Life in the Bus Lane

The user in question appears to have been banned now, what a shame :)

Thanks to Dad, I now have a nice shiny new 17″ TFT screen for my main computer. It still amazes me how much better the picture is than the normal monitor it replaced. I also have loads more desk space now which is a bonus.

Someone has been using an image from one of the sites on my webserver as their avatar on a discussion forum, thereby causing a fair amount of web traffic. A quick five minutes swatting up on mod_rewrite, and their avatar is now a far less acceptable image (not work safe). I wonder how long it will take them to notice :)

Spent yesterday mixing and shifting around 5 tons of concrete, unsurprisingly I ached quite a lot this morning. Took a spin out to Chew Valley for tea and cakes this morning, ended up doing 35 miles. Not the best bank holiday weather, quite nice when the sun was out, but a bit cool when it was hiding behind clouds, and quite windy as well. A brief shower of rain on the way home didn’t cause too much of a problem though.

Shame I have to go back to work tomorrow.

The bearings in the rear pivots of the Craftworks were well and truely knackered. The local bearing suppliers has shut down, but luckily they are a standard skateboard bearing size, so my local skate shop provided a handful at the bargain price of a quid each. I only replaced the two rear bearings leaving me a complete set of spares, or more likely, three more sets for the rear. Hopefully that’ll stop the creaking and improve the suspension action a bit.

Tomorrow I have a date with a cement mixer and a load of concrete as I help Ian put the floor down for his new workshop. Should be a busy day.

After picking up the required bits and pieces on the way to the pub last night, this morning was spent building a new rear wheel for the Craftworks whilst watching the womens MTB Olympic race. It’s a Mavic X729 on a Hope Bulb hub, to match the Mavic D321 on Middleburn hub soon to appear on the front. Apart from the obligatory mis-lacing part way through, everything went together smoothly and it’s still nice and round after a nice muddy test ride round the University. Tomorrows job will be to strip and rebuild the rear end of the Craftworks to hopefully cure the creaking.

I seem to have picked up a dodgy stomach problem from somewhere, which isn’t particularly pleasant. Hopefully it’ll clear up soon though.

The postie brought me a new, well second-hand really, wheel in the post today. A blue 20mm Middleburn hub attached to a Mavic 321 rim. This is in preparation for me getting new forks for the Craftworks. A set of 2005 Marzocchi Z1s look to be favourite at the moment. The 66s look nice, but are apparently quite long for their given travel, and the Fox 36s will probably be too expensive.

As of today, I’ve been a paid employee of the NHS for exactly 11 years. Not bad considering I only went there for an unpaid 6-week work placement.

Apparently, spectators and staff at the olympics are not allowed to wear, eat, drink, or carry what they want, particulary if it carries a logo from someone who isn’t a sponsor.

Found on /.

According to the official olympic website, you are only allowed to link to the site using specified and approved text, you mustn’t use an image for the link, and you must send them a letter detailing the link.

So, you can’t link to the site using the word fucktard, or using a picture like this:
.

Whoops, I seem to have broken their hyperlinking policy, aren’t I a naughty boy?

Apparently, e.thirteen/Evil will soon be distributed in the UK by Silverfish.

Hopefully this will mean they aren’t so stupidly over priced, and actually available in normal shops. The previous “distributor” would only deal direct, was difficult to get hold of, was very expensive, and didn’t take credit cards.

Assuming this is true, I forsee a DRS finding it’s way onto the Craftworks.

Six teens arrested in armed siege. That was about 200 yards away.

Hopefully I’ve just upgraded MT to v3.

We didn’t come last, in fact we were 5th from last which is my best ever result in a 24 hour race. Full team times are over here. My laps were 1:17 and 1:23, not the fastest in the world, but could have been worse.

The only casualty from the weekend that I’ve found is one broken spoke in the rear wheel of the Stiffee, I must get around to replacing it sometime this week once I’ve worked out what length I need.

Some pics from the weekend.

A fantastic weekend. Rain on Friday, cloudy sunshine on Saturday, and hot and sunny on Sunday.

