Following a late night twitter conversation with some other riders about litter etc in the countryside and then finding huge piles of the stuff dumped on our local trails I was thinking it’s maybe time as mountain bikers we set an example.
Obviously by not dropping any litter in the first place…
This is great. Good work
I knew what a bi-lam was but a reverse bi-lam?
So nice to see framebuilders showing off but oh-so-subtly. Prolly has the gallery here, plus loads more from NAHBS if like me you love this kind of thing.
At NAHBS there was a competition for custom bikes using the Gates Carbon Drive belt system instead of a traditional chain. This is my entirely self-interested favourite the Gentleman’s Town Bike with its creator Jeremy Sycip who as well as making his bike beautiful has included a sensible double kick stand, dynamo lights (using the Shimano front hub generator I currently have on test for road.cc) and the new electrically-actuated Di2 version of Shimano’s 11-speed hub gears.
Here’s the whole Gates piece here
#bath #cycling twitterati at Guildhall earlier @RogSymonds @njr2801 @cycling_jon @VeloClubWalcot @lindadonaldson1 @GPBikeStation @WestfieldWander @Chutzpah84 @twotunnelsbath & plenty of others helping to put cycling quite literally on the Bath & North East Somerset map in the coming years
Interesting new tyres coming according to bikerumor at the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show in Denver, Colorado.
Don’t know if the trend for for the new Gravel Racer category could be called ‘burgeoning’ yet but as always when a new niche is proposed, an evocative name is always a good start to grab the imagination even if the reality for actual buyers is usually a bit more mundane.
In my case, a road tyre with a supple, high quality case like my favourite Continental Grand Prix 4-Seasons, but with a larger air volume than currently available from the widest 28mm option seems like a good idea for the picturesque but truly shocking Somerset country lanes that provide the broken and rutted surface for most of my cycling.
I’m not particularly familiar with the Challenge range of tyres as the brand is better known for its knobbly 32mm-plus cyclo-cross models in a niche that really is booming among fit and muddy new buyers if not for me but the smoother 30mm Eroica shown here does look appealing for my steadier style of lumpy road riding.
The name comes from the annual sportive ride held over ancient Italian unmade roads with a surface, when it’s dry, more like gritty sand than gravel but the inspiration is certainly sparked for my fantasy winter bike; the only question now is if and when Paligap the UK distributor will be bringing them to the UK. Guess who I’ll be calling Monday?
Talking of NAHBS, there’s a 29er mountain bike here by Rob English that is the first off-roader I’ve fancied for years. Even though Oregon-based English is er, English, I don’t imagine there’s the slightest chance he could be enticed to our UK home-grown Bespoked show now that he’s the well-deserved darling of the US custom scene.
UPDATE: The Paligap site is listing the Eroica (at £48 each) here
UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: According to Will at Cadence Cycles in Bath the black ones are in and there’s a skinwall coming, too #gosh
My #bath #odddown market £1 purchase of the day. I was lost in nerdy admiration when last week on a ride one of my cycling pals whipped out a pair of disposable latex gloves to change his filthy punctured tyre. So you can imagine my joy today when the local car park market stall had a whole dozen pairs for a quid. I’m now wearing them to type, the family is looking a little nervous but I’m now eagerly looking forward to the next flat tyre for the first time ever.
Denmark prepaid stamp: man on bike
c. 1963
Not just a man on a bike; it’s a postman on a bike
(via bikeon)
Lovely headbadge for forthcoming bike brand New Albion Cycles, a sister ship to Soma Fabrications in California.
There’s a superb description of the design process for the new headbadge here. Hadn’t realised that Sir Frances Drake landed in Marin County. Perhaps Mr Gary Fisher’s pleasure in fine tweeds is the result of some genetic connection?
Ned gave a TALK at Walton-on-Thames! #gosh #PA #powerpoint #laserpointer And of course, the INBFC massive were there in FORCE to support him. Lovely and talented @Laurie_king from www.opencreative.co.uk let us borrow his picture of Ned contemplating his lectern, above #wow #notes….
He’s coming to Bath soon!
Mapping America’s happiest city. It’s no coincidence that the highest reported happiness comes from areas with high walkability.
Heidi’s lovely roadster for sale on the ‘bay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221191757014?ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1554.l2649 It made sense when we lived on the flatlands
A decade’s worth of punctured inner tubes. Not sure whether to feel ashamed for not fixing them straight away or proud for keeping them with the *intention* of fixing them. Anyway, the day of reckoning was always coming and today is that day, although I intend to make the best of the educational opportunity <ahem> by getting the boy Luke to help. He seems unfeasibly keen to learn how to change & repair his own tubes so that’s what we’ll be doing after school today. GCSE tyres.
This is the Velo Club Walcot ‘Easyrider’ group at Castle Combe today. We did 35 miles and were very happy under that sky. Still waiting to hear how the faster 45 & 80 mile groups got on…
Nicely sums up most of this morning’s ride although in Dyrham just two miles before we were briefly in bright sun and looking with trepidation at this misty ridge on the way to Marshfield. We joked about a Hound of the Baskerville bounding out of the hedgerow but made it home alive, anyway.
Murky much
