Category: Words

Today was one of those days at work when you would rather have been trying to keep your breakfast down slugging up some big mountain in the middle of the wilderness instead. It was that good.

Some good things happened today, including the arrival of a package from Dirtrag full of stickers, socks and some back issues, which now means in conjunction with the latest editions of Singletrack and Stopadoodledoo, I have loads of stuff to read.

A link to this useful webpage about how to build a cheap recyclable bike box for taking your bike on the plane was posted today. It’s such a simple idea and looks like a cheap way to transport your bike safely. Compared to some of the professional hard case boxes on the market, which are in my opinion complete rip-offs, this appears great value for money.

The National Cyclocross season is already nearly at a climax, the big finale is this Sunday. This update from British Cycling sums up what to expect. Good luck to Barrie:

The Cyclo-Cross National Trophy series reaches its climax when the fifth and final round takes place at Abergavenny Leisure Centre on Sunday. The Senior series looks to be a straight fight between Barrie Clarke (Giant RT), looking for his eighth series title in nine seasons, and Under-23 leader Steven Roach (Rugby Velo).

Although Roach has beaten Clarke in two of their four Trophy encounters this season, few would bet against the Giant rider retaining his trophy on Sunday, two days after his 37th birthday. Clarke currently leads Roach by a mere two points following his out of form 15th place at Mallory Park, but has benefited from the fact that the likes of Hammond, Ellis and Jody Crawforth (Evans Cycles RT), all individual winners this season, have not contested the full series.

Dave from phased has asked me to post a link to the Russ Appeal, which is a charitable organisation which was created in order to focus the efforts of those wishing to contribute to the charitable bodies (such as the Air Ambulance service) that directly or indirectly support the mountain biking community.

I’ve created a link which can be found up under the good people listings, you can get to it from here too. He’s also asked me to post up the following:

Christmas is nearly upon us and no doubt you are all running round frantically compiling present lists and fending off mad Aunties asking you whether you would like a jumper or woolly hat knitted this year.

Its time to act fast in order to prevent the mass of wool masquerading as a jumper turning up under your Christmas tree, and we at the RUSS Appeal have the perfect alibi.

Why not get Auntie to order you a brand new, custom printed, one-off Jo Burt T-shirt? We still have a number left to sell and they will make the perfect Christmas present for you, your significant other, your biking mates or evening mad Auntie Ethel herself.

Each shirt is printed front and rear with a full colour design created by Jo Burt exclusively for the RUSS Appeal. We had 250 printed and WILL NOT print any more so this really is a limited edition T-shirt.

It gets better. We’ve had ten of these T-shirts signed by Jo himself , They are going to cost a little more and will be available on a first come first serve basis.

100% of all monies received for T-shirts goes to the Air Ambulance, which means that as you hit the slippery winter trails they’ll still be someone there to rush you to hospital should it all go wrong. We hope you never need the Air Ambulance, but please remember they are entirely funded by charity.

Shirts are available in medium, large and extra-large sizes and can be ordered online or by calling the lovely Carol on 01296 747080. Every shirt ordered before the 19th of December should reach you in time for Christmas.

Standard shirts are priced at £27.50 and signed shirts minimum £50 each. These prices include postage. So, get on the phone/interweb now and order one now. Bring some Christmas cheer and put a little bit back at the same time.

Finally, when you’ve opened your Christmas stocking and found a nice 2004 diary inside why not turn to August and pencil in the weekend of the 7/8th for the Ride for a Flight 2004. Phil Harrison is planning all sorts of additions to next year’s fundraiser, including something for all of you freeridy/downhilly types! Further details will be released in due course.

Issue 12 of singletrack arrived today. The latest installment is another fine publication from the Todmorden based team.

Nicole Cooke is the Welsh Sports Personality of the Year and deservedly so. This season Cooke became the youngest ever winner of the women’s World Cup and the first Briton to achieve the honour.

This years Mountain Mayhem, once again sponsored by SAAB & Salomon, is moving to a new venue, this time it will be on the classic Malverns course. Singletrack have posted up an article here.

A general listing of all 2004 events is now available from the Numplumz site.

