Life in the Bus Lane

Worked late to upgrade our external bandwidth, should only have taken 30 minutes. 5 hours later I gave up and went home.

First the firewall decided to disappear up it’s own arse necessitating a headless-chicken session followed by a rebuild. Then the router change seemed to go ok, but external routing died a death, we switched back to the old router and old connection, and it was still fucked.

Eventually bits sprang back to life leaving us with the old connection, and a partially fucked firewall.

I hate it when a plan falls apart.

Just noticed the back tyre on the Stiffee was flat again, at least it was a thorn this time rather than a shitty tyre. Anyway, the tube is patched, and freehub lubed (much quieter now), and the cassette sort of cleaned. All things which help make a happy bike.

When I was changing the oil in the forks earlier I took the opportunity to look at the headset, a rather nice Hope Enduro. Hope dropped the Enduro headset pretty quickly and carried on with just the XC, not sure why. This particular headset has been on the bike since I got it about 19 months ago, and hasn’t been touched at all unless the LBS did anything when they fitted the Forx 13 months ago. Even after that time, the grease was still perfectly clean and there was no dirt to be found anywhere other than the outside. Some people may say that’s a sign that I don’t ride enough, they may have a point, but I prefer to think of it as superlative sealing and design.

Note to the BBC: You are meant to be showing coverage of all of the Glastonbury festival, not just the Flaming Lips. Every time I turn over to the coverage on BBC3 or BBC2, there they are again. I’m getting a bit fed up with it now.

Went for another ride today, did a bit of exploring on the way round to have a look down a bridleway I’d not ridden. Found some steep wooded bits, but it’s probably not worth the effort really.

The ride conveniently turned out to be 13.25 miles which took me up to a nice even 200 miles this month.

After eating I decided to change the oil in the Fox Forx, it’s amazing how shitty the oil can get, the oil I removed was gunky and grey, the fresh oil was nice and clear.

Bikes = great.

That is all.

so true to form, it’s raining. Hopefully this isn’t set to last the whole weekend as I want to go riding.

Fairly quiet at work today, boss and cow-orker are out, so I can amuse myself by listening to mp3’s while I work.

…bikes are great.

What better way to wind down from a day at work than with a near 2-hour ride? Especially when that ride has lung-busting climbs and overgrown technical(ish) descents?

I fucking love bikes.

It was nice and sunny today so, in expectation of a delivery from Chainreaction, I took the afternoon off. Not long after I got back Parcelforce arrived with my new Nokian NBX 2.3’s which promptly made their way on to the Stiffee. After a quick trip to the tip and home via my parents, I headed out.

I did the usual Unibike route, popping into the LBS on the way home for more tubes and a RaceFace baseball cap to protect my freshly shaved scalp.

As for the NBX’s, well sorry Conti Verts, you’ve just been relegated to second best.

The NBX’s are slightly narrower than the Verts they replaced and don’t roll quite as well on road, but seem to perform better once you hit the dirt. I was riding a little more carefully so I could find their limits, but they do seem to grip better than the basic Conti Verts they replaced. Admittedly that may also be down to the change from steel bead to Aramid bead tyres, differing tyre pressure, the phase of the moon, or the change in the weather.

I’m not going to rush out and throw away my 5 remaining verts, but as they wear out, I suspect they will be replaced with Nokian NBX’s.

I think I’ll now go and laze in the garden with a book and a cold drink.

A double-helping of ISIAC tonight. How good is that?

I got home from work and the weather was looking a bit suspect so I decided to fettle.

First I partially stripped and cleaned the front E4 brake from the Stiffee, then decided to build up the hack bike I’d been contemplating for a while.

I dug out all the parts and in the end it only took about 90 minutes to build. I’ll probably try it out on the commute to work tomorrow to see how it handles.

For the first time in ages, I’m relieving some of my youth and listening to some old(ish) records on vinyl. Currently spinning on the turntable is Feel The Darkness by Poison Idea. I’ve not heard this for a good 5 years or so.

I have a suspicion that the neighbours may unwillingly become acquainted with 80’s/90’s hardcore over the next few weeks. There is plenty of Dead Kennedys/Minor Threat/Fugazi/Poison Idea/Bad Brains/D.R.I./Circle Jerks/etc to go around.

Went for a ride this afternoon, although not entirely successfully. I finally found out the cause of the repeated rear-wheel punctures on the Stiffee, the bead had split on the tyre and a couple of the steel threads were poking out and rubbing the tube just enough to puncture it after a while. This means I need new tyres which is a bit annoying, might order some Nokian NBX’s from Chainreaction later.

