't be arsed with. Lee at C & N is a good guy and always treats me right.
Wife person pointed out that my existing shoes look like shit and so I should buy some new ones. Er, when I use them I effectively plaster them in mud, so who cares if they look crap? She then pointed out that I've had them ten years or so, and that recently I spent an hour glueing them back together. Not the soles, the tops. So in lots of places they are all shiny with glue. She may have a point. Turns out Wiggle have a sale on right now, so I've ordered a set of those lovely white Shimano platform shoes for £50. No not Shawaddywaddy stylee; for platform pedals. D'oh! I'll keep my glued together ones for night riding. Means the PACE will have to go over to platform pedals, but hey! it's the winter so why not? At least then I'll be able to ride down Break Neck Gulley in Reigate. Does mean that today I spent £50 on shoes and £80 on getting my forks fettled. Last week it was £25 on a torch and £10 on new batteries. Not a cheap sport this one is it?
Boy child was a right bastard tonight. We try and keep our front room for adults, but the kids use it as well. We just try and keep it clear of toys and wife puts her crockery stuff in there. The children have to behave, as some of the stuff has sentimental and real value. So tonight I find Bastard Boy Child knocking a ballooon around the room. I went mad, and it was instant naughty corner. For a balloon? You're hard. Yeah right. He's 5 and he was hitting the balloon with the vacuum cleaner extension. Essentially he was swinging a 5 foot metal pole around the room. Bastard Boy Child is made of leather; he couldn't give a shit and sat in the corner humming away whilst rolling his eyes and saying "yeah right" to everything. It's funny now, but I was mad at him then. Later on at Choi Kwang Do he was rude to the instructor. This particular instructor is 6 foot tall, Geordie, covered in tats and is, just, well a nutter. I call him Sir. You'd call him Sir too. Bastard Boy Child sticks his tongue out at him. What hope have I as a dad? I've banned tv for a week, but that's an easy stretch to do; tv is shite anyway. At least he was guilty enough to eat his veg tonight. All of it as well - I didn't find any on the floor.
It's nasty being a parent. One of those lose-lose type situations. They know you can't kill them dead, tie them up or put them into cold baths like you'd want to, so they run wild. Until Nan turns up, then they are angels.
9/11/2010: Out again dear?
Another sneaky night ride bagged. Tuesday seems to be the only 'family event' free evening I have. Must say my new lighting combo works well. The torch on the handlebars now fills in the long distance that is missing from the Nuke Proof Reactor. Indeed it works so well that I only used the helmet mounted light on the descents. So for less than £150 I've got around 1250 lumens of output. And this isn't some lash up of a system; the Nuke Proof Reactor normally retails for £200+ and the torches I have are CREE, aircraft grade aluminium ones. On the road they have their limitations in that there is no output of light from the side, but the road I use is fairly quiet and has few side turnings so not many cars around. One tip I would suggest is to use 2,750 mAh rechargeable AA batteries - indeed only buy lights that use AA batteries. Why? Well the rechargeables last longer, and you can get AA ones anywhere. You try getting a replacement for your custom lights out in the middle of nowhere. OK the Nuke Proof uses a custom battery jobbie, but last night I tried riding without it as if in an emergency and things were OK. Not good, but OK.
Actually on lights. The torches are fine at picking out detail and filling in a light hole at distance. However I wouldn't use them exclusively, and would suggest you go out and buy the best quality bike specific light you can afford. I've no idea how my eyes work, but it seems that they need quite a broad spread of light at the peripherals of vision. Guess my brain is trying to build up an image of the ground and surroundings?
Night riding also trains you to react to the mud a little better. S'OK during the day to mash the cranks around, as you can see what you are riding through and react before a spin happens. At night you've got little idea what's happening beneath your wheels so have to be able to tame the torque output right down quite quickly yet at the same time maintain traction. I'm guessing roadies call it spinning? Perhaps instead of my tubeless tyres having better traction than AD's tubed versions, I was calming things down better than he was, and actively seeking out traction through spinning? Whatever. The other thing I've noticed is that you and your bike get absolutely covered in mud; more so than a day ride. Here the reason is obvious; in the day you can avoid riding through trails streams simply because you can see them. At night often because of the fallen leaves you can't even see the trail, let alone make a decision as to where to ride on it.
You also see some funny things, especially in the car park on top of Reigate Hill. Can't work out why, but there must be two sorts of people out at night; the invisible walkers as half the cars have only one person in, yet I see no walkers, so they must have some sort of Klingon cloaking device. The other group are the sociable drivers, as half the cars have two people in.... Fun aiming the helmet light into their windows.
No rustling in the woods this week [where are you tonight Mr Badger?] and I'm getting used to the silence when one stops. Indeed the silence is now welcome. Oh and the one main advantage to night riding? I can be like the dogs when I need a wee; just stop and do it wherever I want. Not quite gone as far as taking a dump and hanging it in a little blue plastic bag from a tree yet, but I'm tempted.
I've put in an order for one mug and one t-shirt based on my underground Surrey design. From experience sometimes a design looks a bit odd once you see it in the flesh, so now for my designs I'm going to oder a sample in. Does make sense; £15 for a single custom printed shirt or go straight out and splash £500 getting 50 printed up?
Still trying to work out how to change my web address at no cost. Perhaps I'm being cheap and nasty. Anyway I'm attending a corporate gig on Friday to do with major label branded goods, so I might steal a few ideas.
9/11/2010: Going corporate.
I'm rebranding.
Workshopmanualman is an historic name that I used originally for an on-line bookshop. The bookshop died around 2006, but the name lived on as I'd set up and paid for the site. In other words I was being cheap. Indeed the name 'workshopmanualman' has lived for so long now that the significance of it has become confusing. I've a new web name - www.muddyground.com - and will change everything to suit that. I've also going to do a mug to that effect, and change the front page to reflect the fact that I want to sell t-shirts not just write a blog.
Chat rooms. I post on a few now and again, more out of being bored than anything else, or as a displacement activity at work. We've even got one that we are supposed to use professionally at work. I've noticed that if you try and use them for what they were designed for, to ask and enquire, you generally get either no response, or a one patently from a nutter. If you take the piss, then you get loads of responses from people that populate the site and seem to view it as some sort of ownership experience. Really they are deeply disappointing things, and I fail to see why people use Facebook, twitter etc. for social encounters or even to try and find things out by way of asking for advice via a chat room. The professional one I have to use is just wierd. I don't know, but if one has to use a chatroom for ones social life, or to try and get the semblance of one from them, then, well, you need to get out into the real world a bit more. I'm guessing that's the purpose of a blog; to inform and encourage others to get out there and do stuff. So from now on I'm going to try and change it to that - something to encourage others to actually stop reading it, and go out and do it for themselves. Obviously I'm never going to add a chat room feature to this site.
Got a few t-shirts in the pipeline, but it's hard getting motivated to do this stuff. Lots of people think that you're rich just because you trade on eBay and sell some bits. What they don't realise is that to sell stuff, you have to buy it first. My t-shirts sell very slowly, and I probably lose around £1,000 per annum on them. But t-shirt sales are very much a "cake tomorrow" thing; if I didn't design and produce them, I certainly wouldn't sell any now would I? So you always have to try remain positive about their potential, even if sometimes actually getting off my ase and doing something about it is too hard to do. I'd hate to be a salesman in real life.
There's something amusing listening to the concerns of middle class parents over their children. I'm a middle class parent, so share the same concerns, but I fought to change my class so have a different view on things. I came from a split marriage; indeed my mother told me that my dad had died when I was 3, so I never met him even though he actually died almost 40 years after and lived in the same bloomin' town. My mother was a complete and utter shit it must be said. Never liked the woman, and certainly don't miss her. No real idea where she's buried. Is that sad? Dunno. Move on. Anyway, we lived on benefits all of our lives so had very little money. My school couldn't give a toss whether I attended or not, so invariably I didn't. One year I went back just before my 16th birthday to see some mates and found my class sitting the summer exams. That was a new one to me; I'd not been since I was 14. I managed to sit three exams that week, and passed them all, allbeit with shitty grades. Funny, but even this poor performance was 75% better than most of the others in the school. Lots of people left with nothing. To be fair where I grew up nothing was expected of you out of life other than to go straight on to the dole at 16. The only jobs to be had were those where your dad worked. I didn't have a dad, as didn't many others, so school just looked after us as a kind of day care centre. Luckily I managed to find work, but there were a lot of people from my school who happily either went straight onto the dole or into prison. Most now have ended up doing OK for themselves, but the school had nothing to do with it. Yet here I am fussing over my child and some nonesense homework. Funny that one.
8/11/2010: Skitzoid bikes.
Have you noticed - perhaps you've not - that UK hardtailed bikes are getting to look more and more like 1960's speedway bikes? They are, believe me. My Pace does, but that bike is also has a split personality issue. The front is all wide tyred, 203mm disc, 140mm suspension. The back has a narrow, semi-slick tyre with a 140mm disc. The front is all aggro, where the back seems to be all xc coy. Oddly rides well in that configuration. I can ride the downhill bits as hard as I dare, keeping the front loaded up, yet at the same time the back end, being light, helps with acceleration and uphill grip. It's a funny looking bike now, but that's the way it has evolved to work around here.
6/11/2010: Rock chute or gulley?
AD wanted a cheeky little ride today as we both have committments tomorrow. Mine a tad spurious as I'm watching the old crocks drive to Brighton. Anyway, where did we go? Nowhere really. Honest; we never went more than 3 miles away from Reigate yet were out for two and a half hours without a break and got back covered in mud and sweating profusely. Essentially we rode up and down Colley hill a bit, then went into Reigate park to play in that rock chute. Neither of us cleared it, and I got down the furthest through sheer luck but had a big stack 3/4 of the way down. Really I was always going to stack as I'd got myself into the central rut. Both myself and AD are convinced that we can ride it, and judge the route down to be on the right hand side. My stack resulted in a broken handlebar end cap, torn glove, a torn top, grazed arm and mud into my helmet vents. It was hilarious. Really we need to image the chute here and show us riding it. It can be done, as AD did it once, but both of us regard this as a failure as he put his foot down! Perhaps we're being too hard on ourselves. It certainly beats trying to get up Box Hill in 8 minutes. Plus there is the fun to be had riding through Reigate Park, covered in mud - the looks of jealousy one gets from the othe Dads is a joy. And it may just be me, but some of the mothers were giving us naughty looks as well. AD's wife felt that it may have been pity, but surely for good reason do I not get those e-mails offering a penis extension of 1" to make the full 15"?
Oh yes. One day I got 130 hits on this web page. The rest of the time around 40 a week. Why? I think because I used a phrase "naked Brad Pitt penis" or such. People are so shallow. I'd not stop to such lows just to get page hits. I mean you'd have to be sad to say things like Brad Pitt Naked Penis over and over again just to raise ones ratings. Really sad.
Brad Pitt Naked Penis.
Image of Brad Pitt Naked Semi-Erect Penis.
Brad Pitt Naked Erect Penis photographs.
Brad Pitt Naked Penis live web cam.
Sorry Brad; just joking!
Lots of MTB'ers out. Is Saturday afternoon the new Sunday morning?
I do find it interesting that although I've been riding these trails most weekends since around 1993, doing between 18 and 45 mile off-road runs each time, and actively seeking out new routes in all that time, that even now new paths can be found. The Reigate rock chute [Break Neck Gulley] is one such. One can see this from Colley Hill, so I have been looking at it weekly for nigh on 20 years but it has only been recently that I looked at it and decided to go out and ride the thing. This week we ran a path that runs along the bottom of Colley Hill. Again I knew of it, and have walked it a few times, but for some reason it stopped below the radar ride wise. Perhaps because these routes are public paths and not bridleways? I have been a stickler for stopping on the bridleways, and not riding paths, but there's an awful lot of pressure on the more traditional routes these days that sometimes it is difficult to make good ground. Just look at Reigate Hill on a busy day. That little section can be packed.
It is also interesting to ride with others and see that sometimes confidence can go out of the window for no good reason. Myself on the base path along Colley Hill; off camber and covered in leaves I cut my speed back. Just don't like that stuff. Yet using the BOAT from the NDW down to the A25, AD went down at walking pace and I overtook him. No reason for either of us to behave that way. Guess our brains sometimes throw a fuse?
I'm possibly going to be eating humble pie. I've been having a nag with the Muddy Moles over whether or not tubeless systems are any good. All week I've said no. Yet today I had a tad more grip than AD on some of the muddy sections. He uses tubes, I don't. I suspect that my tyre may have been deforming better, so adhering to the soil surface. Either that or AD can't ride for shit? Normally, in the dry, he's away from me like Jack Flash, so the tubeless system may well have won the day.
On Tuesday's night ride I noticed that I was straining my eyes to see down the trail. It's quite surprising how far you want to look, and you don't realise it until you ride in the dark. I found that my Nuke Proof lights were good at mid-distance stuff, but to see further I had to use the helmet light. Now have you ever tried to ride keeping your head exactly parallel to the ground and pointing forwards only? Try it; you'll be surprised how much you do move your head about. So to conquer this I bought another AP Series torch from Maplin. I thought that it was the same as the one I already have, but no. It's much bigger. Unfortunately it also has a setting whereby it can flash SOS. To me that is just sad. Hopefully once mounted to my handlebars it'll punch out enough light to fill the long-distance gap that the Nuke Proof Reactor doesn't.
Prior to my riding out at night frequently I'd stated that my lights were fine, and that it would be daft to spend more money on brighter lights. Yet here I am buying more light. One suspects that obtaining more light is addictive. At least so far I've only spent £140 in total for my system; some people can spend over £1k on bike lights. Crazy.
Sold a few of the above t-shirt this week, so I'm all fired up to create more. Got an idea to do a night rider inspired one. Just got to draw the thing out. In the meantime I'm looking into doing a mug of my underground map. I've had a few people after that one.
Aha! My Cosina shown below produces really good images [see my Flickr account] so I'm happy with that. Even more happy, as I paid £25 for it and one just sold on eBay for £70. Wife still thinks I'm mad going back to 35mm film - luckily she doesn't know I sourced some out of date film stock to go the whole Lomography hog! Can you imagine the conversation? We're off on holiday, I take a 30 year old camera and fill it with film 5 years past it's expiry date? Just so that I can get some lairy colours and odd filmic effects. But come on; isn't digital photography so boring. OK it can produce really good results in the right hands, but the images produced to me all look the same. Kind of flat, with no soul. I'm happier being old school and using film stock.
3/11/2010: Been away.
Sorry no ride reports as we were away on holiday last week; Weymouth and fossil hunting. Got back Saturday, woke up Sunday to a "can't be arsed" moment so didn't bother going out. It was raining and we'd had a week of sun, so a bit of a weather shock. Did go out for a night ride Tuesday - my you've had some rain here? Slippy going up Reigate Hill; even worse coming down.
Anyway, holiday report? Why not indeed. Rented a place on the beach. Now Weymouth has a shingle beach. All very nice, but you try getting to sleep next to one. Imagine a constant delivery of thousands of tons of shingle right outside your door. Wife found it relaxing, but I only caught 2 hour cat naps all week. Glad to be back I was! We didn't do much; just walked up and down the promenade. Had a trip out to Lyme Regis where I got moody over it being a town for the Horray Henry rich brigade. All dressed in £2,000 leather jackets with £300 wellington boots, using £12 worth of squid to catch crabs. Well I was until wife pointed out that me being dressed as a gay sailor in a tight, bright yellow rubber fishing jacket kind of made me stand out even more. I calmed down after that.
Man I'm even boring myself here. Better stop.
Bye.
22/10/2010: Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey!
I think that somehow or other I have hit upon the correct method of adjusting to night rides. It would be easy to plan a normal length ride for an evening, but until one has adjusted to the rather odd technique of actually riding at night, then short rides are the order of the day. Why? Well, my eyes don't seem to work that well. Trail hazards that I know are there suddenly rear up - things like metal gates you literally cannot see until you are on top of them. Mud isn't so clear, and gravel hides well. There is no colour. Tree roots and drop offs appear two dimensional. Sometimes it is difficult to tell up from down. And as for actually picking the trail out, no chance if it is covered in fallen leaves. During the day these are not issues. You can see a slight depression in the leaves that shows the pathway; tree roots have three dimensions, up is distinquished from down, and gates you can see from miles away.
Night riding is a bit like one of those black and white puzzle photographs, whereby you cannot see the black panther or snake until they change the image to colour. It's a difficult thing to explain, and until you've actually gone out and done it, you'll think I'm being a nonce. It's all very well walking a path with a torch, or driving a car at night; you're either slow enough to pick out stuff, or you have hugely powerful lights, and really roads are only two dimensional strips of ribbon anyway. The trail is a three dimensional beast, but your lights show it as a black and white two dimensional canvass. You have to learn to read it all over again. It's a bit freaky in a detached kind of way. Gradually I'm getting the hang of it.
I was on a professional course today, with some big hitters from the government. Don't worry; I'm low down the pecking order and was there to make up the numbers. Anyway, it was interesting to watch the people. The course was easy - just people at my level telling the big people what we do. Trying to get more funding really. I digress. The point of my ramble being that you'll have somebody telling the group of their findings. I could follow that easily enough. But some people just seem so intent on asking questions, that they ask the most dickheaded things. I'll wager that people that ask questions are either genuinely inquisitive, don't know the subject, or have a big ego and want to open their gobs and show off. Today it was the turn of the gob shites, each and every one of them.
I'll explain by way of fictional example.
Speaker: I have found out that Monday is the first day of the week, and is followed by Tuesday, etc., etc., etc.
Gob shite: Excuse me, but I have an alternative view. I think that Friday follows Thursday, which is itself after Wednesday. Ergo I have a small penis, a big ego, and want to show off with my stunning knowledge whilst at the same time preventing you from telling us something of actual use.
Needless to say I sat there like my five year old tutting and saying "d" all the time. Even the bloke I was with, who should have known better but obviously doesn't, involved me in a stupid discussion about a subject that wasn't even within the remit of anybody in the room. I made it clear I tought he was a complete dickhead. Which, naturally, made me look a prick. Sometimes one can't win, and I should really have gone with the moronic flow of it all. I'm guessing if you work in IT or are a corporate manager you'll wonder what the feck I'm on about, as you spend all day sagely asking questions that have blindingly obvious answers. Well, here's a clue; it's called common sense.
It is a worry that so many senior people in government are, well, morons for want of a better word.
21/10/2010: Night ride. Yes!
Tonight wasn't supposed to be free as wife had booked it out. At the last moment she cried off sick, so there was a window of opportunity to be seized. Batteries charged, bike ready from Tuesday, gear found, I'm off. A much better ride all around really. I didn't get the willies, mainly because instead of stopping shy of the car park on top of Reigate Hill I rode right into it. Naturally it was, as predicted, full of odd balls doing nefarious things in cars. Couples at the edge pretending to look at the view, single men higher up not even pretending to look at the view. Lots of furtive splittings up as 700 lumens hit them. He he.
No moisture in the air [but lots in cars] so my lights were hugely better. No refracted or reflected light at all. Not a bad combination for solo rides. But then the moon was full, and for a mile I rode experimentally with no lights at all. OK until I ran through some overhanging trees, so I'm guessing if you've some crappy lights, then just go out when there's a full moon.
Funny thing is, that at night you cannot see the incline. You can feel it, but the visual tell tales are not there. So tonight I was generally a whole front higher than normal. Instance, initial granny ring climb was half done in the middle ring. Going along Reigate Hill I was in top. Funny how that works; psychological I guess?
Slightly pissed that this month's What Mountain Bike features most of my rides around here. I should be pleased, as I promote them, but there's the rub; I promote them so they are mine! Mine I tell you, mine!
But looking through their routes they do some odd deviations for no reason I can summise, and miss out some of the good bits. But overall it's a good article, and shows what we have here.
19/10/2010: Night ride. Not.
I had planned on going out tonight, but quite frankly I'm knackered. I'd charged the batteries, got my kit ready, but the spirit just isn't there. I'm not going to force myself out, as I don't want to turn my riding into a healthy chore. May well sneak an hour in tomorrow instead..
So what have I done then, to make myself tired? Worked on my t-shirt web page that's what. Spent all day establishing what I thought was a clever image, only for my wife to comment on it being a tad offensive. Personally I can't see it, but there you go. Bugger. I just used a photo I'd taken on holiday that I thought was moody and brooding, but she says using Christ on the cross to punt t-shirts is not really on. Guess I'll change it, but for now I'm not about to put 8 hours labour into the bin.
Dear Reader you may think that it is just a matter of minutes to change a web page. Little edit here and there, hey presto! Well you can, but it would look gash - a bit like this page in fact. As my t-shirt page is the most visited site I have, then I need to put some effort into it. I may go out tomorrow with the digital camera and take a few happy snaps.
Apologies to anybody that may be offended by my t-shirt page.
17/10/2010: Tour de Banstead.
Why are some rides measurably better than others? I've ridden up an active volcano in Iceland, had several rides in the Rockies, Aviemore in the winter, Wales, Belgium. Some stunning places. Really stunning. I've been on solo rides, rides with groups or just the odd mate out for a late night spin. Yet today my solo ride in Surrey was better than most of them. Why is that? My bike wasn't even working that well, so that should have counted against it, yet did nothing to dampen my spirits. OK the weather was absolutely perfect; slightly warmer than cold at 7 degrees C, which I like. Nice and sunny with ultra blue skies. I didn't even do a particularly new route; up Reigate Hill, skirted around Banstead Heath, dipped down to Epsom then to Headley Heath via that nasty flinty, tyre shredding climb. Back via the North Downs Way along a route I've ridden perhaps 400+ times [17 years of riding, along there 2 weeks out of 3 on average]. Oh and AD was in a "yes I will, no I won't come out" texting type situation that we all get into now and then. And some dog walkist person had allowed their foul creature to take a dump outside my house. Yet it all added up to an absolutely brilliant ride. Pity I didn't take my sat-nav device, as the trails were fast, I was fast for once, and I did a nice interesting loop.
One suspects that I was just in the right frame of mind for a ride, and nothing would have stopped me from enjoying it. I did eventually bump into AD near the Urban Cafe on my way home, and could see why he was being a tad indecisive; looked like a heavy cold to me, and he shouldn't have been out at all, and I told him so. Coming down Reigate Hill I could easily have passed him, but he was a bit wibbly wobbly so instead I chose to tail gate him all the way down rather than risk a pass and have a bump into a tree at 30mph. He made some excuse, but it was half-hearted and I think even he saw through that one; he just wanted to ride slowly and wasn't yet up to full-on mode. I'm not bragging about my inherant but limited skills or knocking him here, just making an observation. It takes a few miles to get used to what the trails are doing, how your bike is riding and, more importantly, how switched on you are as a rider. He'd just ridden up the hill, whereas I'd been out for 3 hours at full pelt. Totally unfair competition. I was used to my tyres, had established what frame of mind I was in, and knew that the trails were absolutely bone dry and could be hit full-on. AD, bless, was full of cold, probably had poor balance as a result, was tired, had only ridden for a couple of miles at most, and was convinced that his front tyre had a puncture. Add those elements up, and you're in for a piss poor ride down the hill, or anywhere really. C follows B follows A. Excuses were allowed, and then disregarded as fact of life; it sucks now and then.
The gears on my Pace were noisy, and the seat tube was making a creaking sound. However, the 140mm rear disc rotor worked a treat as did the semi-slick Maxxis Aspen rear tyre. I'm still looking to drop the front rotor size, but coming off Headley Heath I was flying down the hill just as a horse appeared at the bottom. At that point I didn't question the validity of being over-braked.
Quite a few walkers out and about, and a good few cyclists. A big group were getting ready for a ride at the Urban Cafe at 10:00, but looked a miserable lot and I just got a cursory nod when I said hello. Later on I came across a group of 4, and they were very much in their own world. I was set up for an easy pass when one of them pulled out to show the others how to ride downhill. I was going 50% faster, so again the brakes came in handy. Now even though I was going way, way faster than him, I managed not to skid the back brake in reducing my speed to his. He, however, did a massive clearly out of control skid just prior to the bridge over the A217. By then I'd pegged him as a twat [on the basis that it takes one to know one!]. Man with 10% skill out with somebody of 5% skill, but still showing off. Luckily he wasn't able to look back at that point, but I made it clear that there was a rider buzzing his rear tyre real closely; he obviously though it was the fourth member of his party who's somehow managed to catch up, as he kind of did that "looking serious and pretending that he wasn't really trying to ride hard and that he meant to skid" thing. Note that I wasn't being agressive in my initial overtake; the trail is triple wide at that point, and they were cruising down on the brakes, whilst I was just, well, going a bit faster off the brakes in top gear peddling mad way we all do. It was, oddly, his overtake of his buddy that was agressive; he was about 4" off her back end, and took her out on a narrow bend, thereafter braking heavily into a skid. It was that move that hacked me off a bit, as there is no need to put the fear of God into riders who are giving it a go. I just did to him what he did to others.
Back to the right rame of mind. I put this down to my night ride earlier on in the week. Then I was unable to really see the countryside, and just rode my bike. Today I had the added pleasure of actually seeing stuff. Makes all the difference I think.
Looked at my bike when I got back. I tend to brake with my middle fingers, leaving my index finger to change gear at the same time. But I noticed today that the Pace is just a bit too quick for me to do that efficiently, and I was getting into a muddle. So now I've moved the brakes inboard a little more to enable me to use my index finger alone to brake with. It'll not give me any more braking power, as I have my fingers on the ends of the levers anyway, but it just tidies things up a bit. Needless to say during the exercise I scratched my carbon bars up. Huh. And I tightened the seat clamp up yet again. What is it with seat clamps that they are all shite? None seem to give any heft to the process of actually holding the seat tube in place.
Naturally I didn't clean the bike. There's something agricultural about the Pace that precludes cleaning. The Klein or Tassajara have to look clean, they just do. I can't take either out unless they are spotless. Tart's bikes. But the Pace? It's a bit like cleaning a wheelbarrow that one. I just give it a quick hose down and that's it. Job done, ready for the next ride. It looks all the better for being mud stained with rock dings all over the place.
I still maintain that a good, 140mm hardtail is overkill for the Surrey Hills this side of Dorking. By definition any full suspension bike is thus also a tad redundant. A 120mm hardtail would be ideal; a mix of enough suspension to give good speed, and lightness to allow for an efficient climb of the hills. A full suspension bike, though, is ideal if you're out for a lazy ride or don't fancy being hammered by tree roots. Or indeed just want one. Just watch the mass if you go that way. Needless to say if I suddenly acquired £3,000 to spend on a bike I'd buy a 'susser instantly!
Actually that's a lie. I'd change the Pike's out for something 500g lighter, then go out and buy a Kona Jake cyclo cross bike. I've been looking at cross bikes for some time now; most of us over 35 would have ridden a narrow tyred, drop handlebar bike off road at some point, so to me it would be like being a kid again. I've also read that as you get older, rides should be shorter yet more intense hour or so efforts. Something to do with how your muscles are configured and how you use energy. Whatever. I just fancy one is all. They look kind of serious yet slightly silly at the same time.
Been looking to buy some new inner shorts, and the magazines say go for the bib ones, although I've always wondered how one goes for a wee when wearing them. Found these, but my man boobs somehow aren't the same...
[And not that it means much, but they could've gotten a woman that cycles - she'd not get far around here on those thin pins, although I'm sure she'd get lots of offers to help push!]
12/10/2010: Mass.
Good old Colin Chapman was right wasn't he? Less mass means you're faster for the same power input. Ok for us Muggle cyclists it's all relative, but there is still some joy to be had from riding a responsive bike. In building my bikes I always have one eye on the weight that each component adds at any given price point. For instance to me a handlebar shouldn't weigh more than 180 grams, or a wheelset 1.8kg. Naturally one could go mad, and spend £7k on getting the lightest bike possible, but I tend to work to a budget. Well, basically whatever I can get away with before wife starts to notice where the housekeeping money has gone. Naturally with the Pace I threw this out of the window in fitting a 203mm rotor up front, and a 180mm at the rear. Now for each incremental increase in rotor size there is supposed to be a 20% increase in stopping power. Fair enough, but also this means a 20% increase in the power required to accelerate it in the first place? Nay, more surely as acceleration of a wheel has two elements; forward and rotational. This rotational acceleration tends to mean that you are putting more energy into what is in effect a flywheel, so altering the ability of the bike to turn away from a chosen course. The bigger the rotor, the more effort you have to put into turning the bike, the less lively it feels. Additional mass down there also acts against the suspension, which on a cycle is already a bit of a compromise due to low rider weight.
Some riders say that they are not bothered about bike weight as they do this to keep fit. Fair enough, but I do it for fun not fitness or longevity. Fun and lardy bikes do not go together. I can't afford an Ariel Atom, but can afford a nice bike. So why not make it as nice as I can?
Naturally in many instances this lively feel works against bike stability going downhill. You don't really want a bike that's going to be rammed away from a chosen path by every little rider or trail input now do you? Downhillers like a bit of mass. But I'm essentially cross country, and came from a road background - as I'm sure most of us did if we were riding before the early 1990's. Road bikes are nice and lively beasts due to some ridiculously low masses.
Anyway, enough chat. I'm off now for a solo night ride. Bye bye.
Back now.... Gosh isn't this night riding thing disorientating? I planned to go out for 90 minutes, ended up at 50. Why? Er, fear basically. Out on my own in the woods at night I ended up riding like the clappers. It's OK starting off, as you move from light into light. Essentially you focus so much on the beam in front, you forget it is dark around. I stopped for a wee, turned my lights off, and kapow! it was absolutely pitch black. Nobody stepped out of the darkness and killed me dead, but it was a close call in my head I can tell you. But bloomin' heck is it a life affirming thing to do. It is absolutely brilliant being out at night.
But you do start to think about batteries. And mechanicals. How would you fix something just by torchlight? I guess one would, but I'm such a klutz normally that even in the day I lose stuff.
And, er, lights. Forgive the pun, but I can see why you'd get obsessed with having more lumens. The more you have, the better things appear. Sounds obvious but until you've done some night riding you'd think any old torch would do. Actually, scratch that as I've just thought it through... My lights were bright enough. There was a mist in the air. My light was being reflected, refracted and scattered, so it was like riding in fog. The trails I rode I know as well as I know anywhere, yet whilst I didn't get lost, I wasn't totally following the normal trail line. So really you need some decent quality light; perhaps not that provided by these new CREE systems that just chuck out power. I'd say though that for solo riding I was 90% happy with my lights. Would I be 100% happy if I'd spent treble the amount I did spend? Nah, not at all. I'd just be even more overdrawn than I am now.
12/10/2010: Statistics, lies and statistics.
I'd love to know what is going on, but all of a sudden I'm getting an average of 50 people a day look at this site, with a rather alarming 140 page views the other day. Either there are a lot of people out there interested in reading about me getting older, or I have a stalker!
For interest, the torch that I bought from Maplin was an AP Pro Series. Tesco list a similar one for £20, but don't seem to have any stock. 120 lumens for less than £30 seems good value. I suspect that the law of diminishing returns works for bike lamps beyond about £200. I'd still like to know who buys those £900 jobbies.
11/10/2010: Billy bargain.
I was walking past a charity shop [flea market] and noticed that they had a Cosina CX-1 in the window. This is a 1980 camera, so a fairly remote chance of finding one even on the web let alone a charity shop in Streatham. Now I normally avoid these kind of shops, as I don't like the smell of dried piss, but this camera looked to be a fair price at £25. Unusually I had a laptop on me, so being a bit sad I looked the thing up on the web. Oh. £25 is probably a very good price for what looks like to be an original Lomo bit of kit. Got to be worth more, as some guy was off-loading a CX-2 for £90 somewhere in www land. I'm a bit partial to little 35mm film jobbies, always taking an Olympus XA on holiday, and thanks to the Blackbird,fly I've gotten into lomography and old stock 35mm film use, so there was a bit of symmetry here, so I bought the thing. Must say it's a lovely piece of kit, and seems to be very well made. Put some batteries in, it works. Raided the fridge for some seriously out of date film stock [ten years old and counting - found it next to the equally as old yoghurt and jam]. So, off to take some vividly coloured pictures.... Happy Workshopmanualman.
11/10/2010: Food.
A subject close to my heart. Frankly I'm getting a bit lardy as the big Hawaii creeps up. Lard plus cycling in the Surrey Hills doesn't work, so I'm looking to remove a bit. Surgery is out, pity. So I'm looking at food from a dieting point of view. Well I was until I looked through some books [next to the self-help section; I had to ask where it was]. Apparently all of my favourite foodstuffs are bad for you. Well me in the context of this blog, but also you. So I'd have to change absolutely everything I eat and drink. Literally everything. To be honest according to the books I'd only be marginally less healthy if I smoked. Not gonna happen is it? I'm not going to stop eating stuff I like so that I can get up Box Hill ten seconds quicker, or live a miserable three days longer in some rest home staffed by ex-Stasi guards. I may drop the portion sizes a tad, but no way am I going to stuff my face with lima beans or cardboard or wallpaper paste or bits of carpet.
Talking of food. Self check-outs. I can operate these right up to the payment stage without any help from the attendant. I can pack my things quite happily, and can even dream up hugely imaginative numbers of own bags used even though I used theirs exclusively. So why the feck do the people that design these things make it say "don't forget to take your shopping?" Isn't that just so, like, patronising innit? I've managed to find all my stuff, scan it, type in my PIN, pack the bags, but wahey! all of a sudden I have a major brain seizure and forget to take my stuff and wonder out of the store to join the congregation of Tennants Super drinkers hanging around outside exercising their Pit Bulls. Really, you just want to shout "FUCK OFF YOU PATRONISING BITCH" at the top of your voice. What a joyful shopping experience. Luckily I bought a razor so I can slash my wrists at the checkout as some kind of martyr to shopping. Can you imagine the designers of self check-outs doing a funeral service? "Please don't forget to bury the old c**t!"
I'm calming down now. Classic Rock are, for a change, playing a medley of Rush and Led Zeppelin, with a hint of Deep Purple [Gillan era] thrown in for good measure. What? They do that 24/7? You're kidding me! Really, really need to get a DAB ariel so that I can tune in to a station playing music made within the last 30 years instead. [REO Speedwagon now. I'm a bit partial to the REO's, but even I recognise that's old.]
10/10/10: Or did they?
Family commitments meant no ride today; son had a party to go to in the morning, so I had daughter to look after. No ride for us then. Well.... us dad's conspired together, and came up with a solution; take the kids with us but use our old bikes. I took the Orange Clockwork, AD his Trek. It all worked out quite well, and we had a three hour ride. OK a slow one, but a ride is a ride is a ride. And one does have to start introducing the children to proper rides at some point in their lives. It made an oddly pleasant change not to be hacking through the woods. Actually that's perhaps an odd and wrong thing to say as whilst the dad's were riding at a sedate pace, the kids were at full chat and riding to the limit of their skills. There were a few accidents and cut knees, but no lack of enthusiasm. And for a 7 year old to be out for 3+ hours of pretty solid riding is no mean feat.
