the end of the year post

it’s that time of the year again.. a year ago I had been exploring the Valle de Los Exploradores on my bike before returning to Rio Tranquilo to camp on the shores of Lago General Carrera with some Swiss cycling friends. The weather was unexpectedly warm and sunny, and as I gaze out of my window today at the grey rainy crap that has characterised the end of 2011 here I feel I would not mind being somewhere else, on my bike. However.. it’s not all bad, in fact it’s all good. 2011 was a brilliant year with lots of bike riding in Patagonia, a summer afloat in the Western Isles and now a new business venture to think about, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The business side of things is growing slowly, I’m working on a project that will be a really good one to have in our portfolio – a site for a recruitment agency with all the online jobs management, resources,  applications and so on that entails together with an online timecard submittal application. It’s not particularly complex but there’s lots to think about so my braincell, when not occupied with basic motor functions like breathing, is getting plenty of exercise. As such I’m starting 2012 with a very positive outlook, which experience tells me is more than halfway to having a good year regardless of what happens.. I have freedom, I have work to do, I have expeditions to plan.. and I have a bicycle(s) :-)

a fixed gear.. totally the way to go in winter.. IMO. Heavy rain keeps the muck level at an acceptable equilibrium and it just keeps on working

Anyway, enough of that… some cycling words I think might be in order. Despite the first part of the year on two wheels in Patagonia 2011 was my shortest cycling year for a very many years.. just 4000 miles/ 6400km, less than half a ‘normal’ year. I was tired after Patagonia and then that summer paddling meant I didn’t turn a pedal for almost 3 months… and come late September/October I was worn out again. The short year has done me some good I have decided, despite hardly riding at all of late, around only 5hrs/week on my fixed. Having been out for a stiff, hilly spin on my fixed gear with friends, on their geared machines, seems my legs are still a match for Cornwall’s climbs on a brisk group ride…. happy about that. Less happy about the state of my winter hack which I have come to know somewhat affectionately as my ‘rattle and squeak’..  it goes fine, it’s just not quite as sorted as I would like. The BB is seized in the frame, but the frame is of such low value I can’t be bothered to do anything about it, instead when the BB (a Miche track) dies I’ll use it as an excuse to bin the frame and go back to a steel frame for winter.. knowing my luck it’ll probably last 10 years when really I would be happy with it failing tomorrow. The integrated headset cups in the frame also seem to have become less of a tight fit for the cartridge bearings so even when adjusted properly the headset has some play in it. This is a weird one that I have not seen before.. the bearings themselves are fine and when packed well into the frame with grease there is still play. I keep meaning to pack them in with some of that teflon plumbers tape but I haven’t got around to it… mainly because to work on the bike I need to wash it…. Washing winter hacks is not my forte, because it’s a bike I don’t really care about, and because the roads are so perpetually wet and filthy there doesn’t seem much point. Being fixed the drivetrain just works and works and works regardless of how minging it is, provided I maintain correct chain tension and give the chain a wipe and drop of lube every now and then. It’s the one bike that lives in the garage rather than indoors and I swear it throws muck at me every time I stray within 5 feet of it. I felt quite ashamed on Thursday meeting up with a buddy for a ride… in the rare patches of sunshine his winter bike freshly washed and all gleaming paint, chrome and polished alloy served only to make mine look quite rubbish, splattered with mud and shit as it is. I was asked if the rims were really a gold colour or was it just the dried on mud.. they are gold coloured but they would have looked just the same regardless of their colour. I might wash it this weekend, it does brush up quite well.. but then again with more rain and hence mud in the forecast I might not… Maybe if I accumulate enough dirt on it I’ll feel the best way to deal with it is buy a new frame anyway :-)

I have plans for a vegetable garden on top of the front mudguard/fender

.. and a colony of dung beetles around the BB to take all the cow and horse shit away.. though most likely they'd end up burying the entire machine. The last of my OFS stickers too..

Speaking of bikes a buddy in Canada sent me a pic the other day of a newly acquired steed.. I know he won’t mind me using one of his pictures. It’s a nice classic machine equipped with a mix of vintage Campagnolo and Shimano 600 (oh well… perfection is hard to come by) and as you’d expect of a nice steel frame rides beautifully. He bought my Merlin Extralight a few years ago and says it is comparable to that. A very nice find for not very many $$$. A thoughtfully chosen background too. Back in the days before carbon and titanium I used to race on a Basso Loto, built in Columbus SLX and equipped with a very shiny Campag Chorus groupset, among the very first of the 8 speed groups Campag made.. I was a student at the time and couldn’t afford Record. I regret selling that bike, it was a beautiful thing to ride.. as well as look at. I also feel stupid for selling the Merckx Corsa Extra SLX frame I restored and turned into a fixed gear machine with a sublime ride – a buttery feel that can only come from a fine steel frame…  It’s hard to find frames like that now at a sensible price but at the time it felt like the right thing to do as I had 11 bikes in the house and was feeling somewhat ashamed about it… which on reflection was stupid too :-)

nice

Right that’s enough from me… I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope all your dreams and aspirations come true.

Some pics of that Merckx follow below. Just because it was such a pretty bike and I don’t think I have ever posted them on here…

cheero!

non-period hubs but appropriately shiny...

the ultimate bar stool is for sale.. :-)

not so long ago I built this machine, one of my best builds ever I think, and raced it for a couple of seasons…

but then it’s racing career was sadly cut short by an accident which destroyed the frame.. except for the fork and rear triangle.. so, once I had got over the grief.. it took a while I can tell you… I gave it a new lease of life as a bar stool… which is now for sale on a certain well known auction site.. but you can also drop me a line through here if it is something you really have to have.. and I think you do, especially if you have more money than sense… (don’t miss my next post on how to alienate potential buyers)

“…a bar stool with an impeccable cycling pedigree.. <cough>.. this is, or rather was a Condor Stadio carbon track frame. No longer suitable for racing on, having had it’s racing career sadly cut short by an accident, but happily now eminently suitable for drinking on. The frame, or what is left of it is in perfect condition and as a stool is fully height adjustable using the original aero seat pin. The seat is a Specialized Toupé that has a crack in the shell – not much good for riding but still perfectly good for sitting at a bar on, in fact the crack gives it something of a hammock-like quality thus improving in-the saddle comfort. As a seat it is quite stable although probably not quite as stable for the inebriated occupant as a more conventional 4-legged stool but being carbon it is of course “at least 30% lighter and twice as stiff while still remaining comfortable for long sessions”. Some folk will no doubt look at this and think what a load of rubbish.. but then one man’s trash.. another man’s treasure.. or something. Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained so here it is… 

(reason for sale… a large house repair bill, a noble cause indeed…)“

 

 

I need an orange one next….

as my time in the Hebrides this summer drew to a close thoughts inevitably turned to the coming winter at home in Cornwall. Having spent the best part of the last two winters away on my bike in South America I could not help but dwell on what winter cycling in Cornwall means… i.e roads lagged with soppy mud & cowshit and lots.. and lots of rain. I persuaded myself that I needed a new winter bike to help me through the dark months.. the reality of course is that I don’t need one, I have one that still runs just fine other than needing a new chain & sprocket. But I wanted one… a condition that will be familiar to vast majority of cyclists I think. I didn’t want any bicycle however, I wanted an orange one. Orange, to my mind, is a brilliant colour for a bike but it has to be all over orange and not sullied by too many decals or contrasting bits. Indeed I have wanted an orange bike for many years now but could never find an excuse. In my cycling career I have only ever owned one orange bike.. at least I think only one, there have been so many over the years it is quite possible I have forgotten one.. oh wait.. correction, I have only ever owned two orange bikes in my cycling career. The first was a Raleigh Meteor with 5 speed Huret gears and cottered steel cranks, bought in 1984 from a bike shop in St Austell run by a pair of pedantic duffers with grating accents from a place quite well north of here… I hated them but my father thought they were quality folk so I had little say in the matter. The other orange bike was a Trek 8500 MTB bought in Montreal in 1998. It was a fabulous shade of orange which complemented it’s fat aluminium pipes and polished XT groupset wonderfully. I loved that bike, a friend of mine bought it off me a couple of years later and he still has it.. it is sitting unridden &  in almost mint condition in a garage somewhere north of Toronto now and I would love to have it back.. but so far my efforts in that direction have failed :-(

A couple of years ago Salsa had a bright orange scandium cyclocross frame in their catalogue. I nearly bought one .. on many occasions but given I already had a titanium cyclocross frame I could, sadly, never quite get past the potential credit card shock. Such a shame, it was a lovely looking machine.. so long as you only used a campagnolo groupset… not like this:

Salsa Las Cruces.. orange

Nothing to do with winter training I have also been rather taken of late with the Surly Troll.. just the thing for an epic adventure somewhere.. and indeed friend Cass Gilbert has been using his for many months now in Latin America and rates it highly. The only thing is I have a brilliant expedition bike, my trusty Thorn Nomad that has been on so many adventures I could not bring myself to sell it. I could get it stripped and powdercoated orange I suppose.. but it wouldn’t be the same. I’d have to find an alternative niche for the Troll.. it has horizontal dropouts so conceivably I could build it as a fat-tyred rigid fork steel fixed gear. Quite perverted. Quite appealing… and ripe for conversion into a full on expedition bike for a future trip, say a return to the high mountains of the Himalayas… <cough>  while my Nomad enjoys a leisurely retirement in Cornwall. Hardly a winter training bike though…

Surly Troll... orange

here's Cass's Troll on the road in Latin America (see www.whileoutriding.com)

So back to the winter training thing.. I have, on many occasions, also tried to bring myself to fork out for a Genesis Day 01 Alfine.. it ticks a lot of important boxes… i.e it is a very nice shade of orange and it has eyelets for full length fenders.. but with that hub gear it has 7 gears more than I really need and the stock shitbongo shifter is soooo ugly. I suppose I could swap it out for a Jtek bar end one but it doesn’t get past the quite strange idea of having a winter bike with more than one gear… There is a singlespeed version that is an easy fixed conversion.. but it’s yellow. Ugh.

also orange..

