CRITICAL FILM – A documentary about a very special weekend in July of 2010. A weekend of unconventional cyclocross racing. It only took 126 km of dirt, gravel and cobblestones devided in 4 stages between Dresden and Leipzig, 80 racers, 9 hours, 35°C, 600 liters of water, a ton of food, a world cup quarterfinal and many many enthusiastic souls, to make this an unbelievable experience.
They call it “CRITICAL DIRT – A study in crossification”.
e r t z u i ° film has captured this event along the dirt with our very own perspective.
Thanks to 12rec Netlabel, Earstroke Records & Karl-Marx-Stadt for the musical support.
It hadn’t started out to well – I had pulled my calf last week doing hill repeats and it didn’t seem to clear up – it was niggling and I had avoided running for a whole week … did a slow 5km yesterday just to feel it and it was painful. I had doubts as to whether it might make me pull out of the race so it was weighing on my mind.
Last nights sleep was also pretty awful woke up 3 times with the kids and nightmares then the youngest stomped in a 6am in far from the best mood … so I did what any sensible person would do and I went downstairs for a leisurely porridge and honey breakfast.
Picked up Steven my brother in law at 7:40am then headed down to Ayr for the Duathlon … we arrived pretty early and registered looking out at the clear blue sky and the fact the air temp was only 6 degrees C. there was a fair share of TRI bike – saw at least 3 Cervelo P3′s and other TRI bikes. Also glad to see another plain ti Racer like mine … (a van nicholas but any ti bride is good)
Duathlon prep - freebie shirt and deep heat applied
I decided to do the whole race wearing running tights (the compression i figured would help my calf) and a long sleeve cycling top. A pretty relaxed briefing then we were off …. a short run around the school where the run was based and then off to the coast road – a dirt track with its fair share of potholes. It is an out and back run so by the half way point the leaders were already 500m ahead.
Run 1
By transition I had my first attempt at doing transitions on my Polar RCX5 (which allows you to change sport in the same workout which is great and it also allows you to export separate gps .gpx files for each part) By the time I had my bike shoes on and was gulping down a gel Steven was also in transition. I left about 20 seconds in front of him and then looked down to see that i hadn’t restarted the watch – so add 30 sec and 300 metres to the time on this leg.
bike route and elevation
The ride was great – although I think the boys and girls on their all carbon TRI bikes must have queried their decision as the road was pretty tatty and the route was quite hilly. You could definitely hear them as the carbon rattled over every bump and hole … I could see sense in an aero machine on a flat well surfaced road but South Ayrshire obviously hasn’t spent money on resurfacing in years and they must have flt every bump. There were a couple of uphills where I stood to climb as the lack of padding despite the lovely ti frame was very much felt.
There were great views and lovely sweep descents and the car drivers were passing very carefully which was great. At one stage I was getting a bit tired but sucked down another gel and then some water (they sure are gloopy) but then suddenly I was back at transition.
2nd transition was quick although my legs felt like they belonged to someone else.
2nd run
Second run was identical and after exiting I got to see the first person storming down the hill to the finish – so a 18min lead over what I would do. There is a little hill just in the first km and I was struggling … but after that first km I felt steady although my calf was pulling so just kept up with my pace. After the turn around i was heading back and saw Steven again about a km behind me. Had a mid road high 5 that nearly took me off my feet and then was aiming for the guy in front but could make no gain on him.
run comparison
Polar software breakdown
finished feeling good – just really happy that calf felt no worse … chatted briefly to chap in from then just waited for Steven … Watched a guy come in that was at least 60 and looked in better shape than I have ever been in my life and then another man just behind Steven that must have been at least 70 …. really inspiring.
So my first Duathlon finished and i loved it … big shout out to the Marshals who did a great job and the organisers …. I will be be back hopefully with a good calf and a better transition strategy.
Despite having my road bike and my MTB up in Orkney i knew that roadie stuff would probably be better … Orkney is not known for it’s mtb trails with no dedicated trails like you find further south like Wolftraxx, dalbeatie, kirroughtree, 7 Staines and Selkirk … still Colin my cousin in law was keen for me to bing the mtb up and go for a ride …. here is the ride on ridewithgps
neither steep or speedy
So on Wednesday we headed west into the dark mass of pissing rain that threatened to ruin the ride … luckily the rain stopped after 20 mins. I put the GoPro HD onto a bar mount to test it out for bigger days as well as wearing the chest harness to see how it would look with mtb’ing. have some video footage I will try put together at some point …. bar i think worked better as I am too over the bars with the chest mount meaning most of the time it looks downwards – not great when with other bikes …. The best position is probably going to be around the seat post so you bike gives you a static reference point for scenery and for rider movement on the bike (as well as a bit protected from mud ….)
at the rocks with a nice view
The ride was fine – lots of fields and climbing over walls to get to the top point ….
