Author: Cris Bloomfield

Photos from this weekend’s Peaks Epic – Invitation II “The Revenge”, are still up on the site here. Today starts off eith an e-mail from a French colleague who is quite amused by current events over here. I don’t know what George Orwell would have made of this but it sounds very much like something out of 1984:

From: Gilles
Subject: Big “Labour” Brother is Watching

Concerning the complete absence of privacy in telecommunications (your phone calls, emails and web surfing) in the UK, I wanted to let you know that on 13th November 2003, the Labour literally forced the House of Lords to approve what they call the “Snoopers’ Charter”.

“A series of regulations (Statutory Instruments) recently laid before the UK Parliament intends to create a legal basis for comprehensive surveillance of communications. The regulations will allow an extensive list of public authorities access to records of individuals’ telephone and Internet usage. This communications data” — phone numbers and e-mail addresses contacted, web sites visited, locations of mobile phones, etc — will be available to government without any judicial oversight. Not only does government want access to this information, but it also intends to oblige companies to keep personal data just in case it may be useful.”

To read how this happened, and how the Liberal Democrats and Tories tried to defend your rights to privacy, you can read this:

http://www.stand.org.uk/SnoopersCharter.html

“Until 2pm today it appeared that the government’s proposals to place every UK email and phone account under surveillance was doomed. Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Cross Bench peers had vowed to oppose them …”

I thought it might be useful to know that every single phone call you pass and every single email you write will soon be stored by your Provider (O2, BT and … ISD?) for an *unlimited* period of time, and will be accessible to many UK *and foreign* governmental agencies.

This British government is really good isn’t it? I mean just look at all the great things it’s done for us…okay that’s a pretty short list.

On a more light-hearted note:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Peter Kay One Liners

I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbour said ‘Are you going to help?’ I said ‘No, Six should be enough.”

I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with ‘Guess’ on it. I said, ‘Thyroid problem?’

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised that The Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.

I’ve often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.

I was doing some decorating, so I got out my step-ladder. I don’t get on with my real ladder.

My Dad used to say ‘always fight fire with fire’, which is probably why he got thrown out of the fire brigade.

If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?

Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don’t understand, such as working for a living

That reminds me of this weekend’s riding for some inexplicable reason. Getting onto more Bike related matters, another Freewheel Store is closing, a far cry from the time they held stores in nearly all of the biggest Cities and Towns in the country.

From: Jed
Subject: Freewheel

Freewheel has been in business in Prince of Wales Road since 1990 but will close when the Magic City arcade moves into the bike shop’s premises from its current location on the opposite side of the road.

Yarmouth Pleasure Beach proprietor Albert Jones, who owns Magic City and the premises occupied by Freewheel, was granted planning permission by Norwich City Council on Thursday to convert the bike shop into “an amusement arcade which would include an area with pool tables”.

Freewheel’s owner, who has another bicycle shop in Reading, Berkshire, was prepared to close the Norwich branch as it was approaching the end of its lease. There are currently no plans to reopen the store elsewhere in Norwich.

Maybe it didn’t have a lot going for it, but I think I’ll miss it in a way and I’m sure I won’t be the only person who will. Road trip anyone?

Photos from the Peaks Epic – Invitation II “The Revenge”, which happened yesterday are now up on the site here. Thanks to Rick Sykes for organising it and everyone else who was there, it was a classic Peak District ride.

Next year’s Mountain Bike World Cup scene could be a bit more lively now following news that French star Miguel Martinez is returning to off-road competition. This is from Cyclingnews:

France’s Olympic mountain bike champion Miguel Martinez has put a definitive end to his career as a road racer. The 28 year old Martinez explained in an interview in Saturday’s l’Equipe that he gave road racing a chance for two seasons, but has decided to devote himself to his first love, mountain biking. The 2004 Olympics in Athens remain his number one goal. Martinez rode for Mapei-Quick.Step in 2002, followed by a season with the Phonak Hearing Systems this year.

