Category: Words

Sue Savege from over at Bike-Fax sent me some info about a new book that’s just come out about trails in Snowdonia. I’m a big fan of North Wales and I think it has a lot to offer to riders in terms of trails, great facilities and friendly people and stunning scenery. In all it’s just about perfecto, especially when the weather is Scorchio! Scorchio! Scorchio!

“GETTING THE BIKE-FAX” the NEW mountain biking guide for Snowdonia. Sweet single track, gut busting loops and unbelievable downhill routes are all on offer in ‘The best mountain bike trails in Snowdonia’ which provides 25 of the area’s gems in a bright, neat and easy to use format. An interactive CD of the book also means readers can download routes and access bonus trail guides and with Bike-Fax waterproof paper print them off and use again and again……

Local mountain bikers Sue Savege, Paul Barbier and Dafydd Davis have taken note of the IMBA (the International Mountain Biking Association) who recently declared.. the mountain biking centers in Wales “offer some of the best new trails in the world.” They have ridden the mountains of Snowdonia forwards and backwards to put together this inspiring selection.

Chapters cover classics like Betws y Coed and the Gwydyr forest plus the Marin trail as well as Coed y Brenin and southern Snowdonia. There are routes for Llanberis and Beddgelert plus even Conwy Mountain and the coast. The guide gives a choice from hundreds of kilometers of thrilling handbuilt singletrack to mouth watering traditional rides across mountain and moor. Put all of them together with a good selection of local amenities, it gives the perfect purchase for a weekend’s riding in Snowdonia. Produced by Bikefax and available at www.bike-fax.com

Another Sue, Sue Heywood, is a big name on the Mountain Bike scene for her racing palmeres offroad. She’s currently with Trek/VW and there’s an interview with her up at Cyclingnews.com.
Saturday’s bike shop discussion involved a bit of talk about SRAMs Blackbox stuff. I think if you’re into offroad it has the same sort of kudos associated with it that Campagnolo Record has on road bikes.

You don’t see much of it, it’s alluring in a carbon kind of way, difficult to get hold off, expensive and works, but differently to Shimano. So there’s a definite appeal with Blackbox kit, but many people will be pursuaded to buy blackbox stuff because of the extensive list of riders that are prototyping and developing it in the field. An impressive list and some impressive brakes too.

This year seems to be going so quick that I don’t seem to be able to keep track of things very well. Sometimes just sitting down and typing this thing helps keep stuff in perspective. There’s definitely a lack of riding and too much time in front of computers going on, but it’s been heading that way for the last few years and these days it’s what pays the bills and finances expensive hobbies.

So one of the outcomes of the Afan weekend was the realisation of the fact that the Crossmax XLs I bought several years ago, thinking back it was at least three years ago, have finally started to show their age. The freehub is one the way out and it sounds like a demonic cross between a Chris King and an old Hope Ti Glide, with the volume turned up to max and the added twist of you don’t know when it’s going to engage or be really noisy.

I don’t supposed being run as a singlespeed set of wheels for several months helped much, but they’ve been so good I’m getting all the parts and I’m going to keep ’em running longer. Thing with disc specific wheels is that apart from stone chips and dings there isn’t that much that can wear them out. Once serviced they’ll be running on the new full susser, photos of which are now up on the site.

Now I put my hand up and say that since I stopped riding on the road, my interest in road bikes has diminished, which may explain why the new road bike project is probably nearing two and a bit years and is not really much nearer completion. When it IS finished I do hope it will look better than this, which has to be one of the most cluttered bikes I’ve seen in a while. The cranks and big E A S T O N lettering on the wheels doesn’t help.

I suspect that one of the reasons I haven’t written much about road bikes is that until the spring classics are pretty much in full swing and the action starts the world of road bikes for the occasionally interested observer is in fact fairly dull. Only once the big races start, then the previews of the new kit coming out begins and so the news actually becomes worth reading. Now the fact that Chris King have aided the current fashion for pink by introducing a new anodising colour isn’t exactly news (and to be honest I think Independent Fabrication and Eric Roman started the trend with his famous singlespeed), but now everyone seems to be getting in on the game or at least slowly catching on. Possibly more interesting is reading on cyclingnews about flaky carbon fibre and that Mavic are to re-release the Helium wheelset.