Colin got two punctures on the ride – a rare dealing for me having run UST tyres since 2001 at least …. rode to the cairn then back across the mixed shale, slate, crazy paving, cairns, peat and bogs. Only 11km and yet took an hour and a half – but think Colin may have died if it was a very quick ride and i was told not to kill him ….
Nice to be on the Carver Ti96er again it really is a fantastic bike – it felt so squishy and soft after all the miles i have been doing on the road bike ….
yesterday was supposed to be a run day in light of the upcoming duathlon but I couldn’t face it (as opposed to today when I am forced to face the sleet and cold later)
So the plan was this:
10min warm up then
4 MIN at +85% MHR
4 MIN recovery at 65% MHR
Repeat 4 times
Then cool down for 10 min
But was watching the iPad – a doccie about the Yom Kippur war with John Snow daddy and son and kind of lost track of timings ….
Here is the Garmin read out showing speed
speed on the trainer
The intervals are not so easy to see on this graph – esp the 2nd interval where I went for nearly 7.5 minutes ….
Here is the polar Heart rate Graph from Polar Personal Trainer which shows the intervals clearer. Normally I program the RCX5 so that it beeps to remind me and beepswhen HR is too high (rare) or too low ….. Think I should stick to that is it is less forgetful than me doing it manually.
Polar RCX5 HR graph clearly showing intervals
not working today so off to the cinema at lunchtime – how decadent ….
For those who train with heart rate monitors, you have probably encountered a session where your HR graph just doesn’t make sense. With my garmin it used to start fine then my HR would skyrocket up to the 180′s 190′s and I would be dead if I was there 200′s. With my Suunto – sometimes I would get no reading before it kicked into life …
Suunto no record then suddenly pop into life ...
After you finish your activity and get back to your computer, you’ll probably see something like this – a major HR spike a dropout or even a level no read situation, followed by more normal HR activity: Below is my reading from the Alloa Half Marathon on the weekend with flouro yellow highlights of bits that don’t make sense ….
Frustrated, you wonder if the battery needs changing but then the next time it is fine so you forget about it …but here is a reason why this might be happening.
I presume everyone can put their strap on correctly – that is the right way up and against the skin just under the ribcage …
So assuming that you’ve got it fitted right then let’s look at what typically causes the spike or dropout in HR
1)Are you wet yet?
During the winter months and in the case of Alloa on Sunday the air is often fairly cold, and fairly dry. This means that you’re less likely to have moist perspiration on your skin (from heat) and even less likely to be generating any sweat right from the start of the workout. This in turns lowers your belt’s conductivity ability to read your heart rate beats ….. Simply introducing any moisture at all will usually remedy the situation – at least until you begin sweating enough to let sweat do its job.
2) Synthetic quick dry shirts:
At Alloa I was wearing a synthetic shirt as opposed to my ‘normal’ nicer smelling Merino. An unfortunate side effect of synthetics is that they can dry out the body and the skin’s sweat making the belt so dry that it can’t ‘read’ the skin. Another issue is that synthetic material can build up static which can cause electrical interference with the HR belt.
3) Your mum is a gorilla:
I have heard some people of the hirsute variety have more errors ….. you need to be very hairy for this to affect the HR belt but if you are this way inclined … a) shave or groom b) stay swinging in the trees instead of running c) if female remain indoors and plait that hairy back …..
How to lick the problem:
It is pretty easy to fix
1) Sweat it: This first one is a bit obvious – but will explain why the problem often goes away after just a few minutes of activity. Once you start sweating it improves conductivity. This in turn makes the HR strap work …. but you still have the earlier misread ….
2) Lick it: This is the simplest option and what I do all the time. I just give the sensors a good gobbing – but hold onto your bogeys for the run.
HR gel
3) Heart Rate Gel: If you suck at licking, then you can instead use electrode gel to improve conductivity. This is what’s typically used in medical environs for scans and using TENS machines …. it just ensures a good contact moisture seal between belt and skin. They are cheap as chips – about £5 for a big tube that will last years … If it is a dry very cold day and I remember then I use gel on the belt before heading out.
4) Shift the strap:
If you spot a dodgy reading then adjust the strap – a quick shift up and down normally gets the belt to rub against some sweat and the belt normal corrects pretty quickly. Some people shift the strap so it is half on back and front or even all on the back … i have not tried but it seems to work as an option.
