Well my faithful old Toshiba laptop died last week, it's been hammered and generally neglected, and gradually bits of it have stopped working see the death of the audio line out a long time ago... After a little deliberation I thought I'd take advantage of my educational discount and treat myself to a Mac Book Pro. I have to say I'm delighted so far it just works, the switch from using a PC has been incredibly easy, it looks nice, feels nice, screen is fabulous, battery indicator fun, power supply magnetic clip sensible... Like Sidi shoes and Thomson bike parts just good. The whole episode has taught me a valuable lesson as well, paying off a credit card seems to signal a costly domestic failure, so I'll not be doing that again in a hurry...   Read the rest of the entry...

Well that was fun, loads of people round for Europop fun, turnip juice and tequila cocktails, maybe the next big thing, maybe not?   Read the rest of the entry...

I've had a chequered experience with suspension forks... Pace Hollowform Carbon - Very light really plush in the dry but would stop working in the rain. Rockshox Psylo - Gold, bling. flexy, they blew up, theyt got fixed, they were alright. Maverick SC - Never got them on the bike. Fox Vanilla - Just very bouncy and not very controllable. Magura Durin Race - Very good so far. So my new Durin Race 100mm forks seem really nice, no wheel deflection, very plush, perhaps some more air needed, lockout seems to work really well, light and good looking. i'm actually really impressed with them, don't know why I didn't get bounce sooner....   Read the rest of the entry...

You never want to see a sylph like, exceedingly beautiful and really bright asian young lady is when she's going to have to extract your teeth! I really would have killed for a huge gorrilla of a man the first frontal tooth despite being rotten was pretty much holding firm, and was really good below the gumline, the dental chisel was a bit of a chore if I'm honest, a sort of deep head tapping feeling that wasn't great. A bit more anaesthetic and everyone pushing and holding in the right places and the first tooth went, the second one was really knackered and just plain fell out by comparison. Annoyingly the dentist and to some extent myself were a touch too traumatised by the degree of force needed to get the first two out decide to leave the last one, so I'm going to have to go back again for more of the same. On the plus side there was no need for any hacking with poiny things or the use of drills which made me happy. So I've not really eaten since yesterday lunchtime, but I can confirm that beer and brandy work as a really superb pain killing combination along ...  Read the rest of the entry...

Well despite spring doing it's best to run off and hide, I'm ahead of myself with my favourite rubber really. I stuck Kenda Small Block Eight's on my IF towards the end of last summer, and really enjoyed them in the dusty conditions that I rode them in. I guess I must have broken them out a month ago for this offroad riding season, and can safely say they're as good as I remembered them being. They're just about perfect for me being about the right volume for the size 2.1"s front and rear, with a nice rounded profile that just seems to keep leaning and gripping and leaning and gripping really quite unbelievable. What's even better is that with all that grip they're not too draggy certainly I don't resent dragging them across Town to stations to get trains out to ride. They're not heavy either yet seem to deal well with relatively low pressures and big rocks quite admirably, two front wheel punctures in the Peak District whilst running a rigid fork is testament to that. Overall just really nice tyres that adapt to way more conditions than they should do, I'm quite excited about the Slant Six tyres ...  Read the rest of the entry...

The Don of the internet has fixed me up again so I'm back, recently I have been riding bikes, drinking beer and going to deep house nights!   Read the rest of the entry...

Well last weekend was busy with riding bikes and beer festivals, then the run up to Easter was mad busy at work, inevitably a pile of applications to process arrived at the last possible moment to actually be in a position to get the work done before the Easter break... As a result I've been pretty lazy although I have done some DIY bits, cleaned and loved some bikes and watched the Tour of Flanders, but mainly I've caught up on sleep. We went for curry last night round the corner at Rasa Mudra it was superb, not your usual bog standard Indian meal, rather perfectly cooked Keralan cuisine. The Dhal that I had was perfect a mixture of different lentils some toasted, and perfectly spiced with just lovely notes of subtle heat. I'll be riding bikes a lot later in the week so it'll be nice to go to it with fresh legs for the first time in ages. More laundry, tidying and chair building today I think with a dose of Radio 4, maybe a cold beer and some bacon sandwiches   Read the rest of the entry...

Woot back online again after a fortnights absence it's like being in the dark ages not having an internet connection these days, I'm so happy I might go and ride bikes in a bit to celebrate, new flat is now up and running!   Read the rest of the entry...

It's back for the first time this year I've ridden everywhere this week doing errands, no fun yet but that's for the weekend, just enjoying the feeling of it all clicking and actually feeling quite good everytime I ride, about time!   Read the rest of the entry...

I rode bikes for fun, on Saturday for the first day since November, I'm not sure why it's taken so long for it to happen to be honest, I guess Christmas drinking, beer festivals and the coldest winter for thirty years all played some part. I guess being slack may have been a contributory factor as well, last week I decided to not commute to see if that might enthuse me again, it did as well as the prospect of riding a new bike. A touch of a hangover and squally rain showers the precursor of the big storm ruled out Saturday morning, then the calm before the storm arrived about 2pm, I did some bike preparation, and left about an hour later. Spot on 20 miles at an average of 11mph, not too shabby for a cross ride in grim conditions. Bikes really are ace.   Read the rest of the entry...