Gloop & rain

I don't normally blog about training rides, but this weekend has seen some strange weather across the whole of the UK and I feel like I've been out in most of it.

Saturday was dry, sunny and windy so I went out on the cross bike for about 24 miles. There was a huge black cloud hanging over North Kent & SE London, but prevailing winds kept it off Essex until after I'd reached home. I was surprised the trails were so dry although there were some gloopy puddles with lovely sticky mud over the wheel rims.
Almost home and I got attacked by a dog! Normally they just want to run and bark a bit or even play but this one came straight at me, teeth bared and hate in its eyes. I managed to fend it off with a fist across its nose a few time but it did manage to take a lump out of my shoe. Unbelievably its "owner" seemed to think that it was my fault and seemed to have a problem with the idea of keeping her dog under control. Its a shame that when adrenaline takes over logic goes out of the window or I'd have reported the incident at the time and hopefully had little fang put down - Its a good job I'm not a 10 year old little girl faced with that animal.

Today, it started out the same so I went for a spin on fixed. After an hour and just when I was at my furthest point the heavens opened. And I mean opened! You could hardly see across the road so I cut things short and rode home soaked and freezing but not unhappy at 15 miles out of the total of 30 against a million miles an hour block headwind. Proper Belgie today. I love Autumn.

Swallowed by a whale

Warning to everyone out there:

If you go to see the Decemberists prepare for a fantasticly inventive band on rousing top form but beware where you go to see them.

We went to see them this week at the Coronet Theatre in Elephant and Castle. The previous night they had been in Kentish Town and we made the fateful decision not to venture into North London, but to slip south of the river. BIG mistake. The Coronet theatre is a dump with repressive and totally unnecessary security, even on the balcony where it was unbelievably innefuctual. The sound is crap and the beer VERY over priced. With the exception of indigo2 to see Aimee Mann it's been nearly 30 years since I queued more than a couple of minutes to get into a venue and even at the O2 the goons are less interested in what you've got in your pockets than making the queues go in pretty lines.

In the pub before hand I paid £6-30 for a round of drinks for 4. In the venue, the same round was £16! How the hell do you justify that? Tickets for the band were about average price at £18:50 each, so the beer isn't subsidising the entry. I won't go on about the sound: It may have been better downstairs as the house p.a. was aimed in that direction, but listening to the soundman chasing the levels all night to the point where vocals were lost, the Zylophone (Jenny Conlee) was inaudible and Chris Funk's guitar levels were all over the place was irritating to say the least.

However, the band themselves were obviously on form, playing The Hazards of Love from start to finish in one set and then selections from 5 songs, Picaresque and The Crane Wife in a second. They finished with TheMariner's Revenge Song which is fast becoming a signature ending (Not exactly Meet on the Ledge, but you get the picture) and as for the whale itself......you'll have to go and see them to find out, just make sure its not at the Coronet Theatre.

Come on St Jude, I need you

Hmm.....I hope its not lost cause time just yet. Prayers to St Jude have been made and candles lit.
I recently "won" a Planet Pintail frame on fleabay. I must admit that I got it for a quite reasonable price which was just as well as I did not know anything about Planet cycles in general or even the Pintail model specifically.
It turns out that what I've ended up with is an extremely rare frame made from Accles and Pollock Kromo tubing which is an equivalent of dear old 531. Its pretty light and the tubes are joined by Nervex Professional lugs with simplex dropouts, so its no amateur job and quite high quality, although likely to be a "hand built" production jobby. My guess is that it was made sometime during the 1950's or 60's. There's a lot of deep pitting behind the bottom bracket (the first place a frame will go if you run it with mudguards on and don't clean it down properly) but it's been given the structural OK by a well known frame builder friend. I now have to decide what to do with it. A respray will involve a lot of making good of tube surfaces even before paint, a service provided more or less by any reputable builder, but I have found a specialist who has a patented process. (Of God...more expense). Then there's the problem of matching the original colour. I think I've found the nearest RAL but getting it in anything other than powder coat is proving an interesting challenge. From the very limited information available I've only found them made in 2 colours, a light grey-green or a sort of flesh tone. Mine is flesh but with bits of the green in, neither of which are obvious choices to the modern pallette. Internet searches have drawn a blank, the Classic Rendezvous community have come up with only a little less than f*** all and I'm still searching the National cycle Museum and Veteran Cycle Club archives.
So. The big question of the day is do I a) Struggle to restore it as it originally rolled out of the Tildesley Cycle Works in Birmingham or b) Restore it as best I can using modern colours and parts from the 70's or80's. The former will likely involve a good deal of beg steal and borrow, but will hopefully produce a machine that is "period correct". The latter is more of a temptation as I think I have a Shitmano Crane front and rear mechs and levers from the late 70's stashed somewhere in the woodpile and I'm sure I can build the rest up to make the finished machine a nice vintage ride.
Do I go for approximate and well ridden or an exact replica ready for a museum?

