That is the top search phrase for my little blog since I added Google Analytics functionality to it the other day. I’m guessing thehippy.net wasn’t much use so I will be addressing this issue shortly. ๐
London Freewheel
The day before our ride, Mal was very nervous. We’d been into the city, suffered London’s useless Saturday bike shop staff but at least managed to score a cheapish helmet that wasn’t totally fugly (?40 from ?50 because they had no box for it). Behold, the Giro Havoc:
Around 10.15am after some tyre-pumping and chain tensioning we left home and headed down to the Ealing Town Hall. The Ealing branch of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) was marshalling a 8k/5mi ride to one of the feeder locations at Ravenscourt Park.
We were on his ‘n’ hers Raleighs, Mal following me down the road while I explained what I thought were useful riding tips. We’ve ridden together a few times but mostly along traffic-free canal paths. Cars scared her (probably my fault for coming home cursing their actions all the time!) but I tried to make her at ease by explaining we’d be in a group of about 300 riders from Ealing and then even more in town.
One of my legions of fans yelled a “whey-hey Merckx!!” as we passed him walking down Uxbridge Rd. ๐
Ealing Town Hall was swarming with riders when we arrived! I had arranged to meet Graham there (I met him marshalling the Tour Prologue, he lives out in Uxbridge) but he was running late. I didn’t really want to our group to go from 300 to 3 for Mal’s sake, so Mal and I left when the main group did. The ride was very slow, stopping at times, but I’d already resigned myself to this so I wasn’t at all bothered. Graham ended up passing the Ealing group but waited for us and we met him half way to Ravenscourt Park.
At Ravenscourt Park the organisers had setup some stalls, selling food, giving away Red Bull, that kind of thing. There was a woman in a wedding dress!?! and a unicycle juggler or two.
The weather was fantastic! No, really, it was! Check the pics, that’s real sky! I had my bike checked over by the boys in blu.. um.. fluoro yellow..
Cheered through the start gate we were on the 13.7k/8.6mi feeder ride – Ravenscourt Park to St. James’s Park. Here we weren’t in such a big group but there were still enough riders on the signed and marshalled course to make us skip a couple of cycles waiting to get through a green light. Although the pace was still low, this felt more like proper cycling and I kept an eye on Mal while we were out in the big, bad world. She was enjoying herself now and I guess, realising it’s not as bad as she might’ve thought. We ended up missing part of the course and riding straight up Holland Park Ave. (up to Notting Hill). This was part of my normal commute and is always rammed with cars and often a real pain. Mal was zipping along now even scooting between lines of stopped cars to get up to the ASL. It looked like she’d be doing this for years! We were passing people up the hill and then I took off (come on! I had to at least once!) and she jumped and followed me up the hill! Champ!
Into Hyde Park we had another little “race” while Graham took pics.. totally in awe of our speed.. hehe ๐
My workmate Harvey called and said they were turning people away from the festival because it was too full! Hmm.. We carried on through Wellington Arch to Buckingham Palace and joined the large queues waiting to get in to the bike parking, the festival or onto the course itself. People at the crossings were swinging large GO/STOP signs to sort out traffic flow, pedestrian crossings, etc. Tried a few more times to locate Harvey and decided to score some of Hovis’s free sandwiches before doing the actual ride. Found the face painting and said g’day to Harvey and his daughter. After some sandwiches we explored some more of the festival’s stalls, watched some BMX tricks, watched people test ride funny bikes, watched some trials riding. Spotted MA3K (with his baby carrying Cove!) and Stompy from londonfgss and then bailed so we actually did the ride!
The ride was fun. Like I said, I was prepared to be on the go slow and I was just chuffed that I’d managed to drag Mal all the way into London. The loop around the Embankment and over Blackfriars bridge is very similar to the London 10k run I did a while ago. I guess there’s no workers here on a Sunday so it’s easy to close to traffic.. let’s see them do the same to the City on a Friday ๐
There was lots of stop starting during the ride which some people found annoying but it gave me some time to snap photos. They had official photo points but we didn’t use any of them. Heading east on the embankment we passed a huge truck, with a difference. It was powered by cyclists!
The massive “Guinness World Record Bike” started up and sounded like nothing else – just a huge whirring noise as loads of people rode it down the street.
