Flickr images
www.flickr.com Categories
Archives
Monthly Archives: May 2004
What a farce
For the second season running, the team that dominated the rugby premiership league all season goes home with nothing.
Last season Gloucester won the league by miles, yet lost in the final. This year Bath won the league almost as convincingly, but yet again lose out in the final to Wasps.
It just makes a mockery of the whole league season if everything ends up getting decided by one match three weeks after the end of the season.
Posted in Misc
3 Comments
Goodbye shins, hello blood
I’ve just fitted some long DMR Terror Pins to my 24Seven Slack pedals. They look lethal, and a slipped pedal will no doubt be extremely painful, but hopefully they’ll improve the grip.
Posted in Bikes
Comments Off
A typical start to the bank holiday
It’s been raining on and off this afternoon. Good to see that the weather is still as predictable as ever.
Today was mostly spent trying to get rid of a hangover, it’s not yet fully gone so I’m resorting to banishing it with the aid of red wine, and enjoying a friday night with no scouts.
Posted in Me
Comments Off
Bank holiday weather
The weather is bound to take a turn for the worse now. After a couple of hot weeks, we’ve finally managed to get the heating in the office turned off, so it’s bound to get colder again now. Apologies for ruining your bank holiday weekend.
Posted in Misc
Comments Off
Full return
The roadbike is now finished with the addition of a 100mm stem. Time to give it a good long test ride.
Actually it’ll probably be the usual 12-15 mile test ride, but such is life.
Posted in Bikes
6 Comments
Return of the Fastback
Thanks to a timely refund from BT, I decided to resurrect the road bike today. A quick trip to the LBS provided a set of 9spd Tiagra levers, an Ultegra cassette, a 9spd chain, and a selection of cables.
The 9spd kit soon made it’s way onto the crossbike, and after a quick test ride to the LBS to pick up more parts, feel much nicer than the old 8spd Sora parts. There is a much more solid feel to the levers, and the brakes even seem to work better. I just have to get used to the new style of shifting as the Tiagras have twin levers, and the Soras have an ergo-style button.
The 8spd parts then made their way back onto the Schwinn Fastback, returning it to almost it’s original spec, bar a few judicious upgrades. All it needs now is a shorter stem, and it’ll be back on the road.
Posted in Bikes
Comments Off
The working week is over
The working week is over, the bikes are back in the lean-to safely locked up, and Chainreaction still don’t appear to have processed my order from two days ago.
Hopefully a nice relaxing weekend ahead of me, the main excitement being my nephew’s birthday party on Sunday.
Posted in Me
3 Comments
Daft animals
Hobbes just lost a fight with a shoe. It chased him round the house as far as the kitchen, then finally cornered him underneath my bed. He is now cowering beside the sofa, afraid to come out again. Trying to tell him that is was only a shoe, and that it was only “chasing” him because he’d got the lace caught in one of his claws, isn’t having much effect.
Posted in Hobbes
2 Comments
They think it’s all over
The last coat of paint has been applied to the floor of the lean-to, I just have to leave it to dry for 24 hours or so, then I can start reclaiming my dining room which currently has 5 bikes in it.
Time to relax
Got home from work just after 4pm, spent 20 minutes painting the floor of the lean-to, then lounged in the garden enjoying the sun and reading a book ’til 6pm, then decided it was time to go for a ride. Took the Craftworks out for a spin round the uni, the back tyre was a bit on the flat side which made for some interesting handling characteristics, but it came alive when pointed downhill through the woods.
Time for a cold(ish) beer, and some junk food to end the day in style.
Paint as a Fragrance pt2
Dull day at work today, but I did managed to get the first coat of paint on part of the floor of the lean-to. The only problem is that the house now stinks of paint. Hopefully only another 3 nights of painting to go.
Posted in Misc
Comments Off
Comedy tan time
It’s the time of year to pick up the comedy cyclist tan again. Nice brown forearms and white hands. Did a nice 31.5 mile spin on the road bike without stopping today. A few short steep hills, but nothing too strenuous. There is the possibility of adding another 10-15 miles onto the route as well without too much of a problem by heading across towards Trowbridge.
Off to watch the balloons in a bit, then up to my parents for a bbq to make the most of the weather.
Paint as a fragrance
Billy the builder returned this morning to panel part of the wall and clear up the rubbish. I ambled around feeding him mugs of coffee and sat in the garden and trued the back wheel on the cross bike. 4 hours later I paid him, bid him farewell, and had the rest of the day to myself.
