Video killed the radio star

I'm wanting to try out doing some videos. It's not easy to do it yourself. My good friend Dr j0n makes solo riding photos and videos look good, and I'd like to do the same. I made a video a while back about my XC bike- a Planet X Dirty Harry. It was a good learning experience.



Today I made a video about drilling Fat bike rims.



I played with many free editing programs but ended up using Windows Live Movie Maker. The editing certainly gets easier the more you use it. I certainly need practice...

Nichecore Hunter

I really wanted one of these since I saw pictures of Eric Zo on his when he won the messenger worlds cargo bike race. Zo designed it, apparently. Rick Hunter built three. I just bought Rick's- the NAHBS show bike (um, PNS Syndrome there). I didn't have a 20" wheel fixed gear travel cargo bike, so I couldn't say no. It actually rides really well. To the extent I'll probably take the front rack off and commute on it. 45mm road tyres rock.

More adventures to come

A few months ago, a good friend, Nick Wallis took his own life. I have a few of his ashes to take on more adventures.

I'll remember him for some great rides. But also for the excitement on his face as he tried to explain storyline to This Is Spinal Tap to a bemused, Ned Overend.

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Drizzle

The eternal stench of damp Shaggy

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Sometimes you eat the bar

Last weekend was the Exposure European 12 and 25 hour championships. Mel and I made the long trip up to Newcastleton and dragged Phil the Horse for heckling and spannering duties. I've not got many traditional races planned for the year so was keen to put in a strong performance. The Dirty Harry was dialled and I was feeling pretty good. The first few laps went well. The singletrack was fun and I was moving at a good but sustainable pace. However things slowly took a turn for the worse. I started getting bad hamstring pain. I soldiers on and attempted to adjust my position to relive it but it kept getting worse. I ended up pulling the plug after 6 hours in 3rd place. Very disappointing as I tend to start slowly an get faster.

I had a long session with Sabrine, the physio. Lots of talk about previous injuries etc. She unlocked a small muscle in my pec/armpit which seems to have been effecting my posture for some time (probably years). Dropped the left of my pelvis and swung my shoulder back. It removed most of the hamstring pain immediately. Now I have a very sore shoulder and back! She's given me lots to think about posture wise to try and stop it reoccurring. All very odd.

So unsuccessful race but hopefully its got me sorted for the long run.

Dusty Dirty Harry

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R150 medium post

I wrote a bit about the Rovaniemi 150 for the On-One site. It is up here. It looks like I will be doing a full write up for Singletrack at some stage. I've got some great photos from the pro photographer that was there so, with a bit of luck, it should work out nicely.

R150 '12

Short story is it snowed a lot. Going was very slow. I finished second out of three finishers. No-one else made the half way point.

Longer article is written and will be up when I sort photos.

Locked, stocked...

Heading north

I'm finally in departures ready to head North again. The inaugural Rovaniemi 150 starts on Saturday but it will be nice to have a few days in Lapland to get ready. There are 17 racers: 10 runners, 5 cyclists and one tandem. The first year of any race is always going to be difficult. No-one really knows what to expect. In winter races the terrain makes a huge difference so, for me, this has been the biggest question mark. That was until I got an update on the weather.

"About the track conditions I have to inform you that after two weeks with low temperatures (-30ºC...), the last three days the weather have been so mild and "warm"... only -4ºC or even less. Yesterday we had -2ºC. Was a windy day, the wind was really warm and snow was falling and add 3 to 4 centimetres, not much but the wind cover some tracks untill the point thatit dissapear...

Today we open again the track in some areas, there was some overflow in lakes and river, in some part around 40 centimeters water... For next days we expect more cold temperatures... The tracks are with some soft snow now."

I had assumed that a race inside the Arctic circle would have ensured low temperatures! These conditions are quite annoying- i had been hoping for pristine super cold weather. Not only because those conditions are fun but it does this make it faster for the bikes and decreases some risks- getting wet hugely increases the risk of frost bite. It also makes it very hard to chose what to wear. Consequently I only narrowly avoided excess baggage fees. Thanks to Endura for getting me a few pieces of clothing out at really short notice. Hopefully I'm covered for all eventualities now. I'll try and get some pictures up once I get to Finland. Now, where to find a reasonable coffee???

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Rovaniemi 150 testing

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Floater floating

The On-one prototype fat bike quite extensively recently. I'm really loving it. There will be a few changes before production but nothing major. The Surly Nate's have been fantastic and are already opening up the potential of the bike, and Fatbikes as a whole. It's going to be an interesting year.

I'm about to strip the bike down and rebuild it for the Rovaniemi 150 next month. After that it's being lent out to be taken out to Siberia. Guess I'd better find something else to ride for a while!

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Floater

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Sometimes I fall out of love with Bristol.

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