London - Just as non British as I remember

I remember when I first came to the US I thought a lot of people lacked manners in general day to day interactions. Now i'm in the UK it seems like the US has rubbed off on me and i'm the one lacking manners. Funny how that works.
I saw my sister over the last few days, I headed down to London (2.5hr train ride from Leeds) to check out some galleries and architecture. Ended up meeting my sister there as she lives pretty close to London in Brighton. Went to the Tate Modern which had a Mark Rothko and a Cildo Meireles exhibitions going on, the Meireles was really good, very spacial and interactive modern art with a social twist. Then we tooled around london for a while, checked out some well wicked buildings - The Lloyds building is pretty sweet looking when you are there in person. Ended up in South Kensington (very snobby mate) in the Conran shop, which is fulla designer furniture, nick nacks and what nots all costing a mint or two. Jumped on a train, went to Brighton, went to the Pub, had some bangers and mash then stayed at my sisters place before heading back to London the next day.
London to me is in the same standing as Manhatten, London's not really British, it's too much of many cultures in that the essence get's diluted into a more aptley put "London Experience", I sorta felt this way about Manhatten also, the "Manhatten Experience"

Off to Manchester Velodrome tomorrow, home of TeamGB!.

UK episode 2

I have just realized, it's been 5 years since I have been here and I have not ridden a bike in 6 days. (how those two came together i'm not sure). In place of riding, I have been running, I ran alongside the canal that runs from Leeds to Liverpool but I only ran about 7miles. The fact that I hate running is masked by all the gorgeous new stuff that I see, otherwise I would chop my legs off. A few instances reminded me that America (place with lousy graphic designers) must have set in me, as I instinctive took the wrong line (to the right) on the path when passing people. The newspapers are half full of soccer and the other half of violent crimes...oh so reminds me of home. I have been actively looking around for new trends, seeing a lot of cool cars and the funny thing so far is that I have not run into any hipsters... I think (hoping) that Leeds has avoided the fixed gear thing. Anyway , So i'm sat here trying to research architecture to go look at in London on Thursday. There are some well wicked building which are not on the toursist map like Trellick Towers, 30st St Mary Axe, Tower 43, and the Lloyds Tower with all it's stuff on the outside I have to go look at them. If I had not forgotten my bloody USB cable there would be pictures on here, to my right there are 8 radios, behind me is a wall of about 60 radios in front of me is a computer from 1989. The radios are from WWII and onwards, my dad collects them, it's interesting to see the historic visual language change from radio to radio. That's all.

Live from the UK

As I stepped off the plane (for which I had been on for 8hrs) it immediately hit me of how piss poor the graphic designers in America are, yeah you out there should feel sorry for yourselves. Visual communications in the U.K. are a whole lot better, I'm not sure maybe it's the government in the US that makes em so crappy. I even noticed a mail box, the type so much more readable and logical in design, blame the lack of design on the USPS, silly buggers. Generally US visual communication is rubbish compared to Europe, maybe someone should spend some time abroad instead of designing stupid websites for Crate and Barrel.
So I was a little bit on a downer because I found out I could not ride the velodrome of Team G.B. Then I found out the UCI Track Worlds are being held there...sweet, i'll go I thought, not realizing all the tickets had been sold out for the last six months. Finally I found a set on E bay. Yeah I paid outta the nose for em, but I reckon that you only get to go to these things once. So bring it on, next Sat!

more cross racing, in the fog, in the trees

Paul from Ziba rode. Good times

mr. funny bloke in the picture here is Jordan from Hufnagel cycles

pretty pretty trees, nice mix up on the course

Disgusting right, no I didn't pee my pants.
When you flat both tyres with half a lap to go, it meas you have to run 3/4 of a mile with your bike, and up a big juicy hill as well.... makes your butt sweat!

any camera you see, stick your tongue out.

Well I was rolling between 10th - 14th place for the first 4 laps (10min / laps), then half way through the 5th lap, I got two flat tyres from some spikey thorns on the course, since I hate running with my bike this was not good. I rode the flat until iIcould no more, then when I encountered off camber grass n dirt. I had to carry and run with my bike the last 3rd of a lap. A good 20 or so people passed me. Oh well , that's how it goes sometimes.
Still managed to take #44 despite the run & carry out of 140 racers.