So my ideal winter road frame then is orange, it is steel, it has track ends, spaced at 120mm and it has eyelets for full length fenders/mudguards. Such a beast doesn’t appear to exist. There are loads of cheap steel fixed gear road frames around but they all miss a trick by not having eyelets, can’t understand given the utility they offer for winter training. None of them are orange either. So I suppose I have two choices.. buy a cheap steel track frame like a Genesis Flyer or On-One Macinato and send it off to a frame builder to have eyelets added and an orange coat of paint.. or I just stick with what I have for another winter. Or, and I know I can’t count, I build up a Troll and avoid the winter problem altogether by buggering off on another expedition with it…. oh, dammit..

Or I could get something in lime green.

the ultimate fixed gear bar stool..

… finally got around to doing something useful with my broken Condor Stadio carbon track frame. The ultimate fixed gear bar stool… fully height adjustable with an aerodynamic seat pin for windy nights at the bar….

The saddle is also ‘recycled’ – a cracked, repaired and cracked again Specialized Toupe. No longer any use for riding duties but does fine for drinking duties. I’ve also fitted little neoprene rubber feet to protect the floor :-) Given my present non-earning status I may be persuaded to sell it <hint>, hehe.

Update: have since been advised that it should have a weight limit warning. Quite right, here it is.. “not suitable for fat barstewards”…

misty eyed carbon classic…

an unashamedly roadie post today… all because I’ve been reminiscing about a road bike I built back in 2002 that I wish I hadn’t sold (ya, sad I know..).. It was a Look KG381i, the same frame that Laurent Jalabert used to win his second consecutive Mountains jersey in his final Tour de France. It looks pretty low-tech now – skinny carbon tubes bonded into alloy lugs. The tubes were quite heavily shaped to give a nice blend of stiffness and compliance in the right planes  - it seemed to work – but it still retained beautiful classic lines… it looked like a classic steel frame from a distance. It’s the ride of it that I miss… the best thing I can say to describe it is that it had “long legs”.. it was a proper grand tour bike – I rode it coast to coast across the Pyrenees in 2003 and it was truly in it’s element – a silky smooth ride, quick with fine handling, a superb descender and light/stiff enough to play mountain goat in the hills. It also had an unusual feature in the form of sliding rear dropouts.. the idea being that the same frame could accommodate fatter rubber for the cobbled spring classics.. it might also have lent itself well to fixed gear use though there was only 5mm or so of adjustment. Mine was the red and black  ’Jalabert signature edition’ which, built with Record and a smattering of FRM components, weighed about 16lbs.

I should never have sold it… have been keeping a lookout for another red/black one in a  size 55 in nice condition but failing miserably :-( If I do manage to lay my hands on one for sensible price then chances are it would indeed end up as a fixed gear.. ;-)

Ah well, misty eyes aside  summer time here in Cornwall the roads are very busy – well, the main routes anyway. I’m generally a spiritual sort of chap when it comes to badly behaved, cyclist hating drivers..  you know, puts a mellow smile on my face thinking of potential heart attack victim getting his/her blood pressure up over having to share the road with me… Just recently however, and only for the summer, have decided I need to take a somewhat more hardline approach… yet one that is still appropriately spiritual in nature. I have a working prototype which I’ve had the opportunity to test a couple of times over this past week. Just need to apply the graphics now. Engineering drawing follows..

fixed gear coffee & dogshit (?!)

“oh this is a little committing, I hope the ferry is runnng…” I thought as I twiddled my 48×17 gear down the long 20% grade into Helford yesterday on our (as in me and my fixed gear riding buddy) usual Saturday morning fixed gear outing.

banks of the Helford.. picture brought to you with dogshit on shoe...

The plan was to ride around 100km by exploring some of the tiny back-roads around the Helford river, hop across to the northern bank on the small passenger ferry and then ride on to the beach cafe at Maenporth (all part of a plan to visit some different cafes this summer). The ferry was running but I nearly fell over when I saw the price.. £6.50 for the short hop across to the far bank… £6.50! That’s as much as the long 45 minute open water crossing from Mevagissey to Fowey… I figured it would be more like £1.50 based on the King Harry Ferry fare for a bike being 50p…symptomatic of a Cornwall that is becoming increasingly, and greedily, overpriced where 2x coffee and a bun can cost £11 at a cafe stop.. all to cater for the influx of moneyed tourists every summer in their massive 4x4s… ah, no I’ll try & leave that topic alone this time, hehe… So rather than falling over I just stepped back in shock and thought “oh I can smell dogshit…“.. (I did a lot of thinking yesterday..) yep, all over my the bottom of my cycling shoe.. bloody dog owners.. probably just let the animals out of the big 4×4 parked around the corner for a run and a shit… handfuls of long grass and a squirt from my waterbottle later and I was ready to move on…

the tide was in at Helford...

So.. back up that 20% gradient, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem had I been running my usual 48×18 but couldn’t recall tackling something that steep for any distance on 48×17.. as it happened it was OK, I’m convinced when it’s steep like that on a  fixed gear it’s all about mental attitude and technique. Really just a case of concentrating on the minimum effort required to keep the pedals turning.. stomping hard just means you run out of steam before the top .. and I’m always worried about breaking something on the bike too.. so a relaxed upper body and concentrate. We hit a 22% grade later on as we engaged a hastily assembled plan B & fiddled our way through the lanes out to the cafe at Lizard Point.. the most southerly cafe in England with the most southerly tea cakes :-)

sun-dried cowpats and a fixed gear

It was busy out there… the village was swamped with big and expensive vehicles… and the road full of big people wandering around with their mouths open. I’ve often wondered about that look – it seems common these days amongst the visitor fraternity, I think it may be a consequence of excessive eating of pasties and chips… it’s not worth the effort to close the mouth in the short spells between being stuffed with food, rather just leave it to gravity to keep it open in case another pasty happens to come along. I wonder if they ever catch any gullshit..? Needless to say us pair of cyclists received looks of utter contempt as we tried to navigate our way along the road around and between the aimlessly wandering ems. Yesterday was particularly bad, I don’t know what it is but so many people bring a terrible attitude with them when they come on holiday down here.. you’d think they’d be happy to get out of the air-conditioned 4×4 and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine but yesterday it seemed there were sour faces everywhere. Friends who work in local cafes and shops hate the summer holiday season… Well, anyway, enough of that I’m in danger of having a rant.. I suppose I should be grateful that people visit and support the local economy…. gawd I’m only 38 and already a grumpy old tw@t, can you imagine what I’m going to be like in another 30 years…. ;-)

the beach & old life boat house at Lizard Point

oh look, there's a nice bike.. ;-)

And now for something completely different.. for no other reason than I thought this photo below was rather fun… the surf was dumping on the beach and closing out with no rideable shoulders on Wednesday night.. so despite some terrific swells around 8ft in height it wasn’t a great evening..had the tide been lower it would have been much better but sadly I could not get away from work in time, how rubbish!

closing out in about 2 feet of water.. I'm still picking grains of sand out of my teeth after this....

it was a beautiful evening however...

something of a 'Poseidon Adventure moment'while paddling back out - kayak near vertical here

friend of mine does good seal impressions...

a post about shiny things…

.. or more specifically round shiny things called Phil.  It was about time my DeSalvo fix rolled on a set of hoops to match the pedigree of the frame… the Goldtec/Open Pro wheels were fine but have been around a bit with more than 30,000km on them and they weren’t very shiny.

metal coloured stuff... and I really need to get around to giving that wall another coat of paint...

Now however the bike is rolling on some very shiny Phil Wood high flange track hubs built onto classy Ambrosio Excellence rims. mmm… probably the finest track hubs on the market.. if Carlsberg made hubs etc etc… These are actually the wheels off my Ganwell Pro which is now for sale – more than that in a mo. While I’m on the topic of Phil bits.. with reference to my last, and admittedly rather dull post where I wore out a Phil sprocket primarily because I forgot to check the chain for wear … the nice folk at Phil Wood got in touch to say “oh it should have lasted longer than that..” and despite me being slack with regard to replacing chains are sending me a new one… how cool is that :-)

a rear Phil...