Naturally with AD leading we somehow ended up at the Skimmington Castle. How does he do it?
Personally I find the experience of going out with children uplifting. Mine are young enough not to give a toss, so just ride whatever I give them. This rubs off on me. The Orange is an old beast with slick road tyres. I should pension it off, but it is ideal for family rides. It doesn't sit there accusing me of being slow, or taunting me to hit some silly drop-off or downhill section. And neither do I get home thinking I should change the tyres, buy some lighter wheels, or perhaps put on a better colour co-ordinated rotor. That in itself is refreshing. I may actually go further with it and put a front basket on... you know, for french sticks and some brie with a bottle of wine thrown in. Has to be done doesn't it?
Now the blog has received some criticism of late, from a few quarters. Perhaps fairly. Generally I would agree that blogs are boring "I did that, I did this" type things. To be fair I do try to cover subjects other than cycling. How many other cycling blogs feature visits to gay bars just to enlighten the reader? Or review films? Or go into personal grooming details of the blogger? Not many I can tell you!
07/10/2010: Teenage kicks.
That was interesting. Last night, as mentioned, myself and AD went out for a spin. Bit of a trial effort, so we stopped local to Reigate. Funny, but the trails look completely different at night, more so than one would imagine. Our various lighting efforts worked well, so we could see. But seeing at night is way different to using daylight to find your way around. During the day instincts will pick up a trail from even the faintest peripheral clues. Those clues disappear at night, d'oh, so we got lost. In Reigate. Muppets. But we had huge fun and can see the merits in night riding. Naturally we had to visit a pub.... it would have been rude not to.
Lights. Now we've been out we can see the faults in our lights. But get this, we only spent £140 between us. The magazines would have you believe that you have to spend at least £400 each. My LBS suggested a £450 handlebar light mixed in with a £200 helmet mounted one. Nope; no need for expensive kit. I personally figure three £25 torches from Maplin will do you. Here I have to add that you really do need a helmet / bar combo. We tried various combinations of lights on and off, and whilst you can find your way around only using one light at a time, it's slightly confusing to do so, and potentially dangerous. Why? Well the handlebar light just shows you where the bike is going at any one instant. It doesn't show you where you will be going; the helmet light moving with your eyes does that. And this is where my main lighting fault lay; I'd angled the beam too low so I kept having to lift my head up to see where I was going.
Now night riding shows up bad kit and bad riding styles. Instance, Endura waterproof shorts are rubbish; they are sweaty and snag on the saddle. A semi-slick rear tyre is daft; during the day you are able to predict when it will slip, so can compensate and ride through it. Can't do that at night. Lazy line choices are punished, as is an unplanned route! And you never know what gear you are in. Mechanicals take on a different air entirely. And the last big negative is that wearing helmet lights mean you are oddly unsociable - one cannot look at anybody when either you or they talk, as you'll simply blind them.
The lights need to be a mix of tight focus and wide beam. AD had tightly focused lights which meant he was just concentrating on specific trail points, hence why he got lost literally in his own back garden. My handlebar light had a wide beam, so I could pick up more detail. However blindly following his route was silly as I literally followed him into the wilderness.
The positives? There are many! Firstly you are out on a bike instead of watching telly, surfing the net or eating crap. When on the bike your every move is magnified and the ride is more intense; you have to be quite precise and read the terrain more accurately than you would during the day. You have a more specific work out. Why? Well all the normal markers that you are either riding upwards or downwards are removed. OK if the trail is steep you'll notice, but slight gradients pass you by so you automatically have to peddle harder than you would normally. Odd one to explain. All parties also feel happier - being out at night is always slightly naughty isn't it? Fun things happen at night. Riding up to the pub was an experience; everybody had a good look at us, and our presence in itself was an oddity. Cyclists? At night?
Back to lights. I don't think any of them out there at the moment are 100% perfect. Reading between the lines of several reviews, night lights for off-road use are about 75% there. Some are just plain expensive [£900!], some fall apart or let water in, or some just have too bright a light that hurts the eyes. Like driving with full beam on a foggy night. Others have a short battery life, and some are heavy or too bulky for helmet use. I'm not saying that my lighting choice was correct, more that just be careful when you part with your cash and don't assume that more expensive lights are better than the cheaper options. My £25 torch put out as much light as the £250 Nuke Proof Reactor did, and has a claimed 14 hour life against the 3 of the more expensive light. It may not last as long, or have much of a re-sale value, but, well, it was a Billy bargain wasn't it? Think about lighting carefully, and laterally. Maplin do torches that can be strapped anywhere. They work but look gash and may shake to bits in use. Your LBS may well have some specific MTB lights in stock, but they'll be eye wateringly expensive and perhaps not actually that good for the money. Road lights will be rubbish for off-road use.
Bottom line? Big light for your handlebar that has a relatively wide focus, and something like a minimum of 150 lumens. Helmet light has to be, er, light weight, have a slightly more tightly focused beam, and also put out a minimum of 150 lumens. Both lights have to be reliable. I carried another two lights as spares, just in case. You can go out with less lumens, just go slower. But remember that you could be out and about, at night, having fun with a £25 torch strapped to your head, and another £25 torch lashed to your handlebars. You may well have more fun than some 'keenist' who has splashed out £1,100 on two MTB specific lights. You'll certainly have done it for cheaper!
Buy your lights in the summer as they may well be way cheaper!
Oh and CREE based lights may actually blind you. Be careful with Chinese or Indian imports.
06/10/2010: Plans maketh the man.
Been talking about it for some time, but just never got it together. What am I talking about? Night rides of course. Myself and AD have mooted the idea for some time, but never really did anything about it. Well you don't when it gets dark at 10pm now do you? However with the nights drawing in, plus a recognition that only riding once a week is a bit half arsed, we've taken the plunge and are actually going to go out on the 7th for our first nocturnal emission. Sorry, mission. Naturally our lights aren't up there with the big boys, so we'll see how we get on. I've got a single Nuke Proof Reactor mixed in with two 17 year old Vistalights, whilst AD has some torches that he got for £12. These he has zip-tied everywhere by all accounts. Should be interesting. Last time I went out at night, I used two lights. But lighting technology in 1997 wasn't that hot, and I only went out the once. Gave it up as a bad job.
[Note: the batteries in one Vistalight are 14 years old.... and the light still works amazingly enough, and on those batteries.]
Reading the forums, though, it seems that there is no ideal light. People use a different handlebar light to the helmet one [even swopping between manufacturers for each] and in big groups each rider seems to go their own way in terms of brand support. So I'm guessing lights are a bit like tyres; each to their own? That there is no perfect light as yet. So our lash ups may well work in practice.... At least we're dipping our toes into the water, and giving it a go. OK only Reigate park so far, but you've got to start somewhere. I did use the Reactor on holiday, but as a helmet light not the handlebar as I am trying tomorrow. It worked really well in some truly dark woods. Interestingly even though a mountain biking magazine will give glowing reports to certain lighting systems, none seems to be ideal in the real world. And have you seen the prices? I was looking at some today; they seemed nice so I checked the prices. £800. For a single bike light. Or you can buy some CREE units from India for £70, but they come with a warning that the bulbs are so bright that they will actually blind you. As in permanently. Right, I'm going to buy those aren't I?
Looking forward to it though - by all accounts night riding is addictive. Mind I must say it's a bit of a faff at the moment. OK getting ready for a ride Sunday morning, but getting ready mid-week? Give it a break. Suspect if I like it what I'll do is leave the lights on the one bike, and just have a night bike over the winter.
03/10/2010: The water was up to my front mech.
Where shall I go to today then? Week of pretty much solid rain, the trails are going to be trashed. Road ride? Do I look like a girl! Nah, decided on my old favourite, the Caterham loop. Figured this would be relatively dry. Now if this was true, then everywhere else must have been totally submerged as we shall see....
The big Merstham climb was horrid. Over a ploughed field that is always boggy at the best of times, today it was just ridiculous. Being clay based it just stuck everywhere, and clagged everything up with a mix of clay and small chalk stones. Remarkably I made it half way up the hill before wheelspin stopped me dead. This was just at the same time as some guy on a cyclo-cross bike came down the hill. Naturally he looked fit and able, and I looked like an advert for Mr Muppet. Don't you hate those times? I'd done really well to get half way up, as I run a semi-slick rear tyre. I'd really fought to get there, yet to him I looked like a complete dork with no ability and the wrong bike. What was happening was that his 1.25" tyres were cutting through the slick surface to the more solid stuff underneath, giving him excellent grip. My big fat 2.25" tyres were spreading my weight over a wide area, so floating in and over the clag, and picking it up at the same time. This then bunged up in the front mech area, stopping both my transmission and the rear wheel from turning. I know this as I can remember riding a hybrid through the winter, and wondering why all the other people were being silly and struggling with those daft mountain bikes.
So Mr Smug cyclo-cross biker, it wasn't a lack of skill that forced me to stop. Bear that in mind next time you're on a hike-a-bike!
Anyway, off to Caterham I went. Slowly. Why? Over the top, where you normally get an excellent view of London, the wind was howling into me head first. Where normally I'm in the big ring flying along, this time I was in the granny struggling. Didn't help that I was carrying 10lb of additional mass. Oddly enough I was more than happy - it's a funny route the Caterham one. Looks crap on the map, but is oddly therapeutic. I've detailed the route here - mainly for the benefit of the Muddy Moles who asked about it. I've not shown the Secret Singletrack, as that is on private land and, well, I see it as a challenge to MTB'ers to find it. Nor have I shown the alternative route back over the M25 and A25, and neither have I shown the Al Fayed downhill. Some things you just have to find for yourself. Imagine this highlighted route as one of those beer tasters you get in Sainsbury's. I've shown you a bit, now you have to invest a bit of your own time to find the even better bits.
Consider this; if I ask KD where we should go, invariably he will select the Caterham run. It can be as short as the one shown here, 90 minutes [I chopped quite a bit out of the sat-nav data here by the way - probably 12km] or you can run to Westerham and spend all day on it. Up to you really. And I think most people would look at the OS map and figure that there is no route East from Redhill off-road. I used to until I actually bothered to go and have a look. Past the A21 it gets a bit messy though.
On the way back I went past the Dragonfly lakes at Water Colour. Prior to this my bike was absolutely covered in mud. Packed mud as well. About 10lb worth I'd say. I'd tried to push as much off as I could, but one can only do so much with a finger. Anyway, the trail to the lakes was wet. How wet? Well on one 30m stretch, the water, I kid you not, was up to the front mech. At one point it dipped down and the front hub went under. That's pretty deep. Coming out the other side I noted that all of the mud, oddly, had been washed off. Superb result.
Ooooo, before I forget. I use Squirt chain lube and had no shifting woes today at all. None, and today was as bad a day as you get out on the trails.
Now Dear Reader you will no doubt be asking how the 140mm rear rotor behaved. It overheated on the long rocky downhill? No. It felt weak and puny after the power of the 180mm? No. In fact the bike felt better for it. Subjective I know, but it just felt better behaved at the rear. Now for a 160mm on the front. I know it is silly, but the bike looked odd with a 203mm front end, and a 140mm rear.
The other thing I did was to wear a windproof gilet. I've always used these, and they are excellent. However I lost my original one about 2 months ago and have been a bit slow to replace it. You know how it is. Anyway, after suffering from the cold last week I ordered a new one. Boy are those things good. £13, you get a net back and windproof front. Front toasty, back cool as it should be. I was totally comfortable today. Even my new inner short from Halfords did the job.
I've been looking at lights, thinking of doing some night rides. To this end I bought a Nuke Proof Reactor for £90. Used it once, thought it good but would really like two lights; one helmet, one bike mounted. All of a sudden the price of my light is now £250 bloomin' quid. I could buy a bike for that!
Note to self; Tuesdays may be night ride day. Er, evening even?
All in all a good day to be out on the bike. Even if I did look like a dick to Mr Crosser.
Found another cycling magazine about fitness; mainly to dispel my negative thoughts from 01/10. Funny, but it had the terribly obvious title of Cycling Health & Fitness. This one was much better, being full of more positive stuff. Indeed it had a rather lovely photograph of a pregnant mother with nice full boobies [page 11, Sep-Nov 2010]. I digress. Actually I'll just go and have a look at that image again...
And again...
And again...
Back now. Note to self; need to buy more tissues.
Anyway, the magazine. Had some lovely advice. Things like: "I miss breakfast and eat chocolate all day. What do you suggest?" Answer; eat fruit. Or: "I get pissed all the time and feel bad, what do you advise?" Answer; stop drinking, exercise and eat fruit. But mainly I took the little nugget away from this lovely magazine [back to that picture again!] that roadies get miserable at the end of the summer as their season is over. Winter means no riding. Oh. To me the season begins in the autumn and only gets going in February. Mountain biking in the summer I do, but I don't enjoy it as much as when it is muddy and cold out there. I suspect that I and the magazine's editors will never gell; one top tip was that dressing in gleaming white will make you feel better. Make me feel like a twat more like.
Now some of you will be thinking - he likes images of mothers' to be? Wierdo. Obviously you're not a dad then dear Reader. You're partner of so many years suddenly develops bigger boobs and goes all cuddly? You don't like that? It's a hormonal thing I think. A man changes, starts to appreciate the finer things in life. Guess they must be the same hormones that makes an old man fancy an old woman?!
Possibly it may just be a randy thing?
Just go look at the image, OK? It was obviously chosen to show a woman in rude, sexy health. Bugger, I've just had another look... Feel an urge...
01/10/2010: We're all gonna die!
I bought, I think, Cycling Weekly this, er, week. It had an article on cycling and old people; essentially that after 30 everything is pretty much downhill, so why not just go and top yourself type article. Naturally it wasn't quite written like that, but that's the way I absorbed the information. So I had a pretty miserable night, being dead and all. Worse I imagined my children being dead. So I woke up a bit grumpy.
Top tip; avoid articles that talk about your own degradation over time.
29/09/2010: The littlest hobo.
One thing I did notice on Sunday was that the Moles are a well dressed bunch; essentially they were all wearing matching tops of their own design. AD was also in fairly new gear. Together they looked, well, smart and slightly professional. Myself and KD? Old t-shirts, knackered trainers. We looked shite, like a pair of winos out for a sweaty ride. So today I've ordered some new gear; basically a couple of tops, which should make all the difference. I'll get some proper shoes when I find some in a bike shop that fit. None of this will make me ride any better, but at least I'll stop looking like somebody that has stolen the bike he is riding. Naturally I'll not throw my old stuff away - I'm from the Midlands; I'll not chuck anything away! Retro man, retro. Old skool, innit?
And I did break down and order a 140mm rear rotor for the Pace. They don't half look nice. Bike bling man. Did you know, dear Reader that by going down a rotor size both front and rear, and by buying the lighter Hope jobbies, that I've saved half a pound, or 220g, from my bike? Quite a saving. Shouldn't make any difference to overall bike feel really, but as I'm not having to accelerate that mass all the time, then I should save a bit of energy. Should. I could, of course, be talking complete cock.
26/09/2010: The Guildford Four.
AD and I had speculated that we should do the Guildford run one day. That was ages ago. This week KD stated that he was up for a longer ride, so putting 2 + 2 together we decided on the longer run. Now during the week I spotted that the Muddy Moles have an upcoming rides section, so I posted the ride. Lo! We blagged an errant Mole called Mark for our run, so off we four set.
Now Mark it turns out is faster than us, and we struggled to keep up. Each one of us had a go at beaking him down, but he broke us in the end. Are we bitter? Isn't pushing the envelope a bit what this sport is all about? No point us three convincing ourselves that we can ride, just by using ourselves as a measure now is there. So we were all happy to have Mark show us how it should be done.
The ride was fairly uneventful; we rode there, we rode back. All 44 miles of it. All 4,000 metres of climbing. Actually three things stood out. We met the Moles, and what an excellent bunch they are. Two, Mark rode into a post and broke his front brake. Riding downhill on a back brake alone produces a memorable smell. And three, I hit my highest top speed off-road on a mountain bike; 34mph down Alsation on a 90mm hardtail. KD possibly hit 35mph on his £500 Kona. Possibly, as I kept within 15ft of him all the way down. At the bottom I figured we'd left the 'sussers behind, such was the sheer speed. Yeah, right. I turned around to wait for them coming down the trail, and there they were, right behind looking somewhat bored by it all.
Actually there is a fourth. On the way back AD rather oddly decided to time himself up Box HIll. Now we were all knackered by then, having done 36 miles. I'm not going to post his time as it was silly. Oh, and I didn't want to do that climb, due to being knackered, so in my befuddled state I chose a shorter but far steeper parallel climb. It was horrid and took me 16 minutes to do. You can view it on the map posted below... if you're that interested.
Overall Mark by the end looked as though he'd been out for a five minute stroll to pick up the morning paper, both myself and AD had had moments of high energy and had tried to lead, but failed happily, and KD had gallantly pushed us all onwards. KD had a few niggles en route, due entirely it was mooted to running near flat tyres. On one climb I was behind him when he just stopped and I ran into the back of him. I almost ran into the back of AD later on at some speed when he did the same coming away from Box Hill - luckily I always have one finger on at least one brake, but it was bloomin' close.
And riding down the road away from Box Hill I couldn't work out why the other three were so fast, and I was so slow. I did later on - bikes have three rings up front, a fact that I'd forgotten. So I was spinning away in the middle ring, doing 20mph whilst they were big ring cruisers. Ooo, er missus!
So it was uneventful? Burnt back brake, met the Moles, rode 44 miles and hit 34mph in the process down a path just wider than the tyre? Climbed 4,000 metres, and met a new riding buddy? Several near misses. Perhaps it wasn't so uneventful after all. Perhaps it was one of those life affirming rides? Perhaps my arse; it was! Knackering, not to be done too often, but good all the same.
Here I'm going off tangent. I took the Tassajara out today, and for weeks I'd been mulling over the rear brake. Why should it be 160mm? Or 180mm? Or a silly 203mm? Why couldn't it be 140mm? What is this tendency towards bigger brakes all about really, especially on the rear where one doesn't do much braking in reality? So on Saturday I fitted a rather gorgeous Hope 140mm to it. So dear Reader did having a smaller rotor make any difference to my ride? Yes. Less locked back wheel for one, so a longer tyre life. The bike also felt lighter - not surprising in one way as in addition to the new rotor I took the silly bottle cage off, so saving 200g in the process. 200g doesn't sound much, but that's almost half a pound of pointless mass. Why cary that around when you don't need to?
Now I'm a bit stuck. The Hope rotor's come in at £35 each. I have three brakes to do, so £105. On rotors. Is that good value for money? Would such a change improve my riding? I'm noy hugely convinced that I need Hope's everywhere, but by God they are good looking. For rotors.
Just for the record, it was a tad cold today. 9 degrees, and we had a headwind going out. It rained a bit, but not much. Newland's Corner does good chips, but the service is slow and the burgers a bit crap.
See my 70km Guildford 70km circular route here. For some reason it came out on the web as 550km.
Things I have learnt / noted / observed this week:
- Energy bars, gels or protein supplements fall into the 'snake oil' camp. Waste of money. Eat a banana. Or some salty chips.
- Bigger rotors do not always mean more powerful brakes. Some rotors seem to be more stainless than steel - you want some iron in a brake.
- Hardtail bikes can be just as fast as full suspension bikes downhill.
- Try and ride with better riders, but not so better that they hammer you completely on every ride.
- People that put 5 litre engines into Ford Sierras can't drive and really need to get a life.
- A more expensive bike probably will not make you a better rider. There are limits.
- Newland's Corner still does rubbish burgers.
- That I do not covet more expensive bikes. Always better to ride more with the bike you have, than to buy a new bike and ride the same distance.
- KD's £500 Wiggle Kona was a bargain. 12 months on and no maintenance - it still goes very well indeed. My younger £2,000 Pace has already had a new bottom backet.
- Bike weight is slightly over-rated. After 40 miles you'll be knackered no matter how light your bike.
- Better riders still do stupid things.
- Drinking a full 3 litre Camelbak on a single ride means you wee an awful lot. People will comment.
- Hardtails are good, but for longer rides the comfort element of full suspension bikes counts a hell of a lot.
- But you still quite possibly don't need one.... just get fitter, or deploy a more comfortable saddle.
- 140mm of suspension up front is more than enough. You do not need 160mm. 140mm is probably too much. 120mm is best.
- Retro bikes are fun, but you'll find that they ride way below your 2010 limits. This in itself also makes them fun.
- If you're going to ride 40 odd miles, don't go mad at the start of the ride.
- Camelbak Mule's do not really hold very much. Don't believe the magazines; it'll be full with a waterproof jacket and a few tools.
- A bit of bike bling every now and then does no harm.
- That 28mph downhill section you did the other day after a short ride? You'll do 34mph if you let go of the brakes.
- A Maxxis Aspen rear tyre is, erm, interesting come winter.
19/09/2010: The Lone Ranger but without Tonto. Or a horse.
Out on my tod today. No worries there. Some websites I've seen would have you believe that going out on your own means that you are risking certain death, and should write a will before you set off. Utter tosh. What's wrong with a solo ride out in Surrey? Nothing**. Absolutely nothing. Indeed I'd state that if you dear Reader needed a chaparone whenever out riding, then perhaps riding a mountain bike is not for you? Perhaps those people that write such stuff are the type who thinks: "hmm, vertical 60ft drop down a washed out railway embankment onto a spiked railing. I'll give that a go!" I'm guessing most sensible people, when out on their own, ride within their abilities? Perhaps they go a tad slower on their own than out with their mates. And anyway if I hadv'e come off it wouldn't have been long before a horse would have had to climb over my prone and shattered body, so I'd have been OK. Ish.
Mind I am probably not one to comment. Who rode into a pole, breaking a rib in the process, whilst out in the sticks on his own? In a strange country where we don't speak the language, having made sure it was dusk first before I went out and that nobody knew where I was going, including me? Ha!
Actually I suspect those sites that do not condone solo riding have a sneaky eye on the legal side of things. I bet the authors go out alone more times than they'll admit, but don't want to be responsible for sending innocents abroad. The same sites generally have sections on gap jumps and the like, and the riders invariably have full face helmets on. They tend to do stuff that is beyond my comprehension, let alone ability. My wheels stay firmly on terra firma thanks.
Where did I go today then? Headley Heath. Did I enjoy my solo ride? Actually I did. I really enjoyed it and tired myself out doing silly things [ er, solo ride warning not heeded? ]. Took the Tassajara, which is a hard bike to like for the first hour. After that I get into the rythym of the thing. It stops being a twitchy, hard bastard and becomes a... fun but twitchy, hard bastard. The quick steering I get used to, and the back end that transmits every bump? I just re-learn to hover on the saddle. As I've not used it for a month the gears were mall-adjusted [ just like me then ], so I had to stop and adjust them. Basically to adjust rear gears you turn a screw. It takes ten to fifteen seconds, and that's out on the trail. So why do LBS's charge something like £10 for the service?
Saw a ridiculous amount of horse riders out and about. I'm going to go with ten horses for every mountain bike. Really, ten to one. And they are ripping the trails to shreds. What is it with horse riders? They seem to feel the need to go out en masse in the autumn just to rip up the trails that have been lovingly conditioned by us mountain bikers. I've seen trails after 15,000 riders rode them in a single day. After 3 or 4 days you'd honestly not know that anybody had ridden them. Put a single horse down the same trail and it seems to take months to repair the damage. I've nothing against horses, as I'm sure they're very tasty in a burger, but really; bridleways are for bikes, not bloated and temperamentally stupid animals.
Now on to the mountain bikers that I did see out and about. Boy weren't they generally a miserable bunch of tossers? I always say hello to cyclists, be they on proper bikes or ro**ies. I only got two replies Sunday, one from some guy going at 2mph on a Cove, the other from a guy resting on top of Colley hill. The rest were pure miserablists. Luckily I only saw about 5 or so on the trails, and 2 on Reigate Hill. These last 2 were on bikes but were not cyclists. They were oiks - one was riding one handed so that he could have his 'phone playing the latest Cowell hit at full volume. Quality.
So sorry, but excluding moi naturally, pretty much all of the cyclists I saw on Sunday were jerks. To be fair I've never encountered such trailside miserabalism before [ discounting the older Box Hill NT ranger naturally ] and so I'm going to pretend from now on that everybody was a happy old soul*.
And once again the walkists amused me. There was a family of four walking side by side up Reigate HIll. I said a cheery "hello" and the woman looked back and moved out of the way. She didn't think to alert either her two sons or husband [ who had a single walking stick, the cheap bastard ] so I again had to say hello. Now here only one would need to move out of the way should they have wished to do so. Nope, all three moved. The father stopped on the trail to the far right, looked at me then moved fully across the trail to the left. One son did the reverse; stopped on the left, then moved fully across to the right. He had to avoid bumping into his father to do so. It was like watching some kind of dance.
Another woman walkist stopped, moved to one side, looked back with a smile then jumped as if in shock when she saw me. Er, what did she expect to see passing and why would a man on a bike in Surrey shock her? Perhaps she's not been out since the bike was invented. She was very friendly, but her reaction was rather odd.
Not too many dogists about. One muppet had his dog on one of those long string things. Hate those things, but fair play, the people that use them are exclusively morons so the leads act as early warning systems. Bit like those tethers some parents use with their young children. What's wrong with holding hands thinks I. Anyway this guy had his dog on a 20ft lead, and I was able happily to ride between them and over it. The lead, not the dog. Naturally the dog was small with huge hair and a high pitched yap, and he was fat with that hen-pecked look such owner's have.
People, if you are going to have a dog, then said dog must look as though it could kill a lion or run 30 miles without a break. No point otherwise. And if you are a hen-pecked man, well, go get a life.
WMM: "Sorry, coming dear."
Got the Pace back, with a lovely Hope bottom bracket. The LBS stated that it was my riding style that killed the original one off, not the quality of the item. Er, I've got five mountain bikes. Four have bottom brackets that pre-date Christianity, so I beg to differ on product quality versus riding style. Bottom line being that Shimano make shite bottom brackets.
Watched 2012 last night. I'll not do that again. Not one of those films you watch twice. Indeed as I kept getting up to do various jobs around the house [ WMM: "sorry dear, I'll get off the sofa and do some more housework" ], I'll wager that I've not technically even seen it once. No character development, characters killed off in a predictable sequence, and rather boring special effects. How many times can a single film include a sequence whereby somebody manages to dive off a cliff in odd vehicles and survive? In 2012 I think it gets to around ten times. Stretch limo drives straight through a collapsing tower block and survives a jump out of the other side? Knackered camper van able to jump a 40ft chasm after a standing start of zero feet? Novice pilot takes control of a massive Russian jet transporter, plunges vertically down what I calculated to be a mile, and survives? Enormous, newly constructed boat plunges vertically down several thousand feet and makes it? Tedious film. Bit like my blog then? Ha!
*I understand that the Moles were playing around Gatton Park. Naturally any reference to miserable riders, or riders with no ability, or eating horses, does not include them and the opinions contained herein are entirely my own.
**Do not ride solo. Hen-pecked naturally includes me, and any reference implied or otherwise that men should be dominant is entirely accidental and is denied as a falsehood. Women wear the trousers, and all dogs should be free to yap and shit where they like. Fly tipping represents a valuable and productive income to persons that own transits or flatbeds and the black economy keeps this country going and Britain great. I agree to "get out more."
14/09/2010: Not convinced.
Because of The Cut I didn't go riding on Sunday. Instead we took the children to Bedgebury. Now my wife thought this a brilliant place, but to me it seemed a bit, well, false. Why? Well....
Once upon a time, in a far off land there was a magical place called Bedgebury. It was home to all. There were no barriers here. Rod operated brakes and a baguette sticking out of your panniers? Then this place will do fine madam. Shit 1990's Pro-flex with original rubber suspension fitted? Excellent; you'll love this place. Blinged up £5k toy? Don't scare yourself Sir; it gets muddy out there.
Trails designed to be ridden? One way routes? Looked boring to me. True the cycling club seem keen as mustard, they put on some fun sounding events, and for the life of me I couldn't see how anybody could ride the freeride area without serious hurt, but the rest of it? Nah, no thanks. Perhaps after 5 hours in the saddle on a night ride things would be different, but for a Sunday morning ride I couldn't see it at all. Good for taking the kids?
Remove the riding and it is a nice place with a decent cafe.
Perhaps I'm getting old.
And today the kids are both at school, so I'm stay at home dad. Put the digital radio on. Got bored of Radio 1 so re-tuned. Bird noises, constant Indian music or Planet Rock? Planet Rock won, but not by much. Jethro Tull re-plays anybody? What, you've never heard of them? Well, imagine a flute as the main instrument in a rock band. No, come back, it gets better! A flute plus a fish farmer plus a beard plus a penchant for wordy, incomprehensible songs. About as good as it gets. That and Rush; Working Man. Oh and near constant Deep Purple. I kind of liked this stuff when I was 11. Now I'm a bit older it's shite. I strongly suspect it was shite way back when as well. Deep Purple were good in their day, but they released a lot of subsequent tosh.
Aha! What's the record for burning a Shimano bottom bracket out? Mine has lasted 6 months and is now dead, soon to go into the bin. Swopping it out for a Hope version [ and I dared Lee at C&N to ask me what colour I wanted - as if anybody gives a toss? ].
11/09/2010: Dad's should know better.
AD can't go out on Sunday, so instead suggested a shortie on Saturday night instead. What to do? Not worth riding up Colley hill is it? So I figured we'd have a play in Reigate park; I'd spotted a steep drop and fancied it.
Now before I go too far with this, let me introduce you to The Cut. The Cut is what happens when you try and make a model car for you son and the bit of wood you are sawing splits into two, so you end up sawing your thumb. Been years since I've had blood dripping from me. Nasty little cut, and it meant that I could not really change the middle ring gears, and neither could I really hold onto the bike.
The Cut didn't spoil the ride, but it didn't help either. I was probably riding at 50% of what I could normally do. Er, seeing as I was effectively riding one handed for a lot of the time, then this was to be expected.
Anyway we got to this steep drop in Reigate, and boy did it look steep close up. Perhaps a 1-in-2 slope, 75m length. AD didn't even want to think about it, but it looked doable to me so I gave it a go. Got half way down and my front tyre washed out, but I still figured it on being a doer. AD has a new full suspension bike; if I try stuff, and almost do it, he should be able to do it. So he tried, and failed worse than me. But by then we'd both had a taste and knew in our hearts that 1) it wasn't a dangerous slope, and 2) it could in theory be done on a dry day. I tried again, and washed out pretty much in the same spot. AD got quite a bit further down, and I shouted at him to let go of the brakes as it looked as though he was going to clear it on the second run. But just as he was about to comply his front washed out. Fair play, he stood there and pondered, got back on and completed the run. Naturally I then too had to clear it.
The upshot here being that here on our doorstep we have perhaps one of the more technical, not to mention steep, drops to be found on the Surrey Hills. Although it was very much firmly in the "poor form" ride for me, and I couldn't put much into it, I really appreciated doing it. Kind of eye opening. You know how it is; go to foreign shores only to find that actually the grass is pretty green here.
And our short ride? After 90 minutes we were still game for more, but I had to cook dinner. Can easily imagine spending all day playing just in Reigate alone. How odd; we ride past it without thought yet here is a little park that offers good challenges right on our doorstep.
Hats off to AD; the new bike has changed his attitude to riding. Two weeks ago, he'd walk down steps whilst I rode them. This week he casually rode down some steps I'd dismounted for. Big up to AD!
Now I have to mention work. We were called to a meeting Friday afternoon. A management guy got up onto a stage in front of 200 people, hands in pockets, said things were tough and that he'd been in a meeting all day Tuesday. Didn't even have a decent beer at lunchtime was his joke. We were then given a pack, and told to take ten minutes reading it. This in a cinema with very few lights on. In the back of this pack there was only a list of some 60 posts that had been deleted and the postholder made redundant. Go figure that one. Nice.
8/9/10: Lovely date this! 8 - 9 - 10. Bit like last year, only a month later; 7/8/9. Or the previous year: 6/7/8. Perhaps I should stop this game right now.
I've been caught by marketing. Last night wife caught me looking to buy a 50mm stem. "What's wrong with your old one?" Nothing. "Then why do you want a new one?" Er, 'cause all the magazines state that 90mm is too long these days.
At that point I realised I'd bought into some silly scam. 18 months ago I was happy on my Orange Clockwork; 50mm front suspension, 120mm stem, 1.95" 12 year old tyres with cracks in the sidewalls. I was riding the same trails as I am now, and at almost the same speeds. Now I have a 140mm Pace hardtail with a 203mm disc up front. I've probably added 0.5mph to my moving average. Boy, I really, really need a 50mm stem now don't I? My riding abilities have moved on soooo far already! Er, not. I agree that the bike is better, but the bike is already better than me. Bikes have been better than me for ten years now, perhaps more. Perhaps they always have. The trails, they change don't they? Er, perhaps not; Surrey as a bit of land has been here for a fair bit of time. It'll not change much. So why do we now need 160mm all-mountain bikes? Bikes that tip the scales at over 30lb. I've said it before, as have many other people, that here in Surrey a hard-tail with around 100mm of front suspension, weighing at less than 12kg would be ideal for 90% of what we do, and good at the remaining 10%. Indeed for most riders such a bike would be good for 100% of the time.
Actually such a bike would only ever be good for 95% of the time. The last 5%, when on display at the cafe, it would fail miserably and it is this last 5% that counts in reality. Magazines, and the trail, full of all-singing monsters, so to be in with the in crowd we all need them. Doesn't matter that most riders do 5 miles, then stop for a chat to be sociable.... Well, catch their breath more like after pushing what is effectively a butcher's bike through the mud. I see them all the time, grinding their way up hills, catch their breath for twenty, then blast down the other side at 35mph scaring the be'jesus out of everybody and themselves.
Naturally all of this retrospective criticism doesn't apply at all to my buying a full on Pace. I really did need a 140mm hardcore hard-tail. Er, I did didn't I? Dear Reader, you're not suggesting that a £400 Halford's special would have done me proud now are you? Oh dear, you are. And you're probably right.
I sound old now don't I?
I guess this is one reason why I like cycling abroad. I don't understand their mentality, or the advertising, so I'm ignorant as to the fashion faux pas that I make. "90mm stem? Idiot! 27 speed transmission? Dinosaur! 680mm handlebar? Tsk, tsk what a dolt. No rear suspension! How can he possibly ride the 20mm drop offs?!?" It's pleasant being ignorant sometimes.