Sodarace, which started at the end of November, is to construct a two dimensional creature that can travel over a certain type of terrain in the shortest possible time. Take a look at the website here. It’s this weeks recommended link.

Does this website look crap on your computer? I need to know. Currently I have found one version of Internet Explorer which some how manages to make a right hash of interpreting the CSS scripting. Genius.

More Ears Than Gears III took place this week end. I wanted to go, but couldn’t. there are loads of photos and reports in these threads from Singletrackworld:

– salsaboy’s – flyingpieman’s – sofaking’s –

How cool are these saddles? It’s like an aramid fibre string vest (sort of).

Some of you might remember Big Dave who was posting updates from the Gulf in the run up to the recent US invasion, erm I mean, liberation, of the Iraqi people. He’s now back in the US and doing some good work within his local community.

Lots of people have been asking about financial donations. Since this is only my first week on the job, I’m still trying to gather my wits. Here are some better ways to help get more bikes to kids in El Paso, TX. Direct financial contributions should be sent to:

OPSANTA
P.O. Box 16270
Fort Bliss, TX 79906
(915) 568-1010

Be sure to indicate on the check that you want the money spent on bike tools or parts. Sometimes the PX gives us huge discounts on bicycle stuff. They sent us 150 pre-built bikes. The quality of these builds was questionable, but we could not keep parents from taking the ones we didn’t get a chance to check. It was like fingernails on a chalk board. I’m also in the process of opening an account with a wholesaler. So a direct contribution will be of greater impact.

If you want to help the local bicycle dealers by giving the program a gift certificate or credit card authorization for a specific amount, here is a list and description of our closest dealers.

Dyer Cycle
4501 Dyer St.
El Paso, TX 79930
(915) 566-6022

This shop is our closest. It specializes in lawnmowers and other gas powered lawn equipment. It does have a large selection of low-end parts. They have a good selection of tubes and kids tires as well. Their prices are fair.

Franklin Mtn. Cyclery
4601 Hondo Pass
El Paso, TX 79904
(915) 757-8585

This shop is a one-man operation that specializes in medium quality road and mtn. bikes. Talk to Darrell. He has a good selection of parts, tools, tubes, and other stuff regularly needed by cyclists. His prices are good and the shop is not far from post.

Vinci Bikes
8900 Viscount Blvd.
El Paso, TX 79925
(915) 594-8778

This is a nice and pretty new shop on the East side of town. It specializes in quality mtn. bikes and high-end road bikes. They have lots of high-end wheel sets and other chi-chi stuff like that. The shop is not too far from us, but it is further than the other two. If you habla espanol, talk to Robertini. He’s very cool and more than willing to help us out.

All the other shops in town are fantastic and they support us, but they are on the West side and it is like driving to another city. However, we will not turn down anything.

Thanks, SGT David Wilson
OPSANTA Bike Shop NCOIC
Cyclist, USA

The last few days have been hellish. On Thursday night the PC refused to boot up properly and after much head scratching, question asking, component buying and testing, it was only last night that I managed to get things operational again. I’m beginning to wonder if there is something about this time of year that makes computer components roll-over and die. Do they know it’s just before Christmas? Anyway at this rate I’ll soon have as many Shuttle XPCs as the Beowulf cluster.

_ _ _
Daevh’s fine photography

This is Daevh’s website, a bit of a bike orientated weblog like rothar.com, it has some of the finest photography on it I have seen in a long time. Check it out.

On a similar kind of theme the mountain bike rides website has loads of routes, info and pictures on riding in around and through the Peak District and Derbyshire as well as a section of video crashes, tech tips and loads of photos.

There have been various dismal forecasts for the future of the European ski industry published in the last few years, but as with most things such reports have to be considered in relation to what is actually happening in the mountains. This is part of the latest report:

…In Switzerland, 85 per cent of its 230 resorts are currently classed as snow reliable. But in one IPCC scenario this could drop to as low as 44 per cent…

It’s looking pretty dismal for a lot of the resorts at low altitude across Europe. American resorts, which are mostly at high altitude in the Rockies, are likely to fair much better. The full report is up here.