Martinez underlined his preference for an individual riding style, which he felt was not available in the peloton on the road. After a season of learning the ropes with Mapei, the expectations for results at Phonak were not matched by the freedom to ride his own races.

“I found myself in a situation that I didn’t like,” Martinez said. “I was only capable of being a simple teammate. I would have liked to have had my own card to play, to test myself on my own terrain, the mountains.”

Martinez is honest about his abilities on the road, and at the same time reveals that he was “born to win”, and victory was something he never achieved on the tarmac, something he desperately misses.

“Above all, the feeling of a victory, of raising my arms and sensing the excitement of the crowd,” he said. “In two years on the road, I never felt that pleasure… In fact, I think there are too many constraints on the road for a rider like me.”

Martinez’s only regret is not having fulfilled his goal of winning the king of the mountains prize in the Tour de France. His 2002 Tour will remain his only ride at the Grande Boucle, as Phonak was not selected for the 2003 race.

Moving ahead, Martinez is dabbling in cyclo-cross this winter, but with no serious ambitions. He will focus on the 2004 Olympics, and even hopes to remain competitive until the 2008 games in China. Martinez will not likely remain in Phonak colours as he heads back off road.

“I asked Phonak if my riding the mountain bike season in their jersey would interest them, and the answer was a timid yes,” he explained. “So, I went looking elsewhere, to Commençal Oxbow. My decision was made: I’d never go back to the road.”

Important Announcement: If you want to fuck a Wallaby use a Johnny.

England 20 – 17 Australia

What a result and what a match, it brought back a lot of memories from my Rugby playing days, especially the problem of trying to maintain a lead over the opposition. The British team played with ability, self-discipline and control and held their nerve until the final moments of a thrilling match. Johnny Wilkinson will almost inevitably be Sport’s Personality of the Year, but who would say that he doesn’t deserve it? England are now the only Northern Hemisphere team to have ever won the Rugby World Cup. Read more here.

Tony Doyle, aka, Jedi, is arguably one of the foremost proponents in the British North Shore scene and has more cycling ability than most will ever be likely to achieve. Don’t take my word for it, check out his photo galleries.

Cyclo cross seems to be having something of a revival at the moment and there seems to be a lot of demand for the bikes. A lot of mountain bikers and roadies use ‘cross as a means of maintaining fitness over the winter and keeping that competitive edge.

Not many people into cross may have heard of frankenbikes, basically bodging together a ‘cross-styled steed, which has all the fun, if not the UCI backing, of real ‘cross bikes. Even some of the pros have been seen on such beasts. Read more here.

And if ‘cross takes your fancy, then British company On One do some rather fetching and very reasonably priced titanium cyclo-cross framesets, as tried and tested by Nick Craig, who was second in this years Three Peaks race.

It’s that time of year when a lot of kit is getting well and truly thrashed and everyone is looking for new gear to see them through the winter months. If that includes footwear you might be interested in this review of Nike’s top-of-the-range mtb shoe, the Carnerso. For more kit reviews, check out mtb review.

Ullrich’s defection to T-mobile might just be the end for the short-lived, high profile Team Bianchi, who are now haemorrhaging riders. There’s more on that and the forthcoming big name line up at the Manchester Revolution track series over at Cyclingnews.

I’m not sure what to make of this mountain bike boardgame. Perhaps it’s something that you could do if you were ever snowed-in whilst out on an epic adventure in the wilderness. The rest of the time I think you just have to be on the scotch.

Fortunately this website on mountain biking in New Zealand is a bit more interesting. I have to say though these guys have it sorted, with organised Heli-Biking in those popular southern hemisphere Islands..

This is Piers Barber’s website, The Power of One, it’s about bikes with one gear, bikes with one in their name and one rather competitive rider. He also makes a fair point:

This is the only website I know of that’s dedicated to a bike frame. And to look at it, it’s not the most beautiful bike frame in the world. Those are made by De Rosa .