6/09/2010: Tired.
Out with AD today, and he was on his new full suspension toy. He wanted to ride the chalk path up Colley Hill as it had defeated him twice this week, but that was the extent of our trail planning. Actually a lie; I had planned a route but on the long drop to Leatherhead [Alsation] he failed to turn left down Stane Street, but carried on at some considerable speed. So I had to follow, and this meant a detour to Bocketts farm for tea. Now I've kind of forgotten my way around here, so took a few random turns in the direction of Box Hill - I didn't fancy riding dog poo alley. Well I spotted a path called Druids. Never heard of that before, and it certainly isn't on the OS map. So we took it, assuming it to be an innocent drop. Nah; failed at the first switchback then again at the wooden steps. Managed the rest of it pretty easily, but by then we'd figured the best way to do it was to actually lower our saddles. D'oh!
Back via Box Hill and some surprisingly stupid drivers. None seemed able to pass us, and one passenger called me a c**t when his driver finally found the accelerator pedal. I chased him down, but the roadworks on Pebble Hill meant he was off before I caught up.
Can't say AD's new suspenders meant that the Pace was outclassed; good bike that. Surrey rider? Get a 140mm hardtail and be done with it.
Actually even a 140mm hard-tail may stretch things a bit too far. KD is happy with his Kona and the 80mm or so suspension that has [usually locked out through neglect]. It's nice to have more, hence my constant replying to those e-mails from those lovely clinics offering male penis extensions. 14" is OK, but 16" would be better surely? Sorry, off topic again. 100mm is enough for a bike around here, so be off with you. I kind of relised this in Belgium; on some of the rides I thought my forks were bust as they kept bottoming out at speed. Don't do that at home mused I. Then I realised that here on the Reigate side of things we don't generally have the gnarley bits that I was riding through.
4/9/2010: 2 weeks in Belgium.
See - Belgium 2010.
17/08/2010: Toad.
AD wasn't tired from 2 weeks holiday. He was in top form when he got back Friday. I've since found out he was tired from being on the piss the night before. He didn't mention this fact during the ride so from now on no excuses! Surprised he turned out actually.
Looking at combining geocaching with mountain biking somehow - may add a new twist to things? I'll ponder this whilst away. On the subject of which a Belgium person in Belgium has taken umbridge to my "Belgium closes at 8pm" comment. Bit like a Londoner saying they can always get meals at midnight. I'm talking about the Ardennes and coastal towns. I dare any Belgium person to buy anything in Ardennen towns, say, Houffalize, Bastogne etc. in July or August any time between Friday lunch and the same time on Monday; you know, tourist season when places should be open. Or try to buy a restaurant meal in pretty much any coastal town after 7pm September through to May. In reality the area is no different to Wales as that shuts come 8pm. Some people take umbridge over comments, and I later find they've been speed reading so have missed the general tone and intent of the article.
Belgium outside of the bigger towns closes most of the time. So there. Fact.
15/08/2010: Two Hombres!
Two hombres out; myself and AD. AD had just spent two weeks lying down eating kebabs so was not in the best of form. He must have been bad, as I've been ill for a week yet still out-paced him up Box Hill. Darn! Given it away. OK, we did a 40km loop to Box Hill. I managed to hit an 08:50 on the challenge, which wasn't too shabby but wasn't too good either. At least each time I do it I'm getting quicker, so all in the right direction. For 1.2km of not too steep a climb it is horrid. I was close to up chucking at the end, but recovered quickly so my base level fitness is good. I'd not like to do that twice in a ride, but there you go. AD took 10:20 and then stopped looking at the clock. Eeeek! Would be interesting to ride the zig zag and see how quickly that can be done on a mountain bike.
The loop was OK, but it didn't flow too nicely for me. I don't like the bitty rides; I like to set a pace then kind of stick to it. Going up Reigate Hill I took the rooty line instead of the flatter, shallower but longer trail. Boy did this highlight what perils were to come. The roots had to be crossed at precisely ninety degrees otherwise forget it. Now unfortunately roots do not cross the trail at any particular given angle; they have this horrid habit of being a rooty, messy jumble a bit like writhing snakes. They were slick with wetness [ooo, er, missus] and whilst with a bit of juggling I could get the front wheel to hit at the precise angle, this usually meant that the rear had to take care of itself. I got up, but the day would throw up a good few massive slides. Add in the dust of late now being a fine mud over slick chalk, and boy did we suffer with slides. AD missed one trail head completely and ended up ninety degrees to the trail not from braking, but from accelerating to make the junction. Power slide in Surrey? What would the miserablist ramblers make of it all? Anyway we did Headley Heath to Ranmore, taking some route off Ranmore to the A22 that ended in some horrid steps. Luckily AD copped a puncture prior so we didn't even attempt them. I did have a mooch down on foot, which was a mistake as I slipped down the trail. No grip scenario on foot, not good. I know that sometimes you can ride stuff that you can't walk on, but this was just silly. The steps meant a 15 to 20 cm drop onto a slippery chalk path. Give it a miss for today. And whilst fixing the puncture some rather gorgeous Surrey mothers walked by. You know the type; well dressed, mid 30's, good figure, all their own teeth.... only something that money and good breeding can get. AD was naturally about to engage in some rythmic and steady pumping..... which got more rythmic after they passed as he got it up. I had to walk away.
AD's spirit was good, but the body wasn't willing. After Box Hill we did quite a long road section back, slipstreaming each other as we went. It didn't seem fair to keep him on the trails. Fair play he was game for the ride, and I think being able to develop a cadence helped with his recovery and we chased a few road riders down quite spectacularly. What is it with roadies? How are we, with our massive balloon tyres, median age 43, usually able to completely smoke them at speed? I once did 300 miles on roads over three days with a bunch of roadies on their weanie bikes and banana backs. I was a mess, having used my Orange Clockwork, but I was always near the front setting the pace. Showed them I did!
Digress. We were out for just over 3 hours. So AD was in slow mode as we only did 40km. Lots of chatting, less riding. This is no bad thing it must be said. We didn't watch the clock; just rode where we pleased and generally took the piss. 2,100m of climbing, maximum speed off-road 47km/h.
Oh yes, my illness. Doctor was looking at meningitis. Yeah, right. Like I'd have been able to have walked in after having had it a week? Suspect it was some kind of viral infection; several people in Kent have had it whom I've kind of mixed with recently. And it has also been mentioned on DOAMB. Really odd thing to have had though. Bit like being drunk all the time. I could get used to it.
Our route out to Box Hill and back to Reigate.
My tip car you ask. How is it? Merrily rusting away. Wife wants me to put it into a skip, but would you do that to your Nan after years of faithful moaning? Probably knowing how heartless you are dear reader, you would but I am made of softer stuff. Actually I must be a bit soft looking; the exhaust fell off t'other day so I took it into Kwik Fit. They ordered a new one, fitted it, then when I asked how much it was told me to go away! That's never happened to me before. Good on them I say. I felt so good I booked the car into a body shop to attend to the rust. Guy there suggested to make it look pretty it would cost £700. I suggested that ugly would be acceptable to me. I'm from the Midlands; I'll not willingly spend £700 on any car. £200 then, but big bits of steel, big welds, random paint colour. Deal done Sir!
13/08/2010: About time!
Evans Cycles are having a sale. I bought some waterproof shorts. There. Done it. After 17 years of mountain biking I finally have some waterproofs for my legs. Never needed them back in the days of lycra but now we've all gone urban terrorist style out there on the trails I got tired of wearing wet baggies. Guess now every tenth ride I'll face the dilemma; waterproof bagies or normal dry ones? Also now do I waterproof my feet? Never done that before. Seems daft, what with all those puddles and snow we go through. And isn't it a good thing I've gone away from lycra? Men's bits are all well and good when you're a toned 20 year old, but once you're nearer to 50 than 40 and they're hanging a foot down in a palid and oddly hairy skin sack, then exposing them through half a micron of stretchy lycra warrants arrest for indecent exposure.
Have I gone off tangent again? Sorry.
We've changed our car; getting a used one with 26,000 miles up. A first for the wife as she's always bought new. Now naturally she's gone into a big panic about it not having a warranty. The salesman tried to sell her one, so now she's warranty aware; i.e. she's worried that something will go horribly wrong with the car. If he'd not mentioned a warranty, she'd not be bothered. Personally I can't see the point in them. You're giving somebody £600 to insure against the car going wrong, yet in all the small print I've been able to see [they don't let you see all of it until you've bought it...] they don't pay out if the item is worn. Er, this is a used car; everything is worn to a degree. So I've made the assumption that warranties are worth nowt. Wife naturally does not buy into this view, so I'm having to "research" the damn things. So far I've established that the AA one seems not to be an AA one. Other than that they all seem poor value. However, I am a little concerned over how much they are. As far as I understand insurance, if the premiums are low, then so is the associated risk. High premium means high risk. These premiums seem high to me, so perhaps there is a message there somewhere?
Got it from Wilsons in Epsom who have been fine, if somewhat slow in prepping it. Going to mean a bit of a rush fitting the roofrack and packing it out, but hey ho! that's normal here. At least I'm not dismantling the bike.
Volvo car is knackered again. Teach me to use it for more than ten miles. The exhaust fell off over some speed bumps in Dulwich. Again. Car from an era when roads were expected to be smooth ribbons of tarmac flowing through the countryside. Not the ice war ravaged stuff we have now.
And I'm ill. Have been for over a week. Lightheaded, dizzy spells, forgetful and with knackered and wibbly knees. Indeed a bit like being mildly drunk - like you're first time you got trashed during games lessons at school when you were 12. What do you mean you didn't? You actually did games? Bizarre. Off to see the quack tomorrow, but blood tests were mentioned. This means a hospital visit. This means a long wait for one. This means that I'll probably be 100% fit when the tests are done, so pointless as usual [bit like my in-tray at work; if I leave it alone, the stuff eventually goes away of it's' own accord. So I leave it alone, stuff does indeed go away. Joy!]. If I'm still unwell when the tests are finally done, then I'll probably be really unwell and again being in an NHS hospital these days is probably not the best place to be either. Suspect I've either a mild but annoying viral infection, so tough boobie, or I'm a bit diabetic. Whatever. All a bit boring being ill and not having a gaping and flapping wound, or puss seeping from an open and vacant eye socket isn't it? Nobody gives you any pity, and I do love to wollow in self pity.
Been buying up ointments for my holiday. Sun tan lotion? No. Bug spray? No. Wax lube for my chain? Check. Stan's No Tubes goo for my tyres? Check. Men and bikes eh? This year I'm not taking spare tyres. Reason being that I've found out that the Belgiums are well stocked with bicycle tyres. Sounds daft doesn't it? But I can remember going on holiday to Wales and the local bike shop just having Panaracer Fire XC Pro's in red..... I still shudder over those tyres. Did everything a tyre is supposed to do; they were round, black and made of rubber with big knobblies on. Their only real failing, and I think this is a big one personally, being a complete and utter lack of grip in any trail situation whatsoever. You'd be barelling along, and next thing either the front or rear tyre would lose grip on absolutely any trail obstacle, no matter how small. Lolly pop stick? Wha-hey! Blade of grass? Watch out! Up was a struggle, but I used to go into a cold sweat and grip the brakes hard if the trail pointed down by anything more than 0.000001%. And remember I bought these tyres in Wales, at a trail centre. It ruined the ride [that's my rather pathetic excuse for being generally knackered after having bravely done the black run after not having ridden a bike at all for 6 months]. Should have sued. So ever since then I've taken tyres with me, but realised a bit too late that perhaps the Belgiums, who I suspect had a pretty big bit to do with actually inventing bike tyres in the first place, do rather good stuff.
11/08/10: Dad day.
For the past 20 years I've essentially foot patrolled the business areas of a large part of South London. My job involves sticking my nose into places and rooting stuff out. Primarily this is to catch naughty people doing nefarious things, but there is a bonus ball element attached. I know South London pretty darn well. Dump me anywhere in an area stretching from the BBC in Hammersmith right down to Burgess Hill, and within ten minutes I can, for example, find you an open public toilet, an little Italian deli that sells particularly good coffee, that toy shop that imports a specialist brand of Netherlands manufactured cuddly toy, or point you in any particular direction and it be generally correct. In short I do not get lost easily, and I know most stuff that is worth knowing, and a lot more that isn't [gay spa's come to mind, as does knowing where to get dodgy tobacco or knock off alcohol].
This was highlighted today. Kids off, what to do? Aha! Dulwich park to check out the hire bikes, Brockwell park for that outdoor Alice in Wonderland play then to the splash pool for a cool down, then on to a hidden toy shop via a back street deli that does imported Italian ice creams and coffee to die for. I was going to do the ultra thin crust home-made pizza in Brixton indoor market, but wife would have killed me if I'd shown her exactly where I was intending on taking my kids. You can go too far sometimes, but I'm tempted. All in all a bit of a brilliant day out that only somebody very, very local to an area could have put together.
I'm not bragging; this was as good a day out as you could do. Just a fact really.
10/08/10: Man-sculpting.
I got bored of it. Hair grows surprisingly fast, more so down below. Ended up having to shave twice a day otherwise things itch. Now as part of my job I've been to a few gay spa's in London [don't ask!]. I know that quite a few gay men engage in sculpting; mainly because I've seen the results. I guess that if us straights were able to engage in casual sex whenever we fancy a bit [£15 admission, no questions asked, here's your free condom] then perhaps the price of endless shaving would be worth the bother. Or if we were German's engaged in nude sunbathing, then perhaps I'd change my opinion. But as I don't engage in casual sex with male strangers in darkened rooms, and I'm not a German naturist, then, well, that's it for me. End of experiment. Oh and you also get a lot of ingrowing hairs - really unpleasant. The other downside, literally, is that when you try to go to sleep inevitably a bit of stubble prods you in a sensitive place.
That'll teach me to read a women's mag and take the advice at face value.
The other 'interesting' thing that happened to us this week is that we changed our car. That's not interesting, but the Citroen salesman was. We were looking at a Berlingo; I've no pride! Anyway took it out for a test drive. OK but a bit like buying a fridge; we were just buying it for the internal boot volume. Is that any way to judge a car? Nope. We soon realised the error of our ways, especially when the salesman stated that it was hard to sell those cars as people do not like to be seen in them, especially girls around 8 years old. Er, right. You're trying to sell us this car? Our daughter will be 8 soon..... So we dismissed it, especially as his "we're giving them away, make us a silly offer" transpired as being less than £1k off the asking price. So £14k for a boring mobile fridge that our daughter in one year's time will not be seen dead in. His sales tactics were made more bizarre as he parked us next to a used 8 year old Scenic that they had. 70,000 miles up, 2002 registration. Had a look in the window and realised that here was a car much better looking if you squint, better specified, more street cred and actually cheaper to buy outright than the deposit alone on a new Berlingo. Down the road in the car supermarket thay had a fairly new Berlingo for £9k before haggling. So at least £5k depreciation in a year, say £7k.
So off we toodled to Wilsons in Epsom, and bought a used Scenic for £7k. In other words we bought a fairly new, high specification car for the same price as the Berlingo would have depreciated the moment we drove it off the forecourt. Bit of a no brainer decision that.
The Scenic sold itself really, and I pity the forme owner. Here is a car wth a list price of over £20k being sold 3 years later on at a third of that. That's a heavy hit for a mom-mobile isn't it? Perhaps some people don't care; this is Surrey after all. Bet they were given £5k for it against a new Scenic. Their loss, our gain. The test drive was interesting. Quiet and comfortable car, but horrid automatic gearbox. Looked as basic as one could get, and lurched alarmingly on upshifts needing 5,000rpm to get to 30mph in what seemed a bit of a glacial timespan. Still we've got a nice car for not much money and that counts a lot these days; can easily imagine driving it across Europe [as I intend on doing!]. Wife didn't give a second thought to getting rid of our faithful Jazz after 7 years service. Suspect she wants to grow up car wise. Honda in the UK does have rather a pedestrian image.
And it'll teach the mother-in-law to keep her gob shut. In the morning she said to my wife to stop spending money as the future is uncertain. So off my wife goes and buys a car. Can't tell some people can you?
And.... Wife initially suggested that I get the new car; this when we were buying the Berlingo. She doesn't drive manual cars, and the Berlingo is unavailable in automatic. [why? seems a stupid decision by Citroen that.] Now my car is 23 years old, 130,000 miles up, has knackered suspension and steering. It is covered in dings and dents, with bits hanging off. Our neighbour drove his van into it once, and nobody bothered to look if the car was damaged. We both kind of knew I wasn't at all bothered. It is a funny shade of grey that isn't quite grey, but isn't silver either. Would I swop that for a Berlingo? Er, perhaps this says a lot about the Berlingo, but no thanks. New £15k Citroen that I can easily fit several mountain bikes into v. £200 asthmatic Volvo with a hole in the sill? Volvo won. How bad does that make the Citroen? Or how daft am I?
...I'd have swopped it for the Scirocco I looked at with my son... Well if it hadn't have been £30k, but you see what I mean.
8/8/10: Today we did Track 40.
Bit of a blast from the past this one. KD stated that he was time short today. Normally this "we go for a short ride" thing winds me up, as I only go out once a week so why make it a short one - make it long! But I wasn't feeling 100% today, so played along. Hmmm, where to go - didn't fancy a loop around Banstead Downs again, no matter how good a run it is. In the back of my mind I've had pegged a little trip to Track 40 over in Banstead. Well why not do it today? Got the map out, planned a route that involved as many bridleways as possible and off we set. Bit slow getting there, as I had to keep stopping to map read, but once there it was a happy a little trail as I remembered it. Odd, but it was exactly the same trail as I rode 12 years ago last. Back then it kept evolving week by week, so why has it all stopped now? Still fun, but not worth travelling to if you see what I mean.
Stats from my i-gotU revealed that we'd ridden the same distance as last week, with the same overall average pace and the same top speed. Bizarre. Suspect we've settled into a happy routine that we need to break.
An odd little route - more cyclo cross than mountain bike in all honesty. I wouldn't want to do it every week as I'd soon tire of it, but as a change from the normal routine it worked really well. Oddly pleased not to have ridden a route favoured by the masses week in, week out. And also it was very strange; outer London, within the M25 yet it was real country. Farms. Open fields. I was glad that I'd taken the sub-26lb Tassajara as a lot of the paths we took ended in styles or kissing gates. It doesn't half make a difference getting through these things when you can just hoist the thing above head height one handed. And yes, these must have been paths that we took by mistake. Sorry.
Riding the Tassajra is interesting. For one the front tyre has two distinct areas of tread; one in the centre, and one at the edge. These are seperated by around 1cm of bare tyre. What this means is that for that 1cm there is literally no grip as there is no tyre. This transalates at the handlebars of the sensation of falling; they must drop 10cm on corners before hitting the outer ring of tread. Most disconcerting initially, and it takes me a good hour to get used to it, especially on gravel tracks. During that hour I am a nervous, slow rider. After that hour I'm back to seeking out the roughest lines. The frame is also race bred as it is very unforgiving at the back end. My Pace feels like a full suspension bike in comparison - it really does! But do you know what? I still really, really like the bike. It can be fast when my legs are, and the steering is razor sharp with the right tyres fitted. Note to self: change that front tyre out!
Redhill to Track 40 in Banstead.
04/08/2010: For the past two days?
Kids off school, what to do with them? Gatton Park had two days of activities planned, so I booked them in for two sessions. First one was finding out about pirates, the next pond dipping. All innocent stuff, but really excellent as it turned out. My two kids really enjoyed themselves on both days and came back buzzing. Helped that I sneakily took them into the park an hour before the course started on each day, and stopped there for over an hour afterwards. Both days I took a packed lunch and ate in the grounds. In other words we made ourselves at home completely. My daughter in particular is smitten with Capability Brown's landscaping; she could have stopped there all day.
03/08/2010: How much?
We're off to Belgium soon, and my neighbour asked if we'd be going to the Grand Prix as it was on then. Blimey! Not even thought about that one, so I looked it up. Right. Cheapest ticket is £180. This gets you on the maintenance track that runs around the course. I've been to Spa. You'd see nothing from this track. Indeed the blurb states that it'd be OK as you could watch the big video screens they have. Yeah, right. So I looked up the next best option. £400 for a seat. £400! That'd be £1,600 for all of us to go. Or as much as the property rental is for two weeks. Needless to say I'll not be going.
Second one. Pace are selling off their demo bikes. The Muddy Moles posted a link, I looked at it, thought the bike amazingly good value, so looked at my finances, decided to have it [I could sell my existing Pace plus some bits and easily get the £1,500 back], so logged back on to the Pace website. All of this took me as long as it took you to read this bit. A minute? The bike had gone. Sold. Huh.
Anyway now I have GPS I'm updating my bike routes with new data [see Routes ] for 2010 and beyond. I'm going to include web links to Google style maps, and add in the GPX data for you to download and upload into your Garmin. Going to take a bit of work, but there you go dear Reader; thing's I do for you.
01/08/2010: Rather a nice spin out. Putting the cyclo cross dream to bed...
Managed the grand total of 3 hours sleep last night - just couldn't be arsed to sleep, and went to bed at 3am to be woken by a brat at 6am. Niiiice. So expected to be grumpy this morning, and have a poor ride, but all was well here in Workshopmanualmanland. KD came out to play, and did well considering he's just done nothing but drink Belgium beer in a darkened room for two weeks. Where did we go? Well... I'm going all tech here and I'll download my i-gotU data so you can follow exactly where we went.
KD had put some new sintered pads on his Kona, and on one lairy descent when he braked at the end there was this God awful smell of burning pad material. As usual my Pace just did the job. Not even any burping from my tubeless conversion. Actually I lie; the bloomin' saddle post kept slipping down. Trails very dry; coming off Reigate Hill I had a two wheel drift on some gravel when I cut a corner at speed - initially felt like a flat so I braked heavily but then realised what was up, so gave it some more beans. Naturally I'm now a "big girl's blouse" [BGB] for eternity as KD witnessed my mid-flight brake and put it down to a bit of trail fear. Er, at that point I was doing 52km/h off road on gravel with a manic grin on my face. Eat my dirt sucker!
Saw a big group of riders at Headley that I took to be the Moles - look like some kind of urban assault tactical squad, but on bikes. Looked as though they'd used the NDW to get there from perhaps Reigate - OK, but a bit boring a route on an MTB. Gave them my alternative that in my humble is slightly better.
Looking at the Moles and their attire, and not being critical of them as a group, more that I think there is room for some kind of alternative style for the fashionable MTB'er. Why do we have to put up with green, black or brown? Very army, very macho. Practical, yes, but a bit too "I'm with the big boys" for me. Oddly enough I'm attracted to a floral print....
Discussed AD and his planned new bike. He wants a full susser, and who am I to stop him? Go for it. Anyway the point of the discussion being that none of our travels today needed a full susser at all [no pun intended, although it was rather good, don't you think?]. Quite possibly the climb up to the outdoor centre may have been made a little easier, like 2%, as would "Dave's" trail down, but I doubt it. And before you say "try one!" remember I do own a susser. So there. Discussion agreed that it is the rider, not the bike.
[Note to Benny; hide the Specialized Pitch catalogue for when KD next comes around.]
Odd but saw a lot of riders out today on Trek 8's. Where did we see them? On the road. Not on the road when we were on the road at the same time type thing, but on the road passing us whilst we were off road type of thing. What gives?
Today's ride put paid to my cyclo cross dream. Why bother? I like the idea, but I'd only ever be able to use it in Billy No Mates guise unless I started hanging around with beardy wierdos. Ah, hold on; I do. But you see what I mean? Riding an MTB is acceptable; I can do it with anybody. Go all cross and I'd have to join an underground community of people that drink real ale in snugs and like may pole dances.
Got back, KD made the biggest chilli in the universe. Much appreciated, so I gave him a t-shirt by way of thanks. I'm nice like that.
Follow my route here!For what it is worth; 1,800m of climbing, 34km total distance and a 52km/h maximum speed. Go baby, go! Didn't feel a 34km, but some of the trails and linking routes were new'ish to me [read this as not done them for 12 years or more...]. The Ranmore one we ran in the wrong direction as I spotted a cheeky side trail to the left - climbing that was hard work. Better to hit it from the top, then a Stane Street blast and a slow climb back along the common, or head off to do the Box Hill chellenge. Guess you could just do the little Ranmore circular route for an hour or so and not get bored? Area worth investigating as there looked to be a nice, steep drop-off section being developed. Again surprised as to how rapidly an area can change and develop almost organically. What a mery bunch of worker bees we are.
27/07/2010: Just bought an I-gotU GPS device. So instead of the typically ultra boring "I went along this path, turned left, blah, blah, blah" ride report I'll be able to post the actual route with GPS co-ordinates on Google maps. Well should; I've had GPS before and screwed it all up. Looking forward to unburdening myself from route descriptions. Furthermore I'll be able to update my rather old route page itself. I can see you're enthralled - wake up back there! Installing it on to the bike was simplicity itself seeing as the unit is the size of a matchbox. Some zip ties, bit of string, some clingfilm.... Yes, imagine trying to fit a matchbox to your bike. I have actually taped it to the stem in a rather ungainly fashion. Still, I'll see how it works on Sunday. £40 is all it cost; so no hassle if it doesn't.
Wife bought Womens Runner magazine this month. Inside it had a rather interesting article on why women should mountain bike. Well actually it was why you shouldn't as apparently research in Canada has shown that 1 in 6 mountain biking accidents result in total paralysis. Really? Gosh I should be careful as I've had 5 recently.... What tosh some of these magazines come out with.
On the subject of shaving. Er down below. Well you did ask! It gets addictive I warn you. Bit like when you first strip a motorcycle down; just a bit more can't hurt can it. Before you know it, it's all gone and you're searching for that talcum powder you bought to install an inner tube 20 years ago. And do you know what? This hot weather it isn't half nice having a breeze down there. I'd put some photographs up, but 1: I've not taken any, and 2: they would be unpleasant. Imagine a hanging and recently plucked chicken.
06/10/2010: Update on the shaving front: It's addictive. I've kept at it for months now. Learnt a few things that you may wish to know....
- Don't shave the hairs above your Man. Use a cream instead. Otherwise you get a permanent rash.
- As for your dangling bits; razor there. Carefully.
- Don't go near your bum with anything other than tissue paper.
- Don't shave areas that may rub together; stubble hurts.
- Don't expect your partner to like it.
- Do not talk about it to other men. Ever.
- It is oddly nice; bit like a hair cut. You feel fresh air on your skin. You realise how hot you were with pubes.
- Shaving makes you horny.
- Don't use soap as a lubricant.
25/07/2010: Out with AD. Unfortunately he'd forgotten to bring any stamina or trail courage with him, but did bring along a happy disposition instead, so all was well with the ride. Did my new loop down Reigate hill over the tree roots, up rubbish alley and over to Banstead Downs. I've a cheeky little section I do there that isn't strictly legal but doesn't hurt anybody, so we followed that to the duck pond, then over to Stane Street and back via Headley for a gazillion calorie snack from the tea hut. We did the nasty climb up to the school there; challenged AD to clear it, but he stuffed it on the gravel and I semi-collided with his prone form. And us dressed in sweaty lycra..... The little rooty and rocky downhill I cleared by adopting the tactic of just going straight over the roots. No punctures this time, and my straight line route set me up nicely for the flint gulley. Then back via the North Downs Way, then cut down to my cheeky singletrack that I'm developing up to Colley Hill. And no, I'm not telling you where it is. It's there for the finding though! Clue: Sportsman'ish.
Strangely attracted to Cyclo Cross bikes. Bizarrely on page 124 of this month's Cycling Active a young man called Kaj Scarsbrook pretty much rides my circular route on his Cross bike. It's one I've been doing for years, originally on a hybrid bike. Interesting isn't it? He can do it on a cross, but AD is on about getting a full susser to do the same thing. S'all in y'ed innit? As my t-shirt says; a bike is a bike is a bike.
Oh and at the tea hut there was a man with the most hideous hernia I've ever seen. It was, quite literally, about the size of a five year old child and must have weighed 4 or 5 stone or more. Basically his bollocks, not to beat about the bush any more, were the size of footballs and were bouncing onto his shins. For some reason he was a miserable f**k. And so would you be. AD couldn't stop staring, open mouthed, but the man appeared used to this.
Getting excited by the holiday now. Going to a place called Thirimont in Malmedy - as usual it is part of the blossoming MTB scene in Belgium, and our rental is right on the trail. How did that happen I wonder? Can you imagine 15,000 riders turning up for your Sunday ride? They do there! Quite amazing to see. I'm looking to take the PACE, but suspect that it will be overkill as the trails are fairly tame, but incredibly long. But I like overkill.
http://www.routeyou.com/route/view/193170/cycle-route-mtb-route-malmedy-1.en
Oh,
and here is a shot of my latest t-shirt - here I am at a mass water
fight just prior to all hell breaking lose amongst 30 or so people;
some of them children. I am surfing v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y down a
not-very-soapy water slide, yes, thanks for asking dear Reader. As
usual available exclusively through my eBay site [t-shirt that is, not
me or the water fight!].
And there's more. Just go out and buy The Camper Van Cookbook by Martin Dorey [ ISBN 978-1-444-70389-4 ]. Many of the recipes aren't hugely original, like eggy bread, or some of the Thai ones, but the fact that he cooks essentially good quality student fare means we can all do what he does! Ideal mountain biker food in my opinion. My new foodie Bible. I've already bought a bucket BBQ and single ring gas burner. For 3 days now I've been cooking outside. Even today in the rain. Daft sod. Impresses nobody but moi.
Back to my ride. Road cyclists wear tight clothing as it disipates sweat more readily. We wear baggy clothing made out of wicking material. What's the point of that? May as well wear cotton. I may go all roadie here - or fixie / Brookes style with tighter clothing made from tweed. You've got to admit; MTB'ers have no style but singlespeeders do in abundance. I'm not about to fit a 20cm handlebar you understand.....
21/07/2010: The tip car; love hate thing.
One of the 'joys' of having access to an old beater is that you're really not that bothered by it. I'd parked it outside of our neighbour's house the other day. Now our neighbour is a bit of a tart when it comes to asserting "possession" over what he thinks is his personal bit of publicly owned road. In other words he reversed his van into the car. My wife watched it and laconically commented on what he had done. "Oh" was my reply, and I went back to my magazine. One more dent aint gonna hurt now is it?
But the pain of using an older car is that they kind of just fall apart bit by bit. The exhaust fell off today. Just fell off. There you go; one moment it is fixed to the car, the next it isn't. I wasn't even driving it, but as I found it like that I felt duty bound to effect a repair. But back to the joy; Kwik Fit couldn't be arsed to charge for the repair. They just put it all back together.
Keeping on this subject. The Volvo really is knackered. Rusty, smelly, dented, sunroof only works in one position, and that isn't the closed one. The steering has a knock, as does the suspension. It pretty much boils over every journey. It is full of crap, and is never cleaned, washed or polished. But the thing is, it just keeps going in its' own laconic way. OK nobody asks much of it; trip to the dump every now and then, or a school run for the more brave souls being about as exciting as it gets. I'm not sure it would tolerate daily use [remember the time I tried last year a wheel fell off]. But it is like the doughty 80 year old in the care home. Looks like death lightly warmed up, but you know full well she's snuggled down into the 30 degree heat, boiled cabbage for tea, cribbage later on of an evening routine and will last another ten years or so. The Volvo is like that. It'll still be in the street long after we've left, tolerating the odd trip to the dump or exciting venture further afield, like to the next town 2 miles away. Rust may kill it, but it's gonna fight to the end.
21/07/2010: No such thing as too much.
What did my kids want to do on their first full day off? Go for a bike ride. So off we went for a good 2 hours off-road towards Godstone. Followed route 21. Now I've done this route loads of times, and never really been too aware of the road section. Today with a 4 year old in tow I was petrified of it. We did it, and the cars were happy enough to go slow for 50 metres or so, and I guess kids have to learn, so perhaps I should chill. Perhaps. 2 hours didn't even tire my kids even slightly. Bugger.
Got back and because I'd got the Orange out it only seemed prudent to get the unicycle out as well. No gears or brakes to fettle, but the tyre was flat after 15 years of sitting in the basement. The tyre was also cracked, so new one ordered - inner tube and tyre, £7 delivered. Sheer pleasure of not having to worry over summer / winter, grippy / hard wearing type dilemma that you get with mountain bikes was a joy. Took the kids and unicycle to the park. Do you know what? That thing about never forgetting to ride a bike? Applies to a unicycle as well. I've never learnt to actually mount the thing other than by holding on to something, but once on it I was fine. Very odd thing to ride.
20/07/2010: Sneaky, sneaky he does it with stealth.
Boy child out with his mate today, so I'm off child care duties for the morning. Hoovered the house, took some stuff to the post office, did the Sainsbury's run, put some washing out on the line. Hmmm, still not 10:00 hours. What do these stay at home women do all day? Aha! I know what I'll do.... Dear Reader there is no punch line if you just go and guess it now is there?
Got the Klein Mantra out. Been dry for some time so I should get away with the slick tyres, so off I went. Jolly good it was too. Not telling you where I went, as it was slightly illegal being private land and all that, but I was out for a happy and constructive 2 hours. Constructive? Literally so as I was forging new trails across..... now that would be telling wouldn't it? And anyway, you're so smart you go figure it out!
Essentially I was constructing some new singletrack through some woods here and trying to make a decent 2 hour loop. I got to 90% in the time I had. A hacksaw will see me complete the other 10% no worries. Think deer tracks, dog walker paths and exploratory cycle ways all linked together into one big loop. Not totally sure that I should point it out to anybody? It's there for the taking should you find it, but you'll not find it on any map.... Indeed I've ridden these trails for years and it is only now through determination and looking for something, not to mention a little construction, that I've put the route together.
Only one real point of note. I passed some elderly old dears out for a confused ramble. They were a pleasant and happy bunch so I gave them room as I passed. Later on I came up against them again on Reigate Hill. However this time there was a runner in front of me and we approached them from the back. Did he shout out a cheery "hello" to them? Did he buggery. He literally barged through them, pushing them aside. These were 80 year old ladies. So I let him get ahead, then I built up some speed and brushed past his shoulder at about 25mph - my handlebar caught his elbow. My handlebar has solid metal end plugs. Screw him, the ignorant shit face.
