Matt and I have just made it to Eurobike, got our press passes and are drinking Press Room coffee. In front of us lie six or seven show halls full of next year’s gear - we’d better get at it… Reports up on Singletrack as soon as I manage to edit down today’s stuff.
Chipps
Just back from a very (unexpectedly!) sketchy and slippy night ride with Sim. We were both finding it very difficult dealing with Hebden Bridge’s greenest rocks and roots. It seems so long since it was this slithery.
At one point I had an impromptu go at ‘freeriding’ (ahem) after being sold a dummy by a frog-skinned boulder. I’d like to thank the Slayer (yes, another one) I was riding for bailing me out of a whole lotta trouble as I careered down the steep, fern-obscured, boulder-strewn, verge holding on to the bars and trying not to panic brake (which would have certainly caused a big stack) 
Shouldn’t there have been an Autumn before we entered this Winter?
Now this is what Bank Hols are all about… Dinner with friends, a trip to the shops (on which I didn’t buy anything too dramatic, yay!) another night out for a few more beers, bumping into a lot of the other Singletrack crew in Hebden and then a great ride around Oxenhope on dry trails in threatening, but impotent weather… Yay!
I do seem to have tweaked my knee in my enthusiasm for riding today, so that means a quiet night in with some wine and some catching up of reading books and magazines. I’ll see how it is tomorrw to see about another day of riding. And then I’ve got Tuesday in the office for meetings and stuff before Matt and I head off to Eurobike for the week. Better find my passport and business cards…
Chipps
SSWC06 went swimmingly well, managed a whole lap of the course despite the lack of mobility in my left arm. Admittedly I rode somewhat tentatively to start off with but as the course progressed I got more and more back into it. The night of the race resulted in wierd “electrical” pain up my arm, increased swelling and a reduction in movement but in the week since it’s returned to 90% normal - result!
So it’s looking like normal riding is finally on the cards again, it’s been a long five weeks of waiting I can tell you.
Me and Matt went out for a late afternoon’s play over The Big Hill today. We were riding a couple of next issue’s test bikes (a Kona The King and a Mythic Scirocco). Despite it being very puddlesome and somehow almost totally devoid of freewheeling we had a top time and found a potentially new patchwork of trails
We also discovered that the Mythic needs higher/wider bars and the tyres on the Kona are lethal on wet rock. All in all very productive(!)
It’s midnight now and I have just this minute finished putting together another test bike: a DeKerf SST. I’d like to hereby nominate changing cables on Sram XO shifters as the single most infuriating task you can attempt in one lifetime. Aaaaaargh!!
Can’t wait to ride the SST though. It weighs 24lbs and just looks… well, perfect.
Greetings from Stockholm. In a rare moment of computer connectivity, I’ve been able to get online… So, the Singlespeed World Champs went wonderfully well, with a huge crowd of smiling singlespeeders enjoying a great, technical course and a wonderful atmosphere. The fast people won, there was some trackside beer, and there were the usual occurances of spontaneous craziness. Oh, and someone went through a window. But apart from that, it was all very well behaved.
The Scottish team won the right to host next year’s singlespeed worlds in 2007 too. Woohoo!
 Right, I’m off to enjoy a final day of bike riding round the trails of this amazing city. There’ll be pictures and a report soon.
Chipps
Just about finished packing for SSWC06 in Stockholm. Trying to squeeze everything into one BoB bag plus two bike bags to make life easy. Bikes were a doddle compared to clothes, shoes, camelbaks and assorted bike stuff.
Looking forward to meeting up with old friends again,but there’s a cloud on the horizon. I’m not sure my arm will work sufficiently well to let me ride yet, but fingers crossed hey?
I’m far from being a jaded hack (I’m a jaded ad ‘exec’) but I don’t generally get in a tither about riding new stuff.
However tonight I’m riding a Rocky Mountain Slayer with the most bling paint job ever! It’s not lacking in trickery either and looks? Well, it looks dead right. I hope it rides like it looks and that the slithery rocks around here are going to be kind to it 
Like a lot of people I’ve always wanted a custom built frame. A frame built for me, with geometry I’ve decided on, from a material I’ve picked, sprayed in a colour that I’ve chosen.
The trouble is I know that what I’d end up doing is handing the frame builder my ‘96 Kona Koa and saying “Can I have this, but in steel and with a disc mount please”, which kind of defeats the point of having a custom build really.
So, I’m sending a ‘95 Kona Lava Dome frame I bought in the Classifieds down to Dave Yates for him to fit a disc mount to, as well as removing the canti mounts and putting some new cable guides on. Then I’m going to have it re-sprayed. I’ve got a good idea of what colour I’m going to pick and I’ve got some plans for the decals, and, if I’m honest, I’m quite excited about it all.
I’m already building it up in my head…
Well, it’s been a bit of a mental few days… It ended up being 18 days of work without a break to get the magazine finished - which we did at 8am on Friday morning. Then after a couple of hours’ snoozing, it was off to the Kona Sleepless 24hr event. I was racing on a team of four and Mark and Sim were off to rule as a pair.
The Saturday course was wonderfully fun, dusty and hardpacked, but it started raining after midnight and kept on and off for most of Sunday. The race course got unsurprisingly very quiet and many teams decided to sit and huddle, or sleep, or drink beer instead of fighting the gloop. Even the pro riders’ times shot up from 30 mins to nearly an hour a lap. I felt happy in not racing after midnight as my team had a few mechanical/body issues and I was happy enough to have really enjoyed the laps I actually did.
I think Mark and Sim had fun, I’ll let them tell you about their adventures… For me, now, I need to tidy up a little after the issue, work out what’s going in next issue and then, on Thursday, fly to Sweden for the Singlespeed World Champs… Woohoo!
Chipps