Singletrack Staff Blog

Well, I’m back after a week away. Mostly holiday, though my initial plan of road riding in Yorkshire for the week was derailed by a) not having a road bike and b) getting a last minute invitation to the Lapierre Bikes launch in Alpe D’Huez. So, I decided to go to France for the week instead and take a few days off at the end of the bike launch to ride with my pal Graeme/MacPuppy in the Vercors area of France.

The Lapierre bikes are great and there’ll be a report on the website shortly, but here’s a quick sneaky peek at their 140mm travel fun bike.

The rest of my week was spent spanking myself up and down some big French hills in the sunshine, both on and off road. An ideal antidote to the stupid weather here. Here’s the view from the scary road on the wonderfully named 1000m ‘Col de La Machine’.

Last nights Thursday Nightride turned out to be a brief reminder of what summer was all about. Warm, clear sky and remarkably dry trails. I can’t say I’ve been depressed about the wet weather we’ve had, every ride has been worthwhile and with a great set of friends.

The plant growth has gone a bit mental though in this perfect growing weather Local favourite “Big Dogs Dick” is now featuring undergrowth of junglistic proportions, complete with neck high cross trail brambles hidden in the enveloping bracken.

There’s nothing like the feel of tingling nettle stung legs in bed, the true sign of a good night out.

Sim and I have just left the office, with the last pages of issue 36 designed, subbed and uploading to the printers. Much as I love the good bits of this job, deadlines have been outnumbering the good bits by quite a lot - this is my third 3am or later finish in three nights, I worked last weekend and the one before and I can’t actually remember when I rode a bike for more than a mile…

Oh well, eh? It’s no good me whingeing. I’d better just do something about it. I’m off on holiday next week and I’m going to ride bikes every day, somewhere in the UK. That’s my only concrete plan so far… Right time for sleep and to wonder what the next issue’s going to look like. Night all!

The doorbell just went and a bike box turned up with the nice TNT man. It was Sim’s Commencal Meta5, shipped back from the Shimano XT launch in France. Sim got the bike out of the box and it was covered in summer dust. I was taken aback with how odd it was to see a dusty bike. Thinking about it, though, I can remember one dusty weekend of riding since April. I know that I go on about the weather sucking so much, but I’d forgotten how great it is to ride on dry, dusty trails. Mmmm… Yum.

…but it’s not all bad.
I don’t want to say it too loudly, but currently, it’s not raining. I actually rode my bike into work and didn’t get drenched. I feel quite good now.

In other news I’ve just been handed a fresh pair of Syncros lock on grips. I included these in my editors’ choice awards thingy way back when, but at about the same time they became impossible to get hold of. Now Jungle are bringing them in and I can fit my fave grips again.

It’s the little things…

Just noticed that our pals over at Bikeradar have switched their site on, to immediate ‘tearing to shreds’ reactions from the forums - which is only to be expected. We’ve kind of got used to it - and when the new STW2 gets switched on I know we’ll get the same treatment. So, knowing that they’ve all probably been working rather hard on it for months, I just wanted to give them an ‘it’s a small world, let’s all be pals’ group-hug.

Now go and have a beer before the Tour starts and you all have to work all weekend.
Talking of which, I guess I’d better leave work soon or it’ll be time to be here again… Just one more article to finish before bedtime…

But before I go, here’s a great piece about buying watches on ebay, written by William Gibson in 1999. It’s aged very well and makes great reading. It’s from Wired.com

Who cares that it’s been the wettest June since records began when you have Wasabi Peas? Not me.

Anyone who’s popped round to my house for tea knows that I’m very into Japanese food and enjoy making my own sushi. Japanese ingredients aren’t completely impossible to find in the cultural metropolis of Todmorden, but some stuff is hard to find, so I mail order it from the Japanese Centre in London, where they have all sorts of nice stuff…

So, Wasabi peas for desk-snacks now and lots more California Rolls to come soon.
Anyone hungry?