Very much a super bunch of folk making some top notch gear over there. I did ask for a nice and shiny track crank in a 172.5mm or 175mm length while I was at it… sadly such a thing is not on the cards, at least not yet, but apparently we can expect some interesting new stuff come the fall.. I have no idea what but you can bet it will be very nicely made.. and very very shiny :-) Interestingly a Miche sprocket won’t work with a Phil lockring – too slim to retain the sprocket on it’s carrier.. and as none of my other spare lock-rings would fit I had to delve into the shiny things box for a very shiny 17T EAI Superstar sprocket.. I normally reserve these for TT use, and the 17T only for hilly races.. but then they’re beautifully made and polished so what’s the point in having them if you don’t use them.. mind you it’s only a stopgap ’till the new Phil arrives. I get mine from Will over at Hubjub. Highly recommended (both Hubjub and the Superstar.. and the Phil sprockets he sells too ;-)

... phront Phil...

As for checking my chain, hehe, with my geared bikes I keep a close eye on wear but you know how it is with a fixed.. they just go on and on and on without any attention until one day you suddenly realise it’s all worn out. Lesson learned, I’ll be swapping my chain every couple of thousand Km now.

p.s. going to leave the word “shiny” alone for a bit now I think ;-)

more fixed gear musings…

I figure it’s about time I wrote something… of course given that I’m not on the road at the moment it probably isn’t going to be anything interesting.. after all my spare time has settled down into a normal routine of surf/kayak/bike (not necessarily in that order)… and the endless round of DiY that comes with owning a 200year old cottage (but enjoying angle grinders and hammers and stuff again)… so.. what to write about…? Hmm, I know.. fixed gear, haven’t touched that topic at all yet this year:-) I was thinking about it today while out racing* around the lanes on my DeSalvo… A couple of weeks ago I realised that the drivetrain was worn out.. well, chain and sprocket anyway. It’s something I’d never paid attention to given that there is no gear shifting quality to deteriorate or skipping on small sprockets and that in theory a good quality 1/8″ chain and sprocket should last for ages…. I just really began to notice that the chain was noisier than it used to be and that a drop of lube wouldn’t fix it. I got my rohloff chain stretch gauge out and found it was well past it’s sell by date. Being a bit of a cycling nerd I suppose my riding log has a little feature for recording equipment use and ‘events’ in the life of that bike.. it told me that the DiD track chain and Phil Wood sprocket only lasted 6000km… for sure it’s more than I’d expect to get out of a 10/11spd chain and titanium cassette but nothing like as good as I expected.  From a basic engineering point of view it’s explained by the hills around here… cranking a 72″ or 75″ gear up and down Cornwall’s hills puts a hell of a lot of stress on the chain/rings/sprocket such that the interfaces between teeth and chain are carrying a huge load, and the chain itself is bound to wear quickly under that stress too. It wasn’t enough just to replace the chain.. the teeth on the Phil sprocket were showing a noticeable ‘hook’ in their profile so that has been replaced also. It was too shiny and expensive to throw away so now it’s an appropriately nerdy paperweight… those sprockets are about 40 quid at present so given the relatively short lifespan it’s been replaced by a boring, not very shiny but highly functional Miche sprocket (£12) and matching chain £7… Mind you even if I had spent another £40 on a  cog it’s still inexpensive cycling compared to the large wedge needed to replace a worn out 10spd cassette and chain :-)

not the cog in question..but an equally shiny and spendy one that used to be on my Stadio.. before that frame 'expired' in a freak accident. ho hum.

Yeah, so how dry was that… hehe, I haven’t quite finished with the fixed gear yet though.. I’ve been finding my regular 48×18 72″ gear rather under-geared around here recently.. except on the very steep hills so have switched to a slightly stiffer 48×17 or 75″ gear that I can still get up the really steep bits with yet enjoy a faster cruise on the bits in between.. some folk will be wondering how soon it’ll be before I destroy my knees.. thing is I don’t think I will.. I used to suffer knee trouble before I started riding a lot of fixed.. 6 years ago, wow… getting old… . and now I have none.. my theory is that the use of my legs for braking, especially on steeper descents plus the need to develop a very smooth pedal stroke to cope with the hills round here efficiently has developed the muscles supporting my knee such that it is now a much more stable joint than it ever could have been riding solely on gears.. . having said that though I will take it easy on the steeps to begin with… probably….

still quite shiny and in need of some paper to weight...

There’s been other less obvious benefits too.. since leaving the gears and stuff behind I lost interest in the never ending race to keep up with the latest innovations and light weight kit that make bike nerdiness/weight-weenyism such an expensive pastime.. the body is incredibly adaptable and since finding I can happily fly all over Cornwall almost as fast without gears, riding a bike with heavy track hubs and a relative boat anchor of a crank (but very very stiff) it has saved me a large wedge of cash :-) Even the large initial outlay of cash for a custom titanium frame is starting to look like incredibly good value as I think I’ll be riding it pretty much forever… Stiffness in the drivetrain, wheels and frame has proven to be far more beneficial than light weight… oh, and it’s made me stronger too.. and I don’t ever have to spend ages cleaning it…

ya, anyway enough of all that, very dull.. but some folk might find it mildly interesting ;-) I’m hoping for some good waves tomorrow – I still haven’t really used my helmet cam in anger.. I did take it with me to Sennen last night but the waves were indifferent and the weather cold and gloomy, no-one bothered to hang around for a BBQ after– it was a case of kayak on car and racing home via the chippy.

next week I’ll write about paint drying.. or something…

cheerio!

* I felt sluggish and tired when I came home from S America… but now I’ve got past that recovery stage I have good legs.. very good legs in fact and I’m really enjoying it :-) I doubt I’ll race this year though, season hasn’t got long to run and I seem to spend most Sundays afloat… next year ;-)

3×7= errrm, dunno really…

Thought this was equally brilliant and sad all at the same time: browsing the small ads for £5 pub bike on Friday I saw one of those hideous pig-iron supermarket “ATBs” for sale… the advert written by the clearly non-too-bright owner said.. “Mountain Bike, Only used twice and permanently stored indoors. Very Comfortable seat. Not sure how many gears the bike has although rear wheel has 7 gear/cogs and the small mechanism at the front has 3 gear/cogs…..” Oh yes, good to see once again the standard of English schooling is still right up there… I think the ability to count to 7 counts as a B-grade at GCSE now… you need 10 to get an A.

Anyway, while I’m writing is it just me or are there a disproportionate number of commercials for mens fragrances on the TV this Christmas…? The marketing ethos is such that we are to be persuaded that by wearing such and such a fragrance the average male can be transformed into the figure on TV… strangely however I feel no desire at all to become a peculiarly effeminate male admiring myself in a mirror or indeed go riding a jetski in a tuxedo… (and nothing to do with the fact that jet-skis are the scum of the ocean… ). If indeed the choice of fragrance represents the lifestyle to which the wearer aspires then given the persistent strength of the fakenger fixed market then it seems logical that a fragrance targeted at the fixed gear market would be a best-seller… but would such an olfactory experience represent… that particular smell of rubber and lubricant of a road bike on a hot day… perhaps with a hint of stale sweat? dunno, and I’m running out of ideas as I write because really this is a stupid subject… but given the fixed gear has been used {badly} to market coca-cola amongst other things then it can’t be too long before it becomes the domain of the effeminate male also (tuxedo optional).’Sprocket’ by Phil (Wood)….

As for my taste in fragrance, well I have an excuse, the stuff does my eczema no good at all so I just go au naturel… {I do wash by the way…} and it’s not that I’d be able to tell the difference between ‘em all anyway or be inclined to spend the same on that as a pair of decent racing tyres :-)

getting the legs back…. (phew)

August though to November this year were pretty difficult months.. with 3 critical design reviews to handle and a bunch of other stuff I felt like I completely lost my way with regard to cycling and kayaking and so on… I’ve always found it difficult to put up with the sheer banality of ‘normal’ life but provided I can get plenty of time in the saddle or on the water I can cope with it. Just… It’s amazing what stress does to you… I’ve been feeling tired all the time, had a shitty time with eczema and I must confess turned to a little artifical mood assistance, lol! I just couldn’t get any rhythm to my training… I’d ride to work for a couple of days and then feel like dogshit for a few days… this past couple of weeks things started to get better and today I’m feeling really happy – at last I can feel my old form coming back… just in time too :-) 120km on my fixed gear this morning at a decent lick and I enjoyed every metre of it despite the weather (wet and windy as usual). I just can’t wait to get away again to the simplicity of life on a bike.

