James Racing

grinning and bearing it barely

2011-06-06T21:50:00.004+02:00

today was my first day back on the road bike since that road race almost 2 months ago. it has take that long to recover from the physical injuries (ribs just never seem to heal) but perhaps the time out has not helped with the emotional ones. my excuse at least has been that front end of the bike needed to be rebuilt almost completely. a very kind mr jan van dalen (the maker of my frame) at duell was able to straighten out a twisted fork, and i was able to rescue a front wheel in which one of the spokes managed to rip itself out of the dura ace hub. what was a 36 hole hub became a 35 hole hub and was sneakily rebuilt into an 18 spoke crows foot wheel. all it took was a bit of research and 6 new spokes

its enough to say that the first race of the new season was unsuccessful. all the preparations, nerves, sweat and meticulous colour scheming ended up in a pile of tattered lycra when a nice big group of us decided to throw our bikes on the ground at about 50km/hr after not much more than 10kms. throwing bikes on the ground is childish you say? i agree... but its as good an excuse as any to rebuild bikes, reformulate ambitions, and now well i guess to just generally spend more time in the saddle. my ride today consisted of taking keelie her office keys which she forgot at home, and making a nice loop of it by stopping at my favourite falafel bar on the way home. king falafel to the rescue

road racing

2011-05-17T17:55:00.004+02:00

is always something that has fascinated and intimidated me. racing mountain bikes is awesome, fun, I love it... but for so many reasons, not the least of which being that there are no mountains in this country, I decided it was time to learn how to race a road bike. this started a while back when I joined hsk trias here in den haag, did a couple of club criterium rides, with mixed results, and then almost took my eye off the road racing ball while playing in some cyclocross mud. but in cyclocross races as in mountain biking, there seem to be many people who get their fitness from the road, and I wanted some of this.

even tho I had read stories of unknown (soon to be famous) racers winning road races on a cyclocross bike, everyone seemed intent on talking me out of attempting proper road races like this, so the quest began... the pile of parts in the corner waiting to be a road bike basically consisted of a brooks titanium swift saddle and some matching leather bar tape, oh and a set of tubular wheels with dura ace hubs. trawling the classifieds yielded an affordable SRAM force groupset and a fortuitous sequence of events resulted in a classic pink racing frame all but appearing in my living room. so far so good as everyone knows that pink bikes go faster.

i slapped the bike together, did a couple of training rides and even made it to a little club race out in gouda (40km solo into a headwind on a sunday morning just to get there, hence i didnt feel it warranted a blog post) just to make sure that i hadnt put the tires on inside out or something. and the pink duell flies, steel is real and all that. there is more than just a hint of satisfaction evident in the photo above as team 'amateurs without ambition' comprised of richard, selmar and myself heads off to my first and our first proper road race together. stay tuned

sunshine alleycat

2011-04-22T11:17:00.004+02:00

i remember it as one of the first days of summer here, even though spring only officially started a couple weeks earlier. there i was just sitting around in scheveningen when i got a little facebook message from guilio checking if i was coming thru to amsterdam for the alleycat. what alleycat? the second in the series being organised by pristine. seemed like a good excuse to go show of my new pink bike with all its shiny brooks and sram bits in the sunshine so i set off.

the good thing about promising prizes is that people show up. add sunshine into the mix and everyone is having a good time. so, bring on the alleycat. the rules were simple, we were put into teams of six, you had to finish together, and you had to have all the answers, correct. as luck would have it, i ended up in a team with pierski and jur, and 3 other amsterdam locals. there were 6 checkpoints and 6 of us in each team. seemed logical that we each take a checkpoint, and meet on the park bench down the road from the finish.

as it turned out, we were the only team to split up, and we finished the alleycat in 37minutes. 2nd place arrived in some time over an hour. to the other teams' credit, there wasnt too much complaining. i guess it was a nice sunny day for a social group ride. anyway, we won! here is me holding up some of the aforementioned prizes :-) thanks to mirandawrites10 for the photos

track fix

2011-04-20T12:43:00.004+02:00

its been a while since my last visit to the track, but i think im still addicted. thanks to anke and the other organisers of the track clinic, i think there might well be a few more addicts out there now too. my bike got a little spring clean (actually this is a euphemism, i had almost forgotted i had pink hubs under all that dirt), the track bars went on, a nice big gear appeared from the spares box, and some faster looking pedals took the place of the hard working guys.

