Tonights episode of Map Man (BBC2) was about Harry Beck’s design for the map of the London Underground.
However they managed to make an unforgivable omission, and neglected to mention Mornington Crescent at all.
I got home from work at 16:10, got changed straight away, sorted out the Camelbak, and was out of the door by 16:30. The first part of the ride is three miles of road climbing, not the best test for 6" forks. I flicked the ETA lever and bounced the forks down a bit, but they didn’t shorten that much. The climb felt slightly harder than usual, but then it was the first time I’d ridden a bike with any suspension for over a month. One at the top of the hill I flicked the ETA off and headed along the cheeky trail which runs along to Combe Down. The forks felt great off-road, nice and smooth, and very stiff. The bike handled differently, but then the forks have an inch more travel than the previous ones, and are another inch longer on top of that. Once I reached the back of the Uni and headed down the hill the forks really showed their benefits, allowing me to descend much quicker than before.
Back down on the canal, the ETA seemed to sort itself out a bit, compressing the forks quite noticeably, and improving the handling no end.
Overall I’m very impressed with the new forks, definitely a worthwhile purchase.
For all the impatient readers, there are even some pictures now: New Z150 forks.
Update: The forks now have a nice stealty black BETD ETA Control Knob thingy. A vast improvement over the bit of bent plastic they are supplied with.
My new PC arrived this afternoon. Everything is mostly up and running now, however the hardware was sufficiently different enough that it didn’t work perfectly straight off, so after fighting with it for a few hours I eventually reinstalled XP from scratch. It needed doing anyway to be honest, so that’ll give me a fun few days of reinstalling software.
Due to the ongoing PC shenanigans, I’ve not yet given the new forks a proper test ride, hopefully I’ll manage that tomorrow evening. I’ll even try to take some pictures as well.
My new forks were delivered tonight. They are 2003.5 Marzocchi Z150s, with new 2004 lowers. So new in fact that the stickers still have the protective outer on them.
Didn’t take too long to fit them to the bike, the hardest part was getting the brake caliper spaced out correctly. It needed about 7mm of spacers to line everything up, the caliper mount just seems to be a lot further out on this fork.
The only part missing from the fork was the air valve adaptor for the air preload, hopefully that’ll pop through my door in a day or two, failing that, Chain Reaction seem to have them in stock for a few pounds. I also also splashed out on a new ETA control knob from BETD for them.
They didn’t choose their cat, the cat chose them.
They didn’t choose their cat, the cat chose them.
They didn’t choose their cat, the cat chose them.
And what do you know, it’s got it’s own website
I’ve no idea what they are talking about :)
My main PC decided to die last night. It was working quite happily at 10pm but was as dead as a Dodo by 7am this morning. It doesn’t appear to be the PSU, as replacing it makes no difference, neither does it appear to be the case as the power button still works (sort of). So it’s either a partially dead motherboard, or a dead CPU.
On the grounds that I can’t be arsed spending ages trying to work out which it is, I’ve ordered a new barebones system to replace it. So that’s an Athlon XP 3000, with motherboard, case, and 512MB RAM on it’s way. At some point I’ll pick up a cheap motherboard and CPU to try to resurrect the old system, but that can wait for another payday.
The computer died with almost perfect timing, as I’ve arranged to buy some second-hand Marzocchi Z150 forks tomorrow night.
The students are back again causing chaos. There are a few cars and vans parked randomly at the end of the road, I only just managed to get the car through the gap they’d left.
Even worse is the fact there is a new accomodation block just around the corner which has loads of rooms, and about 2 parking spaces. So naturally it was absolute chaos when everyone arrived at the same time with all their worldy possessions. Despite borrowing the carpark of a nearby factory, there were cars abandoned everywhere, and apparently a traffic warden running around and ticketing them as soon as they parked on the pavement. Luckily I was on the bike when I went past so I could nip down the middle of the road and avoid the jams.
A nice leisurely ride down to Chew Valley and back lake today with Ian and Janine. We stopped off for the obligatory tea and cakes, then dodged the showers on the way home again. A gentle 34 mile ride in the end.
I think the rest of the day will be spent sat on the sofa with a large mug of tea, and a copy of Return of the Jedi.
The package finally turned up this morning, and everything has been fitted and is working. The old HD started to fail again as I copied every thing across, but a couple of reboots later and I think it’s all sorted out.
Picture of the day, courtesy of Ian Munro - When bollards attack.
At the LBS last weekend, I was chatting with a couple of the staff about SRAM bits whilst deciding whether to get some new shifters and mech (I didn’t in the end). I mentioned that the only parts they didn’t yet sell were chainsets and bottom brackets, and so they should probably buy Truvativ.
What do I read this morning? SRAM signs Definitive Agreement to purchase Truvativ. I wonder if they’ll pay me a fee for pinching my idea?
