Category: Words

We might have just had the summer solstice, but given what the climate is doing outside you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was still mid-December. Roll on the summer I say, because I missed riding any of those dry, dusty trails in April and now it’s my turn to enjoy summer here in the UK.

On the ride home tonight my centre line style almost became my undoing. As I approached a set of lights a red micra full of lads just drifted outwards, slammed on the anchors and then decided to indicated right. The unexpected deviation almost led to an off the bike moment.

As I realised the situation unfolding in front of me foul language at a volume decent enough to turned heads in surrounding cars erupted. The bike carried out an unwanted stoppie, with the backend swinging around until I managed to get my weight distribution right and slam the rear wheel back onto tarmac. It was inches close. I’m bloody impressed with the new Dura Ace callipers in the wet, they have some serious stopping power.

One of my pet hates are token gestures that appear to have good intentions but do nothing other than raise publicity for corporate entities and make absolutely no impact in the broader scheme of things. An example of this is the recent media campaign and event “Lights Out London“. Essentially it went like this:

The reason this winds me up, is that if politicians are serious about wanting to encourage people to make things better they need to take the lead and set some concrete and permanent changes in place as examples.

Is there really any need to have lighting on motorways when cars have headlights? It might be argued that motorway lights save lives. I’m not sure about that statement. It’s like saying guns kill people. Clearly we all know that gun’s don’t kill people, rappers do. Anyway there a bit of a discussion about motorway lighting here.

Another point is do we really need to illuminate landmark buildings so we can see what they look like at night? You can see them perfectly well enough in day light and it could be argued that lighting them at night just feeds local egos. After a bit of a discussion on the topic Bez suggested that:

Motorway lights are for people who are too stupid to manage without them. Lighting up buildings is good for people who have an interest in culture or aesthetics. France has much less motorway lighting than us, but many more landmarks visible from the road at night. Besides, if lots more people die in motorway accidents, there will be a reduced demand for electricity. And you get a car taken out into the bargain. It’s a very environmentally sound policy.

Things need to change. The alternative, just finding new ways to generate more power, don’t solve the underlying issue of inefficient use of electricity and inappropriate policies. Unless someone perfects perpetual motion, it’s also not sustainable.

Clearly change will affect people , particularly those who manufacture and sell light bulbs, produce electricity, profit from tourism, etc. They are unlikely to be keen on any suggestions that are going to leave them out of pocket. It’s fairly widerly accepted now that if you want to make a difference and become more environmentally sensitive – i.e. reducing your environmental footprint, some sacrifices are going to be necessary.

Some changes are going to be inconvenient. Others will actually have side effects such as making the providers of particular services and equipment less money, because people will be consuming less. The challenge for them is to not only anticipate this, but to have worked out how they can still profit from the change.

I have decided that the Harry Hall is definitely a bit flexy. I guess that skinny steel 531c tubing and my hefty mass stomping on carbon cranks and heaving on a bars during sprinting are a bit too much for it. If I ride it like a sensible person (where’s the fun in that?) rather than a loon, it’s seems fine. The thing is for how much longer?

The problem of course is that now I’ve noticed the fact that the tubes are letting the bottom bracket wander and the whole thing seems to go a bit rubbery under load I notice it even more. When I decide to get something else it’s going to need to be solid and comfy and after reading about Tom Boonen’s latest ride I can’t help thinking a Specialized might be a slightly cheaper alternative than another Indy Fab.

For the first time in a few years I won’t be at Mountain Mayhem this season. Unfortunately events have conspired against me and what would normally be a wonderful weekend with friends and probably a hideous hangover will instead be a chilled out ride on Sunday and unfortunately work on Saturday.

That said, given all the rain, it looks like it’s going to be a wet one so good luck to all the racers. Don’t forget to pack the bike cleaning gear and some mud tyres and spare pads. Oh and following on from the last post here’s the link to Dan Perjovschi’s website. I forgot it in a melee of typing and picture posting frenzy.

Catia’s not long back from NYC. While she was there she visited the Museum of Modern Art and saw Projects 85 from Dan Perjovschi. Here’s some of his work. I like it a lot. Reminds me of some of the great Howies t-shirt designs.

Pete Basinger’s been in touch he’s geared up for this year’s race. It’s the 4th annual Great Divide Race and started on June 15. This year there is a pretty big field and it could turn out to be an interesting race. Get the news:

Great Divide Race blog and text updates | Audio updates

Mtbr race discussions

Here’s a picture of Pete’s setup for the up coming adventure.