just cleaning my bike would have been a well spent saturday morning, but there was still the road trip, the sugar fest, the track buzz and the warm fuzzy feeling to come. thanks to akos for being the only one of us responsible enough to own a car, thanks to keelie for being the only one of us irresponsible enough to buy sooo much sugar, and to the track, well, thanks for being there. pity they dont keep the amsterdam track open thru the summer as now im working there a couple days a week... anyway, i was so inspired by saturdays activites, that this is what i woke up to on sunday morning :-)

new hotness for 40euros

2011-02-26T16:58:00.000+01:00

got an old n busted wheel that needs some new hotness? well a recent client of mine's 7400 series dura ace hub reached the end of its road but the campagnolo omega rim to which it was laced was still good as new. we wont ask how this happened, or how our (least) favourite bike shop in den haag came to have a huge overstock of 6500 series ultegra front hubs, we will just rebuild the wheel.

of the origional spokes, 6 didnt pass the quality control, another peculiar situation into which i refuse to delve further, but this situation was relatively quickly remedied with just 2 trips to the local bike shop, 5 spokes purchased the first trip saving the last spoke for the second trip. then it was out with the old n busted dura ace hub and in with the new ultegra hotness and a wheel is reborn. 15euros for the new hub, 20euros for the rebuild, 5 euros or so for the spokes and the chocolate bars fueling the many trips. another happy wheel...

bigger bragging rights

2011-02-22T21:42:00.000+01:00

is what u get when u win a bigger championship, apparently... last year the beer drinking singlespeeders hijacked the sport class of a south african national championship, but this year we hijacked the sport class of the african continental championship! the venue was the same, up in the beautiful jonkershoek valley, but the results were slightly different: dobinson showed some mad beer drinking skills to avenge his second place at the former nationals with a commanding win at this year's continental champs, nice one!

i'd love to say that the fact that the beer stop was correctly situated in the feed/tech zone made the UCI officials happy, but it was more like they just couldnt immediately think of a reason to kick us off the course. anyway, it was in this beer zone that my most and least memorable moments of the race occurred. gavin and i pulled into the beer zone in second and first place respectively, quite proud of ourselves for the healthy gap we had built up over third place on the first few hills. we grabbed out beers and set about making short work of them. and then dobinson in third place arrived, and before we knew it he was on his way, beer finished, chuckling to himself, in the lead.

having my lack of beer drinking skills rubbed in my face was my least favourite moment, but it was followed almost immediately by a great piece of cornering. the same person responsible again as he sped away, watched by both gavin and i, forcing some swiss girls warming up for their race to scramble to get out of his way as he reentered the singletrack, dragging the back wheel and eventually drifting both wheels around a sharp hairpin bend. beer induced brilliance aside, all the shouting at him in the singletrack, and running with bike on shoulder learned from the recent cyclocross season wasnt enough to catch dobinson as he went on to take a well deserved win.

without the 30 or so singlespeed riders, the sport class would have had only 2 or 3 participants. in spite or perhaps because of the beer forfeits, graciously supplied by iride and williamsbikeshop, sport class was one of the biggest categories of the whole championship. thanks to chris for the photos. for now tho its back to the complex combination training required for singlespeed racing until world champs in ireland later in the year. who else is going?

lessons from the 24hr race

2011-02-07T10:52:00.000+01:00

in keeping with the theme of setting realistic goals, i set out to do at least 20 laps of the 9km course out at oak valley. i'd love to say that this target was calculated scientifically or something, but really it came about when i overheard my friend gavin (veteran of three 24hr solo world championships) telling another friend, dave (over beers) that i wouldn't do more than 20 laps. taking the beers out of it tho, i think gavin knows pretty well what the limiting factors are in solo 24hr racing, and we have raced together enough times for him to know my athletic ability pretty well too, so more than just proving him wrong, i figure it was a realistic goal :-P

leaving cape town early saturday morning with the jet lagged canadian avenger and my dad, in full race support mode, we noticed that it was gonna be a scorcher out in grabouw. luckily deon, who was racing in a social team of 7 had already arrived to secure a camping spot while we were still sleeping that morning, so we had a good spot. and then it started. the heat that is. man it was hot. when the race finally started, i was pouring a whole water bottle over myself in the start-finish-straight each lap and i was dry before the 25minute or so lap was over. the photo above shows the scenery in the late afternoon, nice 'ey? by then i had knocked out about 10 laps, narrowly avoided heatstroke, and was just getting worried about the twinges of cramp in my legs. the big climb in the first half of the lap was becoming quite an effort to get up on a singlespeed.

