Spin

He just cycles around on his fixie to begin with, but wait for it...

Straight to the point

This cartoon in the Guardian is a good'un, hehe.

Mysterons

These guys are wicked, and from Leamington Spa. Cool.

Went to the beach last weekend, cycled there at an average of just over 27 km/h so was super quick. Beachfest was on at Bournemouth but I could not be bothered going, so instead tried out skim boarding with LIdia, Klaus and family and Caroline.

On the beach

Here is a photo of us hanging out in mist at Highcliff beach. It was warm'ish despite the mist.


It was cool, but was rubbish at skim boarding. Klaus however was riding the surf like a pro... and Julia found a massive shark tooth. Beaches are cool.

Chiltern 100

It was great, cycled 100km in four hours and fifteen minutes. Here are the stats:
Mean rpm, 74
Peak rpm 179
Mean speed 25.3 km/hr
Max speed 66 km/hr
Distance 106.16 km

They don't let on how tough it was, and how fast it was whizzing down the hills. The route took us up some very steep roads. I have no idea why the roads exist, there appear to be no towns or houses at the top. Anyways the roads just go straight up these hills, rather than around them. So up and down we went.

Lidia and I got to great Misseden for the race the day before and set out to see the sights. Pretty place, home to Rhoal Dahl. I wonder if I spelt that right...



To race day:
I joined Ed at the start, and we took photos of each other and saw Ed off (Ed was doing the proper Grand Fondo of 100 miles). I set off on my smaller 100 km race at 9 am, and zoomed along for the most part with Mark and Mark from the local cycle club. The hill climbs were hard, but quite cool, as they went up through a canopy of trees. The down hills were super fast, although I took them slower than the Marks. We were later joined by some more riders, and sped along the flat roads slip streaming beautifully. That was great, felt like a real biker, was imagining myself as Marco Pantani for the most part.

Anyways, some people (Will) have moaned that I have not talked about frisbee much as of late. Well tough. But, the guys came 5th at Mixed Tour 3 in Nottingham while I was out in the chilterns, which rocks.

Great weekends had by all.

Long time riding

Have just rewired the bike computer back onto my road bike (Lidia's dad, Vincenzo's old bike) no big deal in it's self . But, seeing as I put the computer on the bike, which for those that don't know just measures the peadalling rate (rpm) and speed I cycle at, I thought I would keep a geeky record of my stats etc. Check out this for an idea of how involved stat taking can get. Vincenzo is worse, hehe.

Anyways, I digress. The thing is my inherited bike computer has covered over 80,000 km according to its odometer. Holey fucking shit, that is fucking far. Lets assume the bike computer has been on that bike for most of it's life, unreasonable assumption? Well, that means the bike has covered that distance. I recently rebuilt the front wheel as the spokes would regularly break, which was getting a little irritating. I though I would leave the back wheel as it is, as if it aint broke and so on.

But, I think the wheels have been with the bike since it was bought, and I recently looked over the back wheel again, and the spokes are well worn where they cross and at the hub. No wonder though, eighty thousand kilometers of use. I hope it holds out for 100 more this weekend, otherwise I will be walking far in cycling shoes, and that wont make me happy.

80,000, I hope I can take it to 100,000.

Wheel Building

There is just something about my bicycle wheels that I have built my self. They look like any other bike wheel, but they are all mine. I trued them, laced them with my own bare hands.

If a bike shop man tells you "ooh, don't recommend building your own wheels, it is a real art you know." Tell them to fuck off, and go to another bike shop and get all the bits you need.

Then you too could love your wheels like I do :)

Here is my fixie sporting wheels I built (with some help of my friend Hedley)

Good old Ryan

Found these effusive remarks about some guy and Ryan, my former captain. They were said by Alex de Frondeville:

" Playing with Tyler Grant. The guy is a stud. He would be a starting receiver on DoG's O and a shutdown defender on DoG D (or any other open nationals level team out there). Only slightly behind was Ryan Reynolds. Definitely a pleasure to play with people where if you put it up deep to them, you're 90% sure they are going to come down with it, regardless of who is covering them. This is definitely something that has been missing from DoG for the last few years. "

Interesting stuff. Makes me quite proud of tall Ryan. I wonder if I would make it into Condors, or I am just too average. Apparently Ryan is just an average rooky for them (according to some Condors players Em and Lou were chatting up at Paganello). Maybe I will stick to cycling, no requirements on how good I need to be. I just need to stay on my bike, which with my new fixie may be easier said than done. It is weird to be unable to free wheel.