5) Replace the batteries:
Finally, it could be as simple as old depleted batteries – most belts use CR2032 batteries so i always make sure I have a handful around ….
sometimes you see a bike that just seems so there …. This is just one of those bikes ….. A found a link to Signal cycles and although I read about them in Paved Magazineand seen reference to them on the hand build shows I hadn’t ever explored their site. Like all custom makers they are dedicated to the craft of making beautiful bikes for the right reason. In the days of the giant makers and carbon cyber bikes it is good to see that the artisan maker is entering a new golden age.
Even if I haven’t got the cash to get one myself – it is nice I think to give them a shout out.
Signal Cycles are handmade bikes from Portland Oregon. Each bike is built with the full attention of Nate Meschke and Matt Cardinal. We started our company in the fall of 2007 and have been building momentum and beautiful bikes ever since.
There is a lot of talk of a new golden age of handmade bikes, and the US builders are leading the way. More people are experiencing the joy of working with a custom builder and realizing the importance of being able to collaborate, discuss, design and shake hands with the builder of their bike. Signal is proud to provide this experience. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
Pete’s Racer Equipped Road Bike
Pete is a bike mechanic and has been for a long time. He wanted a fender bike for long gravel rides in the rain and for maybe even doing some weekly races on at Mount Tabor. He sold his carbon bike and decided he wanted a steel Signal with Paul Racer brakes. We used direct post mounts for the brakes to keep things tidy and functional and built a unicrown fork that really goes with the fillet brazed frame.
Pete built the bike up with Shimano Dura-Ace, Chris King, and Thomson parts. The rims are ceramic coated to add durability to the sidewalls and they work great in the rain.
Last night I was supposed to do an hour on the bike at a very low rate ….. but I felt so lethargic and pissed off (for no reason) that I abandoned it after only 20 odd minutes. This morning I am not too annoyed I think training schedules are sometimes treated like they are gospel … but I guess I am agnostic in this regard or humanist in that i listened to my body which was saying ‘NO’
In light of the Ayr Duathlon I entered (15th April chaps if anyone want to enter) I decided to try a practice run and cycle and also see how the Polar RCX5 handles the transition between sports. Its a bit messed as I did my bike ride at home on the trainer.
run route
The Ayr Duathlon is actually a 5km run – 28km cycle – 5 km run …. but I just wanted to try a 2 sport hit so went down to Glasgow Green and ran along the river until I hit one of my markers then ran back. It is slightly longer than the 2 runs put together at 10.33km (although i am sure MAP myRun and google say it is 10.7km
Into the house – rain coat off and shoes changed then hopped on the bike. Wasn’t going for the full 28km just wanted to get a feel. 16km was enough I think. My wife and daughter came back in ‘my god you stink’as they saw me red-faced and sweating all over the kitchen. (NOTE to self – I will stay cooler in the wind outside and not stink the house out)
I like the way the RCX5 lets you transition between sport …. there is an option to allow you to change between sports by raising the wrist unit close to the HRM belt (which you can change to show or do loads in the setup) … at the moment I have the bike one set up to show me Time of Day when I raise the wrist unit close to the belt and the Run one to switch on the backlight ……
After 16km i had enough … legs now are still sore a bit … was amazed how long it took me to feel up to speed on the bike. The muscle memory after the run was quite weird – not sure how it would feel to start the run again … hopefully do a trial race before the event (which will be my first)
Heart Rate Graph - no distance info on bike side as indoors on trainer.
I don’t have a carbon bike but this is one of the criticisms that i have heard rolled out …. well have a gander at this.
STORY FROM ROAD.CC
If you’re one of those people whose reflex action when you see Peter Sagan or Robbie McEwen pull a wheelie on a road bike is to issue a terse ‘tsk,’ you may wish to look away now. You certainly won’t want to press ‘play’ on the video above.
If you’re still here, that’s great – hit the ‘play’ button and sit back and watch a couple of Neil Pryde frames being put through some Danny MacAskill-style moves with the help of assorted bleachers, berms, steps and picnic tables.
There’s limited info on the background to the video – at the end it says that stunts were performed by Rick “The Clutch” Roth and Tony “The Sack” Roth, and Neil Pryde gets a namecheck, as do Shimano, Enve and Tune “for making products that hold up.”
