Bike Blog
John Ross is doing the Iditarod Invitational next year after it being an ambition for a long time.1,100 miles across frozen Alaska in winter. Next years race starts on Sunday, February 22th, 2009 at 2pm from Knik Lake.
You can keep track of his training and preparation on Daze of Tundra. Great website name 🙂
It rained a lot today, this was good news for Lewis Hamilton because it appears Ferrari’s don’t like the rain. The British Grand Prix was an amazing event to watch. In the end at about 4pm the weather changed and with all the gear ready I headed out to Marple. Years ago I led a few rides as part of demo days for Harry Halls which were based at Marple’s Roman Lakes on a cracking little route. I’ve used it a few times since to try other bikes and I still think that it’s a good benchmark.
The route has a tricky climb, but the Remedy just swallowed it all up. The grip from the rear end is amazing and very impressive. It doesn’t feel mountain goat like in the same way that the Ti Deluxe does, but pop it in the granny select a sensible gear and concentrate on a line and the bike just does the rest. Very impressive. On the downhill it is great to be back on a long travel bike and the Remedy just flies. It feels balanced and stable in the air and rails through corners. What a cracking bike!
Picked up my new ride from Simon at Harry Halls in Manchester earlier today. I’ve been waiting for this since February and despite all the rumours about why they’re been delayed so long since the rave reviews last year, I’m glad to say that on first look it appears that it was worth the wait. It looks mint!
There are of course a few things that needed tweaking. First up I managed to give my left hand a stigmata wound on one of the cable tie ends under the top tube (so turned them all 180 degrees to prevent being stabbed any further. I then spent the next few hours fettling. The plan was to fit a Saint bashguard and a 34t TA middle ring, but it turns out that Saint bashguards need specific chaiinring bolts so that addition is on hold for a bit.
Fitted an SDG Bel Air RL Titanium, some candy pedals and then covered much of the key areas of the frame in ‘Copter tape. Top tube top and sides, underneath of the downtube, sides of the seat and chainstays and all the cable contact points. I also managed to track the irritating noise from the front wheel under rotation to a couple of bits of swarf trapped in the rim behind the rim tape. Experimented with the shock and fork pressures and riding positions.
It then continued to rain all day. Riding postponed to Sunday. Update: A few photos up on flickr from Sunday’s ride with details of the bike setup as comments.
When I was riding 30 from 30 earlier this year I used my iPod on a few rides to alleviate the boredom. I’ve thought much of the stock iPod earphones and for whatever reason most in-ear headphones spend most of their time falling out, making them as much use as a chocolate teapot. So a while back I bought some Sony MDR-O33 headphones which have spung loops that fit behind the ears and hold em in place.
Unfortunately they’re too good at holding on to your ears and can actually be a bit uncomfortable to wear for a prolonged period and they’re a bit bulky, so they don’t really work well under beanies. So the headphones weren’t quite right and carrying the iPod classic around was like having a small block of stone in your jersey pocket so I was keen to try something different.
Ben Haworth‘s been a big fan of iPod shuffles for a long time and after picking one up I have to say I can see what he means. Stick it in shuffle mode, cue up a load of riding tunes and marvel at the tiny size and excellent sound quality. After quite a lot of research – most saying thet Sennheiser’s weren’t great in this format – I went for some Philips SHS800s. They’re pretty good in terms of sound quality and with the ear hook being flexible rubber they’re nice and comfy too.
Good for riding with too…
Phone call today from Simon at Harry Hall Cycles to say the new bike has arrived and I’ve arranged to go and pick it up tomorrow. A few bits have been ordered in advance including these which should come in handy…
Nick Wallis has ridden all of the Mountain Mayhem 24hr races. Hat’s off to him it’s a top effort and he deserved to be on the podium this year for his award. Just wish I could have been there to get all wet and muddy with every one else. Maybe next year I’ll make it.
That said if I don’t recover from what ever it is that is clogging up my head soon the rest of the summer is going to be over before I get any proper riding in!
Perhaps typically just as I indicate that I’d been keen in getting some (not just riding but) racing into my plans, my body decideds it’s had enough and I end up with a horrible sinus and throat infection. Lots of horrid stuff being produced, bunged up headaches and aching joints. A fairly regular dosage of the winning combination of honey, lemon and laphroaig hot toddie and Neurofen Plus and decongestants, have over the course of five days with lots of sleep and sofa lounging helped shift it and I’m on the road to recovery. ‘Cross racing will have to wait for a bit longer.
In the time spent getting better one of the ways to pass the time has been to hook up to xBox Live for a bit of Halo 3 action. I was never a massive person for computer games, but I had a first generation Playstation, before moving to an xBox and then a 360 a couple of years ago. Predominantly I play Halo 3 (H3) at the moment with occasionally a bit of Forza Motorsport 2. H3 for me is a social thing, There’s people I know who I play with either on the same console, or friends in Manchester who are a great laugh to have online or a random number of players from all over the world.
Yours truly wielding the rather useful shotgun
The thing with H3 is not just the xBox live gameplay which pits you either individually or in teams against others, but the amazing graphics which continue to amaze me even now and the simplicity of the xBox Live matchmaking setup. I think even Apple would have a difficult job of simplifying what Microsoft and Bungie have achieved. Outside the game there’s a whole web community element that has driven development, broadened awareness and appeal through machinema like Red vs Blue and led to the implementation of games like Griffball, which quite frankly is hilarious.
Still it’s not the same as being outthere riding bikes…
Manchester Mountain Bikers. Perhaps that should read Manchester Stockport Mountain Bikers. Anyway, one of the guys in Harry Halls gave me a card for these guys last time I was in. It’s a bloody good idea actually – the number of times we used to get people in asking for information about local clubs and had little to give out meant this was a definite opportunity that has been taken. Anyway these are some of the people behind the efforts in Reddish Vale and there’s a cyclocross race this Wednesday night…
I upgraded to Firefox 3 at work on release day (although not at home) and one thing that has iritated me today is that the Spell Checker in the browser no longer seems to work with WordPress. It’s been discussed here.
Why is it that Fox use a different type of anodising on rear shock body shafts and fork stanchion surfaces. They both do the same job, they’re both supposed to be hard wearing, low friction coatings on aluminium. So why aren’t they both the same colour? Let’s consult the experts and see the responses…
Pushed the Harry Hall into a roundabout too fast today and discovered that aluminium doesn’t grip too well once you start trying to corner on the rim. What happened next had all the characteristics of a tank slapper stack in the making, but some how getting the wait of the back of the saddle and a bit of opposite lock some how kept it all together and I managed to ride it out. Freaky moment though. Wanted to ride at Penmachno, ended up riding to B&Q instead. It was shut. Rode home.
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