Took the scouts camping for the night on Friday, had a good night apart from have dinner at about 11pm. That finished around midday Saturday, I then headed home and found a copy of the new Harry Potter book waiting for me which I spent the rest of the day reading and finishing.

I seem to have broken my main PC.

Fuck fuck fucketty fuck.

I might get a change to try to fix in sometime next week. Why do these things always break when I’m busy (which isn’t often) and not when I’m being Billy Nomates (which is most of the time)?

What a bunch of arse eh?

A new 5.25″ optical disc arrived yesterday, I can’t call it a CD because it isn’t a CD, it doesn’t comply with the Philips Red Book standard for CD’s.

The disc in question is a Cactus Data Shield protected copy of Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells 2003, no mention was made when ordering of the fact that it wasn’t a CD that would be supplied. I opened the packaging and saw the dreaded copy protected sticker on the front. This just made me more determined to copy it.

A couple of hours later I’d finished my dinner and had a perfectly good working copy on CD-R. I’m very tempted to return this disc pointing out that they supplied a deliberately corrupted disc, however as it’s for my dad for fathers day, I’ll just keep the copy and let him have the original.

After all the faffing, it actually sounds quite good. It’s only a stereo CD so it’s not easy to compare with the multi-channel SACD copy I have, but it sounds very good, and has the bonus of John Cleese on it. I’ll probably wait and get the planned multi-channel DVD-A release of this new version before buying a copy for myself. Especially as I point-blank refuse to have deliberately corrupted discs in my personal collection.

I’m having to spend the day changing passwords on 1200-odd machines ‘cos some nice person decided to tell someone else the admin password, therebye forcing me to change it.

Is it legal to kill people who do things like that?

In the ongoing anti-Linux tantrum from SCO, SCO claim to have revoked IBM’s license to use UNIX code, therefore they can’t ship AIX. Apparently this means that anyone using AIX is doing so without a valid license. However I doubt that this will actually make any difference to our AIX based Lab’s system. IBM, in retaliation, claim that their license cannot be revoked, and that as far as users should be concerned, it’s business as usual.

In a fight between IBM and SCO, I know where my money would be.

Went out and did the Unibike route tonight, but just for a change took the Inbred. Raced a rider up Wellsway, and managed to beat him convincingly. Then rode the rest of the route fairly uneventfully, stopping to take pics along the way. On the tram-run descent from the woods down to the main road, I managed to overheat the front brake enough that you could smell the burning pads, and the rotor warped into a pringle shape. It seemed to straighten out as it cooled down though. Then all that was left was a fairly easy run back along the canal and around the outside of town.

Is there a better way to wind down after work? I think not.

Went out for a what was meant to be a quick ride this lunchtime. Went out round the edge of Lansdown, down into North Stoke, then home via Swineford and Bitton. It was a bit on the warm side, which slowed me up a bit, and I was taking a few photos as I went along and generally just taking my time.

The ride was reasonably uneventful until I reached Swineford. I stopped to swap minidiscs, and discovered the back tyre was rather flat. I whipped the tube out, couldn’t find the hole, so I spent 10 minutes examining the tyre, couldn’t find anything there, so I had another look at the tube. Eventually I found the hole, stuck a patch on it, pumped it up and rode off to Bitton. I reached Bitton with a flat rear tyre again. As I pulled over to fix it I was pounced on by people trying to get members for Sustrans (I might fill the form in later), as they talked I whipped the tube out again, the patch hadn’t stuck properly. I admitted defeat and grabbed a new tube from my bag, fitted that then spent 10 minutes trying to get the wheel back in properly.

All that was left then was a nice ride home along the cycle path.

Pics will be here probably.

I now have milk, and a copy of Hi-Fi News, but more importantly…..

I have Jestives!!!

I have found a shop which still sells them. I am happy again.

Lovely weather out today. Ended up spending most of the afternoon in the garden finishing off a book. Fettled the Inbred a bit, went out on it to deliver a few packages.

Sainsburys had completely run out of milk by 10:00 this morning, not a pint to be found anywhere. How shit is that?

Apparently I came 161st in SSEC at the weekend, although the results are somewhat dubious to say the least. The four of us who finished together are placed, 30th, 31st, 160th, 161st. Bonkers eh?