Now my Klein is an old beast, and a heavy one at that. The suspension doesn't really work too well. Recently I'd changed some cable to the rear mech; turned out I'd cut the outer too short as I had ghost shifts on each bump. Now out and about with other people I struggle to keep up. KD [nee Spanner] also had trouble maintaining momentum when he rode it last year. But out solo none of this matters at all. I do 3.8mph uphill instead of 4.2mph. Doesn't matter solo. Indeed it is a lovely old bit of kit for just exploring trails and building leg muscles. Bit like a series 1 Land Rover; shit but does the job. Really enjoyed it. And the slick tyres were 100% fine, even in the slightly muddy dingles. Where does the water come from? Anyway, my point is that in a group ride machismo kicks in; one has to be fast or go further than the others. I've ten years on my buddies, so have to shave mass from my bikes to make rides work. But alone the mass doesn't matter one jot. So I'm carrying 3lb more of bike uphill; big deal. Means nothing solo. Neither does only going at it 80% downhill. My slowness isn't going to spoil a ride when I'm on my own. And more to the point, slow means finding stuff. New trails. Joy!
Oh and I sold a Surrey mountain biking t-shirt to a Daran over in Derby. Thanks Daran! Really universal appeal this one.
Picked the children up at 13:30. Guess what they wanted to do? Yes, bike ride. Only bike with flat peddles that I could use to ride with them is my trusty old Orange Clockwork [really clipping in is a bit passe with a 6 and 4 year old surely?]. Not ridden that for a year! Dug it out, off we went. Bit barge like initially, and the front Hope disc didn't want to stop the bike, but that was fine after a mile or so. Gears still worked. By heck! was it nice to get that thing out. Totally slick road tyres so it cornered really, really well. So we spent a happy two odd hours riding around. Me showing them how to ride one handed, no hands; skids and stoppies. Funny watching a 4 year old pull a stoppie. Good lad. They got a bit tired so asked to sit on the luggage rack. OK. Got some stern looks from a guy with a rack mounted kiddie carrier, but the old folks saw the fun in it. Guess he must believe the Elf and Safety nonesense? Yes we could have fallen off. Yes they could have gotten a foot in the spokes. But the point is, they didn't and we had fun. Burnt to a crisp though as it meant my being out on bikes for over 5 hours.
19/07/2010: Found a child's bike on the way to work today. Got off the train at Dulwich just after 6am, there it was abandoned. Now it must have been worth all of £5 but because it is a bike, and bikes should never be wasted if they pretty much work, I picked it up and carted it off. All day I carried it around with me, grown man with a child's bike in Brixton [normal for Brixton] and brought it back by train. 5:30pm, got home, supposed to make dinner but there I am fettling a knackered old bike. Spent an hour or so fettling it; new brake cable, corrected the bent rim, grease the spindles, oil the chain, pump up the tyres and it worked. Well after a fashion; no bearings in the design at all. Just spindles in bushes throughout. So it is a bit rough and ready, but I can ride it, the neighbour's 10 year old son rode it and so did my daughter. Billy bargain! Boy child cried as it is too big for him. Tough!
Dinner a combination of burnt or boiled soft. Three of us happy, one moody as a result. Just put more ketchup on it dear, it'll be fine.
Now on the subject of my daughter. OK we weren't, but we are now, OK? She is 7 next week. She learnt to ride just prior to her third birthday. And I mean ride; I hate stabilizers so I threw those away as soon as we got her bike home. Took her 5 minutes to learn - yes, 5 minutes. So she is 7 and has been riding for four years. What a life! I did the same with my boy, but he's less focused than her so it took him about 20 minutes to learn. Neither of them wanted or needed me running alongside; they just did it. Now my kids aren't special; they're normal children. So it pains me to see parents running alongside kids on bikes with stabilizers. They're setting them up for years of being pricks. Just get them a balance bike when they come up to 2 years old, then put them on a proper bike at 3. Job done. I'm not sure you could do it prior to 3. Not a question of whether they can or can't, more leg length and strength.
Any child can ride a bike. It's the parents that stop them.
Children want to ride. It gives them a sense of freedom. It's parents that stop them.
Different subject. It pays to be nice to your LBS. My Klein has had this knocking on the front that I assumed to be worn fork bushes. I put off getting it done as it would set me back £100 and meant sending them off to Magura. Bear in mind I have 5 bikes. I spend a lot on bikes, but would rather ride than fettle, and I've just had the Pike forks serviced a week or so ago. Anyway finally decided enough was enough so popped down to the LBS with the bike. Now as I'm nice to them, instead of taking it in they carefully explained to me that I was being a precocious dickhead. All the knocking is is the pads moving backwards against the pistons as I rock the bike. D'oh! Lesson learnt. I'd looked for a problem where there was none. So in celebration I'm going to take the Klein out for a spin. Love that bike. Piece of shite but I'd never let it go. Same with the Orange Clockwork. Keeper even though when I took it out last week it felt like a right barge. Why did we have 120mm stems back in the day?
Anyway, 7pm just eaten dinner and boy child wants to go for a ride out on the street. So naturally with my Klein already out we head off to the park.... not having told Mother where we're off to. Ooops! Bath night and we're in the park. Sod it. Which is best? Clean child or knackered one? I plump for dirty but knackered every time. Now 8:30pm and he is asleep in bed sitting up, and has been for an hour. Result.
Oh yes, t'internet lad. We called NTL. Once again it was not their fault, but our router. Now this guy is in Bangladesh, how exactly does he know? It's in our bedroom. What's he got; a little camera in there? I suspect he was telling a big fat fib. So I put up with the dongle for a week. Two days ago, lo! and behold! NTL sent us an e-mail stating that a patch was available for customers who may experience problems in the future. Er? Future? Right. So I installed said patch. Guess what? Oh, you got there before me. Smug bastard that you are. All fixed. Perfect. Couldn't be better. I love NTL. No I bastard well don't!
18/07/2010: A tad too far? Entente cordial.
Out as a solo rider today, and I couldn't face another highly interesting and challenging ride over to Headley Heath or Box Hill or any other uber biking mecca. So? So I dug out an old ride - the trek over to Godstone. However I added in a loop over to Oxted just to make it that little bit longer, harder, and frankly tiring. Especially seeing as today was relatively cool at... 30 degrees C over on Gravelly Hill. D'oh.
Getting to Oxted itself was fine; back roads out of Redhill, then Route 21 to Godstone, through some ancient woodland by the deadly farm, past what I took to be Al Fayed's gaff [he's got some dosh!], up a short but seemingly steep hill, then back via the North Downs Way. Now this was not a route I know, as normally the A22 acts as a barrier to further progress for me. So I had to use a map. Now often this is fine, but today the sections were short so I had to keep looking at the thing to find out where I was and where to go next. This frankly is boring and I tired of it after the tenth time. Kind of spoilt the ride a bit, but I guess it does mean that it is embedded in my memory now. To be honest the ride wasn't that interesting either. Too bitty. However as a pure ride it worked. Odd? It was like going back 15 years in time, to when mountain biking was fairly tame but one felt as though boundaries were being pushed. After all, there were few of us out and about so each ride was a novelty. [As was the horrendous maintenance program after each and every ride....] So I was able to drift off into happy thoughts and just ride. Luckily I was on the Tassajara so there was no haughty beast beneath me willing me on to do silly stuff. Mind I would have liked some more suspension over some of the tree roots.
But Redhill to Oxted off-road is a bit of a schlepp. Add in the climb up at the half way point, and I'm pretty tired now. My normal ride involves a short climb, some downhill, climb, downhill..... You get the picture? So I use a bit of energy, relax, use a bit more, eat some cake..... Today I was spinning pretty much constantly for 3 hours. Not something I'm used to. Neither am I used to the racey, low down position of the Tassajara. Flat bars are fine to look at, but in practice a bit of a handfull to ride. Problem is I like them.
The climb up to Caterham was interesting. There was a guy in front of me on a Specialized full suspension thing. A nice looking bike that I instantly desired, and I fleetingly thought of kicking him off the bike and knicking it, but he was taller and a good deal bigger than me, so he'd have probably done me over and buried my body in the woods. If only he'd been much, much smaller. He was making a right meal of the climb though, bobbing away in the granny ring. Really bobbing. Like one of those plastic birds you used to get years ago, that bobbed their heads in and out of water. We had shit toys didn't we? Anyway, I digress. His energy useage was huge and I caught him up at a ridiculous pace, even though I was in the granny myself, pushing 50 years old and had just ridden 20 miles off-road. I asked him for directions and he pointed me along the trail as being the best way to go, as he said the road was horrid. Off I went, for 50 metres until I came up against two sets of pretty steep steps. This was his idea of a good trail choice? Fecking freak. Once I'd got my bearings I realised he'd made me completely avoid a really nice piece of long wooded singletrack in favour of a boring hike a bike. His "nasty road" was perhaps 50 metres of short, easy climb that a 90 a day smoker with one lung could do without getting out of breath. I stopped on the hill for a drink and nosh, and waited for him so I could ask why he preferred that way. But after ten minutes he failed to show, so off I went. As I left he turned up; it had taken him all this time to do something like 500 metres of easy tripletrack trail. Whatever floats your boat. I was too tired to hit our highly illegal secret singletrack.
Coming off the top's was fun as the combine was out to play. Imagine 25mph, downhill over a rutted off-camber path, slightly out of control and Farmer Giles has deposited lines of straw 2 foot deep on the trail. Man I was laughing so hard I almost threw up my energy bar. I looked like the straw man from Wizard of Oz at the end. No, I really did as I had straw everywhere. A walker at the bottom gave me a nod and called his dogs to heel whilst at the same time subtly increasing his pace away from me. Ha! Just you wait matey boy until you try and walk up that hill.
Would have been fun to have had a match or lighter available....
Still toying with the notion of putting a 140mm rotor on the back of the Tassajara. I just like the idea, but explaining to people that it saved 16g kind of sounds a bit thin. Then tell them that it cost £35 to achieve.
New t-shirts are here! And they are bloomin' good. My old'ish bike on mountains one has allegedly been copied by the way. How cool is that? I've seen the copy, and it is pretty darned close. Imagine parachutes instead of bikes.
Now, er, I'm not sure where to go with this bit. It does relate to cycling. Er. Kind of. I was at the dentist and reading a woman's magazine. Either that or bee keeping monthly. Anyway, one article related to pubic hair. The crux being that it was unsightly for a lady to look at, so what to do about it. The answer was interesting and appealed to my vanity. Shave it off as then your willy looks bigger! Great! I didn't do it right away you understand, but later on at home after a good few beers. Funny how the idea re-emerged after 6 bottles of Old Todger.You'd think it easy surely? Took me three bloomin' days. Firstly have you looked down there lately? If you have, did you do it with a razor in your quivering hand? Lots of veins. Takes courage to go into some places. Secondly, and I didn't realise this, but the hair grows parallel to the skin. You try shaving that off. Finally the difference in apparent size is that between a 2.125" tyre, and a 2.125" tyre from a different brand. None. At all. So where is the cycling element? Today I put my cycling shorts on and it was like putting your Billy's into a bag of rough sand or red ants. Stubble. Hurt. Don't do it boy's!
Back to it looking bigger. I can't resist: My wife always wanted to brag to her friends that I had a foot long. I'm having no surgeon cut 2" off just so that she can gossip.
Oh and there was another reason for doing it, but that one I'll leave for you intrepid reader to find out. But the answer is it doesn't, and your Big Boy looks like a plucked chicken so off-putting anyway. A sweaty one at that. Funny but with no hair, you seem to sweat more down there.
Oh yes, my telling off at work. I wasn't putting time sheets in is all. Turns out no other bugger has either. For 3 years. Allegation being that we're working to Spanish practices. Naturally my mad work colleague figured that "they" were out to get him, even though his name wasn't brought up and he's not part of the time-keeping system anyway. Even started ringing me up at home to say that he was being followed and his house under serveillance. Next time I went in to work I told him not to bother working with me again as he was just too mad. He seemed to accept that.
We ate out at lunchtime; some Italian. On the way back an ambulance was stationary by the roadside in Redhill town. Now I work in Brixton, and my wife used to work in A & E, so we've both seen some stuff. But blimey was there a lot of blood on the ground by the ambulance; I'm guessing at least a pint. Moving away from the pool was a long line of drips - well, more like splashes. This at 2pm Sunday. Given the amount, plus the fact that the ambulance wasn't going anywhere fast, then it didn't look good for the poor blighter. Wonder what happened?
12/07/2010: It has been pointed out to me that riding footpaths is illegal and gives good cyclists a bad name. Hmmm, pondering on this one. If you're discreet, give way to pedestrians and don't ride in large groups, then I'm not sure it does give us a bad name. Riding at 30mph in a group of 20 cyclists towards children and pensioners does. Is it wrong to ride a footpath way out in the sticks? And what is a footpath? My Ordnance Survey map, latest issue, gets a bit confused around Box Hill. What are clearly footpaths on the ground are bridleways or permissable routes on the map. The route we took down off Juniper Hill looked like a bridleway at the top, and is not cetagorised as a footpath on the map, yet has a gate at the bottom. It was covered in cycle tracks, and the few walkers we saw greeted us with a friendly smile and waved us past. Are we really going to go ask a Ranger each time we go out for a ride which is which?
Some cyclists are determined to make every trail a cycleway, to the extent of damaging fences and gates. I'm not one of those, and will generally desist from riding a trail if I know it to be a footpath. But if you're riding something covered in cycle and horse tracks, then why stop because an out of date map suggests that it is a footpath? If the authorities have installed gates etc. to prevent cyclists from riding through, then I'll not do it generally.
Bugger. I'm going around in circles. Don't ride footpaths.... Er, ride footpaths.... Actually do things, but be discreet about it and be prepared to apologise and move aside.
11/07/2010: Almost 7 hours on the bike this weekend.
Out again today. As I started off it was raining, but it was so hot and windy that I didn't bother with a jacket. Luckily this didn't matter as it all burnt off quickly, and went back to being plain hot. No real dramas out and about, but we did ride a few trails that were new to both of us. Past Headley I picked up a downhill to Brockham. Lots of tree roots, unfamiliar route, off-camber so I went slowly. Always do until I know the trail or feel confident. Trail OK, but didn't do it for me. May work better as a challenging climb? Anyway after that we were going to pick up an old road to the top of Box Hill, but neither of us could be bothered so we took a cheeky footpath. Very steep but remarkably short, so we got to the top fast. At the cafe there were virtually no mountain bikes, but there must have been over 70 road bikes. Some of the riders were in matching team tops with their names on the side. They didn't look professional [thin legs] so what gives with the gear? Anyway, enough bitching. I decided to follow an old path I used to zip down over near Juniper. Not been down it for possibly 14 years. Naturally once on it I couldn't understand why I've missed it out all of these years. Lovely long run down the hill. Think the locals call it China Pig, but I'm not sure as they never really say where it is. Technicaly a footpath, as it ends at a kissing gate, but bikers have clearly been amending it to suit their needs. Little log pile half way down that was fun to hit. Then back via Headley. Nice little 3 odd hours out.
I'm not sure AD had the legs for it though. Actually scratch that; he did, but didn't seem motivated to blitz things. Suspect his bike is hacking him off. Found a brochure for Genesis bikes that look good, so put him onto them. As usual the Pace just did its' job and got on with stuff. And again I got through over 2 litres of fluid, and again I feel fine after the ride. Did also eat two energy bars though. Makes a difference, and I certainly don't feel my age.
Glad I was out and missed the F1. Sounded boring.
09/07/2010: We rode the 'S' section of the Alpine trail.
Bad bit first. NTL / Virgin internet connection has gone back to being shite again. Hate dealing with them and it all stresses me out. Also work is pants; management have allowed a situation to develop whereby one of the lowest paid workers has control over them. Tail wagging the dog. For some reason tail has decided that management should tell me off for something, and it appears they are going to. Dig that. Time to move me thinks.
Good bit - went for a night ride with AD and some guy from Southend who was in the area. He was on a £600 Halfords full suspension rig. I have to say he could ride rings around me. It's not what you ride, it's how you ride. I've seen it on videos, but in real life when somebody jumps 5 foot in the air off a small rock or piddling tree root, you have to give them respect. We were riding along one bit slowly, and there was a housebrick sized rock in the way. I roll over it. At walking pace this guy hit it and somehow managed to get the bottoms of both tyres at my eye level. Now I've never met this guy, and to be honest if KD or AD tried that I'd get out of their way. But somehow this guy instilled confidence - he just did it for fun, not showboating. I was pefectly happy with whatever he did, no matter how close he did it. And sometimes he was within inches.
OK I was in awe of his skills, but does that mean I'm all depressed now? Not a bit of it. Both myself and AD gave him a run for his money in terms of riding through twisty singletrack, and on the ups we did better. He could jump and ride over stuff, but we still snapped at his heals everywhere else. Also the dusty trails caught him out. Whilst we could brake downhill in the dust and gravel, at one point he came sailing past with both front and rear tyres locked. Quite possibly we were primed for the event and he was not. However, whilst we kept him interested in the trails he pushed us further than we would have gone normally. By that I mean riding through and over stuff that we'd slow down for, skirt or fluff. Essentially because he showed us that it could be ridden without drama, then psychologically we didn't bat an eyelid at riding stuff either. I've always known that much of my stoppage has been down to what's in my head. Having said this, him getting big air down Alpine [4 foot plus... on a cambered slope] and having cleared the 'S' section does not in any way mean that I like that trail now. Too much potential for big hurts! I'm not sure AD liked it either.
Where did we go? Everywhere really. I'd planned a short ride, but we just rode together well so it seemed silly to stop or cut things short. I picked all the best singletrack from Colley Hill through Banstead Downs, over to Headley Heath, Stane Street, the Alpine trail [including that horrid 'S' bend which we all cleared without fuss or drama], Secret Singletrack at Headley again, picked up the NDW to Colley Hill, but then cut back to the Sportsman for a pint. No idea how far we went - anything between 18 and 24 miles. But here this; it was all flowing singletrack with no horses, walkers, dogs or other cyclists. Utterly brilliant night out. One of my best rides ever. Got back filthy though - dust everywhere. And because we'd started from an odd location on the A217, I had to really think on my feet to get a route going. Luckily a few random choices hit upon good singletrack. Really, really good singletrack. Perhaps the dusk light made the difference to how we saw this stuff?
Night riding at dusk rocks.
04/07/2010: Went for a short ride as we had a newbie with us for the day. Bit boring really, and oddly tiring - guess all the waiting meant that the little warm up session we did was negated? Dunno. Newbie enjoyed it as we didn't push things. Interesting point though; we ride these parts as if they are easy and present no challenge. Yet there were many areas where our one-off friend really struggled. Off Reigate Hill was one with the roots, and another was the dusty section near Pfizer. The dusty section in particular caught him out as he had no idea how to stop. Er, don't is the answer to that stuff. But the main place he struggled with was the rather lovely singletrack near the golf course, which I found odd as it is soooo nice.
30/06/2010: Just paid the final installment of my t-shirt order. Total came in at £500, so my absorbing, harmless little hobby is now competing with mountain biking on costs. Fingers crossed that the new on sells, otherwise I'm going to have to give this game up. I sell them at £12 each [or £10 if bought elsewhere other than eBay], which almost covers my costs per design. If I wanted to get my money back on the whole exercise, then they'd have to be £20 each. Whatever!
On a lighter [ho ho!] note my Nuke Proof Reactor Eco has arrived. Came in a neat aluminium box and is about the same size as my original Vista VL400. Not sure if I'll ever use them in the UK, but my summer holiday involves cycling in the Ardennes valleys and forrests. Believe me, come 8pm in August some of those places get very dark. I was genuinely concerned for my own safety on more than one ride, but the main one that I can remember involved a 6" wide path alongside a small cliff. My wife didn't like walking it in the middle of the day, yet there was Mr Twat himself riding it at night with no lights. In an area frequented by hunters after 8pm....
27/06/2010: It all started with a squeak.
Solo ride today [aka a normal one!] and my Pace was in for a service, so took the Tassajara out. Felt odd to ride it; remember this is my Euro replica, so flat, narrow bars, 2.1 tyres and a 90mm Fox fork. It squeaked right from the off, and somehow rides never recover from early mechanicals. Took me 3 miles to trace where the noise was coming from - the seat post. By then I'd wasted ten minutes tracking it down, and was off form as a result. Took my normal downhill / singletrack route to Headley, but had a rear puncture at the duck pond. Whilst I was fixing it at least ten riders passed me, so I'd like to thank those that offered help. Actually that means no thanks at all as none even looked my way. Either I look competent or generally riders are miserable fucks. Could be both, but I suspect that, unfortunately, the answer lies with being self-centred and miserable. I, without exception, always ask if a rider is OK. And 50% of the time they are not - they've forgotten their tools, have run out of patch repairs, or need a new chain link.
Anyway I fixed it happily enough so off I went. By now though I'd wasted over 20 minutes faffing in total, so decided to do a run around Headley. Off I went up the country lane, turned a corner and did an emergency stop as three pedestrians were walking up the road line abreast across the highway. They tutted as I rode through them, but really; three abreast? What if I'd been in a car - as one would expect on a road? Really I'll never understand pedestrians.
Did a circuit of Headley and decided to try the climb up the Pyramids. Did the downhill, flinty section prior.... Flew down it, but realised the trail was horrid and I was going to have an issue. Normally the flint lies in sections that you can ride around, but today there was no escape route and I had to ride through perhaps 30m of fist sized flint at over 20mph - you can't really brake once you hit it. True enough I got a snake-bite pinch flat half way down so had to ride on the rim for a good 60m. Buggeration! And here I discovered how Tesco can charge £1 for a puncture repair kit. Small tube of glue and three patches. Fixed my already punctured spare, so can't complain. Had a look at the Red Metal 5 rim, and it was absolutely fine. Lovely wheels those. Fast accelerating and fit & forget tough. If you want to upgrade your bike, get a set of those pronto.
The ride up the Pyramids was a challenge. I run an Aspen rear tyre. This has hardly any tread, and the climb was covered in flinty rubble. I spun out several times, but luckily the bike ran true and didn't side-slip so I could carry on once past the stall. Managed to clear it, and without breaking into a big sweat - must be getting fitter as my thermometer registered 32 degrees C up there.
Probably 20 miles in 2 hours, so a fast pace considering the problems I had!
One thing that did strike me was how hard the bike was to ride. I've been on the Pace for ages now, and have gotten used to slack angles, grip in the corners and speed downhill. Now I've designed the Tassajara to be fidgity, to be brilliant on singletrack. Well, it is in a way but you have to be careful with line choice otherwise it will bite back. I got thrown about quite a bit until I relaxed into it [as the actor said to the Bishop]. It made me think that short stems, short travel and narrow handlebars are a bit pants. But then I remembered that until 18 months ago I was using my old Clockwork each week. 45mm travel, 1.95" tyres and a 120mm stem. The trails have not changed. Guess I'm riding a tad faster and through stuff rather than around it with a bit of skill and finesse. Certainly I never, ever punctured at the Pyramids on the Clockwork.
Enough already. I've had to order four replacement inner tubes, and will no doubt have to add to the list some more latex for the tubeless on the Pace. Bit of an expensive day.
Did you see Webber's crash? Bet he was literally mm away from being dead. Phwew! And who came 2nd to ninth!!!!! They all seem to be under investigation. Hate that kind of ending, when you have no idea who will be where in the results.
Taking a bike away on holiday, and the past three years have seen me out in the woods in the dark. So I've invested £110 in a Nuke Proof Reactor - 900 lumen things apparently. But come on, have you seen the price of bike lights? Some are over £700. Eek! Still undecided as whet to take. Off to Europe so the Tassajara would be ideal, but then I'd be mistaken for a Dutchman and we can't have that now can we?
23/06/2010: Interesting dental experience. Went in, with my 4 year old in tow, expecting root canal work. So did the dentist. Indeed he spent half an hour drilling my head so as to insert the post. Not the most pleasant experience. Anyway, he wasn't happy so did an x-ray. Turned out I'd got a one-in-a-milion chance root on that tooth; there were three small roots. The post wouldn't fit. So off he went, came back with some pliers and yanked the thing out. Beginning to think he likes pulling teeth out, as he's done this to me before. The last time he just didn't like the tooth; didn't say why, just took offence to it's existence. So I was fairly relaxed about it, but it is still unpleasant. Of course I had to act the Big Man as I had my boy with me. Even gave the receptionist a £10 tip for being nice. And when I say he likes pulling teeth, he really does. My neighbour has had three out in the past two weeks. One goes there with trepedation as he doesn't fuck about.... Having said that, he is a very, very good dentist and does things he thinks is best for the patient rather than his wallet. My neighbour and I don't suffer fools, yet we keep going back.
22/06/2010: I hate toothache. Managed to split a tooth right down to the root when eating a peanut, as one does. Half of the tooth sheered off, leaving me with a gaping hole and exposed nerve ending. Dentist happily suggested filling it with chewing gum until he could see me. Ho hum.
On a positive note, DaveW from DOAMB / Muddy Moles bought a t-shirt from me. How cool is that?
And now a question. As a local government employee, how exactly will making me go to my local branch of Iceland to collect my wage save money? In the budget they mention that they are going to freeze my pay. Don't understand economics at all.
See, proof that I have a management qualification as I've got the "sandwhich news" system correct. Surround the good news by shite... Ooops! Wrong! Somebody just told me that you should give bad news with two pieces of praise..... Yeah right. "Like your tie. You're fired. Nice shirt by the way." Is that correct?
Just looked at DOAMB and the Muddy Moles web sites. How is it that when us WMM riders from Redhill do something new, they always pull out their top trumps? DOAMB went to Wales, whilst the Muddies got up at 2am to take stunning photographs. Bugger. How can we ever beat them?
20/06/2010: Thankfully I was able to remove the Dog Egg from my downtube....
Last week I suggested a ride out to Bocketts would be good fun, or at least a different challenge. I have this ambition to always provide my riding partners with a new trail experience each ride out. So far, for a year, I've managed this but it does mean that sometimes the rides get a tad long, or they meander in figure of 8's [which luckily as neither seem to have a sense of direction they tend not to notice]. So far I've not introduced them to the Ranmore trails around Polesden Lacey, and we've only been over to Leith Hill the once. Thus I can keep this game going for years. Figure that it has been a good 12 to 15 years since I rode the Ranmore trails around Leatherhead. Been to Polesden a few times in the past 5 years, so still hold some memories of the routes. Didn't get lost, although I possibly took the more boring route out of Bocketts. KD thought we were on Juniper. Could take him anywhere and he'd find his own way home. Not.
Today past the golf course, over to Headley, down what the locals call "Alsation" [in my day this was more technical at the bottom than it is now, and to clear it you had to ride up the sides of the track - now it is just a rather good fun 30mph blast] through Leatherhead, over to Bocketts then back via the Box Hill Challenge. Today I managed 9:02, KD's first attempt was an 8:51 with AD 4 seconds behind. This after a fairly hard ride of slightly over 20km, and a break for cake and coffee. I think experience means you can shave big bits of time off initially - we're all aiming to get down to around 8 minutes. Interesting that there is an 11 second spread - not too far off the age spread of the three of us. KD was suggesting various tactics for getting the times down; I personally think just ride it with what you have on the day. Oh, and our times are road to road - some people stop the clock at the car park, which shaves 5 seconds. We don't. So there!
But come on, how cold was today? 12 degrees C when we set off. Ridiculous weather for June. I took multiple jackets, but didn't need them in the end as it did finally warm up. Bocketts coffee good, especially as the black girl who served us was absolutely stunning. And how many horses were out and about? Loads.
And the problem with Bocketts is that there are a lot of dog walkers who use the bridleway. Which means Dog Eggs all over. Bit like being in France. There is nothing like the aroma of splashing through a freshly laid turd now is there? For the return leg I had one perched manfully on my downtube. You try removing a dried turd from an aluminium bike.
My Pace is grumbling. Gears need adjusting but I can't be arsed. May drop it into C&N in Redhill for a fork service on the Pike's, then get them to adjust the gears whilst they have it. I don't know the history of my forks, as they were used when I bought them, so a service is in order anyway. Pike 454's by the way are fantastic. Get some. Now. Must admit the Pace is making me a lazy rider. I plough through stuff instead of taking a more civilised line. KD criticised my line choice today. Why not? 140mm forks mean you can do silly stuff and get away with it. That's what the bike is for. I did take a peek at the Dart 2 forks that those two use. Ah. Supposed to get 100mm of travel from those things. Pressing down I thought that the lock-out was on both. Nope, they run them real hard. Think 20mm. 1992 all over again! Personally I couldn't do that - too much wrist ache, lack of control, and, well, what's the point of having the forks in the first place? May as well save over 1kg and go rigid. [Actually I looked the weights up on the web. The Dart's weigh in at 2.5kg. For shite 100mm forks. The Pike's are considered lardy and they come in at 2.2kg, and that for 140mm of travel. If I had to ride those bikes, I'd junk the forks instantly for some used R90 Fox's, then shove on some Fulcrum Red Metal 5's. Add in some new wider handlebars and you could drop over 2kg, plus make the bikes less tiring and more fun to ride. But then I'd have spent £400 on a £200 bike! But that's my style.]
AD once again had the mechanicals; a dropped seat post mid flow, then the middle ring gave up the ghost after 20km. No more middle ring on the way home, but he managed to cope. Bless. As usual KD's Kona just got on with the job at hand. Got to be one of the best bikes ever, hasn't it? Year of abuse, no maintenance [not sure he oils the chain any more] and on it goes. Forks still shite mind.
Coming down off Reigate Hill and the speed over the tree roots is getting silly. I had no more gears left, and I was still mashing them for all I was worth. Doesn't leave too much room for error. Actually it leaves none at all. Figure on 26mph over roots. Got home with knackered legs. Too much climbing, too fast a pace. Good!
Post ride analysis: Drank 1.5 litres of water, which was good but I'm still a bit dehydrated. Ate one cake, which was bad. Need more protein. iPhone stats came in at 26 miles covered, which was where I thought it would be [I'd have guessed 27]. Lo! and behold! Our average speed was...8mph. Oh and we managed to climb 2,000ft. Where's the uplift? Now Dear Reader one gloats over having done 26 miles. However, in Europe races for 10 year olds are 50km, and men between 100km to 165km. Kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it? Even more when KD admitted to going to bed for 3 hours afterwards. These youngsters....
14/06/2010: Worryingly the Muddy Moles have reliably informed me that they were all taught to ride the Alpine trail by their grannies who were using shopping bikes with rod brakes.
13/06/2010: You, dear Reader, know how I promised to find the Alpine track? Well eventually I did. If you have a map, it drops off the Mickleham end of White Hill. One of those tracks that unless somebody shows it to you, you'd have trouble finding it. Indeed I've ridden past the start years ago after climbing those horrid steps at Junniper, and never noticed it. So, what was it like? Imagine being out of your comfort zone. It is horrid. Off camber, rooty sections, and a big drop to the right as you go down. Dappled sunlight makes the transition from light to dark a bit disorientating. At the bottom there is a little 'S' section around some fallen trees that is really, really horrid - 45 degree slope kind of horrid. I got half way around and bailed out. People obviously ride it, but for the life of me I do not know how. In all honesty I can't imagine myself ever clearing it, and if I try I'd probably end up in casualty. To be fair the trail is a challenge, and I've ridden similar around here and in Belgium, so I appreciate that, but it kind of pops you out between a rock and a hard place, and that I do not appreciate. Whichever way you go out of the little valley it dumps you in, is pretty much up climbs that only the committed clear. I have ridden that particular area a lot in the past, as the downhill section that meets Alpine was a good test of my discs back in the day! The drop down wasn't helped by a bunch of girl walkers who appeared a tad lost. Trying to get past them was a faff as all of them had iPods. Why go out for a walk with an iPod?
Out alone for various reasons, but as this is my default setting it wasn't an issue. I'm not going to get lonely out on my own. I managed to do between 24 and 26 miles at a medium to fast pace [on the Pace] so I'm a bit tired writing this now. I didn't stop for food and water, which was silly. Today wasn't as fast as last week along Stane Street for one simple reason; I carry a water bottle with a pump attached [sounds odd, but they share the bracket] and it made a rattling sound over stutter bumps that was most disconcerting. Put me off my stride as it sounded like the forks were falling apart, so I was a good 5mph slower at perhaps 25mph. Got used to it later on, and went silly off Colley Hill. So silly that just before hitting the bridge over the A217 the back end lifted and I did a series of small skids on the front wheel. Unintentional, but fun as it wound the fat walkers up. An oddly fun day. Billy No Mates mode meant I could set my own pace, and follow pathways to nowhere. You know how it is when riding with other people; you feel a bit of a muppet doing the turnaround thing as you take the wrong path, mainly because you are wasting their time. And today I managed to get out by 09:30, which I found much better than leaving near 10:00 - just seems too late. So from now on I'm going to strive for the early starts.
Funny but being out on my own meant that I shouldn't have been pushing things. But for some daft reason I did. I was again in the big ring going up Stane Street, although this time the loss of 5mph meant I soon dropped to the granny as per normal. Here just as I did some 11 year old scrote was blocking the path. He accelerated away as he saw me coming, and bless him he managed a good 60m before I caught and passed him. Later on I almost bumped into his dad and elder brothe - literally as they were also blocking the path. What is it with people that they sit there in that fashion? Anyway I wasn't having any of it so accelerated through the gap before they saw me. As I accelerated through I hit the big dip; the one that goes down, then up and around to the right. Hit the bottom in the big ring and only went and cleared it without changing gear. Normally half way up there is a mad dash into the granny to avoid a stall. So pushing things I was. And all on my own.
Next week I'm thinking of an 09:30 start and trying a loop through Leatherhead to Brocketts to sample their Mars bar cake. Looks like a 28 miler.
Signed off on another t-shirt, again bike themed. This time the dreaded road bikes as I hit a theme I liked. Thing with these t-shirts is to have an idea, draw it instantly with a big marker pen, colour it in and send it to the printers all within 8 hours. Otherwise you prevaricate and the thing ends up looking like a mess - something that a committee would have drawn. I have perhaps a hundred designs that took me some time to do, that I've messed around with and don't know what to do with. Anyway, new design on the way folks, so watch this space. Just have to pay for it. My original mountain bike t-shirt sells well [OK, one a week..] so fingers crossed that this one will do better. This is a more generalist design than the Surrey MTB one, and as that one sells worldwide to a disparate market, then this one should do better. Main thing that counts is that I like it, and I'll wear it. So there!
Hats off to Hamilton for winning. How did he go 44 laps on the same set of tyres? He's supposed to trash them. Looks good for the championship now doesn't he? I'd like Button to do it, but I think he's slightly off the pace... Having said that Button was a willy old fox and about the only person that made up grid position. This race, he was my driver of the day; got there by stealth and cunning. The ed Bull's just barn storm all the time; no cunning or cleverness there.
