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[singlepic id=170 w=480 h=640 float=] The ice lid from my clothes washing bucket It’s very much “that time of year”. The time when every part of my bike decides to break within the space of a few weeks. The time when many trails are so muddy that there’s a severe shortage of Type 1 fun, . . . → Read More: There’s little glory in bucket-washing Someone asked me this by email. Here’s what I said: If you’re thinking of trying to pick which towns to sleep in, that is probably a bad idea. You’ll be off-plan pretty soon, so you might as well wing it the whole way. In general, it’s much quicker to sleep out than to get a . . . → Read More: Where To Sleep on The Tour Divide [singlepic id=168 w=320 h=240 float=left] [singlepic id=169 w=320 h=240 float=right] I never thought that I’d be regularly riding a rigid-forked mountain bike. In 2010, my Rockshox Revelations were approaching useless as I was approaching the Tour Divide. I’d already decided that rigid made sense for the race: less weight, less to go wrong. So, I . . . → Read More: A Tale Of Two Forks I had a really nice ride at Swinley this morning. Conditions are still pretty good despite some recent rain – especially on the man-made trails. And while I was there, I ran into some of the trail pixies working on The Stickler. It was great to be able to thank them for their work and . . . → Read More: Swinley Trail Pixies 2012 was going to be a quiet year. No spending lots of money on flying to races in far-flung places. No spending months on a bike instead of working. It hasn’t quite worked out like that. I’ve managed to keep the aeroplane time down, but there were too many interesting challenges around to resist them . . . → Read More: 2012 So, Helen Skelton is going to “become the first person to use a bicycle to help her reach the South Pole”. A few exaggerated claims in this BBC article are causing some annoyance on the internet. It claims that in the 500 miles trip she will “hope to set a new world record for the . . . → Read More: Celebrity Adventure This is the first blog post for a while. Primarily because I was organising SSUK in what would have been any free time that I had. And this is going to be a bit of a rant. An indulgence of having a blog, and something to do since I can’t get to sleep. I’d say . . . → Read More: SSUK and the elephants [singlepic id=129 w=320 h=240 float=] With various sites and smartphone apps offering to provide friendly bike routes, I thought I’d give one a try. The results were interesting rather than straightforwardly successful… One of my jobs is teaching Bikeability courses at schools in Harrow. That means my commute ranges from 15 to 18 miles, depending . . . → Read More: An Experiment in Bike Commuting It’s hard to know how to look back on the year so far. I’ve managed to get pretty fit, met some great people, and been to some incredible places. But… and it’s a big “but”, I’ve ended up being the plucky loser. Which is certainly better than being a diffident loser, but it’s still inescapably . . . → Read More: West Highland Way and more frustration [singlepic id=124 w=320 h=240 float=] I don’t normally do kit lists. But, my Divide kit worked out pretty well this year and there isn’t much I would change. So here’s what I took: The Bike Singular Pegasus singlespeed frame On One carbon fork Hope Pro 2 / Stans 355 29er wheels Maxxis Crossmark LUST rear . . . → Read More: Tour Divide Kit List |
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