Bike Blog
One of the things I’ve been meaning to do in the garage for ages is to sort out my tyres. There’s been tyres in bags, tyres in boxes, tyres hanging on hooks, new tyres, used tyres, muddy tyres… Lots of tyres and no easy means of finding the tyre you’re looking for or keeping them in one place. Two Estate Agent For Sale sign posts (there is an advantage to student beer trophies), a few nails and a little patience later and there’s now a tyre rack in the garage to keep things organised.
I don’t post these very often, but this is a good’un.
Two guys meet up in a bar. The first one asks, “Did your hear the news – Mike is dead??!!!”
“Woah, what the hell happened to him?”
“Well he was on his way over to my house the other day and when he arrived outside the house he didn’t brake properly and boom – He hit the curb, the car flipped over and he crashed through the sunroof – Went flying through the air and smashed through my upstairs bedroom window.”
“What a horrible way to die!”
“No no, he survived that, that didn’t kill him at all. So, he’s landed in my upstairs bedroom and he’s all covered in broken glass on the floor. Then, he spots the big old antique wardrobe we
have in the room and reaches up for the handle to try to pull himself up. He’s just dragging
himself up when bang, this massive wardrobe comes crashing down on top of him, crushing him and breaking most of his bones.”“What a way to go, that’s terrible!”
“No no, that didn’t kill him he survived that. He managed to get the wardrobe off him and crawls out onto the landing, he tries to pull himself up on the banister but under his weight, the banister breaks and he goes falling down on to the first floor. In mid air, all the broken banister poles spin and fall on him, pinning him to the floor, sticking right through him.”
“Now that is the most unfortunate way to go!”
“No no, that didn’t kill him, he even survived that. So he’s on the downstairs landing, just beside the kitchen. He crawls in to the kitchen, tries to pull himself up on the stove, but reached for a big pot of boiling hot water, whoosh, the whole thing came down on him and burned most of his skin off him.”
“Man, what a way to go!”
“No no, he survived that, he survived that! He’s lying on the ground, covered in boiling water and he spots the phone and tries to pull himself up, to call for help, but instead he grabs the light switch and pulls the whole thing off the wall and the water and electricity didn’t mix and so he got electrocuted, wallop, 10,000 volts shot through him.”
“Now that is one awful way to go!”
“No no, he survived that…”
“Hold on now, just how the hell did he die?”
“I shot him!”
“You shot him? What the hell did you shoot him for?”
“He was wrecking my house.”
Been up to Geordieland for the weekend and it was champion. It’s been a good ten years since I went up to the north east and it’s changed a lot from my memories of the place. Granted it still wasn’t warm, but at least this time it didn’t rain the entire time and the pizza in Jesmond was ace! Spent Saturday wandering around Newcastle and headed over the Tyne to check out Baltic. It was a great trip, but I might need to get a guide before the next visit.
In terms of Bikes it seems Chris’ insider knowledge on new products coming out of the Trek/Gary Fisher partnership was spot on. The new Roscoe is like a slightly shorter travel version of my fantastic Remedy 9. Talking of which why is it no matter how much helicopter tape you put all over a frame it always gets scratched in the unprotected areas? Some flat pedal pin scratches and chain slap have left their marks so a quick trip to Halfords means I now have some suitable touch up paint…
A while back I mentioned Charlie Kelly and the fact that his website is a great resource on the history of mountain biking. What I didn’t know then, but do now, is that he’s also a contributor to Dirt Rag. I thought that his write up from the Specialized product launch was one of the best reads I’ve had in a long time.
It’s been pointed to me that I didn’t actually post up any portraits of Neil Mottershead into his 50th Birthday set. Well I guess I never set out to take any shots like that. I get embarassed asking people to pose and they get conscious of the fact that there’s a lense pointing at them. Any way I snapped some pictures of Neil last year, so here’s one of them:
Photos from a very special trip to the Switzerland including some previously unexplored trails not just for us but also for our guide Jamie Carr from Ride the Alps. Top trip, great company and a bit of a party or two!
When I turn fifty I want to be pulling cool tricks like Neil – the guy has serious amounts of class and talent! More photos up on Flickr.
