Friday 28 March 2008

Calendar

Just so you peeps can keep a track of what i'm up to - here's my calendar! Enjoy.

Monday 24 March 2008

Wheely Satisfying



MY FIRST (GOOD) WHEEL!
Sorry, but this was the best photo I coult take with limited light and time!


This is my first wheel that i'm really happy with. It is a Mavic XM321disc rim built with 36 DT-swiss silver 2mm plain gauge spokes in a 3-cross pattern onto a Shimano Deore M525 hub. The dish is correct, the lateral allignment is bob-on the tension is good and the only flaw is about 1mm of egg in the wheel (but I think that much would vary in they tyre anyway!)

A key step in any cycle mechanics career. My boss has said to me that he's happy now for me to build wheels for customers too! Chuffed.

Many thanks to the late-great Sheldon Brown for his web-based posthumously help.




WHAT I'M LISTENING TO:

King Prawn - Loneliest Life
Röyksopp - So Easy
Matt Costa - These Arms
Muse - Unintended
Belle and Sebastian - To Be Myself Completely

Twenty-Four Hour Holiday

I'm lazy with writing and generally quite boring so this weekends details are sumarised as follows...



Ben and Bethany had managed to blag a a free holiday in Bethany's Uncle's caravan on the Suffolk coast for the easter weekend and beyond. Liz and I had managed to blag Easter Sunday away from work. And so our mission became clear.

We departed at about 18:45 on Saturday arriving at the caravan at around 21:00 where I broke my lenten fast and drank an extremely tasty pint. We watched Anchorman and went to sleep.

The following day plans were hatched. So, we went to a place called Somerlayton Hall to have a generally plesent outing on a snowey and cold day. The place was plesent with some attractive gardens, plenty of cool trees an informative guided tour and hot-chocolate close to hand. Being easter the gift shop was laced with chocolate, some boy dressed as a rabbit and there was even some sort of troll handing out mini-eggs at then entrance (however, the others informed me that it was infact an eight-year-old girl). The maze was also quite cool, and it gave me plenty of ideas for future land projects!

After getting thorougherly wet and cold, we made a move to Southwold where I enjoyed a tasty pint of the local ale ... Adnams. From here it was time for tea and cakes, before ending our day at the seaside with a walk along the prom.

Many thanks to Ben and Bethany, not to mention Bethany's Anutie and Uncle.

Friday 21 March 2008

Woburn Sands



Went down to Woburn for the first time today. It is OK, some of the DH's are really fun and there are some fun trails about. I was hoping for some kind of table-top jump to learn on, but insted all I found was uber-steep rythem sections.I was also surprised by the ammount of lycra-clad weekend warrior XC riders about.

In conclusion, recomended. But not for a whole weekend.

Thursday 20 March 2008

Inter-railing!!! Go!



The count-down has begun. Today I book my holiday from work and then we are full speed ahead for an inter-railing mission in early June 2008!

SUMMARY:
Northamptonshire (UK) to Dover (UK)
Dover (UK) to Calais (France)
Calais (France) to Paris (France)
Paris (France) to Amsterdam (Holland)
Amsterdam (Holland) to Prague (Czech Republic) via Germany
Prague (Czech Republic) to Berchtesgaden (Germany)
Berchtesgaden (Germany) to Switzerland
Switzerland to Southern France
Southern France to Calais (France)
Calais (France) to Dover (UK)
Dover (UK) to Northamptonshire (UK)

All of this should take about two weeks (we hope). My good friend Mr Ben Roberts and myself are currently partaking and all in all it should be pretty epic.