“London and Kent are set to receive a ?115m boost when the Tour de France, the biggest annual sporting event in the world, starts in the UK for the first time in July 2007.“

www.tfl.gov.uk – UK to get ?115m tourism boost from 2007 Tour de France

Walter Greaves: The most unpopular record breaker of all?

The current record for ‘distance cycled in a year’ stands at 75,065mi (~120,000k) set by Tommy Godwin.

To beat this you would have to ride 330k per day, that’s EVERY day, for an entire year!

Updated!

More on Tommy Godwin: www.phased.co.uk – Tommy Godwin

One day with 3hrs of riding in it and I’m knackered the next day? Am I ‘that’ unfit?

I’m going to put it down to the daylight saving changeover. Carl.. help! :S

Today’s weather was brilliant (for London in October). It warranted a ride.

Not that any other day didn’t but I’ve been filling my time for the last year with things other than bikes (mostly).

Headed west on the Ribble, passing my future flat (Nov 10th if all goes to plan), towards Oxford on the A40. Why? Well I was stuck for ride ideas and I’d read omcoc.blogspot.com, who’s author Edward rides the same road for training. Being totally unoriginal, I thought I’d have a look. Failing that, I was going to ride laps of Richmond Park. Another option I want to try is riding south, following the introduction to Matt Seaton’s “The Escape Artist”, hitting Westerham Hill. It’s okay folks, I still hate climbing, I just need “excuses” to ride.

I ended up logging a very short trip (~15k each way). I think maybe I’ve lost my bottle when it comes to riding in fast moving traffic but the A40 during the day isn’t at all pleasant. I moved to a cycle track next to the A40 but this ran out somewhere near Uxbridge. Stopping to take a photo (below) I noticed Dan was finally alive, which meant I could deliver his air matress. So I headed home after 1hr:15min.

Like I said in an earlier post, I prefer riding the fix to the roadie through London city. It’s crazy nimble, it doesn’t wear out brake pads and I don’t care so much about damaging it with my fat arse and a bag stuffed full of inflatable bed and pump!

Lowlights of the ride to Dan’s new place in Hackney (Google Maps: ~22k each way) other than the spinal damage from carrying the bed include the cnutbtichwhroe in the black new Mini that decided I don’t exist and she can drive through me to turn left off Marylebone. You’re lucky I was too busy avoiding you to take your plates cnutwhroe. Almost doored in Islington which is odd because near-doorings are much less common here than in Melbourne. Of course the roads are much wider in Melbourne which helps reduce the risk. 1hr:18min

On the way back I had one the coolest things happen. I rolled passed a taxi at a red and stopped behind a bus. The taxi beeped so I turned around, expecting to be lectured about something. I walked the bike back as the taxi driver gestured.

“Is that a fixed gear you’re riding?”

“Yeah”

“What sort of gear ratio do you use?”

“Um.. 46.. err.. 46-16”

“Is that okay for around London?”

“Ahh.. I’d probably drop it down a bit from that”, I say, thinking about my knees and the stop/start nature of riding London.

Green light and we separate. That conversation cheered me up no end! Thanks Mr. Taxi Driver! 1hr:06min missing Essex Road for the second time.

I’m only able to give times, no speeds as I managed to lose my speedo. Process: Fit new sensor kit to Raleigh, realise there’s no magnet so use old one, accidentally reset speedo by using wrong button combo so 19,000k+ becomes 0k, ride to Subway, never see speedo again..

If anyone finds a Cateye Enduro 2 in Ealing, I’d love to have it back, thanks!

Finally.. she rides!

After a stack of confusion surrounding Mavic freehubs mating to Shimano cassettes (fscking proprietary wheels needed a ?2.50 spacer!), two weeks of a stinkin’ snotty cold (the saga continues), an MRI, too much work and some house-hunting, the Ribble was finally on the road today!!

Immediately noticeable: I’ve been riding fixed gear for the last few months, but I know that on this bike, I can coast. The result is a very odd feeling of waiting for the pedals to kick you into your pedal stroke.. but they don’t. The handling is quite a bit different too, as I’m going from 54cm top-tube with 80mm stem track bike to a 58cm top-tube with 100mm stem road bike. The bars are heaps chunkier and overall it feels like I’ve moved from a VW Golf to a Land Rover – the bike just feels “big”.

