R O T H A R . C O M

What fantastic weather we’re having up here at the moment. It is seriously wet. Even by Mancunian standards. Any chance of a let up in the near future? Before it starts snowing?

Since I doubt the weather is going to get better anytime soon here’s some photos form somewhere warm, sunny and beautiful. A few pictures from Barbados:

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So while we were in Barbados we had it fairly good. Not a huge amount of wind for kitesurfing, several bottles of rum, lots of beer, sunshine, chilling and chatting with the locals. Highlights: The girls hockey team from Ballymena, the Oxford four, hiring a 4×4 and offroading accidently on purpose, seeing turtles out near the reef, the animal crew and the adidas swimsuit photoshoot, recovered stolen goods. Lowlights: Stolen iPods, hangovers and heat, jellyfish stings, tie-dye sunburn, flaky passports, leaving.

Big respect for the animal crew out there doing the photoshoot for next years gear. Special shout to Kirsty Jones, the girl that deserves to be a pin-up across the land. She kites, she surfs, she’s stunning. Next time I’m down near St Davids I’ll be looking out for her kiting in the bays. Oh and as for her kiting across the Irish Sea, I think there’s little doubt she’s an endurance athlete too.

I’m back. I feel more into bikes that I have for a long time and I think that’s partly because I’ve had a bit of time to actually read about bike related stuff and catch up with what’s been happening. I finally managed to read Lance Armstrong’s book ‘Every Second Counts’ whilst I was away. I suspect that I’m not the only person to have thought this latest bit of litetature was a good insight into The Boss and I’m sure few people will be surprised to observe that Lance has taken this publication to be another opportunity to proclaim his views on doping and reaffirm his innocence.

The thing that struck me most was that he not particularly subtly side stepped the whole issue of his break up and separation from his wife. I don’t know why he avoided it, maybe Lance felt it asn’t appropriate in a book largely about riding bikes and maybe that’s fair enough.

From: Katie
Subject: Beer Scooter

How many times have you woken up in the morning after a hard night drinking and thought ‘How on earth did I get home?’ As hard as you try you cannot piece together your return journey from the pub to your house. The answer to this puzzle is that you used a Beer Scooter. The Beer Scooter is a mythical form of transport, owned and leased to the drunk by Bacchus the Roman God of Wine. Bacchus has acquired a large batch of these magical devices. The Beer Scooter works in the following fashion:-

The passenger reaches a certain level of drunkenness and the “slurring gland” begins to give off a pheromone. Bacchus or one of his many sub-contractors detects this pheromone and sends down a winged Beer Scooter. The scooter scoops up the passenger and deposits them in their bedroom via a Trans-Dimensional Portal. This is not cheap to run, so a large portion of the passenger’s in-pocket cash is taken as payment. This answers the second question after a night out, ‘How did I spend so much money?’

Unfortunately, Beer Scooters have a poor safety record and are thought to be responsible for over 90% of all UDI (Unidentified Drinking Injuries), such as skinned knees and a sore spot on the top of your head. An undocumented feature of the Beer Scooter is the destruction of time segments during the trip. The nature of Trans-Dimensional Portals dictates that time will be lost, seemingly unaccounted for. This answers a third question after a night out ‘What the hell happened?’

With good intentions, Bacchus opted for the REMIT (Removal of Embarrassing Moments In Time) add-on, that automatically removes, in descending order, those parts in time regretted most. Unfortunately one person’s REMIT is not necessarily the REMIT of another’s and quite often lost time is regained in discussions over a period of time. Independent studies have also shown that Beer Goggles often cause the Scooter’s navigation system to malfunction thus sending passengers to the wrong bedroom, often with horrific consequences.

For the family man, Beer Scooters come equipped with flowers picked from other people’s garden and Thump-A-Lot boots (Patent Pending). These boots are designed in such a way that no matter how quietly you tip-toe up the stairs, you are sure to wake up your other half. Special anti-gravity springs ensure that you bump into every wall in the house and the CTSGS (Coffee Table Seeking Guidance System) explains the bruised shins. The final add-on Bacchus saw fit to invest in for some Scooters is the TAS (Tobacco Absorption System). This explains how one person can apparently get through 260 Marlboro Lights in a single night.

P.S. Don’t forget the on-board heater, which allows you to comfortably get home from the pub in sub-zero temperatures, wearing just a T-shirt.

Yep. There were some moments over the last two weeks in which the beer Scooter could be identified as the transport home. I think on at least one occassion our beer scooter was driven by a guy called Elvis who had a DVD player built into his dashboard. Exciting stuff out in the Carribean. That and hot-rod minibuses anywhere on the island for 50p (Complete with roof top spoilers, go faster stripes and rally mudflaps).