The Giro has been fairly interesting this year and it will be good to see what happens in the closing stages. There certainly seems to be less predictability in the big Italian race than there does in Le Tour. On the final road-related note, there’s a great interview with Eddy Merckx on the web and I’m sure if mountain biking had been around in his day, he’d have probably had a go at that too.

Forge used to make nice mountain bike bits and bobs, like thumbshifter mounts that converted bar end road shiters into proper thumbies. They stopped doing bike bits a few years ago now and have decided to concentrate on where the money is: motorsport parts and accessories.

Updating seems to have gone out of the window recently which really is pretty slack on my behalf, but the good news is that a large part of the reasoning for this is bike related. A new full susser has been procured and tested on arguably some of the finest trails in the UK. A weekend of riding, drinking and chilling in Afan Forest Park, south Wales was the ideal venue for taking a new Enduro. Ironically most of the people I was riding with were actually on singlespeeds so I spent most of the time wondering if I’d brought the right bike, especially on the long uphills.

It’s the first stable platform bike I’ve owned and it does climb and ride like a hardtail and a much lighter bike than 30lb, 6″ travel freeride bike it is. On the down’s it comes into it’s own and really flies. There’s probably a good degree of scope for adjusting the shock mount by swapping it out to alter the angles, because as stock it’s a fairly slack headtube and consequently a bit slow to turn in on some singletrack, but you do get plenty of stability on the downhills.

As well as playing with bikes, there has been playing with the house (currently roofless) and the new car, as well as work. All in all it’s been busy. Photos and more stuff next week.

Worked in the bike shop yesterday. I am very tempted by a new bike as I’ve been looking to replace the FSR for some time now. I did want an Intense 5.5 EVP but Tim can’t get me one and now I’m not sure what to get instead. Do I go burly or lightweight Cross Country? If I had the patience then there’s the Independent Fabrication Tungsten Electrode, which is going to be a 4″ travel bike for life with it’s mega money frameset, but then suspension designs are improved over time so do you really want a full suspension bike for life?

I looked at Scott Genius MCs while I was in Switzerland and they look the business for riding out there, but I’m not sure how they’d hold up to northern rockiness. Then there’s the new Blur LT that’ll be out soon but no one knows when and finally there’s the new Specialized Enduros, which I’ve reconsidered after fettling with one yesterday. Still undecided really, but I really fancy something new for summer.

Rapha make fairly bling bike gear – with a touch of pink. Wool is the big thing this year. Even Nike have brought out some retro styled gear including their hideously expensive but very nice looking Tete de Course jersey. I’m sitting here in one of last years Howies Yurt Merino Wool mid layers – It’s the busniess. There’s also some nice bike kit on offer from the cyclejersey.com. Check ’em out. My order is already in.

If you’ve been without a bike for a while getting one again gives you a great feeling and a lot of independence. Big thanks to Jed for his help in hooking my sister up with a new ride. She’s stoked to be riding such a great bike – a rather unique Columbus tubed Sunn Exact Un.

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And to finish – pictures from Switzerland are finally up here.

For some reason all of my last three posts have been on Wednesdays. This may mean that Wednesday is the day of the blog, or it may mean that it’s just about the only day in the week that I get a hance to sit down and do some updating…

So since I’ve been away Big Dunc has decided that he has had enough of being a bike shop mechanic has handed in his notice and as they say in Manchester, has ‘done one’. It seems that he’s tarted his motorbike up too. Can you picture it?

On a motorbike theme, some bright sparks decided that the current habit of doing some fairly crazy stuff on big bikes could be taken to the next level by getting the bad boys airborne. Thing with any kind of jumping is that taking off and flying is easy. Landing is the difficult bit. I guess this probably stung a bit… This probably hurt more.

