Tuesday 22 June 2010

It's as easy as riding a bike

Apparently riding a bike isn't all that easy...

"the commercial director of Halfords, said: “It turns out that getting off on the right foot on a bicycle, ditching the stabilisers and speeding away from your anxious parents is actually much more complex that people realised. "

Full article here

I personally wouldn't trust Halfords with anything bike related (but that's just a personal point of view). They are, after all one of the leading retailers of BSOs

From what I remember my little brother managed all of these things, in one go, straight down the steep drive and into the road.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

I saw this and I thought of you

http://rideafuckingbike.com/

Subtle... I think not

Pedals not Petrol : The World Naked Bike Ride

This last weekend just gone I attended the World Naked Bike Ride in both London and Brighton. I don't think I've ever spent that much time naked outdoors in my life before. (Photo below was of some people I met in the bodypainting area)

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The London ride started with a call from Will Golden about the location of the secret body painting area over the opposite side of Hyde Park to where the ride would be starting. En-route I was stopped by the archetypal (and those of you have been will know what I mean) middle-aged-non-participant-photography-enthusiast asking me where the start was. I was a little rude and later apologised. The London ride really went off without a hitch and I met some lovely people. We ended bizarrely in a side street by Tower Bridge with much dancing and cheering.

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This is the first time the roads weren't blocked off for us by the police so there were a lot of very suprised bus passengers that day.

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Brighton was a worry for me. I'd not tried to get a bike down there on the train before, but in the end all was well. Everyone was lovely. Brighton people a little less suprised by this sort of thing than Londoners.

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On an odd note there were three breaks built in to the route. One by the beach on some grass (makes sense), another on a roundabout in the town centre (not so normal... if you've never seen a queue of naked painted girls waiting patiently for ice-cream then you haven't lived) and finally a party on the beach.

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The bands were all from the Pleasant Revolution on a pedal powered sound system. Lots of dancing, lots of sun, and a lot of wobbly bits. Anyway the rest of my photos are here (some are a little NSFW)

All told a great time... but not the training weekend I had in mind for the London to Brighton ride next weekend...

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Happy days...

Well Stupidly I got the date wrong. It looks like I will be cycling on the London to Brighton ride a week or so earlier than i thought. 53 miles and I'm a little unprepared. To top it off I am off to visit friends of friends on the saturday, meaning train back from party... bed, then up at 04:00 to cycle to Clapham for the start... oh good lord... that's another 8 miles on top!