On a similar note there’s this:

From: Jed
Subject: Loaded Bike

Check out the bike in this link…

This probably isn’t particularly PC. If your insulted I’d love to hear it. Complaints will be dealt with by the complaints department:

Learn Chinese in 5 minutes

That’s not right – Sum Ting wong
Are you harbouring a fugitive? – Hu Yu Hai Ding
See me ASAP – Kum Hia Nao
Stupid Man – Dum Fuk
Small Horse – Tai Ni Po Ni
Did you go to the beach? – Wai Yu So Tan
I bumped into the coffee table – Ai Bang Mai Fa Kin Ni
I think you need a face lift – Chin Tu Fat
It’s very dark in here – Wao So Dim
I thought you were on a diet – Wai Yu Mun Ching
This is a tow away area – No Pah King
Our meeting is scheduled for next week – Wai Yu Kum Nao
Staying out of sight – Lie Ying Lo
He’s cleaning his automobile – Wa Shing Ka
Your body odor is offensive – Yu Stin Ki Pu
Great – Fa Kin Su Pah

I think that about covers it for this update.

Worked in the bikeshop on Saturday. It’s been so long I can’t even remember when it was I last worked there but after the initial ‘new bits’ acclimatization and finding out where everything had moved to around the shop it was pretty much like I’d never been away.

The new Specialized look good for next year, I think I’m going to have to try a few more full suspension bikes and try and work out what to get as a replacement for the FSR. Maybe Ben’s new Demo 9 will convince me I need a gravity bike. I hope not, there’s no where to put it.

Now this is what custom bikes are all about. A lot of time and patience and vision. I hope she liked it. I thought this would be appreciated by the Apple fanatics out there. I’m soon to be getting in on the game too. I think it might be a while before I build up a G5 array though.

I’m getting restless. Now I’m feeling better and really want to get out and ride I’m on call and can’t be more than three minutes from home. That said I want to ride, but I still haven’t fully recovered my interest in bikes. I think one ride will do it and Thursday night’s going to see it happen, mark my words.

Now then the Singlespeed is going to have to go. Yep I’ve been thinking about it and as much as I love the frame and the uniqueness of the bike and despite the fact I bought a pair of forks for it I’ve never got around to fitting, I think it’s time to say au revoir and move on. So if you’re interested in the bike or any of the bits let me know. I’m going to give it until I come back from holiday until I post it up for sale on the STW classifieds, probably as a whole bike to start with.

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch since I finished writing up. It definitely feels like a load has been lifted from my shoulders. Despite the sparse updates it seems that people are still finding rothar.com. Thanks to everyone whose posted in the guestbook recently too.

A few Indy Fab’s were on show at Interbike in Vegas, but check the stem cap on this.

Five years of interest, three years of dedicated original research, mountains of books, papers and research findings, generally cold and wet fieldwork and one finished thesis. I’m glad that’s out of the way. I’m now one step closer to a doctorate.

I’m now working full time for Europe’s biggest University and it’s fair to say that I haven’t had much time for anything else. I’ve been feeling like crap for the last week and I’m just looking forward to being well enough to get out on a bike again soon.

Apart from the Tyler Hamilton debacle I don’t know what else has been happening in the world of bikes. The Las Vegas Interbike show is on now and a fair few from this side of the pond have gone over to find out what’s new and I’m sure the pictures will start appearing soon. More updates as soon as I get around to trawling the web for what’s been going on.

Still here and almost finished. It’s been a long, long road with lots of blind corners, but it’s like I’ve just ridden around the last hairpin bend of a very long mountain climb and there just on the horizon and rapidly approaching is the summit. The end is in sight.

So given my recent hermit like status I’m out of touch with bikes at the moment. I haven’t ridden properly since Sleepless in the Saddle and I have only occasionally been checking out what’s been happening in the world of bikes. Well the world in general has been passing by fairly quickly, but I was fairly amused by the fact that at least one country has some common sense.

I’m still waiting for some fucked up shit to go off over here, because those in command of the security of this fine nation seem to think that security is about just about talking about it, but not actually doing anything. And when they do get round to actioning something they’ll probably use a Kryptonite lock or some other flawed piece of crap. There are 14,000 security pass holders to the House of Commons, yeah they’re going to be able to lock that place down real tight. I can see it now.

Anyway here’s an American view on things:

From: Big Jonny
Subject: Where democracy can be found

I with I had something good to say about all that. Maybe India is ahead of the curve, and that has an upside.

The House of Commons could be facing trouble, as many of the government bodies, institutions and building on my side of the pond undoubtedly are as well.

Fucked up shit. For sure. It’s a good thing we ride bikes.

Keep you chin up, this can’t last forever. Can it?

jonny out

Lots more photos from Sleepless knocking about on the web now that Singletrack and Bikemagic have released theirs. I’ve updated the gallery. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many photos of the team and Chilly (the team pro photographer) is still to show me his piccies yet.

One word, but with several ways of interpreting it: Fit. Gold medal in the womens TT for Leontien and Tyler had the end to the season he deserves with Gold in the mens TT and by a distinct margin. More at cyclingnews.

