Bottles And Chains

I’ve been having a long running discussion with Mischa about the merits of hard tails for thrash sessions. We’ve sat and watched the ‘Hard Tails Rule’ section in ‘Earthed 3’, where Peaty and another rider slay English back-wood trails on zero inches of rear travel, mightly inspiring stuff.. A recent issue of Dirt Mag (www.dirtmag.co.uk) sung the praises of hard tail thrashing.. This is a hymn book I’m happy to sing from, I especially love the pslam ‘Down and Out on a Hardtail’.. (http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/features/down-and-out-on-a-hardtail) Personally, I love the connected feel a hardtail gives you with the ground.. especially if it’s made of steel. Throw a 140mm fork on a steel hard tail frame, a beefy wheelset and some wide tyres and you have a ready made recipy for fun. Anyway, when I came across the new NS Society frame.. well, I fell in love..  As my esteemed college is in the market for a new bike ..and taking into consideration our earlier conversations, I felt THIS bike needed a BnC post just to throw in another opinion..

     

So Pringle? Yes??

Okay kids, dispatch #2 from London. By the sounds of it Tassie is bloody cold but at least the points are firing. 3 months done so far. The sun is out and the rain is bizzarely absent. Im now unemployed but things might be looking up, judging by the phone call i just got. Someone might be giving the paper boy a radio on monday. Gonna be funny when their clients ring up wondering where the fuck their packages are. Still you have to start somewhere. Shout outs need to go to car window smashing Ryan for the heads up and stupid amounts of alcohol he makes me drink with a bunch of people i dont know on a saturday nights. After so long off a bike its always reassuring to know i can still get paraletic drunk and ride my bike in a big city and discover the blood and bruises when i wake up in the morning. At least its better than having a drunk hobo ask you for a blowjob at 10 in the morning and then having an old man piss in front of you while relaxing in the park in the afternoon. The joys of living in a huge dirty city full of smelly people. Still im gonna see what happens and if it means having to skip the ECMCs so be it.

Leave the bike in the shed today… Just like ‘Point Break’,  the proverbial ‘Ten Year Storm’ has rolled into the Derwent River and will be lighting up all the southern points over the next two days.. The swell is expected to peak late Thursday or early Friday morning. Currently there is a small wave on 7 Mile Point and a dag on a few of the southern reefs (hint hint) ..I’m waiting for the word and I’ll bail on work and hit some waves with the Old Man. It’s worth taking a look at the current off-the-richter swell charts https://oceanography.navy.mil/legacy/web/cgi-bin/graphic.pl/metoc/311/21/0-0-1/0 and also perhaps keep an eye on the Cremore Point web cam http://www.coastview.com.au/site/cremorne/ Just to whet the wave appetite here is a pic of Nutgrove Point in Sandy Bay doin it’s thing last time a swell like this one rolled in..

I’ve often flagged my interest in hitting a few Audax events on the fixie.. and I’ve even done a few 100’s fixed.. Maybe even a bit of fixed cycle touring one day.. but this really cranks my chain. Racing FIXED across America. This is a wet dream for me. Oh YEAH! Check the blog for more pictures and details.

http://www.kaisercycling.com/

http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23882890-3462,00.html

ONE of the highlights of Tasmanian cycling has been cancelled this year, for the first time in its 111-year history.

Organiser Ray Slater said the Launceston City Cycling Club had to call the $7000 Launceston-Hobart race off after Tasmania Police refused permission to race on the Midland Highway.

Mr Slater has been the race’s driving force since 1972, putting in about 100 hours of his time each year — while his tax accountancy business has donated prize money of $1000 a race.

Mr Slater, 78, said his unsuccessful battle with Tasmania Police to secure a permit this year caused him nightmares. Continue reading “Pigs Halt Launceston-Hobart Race”

I’m a big fan of dead space being used for alternative activities. Be it markets, skating, music or any other public events. Mountain biking is traditionally a nature activity, which generally goes without saying. Apart from the guys riding trials and skate parks, there’s not a huge amount of attraction to riding your knobbly tyred suspension rig in the city. You usually have to ride a bit of a distance or jump in the car to get to trail heads, and it’s made worse the bigger your city. Which makes the i-5 Colonade MTB Park in Seattle all the more awesome. In a similar style to Burnside in Portland, C0lonade is a park built under the i-5 freeway. The obvious difference being that this particular park is build with dirt and wood, and designed for mountain bikes. Utilising a space that would otherwise be empty, the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (who built that crazy rotating northshore section you saw in NWD) has built a brilliant skills park for local riders. It winds through the concrete pylons under the freeway and is filled with wall rides, drops, switchback sections, rock gardens and everything else mountain bikers love.

Naturally a space like this isn’t going to be a haven for flowing singletrack or epic downhill descents, but skill building parks like this can be invaluable to riders, especially when you’re stuck in the middle of a city.

Unfortunately it’s a long way from Hobart, but it’s inspiring to see that people can make such positive things from what was previously an empty area. Luckily we live at the foot of a brilliant mountain, criss-crossed with awesome singletrack and fire trails, and being improved with the likes of the new North-South Track.

Check out the following links for more info about i-5 Colonade.

Colonade Wiki
BBTC Website
Colonade Photo Gallery

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/04/2264271.htm

Yo! Check the ABC online story ‘Cyclists saving Govt $200m in health costs: report’ and read the the comments below it. Unbelievable. My favourite comment has to be the one made by ‘Mark’..

Michael:

04 Jun 2008 7:35:04am

I think it time for compulsory registration of bicycles (even at a nominal cost of $1 per annum) with identifiable number plates visible from the back – only then will cyclists show respect for other road users and be accountable for their selfish and idiotic manners and actions on the roads.
Healthy or not – have some respect!!!

woz:

04 Jun 2008 7:46:43am

Pedestrians too. I often see them running across busy intersections – I even have to slow down or drive carefully sometimes to avoid them.

mark:

04 Jun 2008 8:23:48am

Yeah, when will car makers get real and start building cars like the ones in the film ‘The cars that ate
Paris’. Then all these recalcitrant walkers and bike riders would show us drivers the respect we deserve.

Haha.. ^^^ stupid.

Okay, so here it is. After way too long, im finally here in the land of tea, big red busses and fish and chips. Sunk way way too much on a bike but at least i dont have to catch shitty public transport anymore and im sorted. Lodon is pretty crazy, riding around New York was less hazardous to my health. Here its pretty much just punch and go, see if you come out the other side. Still its providing me and my bike starved little self with much entertainment. Once i finally get out of this shitty bar im working in and get onto the road get ready for the blood to start flowing. Oh and did i mention the punk bar that sells VB stubbies. Fuckin sweet…

if only this photo uploader thingy would work…