The Life and Times of an Overactive Underachiever

Success!

Raoul — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:58:53 +0000

No riding due to showers of biblical proportions today, every time I thought about going out I was soon reminded that it’d be a mistake pretty quickly. After my soaking earlier in the week I decided that I didn’t need to prove my capacity for self inflicted misery quite so quickly. Still Live and Let Die was on, you’ve got to love a bit of Bond Blacksploitation.

Anyway surfing the internet I came across Flandrien a ook I should have purchased when I went to see the exhibition at the Host gallery years ago, but didn’t for whatever reason, I still can’t remember what the reason was for the life of me. It’s since been out of print and I’ve continued to kick my self whenever I’ve thought about it. Today though I found appropriately enough a Belgian antiquarian book seller who had stock and has sent me one out, I’m proper happy!

Pucking Functures

Raoul — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:45:26 +0000

I have my share of the wretched things but this latest glut has now gone from tiresome to just tedious, in the past month I’ve had the following…

Nail through tyre in Clapton on the way to work.
Drawing pin through tyre in Hackney on the way to work two days after the first.
Thorn in tyre on the Surrey Hills a day after the last.
Mysteriously knackered leaky valve in tube on the Surrey hills, about a minute after the last one.
Last Friday, huge thorn through rear tyre just by Caulke House.
Mysterious small puncture at Caulke House five minutes after the last.
Perished latex tube goes pope at Caulke House a bowl of soup and piece of cake later than the last.
Second perished latex tube goes pop ten five minutes later.
Yes still at Caulke House a patched tube goes pop, tea is ordered the rescue party is called…
Three attempts to patch a tube and it finally holds after leaking from bizarre places but seemingly only having one hole..
Today front tyre goes down well the last half dozen or so issues have been with the rear, so I guess it’s just gone out of solidarity…

I’ve had enough now sense of humour has failed, if I didn’t have such pretty bikes I’d be having a case of the David Millar’s and just kicking it about…

Time Away

Raoul — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:33:36 +0000

Time away is good, especially when it’s with good friends and it’s lots of fun…

GBBF Trade Day…

Raoul — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:59:40 +0000

I must not resist the I’ve had enough beer I’ll have a cider temptation, and just stop drinking!

Riding

Raoul — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:58:09 +0000

I’ve not done as much as I should have done this summer which is slack of me really although it has been properly hot, I’ve had teeth out but mainly I’ve been enjoying my garden and drinking beer to be fair, still commuting though and getting the odd spin in.
The more I think about riding the less I can be bothered to do it to be honest there’s just so much faff and a long day out seems to need preparation that’s both comprehensive and tedious, especially riding offroad. The process starts the night before chilling water down and assembling kit etc and on etc, so that I can have an extra half hour in bed rather so I can leave silly early rather than silly early.
As a result my favourite riding now seems to be two to three hour jaunts on the cross bike into Epping Forest, I tapped out the best part of thirty miles yesterday with two bottles of water and pump and tube just faff free riding.
This year I’ve also come to the conclusion that while I actually enjoy riding I enjoy being out in the countryside and reacting with stuff a whole lot more than just riding bikes, for thrills and spills. The last visit to a trail centre with friends was fun, and I mean lots of fun socially but the riding just left a bit cold, all a bit meh and one dimensional. I think that’s it for me with trail centres now, I guess maybe a once yearly visit, but maybe i’ll go out and explore regular trails!

Mac

Raoul — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:45:58 +0000

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…

Eurovision Party

Raoul — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:22:06 +0000

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

So Suspension

Raoul — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:38:47 +0000

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….

The only time

Raoul — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:54:08 +0000

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 with a couple of Ibuprofen, same again today I think.

Tyres

Raoul — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:58:26 +0000

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 due to be released by Kenda soon.