For those people interested in going downhill, fast, this is the Southern Downhill website, a place on the Interweb for like minded people to talk about riding, riding related matters and life the universe and pretty much anything. Think of it as the big butch version of Singletrackworld. Then again maybe not.

Finally this:

From: Jeff
Subject: a silly request

Howdy!

I really love your Singletrack information bureau website, and I’ve used it several times to research articles (I have the complete collection at home).

In issue #10 Chipps got his revenge on me (we had misspelled his name in our masthead with only one “P” for several issues) by misspelling my name in the article on my visit.

Is there any chance you could correct the spelling in your archive? If not, no big deal.

Cheers!

-Jeff Guerrero (notice the double “R” comes first)

It’s been done. Check out the Singletrrack Archives here.

At work today I was trying to keep tabs on this thread about rights of way access in the Peak District and during the course of finding a few pictures off this site to back up what I was saying I discovered that there’s some shoddy HTML source lurking in pretty much all of the new CSS based pages.

Now on a few pages this was just a failure to adjust where files were pointing, when they were moved from the development section of the site to this bit. The other problem was that the same files on some pages were pointing at a hard disk drive. How the hell did that happen?

Anyway it’s all updated now, as is the rothar.com rogues gallery. I’ve had some new pictures for this for a while but I just never seem to get around to posting them up.

The T’inator converts most webpages from their standard version into a format laden with Mr. T sayings and photos. I couldn’t get it to work for this site, but it does work for Jed’s site.

This is a top tip for strengthening unbraided brake hoses cheaply. Check it out over at NSMB. I’ve not had a problem with this yet, but I can see the advantage of the idea in the long-run.

Big Jonny is getting ready for the 24 hours of Old Pueblo, which he crashed and burnt in last year in a big way. As he puts it:

Yeah. I’m probably going to vomit at some point. Three years, two episodes. This will be my forth time out, and my first solo attempt.

I am so going to die.

This year, in conjunction with my solo insanity, I’m putting together a four girl team to fly the dc colors. A woman’s team is a natural extension of this little porn pill party of mine, isn’t it?

It’s going to be fucking great. Don’t miss this one. Even if you come out just to hang and booze it up. So much crazy shit happening everywhere you look. Fire jumping, belly dancers, kegs, hot tubs, nudity, and other assorted stupidity.

All of us idiots who actually race miss all the good stuff.

Well next year’s racing schedule is a bit hazy at the moment, I just don’t know if I’ll have time for it at the moment. Talking of which this is not the sswc.

Next year’s US Postal line-up is also looking a bit uncertain, as top climber Roberto Heras, now looks likely to leave the team and ride for Manolo Saiz’ new Liberty Seguros team. Given the strength of T-Mobile next year the loss of Heras could be crucial to Armstrong’s hope of a record sixth Tour win.

Next years Tour will also be interesting in light of the fact that David Millar has marked his intention of focusing on triple Gold in the Olympics, in the Time Trial, Road Race and 4000m Pursuit. Triple? Most people would be happy with one Gold. There’s more on this over at Cyclingnews.

Finally when I was a kid I frequently used clothes pegs to put cardboard into the spokes of my wheel to create ‘thwack, thwack, thwack’ motorbike noises. Therefore you would have thought that this would be a massive success.

It’s nearly Christmas again. It’s been sneaking up for the last twelve months and now people the world over will be counting down to Christmas by opening little doors on cardboard calendars.

How’s your German? Mine’s crap, but by the wonders of the interweb, I can still enjoy this german mountain bike site (MTB-News.de) by using Altavista’s Babelfish translation utility.

Nightfire’s account from the singlespeed shenanigans at GBBC in Berlin this year was posted up on the Singletrackworld forum this week. Next years World Championships will be taking place in the city that was the former home of the Berlin Wall.