The gears were not adjusted this morning so I dropped the chain and suffered a bit of clicking and slow changes but tonight I spent some time in the bike room at work tweaking the gears and on the way home the shifting was crisp perfection!

It was odd but when riding through peak hour on the road bike I was much more cautious than on the fixie. I actually missed the ability to slow the bike down with my legs. “What’s this? I have to use the brakes??”

Perhaps it was tonight’s rain or perhaps it’s because I’m babying a new(ish) bike but I felt much more comfortable lane-splitting and sh1t on the track bike – maybe the Ribble’s wider bars put me off or the apparent ‘loss of control’ without leg brakes, or the fact I’m riding SPD-SL again and not SPD?

Big thanks to my lovely Mum for sending my beautiful black carbon SPD-SL shoes over.

Speaking of shoes, the stiff soles of the road shoes (I’ve been riding my old Nike MTB SPDs for 18 months) combined with the much stiffer frame and freshness of the setup made for a blast of a ride once out of W1/W2 traffic hell. This bike feels so damn solid and just rockets along! I’m sure it’s like when a climber gets a new, lighter, bike – I had the same feeling of speed, power and efficiency on the flat.. nothing was going to waste. Woo! Not long now and I’ll probably be getting my arse handed to me by some hardened pommie racer types..

“CCTV cameras have filmed numerous cheeky drivers doing battle with the infamous rise-and-fall road bollards of Manchester – and losing.

The 3ft-high barriers which sink into the street to let Metroshuttle buses through, have been installed because of the area’s high road casualty rate.

Yet drivers are risking their cars – and their safety – by following buses through, despite warning signs.”

www.dailymail.co.uk – drivers fail to beat the bollards

Click here to view the video directly

hip: “Fscking open your fscking eyes you stupid fscking cnut!!”

cab: “You should have stopped for me”

hip: “You fscking idiot, I was riding straight along the road and you just did a u-turn into me!”

cab: “You lot are always hard to see”

*leans bike over to find (and show cabbie) bright white LED flasher is operating as expected*

hip: “What the fscking hell is this then you cnuting blind fsck bag?! It’s a fscking flashing light! I’m riding a fscking red bike and my cycling kit is bright fscking red and yellow you tossing fsck brained cnut!”

cab: “You should’ve fscking stopped for me”

hip: “Are you fscking fscked in the fscking head you dopey blind (noticing driver’s grey hair) old cnut?!?! You just turned your cab AT me!! Fscking fsck head!!”

I love adrenalin – It allows me to string even more swearing into sentences than usual.

This back and forth ranting carried on for at least a minute while myself and the black cab driver argued. Rewind: I’m riding west, along Old Marylebone Rd, approaching Edgware Rd around 19:30. It’s wet, it’s been a long day, my tyres are junk and I’ve TRASHED ANOTHER HEADSET.. so I’m taking it easy. Black cab approaching from the opposite direction and I, of course, give it no thought whatsoever – they’re everywhere. Maybe he indicated, maybe he didn’t but woosh.. cab is turning, aimed at me! Fsck! I swerve around the mad fsck and as usual I unleash at him. Usually, drivers in the wrong are apologetic (or scared) and sit quietly in their car until I’ve said my bit and we part ways. This d1ckhead retaliates.. and off we go!

Now I thought black cab drivers were all well-trained and stuff. This guy was totally in the wrong and then has the nerve to argue with me about it after nearly wiping me out. If he let it rest, perhaps I wouldn’t be writing this now.. but I have another card up my sleeve.. Pausing for breath I actually thought “rego!”, leaned over and noted his plate. Bingo! This knob jockey is getting his blind ass reported tomorrow. I’ve never reported any incident before (usually because I’ve missed their plates) but this one feels justified. So cabbie, you daft old prick, I get one last “fsck you!” in before we’re done.

In case I’m giving the wrong impression – London is generally pretty cool for riding in. Drivers usually look out for bikes and it’s typically the bikes that are breaking the rules, not the cars. This is a notable exception for me at least because I thought black cab drivers were better than this.

Traffic News: It looks like the road works on Bayswater Rd (that road above Hyde Park) are finished and traffic can move through their again, rather than using Craven.

Brain News: I have another MRI tomorrow arvo. This one is to detect just how much beer has leaked into other parts of the brain.

