We’ve just had some rather cool jerseys through the door, and they are just a bit different to your common or garden cycle jerseys.
They’ve arrived here from
They also do some very nice posters.
Hide the credit card.
And no, I’m not tensing, honest…
Had a great day with Mr Craig on Wednesday, showing him one of our local test loops (For the locals, we did Chipps’ Zigzags, Orchan Rocks, Whirlaw, the Golf Course and Rodwell ‘A’ - a four mile off road section with a bit of road and canal at the ends…)
And Thursday was a regular night ride night, which saw a dozen or more of us on a Bogtrotters-like push up a footpath - all that was missing were some kneepads… Great night though and some great beer in the Masons - not even let down by the local guy who thought we were mouthing off about mountain bikes - He’d done the Paris-Dakar you know… Eh?
Now finishing up on a Friday night (hope there’s room for a traditional Friday night beer) and then off to Pat Adams’ tomorrow to do some bike lock breaking and taking advantage of his communication-free valley to get some writing done… Deadline mayhem looms next week!
Chipps
We’ve got ex-National MTB XC champ Nick Craig popping in tomorrow to take me for a ride. It’s for a feature you see? We’re doing a couple of local loops on different bikes to see what they’re like. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden with a real XC pro, but I do remember that they let you get yourself into trouble while they happily spin just behind you, chatting away. You don’t want to appear a slow old rider (even if you are) so you try harder and harder and eventually explode into lots of teeny tiny pieces.
Well, we’ll see if that happens. Oh, and then I’ll have to write 2000 words about the experience too. By Thursday…
Chipps
No not lines on a map (”there is a Swansea!”) but lines of words that need to be written. Words about bikes. Words about rides I don’t have a problem with. But words about bikes seem to take an aeon of teeth grinding and forehead scratching to emerge from my noggin.
Maybe it’s the extra responsibility that goes with giving The Verdict on something that the manufacturers have spent a great deal of time developing. Maybe it’s the pressure of thinking of all those wallets of our readers. I don’t want to get it wrong. But neither do I want to politely sit on the fence.
Ah well. Here goes nuthin’.
Just back from the Bontrager 24/12 race on the Welsh-English border, somewhere near Oswestry…
A top weekend. Extreme heat, a course two inches deep in dust, a huge summer thunderstorm for about 20 minutes and then the course turned into an ice rink. A couple of hours later it was rideable again (sort of) though borrowing some toe studs off Bike Shak Mike helped loads on the slippy pushes… My teammate Jo and I came sixth out of 20 mixed pairs, which I don’t think is too slack, considering as the top few teams were all super-fit types training for the Trans-Wales… A fun weekend and a good event for a first year - great atmosphere out on the course and some very polite overtaking…
Time for a bit of traditional Sunday night cramming now, a few articles to write before morning and then flat out towards deadline…
Chipps
A change of plans has been forced on me by an unplanned over the bars moment in the lakes. Nothing amazing just a typical slow speed stack, but with a rocky landing. Out of the window goes the planned 24/12 weekend racing with SteveM and indeed any other bike riding for the next few weeks. All thanks to this:
Big thanks go out to Ben, Matt and Dave360 for looking after me while we waited for Mountain Rescue to come and an especially heartfelt thank you to the Keswick Mountain Rescue for their hardwork.
Mountain Rescue is a very ace thing so next time you see a collecting tin on the bar drop some change in, you may be glad you made the contribution one day, I know I was.
Anyway, back to one handed typing. Photo’s and story will no doubt be in the next issue.
Right, I’m going to do it. I’m going to ride into work. Rash I know, but I have my reasons. Queues on the motorway, the cost of petrol and the need to ride bikes more mean I am now looking into becoming a cycle commuter.
Riding bikes has always been about just doing it for laughs for me, going no-where for no good reason other than to make me smile a bit. I’m hoping that cycling to work will still make me smile and I don’t lose the will to ride, instead I want it to give me huge bulging muscles and the ability to skip up hills whilst giving that Lance over the shoulder look.
But first things first; which bike for commuting?
Chipps has a fixed gear Surly Steamroller, which looks fab but the idea of riding fixed for 25 miles does nothing for me.
Mark has a Specialized hybrid which looks like it’d be comfortable and quick without the road posture.
Ben rides in on whatever bike is easiest to drag out of his cellar.
So, should I just slap some slicks on a mountain bike or should I look into getting hold of a more specific tool for the job?
Hm, stay tuned for further developments.
Another mad week of zipping around the country for me. Monday and Tuesday were spent at the soon-to-open, newly improved Coed Y Brenin. Well worth a trip in itself, but the main reason was to spend some good trail time on Shimano’s new XTR groupset. Not round a Birmingham carpark, or 50 yards round the Sea Otter pits on a borrowed pro’s bike, but proper working stuff. Obviously it’s great. And more of that in detail later, but first I have to head in to the office, gather things and drive to Stirling in Scotland. It’s our pal Andy McCandlish’s wedding tomorrow and I’m the photographer… No pressure then… And then on Friday I’m driving back south, picking up bikes in the office and heading to the Bontrager 24/12 event at the weekend… And then we’re back into full-on deadline. It’s all fun though.
Chipps
Another day in western Canada, another outdoor activity, another legal waiver denouncing all our rights to sue anyone if we get drowned, sliced, eaten, crushed or dropped.
We are in Canmore now and our tour of BC and Alberta is almost at an end. Today is our last full day here before we fly back to Blighty tomorrow. So far we’ve been whale watching, DH biking, Zip Trekking, glacier hiking, XC riding, horse riding (with steak BBQ), canoeing and today we tick white water rafting off the list.
It’s going to be a culture shock returning to the UK - we’ve been here just over two weeks now, stayed in five resort towns and travelled over 3000 miles via pretty much every form of transport possible and we can honestly say we’ve never met a grumpy Canadian - and we’ve met lots!
UPDATE: Here’s a shot of the four of us in a raft. We were expecting the equivalent of a pootle down the river since we had the kids with us, but alarm bells began to chime when they handed us wet suits 
For those that know about this kind of stuff this was a category 3 rapid. I’m bottom right, Rachel is behind me and the kids are screaming in the middle
Well, that’s me back in the office now. Two weeks of holiday is now over and it’s back to work again.
Last week I indulged in one of the ultimate pleasures for any mountain biker, mid-week day riding. Theoretically this is the optimum time to ride as everyone should be at work or school and the trails are empty. Corners can be taken at higher speeds with the reasonably safe assumption that there won’t be a dog walker or group of infants standing on the trail and no-one to see you fall off when you attempt that tricky rock-to-root-to-step-to-flat section you’ve been eyeing up for a while.
Like I said, it’s theoretically the best time.
Somehow I managed to find all the other people who were on holiday and wandering around, a lost school party and a photoshoot that involved a woman dressed as a vampire in a black PVC bodysuit and another woman dressed as a bride with fake blood on her dress. At least I think it was fake…
As well as discovering gothic fantasy photoshoots I found some nice new trails that had me smiling ear to ear.
Dunno if there’s a point to this rambling, if there is I guess it’s bunk off work and go ride your bike.
You never know what you might find down those un-explored trails.
Sim