Here’s a link to the Velo News website. It’s a rather good American bike mag that doesn’t get seen much over here, see what you think. If you haven’t seen the mag before it’s worth trying to get hold of a copy.

Apparently the Women’s Sports Foundation has slams the “appalling” media coverage of female sport in Britain, something that will resonate with UK fans of Nicole Cooke, the all-conquering cyclist who gets precious few mentions in the mainstream press, despite her success. Read the full article over at Bikebiz.

Finally next years T-Mobile team line up is looking pretty awesome, check these big names: Ullrich, Vinokourov, Botero, Savoldelli, and Evans. Lance Armstrong’s USPS team will be facing possibly their biggest challenge yet if they are to help their leader set a record six tour wins. There’s more over at cycling news.

You may have heard of the extremely controversial Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed a few years ago in the US. Well, the EU passed a very similar law recently, the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations (EUCD), and the UK will start enforcing it from today. These snippets from this Guardian article some up the shit storm that is about to be released:

Since the beginning of November, new European copyright laws have started to limit access to some online material and have made downloading or copying certain things – even if they are solely for your personal use – a criminal offence. Devices that allow you to play legitimately acquired, but copy-protected, CDs or DVDs on your PC will be illegal and file sharers could face an unlimited fine or a jail term of up to two years.

Copyright had always focused on people infringing rights and making copies. This goes further and says that any kind of technology that can help you do that is now illegal. The record companies are trying all sorts of ways to try to prevent copying – such as releasing CDs that you can listen to on a hi-fi but can’t on a PC because it won’t read it. The EUCD says it is illegal to break those copyright mechanisms even if you do it for a perfectly valid reason. So, if you buy a CD and want to listen to it on your PC at work, which is quite legitimate, you can’t.

The ban on bypassing digital controls is so broad that it has been used to jail an employee of a competing Russian software company, threaten journalists and researchers over scientific publications, and prevent innovation and competition. With several bills to amend the DMCA pending before US Congress, the lesson of the US experience is to avoid passing overly broad circumvention bans such as the DMCA and EUCD.

Legal experts have expressed surprise that there has been no wider public debate on the directive. “There was a consultation in August 2002, when the Patent Office put out a series of proposals,” says Mark Owen, head of intellectual property at the law firm Harbottle & Lewis. “But that was only made available to people who knew about it already. While there isn’t really a consumers’ body that deals with that sort of thing, the fact that there has been absolutely no public debate is quite
astonishing.”

Over time it could change the whole nature of copyright and the way we buy and sell copyrighted works. Eventually you may realise that what you are getting is not a thing but some sort of licence to access a concept and that licence is limited in all sorts of ways.

Has the fact that this is going to happen been publicised? Has it bollocks. Just like the way the ban on using mobile phones whilst driving is going to be put into effect from the beginning of next month.

I understand the reasoning behind the later, it’ll make the roads safer for us all, but this music copyright issue is just getting out of hand. Read more on how copyright law has finally caught up with UK web users.

There is a point where seat posts fitted to bikes can just be too long. After this point is passed things look disproportional – the frame looks too small for the rider. This point may have been reached, click for the evidence.

How about Singletrack backgrounds for your WAP mobile phone. Any takers? Anyone?

Ni h-e la na baisti la na bpaisti

‘A rainy day isn’t a day for children’ . You can hopefully now get the local weather forecast, well local to Manchester anyway, from the link over on the right (or here).

Conrad’s heading back out to France for another season on skis. He’ll be missed around the shop, but we’re sure that he’ll be back on two wheels next year.

The Turner 5 Spot received a ton of praise in the latest issue of Mountain Bike Action. There’s been some criticism of the American magazine from its readers because there is a definite bias towards the top end of the market in terms of extensive bike reviews.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I want to read all about the cutting edge, the best bikes manufacturers have to offer. I haven’t seen anyone else doing a four page review of the Intense Spyder or the Santa Cruz V10. MBA is different to other magazines in offering more indepth reviews and comparing the marketing hype with reality.