Meanwhile the singlespeed Euro champs will very much be taking place in Scotland, although any other details are a bit vague at the moment. It is however very likely to be taking place on a course which is likely to be pretty hilly…

The results of the fiorst of the Revolution track series are up on Cyclingnews. It’s no real surprise to see that David Millar and Bradley Wiggins took most of the glory:

World time trial champion David Millar (Cofidis) and Ghent 6-day winner Bradley Wiggins (FDJ) headlined the elite start sheet but were in good company with Paul Manning (VC St Raphael), Chris Newton (Corima RT), Rob Hayles (Cofidis) and veteran supremo Malcolm Elliott (Pinarello RT), who took the warmest of the audiences knowledgeable applause. In Millar’s recent move to track racing, his adaptation brings thoughts of ducks and water and he duly took first blood in the motor paced 10km event opener. Wiggins led in a chasing field of familiar names.

It’s been an interesting few days. On one hand there has been catastrophic computer failure at work and on the other someone very special is back from Mauritius. In between there has been bad luck, good luck and broken bike bits.

I’ve been working on the singletrack information bureau for a while now and it is now pretty much finished in it’s revised and now css-based format. There are a few little finishing touches to add here and there and I’m still not 100% happy with the bike or product tests index, but I’m not sure I can think of a simple and effective way to format these. I’ve tried to cut down on the use of graphics and move away from the use of tables. Any feedback or bright ideas will be welcome.

The first of the Manchester Revolution track sessions took place this weekend. Larry Hickmott talks to Cofidis rider Davis Miller over on the British Cycling website. There is also an interview with arguably the UK’s newest hope for international success in cross country mountain biking, Liam Killeen.

Getting published in the world of biking is no easy task as a few have found out. The general view is that several editors have killed a lot of enthusiasm. Whilst people may not necessarily expect to get work accepted, some form of response is always good. Even a thanks, but no thanks.

It motivates people to keep writing, even if a lot of the time, that writing is for the love of it rather than in the hope of getting published. For writers in this position, whether or not people stumble across these ramblings and empathise with documented experiences isn’t important.

The world of motor bikes have been using wavy disc disc rotors for a long time and then we started seeing them on bikes. Now disc brake parts manufacturer, Galfer who have registered an exclusive patent to the design, are looking to legally challenge those that have been using their design without licence. This is there statement:

From: Galfer USA
Subject: Wave rotor patent info

This is a press release from Galfer performance brakes bicycle division. Please contact me with any questions.

Galfer is the original and current patent holders for European patent #99500110.4 and United States patent #6386340 which covers non-round (wave style) disc brake rotors. As of this writing, Magura is the only officially licensed user of this patented technology. No other company is legally using to use this patented technology. Currently, there are several companies who are presenting this technology, images, and trade names of Galfer rotors as their own. They have received neither our permission nor our authorization to do so. At this time we are preparing legal action to defend our patents, images and trade names.
Galfer’s patented wave rotors allow the user to run at significantly cooler braking temperatures while providing superior self-cleaning properties and lighter weights over round rotors.

Andy Schwartz
Bicycle Division Manager
Galfer USA
800-685-6633
http://www.galferusa.com
andy@galferusa.com

Now this isn’t a masterpiece of literary skill and it raises a few points. My point was that until Galfer release results showing that ” wave rotors allow the user to run at significantly cooler braking temperatures while providing superior self-cleaning properties and lighter weights over round rotors” there will be a degree of skepticism regarding those claims.

Those interested in this matter are more likely to be convinced by what they are reporting if Galfer engineers were to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal so their work can be analysed by those best positioned to judge the legitimacy of their claims and the accuracy and design of the dyno-testing methodology. Given that there has been over ten years of research and development, there should surely be ample content for an article of this type.There are more thoughts here.

Andy Cotgreave is making his way around New Zealand on a bike, this is his frequently updated photo gallery. It seems that loads of people are doing New Zealand at the moment, which via Top Gear logic, would make it really uncool. I think I’ll wait for a bit before hitting the southern hemisphere.

Bikespotting: Choose life. Choose a bike. Choose a ride. Choose…(you get the idea). Check out arguably one of the best bits of advertising in a while over at the Sorted Cycles website.

Flecko’s Madness is probably the best Flash game in the world ever (or should that be so far?), if you can get to grips with the unique controls.