The video appears to have been put together by Tucson, Arizona-based Fair Wheel Bikes - we can’t find anything on their blog about it right now, but perhaps that’s because we got distracted by posts showcasing some great custom builds…
We’re not sure we’ll be incorporating this kind of routine into our bike tests, but road.cc tech ed Nick will be casting his eye over the video later to see if he can ID who supplied precisely which parts… the Dura Ace wheels on one of the bikes being a given, of course.
UPDATE: In fact, what happened was we received a very thorough response from Fair Wheel’s Jason Woznick which you can read after video.
The story from Fair Wheel Bikes in Tucson, Arizona
Naturally, having seen the video, we had to ask some questions and Jason Woznick from Fair Wheel Bikes in Tucson, Arizona came back overnight with his answers:
road.cc: Did you break anything? – Well, we had to ask
As far as things that got broken, the list was pretty small, one flat tire, one chipped fork (from the crash at the end) and a couple of slightly bent teeth on a chainring.
road.cc: It looked like the guys were riding different set ups so did you have different builds for different types of stunt?
There weren’t really planned differences in setup, both bikes were just typical road bikes. We didn’t build these bikes specifically for this video; these bikes were already built and being ridden. The black one is my daily rider and the blue one is Richard our web editor’s daily rider. When we decided to finally shoot the video we wanted to use our regular bikes. It’s not uncommon for those bikes to drop a ledge, or a flight of stairs on a typical ride or commute so we really didn’t have any concerns about durability or setup. The only changes that were made for the video were that the tires were swapped to 28c commuter tires and the pedals were switched to platforms.
road.cc: Oh, and did you have any reasons for choosing particular components to use on the bikes?
The reason we chose the particular components for each bike was that those are what we like to ride.
road.cc: Finally having done this video do you think there’s more that can be done in terms of road bike stunts?
There are definitely a ton more things that can and should be done. When we started planning the shoot we expected to have more time but logistics just didn’t allow it. We ended up having only 2 mornings to shoot which limited not only our time but also our locations. We had a ton of stuff which we wanted to do but just never found the time. Half of this video was Tony and Rick just trying to get used to being on bikes they’d never been on before. We had plans to do more at the dirt jumps as well as an indoor bmx/skate park, we wanted to hit some of the trails as well. There were lots of things that we planned on coming back to once everyone was warmed up, but then time would be up and we wouldn’t get back.
road.cc: Finally, finally, are there any particular things that road bikes actually work well for?
(Tongue in cheek) It would have to be road racing. They definitely do that better than they do trials and dirt jumping. Though the only real issue with them was toe overlap.
What I find most interesting about this whole thing was that this version of the video was never suppose to make it’s way out to the public. This was just a sketch put together here in the shop. We have a much better editor who was working on the actual planned release version. Over the weekend somehow an earlier copy of this sketch got leaked. We tried to reel it back in but every time we got a site to agree to pull it down, it would pop up somewhere else. Once it went over 20,000 views we finally realized we’d not be able to stop it so instead we released this sketch which was at least a more completed version.
I think that’s a little sad as I know the other version will be better. We shot on 2 days with 3 cameras, this sketch was compiled with only half of the recorded footage so just to start it was already limited from the other version. Not to mention the other version is being put together by an experienced editor. We still may release the other version when it’s done as a directors cut or something like that. We’ll also be putting lots of other footage and out takes on our face book page. We shot a total of about 2 hours of footage on each camera each day so we have lots of stuff that didn’t get included.
The Bike Specs
Bike 1 – the black one, belongs to Jason
Neil Pryde Alize Dura ace Di2 shifters derailleurs. Enve rims on Tune Mig 70 Mag 170 hubs with CxRay spokes, 20/24 Enve compact bar Enve stem Tune Concord saddle EE brakes Prototype EE cranks. (compact 34/50) 172.5mm Lizard skin tape Conti top contact tires 28c Vittoria Latex tubes Dura Ace 11-28 cassette
Price somewhere around $11,500. This one with it’s normal tires is well below the UCI limit of 6.8kg. Bike 2 – the blue one
Neil Pryde Alize Dura Ace 7900 group (shifters, derailleurs, cranks, brakes, cassette (11-28), chain.) Dura Ace C50 wheels Conti top contact tires 28c Vittoria latex tubes Lizard skin tape Specialized Toupe saddle Pro PLT bar and stem
I grew up in central Illinois. In August of 2007, I bought my first real “adult bike” after needing a bike to save money on gas. Since then I have had many bikes. In April of 2010, after moving out to Oregon, I got my beloved Surly Long Haul Trucker. I have put a lot of good miles on the bike. This blog is about bikes, & my life in Eugene, with help from my girlfriend.(her blog with her sister)
Get a bike. Lock it to a post. Take a pic every day for a year.