Picked up some new lycra cycling shorts in the LBS, cost me £10 and half an hour kicking the computer, not too bad. Would have bought some baggies as well except the XL hanger actually had L shorts on it, some new ones are on order though.

I have a nice quiet relaxing weekend planned now.

Tonight I’m defrosting the freezer. How cutting edge is that?

I’m surprised the rest of the world can keep up with me.

For some strange reason, I decided to commute to work on the Jack Flash today. Halfway to work I remembered why it’s a stupid idea, it’s too small, too heavy, and has silly gears.

Even so, it’s still a fun bike. Must bleed the rear brake though.

Several weeks ago I made a slightly cryptic posting. As it’s now appeared in the press, I might as well point you at a report in Computing which explains what happened.

I seem to be drifting further and further away from what most people would deem normal work attire.

Today I’m wearing a bright yellow Shonky t-shirt, Groundeffect Supertanker shorts and Axo X-Up trainers. Much more practical than a suit and tie, but probably less business-like.

Blimey, the last year has gone quickly, it doesn’t seem long since we did this last time.

Friday lunchtime arrives, and I sneak out of work early so I can start packing, I’ve not really planned anything this year. After raiding the cellar for as much camping kit as I think I’ll need, I nip into town to stock up on inner tubes in order to guarantee a puncture-free weekend. Come 6pm, I head out towards Kettering and my overnight stop. Three hours of driving later, I arrive and am greeted with a much needed mug of tea.

Saturday morning is wet and drizzling, this doesn’t bode well. We refuel with food and McDonalds, and petrol at Tesco, inbetween we stock up with beer, wine, and junkfood to see us through the next 30 hours or so. After packing the rest of the stuff into the car, we drive the 80-odd miles down to Mayday Meadow, there are already more people there at 2:30 than turned up last year to camp. We park up and camp near enough to the “action”, but far enough away to get some peace and quiet overnight. The sun is out by now, so we relax with a beer and a sandwich in the sun. The tent gets pitched and we wander around to see who is about. We end up camped with Olly Hodgson, and Gary Hill.

Most of the evenings “action” takes place further down the site, I spend the evening getting more and more drunk on lager and red wine, the cheese and wine makes and appearance again, Steve Makin turns poet for the evening and reads a lengthy poem of which I can recall nothing at all (I blame the alcohol), at some point, possibly 12:30am, I give up and collapse into the tent.

The next think I know it’s 7:30am, I desperately need to find a toilet, and worse of all, it’s pouring with rain. I make my way to the toilets and back, it’s very wet underfoot. The next hour or so is spent in the tent reading my book and listening to the drumming of rain on nylon. Eventually the rain clears enough and I make my way out for a breakfast of cheese pasty, chocolate, fresh espresso, and a bacon and egg roll. Proper energy food.

11am is the designated start time, after plenty of announcements telling us it’s a Le Mans style start, and we need to be in one corner of the field, they finally remember to tell us where to put the bikes. I lean mine up against a tree near the back of the start area, I’m not going to be in any sort of hurry. We line up in the corner of the site, I’m lurking at the back with Steve and Olly.

We’re off. Steve, Olly and I saunter down the track, there are mutterings about a few bikes being moved around, and as we get closer, my Inbred is conspicuous by it’s absence. It isn’t leaning against the tree I left it on, and I can’t see it anywhere. I wander around a bit and eventually find it 20 yards down the course, upside down in the middle of the track. Apparently all the Inbreds were placing in this position. Reunited with my bike, I hop on and head out. There are rather a lot of riders this year, so it proves to be a bit of a stop-start-stop-start affair as soon as we hit the singletrack.

I pootle along for a while making sure I don’t run into the back of the rider in front. After a little while the Enduro riders who started just behind us catch up, I move out the way to let them through, there are loads of them, it takes me a while to be able to get back onto the course. Soon we reach “The Beast”, it’s nowhere near as bad as the name would suggest, however I realise that my bars have been slowly rotating backwards and are now at a rather silly angle, this makes the handling somewhat interesting, and I can’t find anywhere to stop and fix them. Eventually I find space to pull over and fix the bars, and tighten them proplerly. A few more people have now passed me and I spend the next 15 minutes or so riding alone. At the second bombhole (complete with near vertical exit), I find JWiii and a couple of others having a rest, I pull over and stop with them, AndyA soon arrives and we spend 10 minutes or so partaking of herbal performance enhancers.