The tunnel on embankment was also cool! Everyone was whistling and screaming and whooping up a storm. When you have hundreds/thousands of people passing through a tunnel – this makes quite a racket!!
I spent a lot of the ride spotting the singlespeeders and fixed riders out of the crowd, checking to see if I knew any of them and checking out their bikes. There were also a few low-rider, chopper bikes doing the ride.. as well as a guy dressed as a shark!
After the ride we made our way back to the Freewheel Festival. Met a few more London FGSS riders, set a time on the new Rollapaluza rollers (still too slow!). Graham left to meet a mate and then called a while later to say he had a flat and his spare tube was stuffed. I rode over to Hyde Park to sort him out with a spare. We also got to watch the German Artistic Cycling team – the current world champions! They were awesome, e.g. one bloke popping the bike into a wheelie while another guy stands on his shoulders!
The ride home was still marshalled around 5pm but we decided to simply head back following my normal commute along Uxbridge Rd. Mal was awesome and handled the traffic like she’d been doing it for ages. We treated ourselves to pizza and cider at home. About 50 kilometres of riding in all for us, tonnes of bikes out thanks to top weather and some interesting entertainment in town. All in all – a great day!
Motorbike Carnage
Riding home Friday at 5am after a big night of ‘leaving drinks’ for Kat, I noticed a Porsche parked with its hazards on. As I rolled along, this moto appeared behind it. The machine was destroyed, squashed to half normal size with the engine sitting next to the frame. I was a bit shocked and swung a u-turn to get another look and maybe snap a picture. While I’m looking at the wreckage a guy walks up along the footpath..
“There was a guy attached to that” I say, in disbelieving tones.
“Yes. My son.” states the guy.
Well, that’s not very awkward is it? I’m assuming the rider was mince meat and I’ve got his Dad walking around what’s left of his bike.
“Um, is he okay?” I asked, trying to sound hopeful.
“Yeah, just some scratches”
“Really?!?! Jeez, he’s so bloody lucky!!”
I couldn’t believe the guy was okay! I was sure he’d be dead. He must have left the bike before the bike hit the pole and disintegrated.
“I’m just looking for a trainer.”
“Well, good to hear he’s okay”
“Yeah, thanks. Safe ride home”
His Dad was walking around looking for his son’s shoe!! I couldn’t believe how lucky he was – just some scratches!
I took the photos Friday night as they still hadn’t shifted the wreck. Another guy was snapping pictures and I told him about meeting the rider’s Dad. He was amazed, as I say.
Not like the motorbiker we saw flying through the air in front of our house a few weeks ago. He was a bit cut up and looked like he’d broken some bones..
Ride safe.
Pain & Pain Relief
Pain
Finally, a crash resulting in visible injury! I bounced over the front of a car on the way to work this morning.
As I closed in, the driver veered left (I assumed to park) so I had to veer right to go around him. Mistake! He went left so he could do a rolling U-turn! Sh1t, and now I was on his right as he hooked around.. I went with him.. tighter.. tighter.. tighter.. out of room.. bang.. over the bonnet and into the road. I know I wanted to scuff up my new shoes a bit but not quite like this!
He was cool and checked me out, offered details, etc. I was in a hurry and self-assessed goodness. Quickly carried on to work. Bit sore now though.
Pain Relief
That night I finally tried this hideous creation. Shaun and Mad Matt are so infamous at the T-bar that the product of one of their sessions made it to the drinks menu!
Behold “What did I do last night?” Actually, I wasn’t that bad because at 4am, the Raleigh and I rolled back home obviously proving that it is safer to ride across London drunk than sober..
Rejected
Not since the bad old days when I was underage, only equipped with a Learner license or off my tits as I staggered up to the door, have I been rejected from a club.
Even in London, for two years now, I’ve walked into every type of venue and not once have I been stopped, no matter how feral I looked. That is, until now.
This chavtastic shit hole reckons that skate shoes are not acceptable. Not even my manky ones that have got into every other place in London, these were my almost-new all-black Airwalks. The manager (aka door bitch) even had a go at my fscking drunknmunky t-shirt!
I just grinned, left Mal with her friends (it was her friend’s birthday) and went home, happy in the knowledge that I didn’t spend a cent in Uxbridge’s chavtastic shit hole.