the twinges were short lived however. i stopped drinking energy drink just for a moment, and had a packet of chips and a sandwich, and soon it was all good again. supper came and went, the lights went on, and i finally decided to take a nap on the 17 lap mark around midnight. at this point i had been made aware of one of those limiting factors i mentioned earlier. the sore bum factor. in retrospect i think this was the major factor in gavin's estimation of my maximum lap capabilities. after around 150km of offroad riding, it just happens. not a lot u can do about it apparently. i tried showering, sleeping, and a change of lycra, and even this didnt help much. the shot above was taken at dawn and i think this just might have been my 20th lap.

in the end i pushed through to do 25 laps. the winning man did 38 laps and the winning lady did 35 laps, which was good enough for 2nd place overall! i ended up in 10th place overall out of around 80 solo competitors, and 2nd place in the (unofficial) singlespeed category. although i think there were only 3 of us riding singlespeed and solo. overall it was a good experience, i am happy to have surpassed my own expectations and those of others. i couldn't have done it without my support crew, thanks to my mom, dad, the canadian avenger and friends who helped out when my brake needed fixing, and to olympic cycles for the lights and gazebo. i'll call you all again next time. no idea when that will be ;-)

who needs more than a pair of velskoene and a coffee pot?

2011-01-28T20:17:00.000+01:00

when all youre planning to do is ride your mountain bike around in circles for 24hrs... in the legend, there was this afrikaans guy with an old beater of a mountain bike, his coffee pot as his support crew, and his velskoene - shoes that are as dear to the afrikaans as clogs are to the dutch. and if i remember correctly, he took on the lycra clad, spare bike wielding masses and beat all but one. my attempt to plan like the guy in the legend went up in smoke with all the help i got from olympic cycles, and the canadian avenger flew in this morning with some fresh heckling just for the occasion.

against what im sure is perfectly good advice, i am only taking one gear with me - 32x16. one speed steel frame hardtails just never seem to get old. the course out at oak valley is rumoured to be relatively flat, and the weather is certain to be more than just relatively warm. 4 of my mates are entering a singlespeed team, and last i heard planning to stick it to just about everyone, and another 7 of my mates are entering a 'social' team. who knows what they plan to do with all their spare time

anyway, the bags are packed, lights (thanks again to olympic who still help me out whenever i need stuff for a race on my summer holidays) are charged, bottles are filled. early start tomorrow, so its time to sign off. 12noon saturday till 12noon sunday. cant wait - 24hrs of oak valley :-)

the harder you try

2011-01-19T13:37:00.000+01:00

the luckier you get. or so i have been told. i guess i wasnt trying hard enough then :-P either that or i can say that with all this bad luck, i should have a long lucky career in cyclocross ahead of me! the race in rotterdam ended 20mins in with a broken derailleur and dropout. the third time this season! its tempting to blame the refurbished derailleur and thus my own workmanship for this, but said derailleur functioned perfectly for a full 50mins last weekend under arguably worse conditions. anyway, such is this muddy life. 5th place in this race, and overall, slips through my muddy, thermal glove covered fingers, and i have to settle for a DNF and 7th in the championship.

on the bright side, 7th place is still in the prize money, and while it wont replace my rear derailleur, i win just enough to buy a new dropout for the kinesis, plus one as a spare. im not going to cry (for long) over how if i hadnt missed 3 races, and the 15points you get just for starting, and if i had had spare bikes at the races like the pros (and some of the guys i raced against), i would have finished a few places higher up in the overall rankings. the milk is spilt.

tears would be shed mostly happily anyway. this was my first cyclocross season, steep learning curve and all that, and while i lost 5th at the last race due to a mechanical, i still achieved my goal of a top ten position overall. looks like i also need a new chain! thanks to sven for this photo. and to the canadian avenger and friends who turned up or supported online, you guys rock, much love to you all! so now its time for a little (sunshine) break before training for the road season starts, proper. amateur racing license has arrived, there is a new bike in the pipeline, more details will appear as things are confirmed. cheers

the guys in onesies

2011-01-10T19:51:00.000+01:00

I've been racking my brains for an upgrade this week. The new bike arrived in the nick of time for the race in Berkel, and apart from the front derailleur not fitting (which was 'easily' solved 5 mins before closing time on friday night with a new clamp), everything transferred seamlessly from the old trusty Schwinn to the new Kinesis hotness. So thats how Saturday started; new frame, easton ultralite race tubing, carbon seatstays, sealed gear cables, the best saddle in the world and a sunny 10degrees predicted...