See the thing with motorbikes is that they’re inherently dangerous for the rider. Stack it and like mountai bikes you and the bike tend to part company fairly quickly ina self preservation instinctive reaction. Thing with cars and trucks is that you’ve got a great big metal box to surround you. Which is okay as long as you know how big the vehicle is and can keep control of it. Loose it and it all gets a bit nastly for anyone not protected by the cars interior. Anyway enough drivel…

Keepin’ it real in te world of bikes, Cipollini may not have such an easy road to retirement after all. Seems like he may be tied by an old contractual agreement that he will need to buy his way out of, not that it looks like this will stop him from his plans. More sprinter news here. Meanwhile Botero looks like he is going to have a cracking season.

The Euro and UK singlespeed championships are now being finalised. Looks like there is a fair bit of variety and choice open to people this year, especially with the Worlds in Pennsylvania coming up. Maybe there’ll be some Blackbox kit seen at some of the races this year…

In the US if you’ve ever tried to enjoy a National Park by mountain bike, chances are you’ve been disappointed. With some notable exceptions, America’s premier park system is closed to off-road riding, but that’s going to change with a new five-year agreement just signed by the IMBA and the National Park Service.

For the first time, National Park Service leaders in Washington, D.C., have formally recognized mountain biking as a positive activity, compatible with the values of our National Park system. The agreement offers potential opportunity for new access to hundreds of dirt roads in National Park units that have been closed to bicycling. While National Park Service rules require a lengthy process to open singletrack to bicycle use, appropriate dirt roads may be opened with a more straightforward administrative process.

“This agreement represents a true breakthrough for mountain biking,” said IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel. “It opens the door for individual park units to partner with mountain bikers and investigate new riding opportunities on a case-by-case basis” – More here.

I’m back from the Alps. There was plenty of snow (including several feet of powder and tracking fresh lines off piste on the Stockhorn glacier was the highlight of the ‘boarding) and there was also lots of road tripping: Saas Fee, Chamonix, Verbier, Vevey… as well as Zermatt. An interesting mix of destinations fer shure. There’s some photo’s coming soon.

So what’s new? Well keepin’ it real in BC, Ticket2Ride (T2R) is a Canadian mountain bike tour firm keen to show you the best of what is on offer. Following on from Mark Alker’s exploits in the canadian territories in the most recent issue of Singletrack, Canada is an increasingly popular destination with mountain bikers, looking to explore outside of Europe. T2R is the brainchild of Scott Lanzi and since 2003 has been promoting the riding, lifestyle and culture of the mountain biking community in Whistler. From 5 day tours to bespoke guided custom trips they’re looking to put a constant smile on peoples faces and inspire new levels of riding ability. Check it out.

Is it for real? Is Cipo really going to call it a day? I can’t see it being the same without the big man, but he has faded a bit from his glory days over the last few years. I think Lance may be doing the right think with his plans to step down from racing after this year’s Tour de France.

This is a reminder that viruses are really very bad and not good for your computer.

I’m off out to Switzerland on Sunday. There’s still some snow out there apparently so Snowboarding should definitely be an option. It’s been over two years since I went boarding in Andorra and I’m looking forward to getting back out on the slopes and getting some late season sunshine.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to read some other sites and see what’s been happening on t’internet. I notice that Dave has had a bit of a rethink about his site over here, all that lovely photography isn’t there at the moment, but I’m sure some of it will be back soon.

This is a new site, bearbackbiking, that I found on Singletrackworld not so long ago. It comes highly recommended by Jed because the person behind it also has a passion for trying to fit mountain bikes into cars that really were not ever designed with transporting anything other than a driver and possibly a passenger in mind.

Going down under, it seems that 26inches are still going strong. They have some summaries of the latest news as reported else where, but have done a tidy job of putting it all together in a fairly neat and tidy package. They seem to be tied in fairly tightly with those purveyors of fine bike apparel, Lab-Gear.

