Big wheels and skinny tyres.

For those that don't already know I'm heading up to Fort Bill on the 7th of March to tack part in the No Fuss Wee Triathalon. Training had been going pretty well until this time last week when I destroyed my back in the gym. After a week off the bike I'm good to go again, and to help with the training program I picked up another bike to add to the collection...

I picked it up from one of the guys in the uni cycling club. It was cheep but reasonably spec'ed with a carbon fork and Sora groupset. I've yet to take it any further than across town and back but I've been enjoying the speed and acceleration from the lights you get from the skinny wheels. Don't worry though, I wont be wearing lycra or shaving my legs just yet!

Lee Quarry

Had a fun day of messing around at Lee Quarry today. Jon, Damian and I took over our own bikes plus the Wideopen Longtermer, the Genesis Alpitude.

We were joined by a good friend of mine, Duncan Conway. Dunc's job for the day was document our messing about on film and an awesome job he did too!

The whole idea was that we'd swap bikes so we had the Genesis back to back with the Orange Sub-zero (with bomb proof build) and the SantaCruz Chameleon.
Lots and lots of fun messing about on other peoples bikes - really strange to feel other peoples favourite setup.

Jon's Sub-zero was very heavy, with low rise bars. It felt in-destructable and once moving felt great. I found it a little heavy and less keen to manouvre. The Alpitude was so confidence inspiring. Everyone who rode it mentioned how planted it felt despite it's light build and weight. Great all round bike. Full write up in Issue 9 of Wideopen!!
And the Chameleon? Well it didn't dissappoint. I love it more every time I ride it... so whether I'll splash the cash on a more confidence inspiring front end remains to be seen... (Pikes/Revelation Maxle-lites plus a set of SLX hubs/Mavic XM321 rims). We'll see I guess :)

Anyway - photos are on Facebook for now - I'll post some on Picasa on here later in the week when I've all Dunc's photos.

For now:
My photos:


Dunc's photos:

Icy start...

Jon and I met today for a rag round Macc Forest to blow the Christmas cobwebs away... we knew it would be cold and potentially icy, and I guess seeing the reservoir like it was (above) should have been enough of a warning.

Even climbing Charity Lane was sketchy - some sheet ice with a nice layer of water on the top. We made it to the top and met a chap called Richard, who crazily was planning a mammoth 20miler around the area... conditions and our experience convinced him otherwise and he joined us for a hellish icy descent on Charity Lane. We overtook a number of crossers who'd been falling off quite a bit, no wonder it was treacherous! As it levelled out we went for it, literally dancing on ice in parts with some heroics thrown in for good measure! I only had one slow specatacular but not painful slide.

Onwards around the bridleway and we found more and more of the slippery stuff. The climb was un-ridable in places and sketchy in others. We opted for the new bike only descent and that was fun, riding in the rut to control speed down another spectacularly sketchy section!

Back to the cars for an exchange of contact details - we'll hopefully meet up with Richard and his friends for a guided ride of our area in the future!

Lee Quarry in a fortnight - lets hope for some better weather!