So the weather was never gonna happen. Luckily the howling wind blew me to the race, and the rain only started minutes before the start. The course was entirely mud, except for about 2 meters of sand, which I'm sure was hiding some more mud. Moaning about the weather aside, the start was good. Of the roughly 30 guys who turned up I found myself in about 8th position by the time things settled down. Hiding behind people on the windiest sections, I worked myself up into 4th place on around lap 4. And then it happened, the guys in one-piece lycra caught me...

Really I shouldn't be suprised, I mean everyone knows how much faster wearing a one-piece makes you. So thats my mission, I need one by the season finale in Rotterdam this weekend! But even with the skinsuits passing me, it was a successful race. 7th place on the day means I move out of the 3 way tie for 7th up into 5th place in the overall classifications. I guess theoretically its possible for me to move up into 4th, say if Remco gets eaten by a bear on his way to the race. The guys in 6th and 7th overall are within reach, but I guess thats why its called a race :-P

national on home turf

2011-01-06T18:21:00.000+01:00

there is still mud on my bike. no bike cleaning facilities at the race on Sunday added insult to injury, as I was forced to pull out of the race probably by some of this very same mud. I came round the corner to see one of the guys I normally race against looking at his derailleur perched unnaturally above his cassette. he forced a smile and warned me that it was muddy, yeah cheers, and 2 pedal strokes later my derailleur found the same position. now I'm not sure if it was the riders talking or the bikes crunching (crunch. crunch crunch? crunch crunch!!) to each other, but this started some kind of chain reaction as about 6 of the 10 riders around me suffered the same fate, at exactly the same spot

up until this point, it was good racing. somewhere between 50 and 60 people on the start line and I was riding in around 25th place at the time of the muddy derailleur death. good to see that the level of the national races is not hugely different from the level of the weekly provincial races, this bodes well for next season. anyway I think I put my dura ace derailleur back together, using some parts salvaged from the old 105 derailleur which died earlier in the season. only problem now is, the drop out of my frame is broken. this shouldn't have been a problem, as last week i ordered a new frame to replace the cracked schwinn, but it hasnt arrived yet. so while i wait and hope it arrives, i am choosing ratios for Saturday's races if it comes to it that I have to do it singlespeed.

thanks to the canadian avenger for the video, and willem jan, who has come to 2 races and witnessed 2 mechanicals, coincidence..? saturday's race is in berkel, riding distance away, looking forward to it, gears or no gears!

the delft blues

2010-12-21T16:06:00.000+01:00

Aah Delft, home of the famous blue pottery, johannes vermeer and delft technical university, organisers of this weeks race. Straight to the race then :-P Its funny how 1 lap can change your whole image of a race. Almost 30 guys turned up for A-klasse this week despite (or perhaps for the excuse to play in) the snow and thanks to seeding, I was able to get a good start position. The start was pretty fast, if you had the racing line like me, but plenty of people went exploring the deeper snow off the racing line and some even succeeded in picking up speed. I entered the first singletrack around 12th place I guess but soon got restless. There was some slipping and sliding and some people even unashamedly made snow angels close to the icy parts of the track. With a bit of luck, some pushing and shoving, and some annoying beeping from my heart rate monitor, which seemed to think i was operating at 102% of my max, I made it into 6th place by the end of the 1st lap.

I was lucky enough at this point to be tucked neatly in the wheel of the number 1 ranked rider in the championship, who had had a bad start and was working his way to the sharp end of the race. It didnt take us long to catch the 3rd place rider, who we both passed, and then I decided I was bored of watching Kees' back wheel and I let him ride away from me. So there I was, 4th place, pretty happy with myself, everything working fine, until I got overtaken, and then overtaken again. At this point, even tho I was in 6th place, it felt like I was having a pretty average race, with the great unwashed about to trample me as they came passed. Even the stairs became challenging...

