The last couple of weeks have been marvellous, with nice weather and some great work opportunities in biomechanics and carbon fibre.
In recent months I have had increasing involvement with a group of friends who have formed the media friendly Halfwayup mountain bike club.
They have a corporate image, which is very easy to recognise on the hill, and club nights see upwards of thirty riders in attendance. Add to this their aptitude for community support and involvement and you have a club that is going to make a real and positive contribution to cycling and everything related to it.
Imagine my surprise (lump in throat) when they asked me to be patron! I don't know what I'm supposed to do but it sounds like being a grown up, doesn't it?
I have my own shirt now. It looks like this!
Saturday saw me standing at the front of a new shop as it was opened by female junior downhill World Champion, Manon Carpenter. It was followed by her showing all the guests at Castle Bikes an inspiring slide show of magnificent photos.
They were great for me as I could refer back to them for various parts of my own talk, "How to train for a solo."
I can bet that I didn't talk about what you think I might have.
We talked about embarrassing noises, bloating, mistakes, skills, support and all sorts.
It went down well!
ProMotionDynamics were there talking about bike fit. This too was good as they have a professional biomechanical method of checking fit rather than using anthropometric charts, which I have always disliked. I feel that they reduce the dependence on the professional bases of kinetic assessment that is required for a perfect fit. Bike fit, and the professional clinical skills that I feel are a pre-requisite, are a bit of a soap box for me, sorry.
Sunday arrived and my new shirt and I went for a ride with the Halfwayup riders.
We had a whale of a time in the Black Mountains. They have some fast guys, some crazy guys...
...and a particularly fast and crazy eejit.
Hiya Simon. You nutjob.
We had red hot brakes, saw a couple of "Over the bars" and heard lots of screaming.
Laughing a plenty...
...And that was just getting out of the cars!
The Love affair?
I'm still loving my Candy pedals. Security and stability with nice looks. I've tried going back to my other pedals for a ride, here and there, and I really do miss the Candy if I'm not using them. Result!
It's also good to see that quite a few folk in the club have them and love them.
Quite a few even have Santa Cruz bikes!
Spread the word, I say.
On that note, I may be about to start some work with a couple of companies, showing how the new tread spacers can be used to elicit max performance from the complex biomechanical machine that is the cyclist. Super simple, Super effective.
Effectively, simply, super!!
The boyz!
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