Cartel Bindings! hells yeah

Got some new Cartel snowboard bindings last night, pretty sweet looking. They are the "shop" edition, which pretty much means you cannot buy them at Retail, so they are exclusive.

Cross Crusade #2

gotta make a silly face for the camera, yeah.

Sunday - Cyclocross race #2 - , this was in a dirt construction site in Wilsonville (25 mins south of Portland). The morning started off cold at 40 degrees, no rain, I was up at 6:30 am and throwing stuff in the car. My race was at 9:50am, in the C's. It warmed up a little but not much by the time I had to race.
For some reason people line up at the startline to get a good position, trouble is they line up 30mins prior to the race and stand there and freeze! My start position was behind maybe 60people back. The course was garbage, it was crappy, rutty and not really fun to ride, but whatever it was a cross course (perhaps), this week I managed not to break anything, thankful Felt had sent me a new fork after last weeks incident, that arrived last Wed, so my bike was good to go. I still managed to flip over the handlebars at one point in the course, but no damage done, myself and the bike was ok.

I placed 15th out of 139 riders, not too shabby, the bummer was that when I was coming in across the finish line on my final lap, I thought I had 1 lap to go, so well before the finish line, I sat up and slowed down for a breather, then 3 guys sprinted around me to the line. Oh well, I could have been 12th if I had been a little more aware - next time I guess. Also leaving it all on the racetrack is a good thing, yet something that I find hard to do.

Dave one of our riders had an open house since he lives near by and had nice warm chilli and showers to get clean. Dave Condon cleaned up the C's taking a first, he did a great job and deserved the win, after having won last week as well.
There were lot's of guys from our team out there.

Dave C - C's - 1st.
Jeff - C's - 22nd,
Tony -B's, 23rd
Nick A's - 64th
Corndog in the SS...not sure.
Joe P in the B+ - 103rd (chain snap)
Sautter A+ - 24th



In the meantime check out this t shirt - yeah you got it, naked bird and a cross bike. Let me know if you want one, I know a white van man who can.

How to snap the handlebars off your bike

First cross race of the season, it's raining.
Cat C's @ start line, I scored a nice front row start position, All is ok, just hanging about in the rain waiting for the start.
The whistle blows, power down for 10ft, my starts head traveling towards the floor fast somehow I unclip, then i'm off the front of my bike on the floor. So out of the 120 or so riders behind me, only 3 people ride over my bike.
I grab my bike drag it out of the way, the steerer tube, sheered off right above the headset, yep, Aluminum steerer tube, not the stem, not the stem bolts. The field rides off, i'm really cheesed off, I have a little skin missing from my knees and I don't have a 2nd bike.

if you look close you will see i'm running in the air!

So I walk back to Yakima tent shouldering my bike, handlebars off, fork falling off and rear chris king wheel is now garbage, swearing and bitching.
I borrow a 53 cm bike ( I ride a 59), I swap my front wheel on, swap my pedals on, jack the seat up, realize the brakes are reversed to my normal - 10mins later jump in the race and pass a crap load of people.
Where did I come in ?, 63rd out of 131! hell yes thats some good passing.
I now have backache :) from what feels like riding a bmx but turns out my teammate took 1st, good for him

I am glad it happened here though, could have been worse could have happened on a downhill decent at 35mph or in traffic.

shear man power does this

This is how you look when you ride a bike that is way too small for you and the brakes are the opposite way round to what you are used to.

So far my race season has been a stream of mechanicals - like this:

June - snapped a carbon fiber seatpost in Short-track, 1st race, 2 laps to go.
July - two idiots crash in front of me on the velodrome, bunnyhoppe one guys bike.
August - destroyed my rear cross wheel (cracked rim) on a big fat curb
September - broke the axel bolt on my mavic Ksyrium road wheels.
October, Snapped aluminium steerer tube on my cross bike.

what next? maybe I should sell my bikes:)

Good news - off to see Sigur Ros tomorrow

Check out www.16tooth.blogspot.com

I love Chrome & 5 Day

So just watched a well wicked dvd series, called "5 Day" it's a murder, suspense , drama type of thing. It's on HBO/ BBC UK series. If you into that sorta film, you def should check it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/08_august/08/five_days.shtml