Last year, Red Peak Branding conducted a unique urban experiment for Hudson Urban Bicycles. On January 1, 2011 we chained a fully loaded bike – bells, basket, lights and more – to a post along a busy Soho street. We took a picture of the bike everyday for 365 days, watching it slowly vanish before our eyes. The photos we took were then turned into a daily calendar. We call this project LIFECYCLE: 365 days in the life of a bike in NYC.
A few days ago I noticed a creaking sound when I pedalled, but it wasn’t coming from the pedals. It seemed to be caused by some motion when I was on the saddle, so I assumed the seat post had become dry and crusty – that makes bikes creak. So when I got home, I relubed the post. I also took apart and reassembled the bottom bracket cartridge, just for good measure.
But riding to work yesterday, the creaking sound was still there, perhaps even worse. At Lex and 60th, I stopped at a red light and examined the frame. There, like a chasm in front of me, I saw a crack. The ragged line girdled the bottom lug of the downtube on my beloved Bianchi Alfana. I carried on to work but decided it would be stupid to ride home. I caught the N Train at 57th and 7th and took the subway back to Astoria. I went to the last car because it’s normally the emptiest. In the back, I stared at my frame, feeling melancholy. Here I was, with my beloved bike, knowing I may never ride it again.
I had half an hour to ponder. I’d never had a bike die of use and old age before. I was sad, but not angry. What if the bike had been stolen one day earlier? Then I’d have been pissed off. But really, what’s the difference? Either way, the bike had been taken from me.
Maybe it can be fixed – after all, it’s only steel. Tomorrow I’ll take it to my man at the Bicycle Repairman Corp and see what he says. With boats, they say the only defining characteristic is the line: from profile, the curve on the top of the hull. Everything else can be fixed, welded, repaired and replaced. But you can never change the line.
The frame is the line of the bike. Everything else can be replaced, mended, modified or changed. The frame is the bike. This frame has been with me for 12 years, through bumps and speed and curbs, plus a few spills.
I’m a heavy guy who rides a skinny-tired road bike to commute to work in New York City. Maybe the bike is just the victim of my return commute on 58th Street, one of the worst in Manhattan. It’s one I often take because, well, it’s not 57th or 59th Streets. Or maybe the crack started back in 2005 when I wiped out on the Triborough Bridge.
The frame crack is natural in a way. Organic. A fatal flaw, but also just a wrinkle of old age. It’s hard to be angry, the bike has been good to me, probably better than I’ve been to it. That’s the beauty of bikes: a bike is there for you no matter what, like a loyal dog. But I’m allergic to dogs; all I’ve got is bikes.
Do I want a new bike? No. But I still can’t help but think maybe things could be better. I mean, my shifters don’t really work well any more in temperatures under 40ºF; the chain ring is no longer perfectly true; 650B wheels would let me put full fenders on the wheels… But these are bad thoughts I don’t want to think – it feels somehow unfaithful.
Along with the real loss, what is so horrible is the anticipation of dealing with the life afterwards. Shock replaced with feelings of loneliness, soldiering on, the future, and replacement.
Guilt is a factor when one contemplates loss that hasn’t even happened.
After any great loss, life will almost assuredly be filled with joy eventually. Thinking of that too early seems to trivialise things. A couple of years ago I had to deal with the idea that my wife might die.
The thought crossed my mind. To cut a long story very short, she didn’t. My wife, hell, any person is more important than a bike. I don’t like personifying machines. You can’t buy love. But I can buy a new bike because I live a rich life in a rich country. Yet the feelings I have for the loss of my beloved bicycle remind me of the sadness of human loss. It doesn’t even come close in terms of magnitude or degree, of course, but in spirit, in the nature of loss, sadness cares not for the source.
We often see skate kids down in Kelvingrove but they seem well less kid than this kid blessed to live in the sunshine state …
great video and the kid rips.
We were making a Road trip around California and when we were visiting Venice beach I met this amazing kid who probably will be the next Shaun White!! So i decided to shoot him during 2 hours and i made this little clip, I wish the best for his career and his nice family. He is just 7 years old and have 2 years skating… check it out!!