But thanks to the encouragement of the canadian avenger, clearly feeling at home in her natural habitat (snow), and the fact that everyone was feeling the pace a little, the great unwashed never caught me. And then that 1 Lap I was referring to earlier happened. The mud and snow decided to annoy other people and I was free to clip in to my pedals first time after each of the 3 sections where running was well, erm, faster. The guys in 5th place hardly noticed me go by he was trying so hard to clip in, and then suddenly, I was right behind the guy in 4th place, who later told me he had already all but given up trying to clip in at this point. All that was left was some hard pedalling, a daring overtaking maneuver on the last corner, and voila, 4th place!

anyway, this puts me in a 3 way tie for 7th place overall, 2 points behind 6th place, 3 points ahead of 10th. and it looks like the snow might just hang around until boxing day in leiden.

delft cx race heart rate monitor stats:
duration 57:25
heart rate max 194 (this is getting a bit silly now)
heart rate average 182
1038KCal 15% fat
(Changed wheels and forgot to move the magnet for the speed sensor so no speed this week. I would however estimate the speed to be: not very fast, and the distance to be: not very far, this is cyclocross remember)

nice mud

2010-12-13T21:55:00.000+01:00

dordrecht cx race heart rate monitor stats:
duration 56.20
heart rate max 193
heart rate average 183
1045KCal 15% fat
16.4km, 34.3max, 17.4avg (speed sensor was this weeks' bike upgrade)

aah dordrecht, the oldest city in zuid holland, population 120000 density, 1500 people per square kilometer. and just on the outskirts of town, cycling club drc de mol found the space to set out a great cyclocross course with plenty of nice winding singletrack, a bit of elevation gain and loss and mud, glorious mud. around 20 guys arrived for the A-Klasse, including some pretty fast guys meaning that 1st and 2nd place in the championship came in at 6th and 7th respectively. and I came in 8th :-)

last week in the snow it seemed like every time I pedaled hard I ended up sliding off the course, well that was my excuse at least for the average result, and hardly being tired after the race. dordrecht mud however seemed to be what my skinny hutchinson tires were designed for, I felt good, pedaled hard and was really really tired after the race. things are getting interesting in the overall points standings, and while this 8th place brought a decent number of valuable points with it, I stay in 11th place overall. 4 more races to go. until Saturday in delft...

snow racing

2010-12-08T09:16:00.000+01:00

that's me in the background wearing every piece of winter cycling clothing i have. it was pretty cold, even when we got going, but somehow manageable. and while it wasn't the coldest (see previous blog post), it definitely was the snowiest day of riding ever for me. at least half of the course was racing on packed down snow, while the other half was churned up mush of snow, ice, sand and grass. good times :-)

i think this one was taken during the warm-up. we normally get about 20mins on the course after the masters' and ladies' races finish. it was more of an -up tho, cos i cant say i managed to get warm... the result of my slipping and sliding and occasional face-planting? 15th out of 20. slipping down to 11th place overall. not fantastic as i struggled to find a rhythm for the first half of the race. the second half of the race was better, as i found that rhythm, overtook some people, stayed on the racing line, mostly, and on the bike, mostly. in a few short wintery days we get to do it all over again in dordrecht.

aerodynamic upgrading

2010-12-03T12:49:00.000+01:00

yesterday was my coldest messenger shift on a bike to date. thank goodness for army surplus stores where I found some awesome gloves the day before for 6euros! I also finally found a use for the dorky scarf type things I bought for my first snow experience 7 years ago but never really used. face-covering-dork-scarf-things are the new beard. and after a days riding and heavy breathing through them, im pretty sure they'd repel almost all insects, and most humans.

the hard working titanium bike got some aerodynamic fake titatium upgrades for the day too. the pretty shapes got me thinking, and there's plenty of time for thinking while delivering packages, about aerodynamics. mostly because the shapes the fake titanium formed, over and over no matter how many times I tried to shake it off by hopping over imaginary obstacles hidden by all the fake titanium on the ground. these new shapes however were familiar, look at just about any over priced and engineered time trial bike and you'll see them. but they were formed by the air leaving the bike, mostly just air leaving the wheels, not by the air approaching the bike. now I had heard that a lot of aerodynamic design was about helping the air leave the object smoothly, but it was interesting to see it in practice. or maybe my brain was just a little cold...

