Life in the Bus Lane

The Paul Component brakes have been ordered, and a deposit has been paid.

So far the TriCross has gained a new Easton Havoc seatpost, and a Surly Tuggnut chain tug.

The seatpost is a bit burlier than necessary, but it’s what was in stock when I popped into the shop. It’s certainly unlikely to break anytime soon. The Tuggnut came from Charlie the Bike Monger after Tim had run out. It fits perfectly, looks pimpy, and more importantly has enough adjustment to actually work properly unlike the old On-One one I was using.

I’m awaiting a price from the local reseller for a set of Paul Components brakes in the classic Neo-Retro front, Touring rear configuration.

Most importantly, I’ve turned the back tyre round so it matches the front one. It was "backward" because I turned the wheel round to run the bike fixed.

Despite having ridden it for less than 10 miles, I’m already planning ways to "improve" the TriCross. I nearly bought a set of Paul brakes for it yesterday, and I’m now looking at buying a Thomson seatpost as well.

I had another hours work done on the tattoo this afternoon. Most of the black is now complete, although a few bits of outline still need doing.

Session three is going to be a two hour session in three weeks time, it would have been sooner but there’s a scout camp in the way.

Today was the long awaited opening of Ethan’s new playhouse, known as Stalag Luft Ethan due to it’s appearance.

As befits a ceremony of this statue, champagne was drunk, and cucumber sandwiches were consumed, although I think Ethan settled for milk and a jam sandwich.

More photos.

More here.

The Tricross is now fully built up, although a few things need changing. I’ve taken the silly bar top levers off, however this means that the cable outers aren’t contiguous and don’t work too well, I’ll try and get a couple on in-line cable adjusters to go in there tomorrow.

I’m not a great fan of the brake levers either, they are a bit pointy and not overly comfortable. I’d swap them with the nice levers from the Langster except that means fitting cantis instead of the v-brakes.

I need to swap the bars for the Bell Laps from the Langster, but I’ll probably try and tie that in with a brake replacement.

I found a spare 18T fixed sprocket to sort the drivetrain out, however I’ve left the 18T freewheel in place for the moment.

There are a pair of cheap SPDs fitted at the moment which were meant to go on the Ribble, I’ll swap them for the nice ones off of the Langster when I get a chance.

I’ve taken it for a quick test ride up the road and back which is about all my ribs can cope with today, and it feels really nice.

Photos tomorrow (probably).

The TriCross has been collected and unboxed. It looks even nicer in real life than it does on the website.

I’m just waiting to see if the shop have any canti brakes in before I put it together properly. It definately going to need the bars and stem swapping at some point so that I can fit my lights to it as none of them will fit oversize bars.

Apparently there is a box sat in my brother’s office waiting for me to collect it after work.

Annoyingly my ribs are rather more painful today which could make building the bike interesting, and riding it somewhat unlikely.

I managed to ride into work today. It’s more painful than walking, but takes a lot less time.

I left earlier and headed up to the Doctors to get more Diclofenac, the Doctor I saw was quite impressed with the amount of bruising on my chest, you don’t normally expect them to say "Ooh that looks nasty" in front of a patient.

There’s no sign of my TriCross yet, it didn’t arrive at the shop yesterday as expected. However in my current state, I’m not that worried.

Log into the Dominos website, order pizzas and starters, wait 20 minutes, sit down and eat piping hot pizza.

Perfect for a beer and DVD evening.

I was on my way to the pub tonight to have a beer with Al and Ali to celebrate their engagment when I slipped on the road, tripped over the curb, and landed chest-first on a low wall. I’ve skinned both knees, lost the ball from my nipple ring, and more painfully either cracked, or at least badly bruised, several ribs on the left side of my chest. I can’t even blame alcohol as I hadn’t touched anything stronger than Dr Pepper by that point.

I’m obviously not safe to be let out of the house.

This is perfect timing for me not to be able to ride the TriCross which, all being well, might arrive by the end of the week.

There is a 61cm Specialized Tricross Singlecross on order with my name on it.

I’ve been after a replacement for the Langster for a while, it’s slightly too short for me, and I’d like something with more clearance so I can fit fatter tyres and use it on the canal towpath and for light off-road. I’d ruled out the obvious On-One Pompino on the grounds that even the XL one is way too short for me, and the Surly Crosscheck would have worked out too expensive.

Then I came across the Tricross. Size wise it looks almost perfect, although I might need to fit a slightly shorter stem. Even better though, I’ve been offered one for a very agreeable price. The plan is to do a bit of part swapping, then sell the Langster to recoup part of the cost.