There are a few new wallpapers available following Sunday’s little adventure. Check them out here.

Steve Peat is not only one of the World’s best mountain bike gravity pilots, but it seems he’s a real life action hero too. This story reports him imposing some justice on the mean streets of America.

Mountain biking has taken me to some of the most scenic corners of Britain, it has given me views that only the minority will glimpse. If I think about it hard enough the essence of my mountain biking is that which surrounds me whilst I’m doing it. Be that companionship, scenery, weather conditions or the lack of a certain problem that’s been weighing me down…

Dave Barter has been writing quite a bit recently, I think he’s looking for a column in one of the bike mags, you can check his work out over at his site, phased. I reckon if he can sustain the quality of the writing he’s been producing he’s likely to find something pretty soon. Good luck to him.

There is a suspension company that will service your Marzocchi forks and sort you out with a rather clever rear shock, check out Stendec, the Romic shock importers. They even do a product testing service, so you can try out a shock before you buy it via this on-line service.

Photos from this weekend’s Peaks Epic – Invitation II “The Revenge”, are still up on the site here. Today starts off eith an e-mail from a French colleague who is quite amused by current events over here. I don’t know what George Orwell would have made of this but it sounds very much like something out of 1984:

From: Gilles
Subject: Big “Labour” Brother is Watching

Concerning the complete absence of privacy in telecommunications (your phone calls, emails and web surfing) in the UK, I wanted to let you know that on 13th November 2003, the Labour literally forced the House of Lords to approve what they call the “Snoopers’ Charter”.

“A series of regulations (Statutory Instruments) recently laid before the UK Parliament intends to create a legal basis for comprehensive surveillance of communications. The regulations will allow an extensive list of public authorities access to records of individuals’ telephone and Internet usage. This communications data” — phone numbers and e-mail addresses contacted, web sites visited, locations of mobile phones, etc — will be available to government without any judicial oversight. Not only does government want access to this information, but it also intends to oblige companies to keep personal data just in case it may be useful.”

To read how this happened, and how the Liberal Democrats and Tories tried to defend your rights to privacy, you can read this:

http://www.stand.org.uk/SnoopersCharter.html

“Until 2pm today it appeared that the government’s proposals to place every UK email and phone account under surveillance was doomed. Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Cross Bench peers had vowed to oppose them …”

I thought it might be useful to know that every single phone call you pass and every single email you write will soon be stored by your Provider (O2, BT and … ISD?) for an *unlimited* period of time, and will be accessible to many UK *and foreign* governmental agencies.

This British government is really good isn’t it? I mean just look at all the great things it’s done for us…okay that’s a pretty short list.

On a more light-hearted note:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Peter Kay One Liners

I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbour said ‘Are you going to help?’ I said ‘No, Six should be enough.”

I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with ‘Guess’ on it. I said, ‘Thyroid problem?’

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised that The Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.

I’ve often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.

I was doing some decorating, so I got out my step-ladder. I don’t get on with my real ladder.

My Dad used to say ‘always fight fire with fire’, which is probably why he got thrown out of the fire brigade.

If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?

Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don’t understand, such as working for a living

That reminds me of this weekend’s riding for some inexplicable reason. Getting onto more Bike related matters, another Freewheel Store is closing, a far cry from the time they held stores in nearly all of the biggest Cities and Towns in the country.

From: Jed
Subject: Freewheel

Freewheel has been in business in Prince of Wales Road since 1990 but will close when the Magic City arcade moves into the bike shop’s premises from its current location on the opposite side of the road.

Yarmouth Pleasure Beach proprietor Albert Jones, who owns Magic City and the premises occupied by Freewheel, was granted planning permission by Norwich City Council on Thursday to convert the bike shop into “an amusement arcade which would include an area with pool tables”.

Freewheel’s owner, who has another bicycle shop in Reading, Berkshire, was prepared to close the Norwich branch as it was approaching the end of its lease. There are currently no plans to reopen the store elsewhere in Norwich.

Maybe it didn’t have a lot going for it, but I think I’ll miss it in a way and I’m sure I won’t be the only person who will. Road trip anyone?