A Benefit of Tube Travel – Reading

Notice, I said “benefit”, singular? That’s because extra reading time is the only advantage commuting by train offers over bikes. Hrmmf!

In aid of all this extra reading time, thanks to my recently snapped GT frame, I bought a stack of bike mags (C+, Cycling Weekly, Cycle Sport, MBR).

In Cycle Sport, I glanced an article written about The Hour record and noticed it was actually referring to an extract from a book, called, surprise-surprise, “The Hour“.

Rushing over to Waterstone’s I was stoked to see that they actually had a copy of Michael Hutchison’s “The Hour”. I put down the other fifteen books that I wanted and settled on just the one (for now) – I have a bike to buy after all! I’ve only read a few pages, I might let you know if I like it later, meanwhile I’ve stolen a synopsis for you:

Synopsis: “The Hour”. It’s the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed. No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes. Just one simple question – in sixty minutes, how far can you go? Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders – riders like Coppi, Merckx, Anquetil, Boardman, the supermen who’ve made the Hour the domain of cycling’s greatest stars. It didn’t sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else’s bank account. Still, getting the glue wasn’t a problem.

“The Hour” is the story of how a man who became a professional athlete by accident embarked on a quest for sporting immortality. But it’s also the story of an extraordinary record, and the riders who have made it so – from Graham Obree, the genius who built his own bike using parts from a washing machine, to Jacques Anquetil, great champion, great drug-taker and great family man (having had a child by his step-daughter, he married his step-son’s ex-wife).

Gripping, packed with fascinating stories and very, very funny, “The Hour” is what happens when a man from the secret, early-morning world of British bike racing takes a shot at stardom.

Ouch! – Why cars are bad, Reason #7983

Cool Touring Idea #433

Pick the Tour de France course from your birth year and then.. ride it!

travelswithhomebrew.blogspot.com

I’m currently watching “Long Way Round”, an interesting doco about motorbike touring from London to New York, the uh, long way. It’s quite cool and is really making me want to pack up and head off to do something just as “epic” with my deadly treadly. At the moment though, it’s still a dead treadly. I get paid tomorrow.. wonder if I can afford the Pompino?

36degC tomorrow..

Just like Pound Sterling, that equates to about 60deg in Aussie degrees. 😉

There was an article in the paper tonight that stated something like: “Tube 47degC, Bus 52degC”. Not too sure how accurately they measured these (it was a headline, after all).

Gettin’ up early to avoid the heatwave-related Tube meltdowns. Yay for no bike.. *mumbles rude words under breath*. Condor bikes are looking better and better.. very “London”. 🙂

Update: What he said!

75-fscking-quid for an overdraft fee?!?!

HSBC called me the other day to let me know that I was ?100 into overdraft. I didn’t even know what the guy was talking about until he explained what it meant.

“So my account balance is negative? Riiiight..”

I transfered money from my online-only account to rememdy the negative balance. Done, sweet, thanks mate. Bye.

Tonight I find a bank statement in the post that shows I’m to be charged a ?75 fee for going into overdraft! Seventy Five Fscking United Kingdom Pounds!!! That’s like $14,000,000AUD!!!

How the hell do these fools justify such a huge fee? Why don’t they just debit my other account, you know the one with money in it?! Why don’t they hit up my credit card? Why do they even have an overdraft “feature”, other than to sting you? I certainly never asked for overdraft – it must be a default option. This is the same idiot bank that couldn’t explain why my O2 bill payment was declined, cutting off my phone for a day.

“We don’t keep transaction records that far back, sir”

“You don’t keep records for transactions that occured three weeks ago?”

“No sir, sorry sir.”

You know what the fun part will be? Going to bed at 4am tonight after watching the late Tour coverage and then arguing with these idiots tomorrow. Because the fee hasn’t yet been taken out (thanks for the warning HSBC!), what’s stopping me withdrawing all my money and telling them to stick the ?75 fees up their ATM slots?!

On a happier note, the GT made it home. 2hr 12min it took to walk my bike the 12.5k home.

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I snapped my frame!!!

This morning I was “Just Riding Along” (I can hear all the LBS guys groan but I’m serious!) when my GT frame snapped.

I was 30 minutes into a fairly relaxed 36 minute commute, having set a PB for this same ride yesterday (finally cracking the 30 minute mark with a relatively easy 29:52).

I was cruising along Sussex Gardens when there was a loud bang from the rear wheel.

I thought it was the quick ‘n’ nasty spoke repair I’d done last week but a glance seemed to indicate the wheel was true. Another quick look at the next set of lights and everything seemed ok.

It was all very odd because when I spun the wheel, everything appeared straight, but as soon as I jumped on and pedalled, the back-end was all over the place, like I had a flat rear tyre.

I thought it might be a broken axle or perhaps shot wheel bearings or some other internal chaos (maintenance levels are not high on this bike) so I watched the hub closely for signs of movement (while dodging the black cabs of course). Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except the swishy rear end. WTF?

Being close to work I just kept going, slowly, knowing I’d get to check it out properly once I’d stopped.

Which I did. The spokes were all intact and the wheel spun straight and free..

So I grabbed the wheel and yanked it side to side. The whole rear triangle moved. This is when I spotted the crack all the way through the drive-side chainstay. Damn..

hippy's GT Talera cracked chainstay 2

Pic was taken at an odd angle, in a dark room with my mobile. I’ll try for a better one just as soon as I work out how to get the bike home!

This certainly explained why the whole back end was fishing around even though the wheel looked and spun fine.

Ode to the GT:

The GT Talera was a mid-90’s steel bike bought for $300AUD in showroom condition with lots of bits in 2002.

It was going to be my first singlespeed project but I got into trials and fitted it with wide bars, platform pedals, etc.

When I bought the trials-specific Zebdi, it was time to turn the GT into an SS. Mick from CCW helped me do this under the “$0 Rule”.

It was raced at the SSWC in 2003 (against Cadel Evans!).

It did a tonne of commuting in all weather conditions.

I had so much fun with this I rebuilt it with better bits when the first lot of parts wore out.

It did my first lap at the Kona 24hr in 2005.

Before leaving Australia for England I fully rebuilt the GT as a touring machine with new front wheel, Deore LX, guards, rack, panniers, barbag, etc.

Spent 4 months riding around Europe on it – killing both wheels – one from loading strain, one from a head-on with a motorbike.

Rode it briefly while working as messenger for Courier Systems.

Back in London it was my commuter since early 2006 when I started working for a company with showers.

More of the GT’s illustrious history, click here.

Photographic Build History:

October 2002

February 2003

August 2003

March 2004

February 2005

May 2005

One of the guys who rides at work suggested this mob for frame repair: Mercian

Not sure of a course of action yet but given the repair is likely to cost more than the bike is worth, a new machine is definately on the cards. “N+1”, where N=0, currently.

For now I am a Tube-bitch.

But that On-One Il Pompino is looking better every day.. “I’m EXCITED!”