The culprits:
Chocolate milk makes you faster..
bikeradar.com – chocolate milk makes you faster
Sweet! If that’s the case and caffeine is also a performance enhancer then Iced Coffee must be the best sports drink ever! (well, except for beer).
Coomealla-Mildura Mountainless Bike Club
Supportin’ the homeland..
23rd September, Mildura. Click below for the race details. $1000 prize money up for grabs!
“Sunday Sept 23 is the date for the clubs first enduro race, and with a generous donation from the Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club there’s $1000 cash up for grabs!
The race will be held at the C-M Mountainless Bike Clubs home track, situated behind the Coomealla golf course on a beautiful bend of the Murray River.“
Dunwich Dynamo 15
Well, that was carnage. Respect to anyone who started the Dunwich Dynamo this year. More again for those who finished.
It was the most horrible ride I’ve had for a long while. It was my own fault for mucking around so much with my bike a week before the ride. I didn’t follow my own advice and suffered for it. Basically the bike I’d ridden was 42×18 singlespeed up until a week before the DD when I received some track cogs from On-One. I fitted the 15T thinking I could use it with the tail-wind and the 16T was a backup if there was a headwind. The 75″ gear felt wrong compared to the usual 44×17 (69″) I run but I stuck with it. I fitted a new saddle – a Selle Italia SLR to match my road bike which I’m quite comfy on. Using a seat-post from JimmyP (this worked – thanks!) I set about fscking everything up in an attempt to match the road bike’s measurements. Mistake.
Met Ed at Ealing Common and rode in to Bethnal Green to meet up with some of the LFGSS bunch. Introductions were made, Stompy gave me a zip-tie to hold my broken headset together and then we rolled over to the Pub on the Park in London Fields to the start area. There were loads of bikes around but it started to spit with rain and the forecast was dodgy so I think lots of riders bailed at this point (I overheard someone at the finish saying numbers were half what was expected).
Collected my return bus ticket and handed over a ?1 for a route sheet. We rolled out around 20.30. There was a small amount of confusion about where to go and our bunch of fixed freaks split up quickly. The rain grew heavier as the sky darkened. My speedo wasn’t working as the magnet didn’t grip the spoke properly – that put an end to any distance measuring I’d planned. Rode with Tommy for a bit and then lost everyone so just tacked onto groups here and there. It became obvious this was not going to be painless. I was grinding up the bumps and constantly shifting around trying to get comfortable. Every so often I’d have to get off the bike, stretch and try to crack my back for some pain relief. Not how I was supposed to be feeling. All I could think about was stopping and I was cursing the fixed wheel choice – there was no chance to just coast down the hills and stretch out as you would on a road bike.
At one point some guys I was drafting stopped. One of them had a GPS unit on his aero bars so I stopped with them and asked him the distance we’d done and how far to the rest stop. I was frickin’ desperate to stop and somewhat hungry. “10mi to go” he said as random riders went past on a different road (wtf?). I handed over some Bassetts for the info and continued on to the rest stop.
MA3K, JonnyWilkinson and an Alex were already there. I headed over and grabbed some soup and bread, a couple of bananas and a coffee. For the next maybe 2 hours? I sat there refilling coffees and eating.. happy to be out of the rain and off the bike but dreading the return to riding. Tommy, brett, Scott not Scot, slaam, Stompy arrived over time while we all sat around noting how riders were arriving wetter than the ones before.. not good.
Eventually we got going and walked out into the f-f-freezing cold night. It was ridiculously cold! Literally teeth-chatteringly cold. I had to warm up so headed off quickly. Matt (LFGSS brett’s mate) had the same idea. There was a tricky turn and we stopped to ponder over directions. When we rolled off Matt and I held steady pace and the rest were nowhere to be seen. It didn’t bother us – keeping warm was more important. Then we split up. At some point I noticed a car tipped over into a ditch. It was also starting to get lighter. A bunch of people had stopped for direction checking and I stopped with them and decided enough was enough – I moved my saddle forward 1cm. It was great after that! If it wasn’t for a couple of roadies waiting by a small lane I would’ve ridden straight past the turn. 50m after this little turn I found Matt. “How did you get behind me??” he puzzled. “I stopped” I grinned back.