An unpleasant end to an otherwise good day at work was topped off with sprinting flat out through traffic on the way home. Near as dammit no brakes, big ring, lots of swearing at motorists trying to kill me and some interesting moments on the few corners involved. Get home, soaked through, chest pounding, feel better. I’m still alive…

After having been exceptionally busy recently riding has taken a back seat. Saturday was spend athome getting things straight and just having a rest. I felt exhausted. I decided that today I would go for a decent ride and somewhere new. Recently a lot has been said about how ace the North York Moors are, so I headed in that direction and wound up at Dalby Forest.

The £7.00 for the day entry fee was an unexpected cost. It is the most I have ever had to pay to gain entry to one of the country’s forest parks. Given how busy it was they must have been coining it in. Anyway I suppose that for the money you also get a useless map, It is absolutely no use in telling you where you are on the trails, so I left it in the car.

I’d taken the singlespeed with me because the Ti Deluxe is still in South African mode and it’s now the only other offroad bike. I headed off on the red and started doing various bits of black. In honesty, the black run wasn’t anything like the Scottish routes in terms of difficulty, but there were some great sections, including a boardwalk section that dropped down a sunken way and a great little bike park with skinnies, 4X course and dirt jump rhythm section.

About 45 minutes into the ride my shorts decided to disintegrate at the seams and I spend the rest of the ride with my saddle wearing my shorts as well as me. It let to some ‘interesting’ moments, usually on some quite difficult technical bit. Given this I decided to head back to the start and buy some more shorts. Easy right?

Well it turned out that today there was a British Heart Foundation charity event on, the signage for which confused me because it was so similar to the signage already up for the trails. As a result I ended up riding around for 5 hours (effectively doing the red, the green and all the black bits and spending about 30 minutes in the bikepark at Dixon’s Hollow).

I ran out of drink, but eventually made it back to the cafe at Forest Drive just as they were closing, managing to run over a slow worm sunbathing on a patch of sand on the way. I went back to check the little fella out and he was already slithering off into the undergrowth.

John Wilkinson, IMBA UK’s Executive Officer has just sent out the latest IMBA update. In it, he states that Rupps (Roads used as Public Paths) now no longer exist, and have been re categorised en masse as Restricted Byways which can only be used by walkers cyclists and equestrians. IMBA has been concerned for some time that the regulations did not appear to prevent ploughing – but’s Defra has now told us that these routes continue to be proper carriageways – and can’t be ploughed. Good news for the East Anglian riders then…

Slightly worrying is the fact that the Discovering Lost Ways Review isn’t really going anywhere. This is the project which was introduced as part of the Crow Act 2000 as a sop to landowners keen to prevent new bridleways being established over their land. The  idea is that all such Lost Ways will be in place by 2025 after which no new routes can be established. Seven years later, and with the clock ticking, progress has progressed at a snails pace, a Natural England Report notes that to date only Cheshire is close to completing the research phase.

Next on the list is Shropshire, where work is already underway, so rapid progress into other counties does not appear to be likely. We should all be concerned about the slow pace of this project – so a note to your MP emphasising the importance of this to cyclists and others is well worth considering.

Finally 34 miles network of mountain bike trails is now ready to ride in the 8,600-acre Dalby Forest near Pickering in the North York Moors. Built with £141,000 from the European Union by local trailbuilding club SingletrAction working with the Forestry Commission, the £400k network is now the most extensive in the UK to be found outside of Wales or Scotland and could become part of  the training facilities for mountain biking events at the 2012 Olympics.

Apparently unlike many previous Olympics where competitions had been used to find the winning logos, London 2012 had been through a lengthy and painstaking brainstorming process before identifying theirs. Unfortunately Marketing Chief Chris Denny said they were after something “that would capture the hearts and minds of everyone, give them an emotional attachment” – in the same powerful way Apple were perceived to have done so successfully with their simple apple logo.

£400,000 wasted and absolutely no comparison to something as iconic and simplistic as the Apple logo. No wonder the Olympics are over budget. They chose that over this? It seems the very sensible and quite nice logo was what they used to win the bid has now been ditched in favour of the new London 2012 brand designed by a colour blind five year old Wolff Olins. As has been pointed out else where, if you see it as a kind of Picasso/Keith Haring girl with an Olymic-sized head sucking London’s cock, then it is an absolute masterpiece and you do wonder if they spot these things in the focus groups and meetings.

Anyway you can tell Wolff Olins how good you think it is by contacting them:

Press contacts
For all press enquiries please call us,
Europe: +44 (0)20 7713 7733
US: +1 212 505 7337
or email: publicrelations@wolff-olins.com

Avoid their website however. It could be up for an award for a particularly poor piece of design.