anyway, I couldn't let the work bike get all the upgrades this week. I spent some hard earned money on some new brakes for the cyclocross race bike. I've read mixed reviews about the frogglegs brakes, but because the spooky origionals are pretty hard to come by, and around double the price, in the name of losing weight and increasing mud clearance, I decided to give them a try anyway. they even got a koolstop pad upgrade before the test ride. i hear these pads are the best in the business, so i look forward to testing them out in rijswijk at tomorrow's race

good busy in gouda

2010-11-14T17:51:00.000+01:00

gouda cx race heart rate monitor stats:
duration 52.13
heart rate max 192
heart rate average 178
921KCal (just less than 2 big macs, without cheese)
15% fat (big macs are 50% fat, before the cheese)

the weekend started with a little pre-race dura ace, amazing how much attention around the world a simple low quality shot of a high quality bike can attract :-) i was really hoping to save this derailleur from the wear and tear that cyclocross seems to put bike parts through, but after 5 years waiting in the wings (for the special bike project that just might come to fruition early next year) it was time for mr dura ace rear derailleur to take the stage

anyway, lets just say that nothing is forgotten about as quickly or underrated as much as a drivetrain that works. good thing too, cos there was a fair amount of aspect to the course in gouda so it was really nice to be able to shift cleanly and crisply (for an old, worn chain with bits of other chain spliced in to get rid of the twist it developed when the last derailleur died a while back at least). otherwise the course was great with plenty of tricky corners, some bits that reminded me of my sand pit as a kid, and some great energy sapping off-camber muddy grass sections

14th place out of 22 starters was a little disappointing, it was a tough battle with ronald (above) from gaul amsterdam, which he eventually won, respect. i stay in 9th place overall, but the points helped narrow the gap to 7th and 8th places overall (who were also in the race). i wont be at the race next weekend, which wont help in the overall points classification, but should help with the overall fatigue sensation, and hopefully also with the bronze complexion. thanks to fotokoos and ronald's girlfriend for the photos. and thanks to keelie in her absence (beterschap) for her support and the post-race cookies, without which, the rock-star-life-on-a-fast-food-budget (aka catching the train to and from the out-of-town races) might have been just a little hungry and lonely ;-) until 2 weeks time in schiedam

a very average race

2010-11-08T22:07:00.000+01:00

I've thought about it for a while now, and I think I've figured out why this weekend's race in Numansdorp was so, well, average... It wasn't because I wasn't feeling 100%, when do we ever feel 100% anyway. I kinda always think about an interview with an old tennis pro (I don't remember who anymore) when he was asked if he had any injury problems, and he replied that being an athlete is basically about constantly managing injuries. In all honesty, apart from lacking a little explosive power, I felt pretty good on the start line.

But still, the race was average... Basically I got beaten by guys (all respect to them) that I normally beat. Maybe I've been lucky so far or they've been unlucky. Either way, not the result I was hoping for: I did move out of a 3 way tie for ninth into 8th place overall, but it was more due to people not being there than due to good performance. Next I blamed the course, which was great as it wound around trees with some pretty nice singletrack, until we had to ride on a beach. Now, I'm not particularly heavy, but I sunk like the fat kid into the soft sand. And I couldn't help but think the others were mocking me as they rode away. 8 laps really tried my patience.

In all honesty I can't blame the bike either, it got some great upgrades this week. Perhaps I was even worried that I would have such a great race I wouldn't know which upgrade to give the credit to. The old shimano 105 hubs that got converted from 7sp to 9sp got swapped out for some nice shiny second hand actual 9sp dura ace hubs. The trusty 35c clincher tires got swapped out for some 30 or 32c - yes, I aware that narrow tires are not advantageous in sandy conditions - tubular tires (oh how I love tubular tires). So it wasn't me, the course or the bike... I blame the weather. I mean it was almost sunny and warm enough for short sleeves. Not even a spot of rain. Thats not cyclocross weather. Hopefully it will be better in Gouda this weekend :-P

beer brake

2010-11-01T14:52:00.000+01:00

The 18th edition of the halloween alleycat was a great excuse to visit Berlin again. It was also supposed to be the 2year reunion of team beer break which came together spontaneously at the prenzopoly alleycat. Unfortunately however, although all 5 members from around the world made plans to be there, when it came down to it only Morgan and I made it, while I guess the others had spent their monthly travel budget on, well, beer... I'm so proud. This is Morgan's unimpressed face at the slackness exhibited by team beer break. It was soon replaced by that happy face we know and love after one of the many different vegi burgers we sampled along the way. The food in berlin rocks...