I was thinking this morning while riding how a few years ago when I started experimenting with a fixed gear here in Cornwall about 68″ was the biggest gear I could manage for any distance (8o+km).. then that increased to 72″ (48×18) and as technique and musculature adapted to it 160+km fixed gear rides became possible regardless of how hilly they were… this winter I’m pushing a 76″ gear (48×17) and it’s no problem at all… admittedly grades above 15% get quite hard and I wouldn’t want to have to cope with more than 18% for any great distance on it but so far it’s been OK. I think in the hills riding fixed is only 50% strength plus 30% technique and 20% attitude…. A lot of folk ask me how my knees are coping with all the big gear climbing.. answer is they’re fine. I used to have knee trouble riding on gears but since switching to a fixed gear for the bulk of my training I’ve had no problem at all.. Possibly the act of using your legs for braking and a good, smooth pedal technique pulling up on the pedals as well as pushing down has developed the muscles around my knee such that the stability of the joint is far better now than it ever has been… of course I could be talking complete bollocks but for now it’s the best I’ve got…

Anyway, enough of that.. I’ll bash out some words on planning my trip tomorrow. In the meantime I really must go and wash the bike… it’s been 1000km of crap weather riding since I last gave it any attention and it’s a bit grubby…..

Winter riding quickly shows up weaknesses in a cheap bike… but the Giant is doing fine, there’s a bit of surface corrosion on the tracknuts and the hub bearing retainers but that’s all.. everything is running smoothly and looking in good shape… underneath all the crud that is :-) Best value winter bike I ever had.. My old Rush was good but being steel there was always the niggle at the back of my mind that I had to look after it at least a little bit lest the frame rust from the inside out… but that’s no problem with the alloy frame on the Giant so I happily ignore maintenance it for weeks at a time beyond a quick spray with GT85 after a very wet ride and a dribble of lube on the chain after the rain has washed it clean…

embracing my inner bearded self….

… otherwise known as sticking a Carradice Barley saddlebag on my bike… I may as well own up to it now <oh the shame..> as sooner or later I’ll be spotted in public all lycra’d up with this thing hanging off the back of my seat :-) Same comment goes for that Giant Bowery I mentioned a few weeks ago… in terms of being a diehard bike-snob and erstwhile weight weenie I’ve either made immense progress or suffered the cycling equivalent of  breakdown.. depends on your outlook :-) As for what I think… errrm, well when it’s wet and dark and windy I’m highly unlikely to be spotted anyway and it is immensely practical as a winter commuting hack…. ;-)

The bag is ace really – it’s 100% waterproof – the water just beads off the canvas, big enough to carry a change of clothes for the office and it’s nice not having to wear a backpack – especially with a rainjacket but I think the biggest benefit is judging by what I see on fleabay folk are willing to spend a wedge on battered old Caradice bags.. so I figure I can use it for a few years and then get all my money back and then some. I think it’s mainly Americans who buy ‘em…can’t get enough of that olde worlde english cycling gentry look… or something. The only other thing to note about the bag is that I made up a support for it to keep it clear of the backs of my thighs when pedalling.. an old seatpost mounted like bracket and a length of alloy strip. I forgot to photograph that – will do it today and update this post.

Still not wearing tweed plus fours though, not even in the dark…

As for the bike, well I paid £380 so I can’t complain… in reality it’s pretty good for what really is minimum wedge in the world of usable bikes – the wheels in particular are worth a significant chunk of the total – stainless spokes, gold ano rims with machined side walls and decent large flange hubs with sealed bearings. The stock gearing of 48×17 is a little high for the steeper of Cornwall’s hills and the 170mm cranks aren’t the stiffest – but are stiff enough. They run on a square taper sealed BB unit  - floating so you can adjust the chainline. The only bad bit about the otherwise 1/8″drivetrain is the rather weedy looking fixed sprocket – it’s a cheap pressed steel thing – I left it on figuring I’d replace it with a solid 1/8″ one when it wears out.. which will probably be sometime middle of next week :-) What else… ah, the frame.. yeah it’s fine, stiff, haven’t noticed an excessive harshness from the alloy fork but then I’m running the gatorskins at only 95psi right now – I’m only using it for my commute which is up to 50miles/day so frame comfort – or lack of has not been an issue. I know I’m committing  major style failure (!) by having natural cork coloured bar tape with the stock black saddle… but it was all I had spare when I threw away the silly bars it came with and fitted an old set of Deda Newtons I had kicking around. It was all about not spending any extra money you see…. but come to think of it a brown Brooks saddle might look nice… and would add roughly 30% to the value of the bike, hehe. If I have a criticism it’s just that a little bit of extra thought in the frame that may have cost nothing would have made it so much better… the fork has mudguard eyes but no clearance under the crown – even when the stock 25C tyres are swapped out for skinnier 23C rubber… I had to take a half-round file to the underside of the very chunky crown in order to be able to squeeze the guards through. Clearance at the rear is equally tight – no chance if you wanted to run a rear brake, and no mudguard eyes… strangely at odds with the eyes on the fork. I don’t understand it, especially given that there are some nice detail touches in the frame like the rubber o-ring in the seatclamp to stop water running down inside the frame and the polished highlights in the finish… Anyway, back to the guards.. the rear is held on with a zip tie on the chainstay and brake bridges, and the stays I secured to the chaintugs as in the pic below… the advantage of doing that is that the stays release with the wheel which is useful with rearward facing track ends should you need to get the wheel out. I did consider drilling the track ends and running a tap through but got lazy and in the end, although a bit untidy, it works well… I suspect however I will feel compelled to tidy it up in future… and sort out the clashing bar tape/saddle combo ;-)

So that’s it really – I wanted something for the wet and muddy winter commute that I could hang my lights off permanently and could leave filthy in the garage with a clear conscience.. it certainly ticked that box… but looking at that bag again… oh dear, I really don’t want to grow a beard….

silly questions…

I had the dubious pleasure recently of listing a frame and fork for sale on fleabay. I won’t say specifically what it was, suffice to say it was a type and make currently judged fashionable and desirable in certain corners of the cycling word (possibly tweed clad corners…). I imagine you can figure out what it was. Anyway, seems that these days with the popularity of such bicycles there is guaranteed to be a signifiant proportion of complete numptys looking to buy… hence an inevitable number of decidedly dim questions arriving in my inbox via the eBay email fairy…. such as (these are real by the way):

Do you think it is an aggressive type of frame? It looks nice but i don’t know if I want an aggressive frame. … hmm, tough this. The dictionary defines aggressive as “characterized by or tending toward unprovoked offensives, attacks, invasions, or the like; militantly forward or menacing”.. so in the right hands, yeah I imagine it could be aggressive especially if thrown in anger a’la a Cavendish tantrum… a wolf in an Andean vulture’s plumage if you like… darn, I let the cat out the bag there.

Can I fit shimano gears to this frame? well why you’d want to fit shimano to any frame is beyond me… <cough> ah crap I forgot about my Salsa.. but given the ad stated it was a track frame with 120mm dropouts then I could only suggest that he’d be welcome to try and could recommend gaffer tape for fixing the rear mech.

I’m 5 feet 9 inches tall, do you think this frame is the right size for me? Inevitable this question with every frame I ever sold. Answer is I haven’t got a clue, if your legs are short and your knuckles drag on the ground then probably not.One day I hope it gets at least a little less dull with  “I’m blonde, do you think this bike is the right size” which may of course require a first hand leg measurement at the very least.

how much does it weigh? Is that with or without the likely 12-15 stone twit riding it? Aww, come on it’s a steel track frame, do you honestly think a half-pund either way is going to make the slightest bit of difference…

I think the top tube might be too long but if i turn the seatpost around would that let me move the saddle closer the bars?  I couldn’t think of an answer for this…

So there you go, not that interesting at all really but it filled a few lines.

I’ve been wondering when the fixed gear fashion bubble is going to burst. For sure it won’t affect me, given my titanium DeSalvo should in theory last a  lifetime I’ll probably be buried with the thing, but it can’t go on forever, too cool for it’s own good it will surely become uncool and the vanguard of cycling fashionistas will be looking for the next big thing. Crappy old ten speeds could be it, the seedling of a movement has been around a while (here) but with the exponential increase in conversions of crappy old ten speeds (COTS) into crappy new fixies (facilitated primarily by the addition of a top tube pad and riser bars) then original COTS are becoming rare and potentially desirable items. Certainly my local paper is pretty much devoid these days of “gents ten speed bike” in favour of garbage ATBs bought from Halfords and found by their owners to be too heavy to move…. Personally I’m going to place my bets on vintage unicycles, although it’s bound to be a smaller movement than the fixed gear phenomenon by virtue of the fact that there is not going to be any opportunity for top tube pads, dayglo grips, dildo bars (..saddles however….) and aerospokes just don’t come that small. I await with interest to see what Rapha come up with for the stylish unicyclist… crotchless tweed plus-fours with a ‘seat’ woven from the soft nose hairs of the Albanian Tree Hare  perhaps for the purest control, sensation and interactivity in the rider/unicycle interface (no handlebars remember…)

Anyway, enough of that – if you’re interested Urban Velo has a review of the new SRAM Torpedo hub here. I’m holding out for the Sturmey Archer S3X, it’s in the brochure for ’09 but the UK distributors didn’t have a clue what I was talking about when I called them.. <sigh>

how Elizabethan….