If it’s crap, they’re not afraid to point it out, even if it offends companies and loses them advertising revenue. If I remember rightly after a particularly bad review of some Rock Shox, all advertising was pulled. It’s good to see someone’s telling it like it is.

There’s also some photo coverage from the MTB worlds in Lugano. Since Mountain Bike Intenational stopped publishing, there’s been a fairly big void in that sense from the UK mags as far as I’m concerned. The other great thing with it is that you see a lot of kit that just isn’t available over here, it’s just a shame about their spelling. I’m beginning to think that they spell Steve Peat’s name wrong on purpose.

Had some criticism about the site today, apparently there’s been too much road stuff on here recently and that’s just not in keeping with the mountain bike image. Well it’s all cycling and both the roadies and mountain bikers out there deserve equal respect as far as I’m concerned.

In both disciplines technology is continually pushing forward and the cross overs are of benefit to all of us. Magnesium alloy, Scandium alloy, Metal Matrix, Titanium, Carbon, Boron Steel, all the latest material advances can be found in both mountain biking and road. We all get something out of it so I reckon it’s all good.

This is not so good, well for some at least, the UCI are not allowing disc brakes in Elite-level cyclo cross races until the technology has been approved. Read more here.

I think everyone has met, at sometime or another, someone like Dave:

Read more here.

I was asked yet again today to try and explain why singlespeeding is such a big thing. Well first time I tried it I hated it. First time I tried beer, I hated that too…

Somethings just grow on you. You have to try it to understand what makes it so good.

On the other hand you can try and explain it to people, but I honestly don’t think any amount of explaining can really make them understand. However if you want to know more take a look at Nick Wallis’ 32sixteen site and the old version here.

There’s an interview with Jim Ochowicz, former pro, cycling advocate, team manager, consultant, and friend to Lance over at bike.com. That’s one hell of a resume to show people and I bet there are a fair few pros on the circuit today who would mind having that kind of future after cycling.

I mentioned Fi’zi:k’s new Arione road saddle a few days ago and there is now a first thoughts review of it over at cyclingnews. There’s also a few interesting stories over in their most recent news section, including vague details of Beloki’s new team, the row between Ullrich and Bianchi and a report about Baden Cooke that shows a less glamorous side to being a pro. Read it all here.

The whole issue of indoor mountain biking was raised yesterday and I have to say initially I had by reservations about the idea. That said the way the discussion went with the idea of indoors North Shore stuff being proposed, I think it might just work. Read the full post here, which includes some picture of indoor riding of a similar nature that’s already up and running in the States.

I’ve added links to a few games and have now uploaded the enjoy the weather video featuring Lance Armstrong. Check out the links on the Main page.

There’s a new track racing series coming to the Velodrome. It’s called Revolution and it’s promising some big names in the lineup.

Pink Bike have just put up an article about the two producers behind the successful Canadian Mountain Bike Road Trip Series, Drop In. Read the full article here.

A few facts about London:

650,000 regular cyclists.
44% those killed between 1994 -9 were involved in collision with HGVs, according to TfL.
29% of those happened while an HGV was turning left.
TfL says cycling in inner London has gone up by 30% since the introduction of congestion charge.

Now the father of a female cyclist killed by an HGV has produced a film called 44 Tonne Articulated Trucks and Towns Don’t Mix to publicise the dangers they pose to people living in cities. Read more over at the BBC.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the ruling against the World Rally Drivers who were caught speeding by a camera in South Wales several years ago has just been made. The report questions the future of the event in the UK.

Someone needs to do something to protect motorsport in the UK, because it’s not just the income from annual events that we’ll lose if stupid government policies make it impossible for organisers to run events here.