Life in the Bus Lane

A quiet day today. Finally finished tidying up from the BBQ by cleaning both BBQ’s and returning the borrowed one to it’s rightful owner.

Went for a quick spin on the Craftworks. The SRAM trigger shifters work superbly, only once did I forget and try to shift up a gear using my index finger. I did accidentally shift once when I nudged the lever with my thumb, but other than that they were nice and precise and easier to use than Shimano. Having now ridden a familiar route, the bike is a lot more balanced with the Fox Vanilla’s on the front. The next upgrade will probably be a 185mm rotor for the rear to replace the 160mm on there at the moment.

Unfortunatly it’s back to work tomorrow, and it’s also the start of the skittles season. It’ll be interesting to see if we can manage to raise a complete team this year.

It’s a mad world out there.

Had a BBQ for a few friends last night. A few people didn’t turn up, so in the end there were only 6 of us eating, and there was far too much food and alcohol. The last of the guests stumbled off home around midnight leaving me to finish off the last of the wine. I ended up falling into bed about 2am which probably wasn’t a wise move.

Today was mainly taken up with building a wall in the garden, or more precisely watching my Dad build a wall while I struggled with a hangover. Popped down to the LBS at the end of the day to get a few bits to try to cure the erratic shifting on the Craftworks. Came back with new Sram Attack trigger shifters, new 9spd cassette, and a new 9spd chain. Even after only a quick spin I’m very impressed with the shifters, they seem more intuative than the Shimano equivalent. If I can get my head working properly tomorrow, I’ll go for a proper test ride.

Mike has written a much better report about White’s Level than I managed. Shame about the ugly bloke in all the pictures though :)

Today was “riding day”. I picked Mike up at 9:30 ish, and we headed off in the direction of Afan, planning to ride the new White’s Level trail. After missing the turning the first time, we finally parked up and found someone to take our parking money. Bikes were extracated from the car and we headed out looking for the route. And promptly went the wrong way. After looping back through the carpark, we started out again, this time in the correct direction.

The route itself is quite techinical. It starts out with about 6km of singletrack climbing which is relentless, and not always particularly easy. However this is pretty much all the climbing on the route. You get it all out of the way in one, fairly hefty, chunk. Once at the top the trail points downwards and comprises lots of rocky singletrack, with a couple of bits of fireroad to link sections together. I managed to pile myself into a bank once whilst trying to avoid falling down a hill, then a bit later drifted the front wheel into a large rock at the side of the path and exited the bike over the bars. Slightly battered and bruised I carried on.

All too soon the ride was over and we got back to the carpark. There we bumped into the trail architects, and started to dismantle the bikes. They tried to tempt us with talk of a 6km descent which is part of the new, as yet unopened, 46km route. The downside of this was that we would need to ride the 6km climb again to get to the start of it. This idea lost out to getting lunch in the cafe. That was until the offer came to drive us to the top of the descent. Now we were talking.

The bikes we loaded into the back of the van and we set off. Eventually we arrived at the top of the descent and were pointed in the right direction, and promised a 6km descent back to the carpark.

This was a fantastic descent, smooth and whoopy at the top, followed by a loose rocky part in the middle with some rather large rock steps, them more rocky singletrack. The only downside of it is the 40km you’ll officially need to ride to get to it. It didn’t feel like 6km long, but thats probably because we were having too much fun riding down it. I also avoided crashing which was a bonus.

With the riding over, we reloaded the car and nipped back down the road to the cafe at Afan for sausage, egg, and chips, washed down with cold Coke, and cups of tea. Then it was time to head back to Bath.

All in all, a good days riding. The White’s Level trail needs to bed in a bit more, but is a nice technically demanding route which is well worth a visit. If the last descent is anything to go by, the new 46km route will also be fantastic.

The new IS +25 adaptor arrived this morning so the Craftworks now has nice Fox Vanilla 125R forks, and the Stiffee has the Z1 Drop-Offs.

In a spooky co-incidence sort of way, I was offering to sell my Jack Flash frame to someone on STW who wanted one. Turns out it’s the guy who I bought the frame from last year who turned out to be my ex-neighbours brother-in-law.

I think the gears on the Craftworks are jinxed, I just can’t get them set up properly. They were skipping and jumping on the way home tonight, although I gave them a quick tweak just before I got back.

The last time I fiddled with the gears on the Stiffee, they worked perfectly first time, although the overly-long full-length cable outer on the Craftworks might have something to do with it. I am quite tempted to make the move to 9 speed, get a 11-34 cassette, and drop the 20T chainring.