Surfing is a multimillion $ industry that sucks the life soul and money out of millions whilst rewarding a few (generally company men) Dane has said enough …. the story from Magic Seaweed …
DANE Reynolds is leaving the world of competitive surfing. It’s just not for him. That jersey has just never fitted quite snug and the podium isn’t a mountain he aspires to ascend. He’s pretty pissed-off with internet commentators and the vocal minority who like to give him a kicking for wanting to vibe down that classic soul surfer path. Hell you’ve got one life, ‘this is no audition’ as the saying goes, he doesn’t owe anyone anything. But Dane, and there’s always a but, taking this route is a privilege most cannot afford, so please be a bum to the best of your abilities.
i’ve been getting some pressure from various people and/or websites to write something, sorta like an official statement concerning my exit from the world tour. my dismount. my pirouette. ‘an opportunity level with your fans.’ that’s what they tell me. people wanna know whats goin on. be up to date. i can understand that. i like knowing whats going on. i like being up to date.
one thing to remember is that i have a heart and i have bones and muscle and skin and eyes and teeth. i have emotions. sometimes i act according to emotions. sometimes i think and make a conscious decision. i usually do that. in fact i usually think too much. sorta neurotic. i make mistakes, and i deal with them. i have fears and i have anxiety and i have insecurities and i have vices which i often give in to. social situations enhance all of these qualities. i could probably use some discipline, and lots of things bum me out, but generally i’m happy, and i enjoy making other people happy. sometimes all it takes is a smile. sometimes it takes a lot more than that. i try to be honest. especially with myself. i know that i’m fortunate. i’m sitting here and i have a pulse and i can breath and i hear birds outside and the buzz of the freeway and the suns about to set and it’s a friday. that’s fortune. i also know that i’m fortunate in many other ways. three brands support me and enable me to surf every day and travel and eat and have a house to live in. in return i represent their company in a positive way. i feel like i do a decent job. but that’s obviously up for debate. surfing is my passion in life. i always think about how lucky we are that there’s even an ocean, and its not too hot or too turbulent and it’s not made of acid that burns our skin off. and how lucky is it that the land tapers into the ocean in just the right way so that when lumps of energy approach from a thousand miles away they gently rise up and crash at just the perfect speed so that we can wave our little arms and match their speed and hang at the crest weightless for just a second before sliding down the face. free to ride it in any way you please. and there’s not just one of them. there’s tons of them. they keep coming. all different sizes shapes and speeds. everyday they’re different. endless joy.
there are of course a number of things that get in the way of feeling this joy: crowds, twitter impostors, eggy locals, eggy surf bloggers, overzealous surf photographers, chris mauro and rip curl contests, just to name a few. that was sort of a joke, but not really, and besides, surfing isn’t just about joy. it’s also a sport. an industry. and we must not mix business with pleasure. by accepting endorsements i assume a certain responsibility. some think that responsibility is to compete. to put on a jersey and crush my opponent. despite a flimsy one dimensional criteria and an inconsistent playing field that causes the end result to rarely come down to performance alone. maybe that’s the fun of it. i don’t know. i do enjoy it. but do i believe in it? enough to dedicate the better part of my life to it? or is that irrelevant because it’s my responsibility? i didn’t have to answer this question because knee surgery in january answered for me. by the time i was healing i was already gone. three buttons to the wind. adventure over responsibility. career suicide! blowing my potential. wasting my talent. i heard the buzz.
in all reality i was being constructive in a different way, traveling to a variety of locations and pushing personal boundaries in an attempt to learn, grow, and improve. it’s not as immediate as a contest webcast, and heaven forbid its enjoyable, but in the end it’s equally important and i’ve been neglecting it for too long because i was in a comfy space where contest results alone were satisfying. in order to be successful in surf competition you need to refine your act into a nice little package presentable in a 30 minute period in a number of trying conditions. you need to kill the variables. trim the loose ends. stay on your board. know your equipment. wave selection. endlessly try to revisit motions that score the most points. there are obviously exceptions to this. kelly slaters full rotation slob air reverse in new york. that was not a motion revisited and it was epic. on the beach afterwards: ‘so kelly slater, how was that slob air reverse!’ ‘oh, is that what that’s called?’ also john john florence and gabriel medina. maybe it’s only a matter of time before they refine their act, but for now i’m really impressed with their competitive success despite such rawness. rawness is good. surfing with john john this year in japan was enlightening. it was like every wave he was exploring new territory. i wanna explore new territory! i wanna unwind! by the end of the trip i felt improved and rejuvenated and then crunch! i busted my ribs at the mercy of a fresh typhoon swell. nearly drowned. another month out of the water. gotta pay to play. especially when you’re trying to keep up with john john in waves of consequence.