Sober October came to an abrupt end on the 29th. I can't decide which was more stupid, not drinking for a month, or ever starting again... I was gonna try blame this somehow on the guys from ESK (a berlin cycling club, something to do with steel pigs, but thats all that i can remember about them) who organised an epic night time cyclocross dual slalom race in a park, 1 euro entry fee, including a beer... but yeah, that wouldnt work, good times

October was however a relatively cheap month, well, no that's not exactly true, what I didn't spend on beer I spent on bikes, the cheapness was just a matter of perception. I've been trying to make small incremental improvements on the cx bike each week, last week was new cleats and studs in the shoes (which attach to the bike). This week some tubular cx tires will see action for the first time. Thanks to the guys at cicli berlinetta for a sweet set of Hutchinson shark 32c tires.

cx race #3 (actually #4 of the series) - honselersdijk

2010-10-25T18:00:00.000+02:00

now its starting to get really interesting. rain, cold, mud... almost all the ingredients are present :-P a friend on mine here told me that when he used to play football at school, they used to dread going out into the westland because the wind was always howling, and the kids they played against were always twice his size. well the wind was howling, it was raining, and cold, but it was still a good race out in honselersdijk

being just 15km from home, it was a rare opportunity to ride to the race, that is without wearing down the precious tread on my only set of cyclocross tires, but the weather kept the support crew to a minimum. im still not sure what inspired willem jan to come along for the ride, but it sure was good to have someone to laugh while i inhaled multiple snickers bars after the race.

staying up late the night before the race to disinfect my aging drivetrain and replace gear cables seemed to pay off as the bike worked almost perfectly. had a little trouble clipping in, but yeah worn cleats in the mud, its not suprising really. anyway, my 10th place finish out of 29 starters moved me up from 13th place overall (i think) into a 3 way tie for 9th place overall out of 43 competitors so far in category A. missing 1 of the 4 races so far doesnt help when it comes to accumulating points, but its early days with still around 9 races to go. next race november 6th in numansdorp, looks sandy...

i finally got some club kit so now i get to look all serious like the rest of the guys there while playing in the mud. thanks again to foto koos for the photos, and yeah if you think i look silly, there are more photos here :-P

polomotion bonus

2010-10-22T23:37:00.000+02:00

321polo they shout. team super comes back from obscurity to represent one more time at bikemotion/polomotion 2010 in Utrecht. we only played two games tonight/Friday night, one we lost 5-0 and the other we got a walk over, so far I'm liking our average...

as a bonus however I managed to find a 68x103mm BSA jis bottom bracket for my new oldschool dura ace 7410 cranks :-) thanks to the guys at pristine, and ofcourse the guys at sugino for being one of the only bigger manufacturers to make this obscure size, and yes that is a 750ml chocolate milkshake in the background, dinner of champs

as most of my bike fixing time has been spent getting the polo bike ready this week, I guess some late night tinkering is in order on the cyclocross bike, and then a little rain dance before bed :-P

160km that was actually 172km

2010-10-15T19:48:00.000+02:00

but who is complaining..? the weather was amazing, i even took my leg warmers off for the last 40km to see if i could catch some of that sunshine. so the first part of the vacansoleil4challange started and finished on the scheveningen boulevard not far from our house and it went just fine. i only managed to ride the first 30km or so with the people i planned to ride with but for one reason or another i ended up riding with a group of 6 guys who seemed to be in quite a rush to get it over with. we did the 172km in 5hr22mins including 2 short breaks for bananas and krentebollen and all my equipment went just fine. including my tubular tires for which i had no spare :-P i have ordered another tire which i will put on the back wheel and take the ever so slightly worn back tire along as a spare from now on. oh and i even spotted the boogie man at the finish

cx race #2 - zoetermeer

2010-10-05T13:14:00.000+02:00

breakfast part 1

breakfast part 2

i already knew that cyclocross was a stupid sport, but i discovered this week its also an expensive sport... i expected to go through plenty of brake pads and at least the current rims im using, and well, the drivetrain im using is a bit worn already, so riding in the mud is a good excuse to wear it out. but rear derailleurs? i didnt plan to go through too many of them.

about halfway

i guess neither did all the other guys and girls i saw pushing their bikes back to the start during the course of the days racing. the mud on the zoetermeer course was pretty special. it really stuck to everything. it was wet on while it was on the ground and then it dried and accumulated when it touched a bike.