I had another thought last night while contemplating the tailored cycling suit phenomenon… considering that retro/vintage style is flavour of the month in the cycling world then why be constrained by the style of the country gentry circa 1930-1950.. lets go even further back….. how about the Rapha “Elizabethan Edition”… now considering that bicycles hadn’t even been invented the adoption by well-to-do “men of standing” of tights/leggings seems almost a premonitory style statement. Indeed, with the exception of the clergy, who then as now prefer dresses, Elizabethan attire may have been quite practical on the bike…. stretchy leggings for comfortable pedalling, a long frock coat or “skirt” (for want of a better word) to keep the backside warm when on the bike, a tightly buttoned tunic to reduce wind-flap and a ruff for keeping the neck warm… of course for time-trialling you’d want to go aero and dispense with the ruff. So come on Rapha… what are you waiting for :o)

By the way, poor Baldrick in the photo is worn out from his alleycat efforts, he did win some trendy pink Oury grips though…

NAHBS…

The 5th North American Handmade Bicycle Show has just wrapped over in Indianapolis…. it’s brilliant to see such fabulous creativity and artistic talent realised in pedal-powered form. I don’t know what it is about North America that is fuelling the growth in “boutique” frame building (perhaps it’s just a case of bigger population = more cyclists with the $$ and inclination to spend it) but whatever it is I’d love to see the same over on this side of the Atlantic. The UK has a rich heritage in frame building but it’s all gone a bit quiet and run of the mill… for sure there are a few guys out there doing wonderful stuff, Robin Mather for instance, but it’s all so low profile…. perhaps we need a UKHBS to stimulate the scene here too….. Anyway, I can dream… in the meantime though check out some of the talent in the NAHBS gallery here… I don’t have a particular favourite, they’re all ace, but if I had to pick one then naturally it would be  fixed gear and it would be Dan Polito’s “Jack Taylor” (below)… and I’d also like something with wooden fenders and a three speed fixed hub… and…

I suppose it’s at this point that I should expect to be reminded that the UK has Mercian Cycles and Bob Jackson amongst others… well, yes, and very fine frames they are too, but maybe it’s just me… they seem to be somewhat ‘staid’ in outlook and lack individuality… ? Lots of tradiitonal class however. Anyway, I guess wait lists for Mercian for example are reasonable at around 5 months, Sacha White of Vanilla* has a wait list of around four years (and I believe has stopped taking new orders for the time being)… the price of individuality!

* do check out his bikes though, they are gorgeous…!

DeSalvo Titanium Fixed Gear Review…

OK, so after introducing it to you gradually (part 1, part 2, part 3) and having ridden it 1500km since I took delivery of the frame I figured it was about time I wrote about it properly. I can’t write a review in the conventional sense because being a custom frame it’s unique, if you bought one it would be different to this one… but I can ramble on about what I wanted and whether or not I got it… By the way, the photos below are in black and white.. mainly because I like black and white, everyone know what colour titanium is anyway and it makes the dirt harder to spot… not to mention the weeds in the various locations I grabbed photos… read the rest here…..

fixed gear “training” or just riding along….

It’s been a few years since I bothered to follow a properly structured training plan other than a few intervals sessions in the early season… by extension I suppose that means it’s been a few years since I took my riding and racing really seriously which seems fair enough – with an intensive job my riding is a my primary leisure activity and I don’t need it to feel like a second job….  it’s pretty much the same length of time too since I started doing the majority of my off-season riding on a fixed gear (so nothing to do with increased laziness… really!). To be honest it’s not done me any harm at all, and indeed it’s made me a stronger all-round rider. I think about this a lot as I spin my single cog up and down Cornwall’s hills… it’s very hilly down here in the west and a couple of hours on the fixed gives me a workout that seems to combine an ideal balance of strength work (plus technique) on the steeps, longer ‘intervals’ as I power the gear round seated on the less steep climbs, a mix of high-speed and relaxed spinning on the flats and some solid muscle work on the descents as I rely on back-pressure on the pedals to manage my speed. I’ve found it very easy to manage the intensity of my rides, it’s not necessary to hammer up every hill despite the lack of low gears – some technique and a good pedalling action (i.e smoothly pulling on the upstroke and a good, relaxed posture on the bike) always get me up everything but the very steepest inclines (say 18-20% and greater) with the minimum of fuss on my 72″ gear (48×18), and indeed I’ve become a much more efficient rider as I learn to conserve my energy on the flats on long rides to keep what I need in reserve for the hills. Riding companions frequently comment on how smooth my pedalling action has become <insert smugness here, lol> in the past couple of years… and I wasn’t exactly an erratic pedaller before. The overall training impulse appears to be an ideal balance for me… but not necessarily for anyone else, we’re all different after all. I do know for sure however I wouldn’t have received anything like the benefits I have experienced had I just stuck to the flat roads… My ride yesterday was just 50km but took in approx 1600m of ascent, consisting entirely of climbs less than 800m long with gradients between 8 and 22%. It’s a terrific workout that I enjoy, but I can see it wouldn’t be everyone’s metaphorical cup of tea… I come across a surprising number of Cornish riders with a chronic allergy to hills… quite funny really for such a hilly corner of the world.

At this point I imagine some of you folk reading are wondering about the state of my knee joints…. Conventional wisdom suggests I would have trashed my knees long ago pushing a relatively large gear around Cornwall but the reality is that I’ve had much less (none in fact) trouble with my knees than before I rode fixed… I’ve wondered if this is something to do with the way the muscles that stabilise the knee have been strengthened by the back-pressure action I use for braking, i.e use of the muscles in a  way that would not normally be exercised on bike with a freewheel.. (maybe someone can write and tell me if I’m talking bollocks here…).. Besides, when I first started riding a fixed gear around here I began with just a  68″ gear and short rides only…  it took a good few months of adaptation for my legs and mind to really “get it” and be able to happily spin 80-100 mile rides in the hills sans derailleur. I do also take a significant load away from the down-pushing knee with a smooth pull on the upstroke when seated or standing so the load on the knee is not as high as you might  expect.

Having written all of the above while steadily emptying my wineglass I’ve realised that I’m struggling to come to a ‘point’ about why I’m writing this at all… ummm, well… I needed something useful to do today without actually doing anything as my eczema is pretty bad and needs to settle down again.. plus the whole point of a blog I suppose is to share my experiences and if you’re considering a fixed gear training regimen then go for it, and make sure you head for the hills! I suppose I could also mention the value (well, I think it’s of value) of training without reliance on a heart-monitor or powermeter… don’t get me wrong such widgets work well and have their place but with the fixed gear I wouldn’t be able to stay within ‘ideal limits’ for any length of time anyway so instead I ride on feel… and it’s something I think a lot of folk could do well to learn in terms of knowing their own body…. I only use my HRM for interval sessions these days (aww, crap, that sounded a bit like a lecture… sorry!)

There is another point, possibly more relevant in the current economic cimate (?)… it’s cheap as chips (though it doesn’t have to be, there’s plenty of jewellery of a fixed flavour on the market and you can always go and drop a couple of grand on a custom titanium frame.…. <embarrassed cough> :o). 1/8″ sprockets, chains and chainrings last for ages… no cables, freehubs and derailleurs to maintain… and virtually maintenance free which means you have more time for reading bollocks like this on the web… or spending down the pub, whatever :o)

A token pretty picture follows just to add some colour more monochrome to all this monochrome text…..

a wheely good idea….

…or rather a “steering wheely good idea”…. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone owned up in public about doing this to their bike… as spotted on FGG last week:

I’m not going to pass any kind of judgment or comment on it’s likely handling properties given I’ve never tried it…. except I’m not sure I’d want to hit any potholes or bumps at any kind of speed on this.. I suppose what is good is that the owner had the balls and individualism to go ahead and stick it on there anyway and shout about it online. As a potential upgrade path for my Ganwell it would enable easy bar-spins but even if I could find a suitably stylish wheel I’d still be laughed out of the cafe-stop…. So, while my own personal opinion is hovering somewhere between crazy and ridiculous it did pique my interest… and as with almost everything in the bicycle world, being such a low-tech machine, there is a historical precedent:

The above appeared in Modern Mechanics magazine, Aug 1931… and while I’m not bothered about the fact that I can’t get hold of a circular steering device at my local bikeshop, it would be nice to find such an elegant saddle accessory under the Christmas tree this year….