and so here i am. 26. officially off tour. wasted talent. blown potential. refusing responsibility. ‘all he wants to do is sit at home and play with crayons and ride fucked up boards.’ but wait! but wait! that’s not true! don’t listen to chris mauro. he’s a dinosaur. doesn’t get it. this may be the end as a wct contender, but its also a new beginning. i feel like a baseball. the skins been carefully pried off and there’s a thread and i’m gonna pull it and i’m gonna end up a pile of string on the floor. but then maybe i’ll be knit into something more useful, like a sweater. or perhaps something beautiful, like a hand embroidered masterpiece of a deer and two fawn drinking cold clear water out of a creek. but you never know. i hope to achieve some sort of balance. yeah, i do like riding fucked up boards, but i also like doing airs and taking some aggression out on a cutback. and competings rad if you can stay inspired, but rankings and trophy’s mean very little to me. i wanna learn, i wanna make things, things of purpose, be productive. travel. new experiences. new sensations. and most importantly explore the outer limits of performance surfing. i’ll still compete. but its not going to consume me.
finding this balance will be a challenge. but its just a step in an endless set of steps. a staircase. it’s sort of a big step. too big to just hop up. i gotta climb. like, with a rope and safety gear and shit. and i might get there and be bummed out and like my old step better but that’s just the mystery of life and i’m happy to experience it. and i’m endlessly in debt to the ones who make it possible. firstly surf fans who have resonated with my surfing for one reason or another, because at the bottom of everything, you’re the only reason i’m able to have the sponsorship that allows me to travel and eat and pay the bills and continue surfing. secondly my sponsors: channel islands believed in me from the ripe age of 13 and continue to craft boards that allow me perform at my highest potential and also craft boards that have nothing to do with performance at all, but make you realize how much joy you can get out of a simple high line. i thank quiksilver for their unwavering support, re-signing me during a year of uncertainty and working with me on honest marketing and products. i also thank vans for picking me up. every person on the team is one of my favorite surfers and/or people and i’m honored to be apart of it. there are, of course, hundreds of people worth thanking here, but this is who comes to mind tonight: my girlfriend courtney, for giving me inspiration, giving me perspective, giving me love and giving me treats. blair, for keeping my otherwise maelstrom of a life in order. my parents, for their conflicting views. i don’t think i would have done very well in an ordinary functioning family household. my father particularly for dedicating countless weekends driving me up and down the coast to compete. that was a huge sacrifice. also my mom for preaching creativity, fearlessness, and keeping everything bullshit free. and my brother brek for administering many humbling experiences from a very early age. my grandparents, for being probably my biggest fans on earth. particularly grandma bonnie and papa chuck, who come to every surf contest on the west coast. they show up at 7 am to get good parking, even if i surf at 3. and also grandpa bob for giving me his super 8 cameras when i was 18 and instilling a lifelong hobby.
It would seem a shame to take one of these black retro beauties out into the unforgiving pothole strewn streets of a Glasgow winter. It might be best to display the hand-crafted Madison Street bike indoors, perhaps in the living room, nicely leaning against the mantel. It certainly deserves a place next to other pieces of art.
Detroit Bicycle Company founder, Steven Bock, builds each bike to order from the finest parts. For those who appreciate high-quality bike parts, all frames are made with Columbus SL CRO-Mo tubing and Nova lugs. The Madison Street’s main attractions are the beautiful copper-plating of the Campagnolo and Cinelli parts, track rims with Vittoria Zaffiro tires and the inimitable Brooks leather saddle.
Each bike is customised, so prices vary, complete bikes priced at $3,200 and up, up …. UP
London Olympic Legacy Velopark – the original plan
From today (Monday) potential users of the planned Olympic Velopark can have their say on the designs for the road, mountain bike and BMX facilities that will form part of London’s 2012 Olympic legacy. road.cc
Last Thursday in what was billed as a pre-consultation event the new designs for the road and mountain bike areas were unveiled at a public meeting in Stratford Town Hall. The meeting was attended by around 30 people with interested parties from cycling groups across the London boroughs represented, as well as British Cycling and the Eastway Users Group (EUG) representatives from all sides that we spoke to agreed that the meeting was positive and constructive even so reaction to the plans was mixed – essentially it boils down to the thorny matter of access, what needs to be decided before the designs go forward for planning permission later this month is where the balance lies between ‘velo’ and ‘park’ in the proposed Olympiic Velopark.
So what’s changed from the original plan you can see at the top of this story? Well the good news is that the road circuit has actually gotten slightly longer, 1.656Km instead of 1.6Km and the crossing of the River Lea has also been retained from the original design. Both British Cycling and the EUG were very keen to retain such an important element of variation in the circuit from the original design. The eastern third of the circuit around the BMX park is virtually unchanged, the big difference is that the river crossing becomes much more of an out and back affair – freeing up access to more of the riverbank, which is what the OPLC wanted – now, when the circuit comes back over the river after a longish straight it takes in a circuit around the outside of the velodrome.