Feeling much mellower, I head back out in a mini Inbred chaingang comprising AndyA, Chris (Kluster), Ben, and myself, all riding Inbreds. We scoot along the last part of the course, it’s much more fun when you have a wheel to follow. Eventually we cross the line and stop 20 yards further where T hands out cans of Stella. At this point we are still considering a second lap once fully refreshed, but after some more herbal therapy, and a second can of lager, the plan falls by the wayside, and we decide to slack some more.

Eventually we drift off and start to pack up, we get most of the kit packed away and head up for the prize giving. Jon Webb won (again), some other people got prizes, just for a change I wasn’t one of them this year.

The prize giving over, we pack up the rest of the kit, say our goodbyes, and head back to Kettering for pizza and a few beers, a decent shower, and much needed sleep.

Another fantastic weekend, anyone for Scotland next year?

Pics I took

Me drunk on the saturday night
Post race slacking
Steve Makin - Industrial Poet (or something) I’m far right, with the headtorch.

Got home from the Singlespeed Euros lunchtime today, went out for a ride with Ian this afternoon, it was the first proper ride for his De Kerf. Did about 18 miles in the end, finishing off with a few sprints through town.

Now I need to unpack.

They rocked.

Jon Webb had sharpened his elbows especially for the weekend and put them to good use in the sprint for the line to take the win.

We arrived Saturday afternoon, drank some beer, milled around a bit, couldn’t be arsed to raise a team for the relay race although we were there in spirit (or more accurately, lager and red wine), drank more beer, ate cheese and wine, drank more beer and red wine, listed to a poetry recital by Steve Makin, drank some more and collapsed into bed.

Sunday morning brought forth torrential rain, hangovers, and no Marc Davison. The race started, I rode round a bit, stopped and partook of herbal performance enhancers, rode round a bit more, stopped at the end of the first lap for a quick beer, and never really got going again.

Pics and some words which make more sense will be along tomorrow, or sometime later in the week.

The car sailed through it’s MOT quite happily. In the end it cost me just under £150 for the MOT and an annual service. Could be worse.

for the car anyway. It’s gone in for it’s MOT and annual service.

I’ve only done about 4000 miles in the last year, it spends most of it’s time parked outside the house. Useful for carrying bikes to races though.

The Inbred now has it’s 2″ rise World-Force bars back, and the Stiffee has the new 2.5″ rise Azonic Singlewalls. The EA50’s now feel abandoned and are sat all alone out the back. They might make an appearance on the mutant hack bike when I finish building it.

I’ll give the X-Up’s a try out tomorrow, but after a quick test, they seem grippier than the DC’s they are replacing.

That’s another 6lbs lost in the last month.

Just had a parcel from Chainreaction containing new toys. I like new toys.

…then the upgrade to MT v2.64 and the conversion to mysql worked correctly.

Yet again I forgot to order the E4 pads I could do with as spares. Oh well, there’s always next time.

when it comes to ordering from Chainreaction.

This mornings order: 1 pair Axo X-Ups, 1 Azonic Singlewall bar, 2.5″ rise, black.

Why do some people insist on giving advice on something which they clearly know nothing about?

You’d think that a shop owner would have some understanding of basic consumer law, but obviously not.

If you believe everything you read on the internet, every time you ride a disk-equipped bike with normal quick-release skewers you are literally dicing with death. Apparently this combination is a death trap, and from the hysteria being generated, must be a bigger killer than cancer.

Or is it?

Rather than being naive and believing everything I read, I actually decided to test this theory out, something a lot of other people would do well to try.

I’ve ridden with a slightly loose skewer before, and it’s quite easy to spot something is wrong. As soon as you touch the front brake the wheel klunks across to the left. I decided to do some un-scientific tests

Test no 1: Marzocchi Z4 forks, Planet-X hub and skewer, 185mm Hope E4 brake.

Starting from a correctly tightened skewer, I had to fully open the lever and unscrew it 4 full turns before the wheel would pop out. The wheel was so loose at the time that even Helen Keller would have noticed something was amiss.

Test no 2: Fox Vanilla Forx, Hope XC hub, Syncros steel skewer, 185mm Hope E4 brake.

With the lever fully opened and unscrewed three full turns, the wheel remained within the dropouts.

I’m not saying that the current method of retaining the wheel within the fork is perfect, but from my experience, it’s not as dangerous as some people are making out.

Manageda quick ride, back was a bit sore, and the movement of the camelbak didn’t help things. I’ll leave it a couple of days before trying again.

Stiffee feels much better with the higher-rise bars on it.