Bike to bestival

I am starting to get very, VERY, Exited!

On the 27th it will be a year since weset of to do our Land's End to John O'groats ride as Buskers on Bikes (we raised a total of £10,000 for Cancer Research UK - so thanks a million to everyone who donated). This year Warren, Sophie and I have tried something a little different.   - this September we're organising, the inaugural Bike to Bestival: a 2-day, musical 90-mile ride from London to the Isle of Wight with 35 other cyclists…

All the riders have already paid to go to festival, and have stumped up the costs of the ride out of their own pocket. All sponsorship monies go straight to Cancer Research UK. We've set each of the riders a target of £200 which we're hoping they'll exceed, but as one of the organisers I've pledged to do the same.

You can read all about the planning for the musical and cycling parts of the ride on our blog and Facebook pages
 
http://biketobestival.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/BikeToBestival

You can see our event on the festival website in the news section. If you'd like to sponsor me then you can find my justgiving page here:


http://www.justgiving.com/DominicBall

Anyway... This Sunday we're meeting to play together as a band for the first time!! Very Exited!!

Bike to Bestival

Warren, Sophie and I are organising this event this year. Please come along and join the fun

Tickets now available for Bike to Bestival from www.WeGotTickets.com

Buskers on Bikes: Website Updated

Jonny just updated the website for buskers on bikes (I'm part of this... hence the repost.) we've got a logo and everything.

Buskers on Bikes: Website Updated: "Hi, I've updated the website to use our new logo and a nicer design. Let me know if you have any comments. www.buskersonbikes.org Jonny"

Charity fundraising

As I have mentioned before, this summer I am planning an epic trip. Six friends and I are cycling the classic LEJOG (Lands End to John O'Groats) to raise money for Cancer Research. I am reaching an age where paople I know are being struck down by this awful disease, and as we speak a close family friend is recovering following major surgery to beat cancer.

Not happy with just a massive physical challenge, Warren (the originator of the idea) decided it would be more fun to play gigs at many of the stops to raise both awareness and funds.

Please take a look at our Just Giving page and donate if you are able. We are aiming to raise £10,000 from sponsorship and donation at the gigs. If you do donate please gift-aid as this all adds up.

Thanks






Dominic

repost from the buskers on bikes...

During Sunday’s ride Ken said something which stuck with me. It involved clipless pedals and increases to efficiency. If clipless pedals improved the transfer of power by x%. What else might help. Obviously a lighter bike, aerodynamic clothing...

Then it hit me. My bike weighs about 10kg without pedals or water bottles, so probably around 11.5 ready to go. I could shave some of this weight with lightweight bottle holders etc...

But what about me. I weigh 82kgs. The upper end of the healthy BMI for my height and build. The bottom end of Healthy BMI for me would be up to 6KG lighter or 7% of my bodyweight.

This might be key to me getting better.

I guess I’d better start counting the calories.

Melodica Rock

My Melodica arrived the other day. Not knowing if I was going to get on with the instrument I didn’t want to shell out £30-100 on a hohner, so I bought a £17 Swann. To be fair Swann are one of the biggest manufacturers of instruments, and it’s not bad. Melodicas always sound a little strange to me anyway.

The purchase was inspired by “The luckiest guy on the lower east side” by the magnetic fields. We are covering the song in the LEJOG band, and whilst I love playing Uke on this because there is one on the record, I could hear a melodic part for our version.

Bizarrely if you play it with the short pipe in place and hold it by the strap you go boss-eyed trying to see what you are playing. With the longer pipe you look like you are on oxygen or something.

Back to cycling to and from work as I got left behind on our ride at the weekend.

Rob has asked me to play a Grant McLennan tribute night at the Lexington with him in may so I need to meet up with him to get a cd of tracks for that fairly soon.

LEJOG Blog

I have finally got around to creating a blog for the charity ride in the summer. It can be found here...

http://buskingbikers.blogspot.com/

So far Jonny, Warren, Neil and I have all written stuff for it.

Weird Weekend

I have just had a very strange weekend.

Firstly Straight after work I headed up to ]Performancespace[ the new home of the Artevict lot. There were some durational actions underway when I arrived. I found the work moving and challenging. Highlights for me were Jamie and Victoria’s pieces. Anyway take a look at the site and make your own mind up.

Saturday we went to Brian’s to rehearse for the long distance busk (LEJOG). There was a frank and quite reasonable discussion as to how hard it would be and the fact we are all out-of-shape. It looks like we’ve decided to do it anyway, but we have agreed speeds and levels of fitness by certain dates to try and make it easier... can’t keep stopping.

Went to SHUNT’s new venue in the evening. What a lovely space. There is a section in the middle with a glass first floor and a viewing gallery at the top. Great DJs brilliant live acts. Good all round. Interestingly whilst I had to go on my own to both events (circumstances and planning issues) I wasn’t alone. A lot of people were there on their own.

A good weekend at that.

New year...New Stuff

Well It’s a new year and several other new things. First up I got a new bike. The Kona “Honky Tonk.” It was the most affordable all steel, nice riding, retro looking bike I could manage to lay my hands on. I’ll do a long term test/review once it’s done a few weeks of my daily commute and a couple of Long uns...

Which leads me on to my next project. I have joined a group of complete strangers to cycle from Lands-End-to-John- O’Groats (LEJOG) using the CTC youth hostelling route. Not content that this may be a challenge (nearly 1,000 miles), I was initially attracted to the idea as it combines my one of my other passions. We are going to be playing a gig at around 13 of the 15 stops, as part of busking cancer (A cancer research initiative). I’ll be taking the Uke, the Banjo Uke, and maybe a couple of oddities to play. We’re sticking to covers at this point as booking hostels in july for 10 people, planning the route, training and rehearsing may not leave us with much time for writing.

I hope to take some wicked photos (pinhole landscapes at dawn, Scotland, Cornwall etc)

We did our first training ride on Sunday. Assemble at an address in Brixton at 12:00. Great but that’s an 11 mile ride from mine. Everyone in high spirits despite a pre-start trip to buy a new innertube. All I can say is that Ken picked a cracker of a route. Over to Tulse Hill, up through Anerley, Out into Kent. Up a massive hill!!! In fact I didn’t realise how high we’d climbed until we got to ride the same route back. Very quick!

Back at Ken’s we popped out for a post-ride pint. Much deserved.

Then the cycle home... got lost... went via the houses of parliament and thereby adding about 3 miles extra.

Feel fine today... we might just pull this off... next week band practice...tonight Ukulele night.