Moving back into the Northern hemisphere and not too far from here, the site redesign and improvement concept has led to Rob Lewis and all over at BETD to launch a new site some time since I last visited. It’s a fine looking setup and all the old stuff still seems to be on there, plus lots of new bits and pieces.

There’s more on the new RockShox over at the Bike magazine website and those crazy fixed geared offroaders have made a seasonal adjustment to the 63XC site. I don’t know if it was tied into the equinox or anythin, but it’s all good. A bit like Corty now being in Canada. I’m now the only one of the three Chris’ still in the UK. And if I include our recent export to Norway (how’s it going out there?) I’m feeling even more left out.

Now the road bike project is still in a fairly infantile stage. I’ve sorted a saddle out now, so I’m only a complete groupset and a pair of wheels away from a bike. Then I’ll find out if the frame fits. In the mean time Lance is wondering yet again how long he can be bothered to race the big events, when he seems to get such a buzz at just rocking up at small town events and mixing it up with the locals. I suppose that it’s unlikely he’ll be seen on a Cannondale anytime soon.

Over and out.

I’ve finally transferred all the old content over to this new site format and added in a lot of stuff that wasn’t on here before. I’m pretty please with the results – there’s been a lot of work involved.

Despite the removal of what was considered the most dangerous section of cobbles on the Paris-Roubaix parcours – the dreaded Forêt d’Arenberg – the lead rider for French team Cofidis, Stuart O’Grady, believes Sunday’s epic race could actually be harder without the famously-brutal section.

“Before you could feel the race would chill out a bit (after Arenberg), as the race would then enter good sections of asphalt, they would take in some food and drinks and then prepare for the next section. But now, they’ve replaced it with absolute goat-tracks, it’s constantly twisting left and right; there just no place to recover,” he said. “It’s just going to be full-on.” (Cyclingnews)

Boonen won the Paris-Roubaix, just beating Hincapie, which is a good result. There’s been some interesting kit setup for this event including soft-tail OCLV Treks and dodgy drilled stems.

Finally I don’t follow football too closely, but I did find this result very amusing. Good effort from the Norfolk boys.

The muddy gritstone of the north has claimed another set of brake pads, the only issue is this only became apparent as I was assembling the bike out of the car at the beginning of last nights ride. It doesn’t inspire much confidence to know the only thing slowing you down is metal on metal where there should be disc composite. Front wheel braking was used more than normal which was interesting given the riding was on the wet and slippery side where you don’t really want the front wheel getting squirrelly on the descents.

Glass. Metal. Ceramic. Stone. Look how it get’s this penny: Good as new! This Cillit Bang remix made it onto Radio 1 this morning – for someone that’s fairly good publicity. I hadn’t heard the E-Sure remix either – calm down dear – it’s surely a winner. The otherone still doing the rounds albeit now in dubbed version is the annoying sound…

I’ve been looking for some ways to do things on the web recently and came across the SlayerOffice site. There’s some really neat solutions on there and I’m thinking of what I can build in and where.

Finally this is a bit cheeky and this is bad news for the Macclesfield Forest Downhill Course. And this is a bit Intense.

Friday night was the long awaited cheeky velodrome session. A load of mountain bikers, many with singlespeed riding experience, some with fixed riding experience and a few that had ridden the track before. It was good three hour session with a bit of racing, a bit of falling off and probably too much baggy clothing and too many peaked helmets to be aerodynamically efficient, but that wasn’t really the main objective…

More photos here and here

April Fools was disappointing really. I think I read something about the EU banning right hand drive cars in Europe in the near future, but I though this novelty fondue set was probably more likely to catch people out.

Recent research has revealed just how important your ranking in google and other top search engine is to actually getting people visiting your site. The higher the rank and therefore the higher up the page you are, recent research has now demonstrated, really does affect the likelihood that your site will be favoured over those results lower down the page.

Check out these vintage wool jerseys. Some classics that are now being reproduced in high quality merino, the Alfa Romeo top look great. Finally there’s some great work on the preloaded site – check out the heart attack link for a clever redesign of an arcade classic and shooting stars.