It was also great to meet Jules Fincham from Cycle Wild Scotland on the trip (although we only rode together for a day before he jetted off). He’s a top bloke and runs his business out of Aviemore, where he knows Ben Davies and the gang in Bothy Bikes. I’ll have to get up there for some riding in the near future.
Back from the Alps, sans VTT. Seventeen mountain bikers boarded my flight home, but the baggage handlers never even loaded the bikes onto the plane. There were some rather pissed off people hanging around in the baggage reclaim area, although the one member of staff from the airline who had to deal with us all wasn’t looking too happy about the situation either. Riding wise it was a great trip with friends exploring some new areas, progressing avec body armour and crashing out with some style. Possibly the only biking holiday I have ever had where I feel like I’ve put on weight – largely due to two enormous birthday dinners for Riggers and Neil.
A reader sent an email in recently regarding the Cape Epic having read the blog posts from the 2007. They seem to have caused some worries. It seems that the two have just been accepted onto the 2009 race. With no mountain biking experience they’re starting to worry about what they’re letting themselves in for. Here are the questions and my advice:
Is it madness to attempt this? We’re both 30 and fit with 9 months to train, but we’ve never done serious mountain biking, let alone raced. Should we forget all about it and save ourselves the bother?
It’s not madness, but be in no doubt that this is an exceptionally hard event. Some of the best mountain bikers in the world will be there and the level of racing is generally of a high standard. That said not every one is a pro and you will undoubtedly find other riders of a similar level to yourself – whatever that level ends up being – because the field is massive.
What’s the best way to start training, to get the right equipment etc? Are there any UK marathon racing experts or coaches that we should speak to? I guess the ideal might be some guy near London who has a bike shop and is a racing expert who’d fancy helping us get the right kit and maybe take us out on a few bike rides too…
Ride your bike as much as possible and with your team mate as often as possible. We lost 45 minutes on one stage because of poor communication so you need to practice riding with each other and talking as much as possible. In terms of coaching then I can’t advise. I would try and find a road club and get some road miles in with a regular chaingang.
Are there any particular websites or clubs for this particular branch of mountain biking? Where we can find other people who do this all the time? Is this considered Enduro? Marathon? Epic? or 24Hr? as all seem to be related.
Mmm. There are enduro events like Trailbreaks, but most of them are over the summer and you’ll be training in winter. The main options are to do some Trailquests. There are no specific websites. You’ll find people who’ve ridden similar events (i.e. TransRockies and La Ruta de los Conquistadores) on Singletrack and Bikemagic forums and also on the US MTBR and DirtRag Forums.
Hardtail or full-suss? I assume it’s full-suss if we can afford £4K+ for a bike, but otherwise it’s a tough call? In your blog it sounded like hardtail made it hurt you more? That sounds like a bad idea then, or is it worth the pain for the extra uphill speed?
I would say a hardtail with disc brakes is fine but I would upgrade to a Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost and quality saddle like an SDG Bel Air RL Titanium. I was lucky to be riding a custom built Titanium bike engineered for endurance racing costing well over £4k all in, but my team mate was on a £1400 bike with a few upgrades. He didn’t change the seatpost, but wished he had. Make sure your shocks are serviced and setup or you prior to the race. Replace the gear cables, chain, cassette and big and middle rings before the event. Convert the wheels to run tubeless withe sealant – speak to Jon at Just Riding Along for advice. We rode ultra skinny 1.9 Maxxis Larsen TTs with JRA Milk in them and had no punctures.
What would you have done differently?
Trained more in a hot climate – a Canary Islands trip would have been ideal. Listened to my body more and sought medical help earlier. Planned for communication breakdowns with my team mate.
What’s the question I should be asking that I don’t know to ask because I’m a dumb novice?
Nutrition. Get some advice and used to using the products you intend to use well in advance of the race so your body gets used to them. Eat as much as possible during the race. Take food with you that you are used to – don’t rely only on what is provided as it may not be to your taste. Pay the extra for using the nutrition stops during the race so you can pick up new waterbottles at each checkpoint.
Anything else?
