Enough said.
(Especially after having a ride around town today…jeez drivers in Leeds are mental sometimes.)

Almost makes you want to…Hulk out!

Meanwhile…

This is from the ride the other week.

Bees?

Argh bees!

and B-list soap ‘stars’?

Didn't actually see any mind.

2 and 1/2 hours from the door with a nice mix of single track (some cheeky), bridleway and some road to link it up ace!

Plus my noggin was nicely protected and comfortable…

New helmet...thanks Tom.

This site seems to document pre-war jerseys and bikes that all appear to still be in one piece today! Not sure how they would ride mind but the technology and the design is incredible when you compare to the modern racing bicycle.

Genial Lucifer from 1937

Another site I stumbled across today is 101 Wankers, I notcied it in the blogroll of one of the blogs I read regularly but hadn’t clicked…until today it made it onto Guardian website which I stumbled onto via Reddit. Yes my routes around the internet are even more random than my routes around the country by bike! Anyway I digress, 101 Wankers documents insults (particularly sexist insults as it’s written by a women) recieved by the author and is mapping them using google maps, it’s in its infancy but I always like projects like this for a) highlighting it’s not all roses when you’re on your bike and b) trying to do something positive with the negativity experience by using the data and sharing with others/opening a discussion. Apparently the author had her bike stolen but has now got a new one, so hopefully it will continue and continue to raise the issue and profile of abuse/harrasment aimed at cyclists.

Think about it.

That’s not the worst, more here.

“WADA president to urge re-banning of caffiene”

There are definitely some members of the Punk rock bike club who could fall foul of that ruling!

I was also going to post some pictures from last week when I rode this loop (the medium one). However will my camera connect to my PC currently…will it heck! Expect an update of this post if it decides to play ball some time.

Racy!

The old single speed had a hard winter coping admirably with everything the British weather could throw at it and my stubbornness that I could ride down a cobbled street when it was covered in ice and snow. Not to mention everything that the gritting lorries of Leeds City Council could throw at it…literally! So come January it was abandoned for a while looking more grey than green and in a rather sorry state, however I’ve cleaned it up and unstuck the stuck components (mostly the brakes) so they now work better than before. I put the original drops back on which makes for an interesting ride, they’re really narrow and it feels very bum up head down…which is kind of fun in a way.

It isn’t perfect though, the headset is pretty borked after the winter which means it doesn’t turn well at all and out of the saddle the front end has a habit of wanting to point off to one side and stick there which is a bit ‘interesting’ sometimes. The bottom bracket is also starting to clunk a touch, only slightly though so a new headset and BB are the order of the day next month. The hub bearings and freewheel seem to have coped with the full on winter assault ok which surprised me.

Think I’m going to take it out for a longer spin later and try to go up some of the hills (on the road), lets see how the legs cope with only having one gear after 6 months of being allowed 27 to play with. It could be an interesting walk with some downhill riding!

One day you never know I’ll flip that flip-flop hub, and then probably break my neck!

I appear to have brought more of the hill home than usual.

It actually made me realised that I have been blessed with some incredibly good weather in my first 4 months of mountain biking proper, but in order to gain those skills I aspire to, being able to ride in all conditions has got to be a priority. It was quite fun leaving the house in sunshine, then getting absolutely pissed down on and then seeing an awesome rainbow (sadly no way to take a good photo of that on my camera phone).

The 101 Dalmatian auditions were not going well.

I however managed to twat my helmet on a few low branches today, mainly because I have to duck so low sometimes because of the foliage that I can’t look up and see where I’m going. I think a new helmet is going to have to be purchased sooner rather than later as mine is coming to the end of the ‘normal’ period you should keep one for and it’s taken some knocks recently. The only issue is I know that any new one will also be clattered into branches regularly, what do people do!?! Just hope it hasn’t cause any damage I assume and carry on until it fails or gets to be ‘that’ age.

What the Aga was built for.

Local trails ala cx from Andy Wardman on Vimeo.

…and yeah this came via AHTBM.

Getting better all the time...shame the rider isn't.

So additions to the beauty are as follows:

• Newly built front wheel so they now match and I can give Mark his back.
• Mountain King 29er 2.2 tyre up front…the jury is out.
• Syncros Carbon bars (25.4 diameter)
• On One stem (as the bars are ‘standard)
• Atomlab flat pedals (the last 3 items are all thanks to Tom)
• Carbon wrapped seatpost swapped over from my Tricross as the clamp on the Ritchey Pro one was rubbish and the saddle kept moving.

So the bike felt quite different initially with the Mountain King rolling much more quickly and with less drag than the Kenda Nevegal on Mark’s wheel. However on my descent off the hills I wasn’t sure about the cornering grip available, for a 2.2 it’s smaller than both the Nevegal and the Bonty ACX I have on the back and it just seemed to skip about rather than gripping. It could be of course that due to the lack of drag I was going faster than normal. This all culminated in a rather hair raising moment where I went sideways round a bend and the rear end dropped off the path. Luckily the rear tyre gripped and I powered onwards and back onto the track saving myself a 500 metre slide downhill through gorse and shrubs…it probably would have looked rad and clearly ‘gnar’ to the max, however I think I was going ‘shhhiiiitttttt’ all the way through.

Other things I learnt today are that clear glasses are great and mean flies don’t get in your eyes, but they still go in your mouth! Also make sure your front disc calliper is aligned before you set off as the noise of it rubbing is damn annoying, was a good ride though just need to regulate my speed versus my skills a bit better.

Tom has some photos which I’ll put up when he’s got them onto the net. I’ll also add any others I come across from other people that seem relevant like the one by Tilly below. Iron Chic are brilliant and everyone who reads this should give them at least one listen!

I love my bike.