Gotta love a good JRA story. Here’s one from Ryan, who had a good time riding the Luge MTB trail in Hobart a little while back. Photo after the jump…it’s a good one!

The tale:

a ‘just riding along’ story…
….so i was riding the luge a few weeks ago at the end of a sunday – was pretty fatigued (I’d just been yelling at Karl and Robbie to hand over the chocolate but none was forthcoming) and hit that bit where there’s a steep chute of white bulldust in the saplings and Karl had come off or stopped or something and he was on the side of the track and I just rolled over with weight too far forward or too much front brake, dont know or remember, but took the dive, but its a bit of a drop there so i landed hard. the bike belted Karl in the head so I checked to make sure he was ok then did the visual inspection only to fine this little baby under my left glove (i think its called a compound dislocation of the interphalangeal joint) . off to the Royal for a luxury 3 day retreat.
thanks to: Damian and Ange (ambo’s);
Konrad and Jeremy who tried to put the top back on the bottom in emerg without any luck but lots of vigourous yanking (said a white faced Robbie who witnessed the triage scene: “they were doing things youre not meant to do to a body!” – I was gassing myself silly at the time so wasnt as fussed as you might imagine;
thanks also to Mr Quarmby and the smiling Physios who made it work again.
The bikes fine (on-one with Rohloff – tough as nails); thumb will be ok – they reckon i’ll be predicting the weather; back on bike next week..

(more…)

To continue with the pro-rider appreciation, we cannot forget this great personality. Yet another big stack this year but Jens Voigt is never one to give up voluntarily. Click the image for some classic Jens gold…

And for the curious, here’s today’s current bike-lust focus. The Nicolai Ion ST. I’ll take one please. Scroll down on this here website and check out the ridiculously sexy orange colour scheme.

Right, the weekend’s here. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a brand new mountain bike that is desperately screaming out to be thrashed to pieces on the local trails, but you’ve been smashed down by a stupid fucking dose of the flu and will instead spend the next two days snivelling at work and drowning in self-pity and MTB DVDs on the couch. Sucks to be us.

If you’re stuck inside due to some kind of illness or whithering disability then you’ll probably end up on a computer wasting time looking for weird porn on the internet, or trying to guess your mates’ facebook passwords. I’ve got a better idea. A few heads have been contacting me and asking for blatant product endorsement in exchange for bizarre sexual favours (I don’t know what your ‘link’ is, nor am I sure I wish to trade one with you) through the use of strangely template-like e-mails. However, given that I’m in a charitable mood (read: I’m hoping someone will send me free shit) I though I’d pass them on. Here are two that actually seems fairly decent and look to be good heads doing good things, which I think is good for everyone.

Firstly, the kids at the Gutter Bunny Project are putting together a bunch of footage from around the world. They’re after people with helmet cams (or anyone good at riding one-handed) to shoot some video of you cycling through an ‘urban environment’. It’s all going towards some kind of art project, which will hopefully involved an opening with free beer and maybe some cheese. Go have a gander at their website then dig out your old family camcorder and film yourself riding things.

Link: The Gutter Bunny Project

The next one is a little more commercial, and I usually shy away from posting this kind of stuff (I think? Maybe I always say that but keep posting it anyway). Regardless, I’m a huge fan of companies doing things ethically and with a decent amount of respect for fellow humans and the planet we live on. If everyone supported local industries and did their best to look after the people who work with them, the world would be a better place (and I’d hear less whinging about the internet from my boss). Now they did actually refer to us as ‘bikes and chains’ at one point in their e-mail, so hopefully by ignoring that and showing plenty of good will and co-operation they will in turn send me a bunch of free stuff (size S thank you, I’m a skinny cyclist after all). It’s all eco-friendly and you can track the journey your garment has made across the world using google maps, just as if your t-shirt was a real person. These kind of small companies are doing good stuff and setting standards that will hopefully be taken up by the bigger guys as people start realising how important it is. But anyway, they’re a clothing crew based on some island called Wight, and given my general appreciations of islands in general, I’ll now post a link to their website where you can give them your money in exchange for eco-friendly goods. I’ll be waiting for mine in the mail!

Link: Rapanui Eco Brand

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for some gruesome injury photos that I’ve been promised by a damaged reader.