7/06/2010: Watched a Muddy Moles video clip today. Showed a local trail that looked really good, but I had no idea where it was. Want to ride it, so off I go to get an OS map. The trail is only off Stane Street, a route I've been using for near 18 years or so. I even know where the trail is... I've passed it countless times but assumed it was a footpath to the top of a hill otherwise accessible by bridle way, which it actually is, but that branches off. D'oh! That's it; this Sunday I'm bloomin' well doing it! Annoyed that in all this time I've not explored that one path. Guess I've got set in my ways, but it does go to show that one cannot know everything. But more importantly it just shows haw superb this area is for mountain biking if even after all of these years new routes can still be strung together. Bet whilst not infinite, an average rider going out once a week could quite possible not cover all of the theoretical possibilities in their riding lifetime?
6/06/2010: Box Hill challenge today. What do you mean you don't know what that is? Man. The Muddy Moles sometimes publicise their timings to the top, so I thought that a good wheeze to copy. Back in the day I used to use a heart rate monitor on that climb to improve my fitness. But I stopped being so silly years ago - I ride for fun not fitness. Anyway I read that some guy did the climb in almost 6 minutes, and that many of them do it in 7. So I figured we'd do 8. Nah. 9 minutes 52 seconds for me, 9:40 for AD. Now AD is a bit of a climber. If he does it in 9:40 then I find 6 minutes highly improbable, as does he. True I've seen fly boys go up in a gear or two higher than me, so perhaps there is a 40% advantage to be had? Without seeing it quite frankly I doubt either the timings or that we're doing a similar route, although they seem an honest bunch who don't exagerate - unlike moi with my 16" willy. Sent them an e-mail to the same effect - Mr Grumpy from Surrey. I'll be writing into the Surrey Guardian soon, complaining about them. Tsk, tsk; these young whippersnappers. Don't know they're born.
[I'm so very sad that I looked up the time trialing times up the hill. 6:30 is a good time, so I'm astounded that a heavy MTB can do it in 6:15. Ok a straighter route, but a steeper gradient surely?]
Anyway, it's a personal challenge so who gives a fig. I propose a standard set of rules; Start from a standstill at the bottom road entrance, then ride to you hit the road again at the top. Use the gear and bike that you would normally ride with - no Ti specials! The trail is never one that cannot be ridden, so winter or summer it sets a personal standard. Go for it people!
Real fast trails out today. We cut through to Stane Street near the golf course as I love the flow down that bit. At one point I flew down this section vaguely out of control in the big ring, and I'm guessing at something like 30mph over flint, tree roots and small steps. Really, really silly. Whilst I was in the big ring on the bike, another more personal one was shut tight! Quite frankly I've never in 18 years been down there that fast. Other postings on other sites mention 33mph, and I can confirm such speeds as being achievable. Scary but huge fun and I'd do it again anyday. As a guide the trail is essentially down hill, but with some sharp, steep but short rises. Normally one hits these fast, but momentum gets sapped and one drops down to the granny or middle ring to clear them. Today I didn't change out of the big ring and cleared them virtually on momentum alone. Never done that before. At the bottom near the old dog training school the trail consists of flinty rubble. Always fast, but always an area whee the brakes get hit hard. Not now as some natural berms have developed. We both railed around those at top speed. Braking at the road end proved interesting. Time for ABS on mountain bikes.
My Pace was a good 'un today, but AD's Trek revealed that it needs a bit of TLC. He got three puntures on the front tyre, both brakes rub against the pads, and his jockey wheels are knackered. £50 service here we come. Offered to loan him my bicycle repair book, but when I looked at it I realised that it was a 1993 purchase, so useless. Fun to look at cantilever brakes again though - gee, they were poo back in the day weren't they? Braking in the wet was always an alarming affair.
At Box Hill I was approached by an old man who expressed interest in the bikes. Same old same old; How much! You can buy a new car for that. He said it light heartedly, so I'm guessing he was just confirming what he knew already. Didn't help that at that time I was on the Pace, which isn't a cheap toy, or that all the roadies there were on carbon rigged Italian exotica. Even the MTB's present were Turner's!
Nothing soured my ride, but three things stand out at the end. One was the large family atop Colley / Reigate Hill. Their three boys were playing football on the path. The path here is about ten foot wide. I called out, they looked but did it register that I was a moving object? No. These boys were about ten years old and stupid as poo. No road sense at all. I virtually stopped for them, and they stopped too, eventually. As I moved off one went to dart under - yes, under - my front wheel. He actually ducked down. He got a stern shouting at whilst the equally dim parents just smiled at us all. Used to it I guess. But it goes to show you can take no chances at all with pedestrians.
Secondly as I came off Reigate Hill [stupidly fast it must be said - joy!] I came across a golf buggy near the school - where the trail runs at the end of the Capability Brown lake. Can you remember that scene in Austin Powers where they are turning the buggy around in the tunnel? This was, I kid you not, exactly the same. Well, except that there was one driver and some idiot guiding him backwards and forwards through a 27 point turn. This must have been some limo type buggy as it was extraordinarily long.
And thirdly my Cannondale shoes circa 1999 have finally given up the ghost. The sole is parting company with the upper. Gutted. I hate spending money on bike kit. Really, really hate it. "Dear Surrey Guardian......"
And do you remember my comment about almost using the kid's toothbrushes to clean my bikes? Obviously it sat im my subconcious, as today in Sainsbury's buying my 1200 calorie post-ride snack I bought a set of four childs toothbrushes just to clean my bikes.
Watched Zombieland last night. Nigh a high brow film at all, but huge fun.
3/06/2010: Sorry, I'm a bit slow. For ten years [I hate to admit this!] I've been having this love, hate affair. What! Yes, an affair... with my Magura HS33 rear rim brake on the Klein Mantra. You see I love its' reliability and power, but I've hated setting up the thing. Could never get the pads quite square on and it annoyed me. Got them to work, but never 100%. One would always rub the rim slightly, or be slightly offset. Yesterday I took a look at the brake booster that Magura provide. It was rusty [or rather it had rust on it from the bolts], and I had some left over spray paint I was about to chuck out so I sprayed it a fetching red. Putting it back on today I realised that if I removed a bit of it - one mounting hole - and used another it may fit better. D'oh! It did and now I've got them 100% working.... in two minutes flat. Sometimes you just have to look at things differently.
Talking of which, did you realise - and frankly I didn't - that I now have a Magura Julie disc on the front of the Klein, Magura HS33 on the rear, and, wait for it you impatient soul, a Magura 100mm Menja shock on the front. I'm Mr Magura! Have to get a big 'M' tatooed on my forehead. I'll be in the AD club then as he's got a 2 foot Toyota emblem tatooed on his back.
And I still think that the pundits are running F1 up. It is interesting for perhaps 20 seconds per race. Luckily I've discovered the iPlayer so now manage to just catch those 20 seconds and avoid hours of tedium. It's a bit like going to Stratford-upon-Avon. You set off with half a tank of petrol as this will easily get you there. Tootling up the motorway you pass all of the service stations knowing that you'll get to S-u-A and petrol is cheaper there. The tank gradually empties, you turn off the motorway and begin the long run into town just as the red light comes on. You hit traffic and slow down. The red light glares at you. You slow some more and start shouting at the kids for any reason. Where are the petrol stations! There are none! Eventually you make it all the way into town and you've not seen a station at all. You start to exit the town, and there! At last! A petrol station and you fill up. And fill up. The tank holds 45 litres, you put in 44.85 litres. That's F1 to me - watching a bunch of guys start off flat out, then they slow down to conserve fuel and finish more or less in the same grid positions as they started. How interesting is that? At least Schumacher had the decency to piss all over the other wasters on his way to yet another easy victory.
1/06/2010: Saga with the boiler continues. I'll remind you of the problem; no hot water at the shower. So we get a plumber in. He changes the heat exchanger [how apt!] and it works fine. year passes, hot water at the shower goes. Get another plumber in. He says it isn't the heat exchanger and fits a big magnet to the inflow. Explains that bits of rust block a filter and that this will fix it long term. Charges us the best part of £300 as, oddly, he brings with him a replacement exchanger. You with me so far? Good. Shower works, but then goes cold randomly. Get him back. He swears blind that the heat exchanger is fine [remember, now we have a spare one that he did not fit] and blames the plumber that re-fitted our bathroom. To prove his point he runs the hot water tap in the kitchen, and this works fine. Gives us a long winded [2 hours] explanation of how this other plumber got it all wrong. We kind of believe him, but can't quite understand his explanation. Something to do with a wax cylinder fitted the wrong way around. Seen it before he has. Why don't we fully believe him? Because to change this wax cylinder means ripping apart completely a new £7,000 bathroom. The cylinder is embedded in the wall behind the bath you see. Anyway, eventually the hot water stops working everywhere. Luckily our existing plumber is on holiday so I get another in. Guess what? He takes 2 minutes to diagnose the problem, removes two screws and replaces the heat exchange unit. Problem gone.
Now our original plumber spent a good 5 hours explaining how bad the bathroom fitment was and that he would have charged no more than £3,000 to refit it. He seemed to take it personally that other plumbers exist, and slagged their work off without really seeing what they did. Yet at the same time he'd rather spend 5 hours argueing the toss rather than spend 2 minutes removing two screws. Even odder was the fact that on the second 2 hour visit he was so adamant that somebody else was at fault that he made no charge. 2 hours on a Saturday call-out with no charge! What a bizarre man. So, to cut to the chase, if you want a really crap plumber then give me a call and I'll pass his details on to you!
As an aside the old heat exchanger got mistakenly left with me. Being me I had a good look at it. All it is is essentially a small radiator with two inlets and two outlets. Hot in one side, this warms the cold the other side. By back flushing this unit I got all the crap out. All of it. So why do plumbers charge £300 to change it?? Smell a scam. Furthermore years ago the people we had around to repair said boiler carefully explained that the filter on our boiler is too small and gets blocked easily. One even changed it for us. But this time I was able to hang around and look at what the guy did. Guess what? There is no such filter. Ho hum.
Now you may think that I am some kind of muppet [would be true] with no understanding of how things work. Yet I am a qualified building surveyor and I work in enforcement. I can spot scams and understand how boilers work. Time constraints, plus having two children under your feet when these people visit, and a wife that just wants the job done, means that these people can pull the wool over your eyes. I'm not denegrating all plumbers here, just the ones employed by a failing company that we used to use, plus this latest nutter that we found. Most seem good eggs, but I suspect that there are rich pickings to be had for little effort, so temptation is always there. We never employed the cheapest, so Lord knows how bad they would be!
Moral of this story is to watch your plumber carefully. Or don't buy an old house with cheap radiators. Or ask me to recommend a plumber.
31/05/2010: Looks like the cafe on Reigate Hill is run by the Urban Cafe mob [they of Reigate fame]. So that means ice cream at £2 a go. Hate to say it, but their prices are high, and the service is by students who couldn't give a toss, so one should hate the place, but the quality more than makes up for it. Really, really good coffee. And with me it's the coffee that counts. Plus the muffins - my children don't call me "Fat Dad!" for nothing.
Anyway, second ride in two days - have I won the lottery or something? Too good to be true. An early one with AD, as we were out at 8am. So I was very rough to look at; no shower, bottle of Vino d'Collapso the night before and less than 7 hours sleep. Plus my trusty Pace was behind some other bikes so I couldn't take 'Lazy Boy' out. The Klein has no rear pads as they were worn out yesterday, so out came the Tassajara. Now that felt really extreme when I got on it. By my design as well. It's my Euro XC copy bike, so flat & narrow carbon bars, relatively narrow 2.1 tyres pumped way up, 90mm suspension at the front and a saddle without any padding. I didn't like the ride at first as it is just so uncompromising. Twitchy, nervous and low down, arse in the air old stylee. Narrow tyres and hard suspension means you feel every bump. The Pace and Klein just eat bumps up, so line choice is often just point and shoot. But after 5 miles or so I got into the stride of the bike. Well what I did was start to think about line choices instead of just thrashing through stuff in ignorance. All came together when I started to move the bike around the trail a bit. The twitchiness became quick, accurate steering then. A little like those unstable fighter planes; the instability actually works in your favour when the time comes for it. At the end of the ride I cut us through a naughty path off Reigate Hill. Chalk with lots of tree roots. Last time AD overtook me as I took a wrong line choice. This time I took his line, adopted a "death grip" stance away from the brakes and just flew down. At the bottom we were both buzzing - turns out that both of us could no longer actually see what was on the trail as our bikes were vibrating so much. Just pick a line and go for it. Basically we were out of control and barely hanging on - some skills set I have, eh?
Still cannot find an adequate line back through Banstead Downs, which is dispiriting. 3/4 of the way there, but the circular trail kind of fizzles out as it emerges into some horrid green stuff that is awful to ride on. Horses like to eat it but for the life of me I cannot see any purpose for it that would interest a mountain biker.
The Gary Fisher Tassajara seems to me a much underrated bike out on the trails. I've not seen another. Perhaps it is too uncompromising a ride? Don't know, but it is easily as good as my Orange Clockwork was back in the day. An excellent bike missed by the masses! Admittedly mine is far from standard specification, and so 1.5kg lighter than a stock bike, so perhaps I'm being unfair and not comparing like with like.
One negative about having a workstand set up permanently outside is that once my bike is on it, and I start cleaning the thing, then a slight obsession regarding bike cleanliness takes over. I stop at nicking the children's toothbrushes to get in all the nooks and cranies, but it's a close call. I'm pondering buying a child's toothbrush from Sainsbury's right now. Sad, sad man. [And now that you've asked; yes, I did! I used to dismantle my bikes and put the front and rear mechs in the dishwasher to clean them... My Doctor told me to stop that one otherwise he'd increase my valium prescription even further.] Cleaning has shown up one anomolly; I've 160mm discs on the front and back. Explains why I'm constantly skidding the back brake - time for a 140mm rear me thinks. Gosh! I'll be superfast then, as this will save another 25g from the bike!! If I let some air out of the tyres I may get another 25g saved. Hmmm. Guess you don't give a toss? Uncaring Reader you.
Naturally after a good ride I went out and bought a magzine to look up new bikes. How does that one work? yesterday the ride was a bit crap, so I ripped the bike apart, and rebuilt it quite happily, with almost loving afection. New tyres, swopped the brakes out front and rear, and fixed the gear change problem with new cable. Even cleaned the chain of all the oil and went over to wax. Then waxed the frame! Put the bike away happily for next time. Yet have a good ride, I want to buy a new bike. What kind of a freaked out mentality is that? Good ride, so perfectly acceptable and enjoyable bike... so I want to replace it with something new? Bad ride, I spend quality time rebuilding the machine and put it away carefully for the next outing. Do we all think this way? Seems arse about face to me.
Watched Inglorious Basterds last night. Hence the bottle of wine - needed that to get through the film. Found it boring. Bit like this blog, eh?
30/05/2010: Billy-no-Mates mode today, so took the Klein for an exploratory trip. A what? Well I like to avoid doing the same route week in, week out. Invariably around here you can get into a bit of a rut, doing the same routes all the time. But really there is no need as we have so many trails to follow. So what I do on the "down days" is explore those paths that one knows to lead nowhere. You know the ones; past the fly tipping zone, or through an industrial estate. However what these explorations throw up are new linking paths, or a realisation that just changing the direction of travel improves a previously travelled path. All you need to do is vary existing routes a little, and they become new challenges once over. There is also the added bonus that these days with staycations, people are buying dogs. People who buy dogs forge new paths out in the woods. These paths are technically trails, so pefectly legal in my view to traverse. Game on! Found a few, but none substantial that really went anywhere but I'm beginning to get an angle on extending our little circular route as I spotted some existing trails that have been broadened enough to allow a bike to pass. I did briefly think "hacksaw" to a few..... Trails were not terribly fast where I was. You'd get up to speed on a dry bit, then hit some mud. Or hit what looked like mud. Turned out to be the slipperiest substance known to man; wet dust over damp chalk. Few front end slides had me slowing down to admire the scenery I can tell you!
I also came to the realisation that my Klein has turned into a dog itself, and of no fault of its' own. I did it with two changes; a super tacky Maxxis front tyre and a 203mm disc. No need for either on a 14 year old cross country rig. Both slow the bike down; no pun intended with the disc! It does slow things down, but the sheer heft of the thing also makes speeding up a chore. I swopped both out this afternoon, and lost about 800g in the process, most of this from the front wheel. Put a 160mm disc on as I wanted to see the extreme first before going with a 180mm. Do you know what? I can still pull stoppies with the 160mm, so must have been overbraked massively with the 203mm. Needless to say the 160mm I'll leave on. Hate changing rotors. Why do they have so many ultra small bolts?
Changing the tyres out wasn't a big faff at all - for the second time in a week I'd sprung a puncture at the rear. Managed to get home on it so no problem. More annoying was the rusted out rear gear housing that caused ghost shifting each time the suspension compressed. Made me slow down quite a bit this one. New cable and outer did that. All very easy to do now as I've left my work stand outside, instead of it being stuck in a far corner of the house. Luxury. Aye, luxury. Never 'ad that as a lad. Used to have to eat meal worms whan I were't little. Lucky! We never had mealworms. Had to eat each others toe nail clippings....
Oh there is a new cafe on top of Reigate Hill. Didn't stop today as I'd gone out light with just a set of keys, but it looks good. Poor guy there looked lonely as I passed.
One bonus of the ST Maxxis was its' ability downhill. Some guy chased me down over the top - level ground that tyre means anything above walking pace is a chore. He caught me up prior to the rooty downhill bit. Now he was on a hardtail, me a full susser with a downhill specific tyre. I let him catch to pass, then just went for it big time in the big ring. Didn't see him again. I'm not saying I'm a brilliant rider downhill - far from it. But these are my trails, and I was primed for it. It also must be said that the rooty bit is a bit off-putting if you don't know you can just straight line it with your eyes closed!
29/05/2010: Took the family to Climping beach. On one of the wettest and windiest days of the year. We got soaked but had a blast. The cafe there does a beach hunt; basically you find some trash off the beach, they give the kids an ice lolly. So unfair; I did all the work, they get the goods. One thing on the list, for a bonus prize, was what they call a fossil starfish. Somehow I managed to find one of these, and took it back. Straight away I twigged that perhaps they were actually after these things and not the general beach junk, as the woman commented that they are quite rare. So instead of my prize, I kept the fossil. So there!
It really was too wet and cold to stay. The cafe has no indoor seating, and sitting drinking in the car is a bit too twee for my taste. Besides it was so cold and wet, the car steamed up instantly. So off we went to West Beach award winning cafe. I'm guessing the award must be for being expensive, and I must say they are jolly good at it too. £30 for a fish and chip lunch. But the food was indeed good, and you can't beat the place in terms of being a seaside cafe [East beach cafe is a bit too, well, serious].
27/05/2010: Nothing to say really. Just that I sold two more of my rather fetching MTB t-shirts this week, so I'm very happy and contented. I'd be more happy if I'd sold them above cost price, and actually made some money on them, but I'm not established yet so can't really charge £20. Anyway, one went to a rider who goes out with the "Diary of a mountain bike" crew which is nice [I hand delivered that one!]. Thanks Dave! Means I've got both them and the Muddy Moles in my camp now, so a good set of local crews. Oddly my second t-shirt this week went to Cheshire. When I 'phoned the guy he had what sounded to be a Scottish accent. Hmmm. Mind, I've sold these t-shirts to an American in Colorado called Leith, so they go everywhere [so far America, France, UK naturally, and Australia]. The new Lime Green is stunning; much more a positive a statement than the dark green. Having said that, I'm wearing the light brown one more these days as I like the understated nature of it.
Hand delivering is good, but I looked like a sad sales rep. Guess I was a sad sales rep!!
Working on another one, but as I fund this entirely from eBay sales, and eBay is being slow these days, that one will have to wait. Not sure of it either; Zombie one. Bit ambitious. Did look at doing a cycling top, but the Muddy Moles link alarmed me at the sheer cost of it. Printing up cotton ones at £8 each is bad enough, but there's look to be £30 at cost. Ouch.
Suspect I'm going to be Billy No Mates this weekend. If so I'll get a big, fat slow bike out and work my leg muscles. Got to negate my ten year age disadvantage somehow.
23/05/2010: It all ended in the pub. No Spanner this week, just myself and AD. Met at the bottom of Reigate Hill, rode to the top, then promptly down again so as to attack the chalk path to the top of Colley. Imagine two windy, hot cyclists and you have us approaching the gate near the top of the final push. Both of us cleared it, although I think AD expected to leave me standing and to sneakily catch his breath just as the path levels off. You know the type; burst a lung going up, then pretend that it was easy when you catch up 2 minutes later. This time around I hung 10cm off his back tyre all the way up, then jauntily passed him with a cheery smile. I was, admittedly, about to vomit and could have lay down there and then, but I pretended otherwise. So there. Glad to have cleared it. Couldn't have done it on the Tassajara with the flat bars - needed all the air I could get, so I was happy with the risers. The Klein would have had me walking, what with its' sheer heft. May be wise to attempt it on the Klein though; do it on that, I can do it on anything. Was a bit weavy near the trig point though. Much easier coming down later on; flew, kicking up little rocks.
From there off we went to Epsom Downs via the flinty downhill path, where naturally once I'd got into the rythym of the thing [bit o' the blues today] I tore a gash in the rear tyre. Joy of tubless being a) that the system is generally shite, and b) when you do get a sidewall puncture you get a rather lovely spray of 200ml latex everywhere. Being 30 degrees in the shade at Epsom [sadly I carry a thermometer] this stuff dried instantly to a horrid goo. I've washed my hands several times now, and they are still sticky. Funny, AD didn't get a puncture... indeed I seem to be the only one that does when hitting the flint. Tubeless is a love hate thing. Some love it, I hate it. What, pray tell, is the point of it all? It isn't a lighter system than running tubes, it is a touch expensive, really hard to get the tyres to seat properly, and if you do get a puncture you have to resort to tubes anyway. Hurts my head thinking about it all.
Off to the Sportsman to a cheery "we're closed" at 11:30. They were ready to open up, so why not serve the thirsty patrons at their door? Of which there were about 7 of us. Jobsworths? Miffed we headed into Reigate where we found another closed pub, but this time they took pity on us. Lovely. There we were able to compare the ages of our respective riding gear. AD won with his 11 year old helmet, and we both drew with our 12 year old cycling shoes. Unfortunately I lost the game in wearing a 2010 Animal t-shirt. Bugger. Off to eBay for some retro purple stuff. Perhaps a purple helmet? Ooo, er missus; back to the latex fettish!
14/05/10: Off to Weymouth for a fish 'n' ship weekend. Rather enjoyed the place actually. Nothing grand a bout the place, but it is far from run down as many UK seaside resorts are. Lots of pubs and drunks about, but didn't see any trouble in the town at all. Happy drunks? Felt safe there. On the Saturday there was a rather lovely Pirate's parade into the little park. All the men and women were dressed in rather fetching 1800's pirate gear. For some reason they all rode Harley Davidsons though, and I couldn't see the connection? Anyway, the town itself sports the usual shops you see everywhere, but also has thrown into the mix many independent little places. I shopped exclusively in the little places, and it was all lovely. I'd forgotten a card for my camera, and honestly didn't expect to get one as my camera is ancient - one of the first digital SLR's to come out. Anyway, the little local camera shop not only had a card in, but I could happily have bought the equivalent 35mm SLR to my camera for peanuts [boring bit; the first digital SLR's were just current 35mm SLR jobbies with sensors bunged in]. I very nearly did, but that would have made me a saddo geek. For some bizarre reason there appears to be a bye law stating that every drinks purchase shall be £7.20. Round of drinks in the pub? £7.20. Afternoon tea for two, ice cream for the kids? £7.20. One cake, two ice creams, one sausage roll, two teas? £7.20. Three sandwhiches, two coffees, two bottle of water? £7.20. Call me cheap, but I came to quite like this little ritual. Certainly beats getting a few coffees around here - why only the other day two coffees, two soft drinks and a muffin hit me for £14 in Horsham.
Am I wittering on? Sorry.
11/05/2010: What happened there? I'm not talking about the bizarre sight of our new government non-elect, but my tooth. Noticed late last night that I'd split one eating some nuts. Bit wobbly, so didn't have the best nights' sleep over it. Popped into the dentist's. He put his hand into my mouth, had a wiggle, then really went for it. Gripped it hard, twisted it and pulled the bugger out. 5 seconds tops. I was frankly shocked at this action. Still am really. Now I've a hole in my gum with a pointy bit of tooth sticking out of it. Question is; do I grow a mullet and take up shooting rodents for a living?
Working on a new t-shirt. As usual I've now reached the indecisive stage; is it any good? Will I sell any? Too grey??
09/05/2010: Went to the Cowpie show today. Bloomin' cold it was. 9 degrees C. Enjoyed the show; small enough that you can see it all, large enough to fill 5 hours. Some excellent food on offer, and for once there were too many food stalls rather than too few. But, and bear in mind I like farmers - salt of the earth and all that - where do these Surrey Hillbillies come from? here I'm talking about 30 year old men dressed in full cammo gear with hunting dogs. To a man they had five teeth each, all brown and at jaunty angles. Most sported foot long mullets. I'm guessing if you wanted a rat disposed of, these are the people to go to. And hats off to them for shunning all social conventions regarding dress style.
08/05/2010: Man I must have been bad last week. The cold must really have addled my brain. Why? 'cause today we did last weeks ride, but took a mileometer with us. Grand total... 12. I'd figured 24, and to be that far out on judging the distance must have meant I was in a really bad way cold wise. And this is in Surrey, May! On local trails. Imagine getting caught out in the mountains how bad you could get. Anyway, my new 12 mile spin turned out to actually be quite a nice ride in the dry. Spanner [nee: KD] enjoyed it, especially as we hit some previously horrid uphill slogs the wrong way, managing to hit a high of almost 27mph in the process. I was boasting about how I still felt the 203mm disc a little weedy, until I had to brake hard on some gravel and did a front end slide for 5 or 6 feet. For once the cam action of the SLX worked, but not when I wanted it too. I shut my gob after that. Perhaps I'll be back to the 180mm... I enjoyed it, but I've a cold and was perhaps feeling a bit sorry for myself. At more than one point I was worried about my abilities to ride the trail, and fretted over stupid sections. By the end though my anadin was working fine and I suggested throwing ourselves and the bikes down a bank. Spanner didn't look convinced, but being young he took it all in his stride. I'm sure that the Gatton people will frown on my line choice and put up a wire fence! Just imagine a straight line off Reigate Hill, and that was my new route through the trees.
Cooked him a risotto when I got back. Not sure it would ever be on his favourites list! Back to Chimichangas then.
02/05/2010: Can't call today's ride boring. Wet yes, cold yes, boring no. Out in default status of Billy No Mates mode so on an explore. Found a dog walkers path up to the top of Reigate hill, so followed it. Bit shit really; off camber, greasy and with two styles to climb over. Took ages to traverse [I'd past some walkers going uphill, and met them coming back down when I was still only half way up], so I'll not bother again. After that took the normal singletrack by the golf course, but cut right at the end. Now if I'd been able to see where I was going this would have been a lovely, swoopy path. My glasses were so fogged up though that little trailside features like trees were invisible to me. In the end I ditched my glasses, which was better but worse in a way. I could see, but now I looked to be 10 foot off the ground, which gave me motion sickness. On my bike! Anyway, cut over to Gerorge Best's house [my Nan always wanted me to aspire to be him; Yeah right, a dead alcoholic - thanks Nan!] then back past the smelly cow farm. An awful route on paper, possible an awful route to describe, but actually quite pleasant on the first wet Sunday of may. Oddly I got back colder today than any time during the snow, although my new Nike waterproof jacket performed faultlessly. No idea as to the miles done, but by the end it felt 24ish. At about the 18 mile mark I was frozen - as usual I was just wearing a t-shirt with jacket over the top, so a little stupid bearing the attrocious conditions in mind. Honestly, I was colder in May than any time in December. Didn't help that the cafe in Reigate is closed, so I had no warming stop for food and coffee. Naturally today I'd chosen to travel light, and had only taken out a set of keys. Er, so I couldn't have bought anything anyway even if it had been open. Twat. Took me hours to warm up afterwards. I was so cold that I hosed myself down outside, and the water direct from the mains felt warm. Bit of a worry that. Time to invest in a base layer and some waterproof shorts. But! Have you seen the prices of waterproof shorts!!
Very weird trail conditions; hard ground under puddles. Tree roots were naturally slippery, but everywhere else was grip central. Some gorgeous bluebells out though.
On the way back I went down "Fly Tippers Avenue" and onto Gatton Bottom about half way down. This unfortunately meant that I missed the naughty little path off Reigate Hill that the dog walkers have made through the woods. One to try next week.... When I got back I whipped off the weedy little 180mm disc I've got on the front, replaced it with a 203mm, then put the 180mm onto the back. I'm well and truly hacked off with Shimano brakes; never found a set I like, right back to the days of cantilevers. They always lack power, and that is the case with the SLX variants I have now. Actually that's wrong. They do stop you eventually, but I like my brakes to work instantly and to have eye popping power when applied in an emegency. I'm not one for modulation - I like my brakes to be on, or off. I've got 5 mountain bikes; only one runs Shimano stoppers and I hate them. Something in the back of my mind mitigates against 203mm stoppers though; have you felt the heft of the things? 250g just for a rotor. Madness. Suspect I'll be looking at Julie for stopping duties pretty soon...
Now in my quest not to be boring, this week I went into a gay spa. How's that for being out of a comfort zone? Bet not many of you have done such a thing? Anyway, you go into a dark hovel, they give you a towel, a pack of condoms and some viagara, take all your clothes off you, and away you go. Well you would if you were gay, but seeing as how I was there for work [?????] I went in fully clothed. What an unusual place. Essentially gay men pay £14 to go into a sex den. The place is full of little rooms where anything goes. Most unnerving to be in such an environment, with naked men walking around looking for sexual partnes, but strangely enlightening at the same time. After that the day just descended into double-entendres.
Noticed that the Muddy Moles have produced a t-shirt at last. But they seem to lack confidence in not producing it for mass consumption, only themselves. Go for it I say. I've made a few now; some sell, some don't. Life is like that, but you have to just go for it sometimes. I don't regret making any of my t-shirts. [Update: I've just looked at the prices being charged for custom bike wear. Prices seem to start at £40 per item - I've no idea how much printing and set up fees are. Scary!! Apologies to the Moles; I'd have wimped out ages ago on thet one.]
Watched Universal Soldier last night, the new one for 2009. Don't bother. They didn't employ any actors for the film, so you don't engage with any of the characters. And the premise of the film being a soldier that doesn't feel pain, so can be shot, lost it when they started using huge machine guns to shoot each other. One bullet from a machine like that would tear somebody apart completely, whether they felt pain or not. So it was silly to see soldiers with just skin wounds when othewise they would have been bloody pulps. Couldn't wait for it to end.
Took boy out on his bike afterwards. He was complaining of a little section being bumpity, bumpity [he's only 4]. Reminded me of my very first suspension forks back in the day. Quasar Link Evolutions on my Orange Clockwork C16-R. They were shit, horrendously expensive [£350 in 1996] and lasted all of four rides before they gave up the ghost. They actually made me ride slower than the original blades. Go figure. Anyway, for all their shortcomings they were a revelation. I used to go for rides just to watch them go up and down [back to the gay spa again I see!]. When they finally died after 100 miles use I went over to some PACE RC36's, which were also £350 back in 1996. I've still got them after 40,000 miles. Actually they were shit also - after 40 miles they packed up over at Newland's Corner. New wiper blades sorted that warranty problem, and I still run them on those same seals. Never looked back to be honest, although the notion of a set of 800g carbon fibre blades appeals for the summer months. But today, for that brief moment, I was back on Stane Street, hot summer of 1996 or thereabouts, Billy No Mates going for it as fast as I could. Michelin Wild Gripper tyres in green I think? Paul's Love levers [also shit but I kept them for ages 'cause they were just so bling in purple - later chopped out when I got the RC36's for the first hydraulic Hope disc, which still have the original fluid inside after near 15 years]. And the love of my life, a USE suspension seatpost which I still have fitted to the Clockwork.
28/04/2010: was in a garden centre today, buying some tat. One of the things I got was a bird feeder; it looked nice OK? Anyway, the guy there commented on how little bird feed I was buying. I should have gone for the 20kg sack as it is better value, and anyway, he gets through four a month at a cost of £40 and the birds love it, and they spend less time forraging, and.... You get the picture. Anyway I ignored his advice as he was clearly a nutter [he's not going to be the brightest person as he's working a check-out in a garden centre]. Got home, put the feeder up then pondered. Why would somebody who loves animals spend so much money fattening them up and making them lazy hunters? Surely it would be a better bet to encourage more bugs to visit your garden, or grow plants that self seed? Wouldn't that be fairer on the birds?
In the bank today the guy in front of me took 20 minutes to get served. I wasn't bothered; it was fun to watch him gradually get more and more frustrated with the experience. Only after the manager came ove did he stop swearing and his problem was resolved. Seemed that the cashier was asking for a particular piece of id [a photograph of him with both sets of grandparents or such that he patently couldn't provide] even though this guy only banked there, had done so for decades, and was a personal friend of some of the staff [perhaps even a God parent]. Jobsworth comes to mind. Anyway, the real interest for me was the two guys behind. They were discussing motorcycles in amazing detail; wiring paths of CBX1000's, bolt spacings on new Kawasaki calipers, that type of thing. Clearly they knew their stuff - as a motorcyclist of old you can tell the bullshitters pretty quickly, and these guys were clearly not in that category. Anyway, they were discussing their various ongoing projects. Now I build push bikes, so know the costings there. I ran motorcycles, and could never afford to modify them, even back in the day when I was pushing on £80k per annum and had no children to drain my resources. These guys were clearly in a different league to any I've occupied. So, why the interest? Because I know full well that these two guys do no work whatsoever. They sit outside a cafe all day. No matter when you are in town, there they are. In the bank one was paying off a bit of his mortgage. Where exactly do these people get their money from? I'm bemused.
And before you ask, I gave up chasing the £100k per annum dream as it all seemed so pointless. The more you earn, the more you spend on baubles and tat, and the less time you have with your kids. We were popping off to New York for weekends. Earn £80k, spend £90k type situations. All good fun, but there was always the stress of, well, basically paying for the fallout of being a dickhead. And it is really hard to budget when you spend so much time at work. You're so tired of it all, that it seems normal to do things like have a 5 litre hire car, but upgrade to a 7.4 litre, 9 seater just for the two of you.
Gordon Brown has shown of his true colours today hasn't he? We all know deep down that politicians think we are scum, but it's rare for them to come out and say it in the open, allbeit unwillingly. Ha ha! He's going to do well at the polls. Not. Mind, who else does one go for? All of them are self-serving bastards.
That squaddie who got off doing 143mph on the M40. How? Anyway, best headline I saw was: Bomb disposal expert let off.
