Archive for April, 2009
I can do that!
Honestly it is not as hard as it looks (but then I am talking about what happens at 13 seconds)
Alex's Seasons Speeding Tikit Porteur
Alex has put his brazing skills to good use to create a seasons (ie internal hub gear) Tikit. Very envious of the front rack.
Read about it here
FBC Training Ride 3
24 miles. Again the longest so far for our Tikits.
Why there is a phonebox full of coloured balls in Elsecar no one knows.
Woke up this morning feeling like I had been suspended from my heels all night – the backs of my calves and upper legs felt like they had wire running through them. The position on my Tikit appears to be very similar to my road bike, but I think the different shoes may make a difference to the effective saddle height.
Wear and tear
OK so here’s a thing. You buy a new bike and love it. You look after it and keep it for best. In particular you only use it on sunny days. Unfortunately days that start sunny sometimes don’t end that way. This is England after all. But nevertheless when you put the bike away in the autumn you are pleased that you have taken good care of it. You have ridden perhaps 1500 miles and you have only got the bike wet twice, once for 15 miles of a return trip the second time for about 45 miles.
So when you come to retrieve the bike from its nice warm spare bedroom in the spring and inspect it, what do you think you need to replace? Click to see the components which leave you smiling and bouncy and the other one.
a) 10 speed chain
b) Fortezza Tricomp tyre
c) Campag Ultratorque External BB bearings
Grr! And it seems I am not alone, see here
FBC Training Ride 2
The Folding Bike Challenge is 240 miles in four days. This requires some training. Not so much getting the miles in, I am fairly confident that by September I could manage that distance. Rather it is getting the folding miles in. Getting the legs and backside used to sitting in a different position for an extended period.
So today Julia and I set off on the Trans Pennine Trail to build a few miles. We made it to Brinsworth before I felt the need to turn round and get a takeaway coffee from Meadowhell. !7.4 miles. The longest Tikit ride to date. Quite pleased.
The Trans Pennine Trail isn’t exactly a cycle path, its a trail. I am remended of the words of Ronald English.
Adventure Cycling (1959)
‘There is an association of cyclists known as the ‘Rough Stuff Fellowship’. The main object of their members is to take their bicycles over mountains and hills, along rough and little known tracks and almost everywhere that the ordinary person would say a bicycle could not be taken.
You may not wish to join the fellowship; but if you do any exploring you are certain to find plenty of rough stuff.’