The Olympic Park road circuit Mk11, slightly longer and now centred on the Olympic Velodrome
The other big advantage claimed for the new road circuit design is it’s flexibility, as well as using it as a full circuit it can be used as either a fast truncated circuit – omitting the loop of the velodrome, or as up to three smaller coaching circuits. The full circuit has 23m of elevation change – the same as the old Eastway.
From what we understand aside from some technical questions about run off areas and fencing around the bailey bridges that take the circuit across and back over the River Lea (oh and slight concerns that the circuit narrows from 6m to 5m on the bridges) people were broadly satisfied.
There was less satisfaction though over the BMX and mountain bike facilities, according to the EUG report on the meeting the point was forcibly made that existing Olympic BMX park is simply too difficult to be left as a legacy provision unchanged. The feeling was that it will need fencing off as a matter of public safety. There were also concerns as to how suitable an Olympic standard course was as a legacy provision for non-Olympic standard riders the point was made that of 400 entrants to the recent SE Championships 120 withdrew when they saw the “gnarliness’ of the course at practice.
Possibly more problematic though are issues surrounding the mountain bike course, this too is bigger than the original plan and now also comes back under the A12 to occupy what appears as an empty rectangle of land to the east of the road and BMX circuits on the original plan – which you can see at the top of this story. The idea from the planners is that the mountain bike circuit ‘reaches out’ from the park to the neighbouring borough of Waltham Forest which is adjacent to the park’s north eastern boundary. The problem is that the boundaries to the MTB area are open and the portion of the circuit that lies south of the A12 is bisected by a diagonal path which to the consternation of the EUG only appeared on the new plan as late as mid-September. While marshalling should prevent problems during actual races the concern is what happens when the circuit is simply being used for training or leisure purposes, that is still a concern for the road circuit too.
“The designers and planners don’t seem to appreciate how disadvantaged any cyclist is by all the things that the general public does in parks. Footballs and dogs are disasters waiting to happen if you get too close,” Michael Humphreys told us and anyone who has used the commuter routes through some of London’s royal parks will know exactly what he means.
While the old Eastway was effectively walled in so riders could race or train secure in the knowledge that a member of the public was not going to wander across their path unexpectedly, or indeed at all accessl to the new Velopark would appear to be largely open. The Velopark itself is a part of the much bigger Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park one of the biggest tasks given to the Olympic planners is integrating the park and all its facilities with the existing local communities to avoid the creation of a gentrified Olympic enclave and spread the benefits of Olympic regeneration out in to the boroughs that border the Olympic site.
The Lea Valley Regional Park Authority intends to have the new cycling facilities up and running by the autumn of 2013, there’s plenty to discuss before then and users, and potential users of the Velopark can have their say this week 7-11 November before the planning application is made on November 30th – once that is done there will be a further statutory period for the public to comment on the planning application.
Just realised I forgot to post this when it came up ….
On October 2nd 2011, Red Bull brought the world’s smallest velodrome to The Old Fruit Market in Glasgow to challenge fixed gear riders from across the country for the first time in Scotland.
Red Bull Mini Drome engages both body and mind as riders navigate around a unique and technically challenging course reaching speeds of up to 80 km/ph.
Rebull Mini Velodrome. Not sure about the drink and haven’t touched it since a night of 11 red bull and vodkas that gave me heart palpitations (in the first month of launch when i didn’t equate energy with caffeine) but I like the stuff they sponsor ….
So I have been living in the east of end of Glasgow for two years and didn’t realise there is a running track under a km from the house … well I haven’t looked but noticed it on a satellite view of my endomondo track the other day so today i decided to investigate.
Wow a running track from space
According to my walkjogrun Advanced half Marathon guide I should be doing a 30min workout today – this includes 3to4 short pickups of 30-60seconds where I run at a fast challenging pace. So I thought the running track would be perfect – so reset the watch then ran 3 laps at a fairly brisk warm up , then 4 reps of 400m fast with a 400m section between each slower to get HR down.
Garmin Connect
Jedburgh Half Marathon on Sunday and the weather is …. SH*TE – predicted 27mph winds and rain ….. oh well its only weather isn’t it …… I wonder if Findlay’s training is going well???
richdirector
desertroadie
barroommountaineer
manofthemoors
Sweet blog and unreal video!