Until I went looking however I did not realise that there is indeed a market for bicycle steering wheels, and you can actually go out and buy them in styles ranging from tacky to very tacky, admittedly they’re intended for lowrider bikes but still… I guess these are the bicycle equivalents of fat automobile exhausts and fluffy dice… the heart shaped one below is particularly worrying, with the red crushed velour background it kind of reminded me of something you’d expect to find in the bathroom of a Niagara Falls motel…

Before I leave the world of fixed gear however I think I may have spotted the next must have accessory for the discerning fixed gear rider. Forget your spoke cards, top tube pads, aerospokes and tweeds (shudder)….. no, courtesy once again of FGG, what you need is a corpse…

Once again I’ll not pass judgment, after all I do not have a corpse of my own so I cannot comment on what it does for your riding skills or enjoyment. Bit of a bugger to carry around with you though, and I imagine the useful life of it may be somewhat limited during the warm summer months…

OK, enough of that. I have been feeling truly blessed this weekend… some sunshine and dry roads very much in evidence :o) It’s been very wet and filthy recently and my bike is still clean after a terrific 70mile cruise round the lanes east of here around the Helford river and Lizard Point. Some bastard hard climbs on the fixed gear but all the more satisfying as a result… I mean the chillout with good food and tired legs afterwards, at the time they just hurt… I saw a group of four Magpies (can I call a group a small flock or a flockette?) on the road at one point: One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy…. shit!

p.s. Oh heck, I can’t help it, I’m going to have to include the picture of the new fashion trend for city fixxers… words such as “dead”, “seen”, “be” & “wouldn’t” spring to mind, just not necessarily in that order. Could possibly include “twit” as well… do you think?  <sniggers fading into the background as Mike wanders off in search of coffee…>

DeSalvo Ti Fixed Gear (part 3, frame..)

Well, after taking the slow(ish) boat plane (FedEX and DHL have hiked their prices significantly it seems so it was a USPS job…) across the Atlantic it finally arrived… my new titanium fixed gear frame from Mike DeSalvo is sitting in my study (posh eh!) just waiting to be built up… I’m happy, not just because it’s a beautiful frame, but because I can hang some mudguards on and save myself from muddy bottom syndrome now that winter has started properly… next week will be my first guaranteed dry-bum riding experience since my old Rush bit the dust… :o) As with my DeSalvo cross frame the workmanship is lovely, I really like the chunky dropouts and the discrete mudguard eyes are perfect.

Anyway, enough writing about it… I’m off to spend a pleasant couple of hours building it up. Details of the completed build soon, in the meantime tho here are a few frame pics to wet your appetite… (assuming you have an appetite for such jewellery…

(part 1, part 2)

heads up: some fixie TT bits for sale

** all this stuff is sold now by the way **

I have a couple of bits and pieces to get rid of that would be great for some fixed gear timetrialling (amongst other things…). Items link to pics, prices negotiable of course.. ;o)

1. Mavic Ellipse track wheelset, clincher, about 300 miles use, has brake wear on the front rim only. Really nice wheels. £180

2. Miche Primato track cranks (172.5mm) with MDT Luna 55T solid track chainring (1/8″), and matching BB. All lovely nick. £100

3. Miche 48T x1/8″ track ring, minimal wear £12

4. Oval Concepts A900 s-bend carbon aero extensions with A700 clamps, all attached to a profile alloy basebar (or separate if you wish, the base bar is free basically anyway). 1 season use £99

5. Pair Cane Creek carbon lo-pro brake levers. Brand new. £20

6. FRM seatpost, 300mm x 27.2 in black. very light, used but in good nick £10

7. Specialized Alias saddle, black, 143mm wide, used but in good nick £15

That’s about it for now, at the weekend I’ll see what other widgets I have lying around to get clear of. I’ll soon have a Condor Pista EOM 55cm frame, in white, for sale too…. stay tuned for that one.

Cheerio ;o)

DeSalvo Ti Fixed Gear (part 2, preview)

I’m quite excited now, Mike has finished the frame I told you about a couple of weeks ago, he mailed me a pic before he wraps it up and consigns it to courier. It’s cost me a little more than expected thanks to the recent plummet in the value of the £ but hey ho, the idea is that this is the last winter and general purpose frame I ever have to buy… rather than seeming to get through a frame every 3 or 4 years either through damage due to corrosion, fatigue or a general dissatisfaction that it’s not my ‘ideal’ winter frame. For me it’s worth the ££ for a custom job now, I’ve been riding long enough that I know exactly what I want in an all-year, all-round frame and this represents those thoughts precisely. Some style, class and looks for the summer (with the hidden mudguard eyes) with buckets of practicality for the winter and bad weather training… durability, corrosion proof, one fixed gear and properly integrated mudguards… Once it’s built up I’ll show you in detail, stay tuned…..

so yeah, Steve if I come and have a look at your French trees I’ll bring either this or my Ti DeSalvo cross bike for the trails ;o)

In other news then.. (well that’s what they say on TV) I’ve been making best use of the anti-depressant properties of hammering one’s body outdoors. I suffered something of an emotional wounding this last couple of days and needed to get away. A quick phone call and a hasty exit of the office yesterday enroute to some time away from home, a solid morning hammering singletrack on my cyclocross bike followed by afternoon in bracing conditions surfing in my kayak… both hard work, both great fun and something to feel good about in that I can just go and do that kind of stuff, and now I’m shattered but feeling much better. Shame I can’t get bikes and kayaks on the NHS… or even wine cos that’s what is next.. assuming I can find some strength to open the bottle. What I really need is a pretty young serving wench to do that for me (volunteers?)…. and in the interests of political correctness and in case the ethics police are reading I’ll make an apology (albeit a hollow one) for that remark, it was all tongue in cheek of course… :o)

Friday ramblings…

I booked my flights to Tunisia today – heading off with British Airways on the 2nd November for 17 days. Can’t wait. Must confess tho I am still having thoughts about going fixed for the tour. I’m going to take super-light camping gear anyway (just a bivi bag) and really strip my load down to the bare minimum…. I think a ‘dry run’ in terms of assembling my lightest possible load is in order. Of course taking a fixed gear means less to carry in the way of maintenance kit. A couple of allen keys (Goldtec hubs use allen bolts rather than track nuts) and, errm, that’ll be about it. Especially for a short tour I have no worries about breaking a 1/8″ chain (tho I may take a couple of spare quick links like those used on the Miche track chain) or need to fiddle about with the BB or hub cones (cartridge bearings). One spare tube and a few patches for puncture duties and that’s the bike taken care of….

Not much else going on really, the brief two weeks of summer in September ended this week.. the arrival of October 1st brought with it a cold north-westerly airstream and heavy rain. Great… I’m still in denial that the summer has gone without ever really being here if you see what I mean. I really must get my winter kit out of storage and dust off my lights… it’s dark enough now in the mornings that I’m starting to get nervous riding in the lanes sans lumières. Last Sunday was effectively the last perfect day of the year I suppose. Light winds, clear skies, warm and a smooth ocean for paddling out off Dodman Point for a spot of fishing….

It’s days like that that make me never want to live anywhere other than Cornwall, what with the cycling and watersports on offer in some respects it is heaven. In many others though it is a difficult place to live… especially if young, single, intelligent and trying to make your way in life…. very difficult… a view both my sister and I have come to share. I’m looking at possibly going back to Montreal or finding work elsewhere in Europe. Those ideas are still in the germination stages so I won’t embarrass myself now by saying any more… suffice to say I’ve had enough of aeronautical engineering, for a while at least.

I think I’ll leave you with another random kayaking pic from the last couple of weeks….

September attention seeking…. (& 3-speed fixed hub news)

It’s been a fab second half to September here in Cornwall… compensation for a bloody awful summer in the form of warm and sunny days, mostly light winds with the added benefit of those lovely cool and misty fall mornings. Like this morning… At last the strength is coming back to my legs and though I’m still taking things very easy I felt good heading out at 8am to meet up with a couple of the guys for what turned into a very pleasant 80km spin. I find the fog we get in the mornings here on the coast especially atmospheric… the ghostly outlines of cottages and telegraph poles emerging from the gloom as I ride, moisture laden cobwebs glistening in the dim, watery sunlight and the silhouettes of horses standing quietly in the fields, heads low, in the mist.

Even at 10am as we rolled in to Coverack in search of coffee the fog banks were still hugging the coast, though Coverack itself was bathed in warm, yellow sunshine. Perfect. The coffee wasn’t bad either.

Anyway, last night I was accused of being an attention seeker by dint of the fact that I have a blog. This interested me although at the time I just let it go… however I had a chance to muse on it this morning as I rode. It never really occurred to me to view a blog in that context though I suppose it could be argued that there could only be an egotistical or attention-seeking reason for it given that I don’t make any money out of it and maybe I could be doing more constructive things with my time (hey, as I write I’m waiting for the paint to dry on my window frames outside…). I think the main reason I started it was, having lived and worked all over the world, that I felt kind of isolated when I returned to Cornwall and it was a way of feeling more connected with the rest of the world, especially friends and acquaintances scattered around the globe. Since then it’s grown somewhat… I like to think that some folk find it useful, especially where the cycling touring and fixed gear stuff is concerned… if I can be of use to someone then that’s great… all credit in the karma bank… and I think folk do genuinely find it useful judging by the emails I get. So that’s good… but really I just enjoy writing and this is an outlet. Granted the quality of what I bash out at my keyboard may be somewhat variable but I don’t really care, it’s not necessary to be good at something to enjoy it. If that wasn’t the case I’d have given up many things long ago… So back to attention seeking… hmmm, perhaps it could be argued that folk who create in any form for the public domain – be it words, pictures or video – are attention seeking to a degree – varying degrees in fact with, say, Damien Hirst leading the way with his pickled sharks…. but think what a dull place the world would be without the creativity and drive that many people have…. Having said that I could quite happily live without the zero-value-add flavour of attention seeking that goes with current “celeb culture”…. and I can say what I like ‘cos I very much doubt Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton et al read my ramblings… useless bunch of tarts ;o)

Hmm, that was a bit of a rambling passage.. so back to the two-wheel flavour of life. With reference to my last post re fixed gear touring in Southern India – I checked out flight prices for later this year… anything from £600 to £900-ish. Given that I am planning a long South American sojourn next year, and I have a new kayak on the way {insert embarassed cough here, tell you more soon} I decided to ‘park’ the idea for a year or so. I can get to Tunisia and back for £120 with my bike in November so it’s definitely time to tick-off that long held idea to pedal my way through the deserts of the south.