2:30pm on a weekday afternoon and the place was absolutely packed with people. It took me two circuits of the carpark to find a space, and then I would quite cheerfully have murdered about 100 people in the store who think it’s a good idea to block the entire aisle whilst having a conversation, or tying a small childs shoe-lace, or generally just being a total fuckwit.

At least I managed to get the one main thing I wanted which was a 4th Benno DVD storage unit. I think I must have too many DVD’s, although the fact I don’t have room for a 5th unit somewhat limits things.

Whilst out riding today, Ian and I had a lengthy discussion about the merits of plain old Deore kit. Ian was riding a mostly Deore equipped Ricky Martin demo bike, and I was on my trusty Craftworks. We came to the general consensus that Deore is pretty damn good, and there is no need to spend the extra on anything “better”.

After a moments contemplation, we both realised that our personal bikes are pretty much exclusively XT or XTR equipped with Hope providing the hubs. All I have in the way of Deore is the hubs and cranks on the Craftworks. Ian doesn’t even have that.

Time to face facts, we are bike snobs who quite happily pay the extra for XT or even XTR in cases.

I never did make it into town, but I did eat an entire packet of Jestives all by myself.

It’s an oft-expressed equation, but one that deserves repeating.

After the excesses of last night I went for a ride this morning with Ian. Once out of the house my head cleared, the hangover departed, and the riding was excellent. The Craftworks is getting better and better despite the randomness of the gear changes.

I seem to be running out of books to read so a trip into town might be in order for this afternoon.

Slack day today. Tidied the house a bit, lounged in the sun in the garden, and went for a short ride on the Craftworks. Nothing too strenuous.

The first day of my holiday today, and I didn’t get a phone-call from work for a change.

Slouched around most of the morning, popped down to the LBS for a few things, then raided the supermarket for junkfood.

Went for a quick spin on the bike this afternoon looking for a path near Twinhoe as recommended by MikeD. It was a nice fun ride although I was battling with a hangover which sucked the energy out of me. I also managed to burn my finger on a disk rotor when clearing vegetation from the cassette and mech.

The Craftworks is still fun to ride although I’ll steal the saddle off the road bike later and put it on the Craftworks instead.

Nothing exciting happened yesterday. Today looks to be heading in the same general direction, with the exception of a different evening drinking establishment. I’d come up with an erudite rant about Darl McBride, but quite frankly I can’t be arsed.

Roll on 5pm and the subsequent 10 days without work.

Went for another spin on the Craftworks tonight. Having managed to sort the suspension out a bit more, the bike is coming to life. It still bobs a bit on climbing, but thats to be expected, however it’s a lot more plush on the rougher stuff now. There is still an imbalance between the performance of the front end (2001 Marzocchi Z1 Drop-Off) and the rear end (2003 Fox Vanilla RC), but thats nothing that can’t be solved with the aid of a credit card.

Work is manic at the moment, but I only have two more days in the office, then I have just over a week off. I can hardly wait.

ADSL failed around 1pm and wouldn’t come back until I power-cycled the router when I got home 4 hours later.

I actually had to do some work instead of reading emails for a change.

The penalty notice for the speeding incident the other week came through today, a fairly standard 3 points and £60 job. Best sort that out nice and quickly.

A fairly quiet weekend. Went for a quick ride yesterday, then went to some friends for a BBQ, stayed there for the night, had a leisurely breakfast in their garden, then wandered home.

No riding today (yet), I just settled for tidying up the cable routing on the Craftworks, and fixing some old innertube to the drive-side chainstay to cut down on chain inflicted damage, and quieten it down a bit. Might go for a quick spin later.

I must admit I wasn’t too impressed with the Craftworks after the first quick ride to work and them home via the LBS. It just didn’t feel quite right.

Once home I did a bit of fettling with the setup and headed out on a proper ride. The first part is all road, and mostly climbing, not the natural home of a “freeride” bike. The paths that followed were better, but I still wasn’t convinced. Then I headed into the Uni.

I had a quick play around on the banks between the car parks, then headed up to play on the steps. It felt a lot more at home here, but then attempted to kill me when I misjudged a step run and sort of nose-dived off the top.

I decided to call it a day on the steps before I made even more of a fool of myself (there were people watching), so I headed out round the golf course. After stopping for the obligatory bike pics I headed down into the woods. It was almost as if I was riding a different bike. Once on the singletrack, and pointed slightly downwards, it took on a completely different persona. The run down through the woods was ace, and even the ride back along the tow-path and round the outside of town was good.