In terms of the race it should be awesome next year with the likelihood of the start being moved a lot closer to Cape Town. If it happens the routes will be all new and probably a lot hillier and more technical. If it starts in Gordon’s Bay and goes around the surrounding mountainous area there will be plenty of climbing and although it won’t be as hot, there will be some seriously good views over the ocean. I guess everyone will find out more at the official launch in October. Will I be there? Maybe…
It appears that the conflict between the UCI, the organisers of the Cycling Global ProTour, and the organsers of the three grand tours* (Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España and Tour de France) and racing teams have come to a head. The UCI have had the foundations of the series swept from under them by the recent decision of all the major teams to leave the ProTour – a decision apparently supported by the grand tour organisers. Pat McQuaid’s cries that:
“These teams need to think of the responsibilities they have to those organisers, rather than just thinking of themselves,” he added. “They have a responsibility to the rest of the sport, and they are not doing that. The ramifications in a year or two is that ASO will be selecting the teams for the Tour de France out of a possible 30 or 40 Pro Continental teams. So where are half of these teams gone then?” (From cyclingnews.com)
He seems to be missing the point that majority of the teams and event organisers seem to have been deeply unhappy about the direction that UCI was taking professional cycling. Road Racing isn’t Formula One (although I’m sure many cyclists wish they were on F1 salaries) and efforts to globalise the sport further by taking it into ‘new markets’ isn’t something that’s in their interests. By failing to listen to the feedback and not working with the Grand Tour organisers to agree compromises on simple things like wildcard entries, the ProTour has been fatally undermined.
Most teams won’t care even if McQuaid’s warnings about the decision effectively being a jump out of the frying pan and into the fire is true. They should never have been pressurised to the point where such a radical decision was needed. The big question now is what significance the UCI will play in the future of professional road racing. Clearly the World Championships will continue to fall under their remit (complete with ghastly and shonkily rubbish website presences), but they tend to focus more on the individual and national interests rather than significance of the team.
I say keep a very close eye on Greg Lemond. Recently free of his connection with Trek through Lemond Bikes, the former Tour winner has been a vocal critic of the UCI under McQuaid. His statement that Cycling doesn’t need the UCI has generated a lot of support from the public. His anti-doping message which features an open criticism and (justifiable) lack of sympathy for those caught is in harmony with the current atmosphere in the 2008 Tour – the race is filled with and dominated by a new generation of riders who don’t share the same attitude to drugs**.
Lemond could very well be the man of the moment. Watch this space.
It had been looking like a complete washout for today with another cold, wet July weekend. Amazingly (and thankfully) the weather forecast was wholly inaccurate for sunday.
It was great to wake up to see 
out of the window.
I’ve had it in mind for some time to revisit some of the old trails I explored some ten years ago when I first arrived in Manchester. Today’s key trail was the bridleway over the moors that passes Robin Hood’s Picking Sticks.
Despite all the rain the trails were in good condition and it was great to be out riding. It was quiet too, I saw four riders all day and loved some of the great downhills on the Remedy. I think I’ve sussed out the RP23 settings and now have the pro pedal working even better – I managed to complete the ascent up from Mottram Old Road to the summit of the ridge and Werneth Low Road for the first time with no dabs.
Nothing directly to do with a song by Marti Pellow and the boys from the 80s pop band, just general reflection in the fact that it’s currently a hypothermia inducing wet summer and has been for some time. It can be summed up as:
Some of this 
mostly this 
and 
and occasionally this 
Met Office Forecast
Rather cool, largely cloudy with rain or showers.
Today:
A band of rain will slowly edge southeastwards across the region this morning, with perhaps some locally heavy bursts of rain. Brighter conditions will follow, along with scattered showers, some of which will turn heavy, especially across Cumbria and Lancashire. Maximum temperature 16 °C.
Tonight:
Staying largely cloudy, with scattered showers. Initially the showers will be heavy at times, but overnight the showers will gradually become lighter, and perhaps replaced by longer spells of rain. Minimum temperature 10 °C.
Saturday:
Sunny intervals and scattered showers, these mainly light. Through the afternoon the showers will become more isolated, allowing longer spells of sunshine to develop. Maximum temperature 16 °C.
Outlook for Sunday to Tuesday:
Sunday isolated showers, sunny intervals. Monday starting dry but becoming cloudy, with outbreaks of rain arriving. This rain will fizzle away overnight, only to be replaced by further rain Tuesday.
Probably shouldn’t complain too much. It could probably be worse and it is a chance to test just how good certain waterproof items are in their ability to keep you dry and warm.
R O T H A R . C O M 