Flying a kite.

This is my first real ride on my Singular Kite cyclo-cross bike. I am loving it so far. It was hard taking it out into the wild where it might get muddy, but that day had to come. Its all been good so far, except for one thing. The elephant in the "CX room ".Cantilever brakes. Life is too short and brakes have come too far for me to put up with them. Tradition be damned. My good buddy Marco kindly donated some pristine XTR canti "stoppers" for the back, and while they may score highly in retro points I can only tell they are activated when I hear a slight howling sound from the back. On the other hand, the standard v-brakes I have on the front feel very similar in feel to the Avid mechanical discs I have on my drop-barred karate monkey. There will be some mini-vees making it onto this bike as soon as I can afford it!

I am loving the Salsa Bell lap handlebars at the moment too, 44 cms wide. The ride is smooth and the handling very predictable. Not a hint of a twitch anywhere. I will have to wait til I get some dedicated wheels before I can tell how much of the ride feel is because of these carbon rimmed wheels currently on it.

 Getting pinkified

Still lots of bits to come, has only travelled 2.2 kms to date. Felt very very smooth.

Heres the frame. The drop-outs on it are very pretty. Better pictures later.

 Hopefully will have one of these built up soon. A bit late for CX season though.
This sure is a purty one. Singular Kite.
 

Image borrowed from the "interweb".

Read More

To each his own

I see the endurance cycling guru and former Tour Divide record holder Jay Petervary  is having another crack at the event. It was pretty obvious by his comments during the official running of the event this year that he was "ill at ease" with the "purity" of how the race was unfolding (riders riding in the vicinity of others). While the event itself has probably not changed a lot in the last few years, the introduction of spot trackers has meant that, like yacht racing and many other inherently boring sports, multi-day endurance bike racing has now become great viewing.

Kiwi Brevet 2012

With great viewing comes popularity (relatively speaking) and this year when around 100 riders fronted up for the 4400km ride, the chances of anyone riding completely alone for 100% of the time was going to be very unlikely. Especially with the new level of athleticism that increased popularity ultimately brought.

I was very impressed at the way the top riders like Ollie Whalley and Craig Stapler rode this years Tour Divide, with good sleeping patterns and relatively high average speeds on the trail. To me this is racing. Riding along through the night in a sleep deprived stupor is not the kind of thing that impresses me personally. "Learning about yourself" by digging really deep sort of reminds me a bit of Steve Jobs trying to reach a new level of enlightenment by fasting. Tales of the hallucinatory experiences people have sound very  interesting in the telling, but I am not sure I want to go there.

I have brought into the world two kids so I've done my fair share of sleep deprivation, and I can say it never did a lot for my athleticism. Family is also a great way of ensuring you have some kind of a balance in your life. I never thought I'd say it, but I am really thankful to have people around me who help me put my obsessions into perspective with respect to the big picture.

For me, bikepacking is about a couple of things. Getting out there into the wilds, good company and an element of being self sufficient. I often wonder if I could be bothered doing these efforts by myself. I suspect I would get very bored with my own company after about a day. Luckily everyone is motivated by different things.

Anyway, JP is putting his money where his mouth is, foregoing the Grand Depart  and riding the 4400km completely by himself.  JP's spot tracker should turn up here. Check out his rig here. A very nice Ti Salsa Fargo with Woodchippers.

Read More