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And late with posting about it. But the festivities were pretty good. It was an early start so that Emily could go swimming with her club and I could sneak in a ride. As I pulled into the Look Out car-park, it was remarkably quiet but it was also 7.30am. I hadn’t ridden off-road in . . . → Read More: I’m old After an annoying session of fixing bikes (broken cranks on the Balfa, snapped rack mounts on the Karate Monkey, buckled wheel on the Voodoo, Rockhopper built as stand-in for KM), I took my frustrations out on the Voodoo’s gear hanger. Now I have a nice Ti gear-hanger key fob. Take that bike maintenance! . . . → Read More: Maybe I am a singlespeeder? A few weeks ago, I broke an eyelet off of the back of my Karate Monkey. It’s my work bike so I frequently have to carry loads of stuff in the panniers, and one day it was just too much. The bottom of the rack broke free of the frame and made a horrendous noise . . . → Read More: Porky Panniers Well, last weekend was Maxx Exposure and once again the sun shone on me (at least until it went down). I’d imagine that 75 miles of chalk and dark would be quite intimidating in the wet, but when I arrived at Beachy Head it was all dust and ice-cream vans. I was pretty motivated for . . . → Read More: Still Not Loud Enough, Still Not Fast Enough Hooray for things beginning with “Max”. Not “Maxed out! Stoked!” like some sort of Californian, but Max for Maxxis, Maxim, and Maxx Exposure. First there were tyres. I’ve been running Racing Ralphs for the last few months. They’re light, fast-rolling, and all-round grippy. But they’re expensive and fragile in rocky environments. So with one set . . . → Read More: Max! Some photos that summarise the summer. Bike-wise it’s been about progression, taking it easy on the training front, fiddling with different bikes and set-ups, and lots of riding with flats. The pedal choice was first brought on by frostbite making my toes too big for cycling shoes, but I enjoyed it so much that . . . → Read More: Flip flops and big drops Damn. I’m way behind. It’s August and I still haven’t put down everything that happened out in Alaska. That very fact has been stopping me from writing about all the other stuff that’s happened this summer. Maybe I’ll get there eventually. I’ve been on a CTC Mountain Bike Leader course, Emily’s swum the length of . . . → Read More: Iditarod 2009 Part 5 The checkpoint at Rohn is tiny. Just a wall-tent to hold as many racers as arrive at once. We were lucky enough to coincide with a few guys leaving, so Billy and I could get our sleeping bags down without having to head back outside – others were not always as fortunate. Getting to the . . . → Read More: Iditarod 2009 Part 4 Another big gap between instalments. In the unlikely event that anyone is holding their breath – sorry. I’ve been looking for a new job, enjoying the dusty trails and still ploughing around on the Pugsley. My normal bike is just about ready to go again, but there was one more outing for the Pug this . . . → Read More: Iditarod 2009 Part 3 It’s beautiful and sunny in England at the moment and, due to my lack of other working bikes, I’ve been bulldozering around on the Pug. It was the North Downs yesterday for dusty trails and the constant accompaniment of people’s muttered comments. Usually I’d be able to make out only a single word, “tyres”, in . . . → Read More: Iditarod 2009 Part 2 |
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