AntMcl's Blawg

Back On the Bike | It Feels Good

So I finally got my ass in gear (no pun intended) and got back on my bike after about three weeks off. Needless to say, the 20 mile ride felt great, and although it was cold and windy I felt amazing afterwards. Cycling really is the best way to forget about the world for a couple of hours. 

Also, the bike’s looking and going good, although needs its chain oiled. Thoughts on the turned down bullhorns? Yay or nay? Sound off in the comments! 

The Glide Track Bike | Michael Shrewsbury

Michael Shrewsbury has created a rather sick-looking futuristic concept track bike, called The Glide. With hubless wheels and a fully internal crank, this is about as aero as you will be able to get in fifty years time.

Image credit - psipunk.com

Night Riding: The Ultimate Detox

I’m writing this post at 4:11am. I went on another night ride earlier. These days I seem to be over-worked, over-stressed, and over-tired. Due to the latter of those things, I tend to have to stimulate my body as much as possible during the day, which leaves me with a ton of energy to release at night; instead of going out clubbing, I’ve taken to going on late-night/early morning bike rides instead. You can read about my first one here.

Riding at night is the most amazing thing on the planet for me right now. You’re hammering down an empty, dark road at 2am with nobody else around, often in the freezing cold and with your leg muscles burning because you’re so tired. Sounds like hell? Yeah, it does, but doing it has some pretty amazing and weird effects on the body. Firstly, riding at night tends to slip me into a state of (what I think) is pure bliss; I forget about everything else in the world, and my only focus is getting where I’m going. Any anger in your body is taken out on the pedals; and every cell in your body is alive. Everything trivial is forgotten about, but night riding also has some good effects on those emotions within you that you just can’t seem to shift easily. What night riding does is clear your head; it helps you to make decisions about things that previously you’d been too scared to make a final decision about. Hell, just during the two hours or so I was out riding earlier I’ve managed to clear my head and come to some important conclusions. It also gives you perfect time to contemplate things; strangely, I’ve noticed that you think about certain things subconsciously, and that you end up solving problems that you never even attempted to solve while you were riding. 

It’s an amazing, but shattering experience; I got back over an hour ago and still can’t see myself sleeping any time soon. 

All-Night Bike Ride

I decided to go on an all-night bike ride with some friends tonight. I had ridiculous amounts of energy to release and didn’t fancy getting drunk, so thought it would be good to explore Nottingham completely aimlessly on our bikes. 

It all started with a McDonald’s at 1am to keep me going through the night:

We sneaked into an empty multi-storey car park and went right to the top, too:

I’ll probably do this more often. There are often times when I’m sat alone at midnight, everyone else is asleep, and I have a ton of energy; riding the bike is a brilliant way of releasing that energy. There’s no chance I’m getting to sleep any time soon, and my lungs are burning from the cold, but the experience was incredible. 

Throughout (pretty much) the entire ride, I was over-tired, cold, and still coughing my lungs out, but it felt amazing. There’s nothing quite like hammering down a road during the early hours of the morning with not a car in sight; I think I’ve found a state of utter bliss. You forget about everything in the world around you, and all you want to do is pedal and pedal. On the way home I plugged in my earphones, and when Brian Eno’s “An Ending” came on as I was hurtling through an empty South West Nottingham at 4:45am, I couldn’t (and still can’t) think of anywhere else I’d rather be.

Preppin’ My Bike for Uni

Yes, the girlfriend Pista is coming with me to uni. In fact, it’ll be getting me around the place a lot of the time. Why sit on a bus when I can get to my destination faster, for free, and at the same time catching some fresh air? Although I have insurance, I’ve spent a bit of time preparing it. I’ve stripped the bike of all expensive stuff that will be easy to steal; I’ve put on my beat-to-shit Tritip saddle, cheap pedals with old-school straps (I can’t walk around the place with my race shoes on all day!), and I’ve also changed my gear ratio. 

I also picked up this awesome lock, which comes with a cable, too. The manufacturer of the lock actually gives customers £600 cover if the bike were to be stolen; add that to the amount I will get from my bank and I have well over £2000 worth of insurance on my steed. I’ve looked around Nottingham earlier this year and there’s actually a lot of places to lock up a bike, and I saw people locking up bikes that were way more expensive than mine, so I’ll be okay. 

Riding at night will be a certainty, particularly as the nights are drawing in at this time of year. I found a couple of these cute little lights which will ensure that I’m seen; don’t worry, I’m sticking to street lit roads. 

All I need to find now is a decent mudguard (like the one on this bike), a bike bag (to make hauling the bike on the train back and forth easier), and some shoes that can be worn both on the bike and off it. Other than that, I’m all set to go!

SUNDAY SPIN: PROSPECT PARK

(via cycleangelo):

Today was probably the best I’ve felt for the past week, so I randomly decided to put the spandex and SIDIs on and head to Prospect Park. After three laps, I headed back to Greenpoint, and managed to catch an amazing Sunday Sunset at the East River Park on the way home. Sometimes solo steez is the way to go.