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! 

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!

Assassination: My view on the Lance Armstrong doping allegations

First of all, I want to say that Lance was probably the only reason I decided to get on a bike in the first place; I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m an Armstrong fanboy, but I do support him. Over the years, people have thrown allegations at him suggesting that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs during his seven wins in the Tour de France. Most recently, former team member Tyler Hamilton claimed that he saw Armstrong taking the performance-enhancing drug EPO during a Tour. 

Since he started winning things, he’s had haters; I’ve always been on his side because I know his story. I’ve read the books, and I have huge respect for the guy, whether he doped or not. The sad thing is, with each allegation my support for him is diminishing; as the identities of the various accusers become steadily more high-profile, his defence is starting to weaken. 

I don’t want to think that he doped, and previously it wouldn’t even have been considered, but I’m starting to doubt him. For now, I shall continue to believe he didn’t dope. Time will tell, and eventually somebody will uncover the truth whether it’s good or not. As I said, the increasingly high-profile nature of his accusers suggests to me that they are only out to assassinate his character, and nothing more. At least, I really hope that that’s all it is. 

So what if he did dope? Well, that obviously thrusts dishonesty onto him, and seriously puts into question his seven Tour de France victories; however, most people who are inspired by Armstrong (myself included) aren’t inspired exclusively by the Tour wins, but by his refusal to give up during his period suffering from cancer. He overcame what was pretty terminal cancer by pure determination, and without a single prayer or belief in God. For me, that’s incredible, and it also means that even if he did dope, I’ll still continue to wear my yellow band. 

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.

Project Fixie | New Bars, Different Saddle

I’ve not really done anything to my other bike for a while, as the UK winter this/last year was brutal and I hardly rode at all. Now that the weather is on the up though, I thought I’d start working on the project bike again. 

I bought a set of Shimano SPD mountain bike/commuter pedals for the bike, which work real great with my Shimano shoes I got for Christmas. I trashed my road bike in a nasty accident in November last year, and I’m hunting for a new one for this summer; RIP to my faithful Giant. Seeing as it won’t be ridden ever again, I moved the (beat to shit) saddle onto this bike. It’s a Specialized Tritip which has been an excellent racing saddle for a couple of years. I also got bored of my drops, so decided to take a hax saw to them and create a nice set of bullhorns: 

I think these look sick, and I’ve also moved my lovely ITM Racer stem across from my road bike. 

New things to purchase for the project bike in the coming weeks:

• New bar tape (lime green Fizik, if possible)
• New front wheel (no idea which)
• SRAM front brake calliper
• FSA crankset

Oakley Jawbone review

The Oakley Jawbones are the successors to the hugely popular Radars, and they certainly live up to all the hype. I’ll get straight into the review without any blabbering this time, lol. Without looking at every single aspect of these sunglasses and comparing them to the Radars or similar Oakley models, I thought I’d just make some broad observations and comments about them. Firstly, the fit is absolutely superb; my Radars, although comfortable, often slid down my nose too far due to the very long nature of their ear stems. The Jawbones solve this issue simply by having shorter stems, but still with a good portion of rubber to keep them firmly gripped to the sides of your head. The main difference between these and the Radars would be the fact that the Jawbones are a much more conventional design, with two separate lenses with the frame encircling both entirely, as opposed to the Radars, which had a single-piece lens and no frame coverage at the bottom of the lens. 

The most significant change with the Jawbones is actually referred to by the name ‘Jawbone’. The bottom part of the Jawbone’s frame (the yellow bits under each lens you see above) acts as a jaw, swinging down and enabling the user to switch lenses effortlessly. Changing lenses quickly on the Radars was a pain in the ass, and I’m pleased that Oakley have thought of something better with these. 

Changing lenses is the easiest thing in the world; and with these versions I got a second set of lenses (yellow) to be used when cycling in darker conditions or overcast days. The lenses you see here are the Black Iridium, perfect for riding on bright, sunny days. It’s also worth noting that both of these lenses are vented, which means that there are small holes cut into the upper and lower outside corners of the lenses to ‘surge’ air backwards. Both the new design and new lens gives the Jawbones fantastic coverage of the face and eyes, as well as much better visibility. Peripheral view is not impaired at all, as the Jawbones, once on your face, are much wider than they look. There is no issue with looking behind, up, or down. Where the Jawbones kick the Radars’s ass for me is in comfort; the Radars were tight, but almost too tight. The area behind my ears hurt after a while, and the area around my temples got way too hot. The Jawbone’s vents solve the heat issue, and I’ve also found them to be much more flexible than the Radars, thus providing a much more comfortable fit and feel. 

In conclusion, I cannot stress enough how good these new Oakleys are; I love them. They’ve taken all of the good aspects of the Radar, but enhanced and improved everything. These are certainly the best glasses I’ve ever owned, and probably the best sports glasses in the world. Yeah they’re pricey, but I don’t care because they will last me another four years, just like my Radars.