your daily bicycle log

if you're doing that you may as well do Swains Lane..... or did you do West Hill? > http://www.goinggoingbike.com/blog/the-great-road-climbs-of-london-2-highgate-west-hill/

That looked like a nice loop though, Willesden Green/Harlesden excepted.

I got a tweet calling me a wuss for not doing Swain's Lane! I'm hardly a local, though, I didn't know I was missing out. I'll try one or t'other tonight maybe.

finally tried playing around with strava. all of my good "results" are downhill :\

i think i need to go on a 'real' ride today but man i am just lazy as heck

^ this. until saturday, i hadn't been on my bike in over a month. texted a friend to do a ride today (i have today off too!) or else i would have been too lazy to do anything. also, sf is having a 'real' summer right now (at least until it turns back into winter)

just had a swell little ride around the city, just under 20mi.

bike is super janky at the moment, though, wondering if it might be time for a new frame

my bike is still in a box from removal to deutschland :-(

is it true that front and back brakes are on opposite handlebars in left-hand drive countries? i have borrowed bikes in europe/the us and did not die, so i feel like this must be rot, but maybe i wasn't paying attention?

i dunno i always thought it was a moto v. cycling thing? i think some cx'ers switch it up. and i'm pretty sure sheldon brown has an opinion on it somewhere

apparently it is to do with indicating when turning against traffic. maybe i should swap mine when i rebuild it.

i have always switched my levers for cross.

so with cx in the us which side is the front brake?

right

yeah that's how bikes are set up normally in the uk

i can't think of anyone i knew who switched as i did.

so, do front calipers in europe have the clamps on the opposite side? because wouldnt switching your levers w/ calipers make the cable routing on front kinda shitty?

i guess in mainland europe they are the same as in the us.

will check my uk bike tomorrow. struggling to picture it.

i guess in mainland europe they are the same as in the us

You know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese, though?

a sheldon brown?

went on said ride w/friend. we're going pretty fast, him in front. car makes u turn in front of us. we're in the bike lane, and my friend was riding sorta aggressively, so i thought he'd keep going, but he didn't, and he didn't tell me he was stopping. i hit the breaks and did a super endo. i couldn't clip out and fell. knee is totally raspberried, but i did a crazy roll out of it directly to standing and nothing else on myself or my bike is hurt. it was on the beginning of a 2hr ride and luckily it didn't hurt until i got home and had to clean the rocks out of it.

god I need a "real" road bike

we got that front brake = right lever thing goin on down here, u kno

yep, countries that drive on the left (and cx) apparently

best countries imo

Did 30 damp and windy miles round Devon lanes last night in a little over 2 hours.

bunch of bros (there were at least 10 of us) met up at a state park outside of the city and did a blazing lap of singletrack, like 12 miles. insanely fun, and something i think we're gonna do every week

finally hit my goal of climbing 3000 ft - i started trying to get back into riding shape in april after devolving into a slovenly pile of crap the prior 6-12 months. today was a big milestone - the grades were pretty steep, with 2000 feet coming in the first 7-8 miles. hooray for me! okay carry on with y'all's logs.

i've done nothing outside commuting all week and now i'm sick. -_-

Pro tip: on flying ant day, don't worry about expensive protein bars, simply be out of shape and cycle with your mouth open :/

I managed to squeeze in 16 miles after work today (my first non-weekend ride for nearly a month due to work, work, work) and can confirm that today was FLYING ANT DAY. The air was thick with them. I managed to avoid eating them, but I have accidentally swallowed at least three flies in the last month.

Dirty great flying ant hitting back of great as I hit barnes commOn crossroads just perfectly was a highlight, fucker nearly knocked me off.

great = throat?

That's the feller. Posting while cooking = dud

You know what's also good? Cycling on flying ant day while sporting a moustache.