27/04/2010: Had a really good, long ride with AD on Sunday. Big loop over to Epsom to pick up Stane Street. AD normally goes slow on the descents, but after his tuition in Dalby Forest he now roosts them with the rest of us. We came off Stane Street really fast, with a following group of riders unable to make up ground. We then did the big climb up Jupiter and over to the cafe.
Now dear reader I'm a little bored of doing a trail blog. "I rode here, I rode there" isn't the most inspiring of formats now is it? I've looked at other blogs, and they are the same. At the end of the day we are all riding the same trails around our own houses; there is only so much that you can write about that now isn't there? It used to be that this page was the main entry route to my site for people, but it has slipped down to pretty much bottom. By definition it is thus boring to other people as well! So I'm pondering where to take this. Don't get me wrong, I still love the riding around here, and can happily prattle on. But....
Moving it on. I get loads of e-mails about how I've been selected as the beneficiary of a $10,000,000 loan agreement from Nigeria. The latest one is from the FBI. I used to just delete them, but now I've started to respond in a friendly manner. The FBI one, rather surprisingly, turned out not to be from the FBI at all. Shocking! It purports to be from Nigeria, and even has a fake government web site linked to it so that you think it is a legit 419 scam. The web site, however, seems to be located in Lithuania [whois isn't accurate at all by the way]. The guy is asking for $865 registration fee. Yeah right. I try and chase them down through the web, but you can obtain random IP generators to throw people off the scent. Chasing people through the web is a tough task. Really you need to move them away from e-mail correspondence and onto something more physical. I'm not sure many people do that as it takes resources and time. I don't really have either. One also suspects that at the heart of it is a few individuals, or even computers that can generate personalities [quite a few "people" on Facebook etc. are random profiles drawn up by computer by the way]. Either way they soon recognise who is playing them. Gives me something to do though.
18/04/2010: Tart that I am, couldn't decide which bike to take today. My boy said to take the red one [Tassajara] so I did. Turned out to be the right choice. Spanner set off at a ridiculous pace, and we met AD on the top of Reigate Hill. Now AD has had some minor bike tuition recently, and it looked like Spanner had taken slight offence at this so attacked mercilessly. The following pace was, in a word, fast. The singletrack by the golf course we hit at a ridiculous speed. Normally we slip and slide there on the mud, but today in the dry I had the back end hanging out on a good few corners; bouncing it a good two feet off line on one alarming corner. Did Spanner let up? Did he heck. I kept him honest though - it looked as though he'd expected me to drop off the back, but I did a few fake overtaking moves to show him not to get complacent.
Over at headley heath we did the big loop around. Why I suggest this I have no idea as it is bloomin' hard work. Spanner wanted to do the rooty drop by the Ashurst centre. I'm not keen on this as it means missing the rocky, and fast, descent to the Pyramid climb. Needless to say we did it. An ill informed AD made the first run, but baulked at the rooty section - as one would in all fairness. Pretty daunting it can be. Spanner cleaned it, and so did I. However, my comedy slick rear tyre lost grip on the flinty rubble and I had to dab a foot down. Well I tried but the little gulley meant I couldn't unclip from the peddle. So I fell over, but got going again... only to find that my Camelbak had gotten tangled on the saddle and seatpost; I was literally tied in place hanging off the back end. So far back was I that I sat on the rear tyre, crushing the mudguard against it. Spanner thought I was braking hard all the way down, but the smell of burning plastic gave the game away. Yes I'd melted the mudguard.
Trail conditions today were like 6 months of being baked in the Sun. Dry and dusty. A lot of the time I had to hang back on the downhills as my face got plastered with dust. Trick there was to either hang well back, or hang in real close. Some of the dust was really deep, meaning we had to slog away in low gears even on the flat. Overall though we absolutely flew - my fastest bike ride for a good few years. Spanner certainly picked the overall speed up, so he wins rider of the day for me.
Not too many mechanicals this time around. Spanner's bike was noisy, but that turned out to be a lose head so no worries. AD's bike refuses to change gear going uphill. My front brake judders. Can't be arsed to investigate that one to be honest.
And hats off to Jenson today. He drove a cracking race there, as did Hamilton. But Button now seems to have the team advantage - why couldn't Alonso back in the day? Prima Donna that's why. Button is obviously a strong player not to be dismissed. And Schumacher? Old man for this game isn't he? Bit of a journeyman. It was interesting to watch Hamilton pass him. He kind of sat back, observing him for a whilst until he got bored and just drove by easy as anything. Vettel just seemed to screw up, as did Webber. Pity, as I like Webber and want to see him do well but I can't see him getting out of the shadow of Vettel. I only watched the first 20 laps, which were pretty good.
No planes in the sky again today, which is odd living near Gatwick as we do. Made my wife book our Eurostar train tickets for August! I've a feeling this may go on for some time yet. Can't see the airlines taking it on the chin for much longer - they'll have to alter their routes surely? The dust is obviously a problem, but where is it? Not seen any at all. I believe the German's have sent up a party of Japanese tourists in a Jumbo to investigate.
15/04/2010: In Streatham today saw a sight to make ones eyes water. One of the local prostitutes was wearing a skirt so short that you could see her bum cheeks. Used to that one as I spend some time in Brixton, but what caught my eye - and everybody elses - was the lack of knickers. Man was she flaunting it. This all at 10:00 hours. Reminded me of the time I saw a cow giving birth at a farm. And about as attractive. Honestly, why would any man want to dip his wick into one of these women?
Hate to say it but this reminded me of a time when I lived in Wales. You have to live in a small Welsh town to appreciate a non-PC environment [and before anybody moans, I'm from a Welsh family and have a Welsh name!!]. One of the guys we used to knock around with was called "Wobbly" and used to introduce himself as that - I never actually knew his name, and I knocked around with him for four years as a regular three-times-a-week drinking buddy. Why was he called Wobbly? Because he had some kind of degenerative disease that meant his nerves were fried and his head wobbled about. Boy could I relate some other Welsh tales here, but I think I'll refrain from doing so.... And people ask why I left Wales and moved to London. Really, you have to live in some of these places to appreciate the Dark Ages.
14/04/2010: Finally fixed the computer 100%. Bought a new router and dongle for £70, hassled Virgin to get the connection fixed, plus deleted 20Gb of crap off the PC. Took some time to do, and was confused somewhat by the bitty delivery service from Virgin that co-incided with my PC throwing a strop [looks like the wireless router was failing and chugging the whole system]. Man it all took some figuring out; nothing in PC land is clearcut.
Took my kids out to Franky & Bennys for lunch. Without any bidding from me, they both obtained balloons then started breathing in the helium. Makes funny voices.... my children are 4 and 6 years old. Where do they learn this stuff?
12/04/2010: Missed out on a ride last week - it was raining so I decided to do some plastering instead. Tsk, tsk, the joy of old houses eh? So where did we go today then? Me and Spanner [see later!] decided on a shortie; so Caterham it was then, although suspiciously we're always out for at least 2 hours on a shortie. Up the Horrid Hill at Hooley and on to the top of the North Downs. Certainly a leg warmer that one. As usual I brought up the rear in a stirling display of slowness and cunning use of the Granny ring with multiple swearing added in. But we both cleared it, although I'm sure Spanner was spitting blood. Spanner did catch me out half way though, pointing to a Girl Rider going slowly on a big bike on the M23. As I looked he put a bit of a spurt on, and gained 10 metres on me that I could only bring down to 9 metres. Bastard. Teach me to provide clues via this web page as to my general nasty cunning. Nothing interesting happened after that - although we did do the lovely blast down from the top of Caterham. That is a real joy. Downhill, boulder strewn singletrack that weaves all over the shop in a series of lazy, blind and dusty 'S' bends. Big dog at the bottom that gets oddly wound up when two cyclists suddenly emerge in a haze of dust and thousand yard stares. Spanner's brakes sounded dry afterwards - for good reason; almost down to the metal. Better get those pads changed then. The Pace as usual performed faultlessly.
Anyway, who is Spanner? Let me introduce KD in his other guise! At the top of the first climb I mentioned that I'd dropped a kilo out of my backpack by simply removing duplicate items. Out went the spare, spare inner tube. Lose change went [and you'll be surprised how much change lurks at the bottom of a back pack], as did the second and third multi tools. A set of hex keys natch. Also jetisoned were the multiple puncture repair kits. Hey presto a kilo lighter yet at the same time still carrying the same level of emergency gear. Actually I'd dropped 2 kilo's as I'd invested in a little seat pack into which the spare inner tube and other gubbins went. Anyway, over at Caterham KD had obviously been pondering. We stopped for water. He had none so borrowed half of mine. What he did have, however, were two ten inch adjustable spanners. These must weight a kilo each. Funny, but when I looked I found no bolts on his bike. He also had three inner tubes, two pumps [one of which didn't work] plus a multi-spanner that Halfords used to give out with each bike. That was perhaps last useful on a bike in 1994. All in all perhaps 4 kilos of pointless mass, but no water. Hence from now on KD is Spanner....
Earlier on as we left home I noticed our neighbour going to the gym in her 3.9 litre Range Rover. As we got back 2 hours later so did she. Can somebody please explain the logic of that one? Drive to a gym in a Range Rover that at best would do 12mpg? What is it with these people?
AD was off to Dalby Forest for guided tuition. As he's gone over to the dark side of what is known as "MTB development & learning" - i.e. core skills cheating - then we'll not talk about him any more. He's obviously going to have a stunning skills set now; no handed downhills / wheelie to the top of Box Hill type of thing that he's going to leave us mere mortal behind. He did mention that the tutor was riding a 29er though, so I'm a bit suspect as to what he's actually learnt from such a person. Possibly beard growing, how to play the mandolin, basket weaving or which wild fungi are edible. I'm all for diversity and all that, but come on; why literally re-invent the MTB wheel? Surely we've enough component "standards" that we don't need another to confuse things? And is it me, or don't 29er's look a bit odd? A bit gangly?
I digress. Next week should be interesting. Spanner will be 4kg lighter, so a devil up the slopes and AD will no longer ride the brakes going downhill seeing as how he's had professional training. In other words, my ten year age disadvantage will come to the fore on a ride yet again.... and all my posts will be moaning about how fast these young whiper-snappers are! Time to drop several kg from a bike me thinks....
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind both AD and Spanner that I am an old, old man so they should take pity on me. Pretend that they cannot climb the hills, fake mechanicals, drag the front brake all the time, perhaps crash head first into a tree now and then? Oops! This all sounds like my riding style!
02/04/2010: A victory of sorts. My PC died yesterday - well the internet did. Nothing I did got it back, and Virgin denied all responsibility as they are wont to do. So wife got sick of my moaning / throwing things around the house / constructing a noose out of her tights and forced me into town to buy a dong; one of those things that connects you to the web via the 'phone links [I thought we were going to Anne Summers for a new toy... Dong? Who thought that name up!]. Being me I went for one with a PC... and a new mobile 'phone. £600 later I came home and on a whim plugged it into my PC. Hence I'm able to post this... So I called Virgin. Again. Tenth time in 2 years. This time I had proof that it was their fault. Oddly the guy the other end ran me through some random tests [stand on one leg and touch your nose type tests] and apparently I have slow packets. Whatever packets are, I know my connection is slow and has been for years! And oddly enough 1 hour after calling them I seem to have fast packets. Go figure.
Oh I also invested in a new keyboard and mouse. My last 'board had sticky keys so I'm not sure of my previous smellings. Sorry, spellings.
Plastering again today. As one does on a rainy bank holiday. I'm in the minority here, as many people are going off DiY big style. And with good reason. It's boring, time consuming and causes friction [back to Anne Summers?]. Mind saying that I'm quite proud of my vertical Grand Canyon. Bit of filler, some sanding, wodge some paint on... Result.
Had to re-order my mountain bike t-shirt in as I've pretty much sold the last batch. Saw a guy wearing one in Redhill yesterday. Man was I cool about it. Actually I was a jerk. I shouted across the street that it looked really good! D'oh. Gone for more of the lime green as quite frankly it looks really, really good.
Right, valid excuse now to play with my dong anywhere I like. So I'm off to play with my dong now. Bye bye.
29/03/2010: So much for experts. We had an engineer come out to look at our PC last week. He changed the router and left bemused. He couldn't fix the problem we were having with the internet. At one point our system got so bad that we were going to pop out and buy a new system entirely. In the end it seemed to me that if the Virgin connection was working, and the PC worked fine on everything bar the e-mails, then the e-mails themselves must be at fault? I deleted about 200 that we'd kept.... did the trick, kind of. The connection still isn't that hot, and keeps dropping out. Our boiler keeps doing the same; no hot water. We have engineers out to fix it, and each time they change various bits for £300. This happens once a year. Our boiler is never right. The other week I 'phoned a good plumber. He was far too busy to come out but he happily explained that most boiler faults could be cured by simply resetting the system. How do you do that? Turn it off and on. So I did. Fixed the problem. Right, so what have we been paying for these past 5 years?
So are things now so complicated that the average householder cannot fix them and needs engineers all the time? Or is it that things are actually really, really simple but we assume they are complex? Both my boiler and PC are fine[ish] now. My PC is stunning; in trying to resolve the problem I junked 22Gb of data, set up a good anti-virus program and fixed one or two niggling errors. My PC is back to working really fast. Well, the PC is - the internet is still variable. Oddly enough when the weather is bad, so is the internet. Why should that be the case? Guess this is why it took me so long to figure out; you combine our poor housekeeping with an intermittent service and you have a nightmare riddle. Same with the boiler; we blamed that when actually the problem lay with reduced water and gas pressures. Lose either, and the boiler shuts down. How can you tell whether it is boiler, gas or water? You can't really can you?
My third point on things appearing harder than they are is plastering. I live in an 1890's house; the walls and ceilings are shite. I've had to learn how to plaster [helped that I did a course as well!] and do it myself. The number of people that come around just to look at it. Man, you'd think I was the new messiah. Bizarre. Plastering, in case you do not know, is really easy. I even repair the original lath and plaster - I don't like plasterboard. Honest, it is easy. You just need to learn not to be frightened of the stuff and take control. Saying that my arm muscles ache now!
28/03/2010: Still faffing with the PC. Works fine on everything bar the internet. Annoying. Actually more than annoying - I want to throw the thing through the window. I suspect now that as the PC works fine for most things, and that we have a new modem, then perhaps it may be something as simple as my mailbox being full. We get loads of messages at work to this effect, and the only solution is to delete tons of old stuff. We have tons of old gash on file.....
Rode my figure of 8 loop today with AD. Kind of my default ride these days as it features hills, singletrack, doubletrack and a cafe. Approximately 24 miles long, and I guess 2,000 feet of climbs. With the mud of late, allied to my heavy Klein and the tacky 42a Maxxis on the front, it is a pretty good training route for the longer summer rides. We set a fast pace, and did it in under 3 hours which included a 20 minute stop. The climb up the pyramids was particularly nasty. Why? Because AD set a fast pace that I stupidly matched at the bottom. Half way up I wanted to bail out as I was vomiting blood and spitting out lung tract, but there was a little girl watching. Can't bail in front of a little girl! At the top even AD stopped for a breather. I think AD went all competitive on me as on the prior downhill he rode it fully on the brakes - I was behind him and got bored so shouted for him to move over, let me pass and get off those sodding brakes!!
Took an MX-5 out for 2 hours this weekend. Relatives car; 2.0i jobbie. Now I used to run MG's of yore, and have driven a Caterham 7, so was looking forward to it. Oh my. Lovely engine and gearbox, and I suspect lovely handling but the owner had chopped the suspension so it rode lower than stock so I never found out. My son wanted to vomit, and I had motion sickness. A lovely car ruined by amateur mechanics. Actually I say lovely but the thing is less than 3 years old, a third car, and is already breaking out in rust. Also the driving position was very good, but really - a roadster that you cannot hang your elbow out of? I like to drape myself over 2 seater sportsters, not sit deep inside them. Give me a 1970's Midget, a Caterham 7 or 600cc motorbike over this thing anyday. I honestly couldn't see the point of the car at all. Not fast enough to scare, so too lardy.
Hats off to Jenson Button - did well to, er, preserve his tyres today didn't he? The McLarens weren't half fast though? Don't think Ferrari are going to run away. May have to eat my words regarding Hamilton smoking Button. Hamilton is way too hot headed. If he loses to Button, he'll never be the same again will he? Red Bull need another year or two by the looks of things.
26/03/2010: Nope; never got to the bottom of my PC problem. Called Virgin. Mistake. After 40 minutes got put through to a call centre in Bangalore or such. Guy said "Tell me what lights are on your modem please?" Now I've been through this before, so I put the 'phone down, counted to ten and replied that the Fed-ex, National Express and Sys Ex are on. His reply after 4 nanoseconds was as expected: "I have just checked your modem and it is fine. Must be your PC." Why did I call? Slammed the 'phone down on him.
So I stripped some more stuff out, installed a little program to strip stuff out.... But generally it works at night but not during the day. Plainly a cable problem?
Anyway, off today as wife working. Friday. Redhill town centre. Painful. Like being on the prom in Worthing there are so many old people about. What exactly is the point of an old person? In the Post Office I had one behind me who was saying I was being slow. I was standing in a queue at the time! Behind other people! Anyway she got to the front and asked how much to post a letter to Canada. Expressionless guy said 87p. "87p! Would be cheaper for me to up sticks and move to Canada than post a letter!" Honest to God she said that. Guy just replied 87p.
I was behind one old nutter, both of us waiting. She got served, turned around to leave and bumped into the old woman penny collector nutter [you know the one if you live here - she scans the floor for pennies and if she finds one she'll harrangue the nearest person to take it from her. Don't! She's a vile woman that gobs everywhere.] Anyway, mad woman 1 bumps into mad penny collector woman. They have a little exchange concerning a penny. I wanted to kill both of them right there.
So I finished at the Post Office and popped into Sainsbury's. Oh dear, oh dear. Like a mad old people's convention at Worthing. Full of them wondering the aisles like zombies. Why is it that if there is a narrow gap, and you allow a POP [pointless old person] through, said POP will smile and move into the gap and stop all confused. Why? Or you get the ones not wearing glasses who will park at ninety degrees to whatever ointment or pink thing they want and squint at it from 5 foot away. Another POP will invariably join them in the squinting competition. Second POP will stand behind, blocking the aisle completely. These will be hairy women. Men POP's dress in suits and wonder around with a loaf of bread and something suitable to go with it for lunch; like staples. Interestingly none of them today smelled of wee, poo or alcohol so here in Redhill we must have a better class of POP than elsewhere.
Now don't get me wrong; I've nothng against POP's or mad people in general. In the right circumstances they can amuse, like when they want to cross the road and you suggest they can pass in front of your car. You then suddenly move forward slightly. But I just can't see the point in them. You never see POP's in France or America - how have they solved the riddle? Perhaps they recycle them as dog chowder.
In case anybody is offended by this, most old people are pretty cool. On Sunday I happily chatted with a 71 year old about bikes and cars for a good half an hour. I just don't like POP's - mainly because my mother was one, who happily did nothing for anybody and sponged off the state for 40 years.
23/03/2010: This is boring. It can take me 3 hours to download some e-mails. I fix my PC, it gradually gets worse. OK call out NTL. "Your computer mate!" is generally the answer. So each time I strip out the PC, or buy a new one, and each time the answer is always the same; can't get onto the internet. Last night I spent three hours trying to get on, then one hour stripping away stuff from the PC; old folders, files, programs and even redundant instructions from the operating system. I cut 10Gb out - a lot of stuff. Guess what? Still takes ages to get on to the internet. I'm gradually beginning to think that perhaps it is the cable system at fault. My view is that, say, it has capacity for 200,000 users. Yet now we have perhaps 400,000 that want to use it. I've stripped my PC down, bought new ones, yet still we get this Chug, Chug effect. Now going to look into how I suss out how many Smegs we're actually getting. Tad annoying.
21/03/2010: Perhaps one of the most muddy rides I've done for a long time. Been raining here for the past few days, so the trails were in awful condition; just slime really. As today was dry and warm, and mud we rode through just stuck to the bikes and us. Thanks to my Fast Fender from Steve Peat most of the muck didn't get to me. Actually I'm talking utter shite there - the Fast fender is one of the poorest mudguards I've ever used. Indeed it doesn't function as a mudguard at all, so I got plastered head to foot in crud. Cheers Steve! Took ages to clean the bike off as being a warm day it just dried like glue all over the bike.
Myself and KD did my little figure of 8 loop up Reigate, past the golf course and on to Headley Heath, where we did the big loop. KD had been setting the pace, but I figured he's think we'd stop at the cafe so he was mentally portioning his energy off. He does that, so somehow I have to get my ten year disadvantage back... I thus saved my energy a tad, got there then suggested a gentle loop around the Heath. I'd not planned on doing this, but one gets to the cafe quite fast and it never seems like a ride at all. Today we got there fast. As I passed the point where I'd riped my tyre out, and left some tools behind, I thought I'd have a look to see if I could find them. Yes! Result! Happily picked them up and rode off - they've only been there 6 days on a public track / footpath.
KD as usual started off like a man possessed. He really likes to front-end a ride, using all his energy right from the off. I like to reserve mine just in case I decide to go off to Guildford or such. Actually I'm just plain lazy.
Used the Klein today as it was looking a little sad and unloved. Got it out and boy did it feel bad. All 1990's frame angles. Found it hard to get the thing going as it was so reluctant to move - heavy rims and tyres there me thinks. And that 203mm front Magura brake. Wow! First time I applied it I was over the handlebars doing an endo. Utterly brilliant brake, and it didn't take me too long to get used to it again. Makes me realise how weedy the Shimano SLX is. Feel a change coming on as I can't stand weedy brakes. Pity that eBay sales have slipped to zero this week.
One thing that I did notice with today's conditions was that right from the off I was wary of slipping, and moderated my pace right back. KD did as well - bit unnerving when you get a big front end slide at the same time as the rear, or when you suddenly find yourself ninety degrees to the trail doing a power slide. However, and here I'm not suggesting that we are riding God's or anything like that, but by the end of the ride we were actually chasing down the slippery sections of track and hitting them as hard as we dare. Coming off Reigate hill was especially slippery, but I still punched out onto the big ring and rode it down. The tyres were still losing traction but we were kind of used to it by then. Bit like this winter and the first big snow storm. Panic! Crash! Grid lock. But after a few days even the most timid were driving like Norwegians.
Did have a word with some scouts on Headley Heath. As we approached one of them threw a white carrier bag into the gorse. Tut tut. Can't have that can we?
Got home, took wife out to lunch and a Ferrari F40 drove past the restaurant. "Funny, you don't get a reaction like that any more with me!" was the general consensus after it had disappeared off. Man that car sounded good. Sorry, I've got to stop writing now and go away for a spell....
....ahhh! Better now!
Oh yes, forgot. I picked up my tyre levers from the exact spot where I stopped. Obviously nobody had been past that spot all week. Joy.
15/03/2010: Aha! Wifie bit sick today, so I had to call my work and have the day off so that I could do the school run. Did that, so what to do until 3pm? DiY? Nah. Shopping? Nah! Bike ride? Hmmm, yes! So off I went on the Pace, past all the commuter jams to Headley Heath. Fancied doing the little downhill gulley at High Ashurst; you know the one? Big tree root half way down the slope with that big gulley following. Normally this point is on the return leg of jaunts out, when I'm tired and thinking more of the climb up the Pyramids. So I've never actually stopped to look at it, just ridden over with utter trepidation. In 15 years I've cleared it once out of pure luck. Today I decided that as I've 6 hours to play I'd stop and actually take a look at the thing. Gosh is that a slope and a half when you stand on it? Really steep. This perhaps is one reason why the root looks so daunting. If it were on level ground you'd just ride over it, but put in the middle of a one-in-four slope. Anyway, looking at it it seemed rideable in several directions. I picked one to the left, and did it by the skin of my teeth, rolling through it cleanly. But clearing it means you hit the gulley quite fast. The gulley is horrible - see my Flickr images. In it you realise it is knee to thigh high with a base of lose rubble with flinty sides. Apply the brakes and you skid instantly. Also today not only did I lock the rear, but I caught some flint and tore the sidewall out of my rear tyre. Now I run tubeless, so a load of latex spat out causing a huge mess. The tyre burst just as I cleared the gulley and hit the flinty shale on the downhill exit. Brake here, as I needed to do to protect my rim, and you fall off as it is too steep to put a foot down. So there I am, out alone in the sticks with a gashed rear tyre. Can't just put a tube into it, as it would blow really quickly. I looked around for something to cover the hole - nothing. Bugger. Looks like a long 8 to 10 mile walk home to me. So I opened the pouch of isotonic goo that my wife had given me to try.... Eureka! Use the wrapper. This temporary fix got me home in style. Up the Pyramids no worries, although as usual it was a bugger of a climb. Through gloop? No problemo. Indeed so confident of it was I that coming off Reigate hill down the rooty section I flew without braking at all.
And here comes my second event. Theory being that you hit tree roots square on. I did. At speed. One was big enough to push the bike back, bending my thumb back in the process. That kinda hurts. I'll slow down a bit next time.....
All in all an utterly brilliant 4 hour ride. Even the cafe was open, so coffee and cake please. 4 hours as I kind of did a really big figure of 8 of perhaps 24 miles or so. Not very far, but I was in amble around mode. Also remembered to do the little downhill over the M25 and down [D'oh!] to the golf course. Not a brilliant section as it is essentially doubletrack, but a gazillion times better going down it than up. And I must say that Pace is stunning to ride. Post ride I popped into town to get some bar end plugs from C & N - they put them in for free. Star! On the way out, wife was well enough to be buying an iPhone next door [not that sick then!], so we popped into the Thai place over the road. Pint and a Thai? Possibly not the best post ride food health wise, but sod it; I'm fairly certain I'll be dead one day so make hay now. Happily recommend the Junction in Redhill for a lunchtime Thai; not the best in the world, but a pint and decent meal for less than £9? Not knocking the meal - really enjoyed it, and excellent value. Simply that you can get better elsewhere, but as KD said, short of actually going to Thailand you'll struggle to beat it comprehensively.
[On a different note, Thai food is making real inroads into the UK. Has the dominance of Indian food been broken? Will our national dish be a green curry? I for one am a little bored of each Indian restaurant offering the same greasy fare, no matter where you go. I used to live on Indian food - the proper stuff as we had immigrant neighbours - so know that you can get hundreds of different meals, hence why I find restaurant choice dull.]
But. And here I owe an apology to those people that say do not go out alone and who I consistently knock. I got my puncture in a dip - I'd also fallen off my bike when the tyre blew out, but no damage done luckily. Anyway in the dip I realised that my mobile 'phone had no receiption at all. And there was nobody else about. At all. So I realised than that if I had fallen off big style [remember I'm playing alone with tree roots on a big flinty slope, so could have cut myself up bady] I'd have been stuffed. Especially as I do not carry a first aid kit. I wasn't stuffed, so in two weeks time I'll be back to knocking those that go out in groups of three or more for safety, but for the moment I am sorry!
This morning when going to fill my £3 Tesco bladder it looked black. Oops. So out came the CamelBak one. revelation or what? The Tesco one is like sucking glue through a straw, so I don't drink much. The Camelbak one is like drinking from a cup. I drank loads today and feel pretty fresh now. So the Tesco one is cheap, but a bit crap. No idea why this should be as the mouth holes are the same size.
At home repairing the damage - to the joy of tubeless tyres. Example; to change a tyre with a tube inside: 5 minutes tops, clean but smelly hands. Example; to replace a damaged tyre on a tubeless rim: 1 hour+, end up covered in latex and smelling of an Anne Summers factory and invariably you will break your tyre levers. Note these figures are at home with all the kit. On the trail forget it; shove in an inner tube. Tubeless is a bit of a joke, and I'll not continue once I'm out of gunk. And did I notice how bad the ride was on the way home with an inner tube in? Was I shocked at the difference it made to my ride? Was I fuck. Makes precisely zero difference. And why when you get your car tyre changed do they not use faffy rubber strips and latex goo? Last time I had a car tyre changed they just bunged it on. None of this fitting it, blow it up to 60psi [I say this lightly - you try blowing up a tyre that just sits in a rim...], leave it for 20 minutes, let it down again, remove valve core, fill it with goo, pump up again, shake it about for ten minutes, come back in one week to find it flat. Why do we have to do this??? Honestly I'm more tired changing a tyre than I was after the ride.
I also realised that I'd left my tyre levers at the bottom of the hill, along with the valve cap. Just ordered new levers and a replacement tyre; £32 gone. Plus one hour to fix the damage. Went for another Aspen as it is a good tyre. I was thinking of going for something else, as I was a bit hacked off that it ripped but then common sense took hold. Flint will cut pretty much anything so no tyre has much of a chance. I do that little section perhaps twice a year and this is the first puncture from there ever.
Dry enough today that the golf course were using sprinklers on the greens. Mind saying that my bike and clothes were extraordinarily muddy when I got home, so the trails weren't that dry. My chain took some cleaning. And being dry meant that I could not try any of my myriad of re-proofed waterproof jackets, or even the new gore-tex one I bought on Saturday. This was a snap purchase for £70; I've not got a decent jacket as all my stuff is well over a decade old. In all honesty until the past few years I've been fairly lucky in not being out in really horrid conditions. I've been out, but the weather has just been wet. the past few years, however, have really tested things and the other week I just got soaked and cold. Time to stop in or splash out on new gear? Splash out, literally! Waterproof shorts and some new shoes next.
Moving on. Porsche are being a bit slow on the Panamera front. Come on guys; I only want it free for a year. Indeed I'd be happy with a day. But I saw one of those Maserati 4 seater GT's today. In black. Felt like a teenager with a nocturnal emission. Oooo! Want! One! Now!
14/03/2010: Didn't go on a ride today - fancied watching the Grands Prix instead. So. Well done to Fernando for winning the 2010 World Championship! Just got to get those dreary other 18 parade races out of the way. My God wasn't it a boring race? I only lasted until lap 20 before turning the TV off. They started, they drove around a bit without incident, they finished. Fernando has got the measure of everybody hasn't he? I loved the pre-race interview where he said that nobody would ever beat M. Schumcher to 7 world titles, and that races without him in it were worthless challenges. In a single interview he knocked every current race driver, plus gave a good account of how he thought Schumacher wasted his time at Ferrari in only winning 5 championships with them. You can bet whatever you like, but I fugure Alonso wants to go to 10 World Championships, at the minimum 8. He wants to hammer Schumacher in every way possible. He's now in the one team that will provide him with the facilities to do so. Schumacher is history. And doesn't he know it? In interviews he just comes over as a sad old man who is trying to fight the incumbent Alonso and failing miserably. He's still fast, but old school fast.
And what of all the pre-race hype? 4 World Champions against each other. Didn't see any of that in the race. Alonso beat everybody, Hamilton hammered Button, and Schumacher beat Button. Alonso and Hamilton are way off in a league of their own. Massa is only there as he's in a red car. Vettel needs a reliable car, but he looks good to go from here.
BBC1 have gone mad. F1 now looks to be one big family, with all the ex drivers popping out of their rest homes for the day to amble around the track in old cars. Very slick reporting. And that theme tune still wins me over. Pity about the racing being dull though.
Did go out looking at cars. We have £14,000 to £17,000 to spend. Popped into JEEP. Popped out again as nobody would even look at us [bit like AUDI then - arrogant tossers]. Popped into Citroen. Guy just handed us the car keys. How cool is that? We spent ages playing. Looks like a Berlingo for us - the C3 Picasso is so small. 500 litre boot space my arse. Sure if you push the seats all the way forward, but then nobody would be able to sit in the car. Berlingo is massive inside - easily fit a couple of mountain bikes and my gear. And possibly my family at a push. Then poped over to Vauxhall. Guy gave us a big smile, but saw the Berlingo brochure said "Berlingo?" and turned his back on us. Gave me a message that their cars cannot compete? Indeed looking at them they can't. Nothing compared at all space wise, and even anything that came close started at £6,000 more than the Citroen. Pity that fundamentally I can't get my head around owning one of these cars. In the UK there is a stigma attached to owning a familymobile. Yet go abroad and they are cool.
The other thing I noted was that Tates Citroen still had for sale the older Berlingo that I liked last year. The same car has been on their forecourt for a year. Kind of put me off the thing. Price seemed fair at £6k a year ago, but now it looks silly. Bet if somebody offered £4k they'd take it.
9/03/2010: This Jon Venables thing. I'm a bit confused by it all really, especially why the judiciary are protecting the guy. Rule of law and all that, but he is clearly one of life's scumbags that should just be put in a lonely cell somewhere and left to die there. The UK really is a bit soft in the head.
See that some civil servants are on strike over redundancy payments - cuts that the government wants to impose, whilst at the same time honouring the banker bonus scheme that set the worlds finances adrift. You can see how the mind of a politician works can't you? They desire to be honourary directors of financial institutions when they retire, so why penalise them? Instead go for the usual easy target of the middle classes. And they wonder why we think of politicians in the same light as estate agents. I'm usually polite to the scammers that knock on my door for driveways, slipped ridge tiles, just-out-on-remand young offenders type people. But politicians I have no time for when they knock. A scammer will take some cash, but the politicians will screw you and your children for eternity.
Talking of which, what has happened to the Jehova witnesses? Used to get loads. You can tell them a mile off. They'll be in pairs, smartly dressed with rucksacks. They'll have inane smiles on their faces and will be pointing in wonder at the most odd subjects; tiles, leaves, cars. I used to work with one, in London. He'd always stand in wonder when a double decker passed by. He used to do all these coach trips that you see advertised in the free papers; shopping in Epsom type adventures. Bumped into him in Redhill one day; an organised shopping trip by coach from that distant land Croydon. Like Redhill compares well with Croydon as a shoppers paradise does it? Tea in the Bellfry sir? I think he went mad in the end - found painting his house at 4am one day with a quarter inch paint brush. Apparently he'd been doing the walls for weeks. Pensioned off happily to some coastal town.
Cars. Finding it hard to replace the Jazz. Boot space you see. Jazz is just so big inside. Our neighbour has a SAAB estate - big car? Nope - virtually the same boot space at around 400 litres. Focus the same. Only when you get to Mondeo size do you get a really big car... and then you have the problems associated with big cars; road tax, parking problems, exceeding the speed limits, petrol consumption. Looked at a Fiesta - whoah there boy! No interior space at all. Way too small. Need to be able to fit a mountain bike inside.... which I can easily with the Jazz. C3 Picasso? Mixed reports on those things - said to be uncomfortable. Berlingo? Horrid, but useful....