For the terminally bored, you can now find out what I’ve been reading, and how far I’ve been riding, by moving your eyes across to the right slightly.
After nearly three complete working days, my order is now on its way courtesy of Parcelforce. As we are going out straight after work tomorrow for a leaving do, I’ll be going in a bit late to make up for the late finish, so hopefully Parcelforce will deliver before guilt takes over and I head into work anyway. The problem is that I miss them tomorrow, I won’t get the package until Monday at the earliest, so there is an incentive to stay home until it arrives.
They’ve finally decided to start doing something with my order, it’s now showing as "picked". It’s only taken them two and a half days, and they’ve still not replied to my enquiry to customer services from yesterday lunchtime.
48 hours on, and my order is still "awaiting packing". What are they using to do the packing? Untrained guinea pigs?
I’d cancel the order if I could, but I can’t as as far as they are concerned, it’s already "completed". I’m half tempted to process it as a return before they’ve even shipped it. My complaint to customer services yesteday still hasn’t had a response after 20 hours or so, despite a promise of a reply within 4 hours. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be using Dabs again.
Today is officially the first day of autumn, so in celebration I fitted lights to the commuting bike. A nice shiny new Cateye LED light for the front, and an older less-shiny one for the back.
My Dabs order is still saying "awaiting packing", no reply from their customer service robots yet either.
A page of obscure mtb brakes is doing a good job of keeping me occupied this afternoon though.
One of the hard drives on my main computer looks like it’s failing. Every couple of days it fails with warnings about failed delayed writes to the $MFT. In the hope that I can recover the data before it fails completely, I ordered a new SATA drive and controller from Dabs early this morning, and after being "completed" within an hour, the order has now spent 10 hours "awaiting packing". Not much chance of that arriving tomorrow then. Amazon seem to be a bit sluggish in sending the new Elvis Costello album which was released yesterday. Must be a week of slackness for internet based retailers.
Tonights training ride with Ian was cancelled due to Ian lacking a couple of important items, like lights, and more importantly, a bike. So after lounging around waiting for the new episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to start, I got impatient and went for a quick spin on the crosser. A nice fun ride, not too muddy, but just damp enough to be interesting. Hopefully we’ll manage the training ride on Thursday instead.
Despite a 13 spare from yours truely, we managed to lose 5-3.
Housing Admin took 3 points, BARDS took the maximum 8.
Thats three games played, three games lost so far. Just as we were getting into a rhythm, we now don’t have a game for three weeks. Maybe the rest will do us some good.
Looks like my Star Wars DVDs are waiting for me to collect them from the depot in town. I wonder how far through them I can get before skittles tonight?
I’ve now done just over 1000 miles on the cross bike since getting it at christmas last year. It’s probably my favourite bike at the moment.
The weather didn’t improve for the ride this morning. Whilst blue sky tantalisingly appeared in the distance as I left the house, by the time I met up with Ian it was damp and overcast again. The rain picked up a bit until we reached the crossroads where we had to decide on the route home. By then it had stopped so we took the longer route back into town. As we reached the outskirts of town it looked like the blue sky would take hold again, so we carried on through town and out the other side, only to ride into the rain again not long after after passing my house.
27 rather soggy miles in the end. Hopefully Tuesday will be nicer for the first of what will hopefully become a weekly evening ride. The plan is to do a flat sprint out to Bradford-on-Avon and back again along the canal, maybe returning via Winsley to add a few hills in for some variation.
Still no Star Wars DVDs either despite Play.com taking the money for them 10 days ago.
A couple of trips into town today. The first furnished me with Cycling Plus and a new pair of trainers, then a last minute dash back into town at 5 provided another bottle cage and some Bontrager gel bar tape for the cross bike.
My fork dilemma has been concluded. Probably. The plan at the moment is to get some RockShox Pike forks when the LBS get them in. These will go on the Craftworks initially, but may end up moving to the Stiffee to make way for better forks in the future. The main reason for Pike forks is the U-Turn adjustability, and more importantly, the price. They should only cost me £250 or so, and are therefore an easy way to test out longer travel forks on the Craftworks. The adjustability means they will be equally at home on the Stiffee, something that Z1s would fail miserably on.
Boxxer Ride forks are a possibility, but I don’t really want to restrict myself by running dual-crown forks on a bike I ride cross country.
A cross bike ride is planned for tomorrow, the usual 10:30 start from "the pink house". Hopefully the weather will be a bit better than today.
Not a particulary good night for Housing Admin. We have a brief moment of glory when we won the second leg, the rest of the night is best left unmentioned.
BARDS won 5-1, and took the full 8 points, Housing took just 1.
Not one of my favourite alleys used in the league, I never feel comfortable playing there due to the short throwing area. Unfortunately a third team had moved there this season, and it’s the team we are playing away in the first round of the Pins cup in a few weeks time.