Up yours Clarkson

This is how they do Top Gear in Belgie:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/MG_sportnieuws/MG_wielrennen/1.619199

Class!

Another old bike

Thanks to fleabay, I finally landed myself a frame that I've wanted ever since I saw one leant against the wall at the "Meffy" in Woolston about 20 years ago. This one is a 1939 or 1940 Bates Vegrandis in a very fetching lilac-purple. Hateful, but with this frame I could live with any colour. This one has diadrant forks which are Horace Bates' trademark and as much a signature are Hetchins' curly rear stays as well as "Cantiflex" tubing which gives a cigar shape to each of the frames main tubes. These days manufacturers trumpet that their latest aluminium frame tubes are "Hydro formed" when they have bulges in their middles. Reynolds were doing this for Horace & Co. with simple internal mandrels 80 years ago. So much for progress, eh?
The story of the Bates brothers is an intersting mix of fantastic business acumen, innovation and infighting. Mine was made when the brothers were still together with a manufacturing base in East London and sales outlets as far apart as the City and Grays, Essex. Interestingly, they never had a dealer network, preferring to sell direct from their own outlets. About 10 years after this one was built, they split up with EG Bates staying in London and brother Horace moving operations to London Road Westcliff, coincidentally the top of the road I used to live. EG continued to make high end frames for the local racing community with considerable success while Horace held the rights to both the Cantiflex and Diadrant features experiencing similar fortunes until the early 1960's. Horace died in 1968 and his son took over the business, continuing to make frames but by now in decreasing numbers until the 1980's. Eventually after a couple more changes in both name and ownership the shop became a branch of Action Bikes, but its empty now. I remember that when Action Bikes took over the new manager told me that they'd found several sets of tubes together with fittings, lugs, fork crowns etc. upstairs. I'd love to think that they went to Ray Etherington who now holds the rights to the design, but they probably got chucked in a skip by some spotty 16 year old. The Volante model is still being made by, I believe, Classic Bikes in Scotland albeit in limited numbers. Lets hope the old Bat (Bates TM) lives on for years to come!

I feel ill

I've just had a near death experience with ........... "Man Flu".





On top of that a Saturday night curry out followed by our final accredited marshalling duty of the year has left me feeling like I've had a visit from the man with big boots.
Ho hum. Work tomorrow. At least I get to commute on the bike. Fixed of course.

Planning

Had my annual check up in the week. Low blood pressure, high lung function, lowered cholestorol, not over weight, Fit as a butcher's dog. Apparently.
So what's on the menu for the winter?
Mostly this winter I are be doing Cyclo Cross. I expect I'll be lounging around at the back of the field as usual if you're looking for me. Long training rides on fixed as usual and a bit of running are also on the menu but you can forget the turbo this year 'cos it won't be happening.
Objectives for next year? Well, obviously a third Paris Roubaix Cyclo, a better 100 (perhaps we'll try the Kent CA again) another crack at a 12 hour perhaps and possibly Tro Bro Leon (in Lannilis, Western Brittany) for a change. Work rather got in the way of the track season this year and considering the way things are going at the moment, will probably wipe next year out as well. Never mind, I suppose you can't have everything. In between all that lets hope for a warm summer and some long weekend touring rides, maybe on the tandem this year.