Bike News: I won a ticket to the Cycle Show thanks to Red Spokes

Today’s commute was more interesting than most. The End.

Joking aside..

Cruising in to Regent’s Park Outer Circle I was going to do some cool down laps. I found a bunch swapping turns so I joined on the back for a bit, but rather than ride with them I decided to let them go – it was only a cool down ride after all and they were going too fast for me to actually lose heat.

Another bloke asked if I was with them as I dropped off the back. “Nup”.

I sat on his wheel as he was going slower, but then he tows me back to the bunch! I thought I’d latch on to them for a bit longer even though they were moving faster than I’d have liked. But then tower goes past the bunch – with me on his wheel. Doh! Is he doing turns with them now? Is he passing them? This feels all foreign to me now..

Fsck it! I’m so used to riding alone and chasing down everything in sight I bust past the lot of them! Then, like the total knob I am, I turn off and ride the 50m left to work. I’m sure they were thinking “wanker” and I don’t blame them, I would be too.

Instead of riding and/or chatting with them and maybe finding a regular bunch to cut some laps with, I was a tool. Oh well – it’s not the first time. It wont be the last time. Sorry bunch people. *hopes they forget me*

I keep seeing On-One bikes that I want and then buying other things!

click the image above to view more Ribble

Sick of waiting, addicted to ebay and subconsciously sticking with English (ish) product, the ebay auction for the Ribble stated..

This Terry Dolan designed frame has been my number one workhorse for the past 18 months.

Details are:

* Frame: Ribble 7005 Alluminium Audax 56CM, metalic Royal Blue

* Fork: Carbon ITM Spider

* Seat Post: Carbon Bontrager X Lite

* Stem: Bontrager XXX Lite Alluminium

* Saddle: Brand New Bontrager

* Chainset: 53/39 Shimano Ultegra Hollowtech II

* Groupset: (brakes, shifters, mechs) Full Shimano Ultegra

* Bars: Bontrager oversize 42cm c-to-c

* Pedals: Shimano Ultegra

* Wheels: Mavic Cosmos (pictured off bike – but with Vittoria Rubino Pro’s and new tubes fitted – I will be keeping my 105 wheels for my other bike)

* Rear Cassette: Ultegra 12-27 9 Speed

* Chain: SRAM PC991

Other points:

* All cables sealed and fitted by Francis Thurmer (a great mechanic and hugely pedantic about sealed cables)

* New Campag Chorus headset fitted today.

* Can also include a pair of Salmon narrow mudguards covered in a highly effective blue reflective matterial

* A few stone chips, but generally good used condition. It has also two of the vinyl letters from the frame, just not bothered to replace them.

This is a quality roadbike with exceptional components, and a very comfy ride.

I am 5 foot 10 inches, with a stumpy inside leg of 30 inches, and the saddle is in my normal riding position. The reach is just right for me, and gives a very comfortable ride – finding no problems on 75-100 mile rides.

The Ribble website lacked a certain amount of marketing… how shall I say it… um… bullshit, yes definitely lacked bullshit, as you can see in the product blurb:

Horizontal Top Tube.

Raw frame weight (average size) 1650g.

High grade 7005 series aluminium. Audax/Winter version of our 7005 race model. Frame includes mudguard eyes.

Use 1 1/8 forks and hidden headset.

from: www.ribblecycles.co.uk

For pictures of the new machine, these are the ones from ebay. I will post some nicer ones when and if blue skies coincides with my free time:

thehippy.net – Ribble Gallery

Muchos gracias to (newly-wed awww..) Mirek for doing the driving to Staines where I parted with ?480 hard-earned squids to buy the blue beastie.

As a side note, if you look at Google Maps satellite image of Heathrow Airport now you can see a few parked Concorde planes. Ok, I’m easily impressed.

Congratulations, your black BMW is the first to be added to the European Edition of the Hippy Shit List!

With your inability to use some of the more basic features of your vehicle, namely indicators and rear-view mirrors, we at thehippy.net have decided that the removal of these unnecessary items from your vehicle should proceed as rapidly as possible.

Of course, should you decide that the above-mentioned items are beneficial to your driving, they will be returned to you.

Super-glue will not, however, be provided.

Should you wish to dispute your addition to this prestigious list, you are more than welcome to forward us your name and residential address, for “clarification”.