Ah, the soft lull of winter! Everything quietens a little, and apparently the BnC website is no different. Things are still ticking here, albeit slowly and softly. Sometimes it’s just hard to crawl out from under the couch doona and away from the world cup. Never mind that the TdF starts next month, which will lead to a few more weeks of hibernation and bleary eyed days. But it’s winter, right? That’s what we’re meant to do.

Not everyone’s dead quiet though. Jordy and the BnC crew up in Launceston have been tearing it up on the streets of the city. They’ve kicked off the Launceston Fixedwheel Club (LFC) and have been trashing wheels and tearing tyres fairly regularly by the seems of it. If you’re in the area you should get involved. Can’t go wrong with skids and beers as far as I’m concerned. Go check their FB page for details and snaps and good times.

On a more selfish note, I’ve got some more shit for sale. What’s the point of a blog if I can’t flog my unwanted shit on it, right? Most of this is pretty decent gear, so get involved.

Item #1
Wheelset – DT Swiss XR400 rims laced to a 15/20mm Chub front hub and a DT Swiss 340 135mm rear. Double butted black spokes and alloy nipples. Never ridden, never installed. Throwing in a set of new Kenda Small Block Eight tyres and some tubes. They’re $600 (or about $1,300 if you built them yourself). Came off a build kit last week.

Here’s a picture, click to make it big:

Item #2
Brakeset – Avid Elixir CRs with 6″ rotors. Alloy levers. Again, brand new and never installed. Awesome brakes, just not what I wanted. Grab ‘em for $420 (inc. postage within Australia). No photo, they look just like the ones on the website.

Item #3
Bicycle – This one’s a pearler! A vintage Michalo road bike in beautiful condition. Sized at 54cm square (c-c). Built by Ron Mitten in Tassie back in 1983, it’s barely been ridden since then. Tubing is Tange Championship #1, their top end tubeset. The componentry is a bit of a mix of Shimano, Sachs, Suntour, Dia-Compe, Tange, etc but all looks to be in great condition. Windowed lugs. Beautiful bike that needs little more than a clean up to become a prime road machine. Someone really needs to ride this thing, ’cause it doesn’t fit me and deserves better than my garage. Out the door at $600!

This is a kinda shitty picture, but you get the idea…

Item #4
Bicycle – Another old schooler. Columbus tubed vintage roadie decked out in a bit of a mix of Shimano and Campagnolo components and wheels. The frame’s super nice, but it has a couple of small dings and scratches, and the paint job kinda sucks (British racing green). Lots of nice bits on it though. This one’s a 56cm square (c-c). Selling it ’cause I never actually got around to riding it. No pictures, but hit me up if you might be interested and I’ll take some snaps. Chasin’ $350 for that sucker.

Just e-mail info[at]bottlesandchains.com if you’re interested in anything. Give me money and I will provide you with quality goods! Sweeeeet.

Anyway, enough of the selling shit. Continue on with your day!

Anyone want to buy a nice wheelset? I’m selling the wheels off my CX bike. They’re sexy as hell and haven’t been ridden much at all. Probably 300km at the most. Have we established that I’m lazy yet?

The details:

Congrats to Jordy and Tom who took out the Men’s Pairs win and grabbed line honours at the Four Springs 4hr MTB race on the weekend. Apparently being a fit bastard is good for something! I broke my race virginity on that course and I was wheezing before I even made it into the pines.

I don’t read the Cycling Tips blog very often, but I followed a link to this delicious page earlier today. It’s making me hungry, and I just ate dinner.

We’re planning a similarly-named BnC race supplement at the moment, but we’re a bit stuck when it comes to how much vodka to put in it. Personally I’m a firm believer in the ‘more is more’ philosophy, but that usually ends up with me on the dance floor at Mobius, which can be hazardous to bystanders.

More here…

(via Glen)

Things are pretty quiet around here, so I hate to be posting negative shit, but this is just getting ridiculous…

You’re shitting me, right? It’s almost as bad as that Rapha dork-jumper (just browse the photos). Or those hipster axes (wait…what?).

When will it ever end?

If you haven’t seen it, head over to Fyxomatosis for some great words and photos from Dan and Andy’s recent epic. In true BnC style it featured a shitload of dirt roads, minimal gears, and plenty of pain. I’m going to assume it also ended with a cold beer in a tired fist.

Go check it out.