Let's talk hardware.
It was a sad day recently. I took the tough decision that it was time to replace my trusty old Colnago Dream and get a new steed. The Colnago was an impulse second hand buy, a bargain, but always slightly too small - I could never comfortably ride on the drops.
But, oh my, was it a sexy bike.
So, I saddled up to the BBC's excellent cycle-to-work scheme. If you haven't tried it - do! Its an amazing government initiative to get more people riding, where you get a shiny new bike deducted from your wages before you pay tax, so you end up paying around half as much as the cost price for the bike. What's not to like?
The only problem was that you have to buy the bike from halfords. Now, for the benefit of those without experience of this place, its the sort of shop where families go to buy their kids their first bike, which then breaks through a perfect storm of material product crapness and the astonishing mechanical ineptitude of the monkeys who work there. Its really not good, and to be honest having to chose a new bike from there felt like switching from a Ferrari to a Ford, no matter how much magic tax-free value it was.
But lo! Skittering over the horizon came british olympic and world champion, Chris Boardman and his new bike range, worryingly only available through Halfords. Promisingly (as those of you who have ever read his bike reviews in the mags will know), Chris is a bit of a bike snob.
So, took a punt on it and got the Boardman Team Carbon. Full carbon, Sram Rival, under a grand... or £500 with C-T-W. And its amazing! Seriously, this thing translates to a noticeably faster average speed. Its light, stiff, it flies uphill. Bike technolgy has moved on somewhat in the last few years it seems. And Halfords? Well, it wasn't set up quite right, but it wasn't shocking. Maybe I got lucky.
But overall, go for it. Don't fear the Boardman, if anyone gets snobby just flick it up a gear and burn them off on the nearest hill. Trust me, this bike shifts.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Why?
Thing is, I haven't actually told anyone about this yet. Not W, my lovely wife, and M my son is too young to understand (though he does love bikes, and terrifies W and I by his speed down hills on his Scuttlebug).
No, at the moment, the race plan, like this blog, is mine only. It a trick to make me actually get out there and ride. At some point I'm going to have to start telling everyone, right?
Its a funny thing, racing was an adolescent dream, and riding a bike makes you feel young again (well it does me, anyway). I do worry that this whole thing is some weird arrested development thing. Racing certainly seems childish to me anyway, god knows what W will think of the whole thing.
And as for time, I have no idea if I have enough time in my life to get fit enough to race. We'll come to the training schedule malarky at a later date, but in the meantime if you manage to juggle a 3 hour daily commute, 2 kids (1 newborn) and a career that makes you work weekends along with a successful racing programme, chapeau to you and please let me know how you do it!
No, at the moment, the race plan, like this blog, is mine only. It a trick to make me actually get out there and ride. At some point I'm going to have to start telling everyone, right?
Its a funny thing, racing was an adolescent dream, and riding a bike makes you feel young again (well it does me, anyway). I do worry that this whole thing is some weird arrested development thing. Racing certainly seems childish to me anyway, god knows what W will think of the whole thing.
And as for time, I have no idea if I have enough time in my life to get fit enough to race. We'll come to the training schedule malarky at a later date, but in the meantime if you manage to juggle a 3 hour daily commute, 2 kids (1 newborn) and a career that makes you work weekends along with a successful racing programme, chapeau to you and please let me know how you do it!
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Here we go.
A little bit about me.
I've been more or less bike mad for most of my life, save for a decade or so in the middle when music, nightclubs and their attendant fascinations dragged me away. But, more or less, bikes have been my thing.
Since I've been back from the darkside (with occasional visits), I've found that there's a million other things that can keep you off the road. Despite that, at times I've been pretty fit; I've completed the Marmotte; I've been skinny. But now, as time ticks on and I get the wrong side of 35 time is tighter and tighter when it comes to getting out on the bike. I work in a pretty time-and-weekend consuming job, and I am married with one cracking son and another baby on the way.
Well so what, I hear you say and so what indeed? The thing is, I've been struggling for motivation of late and so I have decided to try to set some goals that will do all those things that your management / marketing / boss types tell you to - stretch me, challenge me, and hopefully fulfill an ambition I have had since I was a kid.
I'm going to compete in a bike race in 2008, and win one in 2009, all without being divorced or sacked in the meantime. Which of these particular challlenges is most likely to happen, we'll just have to wait and see.
I've been more or less bike mad for most of my life, save for a decade or so in the middle when music, nightclubs and their attendant fascinations dragged me away. But, more or less, bikes have been my thing.
Since I've been back from the darkside (with occasional visits), I've found that there's a million other things that can keep you off the road. Despite that, at times I've been pretty fit; I've completed the Marmotte; I've been skinny. But now, as time ticks on and I get the wrong side of 35 time is tighter and tighter when it comes to getting out on the bike. I work in a pretty time-and-weekend consuming job, and I am married with one cracking son and another baby on the way.
Well so what, I hear you say and so what indeed? The thing is, I've been struggling for motivation of late and so I have decided to try to set some goals that will do all those things that your management / marketing / boss types tell you to - stretch me, challenge me, and hopefully fulfill an ambition I have had since I was a kid.
I'm going to compete in a bike race in 2008, and win one in 2009, all without being divorced or sacked in the meantime. Which of these particular challlenges is most likely to happen, we'll just have to wait and see.
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