On the topic of fixed gear touring – it may not be new news to you by now but I’ll mention it anyway – Sturmey Archer are re-introducing the 3-speed fixed gear hub. (full story here). This would be the perfect tool for a fixed gear tour. Gear it such that the direct drive ratio is a standard 72″ gear with 2 lower gears for the hills. I imagine it will be virtually maintenance free so retaining all the benefits of a fixed gear transmission with the advantage of some gears for the hills on a loaded bike. Due in January I think for about £120…. this paired with, say, a Surly Crosscheck frameset (rack eyes on this) would be bang-on for some low hassle touring use.

DeSalvo Ti Fixed Gear (part 1, design..)

I mentioned this briefly recently so now the design is finalized I can talk about it a little bit more. A couple of years ago Mike DeSalvo made me a beautiful titanium ‘cross frame so when I started thinking about having a new winter/all-round fixed gear… one that would do me “for ever” it kind of made sense to go back to Mike. With the death (well OK, ‘minor sickness’ then given it was just a crack..) of my Soma Rush winter bike recently, and my addiction to my Condor Pista EOM for commuting and general riding it made sense to combine the two into one all-weather, all-year titanium frame. It is having hidden mudguard (fenders to you transatlantic lot…;o) eyes in the back of the seat-tube and underneath the seat-stay bridge so come summer I can have the nice clean look I prefer. Come winter I’ll swap out the {planned} Reynolds Ouzo Pro fork for something with mudguard fittings.. the roads round here are so mingingly filthy and wet all winter riding without full guards is miserable. Other minor details… not many.. double bottle bosses and some decent fat pipes to give a nice stiff, responsive ride. Mike starts building the frame this week… I can’t wait…. :o)

cycle “style” revisited… again

After a spirited debate (OK, well laughing session really) at the cafe stop yesterday concerning the latest of Rapha’s creations for the “discerning cyclist” I had been wondering how to approach the topic without seeming like I was, a) bitter & twisted that I can’t afford such frivolity, and b) without winding up the legions of true Rapha fans, perhaps to be known as Raphaelites… as opposed to the Pre-Raphaelites who were a bunch of painters and poets and so on with their own views on art in the 19th century.. see the value you get on here… history as well as bikes, but I digress…..

The Rapha Silk Scarf (a snip at £55) has been the topic of much debate all over the cycling forum world, including the muddy bottom lot over at Singletrack, but then they debate anything that isn’t baggy by Endura. Bikesnob NYC however has saved me the trouble by presenting it, rather elegantly, in all it’s pretentiousness, which I think is brilliant. It’s not quite up there with last years leg shaving kit but it’s definitely in the “who would buy that” category along with the leather bound training diary. Rapha have the art of selling image down to a tee…. To be fair some of the gear is really really good, but they could make things more useful like a snot-wipe on those £100 leather mitts and what about some overshoes/socks. Every roadie in the world uses those at some point so a nice pair made of premium stretch kangaroo foreskin or something could be just the ticket. PVC or rubber would work better but without the cachet of desirability that could only come from making ‘em from the bum-rubber of Cat Womans PVC suit they surely would not sell… on that topic, and probably not work-safe there may be a side-step market here for Rapha in providing premium superheroine wear… combining fetish with fixed gear, it’s the perfect pairing,…. <cough cough> just not here in Cornwall, the lynch mobs would be out…

Anyway, back to the topic at hand… cycle style. The scarf is clearly of a retro flavour along with the plus-fours that strangely seemed to have disappeared from the catalogue… so, going back to my post earlier this year can we please please have some headgear to match.. and remember you saw it here first {probably} ;o)

Just as an aside Danish cycle helmet manufacturer Yakkay have just the means to provide protective headgear in an infinite variety of styles.. so far the range is a little limited but the concept is there so surely th cycling Panama can’t be too far away, can it?

p.s to be fair a scarf/bandana on the bike is a most useful thing, I have a nice red paisley design in cotton that cost me a quid and has been washed enough that is feels as soft as silk yet I have no qualms about filling it with sweat, sunblock or snot depending on time of year…

the Rush, it cracked…

funny, when thinking about what I was going to write for this post all I could think of was Tennyson…

Out flew the web and floated wide–

The mirror crack’d from side to side;

“The curse is come upon me,” cried

The Lady of Shalott.

which is stupid really cos this is all about a bike frame rather than a mirror and I certainly ain’t a lady :o) So with that in mind I’ll come straight to the point… sadly my trusty Soma Rush frame cracked, a small fracture extending from the seat-tube slot. Nothing to do with me eating too my ice-creams this summer either, I’m still a svelte (!!) 64kg. Nope, just a weak point in the design I suspect and easily fixed with a brazing torch. I can’t be bothered* but if anyone reading this wants a crack at it then you can have the frameset as pictured (it’s in very good nick, size 55) for £25 inc shipping (in the UK). You might want to respray it after and I’m pretty sure I still have some spare Soma decals kicking around you can use. It will be a solid winter bike for someone… Let me know… it’s too good to consign to the dump.

* can’t be bothered mainly ‘cos it’s a great excuse to have my perfect custom titanium fixed gear winter bike… ;o) Stay tuned for that.

fixed form…

I’m wondering how to start this post without sounding too pleased… oh sod it, I am pretty happy today, with a new PB I’m really beginning to see some form in my legs now… (just as well with the Plymouth 50 coming up soon, tho still 2 months to the Welsh 100…). This morning was Truro CC’s Open 25 up on the S100/25 course… yeah, the one with the horrible climb to the turn… 2 laps of it as well and a downhill finish… so not really ideal terrain for a fixed gear but I do enjoy the satisfaction of doing well on a fixed… and today I was well happy with my “long 55″ (OK, very long at 55:57 but hey…!). I was on my Condor as usual with the 100-inch gear that seems to work so well for the majority of Cornish courses (except the really hilly ones like the Lizard). With a freshening north-westerly breeze blowing across the course the return leg of the primary lap from Indian Queens to Victoria felt especially tough, difficult to keep the bike above 39-40km/hr on this bit. I must say though when it is hard like that the fixed seems to work really well, even though I’m pushing a gear bigger than would be considered sensible at such low speeds the need to just keep rolling it around smoothly means I’m generally quicker than most on those sections…. but then I have to ease up on the flatter bits for a while to get some recovery in my legs. Where I really lose it though is on the downhill sections. Today that was the 2x descents from the turn at Indian Queens and a very fast downhill finish. Ho hum. It was fun though. I’d love to try the Condor on a properly flat course one day, stick a 13 or 14 on the back with the 55 ring and wind it up.

It’s when I start to go well I begin to wonder if a rear disc on that bike would make much difference to my speed… The Hed 90 is pretty deep and I like the light feel it gives to the bike when accelerating…. have to say though, my primary motivation for running the rear wheel that I do is that I always wanted an excuse to own a beautifully polished Royce Titanium track hub…. such a tart ;o) Having confessed to being a tart then it’ll be no surprise to know that I do also enjoy the attention the Condor gets while parked outside the HQ. It’s slowly gaining a fan club of it’s own. Folks comments are interesting too, the consensus seems to be that a fixed gear is too hard and they’d miss their gears, but the reality I’ve experienced is that you don’t even think about that when riding. With no gears to choose the decision making is taken away and all you can do is press the pedals as hard as you can… sustainably. It’s interesting to be called “an animal” however, expecially for this scrawny devil that used to be so shite at schools sports… in my early teens I was asthmatic, uncool, overweight and intelligent (ahem…. :o)… not a good recipe for happy school days… Note however, I’m not claiming to be “cool” now either… but I like to think I do OK, ha-ha!