7/03/2010: An interesting day. I posted on www.muddymoles.org.uk this week about Track 40 over in Sutton. Bit of a memory trip, but the essence of it being that I used to go out for an hour or so with my bike just to play about. Just me and the bike in perfect harmony [all sing along now!]. Anyway, nothing really organised for this morning so I wasn't planning where to go when I went to get the bike out, but when I picked my backpack up I realised that I wasn't at all keen on carrying the thing. All those tools, spare parts, spare clothing, water, food, mobile 'phone, pump, money.... seemed so, well, earnest, keen and dare I say it, anally retentive. Bit deep this, but we now go on bike rides; we have a destination, a mission. What ever happened to just going out on a bike? Indeed some of the web sites I've looked at suggest that going out without a huge variety of spares - first aid kits, space blankets, various inner tubes, etc. - is downright dangerous. Get a grip! We're on bikes in the Surrey Hills near Caterham. At no point were we more than a quarter of a mile away from houses, pubs business or roads. Yes I do realise that there will be somebody out there who fell off, went off the track and into some bushes and was only found 3 days later, but how rare is that? Do such singular events warrant every single rider forever carrying 5kg of 'essential' safety kit, and being fearful to go out if they don't have it? Further, how injured would you have to be to let an IT consultant, a council worker or sales rep deal with your injured and gushing limb? "I say his legs need to be higher than his head." "Nah, you need to wrap this duck tape around his mouth and nostrils to limit his breathing as he is hyperventilating." "No, you're both wrong! We need to network here; think outside the box to achieve an in the box paradigmal solution. I'll get back to you in three weeks with a spreadsheet and action plan."
Blathering on again. Sorry. Back to the ride....
So I sent a text to KD stating that I was going sans tools etc., and bless him, he got into the spirit of the enterprise instantly. Came out in a t-shirt, shorts and trainers. So off we set with no route in mind, but I did have a hazzy thought that the ride would involve the silly but fun downhill section near Caterham. So that in turn mean the Caterham Secret Singletrack - or perhaps more appropriately the Forbidden Woods. As usual we got lost in the woods, but found our way back to the rock strewn downhill. As usual it was grin inducing bouncing over the baby heads. KD roosted one corner particularly well. Half way down I picked up a mechanical mallady, but bugger it if I was going to stop or slow down. As it happened the mallady [possibly a twig caught in my rear mech] went away and we carried on. I didn't even bother to investigate the rattle... you don't do such things when out playing do you?
A brilliantly fun, childish ride. And I'm guessing we burnt as much energy as a normal, but more earnest ride. Trail conditions were decidely odd. Overnight frost just beginning to melt in the sun meant south facing trails were decidedly sketchy with a lot of side slip. Very unnerving. On the tops there was ice. North facing slopes were just bizarre to ride; crunchy ice topped with fallen leaves, which themselves were frozen. Yet our rock-strewn downhill was as dry as a summer's day; fast with dust being thrown up by the tyres. So our style ranged from confident to cautious within metres. Yes I hear you say, you've that slick tyre on the rear so you would slip. And again I say I slip only as much as anybody else, and yet accelerate better given half a chance. And what is it with the horse riders abusing the trails? We couldn't climb one slope as it was churned up so much - rear tyres just gave up and spun hopelessly.
OK, fess up time. KD lamented the lack of water, and I'm sitting here quite dehydrated. I wasn't totally comfortable without a pump or repair kit. We'd gone a bit too far on being minimalist, but boy was it fun. I'm going to look into this "tool-less riding" a bit more - we must be able to get out with some form of bare essentials, and not have to carry 5kg worth of kit on our backs? Perhaps the longer rides justify it - 15 miles from home you'll want to fix that puncture, but today we could have walked home in an hour from the furthest point.
One negative. I sell car magazines by the hundreds. I should know about cars. We found a rusted out hulk on a side trail. Hillman Imp says I with utter confidence. No - Austin of some sort says KD. Discussion followed, in which naturally I was right. It was an Imp. Look rear engined said I. Until KD pointed out that the engine was in the front, as was the steering wheel, it had four doors and looked like a crushed up Montego. Er, yes I agree now... and I had a friggin' Maestro once!
Kind of fun to be out when it wasn't either raining or snowing. Trails slow, but give good memories of those dusty, summer days. Still a lot of standing water around, and boy was it a cold wind today, so the dry, dusty days are still far off. One can live in hope can't one!
5/03/2010: Honda Jazz saga. As you know I'm not that impressed with Honda. Our Jazz has paint that falls off, it sounds like a tractor for the first twenty minutes, and the car fills with water. We've had garages look at the water ingress to no avail, including Honda themselves. Today I went into Honda and expressed an interest on spending £16,000 on a new car. I mentioned that personally I wouldn't spend a penny at Honda, but wife likes the cars. Why is that Sir? enquired the salesman. Water ingress replied I. "Oh that would be the rear wings pulling away from the body, and the tailgate mounting points ripping away." They didn't quite use these words, but that was the gist of it. Right. Solution to them is to apply mastic to the cracks. Solution to me is to make the car properly in the first instance.
When my wife got home I had a look at the car. The rear wings were indeed pulling away from the body [or the mastic had shrunk - possibly more likely], as were the tailgate mounting points. All in there was a 1mm gap running for perhaps 15cm on either side, whilst the tailgate mounting points each had 1cm gaps of perhaps one tenth of a millimetre. Jolly good stuff. Our 6 year old car is gradually ripping apart. I've applied the mastic, but it all seems a bit shit doesn't it? The 22 year old Volvo tip car doesn't leak. I can't see many Jazz cars lasting long, can you? I removed a good bucket of water from the boot.
I still like the concept of the Jazz, and there are very few if any cars on the market to match the interior space for the price. None if you go by exterior dimensions versus interior room. Looked at a Focus - 35 litres bigger. If I removed the space saver from the Jazz I could get in another 50 litres, so the Focus is slightly smaller in reality. When we go away on holiday I can get a whole mountain bike in the boot, then stack our luggage on top. What the Jazz needs is an additional 300cc in the engine. All well and good being clever Mr Honda and making a 1300cc engine produce power by revving to 7,500rpm, but 4,500rpm along a motorway grates after 5 or 6 hours. No excuse for cubes Dude. The only car so far that looks a promising alternative is the Yeti - but the one we want is £17,000. For a car the kids will kick the shit out of within 5 minutes.
I'd investigated this leak on the web. Boy don't you love the web? As a source of unfounded guff it is unrivalled [www.workshopmanualman.co.uk being a prime example!]. Take the Honest John website. Stated quite confidently that the leak due to door seals. Honda stated that they've never had to replace door seals and looked dumbfounded at the suggestion. Honest John also stated that the engine noise on start-up was due to piston slap and a new engine would solve it. So why does the noise change when I engage gear? Honda stated that it was a feature of the gearbox, and my own experience goes along with this. Honest John really is a bit crap when you move away from the stuff that he himself has written - ends up more like a chat room full of ill-informed amateurs. And the search function drives me mad.
Still no news on the recall, but to be honest I couldn't really give a toss. If owners want to pour water onto electrical contacts, then pray tell what do they think the result would be?
02/02/2010: I monitor Klein Mantra sales on eBay. Last year, 2009, they were in the doldrums, and many bikes sold for around £300 - which, admit it, is still good for 15 year old rigs with original and dubious equipment. One or two would pop up each month. However, this month one sold for near £800. OK it had old skool XTR on it, so was a bit bling, but that's top money for a bike that got bad reviews even when new. So today I had another look at the 'Bay. Only 3 bikes on, each with starting prices of around £400. So the one high sale is drawing out a lot of fairly decent stuff. That or people are skint and disposing of tat. I'll not sell mine; it'd be like selling a small child now I'm that attached to it [mind, some days I quite fancy child disposal - parents don't appreciate their luck if both sets of grandparents are still alive!]. I'm not convinced that these Klein speculators are going to do well - £300 tops for bikes in original specification.
Paint lids. Why are they plastic now? The old metal ones used to distort, but they could be hammered back on easily enough without fuss. The plastic ones distort when you go to put them back on. They then absorb all the force required to shove them back on, resisting for ages, releasing the energy the instant they pop back into position - net effect being the random distribution of 20cc of paint all over me, the floor, walls, ceiling, passing light aircraft....
Paint. Ten years ago you had paint. It came in different colours. Gloss or matt. The matt was usually lightly coloured water, and you had to apply four gazillion coats, especially if it was white. You knew where you stood with paint then. Go back a bit further and paint came in white, green or red gloss; magnolia matt. Now to buy paint you first have to decide where it is going to go. Walls? Not good enough information Sir. Is it a kitchen wall, bathroom, hallway, ceiling.... Wood, plaster, metal, paper.... Interior or exterior? Horizontal or vertical application? Roller or brush? Do you want paint pods? Spray application? Give me a fucking break already! I just want to paint the fucking hallway and bathroom in the same sodding colour using a single roller!!!! Do I look like I've time to waste painting? And God forbid you get some on yourself [see above paragraph]. I was using moisture resistant, vertical plaster surface paint to be applied solely by roller. Get some on your skin and it dries instantly. I look like I've some serious skin condition.
02/03/2010: At work in Brixton yesterday I saw some guy riding around with a set of original AMP Research forks fitted to his bike. Man those things must be 16 years old now - well shagged would be the word to use. They still looked cool, but useless. How is it that old mountain bikes end up as cool road transport? Perhaps using them off-road is a none starter; AMP forks were always a tad marginal even when new. I had a set of Quasar linkage forks back in 1996; they were shit but cool looking. Indeed any product that used elastomers was generally shit. No matter what I did to the Quasars they would rebound at exactly the same speed as compression. This had the effect of making the bike slower than if it just had rigid blades fitted. Given that I am a man, so essentially stupidly blind where technological shortfalls of equipment I've paid for are concerned, I still think they are cool looking. But I shudder when thinking of them in use, even 14 years later.
Interestingly I was given a lift to London Bridge to meet somebody the other day. OK that isn't interesting, but stick with it. I wanted to walk, but the guy I was with insisted on driving. At 0:800 London rush hour. It took us an hour to get there, and I had to virtually run the last mile. We drove 2 miles in an hour. So with the devil in me, I walked back. It took 35 minutes and I got to see the sights - found a few interesting looking African cafes around the Elephant. But what is it with car drivers that even with the odds so visibly stacked against them, they'll still insist on driving. I'm not being critical of the person that drove me, as when I'm driving I'll do the same - there seems to be some socially contractual element to being a driver whereby you feel obliged to drive the person to their exact destination with the minimum of walking involved. It's quite bizarre to watch the negotiations; the driver will insist on driving, whilst the passenger will insist on walking. As it is difficult to get out of a moving car, the driver always wins. But at the same time the car will usually be moving along patently slower than pedestrians. I've lost count [not that I began counting in the first instance...] of the times somebody insisted on driving me a few hundred metres, to a location visible in the near distance, whilst pedestrians were clearly moving at 5 times our pace. One suspects also that some people are to blame for this phenomenon. When we had the snow, there were people getting off trains here and straight into taxis. The area was completely gridlocked, which was obvious to all, yet these people were happy to sit in a stationary taxi for three or four hours. Perhaps a bit of it was selfishness on their part - taxi grab. I recently found out that one of the gym instructors from town happily sat in the same snowy traffic stationary for four hours. He sat outside the gym. [For the record I have only been into gym twice in my life - and only one of those times was to exercise; once being enough to realise the futility of driving somewhere to sit on a stationary bike... Indeed I think it is worse than that - you drive somewhere to pay somebody for the privelage of sitting on a stationary bike.]
And! A car driver will insist on driving to the exact destination even when it is clear that there is no parking there. I've been with people that have taken an hour to find a parking space, only to spend ten minutes in the shop of choice, or simply to go to a cafe. Why not just park up slightly out of town? Or go to a different cafe somewhere else? My wife's car is battered to f*ck because she insists on parking next to the door of supermarkets. Perhaps a grands worth of panel damage because she can't be arsed to walk 20 metres. And how long, seeing as I'm off piste here, do front tyres last these days? Power steering on everything means that we can just sit there and twiddle the steering whilst not in motion. Doesn't half remove some rubber that little joyful exercise. I'd argue that cars of less than 2,000cc do not need power steering.
Sorry, I've lost the plot again!
28/02/2010: Wet and windy. Actually that's a mega understatement as the trails today were as wet as I've ever seen them. Think 70 metre stretches where there was no trail other than 20cm deep water. Indeed such were the conditions that we ended up discussing windsurfing, not bikes. Some places, whilst not impassable, were virtually impossible to ride and had to be walked. My waterproof jacket lost the plot after 45 minutes, and all of our brakes pretty much stopped functioning. On one downhill stretch I had both levers back to the bars and nothing was happening retardation wise. Grip was limited - and yes, I am still on a rear slick but I didn't lose too much ground to AD. Indeed my rear Aspen seemed to dig in better in the mire than his Continental effort. I was the only one to clear one particularly dire section. But out of fairness I planned my line of attack years ago; you have to follow the little stream and try and find bedrock. You also have to skim the fence, which takes a bit of nerve as you can rip your jacket quite easily, possibly even cutting an arm or leg. I simply replace "nerve" with a crap jacket that I don't give a toss about. Indeed I am largely deficient in the nerve department.
And I cleared the climb that KD always fudges. You know the one; near that ever so slightly secret drug place. So it can be done, but I'll admit here that it can only be cleared if you hit the line exactly right, and don't spin up. Any deviation from the extreme left going up, a change of gear or bit of rear tyre slip and you can forget it all. Just get off and walk. Looking back down the path here, chalk bedrock is clearly visible so we're well on to the way of major trail erosion. No doubt the NT will patch it up as being suitable for horse riders and the pedestrians, but give no thought to making it fun for us bikers. I find it interesting that they will patch up a trail, but their patches rarely last a season. If they'd build them as per trail centres then they'd last for years and we's all be happy. I digress. Actually I was very interested in the erosion - makes for a lovely challenge going downhill for a strech in the dry.
AD got cold, so we didn't stop for break; just rode it out for just over 2 hours. To be fair it was my idea not to stop - why bother just standing in the rain? Seemed silly. Later on he was complaining of cold feet. Personally at the time I was happy to stay out, even though I did notice that my willy had shrivelled to the size of a pea [about half size then!]. After he left, I played around for a bit but it was just too wet. On the way home a person in a Ford KA [and can't you just tell that somebody in a KA would do something moronic? I think Ford's focus group specifically targetted semi-morons when they designed it. They got that market right!]... anyway, this person went straight for a pot hole as they passed me. With our pot holes as they are, this meant a huge tsunami. It didn't make me any wetter. Where was I? Ah yes, being warm and stopping out. I felt all warm and cuddly, but noticed something was up when after hosing the bike down I did myself. The water out of the garden tap felt warm. When I got into the house I kept bumping into the walls and the shower felt like a boiling jet. My legs were red raw. I think I was really, really cold and very hungry. Time for a new jacket, better shorts and socks. Hate spending money on kit, especially when decent jackets run to £140 and shorts £80. I can't for the life of me imagine spending that much cash on a product that may well be trashed on a single ride.
Bike took 3 seconds to clean - wet mud. Took the Pace as fancied a sit up riding position rather than the "attack, attack" mode that the Tassajara puts me into. The Klein, by the way, is still kyboshed as I've not gotten around to stripping the fork off and sending it away to Magura. Anyway, the Pace is really comfortable for a hard-tail; way better than my Clockwork ever was. Really love the Pace bike, but am impartial regards SLX brakes. Top specification Shimano chain still looks new, so money well spent there. OK my rear slick tyre is an acquired taste, and may well see me off the trail and taking a hit one day, but I like the way the Aspen works when it does. And the Pike 454 air forks are superb, if a tad heavy, but to be honest I'm not too bothered by the 400g I'd save if I splashed out another £700 on forks. £700 or 400G? Hmmm. In other words, I'll not be changing anything on the bike soon, save possibly for the front brake - could always switch the 203mm rotor out from the Pace. Indeed I may well rip the Magura Julie from that bike as it is a stormingly good stopper.
Hardly anybody out, which wasn't surprising. And going back to pot holes. I'm on a mountain bike. On the trail I run into anything. So why, on the road, do I poo my pants at the prospect of running into one of these things?? I'm beginning to realise that Porsche, bless them, are perhaps holding off on contacting me about a Panamera long-term test as they realise that such poor road and weather conditions may well sully my impression of their fine car. Either that or the thruth is they've simply not read my web page, or are ignoring me. Quite frankly I find this hard to believe - why would Porsche not be interested in giving an £80k car to somebody that drives a £500 one? Have they not heard of scrappage!
21/02/2010: Can't be arsed to go out on the bike. Why? because all of my machines are hemmed in by crap I shifted prior to going away. It's going to take me hours to dig them out. Weather poor as well. And I'm tired - see later on for why.
Been away on holiday in Nieuwpoort-bad in Begium. Went via the Chunnel, which was interesting due to the snow. One train got stuck, so all services were cancelled for two hours. This was lucky for several reasons: 1) that some tosser in an American SUV tried to cut through several queues when we were waiting to get in. His car was three times the size of ours, so he assumed he could do what he wanted. However, I can be a right prick when I want to be, so I parked in front of him and just sat there. This annoyed him but amused me. He was obviously rich as he upgraded his ticket and got to the train quickly. Here is luck number 2). The train he caught broke down in the tunnel. We got stuck... next to the burger van. No biggie then; eat and let the kids play in the snow. They opened up one tunnel, with a train once every hour or so. We got the second one out. So Mr SUV really got screwed. There is a God. Oh and because his train broke down we were delayed for more than an hour, so got a £73 refund.
Nieuwpoort was cold. Being North facing, and on the North Sea, you can imagine how cold the beaches were. But would our kids stop somewhere warm? Nope; we stopped on the beaches for at least 8 hours each day. In the end we got used to the cold and it was just brilliant. Made lots of sand castles, rode some funny bikes, and collected tons of shells. Still think that the coastal towns of Belgium are horrid to look at; from the "fuck you!" school of architecture. And the tourism board needs to get it's act together. Do a search on Google, and the first hit you get for the area is often one of my images on Flickr. We saw no other UK registered cars the whole week.
Still wonder where the Belgiums get their income from. Well dressed and they eat in some excellent restaurants. For our mid-morning coffee break, we were often spending £30 on 2 coffees, some orange juice and a couple of cakes. Boy did that hurt. Flats along the coast cost £400k - and there are thousands of them all owned by people from Ghent. But then they usually drive a piece of crap car with 100,000km up, so that may well be it. We all drive newish cars, yet dress like shit and eat from burger vans. One this note... Boy will I be glad when this craze for jeans around your arse ends. At least when you see somebody with their underpants on full view, you know they have single figure IQ ratings so can avoid them. I'd be quite happy for my daughter to go out with people of any colour, but if she brings home one of these trousers around your knees pricks I'd be upset. If my boy dressed like that, he'd have to leave home.
Grumpy as our neighbours woke us up at 1am for their house keys. These people lock themselves out at least once a month. What gives there? How can grown adults lock themselves out? Once a month? Mind they did once spend two days packing for a holiday, go away, then call back because they'd forgotten their daughters' medicine that, basically, keeps her alive. You would wouldn't you? Oddly he wears jeans that hang around his arse, so perhaps that is it?
Honda Jazz starting to wind me up. Why it gets good ratings is beyond me as it is a piece of junk. Paint very poor - the roof has rust on it. The panels dent easily, and it fills with water when it rains. On start-up the engine really sounds horrid. Use it on a motorway, and the 1300cc engine really struggles. I'm starting to become embarassed by the thing, so it's going to have to go. And don't think this is a pride thing; our other car is a 22 year old dump-run-car. I prefer to drive that in all honesty. Our Vitara was way better; we kept that for 9 years and were sorry to see it go. The Jazz is one of the poorest cars I've owned, and is starting to get expensive to maintain. 50,000 miles and it is shagged out, and we look after it. Was thinking of changing it to a newer model, but I'm unimpressed with Honda in general really. This recall of theirs is going to take 3 months to do. What gives there? Find the dealers arrogant - a bit like Audi dealers in that respect. May go for a Focus. When was the last time a Ford was recalled? 2000? But then Ford dealers aren't even arrogant; they just ignore everybody as they can make up sales figures to fleet buyers. Been looking at Citroens, but they do not do wife friendly automatics. And, well, Citroen?
Come on Porsche - you're a bit slow on that long-term Panamera test? You know you'd sell more with a good review here! Look at Honda; I slag them off, and what has happened to them??
11/02/10: In the words of our Lord, Father Ted: "Feck, feck and feckin' Hell!"
I'm off on holiday Saturday; Belgium and Netherlands via the Chunnel. So last night Kent had 10" of snow and the roads are all blocked.
Feck!
Anyway. Bikes. Today I saw two classics. An original circa 1992 balloon tyred Peugeot ten speed MTB in Brixton, and a similar vintage Stumpy in Redhill. The Stumpy is being regularly used by some guy on his commute to work. The Peugeot probably to deliver drugs..... and I'm not trying to be funny or ironic; it probably was. I work in that kind of an area. But neither were Retro; not uber cool suburban bikes being used by a trendista. They are just bikes to their owners. Bet the Stumpy has a good tens of thousands of miles up, on original cantilevers - I see it most days. I thought they were brilliant.
10/02/10: One of the things I like to do in life is buy random music. I'll buy a CD because I like the cover, the name or because it is being played in a record shop. Often this pays off; Tom Waits the Black Rider bought in a Vancouver record shop; Barenaked Ladies same. John Hiatt; Rob Zombie... lots of random purchases, lots of good music. This week I hit 'The Wall' though. Bought Big Head Todd and the Monsters 'cause I liked the name and they are from Boulder, Colorado. Had a good holiday in Boulder, Colorado once - even though Mindy wasn't in town at the time. Bit of a drippy way to buy an album, sure. Utter junk. Never mind. £4 down the drain!
Day was saved by good old eBay. I keep an eye open for Pace stuff, as one does. Found two new Animal "Pace" t-shirts misspriced at £5, which included postage. OK they only had them in a small, but as they are made of a wicking material with an anti-bacterial agent sprayed on, then Billy bargain as an underlayer at this time of year. At £5 each, who cares if my fat gut spills out of the bottom. More money for muffins.
And speaking of Pace. Seen a few of their full susser frames come up at under, or just slightly over, £600. Considering they are new at £1,100 then this seems a good deal - the ones I've seen for sale have been virtually new. You could have one of their bikes up and running for under £1,500 if you accept a few component compromises. Can't say I'm in the market at the moment, as I'm over the moon with my 303, but I'm still watching with interest. Pace just make good stuff, and with their new line-up they may well take sales from Orange. Although saying that, the round tubing they are using looks a touch too retro for my tastes, especially in the candy apple colour schemes. Actually, I'm talking shite - Whyte look to be the new Orange [how utterly brilliant a phrase that is! You read it first here folks!], and I think their hardtails are where it's at right now. Some real thought gone into those rigs - looking at the specifications there's not much I'd change on them for, oh, days at least. Saddle, handlebar - pretty much it. £1,500 to splash on a bike? Go Whyte hardtail.
6/02/10: Mate of mine feels old at 42. I've been telling him it's all in the head. Naturally I have a good few years on him so feel the need to pass comment. This week I've mainly been in the Post Office. I've put my underpants on backwards most days - sitting here I realise that they are not y-backs. Twice this week I've put tops on inside out, and only noticed several hours later. I've even been into a Wilkinsons shop. I find NCSI funny and drive a Volvo from the age before they went cool. So, I lie. It's not all in the head. I've bridged that gap between old and young this week, and I'll not be going back. Next stop will be man nappies for me. One long distant day away I'll grow my hair and dye it like Richard Hammond and buy the Journey back catalogue.
Just heard a Rammstein interview on the radio. I love the band, but boy do they sound like Bruno.
6/2/10: One of those rare "can't be arsed" days. I've a cold lingering in the background, Attack Dog cancelled, KD has sick children. Just fancy sitting here ripping my frankly shite music collection onto an iPod. Rammstein, Rob Zombie, John Hiatt, Blue Oyster Cult, Barenaked Ladies... you get the picture! I was going to buy some tunes off the internet, but at 99p per song I'd rather get the original cd's from eBay. There's bound to be some Emo dude selling his entire back catalogue of cd's before he tops himself.
Off on holiday next week; Nieuwpoort to chill and then some places in Netherlands to look for sharks teeth. Don't get too many Brits along that coastline, which is both good and odd at the same time. Good means we don't see too many Brits, bad as it really is a nice place to go. Good food, great beaches and easy access. We can be in Netherlands quicker than we can get to some scum-bag place like Dorset. I've lived in both Devon and Dorset - believe me, they are scummy places to live. Weston-Super-Mare is especially scummy. Managed to get through my time there by becoming a borderline alcoholic. Wine with breakfast? Sure, why not.
6/02/10: Cold starting to take effect on me. My shins are so dry that they have gone all hard and bleed. Nice. My nails seem to have started cracking up and splitting off - had a mild case of ingrown toenail for two days, so spent all the time limping. The ends of some of my fingers have split open - they refuse to heal. So what I've taken to doing is using superglue on them. Sounds daft, but I read somewhere of surgeons using the stuff to glue eyes together. I've had an open cut on my thumb for three weeks now. Plasters, germoline and any other stuff just didn't work. The glue did right away. Very pleased. What else is wrong with me? Psychologically probably lots [it was all my parents - singular - fault!]. Physically I don't think age has much to do with things, rather mountain biking in all weathers. Would I have it any other way? Nah!
Actually this all may be down to diet. I eat my 5 a day, but my symptoms seem more akin to scurvy than anything else. Vitamin D deficiency then? Dunno, and to be honest I don't really care.
Read in the paper today that our Honda has been recalled. Catches fire if it gets wet. Now I'm wondering when Honda are actually going to contact us? Nothing from them yet. I like the Jazz, but can't say I think much of Honda. I suspect their good ratings have more to do with older people not wanting to say anything negative about them than any real quality. The thing leaks when it rains, the engine rattles horrendously on start up, and the paint finish is frankly shit. My 22 year old Volvo has better paint even now. Servicing costs are alarming - the 36,000 mile service hit us back £700. Seven hundred fucking quid! Needless to say Honda have not seen the car since. We bought it new, so know the history of the car. It's not been abused, so the faults are inherant. And the dealerships ain't that hot. Sure, they give you flowers when you collect the car, but.....
Mind Toyota and Honda are consistently good scorers in any consumer survey. Makes me wonder exactly how bad other manufacturer's are. We bought a new Renault once. Boy was that a move and a half. Got rid very, very quickly. The first service hit us £200 for an oil change. Best car I ever had was the hairdressers favourite; a Suzuki Vitara. Kept that almost ten years and 90,000 miles. Had to laugh though. We bought the Sport model. New. Came without rear seats as they were an optional extra.
I'll admit it was a tail happy son of a bitch - had loads of big slides in that thing. Had a real laugh in it one day though in Tilgate Park. It had snowed, and I was playing with the four wheel drive. Seeing how fast I could accelerate out of corners before it lost traction. Tilgate has a large car park; half of it had been gritted, half in deep snow. I'd been there an hour and this Police car drove up and made a beeline for me. Buggered if I was going to stop until told to. Anyway, this must have annoyed them as they accelerated to me. Fine on the salted bit. But by the time they got over to me - and I wasn't stopping remember - they were in snow. They made the first corner, and were looking at me rather angryly. But they didn't make the second. Dumb gits flew straight on into a concrete bollard and took the front of the car right off. I kid you not - they trashed the car completely. Man I was laughing so hard I wet myself.
4/02/10: Had the landline checked today - seems it is fully functional. So I'm at a loss as to why I keep missing the call from Porsche GB to have a Panamera GT on long-term loan. Bizarre; an almost popular website [over 60 hits a day!] and I'm the right demographic - athletic Surrey resident driving a top of the range high-performance GT with leather seats. Really, Porsche, you should make a bit more effort with your product placement if you want some decent sales. I'm in the market for a new car after all; Maserati or Porsche? Toughie that, especially at the rather modest £70,000 to £90,000 price tags these cars command.
My current car compares well with the Panamera, so I am in the right market segment. Leather seats, large capacity engine, rear wheel drive with alloy wheels. There is even a fan club on the web devoted to it. Actually, it only has some alloy wheels - the rears are steel rims. The engine is a bit smaller than the Porsche I admit; 2 litres against 5. 80bhp versus perhaps 500. And, well, I'm in a slightly different market than the £90,000 Porsche. By a factor of 360 [which co-incidentally is it's model number]. But come on Porsche! Give me a call!
Huh. 'phone suspiciously quiet. I'll just have to stick with a car worth less than a new iPod.
Perhaps it is for the best. I read today that their 4x4 turbo thing depreciates by almost 50%. In 6 months. One guy paid almost £90,000 for his, and was offered £50,000 part exchange value. Not too far off £10,000 per month just on depreciation. I'm definitely going to at the people who buy these things in a different light. Really, it makes one wonder how Porsche got to be the most profitable car company in the world doesn't it? Can imagine their business model: Fleece our stupid rich customers to the highest degree humanly possible. Then fleece them a bit more. Then add on 30% for good measure. Then when they come back for a new car, tell them that their existing model is worthless.
Which, talking of worthless, brings me on to Toyota. Boy when the Japanese foul up they do it big style don't they? Here you have the biggest car company in the world making a bit of a fudge of things. Bet VW are absolutely laughing their socks off now.
And have you seen car prices of late? I was looking at a Skoda Yeti, but the range starts at £14,000. Skoda in Croydon had two cars in stock; neither of them a new car, let alone actually a Skoda. Gives you confidence that, doesn't it? So I figured on Ford; Mondeos start at £19,000. I run a banger intermittently, but wife drives new Euro NCAP ***** jobbies. So we buy new cars from time to time. But I'm not paying £14,000 for a base model 1.2 litre car - where the main dealer for the area doesn't actually stock the brand.
Anyway, bikes. KD's Kona was moaning on Sunday - diagnosis rear pads shot. So he ordered some in and popped around last night so that I could fit them. Right. They came out, and went back in easily. Cleaned it all up and his bike works fine again. Cheers www.DiscoBrakes.com for the cheap pads! But, my my what a mess. One pad had no friction material on. At all. The steel backing plate was also half as thick as it's brother on the other side, and was bent. The retaining spring was broken into three pieces and the piston had partially siezed in the bore [bit like me then!]. Bits of the spring clip litered the caliper body.His rear wheel was easy to get out, as the quick release was lose. Luckily I didn't get messy taking the wheel out as the chain only had congealed oil on it, not fresh stuff.
How that bike continues to work I do not know. Guess ignorance is bliss? Ain't broke..... It may break now then, as I've fixed the brakes [or breaks as they are spelt on eBay], oiled the chain and put the back wheel in properly.
Funny: I watched some chap drive into Rehill station car park today. Not funny? Was - he had a bike on the roof rack.... Or he did until he drove into the barrier and ripped it clean off. Rather than face the embarassment of being seen to have done the deed, he drove off, leaving the bike behind. Bet it was his wife's bike! I pondered walking off with it, but it was complete scrap. Imagine tying a bike to your roof, then driving at speed into a solid metal object. The bike looked to be about a metre long.
Been looking on eBay at the price of Pace bikes. Ah. One went recently for just over £600. Looked a good one too. Mine cost around £1,300 to build, so whoever bought this one apparently got a deal and a half. Well, that's assuming the drivetrain is OK, the fork's don't need a service, the handlebar is fine, headtube not ovalised, etc.. New transmission: £400+. Fork service: £100. Tyres: £50+. Brake service: £40. Handlebar: £30. Add this little lot in, and lo! £1,300. Same as mine, and I used new bits. £1,300 is if you liked the existing wheels and brakes, and the finishing kit. Change those [and you would as they were a bit low tech], and you're up to £1,800. True, you could sell some of the old kit on to offset the costings here. But I'm now thinking that £670 isn't such a bargain!
By the way, have I told you how good these new long-travel hardtails are? You should try one. Don't worry about having too much travel - I probably use 100mm of it, but that additional bit remaining gives you so much confidence. Utterly brilliant.
3/02/10: Plastering duties today. 1890's house, so lath and plaster everywhere. I'm currently repairing the hallway ceiling, which is, er, fun. Think messy and you'll not go far wrong. Half of it fell down, so I have to put half of it back up. I'm a traditionalist, so I'm re-doing it as it was originally. Doesn't take too long to do, and it is worth it as the house retains the original look. What look is that then? Well a modern house will be a square edges, perfect lines and hollow, shallow sounding walls. Older house do not have right angles, straight lines and they sound solid. Plasterboarding old houses is just plain wrong if there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the laths. However, if the laths are gone, or you have, say, a room to do... bugger it! Plasterboard the fucker to hell and back. Otherwise you'll end up spending thousands of pounds [you try finding laths...] and end up with a room that looks as though it was plasterboarded.
I was plastering yesterday, had the kids for a few hours then had to go out late at night to collect some Evo magazines that some guy was chucking out. Anyway, got back at about 9pm tired so thought I'd watch a bit of telly for a change. Some programme about wind on BBC1. I managed to watch a full minute of this before I gave up on it. Here is the opening dialogue:
"Wind. Sure is windy. Nobody understands wind. Except scientists. I'm on a boat. It is really fast. It is fast because of the the wind. Wind. Look up there. The sails. The wind is filling the sales. We are going really fast."
I tuned back in about 15 minutes later to find:
"Wind happens at sea. Sailors realised that they could use the wind. To make their boats work."
Now is that moronic or what? I have two children under six; I watch a lot of childrens' television. If I say that the Wind programme was more moronic and condescending than The Night Garden, Teletubbies or anything else for that matter, then you may appreciate how bad it was. Who watches this crap? I can probably summarise the whole programme thus: Wind is windy. Informative wasn't it?
31/01/10: Soon be Christmas! Out today with KD. Average ride; he was possessed by The Devil so blasted everywhere. He whipped past this dog, who promptly got confused so bit me a couple of times. I was so intent on catching KD [I swear he'd be off in the distance even if I was being airlifted out by heli] that I just kicked this animal away. KD's rear brake pads wore away completely, much to his disgust. Teach him to drag them on the downward bits, the big wuss. And again he stalled right in front of me on the hard drag uphill near the place where "honestly we don't test on animals!" Me with my comedy rear slick tyre had to stop also. I swear, if I'd had a gun and a spade, I'd have put him out of his misery right there. Towards the end of the ride he fell off going uphill in slow motion. Bizarre one - I was able to change my stance, a few gears, 'phone the wife to ask various random questions and change direction a couple of times whilst he toppled over e-v-e-r s-o s-l-o-w-l-y. After that I went all Freeride and straight-lined everything. Which was fun until the hawthorn all ganged up on me; tore one leg up and my gore-tex jacket. Bugger - that jacket cost me £20 five years ago from TK-Maxx, so is virtually brand new.
Note that the fire in KD's belly did not let up all ride. That man was possessed of an alien life force today. No idea how he kept the momentum up... or how I kept him honest all ride. I'll pay the price for it tomorrow. His errors, as they were, were made during lulls in concentration. Naturally I rode the perfect text book ride and will go to heaven for it.
