Category: Words

All the best highlights from the photos from the week of Alpine Singletrack are now up on the website. Ch-check’em out and leave some comments…

Mountain Bikers currently have less than 90 miles of bridleway and byway access along the 2000 mile English coast and much of this is under water at high tide. DEFRA are now consulting on access to the English coast and for once, IMBA have been told that if a cycling need is demonstrated, then the politicians could for once be positive… A brief e mail would be great making some of the following points:

• IMBAs preference would be for an open access corridor based on the Scottish Land Reform Act provisions
• Cycle clubs and Local Authorities could work together to identify suitable “core routes”
• Much of the coastal downland is very suitable for mountain bike journeys
• Ideally cyclists should consider what is appropriate for them to ride
• IMBA would at least want Local Authorities to have a duty to consider upgrading appropriate footpaths to bridleways

So drop an e mail giving your views to: coast.consultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk
The full document can be found on www.defra.gov.uk

Meanwhile in the USA, the future of the trails that form the heart of the Great Divide Race are under threat. IMBA is calling all riders to help save bike access to the 3,100-mile Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, which is truly a unique resource for the mountain biking community. Running the spine of the Rockies from Canada to Mexico it appears to be in danger.

The Forest Service just released a draft rule that would encourage land managers to kick bikes off existing routes, and not include us on future segments. Riders can make formal comments with the Forest Service and IMBA’s simple form makes it easy. Comments have to be received by 13 August.

Back from the Alps. Words can’t begin to describe the quality of the riding in France and Switzerland with friends and the group from Lancaster known as the Passouts Ltd over the last few days.

Words can describe trying to be clever on a bike after six pints of Stella and a day in the hot sun: stupid. More photos over the next few days…

I’m leaving the rain and the gloom and jetting off to the French Alps and the delights of Morzine singletrack.

From: Ride the Alps Ltd
Subject: Trip

Hi Cris,

Finally, it’ s hot and sunny! And due to be all next week :o)

Trails pretty muddy and soaked though but they’ll dry up fast.

See you tomorrow!

Mary

Not so long ago a fairly interesting suggestion was put to the everyone in Harry Halls when David Webster from Transcend Trail Academy dropped in to promote his new venture. Based in the Tweed Valley, they’re offering training and coaching to riders of all classes and abilities on how to become a bit more accomplished. Sometimes it’s not just enough to be out riding, there’s a need for that bit of help to make the step up to the next level. Transcend are looking to help make the jump check them out.

It actually stopped raining long enough recently to get into the hills and catch some much needed sunshine. It was a chance to test out the new DMC-FZ8 and it seems to have much better colour capture than the Sony it replaces.

Last Saturday I invested some time into the best bike shop in Manchester. It was a chance to catch up with the staff and some old friends and customers, including Conrad who is currently testing computer games and Chris Hamer who is recovering from having his jaw broken in a scuffle and and subsequent beating in Hulme on his way home from Sandbar.

One of the Manchester based bike paramedics dropped in for the mechanic to give his bike some attention. The Ambulance station they’re based at is at the Sport Village and they cover the entire inner city of Manchester. The bikes have to carry a horrendous weight and they hammer bike parts. On average the crew cover 100 miles a week, but all have reported losing up to 2 stone sweating it out in their distinctive yellow bike gear.

In preparation for the trip out to the alps in a few weeks I’ve replaced my cranks as it was only slightly more expensive that a full new set of rings and the old one have certainly served me well. The new XTR cranks and BB are a fairly different design, but I had thought that the bottom bracket cups had remained unchanged.

This turns out not to be true. Previously you could save a bit of money by running Dura Ace Bottom Brackets and suitably swapping spacers and internal sleeves. I’d had Tim at Sideways upgrade mine to Phil Wood Bearings too, so I was loathe to take them out and put something of lower spec back in.

After much faffing it became apparent that I really should have checked them out more closely. As you can see in the photo above, the shell casing of the new unit is about 1.5mm narrower than the predecessor and it just does not fit. the only conceivable way of achieving this is to solve the issue with some narrower shell spacers.

The second task was to upgrade the disc rotors to floating rotors. I am a big believe in these after their sterling performance last year on the transalp and had a spare 180mm rotor to get me started. The rear is a 160mm rotor which with reshimming the calliper to frame mounts went on a treat. Not so the front 180mm disc. The rivets that hold the steel disc to the alloy spider were fouling the calliper body.

After a closer look out came the file set and after some careful work it was possible to cut away the necessary material on both sides of the body. About 2mm needs to be taken off in total as the photos show the fit is tight, but having been tested works fine.

In all a fairly unique setup with the Magura Marta SLs and Hope rotors, but I was interested to see if it could be done and now I know!

I’m really looking forward to getting out to the Alps again now the weather here is just too damp…

TB is a dad again, with his second daughter arriving into the world on Monday. He’s stoked and who can blame him as he now has three lovely and beautiful women in his life. That said if this is what happens when you finish the Cape Epic, maybe I should stick to trying to make CSS navigation menus work.

Jay Petervary just called in from Antelope Wells, NM. He rolled in at 4:18pm, covering the 4,007km (2,490 miles), 61,000m (200,000 ft) of climing of 15days 4 hrs. It has knocked 20 hours of the previous record held by Mike Curiak and now sets a new standard for future Great Divide Races. An amazing achievement. More discussion over at MTBR.

I’ve been updating some stuff recently and I surfed the web over to Gaansari Cycles where it became apparent that Gary Boulanger has shut up shop. Checking out the web revealed that the boutique brand and retail store closed last April shelving the Gaansari and Fisso brands indefinitely. Shame it seemed like a nice setup and Gary’s blog was always an interesting read.

“We’ve given it our best, but realized the capital and resources needed to take our brands to the next level was out of reach for us at this time,” said Jean Boulanger. “We’ve enjoyed making a difference in the lives of a few thousand bicyclists, both here in Ohio and abroad, since 2002.”

In December 2005, Gary Boulanger traveled with Tom Ritchey to Rwanda, Africa, at the invitation of a humanitarian group. Boulanger and Ritchey chronicled their trip on their Servant Leaders Outreach blog, and have since created Wheels Of Mercy, a five-point plan to help redevelop Rwanda with bicycling.

The Rwanda Project is one of the main reasons the Boulangers are turning their attention away from their own company, and toward Africa. “As I saw in Rwanda, when there’s a true need, all else pales in comparison,” said Gary Boulanger. “I made the trek to QBP’s 2006 Frostbike and the recent Taipei Bicycle Show to discuss our expansion plans with industry folks, but we couldn’t make the numbers work. But the time spent in Minneapolis and Taipei was enlightening enough to prompt our decision to move forward with a better plan.”

The Boulangers have sold their Springboro property and are moving to San Francisco in late May, where Gary Boulanger will base his public relations, marketing and sales consulting business. Boulanger will be handling all public relations for Ritchey Design and Syncros. He will also head up the marketing and public relation efforts for Wheels of Mercy.

From: Bicycle Retailer