Karl Hodson (Trigon) won the event with a super 54:00, Stuart Hall (Alltrax) and Paul Friday (PZW) took 2nd and 3rd respectively with 54:34 and 55:20. Must admit, I am rather envious of Pauls new Cervelo P3C… (and while I’m at it.. Phil Walker’s Isaac Aerotic is a lovely piece of carbon sculpture too). We (as in the Cyclelogic trio of Martin, myself and Chris Lobb) took the team prize. Martin was little slower than I expected with 55:42, he’s been racing an awful lot though so I think his upcoming holiday will restore some speed. Chris Lobb is turning in some cracking performances for his first season of races… wish I was 18 again, that age when you can race every day, drink every night and still recover… somehow… or if you’re Chris surf in the afternoons after racing as well….

so there you go. A nice sunny Sunday morning, and an afternoon spent lounging by the sea at home.

that’s me (in the red shirt) and Martin (on the left) by the way…

Next weekend I’m just riding a 10 on the Saturday afternoon, I’m looking forward to a long day out on the bike on Sunday – I could do with getting some longer miles in before the Tour of the Black Mountains and so on.

a much needed boost….

apologies for my recent absence… I’m a bit of a lucky dip at the moment in terms of mood… you see I have been trying to deal with depression for the last 10 years or so, at times things get very ‘dark’ and there are a few bad episodes I’d really rather forget. I thought I was on top of it but I guess I never really will be completely free of it and the last 3 weeks have been particularly hard going (I’ve been on a bit of a downward slope ever since coming home from Colombia to be honest)…. so this morning’s ride at the Frank Parkinson Bates Memorial 10, hosted by the Camel Valley Club, was a much needed boost. I haven’t really been doing much at all on the bike, feeling perpetually drained and not sleeping so after a few rough weeks of just trying to keep going I surprised myself with a pretty good ride this morning… OK I was ‘only’ 4th quickest (team mate Martin took the honours, and a bloody great cup!) but considering how I felt first thing I’m quite happy…. so the potential to ride quickly is still there in my legs it seems. I just need to sort my head out….

so, back to the race… well the forecast was dire with heavy rain and gales but all of that seemed to sweep through quickly in the night leaving almost still conditions and a light drizzly rain which felt quite comfortable once warmed up. That’s about all there is too it actually… it rained, we rode, and we (as in Cyclelogic – Martin, myself, Chris and Jeff) also took the team prize ;o) Only downside… I have an unsealed Sugino BB in my Condor so tomorrow it’ll have to come out for drying off and regreasing. I can’t be bothered this afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow is filthy again so I might actually get some DiY done as well… I have plans to rent my house out in the next few months, but that is a whole other story that will probably come out in due course…

Actually while I’m on… it’s not something I’ve ever talked about, I used to be ashamed of the way I am at times, still am to a small degree I suppose but I know I’m not alone. I’m lucky in that I have a close and supportive family though I feel terrible about the intense worry I’ve caused them during the really bad times. The causes are many and complex and it is history, I’m trying to move on, but I get so frustrated by my seeming inability to manage what is generally perceived as a ‘normal’ life. I’m quite happy to look after myself in dangerous and exciting situations around the world but as soon as I try to lead what is generally expected to be a normal life it all goes wrong… I’m ready to drop it all and f*ck off back to South America again for a year or more but I’m not sure if that is just running away again….ho hum. Apparently the Berber people of North Africa have a saying that everyone is born with a story in their heart, I guess I just haven’t found what mine is yet….
Adios!

Condor, it’s “finished”….

Monday really bucked the trend for UK Bank Holiday (well it down here at least) with wall to wall sunshine. I predictably spent my morning out on the bike cruising along the cliff-tops down west, but that is not why I’m writing… I’m not in the mood for writing much at all in fact so my cop out for the next day or two is simply to put up those promised pics of my Condor ‘project’ now that it’s finished. Regular gearing is a nice round 100″ (55×15) which works great on the less than flat roads round here.

Here it is:

gears would have been nice…

OK, I concede….today was the first time since I decided to ride all my TTs fixed that I actually really wanted some gears down at the back end… This morning was the South West District Championships and I really didn’t do as well as I should have done, just missing the top 10 by a handful of seconds in a field of 68. Things just didn’t go right this morning, I’ll make the excuses in a minute, hehe :o). but the bottom line is that I just didn’t “have it” today, I just could not find my groove and get on top of the gear. It happens. I suspect know I’m not really recovered from the race Thursday night either…

The forecast for this morning was grim – heavy rain and strong winds so waking up at 5.30am to still conditions and dry roads was a bonus… the rain did sweep in on the drive up to the race but had eased again by the time I reached HQ and stayed away all morning which was nice, no bike cleaning to be done this evening :o). The wind though was a different story… it didn’t feel too bad for the early starters off at 8 but I was a late start with an hour to wait, by 9am the wind had freshened to a solid force 6 from the south which, from my point of view was the worst possible direction for this course. The S100/10 is new this year, today the outbound (headwind) leg was longer than the return and with a long, steep climb to the turn. It was this that really killed me – my gear choice (99″) was fine for 97% of the course but fighting the wind up the climb I really could have done with a few extra teeth at the back, and a few less teeth for the tailwind descent on the return, I could not wind it up past 43mph. I might have been OK had I been on top form but I went and threw up on the climb (ugh…. made a mess on my skinsuit, not a nice thing to do riding into a strong headwind, hehe), a combination of effort and, I think, the painkillers I used this morning to dull the pain in my cracked ribs – they do upset my stomach slightly. After that I just couldn’t get it together…. So yeah, maybe I need to sort myself out with a geared bike for days like this… the S100 is going to be used a lot more now I think… I’ll have a chat with Steve over at Cyclelogic next week and see what is kicking around…. My fixed will always be my first choice though today I could probably have been riding this and it would not have made much difference….

I don’t have my exact placing yet, I’ll update this with results when I have them (updated: I was 12th, results in the comments field below.. Sean Childs’ ride was phenomenal!). I didn’t hang around for the prize-giving, being eager to head down to Portmellon and see my sister for lunch… which leads me on to my rant of the day…. With the warmer weather coming Cornwall is suffering the annual influx of “city folk on holiday” who haven’t got a clue how to cope with narrow windy roads… guys (and gals) if you’re reading… before heading down this way please, please learn where your reverse gear is…. freezing at the wheel with a panic stricken look on your face really is not helpful when you find yourself facing traffic in a road little wider than your car and the nearest passing place is just 5 yards behind you. I’ll help you, it’s easy to find, it looks like this:

Taking of width of your car… that’s another thing, learn how fu*kin’g (excuse language) wide it is please, your car, whatever it happens to be, is not wider than a bus and you don’t need 10 feet of clearance each side to pass me when I’ve kindly reversed 500 metres for you ‘cos you didn’t have a clue… (oh and bloody smile will you, you’re on holiday..) If I had my way I’d set up border controls and force everyone coming into Cornwall to have a reversing proficiency license…

Ok, rant over…. I’m off to glue some faster tubulars* on my TT wheels :o)

* specially for the bike geeks… I have been running Conti Competitions on my TT bike, not the fastest tub there is but very durable, last year I wrote off a few lighter (but faster) tubs so I decided to sacrifice the 7W or so of additional rolling resistance they’re supposed to have over a set of Veloflex jobs. I’ve managed to get my hands on a set of relatively rare (in the UK) 23mm wide Vittoria Corsa EVO CXs however which I can’t wait to try. The commonly available 21mm width doesn’t blend properly with the sidewall profile of the HED Stinger rims, 22-23mm as a package is better aerodynamically.

Fibre-Lyte carbon ring

It has been a most virtuous evening of resisting temptation… that is I forced myself to to focus on the essential and mucky-fingered jobs that really had to be done instead of playing about with the new kit that just arrived for my TT bike.. namely a nice Truvativ Omnium crank and carbon chainring. I’m not going to show you the crank (yet) because I’m a bit rushed, I have to be out of here at 5.30 am tomorrow to head off to a design review… needless to say given the current run of fine weather I’d rather be riding… OK, back to the chainring… here it is … in black and white because I think it looks better that way, and it’s not like you’re missing anything given that carbon is black anyway.

It’s a 55T, 1/8 thick job from Fibre Lyte here in the UK. They made it for me in about 8 days which seemed pretty reasonable… the cost will seem stupid to the non-bike nuts out there so I’ll not bother trying to justify it, I just wanted it. Nothing to do with the weight-weenie aspect (I’m weaning myself off that… I’m doing well too, normal weenie conduct would have dictated photographing it on a set of scales so folk can ooh and aaahh about how many grams it doesn’t weigh..) Rather it just looks cool… realistically however there are only two real options if you want a 1/8″ ring this big in a 144bcd… both custom and both expensive (MDT for alloy or Fibrelyte for carbon). I’m not too bothered about the wear rate – as a single ring on a 1/8″ fixed gear setup it should last a few seasons of use. I’ll report back on how it runs and apparent wear later in the season, standby however for some photos of it and the new crank installed… probably by the weekend.

As for the mucky fingered stuff… another bloody flat cycling home this afternoon (different bike, different place, equally as annoying) and a replacement BB bearing for my Merlin… actually a warranty replacement from Ernie over at ProCyclingDiscount (top chap, no fuss replacement) for the crazy light Token carbon-shelled, titanium axled one I fitted back in November…. with a bit of luck this one will last longer :o)

Now, if you’ll excuse me I really must live up to my professional obligations and iron a shirt for tomorrow… probably getting oily fingermarks on it in the process..