Trails fast to slippery once the temperature went above freezing [although it did snow on us at one point]. Where did we go? Places. What bike did I have? The silver one. Also my trail finding skills were called into question, fair enough as it turns out. We've been slogging up a particular path at the end of most rides. Real hard going as it weaves uphill for near 2 miles. Er, weaves? Uphill? Both of us came to the same conclusion instantly - put the bleedin' thing at the start of a ride and have some lovely downhill singletrack for about a mile and a half. A real D'Oh! moment. Soon after that we were going slowly down to Reigate cafe when I passed a few walkers. We were doing perhaps one-third of our normal speed, but I guess still three times how fast the peds were going. One shouted to KD to slow down. Now KD is 6 foot and an ex-rugby player. His beard was most likely covered in spittle. All I heard was a curt "we are" followed by the sound of silence.
Moto: Do not shout at big men who have given you due consideration.
Other moto: Walkers - shut the fuck up!
Oh and prior to the ride I figured my shorts were too short. So I cut up a pair of decorating trousers - about a foot off each leg. Looked way cool in a "Dad dancing" kind of way. Do I care? Have you seen my hair?
Torn jacket, dog bite, a falling off, plus some brake pads went awol. We went fast everywhere, yet had some big sideways moments when traction went to a different parallel Universe. KD shouting at peds. What am I saying! Average ride! No; it was an excellent ride. One not to be missed. Really, really enjoyed it. Decamped to a restaurant [OK, Frankie & Beny's so technically a burger bar] for raw meat and beer. Due to some Health and Safety nonsense they had to kill the animals first, so not ideal but close enough to be acceptable. I emptied quite a few of their helium balloons into my gob to amuse the kids. Well, me. Wife annoyed. Bonus ball there.
30/01/10: Ha ha! My moto of keeping the bike shop sweet with free gifts [t-shirts] paid off. C & N Redhill are good guys, so I take my bikes there. This week my Pace needed the rear mech adjusting, plus a foot lopped off each brake cable. I was going to do it myself, but a bleed kit from Shimano was £54. I've done brakes before on my motorbikes, so quite happy doing it. However, this week I just couldn't be bothered so took it in. Blimey! When I picked it up they charged me £30, which I found acceptable. However.... Free t-shirts paid off. Lee had not only done as I asked, but he'd put a split-link on the Shumaya chain, oiled it, and then put a new cable on the shifter. He'd also adjusted the rear caliper so that it was 100% as against my 98% level of acceptability. Bloody brilliant work. In essence what he'd carried out was a pre-delivery inspection on my bike. I build it, he checks it. And for the first time ever, he said my bike was good. Normally my bikes are crap. Praise indeed.
I must also say that second-time around my experience of tubeless tyres is a positive one. They grip, I've had no punctures and the things have maintained their pressure between rides.
25/01/10: Hmmm, just looked in Dirt magazine and it appears that Hayes have brought out a new twin piston brake for around £140. Looks like an interesting item - and here I am not totally impressed with the stopping power of my Shimano SLX brakes. So, do I chop the front brake out now and be done with it, or do I fit braided hoses to the existing brakes and try that?? Chop, chop, chop!
Riding the stretched out Tassajara is interesting after the Pace. The Pace is like some kind of puppy dog; it just wants to play. The Tassajara needs to mull things over before commiting itself to a line. Out on the trail the Pace shouts "You big girl's blouse!" at every fluffed line, where the Tassajara visibly winces just about everywhere. It'll be interesting to get the Klein up and running again.....
No Singletrack in WHSmiths earlier. Funny magazine that. I buy it regularly, but on first reading it I get really bored and just flick through it. However, when I go back to it, it gradually gets more interesting. Leave it a year, and it is really interesting. I never throw copies away. How does that work? Compare it to MBUK, that is read once then disguarded.
24/01/10: Nothing dramatic to say here. Nice dry day - not interesting. Out for a 20 mile ride along some bridelways - not interesting either. Pleasant ride - but not an interesting enough route to detail here! Lots of slippery mud about though. One section we rode into with trepidation had both wheels lock up of their own accord, with a 10m slide following. Both of us used our legs as outriggers as brakes and traction were otherwise useless. Ups were hard going with virtually zero traction, whilst many of the downs required new undercrackers at the end. Didn't see many mountain bikers out and about, but got the impression that there were - lots of tracks, and the car park had quite a few carriers around [after the MG lot had left]. Loads of horses - must have encountered 20 or so in just over 2 hours. And lots and lots of walkers on Colley Hill. Even though we slowed down, called out greetings and moved to the side virtually all of the walkers looked as though they'd just troden in poo. They had that look that French people have.
Cake at Ali's must have been made of condensed sugar. Felt very leaden when I set off afterwards. Note to Benny: have an energy bar instead.
Paths all churned up by horse riders. They moan about us bikers, but we make nice paths that people can walk down and that drain well. Some sections were plainly ridiculous - over 30cm deep of a glue like coagulated mess, full of evidence of horses having passed - perhaps even jumped up and down on the spot for good measure. We were covered in cack by the end, with crunching gears and noisy brakes. I'm a mountain biker; I do this for the technical challenge but much of today was bordering on the unpassable. What it must be like for a walker to encounter these paths? Actually scratch that - I don't care about muddy feet and I do use the comedy Maxxis Aspen tyres on the rear of my bikes. A certain lack of muddy traction is a given, but usually I can ride around that using my huge and immense technical skills [OK I select a different gear and thrash around wildly]. In a sense much of today was completed in cyclocross mode - get off and push.
And as usual the most difficult sections had clearly been done prior by somebody on a shopping bike with slicks. I have seen these people ride, and can vouch for them being essentially old and ignorant of the conditions. You know the score. You drive for 200 miles with the stereo on, wipers going full tilt and you go at 70mph everywhere. Get almost to your destination, somebody on the radio mentions it looks slippery outside due to ice and snow, you go "Oh!" and promptly have a big off.
Only negative to an otherwise fine, but average, ride were my Fox forks. 99% of the time they are fine, but after long muddy rides the brakes must bind slightly and you get this awful twanging sensation as the tips of the forks bounce back and forth. You can see them vibrating a few centimetres. Very off-putting. I've also yet to use the lock-out lever. People say "use it on the road!" - I say: have you seen the roads around here lately? One near me you can, and I jest not, fit a car wheel into quite easily. I've travelled quite a lot around Europe over the years, and only in the UK do you get these monsters in main residential areas at such a regular basis. The UK really is a bit cack at fixing things up.
Note I'm not knocking the UK wholesale. I like it here. Just to set the record fair; in France you get heaps of dog shit and horrid looking old women, but brilliant cafes; Belgium is always shut and hasn't forgotten the war; Portugal is plain boring; Greece is just egg and chips when they find out you are English. The Netherlands is full of graffity but otherwise fun; Germany dour but oddly appealing; Spain is just Spain..... Bulgaria is full of the Mafia trying to sell you hot BMW saloons. Austria is nice to look at, but full of youths with mullets. Italy is brilliant in most ways, but some of the men can be a right royal pain: "You're wife. She want to ficky ficky with me?"
Sorry, off tangent.
Oh yes, we saw some guy on a unicycle. Now I have a unicycle [who doesn't?], and can ride it so appreciate in a way what he was doing. Took some skill. However, his face said "look at me, I'm so clever! And when are you going to ask where my other wheel is?" which kind of put me off his whole enterprise. Each to their own and all that, but why make life even more hard than it is? And how far can you actually ride on one of those things? Fixed gear means downhills must be fun, and I bet most of the ups are carry affairs. Clever, but pointless. Er, well true so is mountain biking in a way... but... but... well we didn't like it!! So there. Naturally we were uber cool with him, and just nodded.
18/01/10: Popped into Halfords today to get some new chain lube - I use the synthetic Halfords own brand stuff in the winter as it seems pretty good; long lasting and relatively clean. Anyway, sale alert! Seems they may be clearing some shelves in the stock-room as I was able to blag a decent fork mounted Crud guard for a £1 and a carbon / titanium alloy saddle [200g folks - as if you give a toss] for £15, down from £50. So about £60 worth of gear for £16 - better than eBay. Not worth travelling for you understand, but if you are in a Halfords in the next couple of days, have a nose around the floor level shelves. The stuff I bought wasn't cutting edge, but for tool box spares pretty ace. Other than these items, and branded Mudhut stuff [who buys that?] they didn't seem overly cheap but did stock a decent range of tools, lubes and tyre sealants / puncture repair kits. Their tyre range seemed a tad excentric though - think downhill use [Maxxis ST 2.35] or canal tow path style tyres made of what looked like 90a rubber! Nothing for a normal person. Clothing section would have been crap in 1970, let alone now. Didn't look at the bikes. Seemed an OK place to stock up on essentials, but not one for bike bling, or indeed a bike unless you like Boardman stuff or need expensive finance. Oh and their inner tubes are strangely expensive - Wilkinsons seem cheapest for those things now, although I've not tested their quality. I did take a peek at their wheels - touch rough and heavy, but cheap enough to use in an emergency if they are the only bike shop around. Actually scratch that as I'm sounding like a snob - if Hope weren't such good value these days [mine were £250 with Stan's ZTR355 fitted], or Fulcrum / Superstar didn't exist they'd seem like good wheels. Certainly a few years ago I'd have been happy with them. But given that on most sub £1,000 bikes Fulcrum or Superstar would change the ride for the better, then I'm not sure where Halfords are going with their wheels. Or indeed where I'm going with this commentary, as I'm dribbling along.
Bike bling? I use Noah's Ark these days - stopped using Wiggle as they are ramping up the prices slightly. Not used Woolly Hat for years. Tyres I've been getting from Nextdaytyres.com - not the cheapest, but they have the best range [by this I mean realistic range - lots of people claim to have stuff, but appear constantly out of stock] and even over Christmas they matched their promise. So if it is a Wednesday, and you need tyres for the weekend.... Noah's Ark I used for my Hope hoops, and they were excellent. To be honest they could have 'phoned me less often, but at least they kept me fully informed as to my order. Really impressed with their service. Mind it may have been because this was a highish end product; they've never called me about inner tubes or saddles!
17/01/10: Well what fun myself and KD had today. Expected the trails to be bad, but they were just bloomin' good fun. Still a fair bit of ice around, but the story of the day being the mud. Boy, is it muddy out there. I've been riding these trails for around 17 years now, and today was as muddy as I have ever seen. At one stage KD stopped dead, then moved off. I thought "poor show that man!" and followed his line, expecting my far greater cycling proficiency to get me through. Nah - I stopped dead as well. Front wheel just went into a gloopy muddy dip that had the constituency of wet porridge. Going downhill in many parts was as hard as going uphill, and the ups were horrid. I fell off going upwards [er, I know bad English as gravity still pulls downwards here in Surrey, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!]. Tried the trick of putting my front wheel high on a clear bank, expecting the rear to follow. However my Comedy semi-slick Aspen decided otherwise and dragged me down and off. Smashed my shoulder into a bank. Reader tip: Maxxis Aspen tyres are a fine product, but they will spit you off if you start to take them for granted. I'm fitting Aspens to the rear of all my bikes for several reasons, but the only one that should concern you, dear reader, is that I'm a twat.
I took the Tassajara out, mainly to bed in some new pads that I put in, ahem, two months ago. Too many bikes me thinks. Blimey is that bike different. OK, I designed it to be a fast cross-country bike, lightweight with a stretched out, low position... but after riding the armchair of a Pace, and the stink-bug Klein, it was sooooo different as to be a slight shock. Soon got into it though. Must have as, wait for it, even in the ice and mud we hit over 20mph 5 or 6 times during the ride, and we don't do road work at all. We only managed 16 miles [mainly due to my being tired after a week of 05:30am starts and 6 hour a night sleep pattern!], at an average of 8 mph. But boy were those miles hard ones. I'm impressed by the top speed - why? Because on one section I'd had a big front end slide, which I corrected only to have the rear fishtail on the ice. In the meantime KD flew ahead at speed. I chased him down in top gear. This off Reigate Hill; tree roots, mud, ice, walkers. 29mph on ice, tree roots and mud on a cross-country bike. Note that I caught him only when he stopped - so KD was also, by definition, doing 29mph. On a Wiggle bought £500 Kona. Can you get better than that?
The Tassajara performed very well. OK the USE Sumo seatpost did it's usual trick of not holding onto the saddle, but the bike - and new pads - performed very well indeed. My Klein has some Magura shocks on the front, and they need bushing work already. The Fox's on the Tassajara are butter smooth, even though they have been used more and in harsher conditions.
Didn't see too many mountain bikers out and about. Mainly road riders at the cafe stop, so we ignored them. They've signed a pact with the Devil so would be a bad influence with their "let's just ride to the coast and back" mentality. Did see one guy stood by the side of the track half way up a hill. He had that kind of look that said: "Hill? On a mountain bike? Nobody told me about this!" He also had a look where it was clear he expected us to stop and stand just as he. Perhaps pass comment on why the council didn't do something about it. Er, no. Now normally on this particular stretch of nasty hill [near the top secret drugs lab where apparently they do not test on Beagles, honest they don't, cough, cough] if you stop, you have to walk as it is deep mud over flinty rocks, all churned up by tractors. Stopping there means starting again, which generally is a no no as the slope is so slippery. This time, because of this guy, whilst KD did stall at one point [causing me untold distress it must be said, tut tut] we climbed back onto our bikes and muscled them back up the hill no matter what. Kind of killed us, but one cannot lose face can one? We didn't see this guy for ages afterwards, until he rode past... on the road. Memo to self: look on eBay for cheap, relatively unused high-spec mtb!! I'm probably being too hard on the guy - we've all had "Give up now!" rides, and I've no idea how far he'd ridden. He did, however, look fairly fresh and not a little bemused. Poor sod - hope he'd not been down to some Bijou Sarf Lahndarn MTB shop and done a credit card deal, only to find he doesn't like the sport after all.
Interestingly [or not depending upon your current disposition] my wife made me wear her Garmin running device. My resting heart rate is something like 45bpm, and my maximum on some sodding great hill 189bpm. Average 158bpm. No idea what all this means!! Note to others: make up an excuse for the 30 mins of essentially mid-ride blank data. Can't let She Who Says No realise that there is a cake stop.
Overall a good ride bordering on excellent. Lots of front tyre slip, and even more at the rear. OK I diss my Aspens slightly, but KD had almost as many grip issues as I did. Actually correct that. He had more as his rear tyre broke away whenever he decided to pedal hard, so he struggled to keep up on a lot of the climbs. Normally he gets ahead of me, but this time I was the Climb Monkey. I'd rate this ride as excellent but for one thing, and one thing alone. It was hard work! Whilst we did hit some high speeds, these were tempered by the sudden stops, massive slides, and sheer technical nature of riding on sheet ice and deep mud. Oh and browny points to those two bikers who managed to ride the long sheet ice section on Colley Hill where others failed. Ooops! Silly me; those riders were myself and KD.
One odd thing. I oiled my chain last night, and this morning I went to clean off the excess with a rag. Reached up to the right hand grip, and gave it a twist. Took me a moment to realise it wasn't a motorbike, and even then I was a little dumbfounded as to what was wrong as it didn't rev up. Oddly I've not had a motorbike for three years, and even then you'd be mad to clean a chain with a rag whilst the engine was running, let alone revving it up. Reminds me of an event last year, when to change gear I reached to the down tube. Not had a bike with a down-tube mounted shifter for at least 20 years. Funny how the brain works - or doesn't in my case. And both events occured with the Tassajara. Guess it must trigger some latent memories off with me? Whatever.
And on the Tassajara. What an excellent bike this is. Reminds me very much of my Clockwork. A bike that isn't perfect at any one element of a ride, but is 90% there most of the time and can be adapted to most situations. I've yet to see another one, even though they are sold by my LBS, and even though they consistently get good reviews in the magazines.
14/01/10: Are we ever going to see the binmen again? Has Reigate & Banstead moved by stealth to a monthly collection date? Not seen our binmen since before Christmas. Let's hope they reduce our council tax! After all, their service level has dropped considerably.... We did see some council workers going past our house at 9am the other day. They were in a jolly mood after being sent home due to "Elf n safety," whatever that is. We did ask why they hadn't just been issued with shovels? I kid you not, their answer was that as they hadn't been trained to shovel, then they couldn't do the task. Really, councils are fundamentally crap aren't they?
The side of my house looks like a rubbish tip. At least with the snow on top it looked pretty, but now it has all melted it looks rank. And my lovely compost bin, where, remember, I have to put fresh food, not cooked or meat products, is home to the most healthy rats I have ever seen. Glorious they are.
I have heard, and I do stress that in no way would I engage in such a practice or condone it, that some people have taken to putting their rubbish in carrier bags and popping into town with it. Said rubbish is then placed in a suitable recepticle, which by some miracle is emptied. Legally this is Fly Tipping, so punishable by death. Luckily all the council workers are either being made redundant or are at home playing with themselves, or dreaming up more hair-brained schemes, so there is nobody left to prosecute you. That said, nobody reading this site would be daft enough to leave their address on any item in the bags now would they?
Bike stuff: Eeek! Have you seen outside? 4" of slush over mud everywhere. Forecast is for rain, followed by rain. Going to be interesting out there come Sunday. Especially as I'm all clever and have fitted slick rear tyres to all of my bikes. Dolt head that I am.
14/01/10: I'm beginning to think that the schools weald too much power over parents these days. In the past three weeks our local school has been shut 4 times. Essentially they've extended Christmas by one week as there was an incept day in there as well. I gather that the schools were shut ostensibly because of snow. You know - that stuff that allowed us all out mountain biking, sledging, getting to work, eating out or having home deliveries.... Yet prevented the schools from opening. Turns out the real reason is the dreaded OFSTED report, where a school may be marked down for absenteeism. So I lost out on a week's work because our school was frightened of getting a bad mark? I'm not having a go at those schools that suffered genuine problems - more those sad affairs frightened of getting a bad mark. Yet as parents we are expected to attend every parent-teacher event, donate genorously to buy educational equipment, doff our caps to the Head Teacher, go to church every single week, and Dear Parent, dare you ever ask for a day off for your child! Birch is too good for you, may you rot in hell you bad, bad parent.
And don't get me started on incept days.
And have you noticed a worrying trend amongst some parents to treat their children like dogs? What is it with those lead things they use? What's wrong with either holding hands, or just letting the child run around? Fall over even. Dangerous road, hold their hand and talk to them. Let them run and fall over. Don't put them on a lead. Odd, but many of these parents are concerned that their children do not interact well. Blimey! Treat them like children, not pets, and you may get further. I'm not a brilliant dad, as I make mistakes like everybody else, so I may be wrong here on the dog-lead issue, but I just think the things are plain wrong.
Sorry no bike talk. Nothing to say really. I'm not obsessed with bike you know! Just because my daughter is called Shimanoa, and my son Pace Carbon, doesn't mean I'm obsessed does it?
11/01/10: On Richard Hammond [aka Mr Personality]. Why is this guy still on tv? He does a thing called Blast Lab. It is awful - even my 4 year old diss's it and refuses to watch the programme. Clearly Hammond cannot interact on any level with the children in the audience; all he does is look at the camera. Pressumably it has a mirror on it? I'm guessing the BBC overpaid him and are now desperately looking for some programme in which to use his skills, and get their money back. May I suggest local radio? In Belgium? Having been to Belgium a few times over the years, I know he'll be suited to their endless cover versions of 1960's soft rock.
Please BBC executives, remove Hammond from tv, no matter how much you overpaid him at the start. Clarkson and May are brilliant - leave them well alone!
11/01/10: OK you lot - let's set the record straight here. I get asked a lot [OK, twice] why I have so many mountain bikes. Five at the last count. And how do I afford it! This last one is easy; I can't. Go look at my car - it is a piece of crap 21 year old Volvo 360. Even my kids call it crap, and the eldest is only 6. Secondly, how come I've got 5 bikes? Greedy git. Well two of them are over 14 years old - my Orange Clockwork is in its' 16th year now, and has done over 40,000 miles. It is worth nothing, even on a good day. My so-called downhill bike is literally made up from junk; bits of old bike melded together. It barely works. KD rode it 5 metres, and gave it back saying it was horrid - and that was on smooth tarmac. And he's mad. The Tassajara I built to replace the Klein and Orange as my main ride. It too was built from eBay used stock, and I put the thing together myself. It cost perhaps £600 less than an equivalent shop bought item.
The Klein? Don't go there. It is my baby and I'll not hear a bad word said about it. Well, that's not true. It is a stinkbugging, barely adequate full-suspension bike past it's prime. I'm allowed to say that, but not you! You'll make me cry if you do.
The Pace RC303? Well, yes there you dear reader win. That was pure unadulterated greed. I'll give you that. It cost a silly amount of money, and is worth far less as a complete bike than as spare parts. However, it is utterly brilliant - honest, please go out and try one of these new bijou framed 140mm hardtails. They'll blow you away.
So, next time you ask - bear in mind my stinky car that scrapes through an MOT each year. Donations to the cause are more than welcome.
10/01/10: Looks like the weather forecast was wrong yet again - 8" of snow predicted, none received - well none that stuck. Actually quite warm today at +2 degrees celcius, so the existing snow was quite slushy. Made for hard going once on the climb up the hill, but where other cyclists have been it was pretty fast. Pity I'm tired from days of sledging! It did try to snow whilst I was out, but the warmth of the day meant it didn't really stick. Only slippery patches were where the car drivers had been - and by the looks of it one had managed to drive along some of the bridleways by the golf course. Saw a few big groups out and about - possibly the Muddy Moles and a group from what sounded to be Sutton. This latter group were on a right mix of bikes; some £500 Wiggle specials and, I kid you not, a Pro-Flex. Not seen one of those since I think Box Hill on Boxing day 1996. Big Group mentality took over though, and they refused to acknowledge my existence - why do some groups do that? I was quite polite to them. The other group that I took to be the Moles were on some expensive pieces of kit, so whoever they are, they are not affraid to use their bikes whatever the weather. They seemed a more friendly bunch, so a good advert for mountain biking unlike the other lot. Most people commented on my shorts, suggesting that I'd be cold. Nah, warm as toast I was. To be honest I'm surprised that some people are able to ride at all as they are so bundled up in stuff. I'd rather be a little cold at the extremes than over warm. Indeed the self-portrait I took clearly shows me sweating:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27696606@N03/
When I woke up and saw the slushy snow initially I couldn't be bothered to go out. The thought of plowing through over 4" of slush with mud underneath made me shudder, especially with a semi-slick rear tyre. However, after I'd done a bit of hoovering, turned the computer on, I realised that the alternatives to going out were amazingly boring. Suspect I was a bit stir crazy and desperate for a ride. Took the Pace out, although any bike would have done to be honest. Interestingly I noted that the less studs the tyre had, then the better it performed. I had a mud tyre on the front, and unless I sped up it was pants. Even then it would slip and veer off ninety degrees to travel. The rear Aspen gripped, gripped and gripped a bit more. Pretty amazing tyre that one, although I still can't get my head around it. Can't say I'm going to go out and buy snow specific tyres, or set a bike up for the snow alone though - that would be silly. And to be fair it only spun off when the snow got beyond 4" to 8" deep - over the golf course there was a foot in places, and that was a nightmare to pedal through. Oddly fun.
Guess I was out for just over two hours and around 14 miles, perhaps a little less, perhaps a little more. I did stop for a quick coffee, not for any reason other than to admire the view over Reigate. Spilt most of it when I slipped down a slope. That cafe takes the piss a little bit though; £1.40 for a small coffee in a styrofoam cup? That's about 20p cheaper than Starbuck's charges for a vat of the stuff, and you can sit in the warmth all day for that. The outdoor cafe provides two plastic chairs. I was going to have a bacon sarnie, but the bank was closed so I couldn't arrange an overdraft.
Looks as though the week is going to warm up, so all that lovely snow may well melt. Boy are the trails going to be fun after that! Eek, think mud over mud.
Really enjoyed my little ride. This reads a little miserable as I'm just plain knackered. Honest, I'm happy - made a toboggan out of some bits of wood and have been out with the kids for days. Also got the Radio Flyer wagon out, and pulled that around for half a day with two children in it. We've also dug cars out, walked miles, and helped shovel snow at the local school. I really enjoy the snow, whatever I am on. But I'm almost 45 now, so please allow me to get tired!!
The Pace as usual performed faultlessly. OK the rear tyre was flat when I pulled it out, ho hum No-Tubes, and I've not actually set the gears up properly yet, so there is a bit of slip, but as a self-build it is pretty good. I'm impressed with the thing. The only issue I have is with the front 180mm brake. I've a 203mm on the Klein, and I've gotten used to the excessive power of that. As usual I've put a comedy Charge Knife on to it.
Oh, yesterday I bought Bruno and tried to watch it last night. Didn't manage to get through it at all. The film tries to be shocking, but Sacha has done it all before. So ultimately it is neither shocking nor funny. Just boring really. Bit like Top Gear; seen it all before. Move on please. I like the guy, but he's backed himself into a corner. He's probably not bothered as he's a zillion £££'s in the bank - possibly enough even to buy a bacon sarnie at the Reigate cafe!
3/01/10: Out as a threesome
for
the first ride of the year. Conditions verging on cold, icy and wet. I
took the newly built Pace RC303 out. What a flyer! Honestly, that is
all the bike I should ever need. Maxxis Aspen on the rear, coupled to
an Ardent on the front gave me just the right amount of rear end slip
to make
things interesting, but at the same time good to excellent traction on
the climbs.
The Pike's I just left on the 130mm setting. The stem I may change to a
70mm version, but the 90mm worked fine. My Ritchey carbon bars proved
to be able riding partners, but with a little buzz in my right hand.
SLX brakes actually worked very well, but the comedy 1m of hose front
and rear [thanks to so called "ready to fit" joke stock] needs cutting
back. Most likely rather than faffing myself, my LBS can do it whilst
putting braids on. And the Hope hoops with the ZTR rims? Fit and
forget. To be honest prior to riding it I was a little concerned with
the 27lb weight; this seemed a little heavy for a hardtail. Actually
I'll rephrase that; I was a little concerned with the weight of the
Pike's up front. However in use you'd be hard pressed to realise that
the bike is a bit lardy. It accelerates well, goes upwards with aplomb
and doesn't disgrace itself going downwards either. And that 20mm axle
doesn't half do wonders for the steering. Possibly not one for the
longer rides, as you'd want to attack too much, but for 2 to 3 hours
excellent.
They say that you are never meant to meet your idols. I've been looking at Pace frames since the RC200 came out. Some 14 years later I have one - OK a sale item that hasn't been in production for a few years. But I'm really happy with the thing. One of those bikes where I can push beyond what I normally get up to. And honestly you don't see the fat downtube when riding the thing.
Hmm, I do realise that I'm harping on about technology that is perhaps 4 to 5 years old so old news to a lot of you. But really, I think I'm where it is at for a lot of aspirational riders. My bike is a mix of old and new, an eBay and toolbox special if you like. A new Whyte at £1,500 would kill it dead no questions asked. But how many people have got that kind of money to throw at a bike?
KD struggled with post Belgium belly, and I kept up with Attack Dog happily, even on the few climbs we did, which normally he'd kill me on. Nothing to do with my fitness, everything to do with the bike. KD gave the ride statistics as 18 miles at an average of 8mph - so a shortie at an average pace, but one that was fun. We all have our off days, so I'm not knocking KD. He gave it his best - and to be honest probably got more out of his Kona on the downward blast to Epsom than any rider has the right to. He was right up my chuff, and I've been down there a good few times. Think ragged edge! I suspect he adopted the "Death Grip" stance and just got on with it. Attack Dog got competitive at the end, and expected to lose me on the final climb. Kind of guessed what he was going to do, so went for it and kept up. Ha ha! Did kill me to do it though.
Where did we go? Are you really that interested in what three middle aged men get up to! We went up to Reigate Hill, cut around the golf course via the singletrack that everybody does, back down to the A217, over to Epsom Downs via some nice downhill, then back past the Bell pub. 18 miles, 2 hours'ish, and 1,500 foot climbed.
Lot of people out and about. Saw one chap on what looked like a full-on downhill rig with dual crown forks. Boy he must have some legs on him. Some right Royal miserable gits on mountain bikes out as well. What is it with these people? Don't like it, don't do it. Funny, but a few of them didn't slow down for anything and blasted on through both walkers and us. They'll give mountain biking a good name won't they? Redhill & Reigate were out on their Sunday Sociable - on bikes with an average price of £3k by the looks of things. Some stunningly good bikes there. Seem a nice bunch of people. No horse riders at all. Good!
On building bikes.
I've built up three bikes over the past year: a retro downhill, lightweight cross country and a 140mm hardtail. All were a mix of old parts bin discount stock, eBay used, shop new and stuff I had lying around. All my bikes worked, but naturally I made a few mistakes. So, if you want to build a bike from scratch - and I suggest you do as you learn a lot - then here you go:
Building a bike can be expensive, so try and be aware as to how the costs are mounting up. Often it is better to buy a new bike - sad to say. My Pace RC303 cost around £1,300 to build. I could have bought a Whyte for £1,500 that would be a far better bike in many ways. However, for me the satisfaction is that I built a stunning bike to my specification. Counts for more than money in a lot of instances. Bit like reading about people doing stuff, or doing it yourself. Which is better?
They say that you are never meant to meet your idols. I've been looking at Pace frames since the RC200 came out. Some 14 years later I have one - OK a sale item that hasn't been in production for a few years. But I'm really happy with the thing. One of those bikes where I can push beyond what I normally get up to. And honestly you don't see the fat downtube when riding the thing.
Hmm, I do realise that I'm harping on about technology that is perhaps 4 to 5 years old so old news to a lot of you. But really, I think I'm where it is at for a lot of aspirational riders. My bike is a mix of old and new, an eBay and toolbox special if you like. A new Whyte at £1,500 would kill it dead no questions asked. But how many people have got that kind of money to throw at a bike?
KD struggled with post Belgium belly, and I kept up with Attack Dog happily, even on the few climbs we did, which normally he'd kill me on. Nothing to do with my fitness, everything to do with the bike. KD gave the ride statistics as 18 miles at an average of 8mph - so a shortie at an average pace, but one that was fun. We all have our off days, so I'm not knocking KD. He gave it his best - and to be honest probably got more out of his Kona on the downward blast to Epsom than any rider has the right to. He was right up my chuff, and I've been down there a good few times. Think ragged edge! I suspect he adopted the "Death Grip" stance and just got on with it. Attack Dog got competitive at the end, and expected to lose me on the final climb. Kind of guessed what he was going to do, so went for it and kept up. Ha ha! Did kill me to do it though.
Where did we go? Are you really that interested in what three middle aged men get up to! We went up to Reigate Hill, cut around the golf course via the singletrack that everybody does, back down to the A217, over to Epsom Downs via some nice downhill, then back past the Bell pub. 18 miles, 2 hours'ish, and 1,500 foot climbed.
Lot of people out and about. Saw one chap on what looked like a full-on downhill rig with dual crown forks. Boy he must have some legs on him. Some right Royal miserable gits on mountain bikes out as well. What is it with these people? Don't like it, don't do it. Funny, but a few of them didn't slow down for anything and blasted on through both walkers and us. They'll give mountain biking a good name won't they? Redhill & Reigate were out on their Sunday Sociable - on bikes with an average price of £3k by the looks of things. Some stunningly good bikes there. Seem a nice bunch of people. No horse riders at all. Good!
On building bikes.
I've built up three bikes over the past year: a retro downhill, lightweight cross country and a 140mm hardtail. All were a mix of old parts bin discount stock, eBay used, shop new and stuff I had lying around. All my bikes worked, but naturally I made a few mistakes. So, if you want to build a bike from scratch - and I suggest you do as you learn a lot - then here you go:
- Have a good idea what you are building, and try and stick to a plan. No point having downhill rims on a cross-country bike for instance.
- Used frames may be a nightmare - be very careful what you buy.
- Try and get freepost where possible. Postage costs can ramp up alarmingly. Why give the post office money you could use?
- Don't forget that your local bike shop may offer free fitting on shop bought goods. This is useful if you don't want to buy special fitting tools, like a head press for instance [sounds painfull!]
- Keep an eye on the weight - try and buy as light as reasonably possible given your budget. Carbon handlebars, for instance, save around 100g but that 100g saved may cost £50. Mass soon adds up and you don't want to build a munter, but at the same time you don't want to spend a mint. Even Steve Peat tries to save weight where possible.
- Ignore people who say a heavy bike means that you work
harder, so get fitter as a result. The theory is true.... but I've yet
to see one of these nay sayers tie a lorry tyre to the rear of their
bike to bulk up on leg muscle. Pointless bike mass is best avoided if
you can. Light bikes are fun.
- Keep to a certain level of component - e.g Shimano SLX throughout. This makes the bike look factory at the end. Counts for a lot.
- Forks need to be new or recently serviced. Here, oddly enough, you can usually buy new run-out stock at similar prices to used items from dubious sources. "Came off my girlfriend's lightly used canal tow path bike" are pretty common phrases.
- Old cassettes are best avoided.
- Don't get bogged down with tyre choice. There are thousands of different tyre combinations, and it will do your head in. Start with Maxxis and go on from there.
- Don't just stick to the internet. Get some cracking deals in the magazines.
- Be careful as to the Evan's annual sale - some of their stuff is shockingly old and cruddy.
- Try and make yourself aware as to the value of items, and be prepared to buy instantly when you spot a bargain.
- If possible buy a complete bike with the frame of your choice. Ideally buy a bike from some local rich git who got bored after one ride. This is more common than you think.
- It all takes far longer than expected, and costs more than you ever think it would.
- Always use new cables.
- Don't buy new bits to fit old stuff you have lying around. Old stuff gets to lie around unused for good reasons.
- Sell stuff on eBay to pay for it all - don't use real money! This also slows you down, meaning that you'll make fewer silly mistakes along the way.
- Don't buy used handlebars, seatposts or stems. May be cheap, but they are not worth the risk.
- 160mm is fine for a rear disc.
- 180mm is fine for a front - wait until you've bedded the pads in before you write a 180mm off as being weak.
- Learn how to become a home mechanic.
- Get friendly with your local bike shop. I gave mine
some new t-shirts! Bike shop owners are usually old grumps though, so
being friendly can be tough.
Building a bike can be expensive, so try and be aware as to how the costs are mounting up. Often it is better to buy a new bike - sad to say. My Pace RC303 cost around £1,300 to build. I could have bought a Whyte for £1,500 that would be a far better bike in many ways. However, for me the satisfaction is that I built a stunning bike to my specification. Counts for more than money in a lot of instances. Bit like reading about people doing stuff, or doing it yourself. Which is better?