I didn’t realise the tutu wearing Rudy was a big name in the bike world stateside, but after reading this article, my ignorance is apparent.

I can’t remember if I linked to this already or not. Pavement propoganda.

There’s money, money, money and then fake money. These are political facts and figures that may help you understand current political unrest on the US side of the pond. Getting away from it all can sometimes go a little bit wrong. A Skateboarding dog? That sounds just like Jed’s kind of thing, except his version would probably involve a long steep hill and finally Big Jonny posted this link and it foxed him. Can you spot the five differences in these two pictures. It’s tricky.

After Gold in Athens what can we expect from Hamilton in the Vuelta? Although Heras is hotly tipped to do the business, I wouldn’t be too surprised by an upset. Follow the action over at Cyclingnews. Um, that’s it. No biking for me at the moment, but only a few more weeks to go.

Well it’s been the leanest month on the site since its inception in terms of updates. I could probably write a lot about Quercetum mixtum, sere-based succession and the impact of environmental change on a midwest region of Ireland about now, but it’s hard to switch off and get into bikes. Talking of which I haven’t been near one since Sleepless. There just ain’t time.

I did watch the Olympic mountain biking. Well I streamed it over the t’internet and listened to it rather than watched it. Kileen’s ride was textbook (well apart from the start). Next time he’ll be a marked man, which ain’t a bad thing. What was Frischi up to? Riding a 29er with tubs and knobbly treads glued on, which led to the following conversation:

Thingy: I hear Thomas Frischknecht is using a road tyre with a mountain bike tread glued on.

Gary Foord: Yes, but I can’t see him, he doesn’t seem to be doing very well.

Thingy: Perhaps, that’s because he’s using a road tyre with a mountain bike tread glued on. [cue onscreen guffawage]

Still the swiss vet still placed 8th. The guy is a legend.

Critical Mass gathered so much critical mass in NYC recently that things went, er, critical. Yep, the cops steamed in arrested lots of peeps on bikes. Drivers stormed in and ran over peeps on bikes. Then in the aftermath, in a knee-jerk reaction, the police arrested a ‘conspirator‘. Yeah, like, whatever, as some one has pointed out:

HOW THE FUCK COME THE POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE GIVE KIDS CHALK TO WRITE ON THE SIDEWALK AND THE PARKS DEPARTMENT GIVE FUCKING CHALK TO KIDS TO WRITE ON ASPHALT AND DURING MUSEUM MILE EVERYWHERE, THERE ARE BOXES OF FREE CHALK PROVIDED FOR EVERYONE TO DEFACE 4 FUCKING MILES OF 5TH AVENUE?

More here. America’s not looking like the land of the free so much these days.

On a more cheery note here are some nice photos. Turn you pop-up blocker off and make sure Flash is up to speed. Sterling work.

Who said Flash websites were dead? Check out Armstrong’s latest Nike video here. Select Fuel and then the longer of the two Piano films.

Former Kona man Joe Murray’s latest bikes. I have lost all respect since I heard that those at the recent SSWC in Germany had to pay to go on a ride with him. What the…? Anyway photos of the event are up here.

I’ve been listening to a lot of tunes recently and whilst my copy hasn’t arrived yet, I’m looking forward to getting the new Prodigy album, because having just listened to Fat of the Land again, it’s reminded me how some of their stuff is just exceptional.

It looks like Lance has it in the bag for another year after yesterdays demolition exercise. I really do hope that next year he broadens his horizons and rides other events and I’m sure some other riders are thinking the same. His ability is no surprise to some:

From: Cyclingnews
Subject: Hoban: “Other riders should try harder”

Barry Hoban, the British former pro whose career spanned the Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault eras, says he’s mystified by the way today’s Tour de France contenders fail to match Lance Armstrong’s preparation.

In an interview with the BBC, Hoban made the pretty safe prediction that, “unless something catastrophic happens Lance Armstrong will win a record sixth Tour.” He went on to compare Armstrong with other top competitors. “Michael Schumacher is a good example,” said Hoban. “These sportspeople are perfectionists, they prepare carefully and they are meticulous. That’s why I can’t understand the other riders. If Armstrong is so meticulous and talented then the others should try even harder. But riders such as Ullrich get so out of shape that it takes them most of the season to get their fitness levels back up.”

Hoban rode 12 Tours de France between 1964 and 1978, winning eight stages. Now 64, he still rides his bike.

Take one remote control offroad car, one quarter pipe, a house, a few friends with video cameras and add beer, sunshine and a sense of adventure and this is the result. Now that is cool.

Do you think the photographer was fit?

My new phone plays MP3s. Since Winamp have to totally bollocks up my upgrade to the pro edition, I’ve been looking around for something to play on it. And about the best thing I’ve found is this website with loads of free music on it all by unsigned bands and artists. Some of the stuff’s average, but some of it’s really good.

And this is the Singlespeedoutlaw once again.