Author: Cris Bloomfield

Usually mountain biking in the North.

Unkool Stop

When I built up my Independent Fabrication Planet Cross it was fitted with some Kool Stop brake pads in the Paul Compent Engineering cantilevers. From the off the bike’s been plagued by an irritatingly noisy front brake, which irrespective of teh amount of toe-in refused to be tamed. I think I tried it with a 5mm difference front to back and they still squeaked. Tried cleaning the rims and filing the pads down and setting up again. No difference.

At the weekend I picked up two pairs of Madison’s Aztec pads from Harry Halls. The rear brakes which have been doing double duty and were at the end of their life so I just replaced both sets even though the fronts were nearly new. The new pads solved the squeal. Which is a relief as I was doubting bith my mechanic skills and the alignment of my forks… Thing is now I need to fit a bell.

One Serieus Loser

Yesterday’s commute was the second this week worth mentioning, both due to the infamous bends of fury. Midway through the first bend, which is a 180 degree right hander with a set of traffic lights near the end of the bend, there’s a left hand turn off. It’s not an issue most of the time, because it’s rarely used.

The fact that some people fail to realise that it might be used is in itself a problem because when it does get some traffic, like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects it.

On Thursday I was overtaken by two drivers in the run up to the bends. The driver in front slowed to take the left hand exit, but the one behind in a Mitsubishi Shogun then decided to overtake, almost sideswiping me in the process.

Yesterday at the set of lights midway through the bends I arrived just as they were changing so moved into the outside lane overtaking the two cars. The driver of the black BMW one series who was overtaken didn’t like that and hooted their horn in protest. They then had the audacity to hoot at me as I turned into work 100m later. I dispensed some up yer kilt sign language and considered following them into the staff multi-storey. Managed to resist the temptation…

Tonight It Rained

This morning you could tell it was warmer outside because inside it was uncomfortably warm. Time then to crack out my favourite riding jacket and the standard issue gloves. Riding in the kit was perfect and the commute had that fresh air that you get on crisp autumnal days.

Of course tonight come home time, my choice of clothing was wholly inappropriate for the cold wet sleet of winter. The kind of weather that pierces you with a cold chill as icy water finds it’s way down the neck of your jacket, even with it zipped and baffled against the elements. This is the kind of riding that makes you remember why you ride all year around and why getting home to a nice warm household is such a great way to end a ride.

MCR Bike Polo

Rode the bike for a first time in a week today. It felt good to get some power down and the ‘cross bike is very capable in these wintery conditions. Still I had two near misses with numpties in cars on the way home that were completely pointless and achieved nothing other than a) getting the drivers two cars ahead in a stationary queue of traffic and in the second case, b) immediately hooted at by about half on Manchester for then trying to do a right turn across the oncoming traffic at a junction where right turns are prohibited. Nice one, losers.

On the way home from the hospital tonight I bumped into some of the guys from Manchester Bike Polo. They play down the road and no special bikes are required to have a go. Something for the New Year I think!

Two for One

Tonight would have been a fairly normal ride home on a freezing cold night and not worth writing about but then two numpties in cars tried to kill me. The first was a taxi driver who cut across two lanes of traffic and then over took me to then slam on his brakes and turn left. Thanks. I’ve got your number Alpha Cars.

Next up was only about 5 seconds later as I approached the junction a people carrier pulled in alongside me and tried to squeeze me into the gutter. I swung my knee out and made contact with the door! The driver was indicating left and fortunately the lights were red so I didn’t get cut up again and made it into the green box at the front of the junction before setting off again ahead of the traffic.

Brrr!

Crikey it’s cold at the moment. Ended up with a proper ice cream headache riding into work on Friday and with the temperatures still low today I knew it was time to layer up. Today it was time to dig out and don the Buffalo jacket. Mine is a Big Face smock which I bought in about ’94 and it’s still going strong and keeping me toasty, perhaps fortunately I went for the indigo blue colour rather than purple so it seems to have aged well, here it is in action in early 2006.

Buffalo in evidence
Photo by Dan Barham

Snow is forecast over night so it might be a case of taking a mountain bike out tomorrow as I still haven’t switched to cross tyres on the commuter. Winter is definitely here and making it’s mark. My pal Stuart has had 18″ of snow up near Perth!