I went out on a bike I wasn’t too sure about, and came home with one I’ve fallen in love with.

Bikes are great, new bikes are even greater.

The correct spring had arrived when I got back at lunchtime, so the Craftworks is now complete and has been test ridden, albeit briefly. It feels quite odd riding a full-bounce bike, but I could get used to it :)

The angles feel quite slack on the Craftworks at the moment, and it could possibly do with a slightly longer stem. I’ll give it a proper off-road ride later and see how I get on though.

It’s now pretty much built. The forks have been set to 130mm again, the front mech shifter slightly so it doesn’t foul the chainstay pivots, and all that remains is to fit a spring onto the shock again and clip the ends off the cables.

All being well I’ll pop home tomorrow lunchtime to fit the spring (assuming it’s arrived), and test ride it on the way back to work and again on the way home.

The forks had in fact arrived and had been left with a neighbour, although ANC deglected to point that out.

Time to change the travel on them.

No fork delivery today. Given that I’ll miss any delivery attempts tomorrow I guess I’ll have to wait until next week.

Windwave have done my forks and sent them back yesterday. I should get them today, except I’m not at home to take delivery which probably means a quick trip to Frome tomorrow to collect them.

Tim is also sending out a correct 650lb spring for me today.

All being well, the Craftworks will be up and running for the weekend.

New spring arrived from Tim today, it’s marked as a 600 not the 650 he said, but I’ll give it a try anyway. First package from Chain Reaction also arrived, so the correct shimmed seatpost is now fitted, as are the blanking bolts for the seatstay brake bosses. I’ve also now got all the stuff to sort out the travel on the Z1’s when they return. The correct front mech will hopefully arrive tomorrow.

I’ve also lost another 6.5lbs in the last 6 weeks.

I cocked up with the front mech I ordered for the Craftworks. What I ordered was a bog-standard Deore mech which is a top-swing type, when what I needed was a conventional mech. The low clamp on the Deore fouls the rear suspension pivots, and is likely to get ripped off on the first big compression. So it’s Chain Reaction to the rescue, and I’ve just ordered an XT front mech to fit (34.9mm clamp, bottom pull, conventional high-clamp).

I took advantage of a quiet afternoon at work and popped down to the LBS to get the headset cups pressed into the Craftworks frame. It’s now mostly built up, albeit with some rigid forks which are purely to hold the bars in something approximating the correct place.

Despite having the wrong sort of front mech, the gears seems to work at the moment, although can’t be properly tested until it’s ridable. The saddle is still missing as I’ll fit a longer Planet-X post when the shim I’ve ordered arrives.

Now it’s just down to a battle of wits between my patience, and my credit card. I wonder which will win out?

I’ve now had a bit more of a chance to have a look at the Craftworks, and damn nice it is too. Everything seems overbuilt in a nice way, and all seems of a suitably high quality. I’ve waved tools at it and moved the shock into the 6.25″ position as I suspect that will be the more usual setting.

Following an email discussion with Tim Flooks a “pre-enjoyed” 650×2.29 spring is on the way to replace the 550×2.29 currently on there. I need to pop down to the LBS one day to get the headset cups pressed in, and then just need to wait for the forks to return.

All I need now is patience, which is something I usually find to be in short supply.

The Craftworks is finally here.

Now all I need to do is wait for the forks to arrive.

A bit more lazing in the sun, a bit of riding, a quick appearance at my parents “garden party” to celebrate 25 years at their house, a bit more riding, then a bit more relaxing in the garden.

An almost perfect weekend.

Too hot to do much today. I ventured as far as the supermarket, then spent the rest of the day lounging in the garden reading various things (MBUK, The Illuminatus Trilogy, Snowcrash), did a quick 12 mile ride about 5:30, then ate pizza and drank a few beers. A nice relaxing day really.

Aug 9, 2003 5:38 am On FedEx vehicle for delivery BRISTOL GB

The forks are on their way to Windwave, the only downside is that they will probably be away for 10 days or so.

Popped down to the LBS to pick up a few bits for the Craftworks, ended up with a FSA Pig DH Pro headset, a new chain and some gear cable outer. Got home and found my new XTR mech sat waiting for me, along with a copy of the new Half Man Half Biscuit EP Saucy Haulage Ballads, “On Finding The Studio Banjo” is a work of pure genius.