Most of the rest day was spent applying two coats of white masonry paint to the walls of the lean-to. Hopefully the weather will be just as nice tomorrow as it was today and I can get out on the bike for a few hours.
Posted in Misc
4 Comments
Woo
Details are up about the new Pixar movie, The Incredibles. Looks good, lets hope it’s as good as their previous releases.
Posted in Misc
9 Comments
Roof replacement – Day 2
Well the roof is complete now, all that remains is to replace the plastic cladding on one wall with some aesthetically pleasing plaster board, which should hopefully be done Saturday morning.
Job’s a good ‘un, as they say.
Posted in Misc
10 Comments
Roof replacement – Day 1
The old roof has gone, well it’s in the garden actually, and the support beams are in place for the new roof along with the grooves for the lead flashing. Tomorrow should see the new roof panels fitted in place and everything finished off, thats assuming the weather is nice enough.
Posted in Misc
3 Comments
Handy hints for an early morning
When making toast, it’s generally a good idea to put some bread in the toaster before you turn it on. Otherwise you hear the toaster pop up and end up wandering round the kitchen trying to work out whats happened to the toast.
Posted in Me
8 Comments
Dullness
Well that was quite probably one of the dullest AGM’s I’ve ever been to, it might have been better if more than 6 people knew it was taking place. At least I fitted a nice 15.5 mile ride in by taking the very scenic route to get there. Bikes are great etc.
Tomorrow sees the builders arrive to remove the roof from my lean-to and replace it, so currently the house is full of bikes that have nowhere else to live. Hopefully the work will only take a couple of days and it’ll be back to normal bike storage-wise, or maybe even better than normal.
Catch up
Congratulations to Rich and Jude who had a baby girl last Thursday morning.
Congratulations also to Bath who gave Gloucester a good thrashing on Saturday and beat them 41-7, meaning that we came top of the league. All thats left now is the farcical play-off to see who the real winner is. Last year Gloucester won the league by a country mile, yet lost in the final so weren’t league champions, if that makes any sense.
Lazy day today sleeping off the hangover caused by last nights tour of the pubs of Bath, went out for a quick 25 mile spin on the crossbike mid-afternoon to give the legs a bit of exercise.
Posted in Misc
3 Comments
Skittles Dinner
After a few years in the wilderness, we finally manage a skittles team dinner. Off we trundled to the Bathwick Boatman for dinner washed down with plenty of wine. The entire evening cost me about £8 for 3.5 pints of lager, can’t argue about the price.
Next event on the skittles calendar is the presentation night/disco in early June, should be another alcohol fueled evening.
Posted in Skittles
3 Comments
Speedy service
I posted my shock off last night for it’s service, and despite warnings that it might not be ready for the weekend, I had a call at 4:30 today to say it was ready.
It’s been revalved, fully services, and has a new 700lb spring, It’s been refitted to the bike, if it manages to stop raining this evening I’ll pop out for 10 minutes to see how it works.
Posted in Bikes
5 Comments
Spring bike service
There should be a new rear disk brake for the Inbred on the way from Marcshop, and the Vanilla RC shock on the Craftworks is off to see Tim Flooks for some TLC and revalving.
Posted in Bikes
5 Comments
Change of plan
Given the weather forecast for the coming week, I took the opportunity offered by some evening sunshine and went out for a ride on the Stiffee. It feels much better for the fork fettling, and could probably benefit from another reduction in travel. Rode a nice gentle 12 miles in the end, could probably have done more if I’d fitted the lights before I left, but at least my neck didn’t hurt too much.
Posted in Bikes
Comments Off
Shorter Stiffee
Given the inclement bank holiday weather, I decided to fettle the bikes instead of ride them. At long last the Stiffee has forks of a slightly more sensible length. The Z1 Drop Offs have been reduced from 130mm to around 110mm, all they need now is a good test ride, hopefully I can sort that out one evening this week.
Posted in Bikes
Comments Off
Typical Bank Holiday
I finally decided the weather has cleared up enough to risk going outside, so I get changed only to find that it starts raining again.
I think I should have just stayed in bed today.
Posted in Misc
Comments Off
Death of an Inbred
Matt Booth‘s Inbred passed away this morning due to a terminal case of snapped chainstay.
Funeral details to be confirmed later.
Posted in Bikes
4 Comments