Johnny Ramone died yesterday, leaving only one original member of the Ramones left alive. More details on the BBC site - Punk guitarist Johnny Ramone dies.
Star Wars Trilogy Box Set (4 Discs) (Region 2 DVD)
Yup. Must be autumn. Now, how do I turn the heating back on again?
Still no Star Wars dvds, although THX 1138, which was posted a day later, arrived instead.
I think I managed to put my contact lenses in the wrong way around when I got up today. Switching them over seems to have improved my vision anyway.
A very quiet day. Read another book, then went to my parents for dinner. Time now for a glass of red, and Silent Witness.
I’d say "get well soon" to Ethan, but he can’t read, so Granddad will have to relay it to him.
I think I’ll give the bbq a miss tonight on the grounds that torrential rain is not exactly conducive to outdoor cuisine. The rain is probably due to the fact that I washed and polished the car today for the first time in years.
The new Fatboy Slim album is very very good. I’ve already managed to download a copy nearly a month before the CD I’ve ordered will arrive.
The Star Wars DVDs didn’t arrive, although another one posted the same day turned up, so I’ll have to watch that instead tonight.
Star Wars Trilogy Box Set (4 Discs) (Region 2 DVD) £27.99 Posted on 09/09/2004
Bet it won’t turn up until after the weekend though.
My week-long course ended today, and with it came the end of the nice weather, just in time for a wet weekend. The downside of having been on a course all week is less riding. Getting home later than usual, and having other commitments 4 nights this week means I’ve only ridden once, and that was only 7 miles. Assuming it’s still dry in an hour, I’ll get another short ride in on the way to and from scouts, which is starting again.
I have absolutely nothing planned for the weekend, and may just spend the entire time in bed doing nothing whatsoever, something I’ve not managed for quite a while. There is a pile of books which need reading, so I may try and make my way through some of them.
I nearly bought a new bike frame today. Except they’d run out, so I didn’t. My credit card is quite thankful for that.
I didn’t really need it anyway, I was only buying it because it was pink.
A messy game which we eventually lost 5-4.
Housing Admin took 4 points, Widcombe Odd Bods took the maximum 8.
First day of a five day long MS SQL server course. Fairly easy so far. The commute to Bristol isn’t too bad, it only added an hour or so to my day today, partly because we finised the course early.
Skittles season starts tonight. Techinically it actually started last Monday, but that was a bank holiday so the match was postponed until a later date, yet to be determined.
Fantastic weather today, it’s a late resurgence of the summer than never was.
Went for a spin on the cross bike this morning with Ian, a nice gentle 27 miles with tea and cakes at the Angel Fish cafe, which had been overrun by Mouton owners, including Dr Alex himself. Subsequent checking reveals that it was the 2004 Bradford on Avon weekend, celebrating 30 years since Raleigh stopped making Moulton bicycles.
The afternoon was spent lazing in the garden reading books and listening to mp3s. The original Zen packed up on Saturday morning and was replaced with no problems.
My new Giro Xen helmet finally arrived yesterday. Quite impressive on a short ride, the venting seems more effective at low speed than my usual Giro E2.
I finally gave in to temptation and bought myself a mp3 player, partly prompted by having to commute into Bristol next week, and therefore spending quite a lot of time sat on a bus. The mp3 player will save me carting a bag full of mini-discs around with me.
I ended up buying a Creative Zen Xtra with a 40GB HD. The first job was to replace the UK firmware with the US equivalent to get around the 100dB limit imposed by the EU nanny state, then I had to pare down my mp3 collection to fit into the 40GB of available space.
First impressions are quite good, the only problem was the initial inability to play more than 2 seconds of a track, however this was cured by a hard reset. Apparently this is a “feature” of the current firmware.
I’ll give it some more thorough testing tomorrow, and during my commutes next week, but I don’t expect any more issues.
The 2005 Marzocchi forks are now up on their website. I’m still tempted with a set of Z1 FR I forks although an All Mountain I is a possibility. The 66 RC looks nice, but way too long for what I want.
Unfortunately the new Marzocchi forks are not as easy to service as the older models. Even previously simple tasks like checking the oil level are now shown as “must be performed only by MARZOCCHI authorized centres” which is a bit off putting. I’m used to being able to strip and rebuild my forks at home. My old Marzocchis had downloadable service manuals telling you how to strip and rebuild them completely, even my Fox Forx came with a manual telling you how to change the oil in them. Going by the recommended maintenance intervals, I’d have to send new Marzocchi forks in for a service after every 25-50 hours of use, and that alone is enough to put me off buying them.
What I actually want in a fork is something as simple to maintain as my current Fox Vanilla 125R, but with 150mm of travel, and a 20mm axle. Is that too much to ask?