After missing my full english breakfast yesterday, with made up for it with style this morning.

Port and stilton sausages x3
Thick cut smoked bacon x3
Hash browns x4
Fried eggs x2
Mushrooms with a hint of garlic
Beans
Toast x2 (for me)
Tomato x2 (for Steve)

I actually needed two plates to hold it all, and that was after skipping the black pudding. I’m not sure I’ll be able to move now for a few hours.

Tonight we went to see New Model Army in Weston Super Mare. A nice low-key warm up gig before their Beautiful Days appearance tomorrow evening, there were probably only 200 people in the rather tiny Hobbits club. The only downside was that the smoke alarm went off three times during the gig, prompting a slight rewording of one song mid-flow.

They ended up playing a two part set. The first 45 minutes or so was a run through of the set they’ll play tomorrow, the second section was just some extra tracks.

Setlist
Rumour and Rapture (1650)
Bloodsports
Island
High
No Mirror, No Shadow
Wonderful Way to Go
Here Comes the War
Before I Get Old
Vagabonds
Poison Street
Get Me Out
Green and Grey

Better Than Them (JS Acoustic)
Breathing
Into the Wind
Stupid Questions
Rivers
Wired
Purity
125 MPH

It’s Friday, yet I haven’t been for my usual end-of-week full breakfast from the canteen.

I must be ill.

We were meant to be going out on a road ride tonight round the lakes, but after looking at the weather we decided on a shorter route because of the looming rain. However it turns out that the rain loomed a bit quicker than expected and Ian was soaked even before he got out of the village, so he turned around and rang me to call it off.

Update: A mere 7 minutes later the rain reaches Bath, I’m glad I’m staying in now.

I suspect Matt is currently out completing his target of riding a bike every day for 365 consecutive days.

Knowing him it’s be windy, raining, and he will have hated every minute of it
Update: He’s done it.

One month to the day (probably) since Hobbes died, I had the first session on the Hobbes memorial tattoo.

Just the basic outline was done this time, the main detail and the colouring will be done in subsequent sessions. It should end up looking like this when it’s finished in a few months time.

Session two is due in about three weeks time.

When I was working my way through all my photos from Saturday I noticed a huge dirt mark on all the pictures, this could only mean one thing. It was time to clean the sensor.

In the 3 years or so that I’ve owned DSLRs I’ve never once had to clean a sensor. A quick blast of air into the body every so often seemed to have kept things clean enough, but something more drastic was required this time. After a bit of research I ordered some pads and Eclipse fluid from Digipad. I placed the order Sunday night, and picked it up from the post office after work today.

As it turns out, cleaning the sensor couldn’t be easier. Pop the mirror up, put a couple of drops of fluid onto a new pad, swipe the pad across in one direction, flip it over, then swipe it across again in the same direction. A quick test picture reveals a nice clean sensor with no noticable dirt marks.

The only downside is that the pads work out a a couple of quid each, however the 5 I’ve bought should last me a good long while at this rate of cleaning.

I think riding without gloves yesterday was a bad idea. I seem to have knackered my right hand, and can’t move the first two fingers very much. Using my trackball is going to be an interesting task today.

A nice sunny evening persuaded me to drag the Lemond out from the back of a pile of bikes and take it out for a spin. I’d just got onto the Bath-Bristol cycle track when I went to take a drink, and discovered that the bottle was still on the fireplace at home, so had to turn around to collect it.

I settled for 18 miles in the end in the evening sunshine. The Brooks bar tape seems to work better if I don’t wear gloves, with my Campagnolo gloves on it’s far too slippery to grip properly.

My first attempt at photographing motorsports, and my first visit to Castle Combe for a good few years.

I quickly learned a few things. I need a longer lens, probably a 100-400IS, and standing underneath the electricity pylons at Quarry clutching a monopod can be a shocking experience.

More here.

BBC NEWS | England | Farm infected with foot and mouth

The first Scout camp took place on the 1st August 1907, so to commemorate the event scouts all over the world had a Sunrise Ceremony. The Avon one was on Weston Super Mare beach front, with promise renewal ceremonies at 8am, 11:30am, and 4pm, each with a live linkup with another ceremony. 8am was with a group near Lake Ontario, Canada, 11:30 with a group in Avon, near Perth, Australia, and 4pm was back with the Canadians again.

The weather was absolutely fantastic, I’ve actually come back with sunburn which is a nice feeling after all the recent rain.

The official Scout blurb is here: http://www.scouts.org.uk/sunrise/