Off we went again, leaving the group he’d stopped with behind. At a large round-a-bout I was sure we should turn left, but it was dual carriage way so instead I just rode right around the round-a-bout! Back at the turn.. there were now 50 riders!!! Included in the bunch were all the lads we’d left earlier – Tommy, JonnyWilkinson, brett, um.. yeah memory fading..
Off we went. I’m not sure if it was the stop and food, the light, the fact the rain had stopped, the saddle adjustment or the company but I was feeling tonnes better! Now I could ride up hills and chase people down and ride off to have a leak and all the stuff I’d do on a normal bunch ride. Saved! I’m not sure how much of this we ended up doing but I know that at the “Dunwich 7mi” sign it was myself and JonnyWilkinson and two of his mates(?). We were almost there and the signs teased us as we approached the coast with Dunwich This and Dunwich That before we finally saw a pile of bikes outside the Flora cafe!
DONE THE DUN!
There was actual sun out now although it still took hours to dry out. I made short work of a fry-up, some jam’n’cream scones and a cappucino. The bike was covered in crap splashed up from the road. (It would stay like that for another week). We arrived around 8am? So, a bit under 12hrs with perhaps 2hrs spent at the food hall. Lots of chatter ensued as more familiar faces arrived, stories of the horrors were told, ciders and beers and more coffees were put away. Mention of doing next was not dismissed.. then it was accepted.. then positively “can’t wait!”.. nutters the lot of us!
Sleep came easily on the 3hr bus ride back to the city. Then there was a 30min(?) wait for the bikes to show up. Time for more coffee and a Snickers. When the trucks arrived with the bikes I took mine, said some quick goodbyes, said ‘thanks’ when I spotted the guy from Condor who’d fixed my cranks (I couldn’t find a 7mm allen key anywhere!!), then rode home through town quite rapidly, filled with a large sense of achievement! I looked like a total zombie when I arrived, with dark, evil bags under my eyes but I was grinning.
Now planning a 300k/200mi ride.. somewhere.
LFGSS Thread – Dunwich FAQs – Dunwich Route – Dunwich Pics – Ed’s RR
Pre-Dunwich Dynamo
Ed’s said more about this ride than I could here: http://omcoc.blogspot.com/2007/07/pre-dynamo.html
I will add that I’m doing this for the first time (finally), doing it on the Soma fixed (42 x 15) with a bunch of other fixed gear freaks from londonfgss.com.
Wish me luck.
Ealing -> Wendover -> Ealing
Weather was nice for a change so there was a big bunch rolling out. We had some ‘larger’ fellows with us and the bunch was dawdling. Someone wanted to see the end of a 50mi TT and the bunch was directed onto some main road and lots of raised eyebrows and shrugging shoulders resulted. “What are we doing?” “I dunno”.
We rolled on, Steve’s front wheel siezing up and fixing itself and then cheered a few Willesden riders coming in to the TT finish line, including Ed.
Eventually we got moving properly, but still on this main road, pissing off a few drivers in the process. I don’t get it, it’s Sunday.. what’s the rush? Shouldn’t you be slower than us anyway. Impatient c0cks.
New guy manages to run one of the old guys off the road when he punctures on a steep descent. Not sure why there was turning required. This was explained to him..
Cafe at Wendover is expensive and as a result I had only a tiny coffee (My arse is large, this was not a LARGE coffee) and a cake. This didn’t help later..
We rolled out and CSC guy starts attacking the bunch. eh? Fsck it.. I’m keen now and don’t wait on climbs any more so I chase him down. Off he goes again so I chase and pass and end up half a kay up the road. Bunch catches up and.. off he goes again.. so do I.. now we are joined by Steve and the older guy who was run into the dirt and Suzz. We are not rolling turns, through and off and yet there’s still break aways! It’s mental.. the bunch is waay behind now and we are ripping along around 40kph and still guys will break up hills, etc.
I’m loving it.. about time we got some pace. Club runs are so not the training rides we had back in Melbourne! We made it back to Denham (rather quickly!) and split. 5k to go I was bonking something chronic! Going hot and cold, dizzy, blasting through gaps ๐ Make it home alive and scoff some sugar.. all better. Sweet! Really need to try the Quest bunch rides..