We were camped with a number of team/pair/solo riders from the London-MTB list, we ended up with 4 gazebos, a proper cooking area, and virtually every camping amenity you can think of, defiantly a very civilised way to camp.

The course started off wet and slippy and was quite treacherous in places, but seemed to get better throughout the weekend. It was very similar to the 2002 course, with a slightly shorter route to the monument climb, but a longer route round the quarry involving two climbs and descents instead of just one.The ace rooty descent from the back of the quarry was still there which was a bonus.

Our team was somewhat slack. Grant, Andy, and I all did 2 laps each, and Tim did 6, bringing our total to 12. At one point overnight we were in penultimate place on 7 laps, the last placed team having also done 7, but not as quickly. By breakfast we had moved up a couple of places.

I am officially retiring from 24 hour racing as of now. I know I said the same after SitS 2002, but I mean it this time. Probably.

I’ve stocked up on race fuel for the weekend, lager, whiskey, pasties, chocolate, espresso, all the usual stuff. Tonight I’m off out for some last minute alcohol acclimatisation.

I’ve just managed to rip most of the nail off of my left big toe, and taken a large chunk of flesh out of the end at the same time. Currently everything is held together with a plaster in the hope that it won’t all fall apart over night. I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s swelling up nicely and is very painful. Should make SitS nice and interesting.

The Cove now has new bars fitted ready for the weekend, and I picked up a spare set of pads for my E4 brakes just in case. Ought to think about packing at some point.

Windows XP SP2 is now out, although if you aren’t blessed with a nice fast connection to the internet, you’ll be better off waiting for it to appear on WindowsUpdate in a few days time.

Our merry team of four riders temporarily became a triumvirate today when Lolly realised he was double booked, luckily Andy came to the rescue and offered to join in and do some laps for us.

Crap weather today as well, and apparently it’ll be wet at the weekend. What fun.

Looks like someone forgot.

It’s pissing down with rain, and a hard disk in one of my home servers decided to die this morning.

At least my new mudguards worked reasonably well.

I’ve ordered some new bars for the Stiffee, and the battery for my lights is on charge to top it up. I’ve also not ridden a bike all weekend, but I have drunk plenty of beer.

All is going to plan. Or at least it would be if I had a plan.

After the DIY extravaganza of yesterday, today was mostly spent sat on the sofa watching A 4×4 is Born. Shame the weather has deteriorated since yesterday and it’s now raining quite heavily.

Found out last night that the pub I’ve been drinking in since before I could legally drink, has been sold. It’s meant to be closing shortly for a few weeks for a lick of fresh paint, and it remains to be seen how much it’ll change. Hopefully it won’t become all pink and fluffy.

So, the gate, clothes-line pole and front door have all been repainted. The soil at the bottom of the garden has been redistributed, the rubbish is now at the local tip, the new hose reel has been assembled, and I’m knackered.

Good job it’s pub time.

With Sleepless drawing ever closer, I decided it was about time I rode a mountain bike again. So one month to the day since I last rode one, I took the Stiffee out to play. A nice gentle 12 miles round the University and down through the woods reminded me why I ride mountain bikes. The nice, but all too short, bit of twist singletrack through the woods was as much fun as ever, although the little drop-off was blocked by a couple of small logs, so I had to stop and clear it then walk down a short way.

Might even do the same ride again tomorrow night. However tonight I think I’ll spend the rest of the evening with a bottle of red wine, and Blazing Saddles.

…I bought some mudguards for the road bike yesterday. Hopefully that’ll guarantee good weather for the next few months.

All the energy has been sapped from my body. Went for a 12 mile spin on the road bike tonight and really struggled on the way home, my legs would hardly work at all. If I had a choice, I would duck out of SitS, but I suspect that would involve being lynched, so I’ll keep putting the miles in over the next week in the hope that some form of fitness will return.

Sleepless is in two weeks time, and as tradition dictates, I’m not in the peak of condition. I did a 12 mile ride on the cross bike this afternoon, and I’m absolutely knackered now. Admittedly I was also training for the sleep deprivation part by not getting much sleep last night for various reasons, so that probably didn’t help much.

I think I probably need to do quite a bit more riding before Sleepless.