I think I’ll spend the afternoon in the sun swapping bits around on bikes.

Frame will now arrive Monday.

The frame now appears to have got stuck clearing customs.

The frame arrived on the ramp again 90 minutes later, but is apparently now “available for clearance”

On another note, Chain Reaction don’t seem to have sent my mech, and I got notice of a speeding ticket today picked up on the way to Afan on Sunday. My first one in 13 years of driving.

The frame is now apparently on a ramp, still at Stansted though.

At least it’s moving.

Either that or their tracking system was b0rked overnight.

First of all my frame arrived in Stansted at 7:26am, then it left Memphis at 2:07am, then it left Memphis again at 3:23 am.

How odd.

It left California last night in the careful hands of FedEx and has just been spotted at Stansted Airport.

In case you are wondering, it’s one of these.

Order #243509: Current Status: Packed & Ready To Ship

More later….

…but it’s raining here. Guess who left his waterproof at home because the forecast was for good weather?

I seem to ache all over this morning, one of the downsides of falling off bikes.

Is there any weather when trains actually do work correctly?

Went out riding the morning. Left home at about 10:30 and got back around 1:40. Three hours in the blazing sunshine. It was a good ride apart from an impromptu stop on a fast descent. The bike stopped when the front wheel got crossways in a rut and got stuck, and I stopped when my left knee and chest slammed into the rocky edge of the path. My left arm is grazed and bruised down pretty much all of the inside, my left knee is cut in a few places and swollen, left thigh is bruised, as is the left side of my chest. No doubt I’ll ache even more in the morning.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing in the sun and finishing off a book, then there was a minor interruption when the mail server at work died yet again and I had to go in to resuscitate it.

Tomorrow I go back to work, something I’m not entirely looking forward to.

What can I say other than “what a fantastic ride”?

We left Bath around 9:30 ish and headed to Afan arriving around 11. After getting kit ready and letting Olly do his customary pre-ride tyre inflation and spoke tightening, we headed out on the old 9Feet trail. There was a bit more singletrack climbing than when I went last, but we eventually arrived at the start of Desolation. The next section was pretty much the same as last time I went, although somewhat drier. We did Hidden Valley twice as is customary, then headed onwards little knowing what was in store around the corner.

Sidewinder and Dead Sheep Gully were almost entirely new to us, and comprised some of the best singletrack I’ve ever ridden. Swoopy, whoopy, rooty, rutted, rocky, and fantastic fun.

By this time a natural order had appeared, on the climbs Matt would dissappear off into the distance leaving Olly and I lagging behind, then on the singletrack descents Olly would vanish, followed by me, then Matt bringing up the rear.

We reached the end of Sidewinder and spent a few minutes enthusing about how good it was, only to find that Dead Sheep Gully was even better. The rest of the course was almost an anti-climax after that, although the last descent down to the river crossing was taken at a speed not normally sensible on a hardtail, and left me grinning like a maniac.

By this point Olly’s back wheel had progressed from “slow puncture” to “full-on puncture” so we had an enforced rest while he fitted a new tube. The last bit of singletrack brought us back to the starting point, and the cafe called out to us.

Suitably refueled with pasta-bake and chips, it was time to head homewards.

We’ll be back soon to sample the delights of “The Wall”.

Left home about 8am this morning to pick up Olly then headed across to meet Matt at the FoDCA trail.

First off we rode round the FoDCA 1 XC trail. This is just over 2 miles of pure singletrack, relentless and unforgiving. It took us about 45 minutes the first time, but we weren’t exactly hurrying.

After refueling with chocolate we headed out to play on the DH courses. Olly guided us down two of them, both of which were fun and 95% ridable for a wimp like me. The second course we did was mostly open singletrack through the trees, and more fun than the first course.

By now it was lunchtime, Matt went for cake, Olly and I took the burger and chips option. Perfect race food.

A second loop of the XC course beckoned, it was a bit easier riding it as we half knew what was coming, but all of us were beginning to feel tired, and by then end I started making silly mistakes and picking stupid lines. The planned additional run down the DH course was aborted on the grounds we’d probably all have killed ourselved by riding headfirst into the nearest tree.

Self-preservation led us to drive back to Bath, and once we sat down it was too much like hard work to go out for another ride. We’ll wait for Afan tomorrow.

I have done nothing of note today.

Azonic Freeride cargo shorts seem nice and tough, might try and break them tomorrow.