Got hit by a car today. Was headed south on PCH through Leucadia, CA at about 6:00pm. Friday + rush hour meant traffic was backed up on the 2-lane road for a long ways. My cousin and I were filtering down the right hand side of the road at about 15mph when a car in front of us decided to make a quick unsignaled right-turn right in front of me. I hit his rear quarter panel pretty square on, bumped off to the right, and went down onto my (helmeted) head. Cracked the right rear of my helmet (second one this year :( :( ), scraped up both knees, and my neck feels pretty stiff but other than that I guess I'm OK? I feel a little woozy, possible concussion symptoms? Bike was totally fine, and I wasn't hurting too bad, and I was kind of on the spot and a little worried that it was possibly partly our fault for overtaking the long line of cars on the right, so I told the driver that it was all cool and he could go. Kind of regretting that now.

Next Sunday was my 'A' goal race of the year, and I had a long weekend of training planned for it, and now that's pretty much shot. Damn.

8[

that's terrible, man. hope/glad you're okay!

: (

get well soon, slp

^^echo all of this

rode out to round two of the CX comp, but just decided to watch this one as have been sick on and off during the week. (good excuse to have some drinx and heckle imo.) hooked up with some B-graders for the ride home along the same bike path by the creek that i'd dawdled out there on, then found myself in the BIG RING for the entire time as the group of seven wound it up to warp factor 9 (in bike path terms anyway). training for next month started, i guess!

another get well soon

had a great run out today. Felt so good, so strong, 542m of climbing. Had new red bib, so it's true Red is faster.

Biked over 30 miles today, all in the city. SO IRRATIONALLY ANGRY AT STOPLIGHTS STOPPING ME EVERY 200 FEET GOD.

got in 100 mi of road, 9 or so mi of singletrack, 10,000 ft of climbing. only prob was yesterday's ride was over 100 deg, it was killing me.

did the london classic yesterday, as posted by mark c on here, thanks for that. we can organise our own team building type things to do at work, so a few roadies and a couple of mtb people decided to have a day of cycling.

in the afternoon we went west eventually getting to richmond park and WOW, i'll be back there this week. didn't realise it was so bike friendly. really excited about exploring more of SW london, it's so nice!

new ultremo zx tyres stood up well to some pretty nasty off road nonsense we ended up doing. had a bit of a fettle with the bike this weekend and everything feels tight and sharp and focused again, yay

What a great post! I kind of miss Richmond Park now it's not on my doorstep. Make sure you do the three-lap challenge, Crackle Box - under 60 mins is v good (I've not got close to 60 mins).

I got drenched yesterday afternoon in an Epping Forest monsoon. Just 9 miles later I was home and the streets were completely dry. It's SO UNFAIR.

A few of us are eyeing-up doing the 100km of this - http://www.exmoorbeast.org/

Care to join us?

Not for me, thanks - too far away.

No work today, so drove up into Essex and did 42.4 miles, cloudy and not at all July-like, but at least it wasn't raining:
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/321852

its hotter than 7 hells here today, 34 but with a heat index of 39 due to the near 100% humidity. Not riding today it's like breathing soup out there.

mtb coming together tonight, it looks like

*developing*

1999 rockhopper A1
2009 SID WC 80mm
F: XT laced to WTB Speed Disc rim
R: White Ind. laced to Salsa Delgado
LX cranks, 1x9
XTR rear
some hydraulic front brake i haven't seen yet
LX V-brake in the rear (to be replaced with XTR once I pull one from my cross bike and rebuild it)
thompson seatpost
specialized saddle
titus stem/bars
XT shift/brake cluster
ergon grips

total cost (thus far): $145

LOL. Can I put in an order?

Rocked out 26 miles to mum and dad's and back tonight, after an hour of 5 a side. The journey there normally takes 55 minutes but I did it in 46; took a tougher route back and fell from average 17mph to just under 16 (had to shoulder it and run up and down steps where they're building on the cycle path at Powderham), but so far I'm pretty damn pleased with my new bike. Nex step is to throw some slicks on it for the rest of the summer.