bye bye 105 derailleur

so broken derailleurs were the order of the day, and i got a nice one on the second last lap... at that point i was in 5th place of 26 starters battling it out with the 6th place rider and occasionally spotting the guy in 4th ahead of us. last week, in gouda, i finished 8th out of 15, and the guys who finished 6th and 7th there, ended up in 8th and 9th at this race. so yeah, i was feeling pretty good and happy with my race, and im over it now, but at the time i was pretty bummed to have to pull out. the thought did cross my mind to pick my bike up and run the rest of the race, which i started doing even though i was probably carrying more mud than bike, until i had been passed by 4 or 5 guys and i couldnt be bothered any more.

the canadian avenger spotted

anyway, next week there is a 160km road race/tour starting here in scheveningen, so getting muddy (in a race) again will have to wait until honselersdijk on the 23rd. i have a stand-in old skool shimano 600 rear derailleur (thanks willem-jan!) but i am seriously considering doing the next mud bath singlespeed. any ideas on a good ratio?

playing in the mud

2010-09-26T22:41:00.000+02:00

the next criterium race, and last of the season, was a touch more successful; even tho i again went against my game plan of just sitting in the bunch and calling it good experience. turns out a nice big hole opened up in the lead bunch half way thru the last lap and it turned out to be james shaped. i dashed thru and pedalled to within an inch of my life and stayed away for the win :-) must have been the new saddle and bar tape

this weekend signaled the start of the regional interclub cyclocross season here in zuid holland. thankfully it rained loads on the day and just a little the days before so we at least got to ride in shallow mud. i managed an 8th place in the elite category which was only made up of around 20 people at the start and around 15 at the finish. strange that there were considerably more people in the masters (40+) category than the elite (17-39). i guess most of the people around my age have been distracted by their careers or something :-P

anyway it was good to know that its worth turning up for the races, good competition, good people and just fantastic mud. thanks to mashsf for the shirt and hat, it looks much better with the mud coloured dots on it i think. and to my canadian back up crew and photographer, you rock, hope youre looking forward to it getting muddier and colder out there like me

scuffed saddles and scratched brake hoods

2010-09-08T20:58:00.000+02:00

is what u get from doing criterium races in the wet. well i guess that only applies if you're like me and go from telling yourself to take it easy (and just finish somewhere in the middle of the bunch), to being pretty much at the front of the bunch going into a slippery hairpin, and realise that you had a little too much faith in those new tires of yours...

well,i wasnt alone as at least 5 other people went down in the same corner, and im not sure exactly how much i had to do with that, at least as far as i remember, i didnt touch or get touched by anyone as we did a little tarmac surfing together. anyway everyone got up and continued the race after straightening their bikes out so no major harm done. my ridiculously light saddle got a few grams lighter, the comfort level unaffected, for better or for worse

the races happened at the local den haag bike club HSK Trias at their closed course. but this is the tail end of the road season, and the calm before what promises to be a storm of a cyclocross season!!

pyjamas and wheelbuilding

2010-08-11T17:27:00.000+02:00

so i find myself with some time on my hands. time to think about just how perfect pyjamas are for building wheels in, and put it to the test. this mornings wheel brings the total in the house to 12. i have a very tolerant girlfriend, only 2 of them are hers :-) but as any bike nerd knows, each one is special for its own reasons. and yes im talking about bike wheels here. this mornings wheel is a rigida dp18 built on a white industries eccentric eno with dt swiss competition spokes, to be used on my cyclocross bike. if all goes according to plan in races, either fixed or singlespeed, i havent decided.

i also finally got round to making a base for the wheeltrueing stand, which is important as its gonna get even more use over the coming days. last saturday night saw a sneaky conversion of a donated shimano 105 road hub from 7 to 9 speed freehub body, and a shimano deore lx mtb hub from 9 to 7 speed. the lx hub is only being used as a singlespeed anyway, and this means i have a set of road hubs to discover is there really is anything to the idea that tubular tires are the better

bed time reading

2010-06-29T22:00:00.000+02:00

lots of nice shiny wheels are being built in the living room of the beach house these days. i even built one for money. kind of the opposite of normal. being paid to build a wheel rather than paying to build a wheel. but without getting to ride it, so kinda like being given a bar of chocolate for free and not being able to eat it i guess... anyway it was fun fantasizing with the idea of writing 'wheel builder' in the profession section of visa forms or questionnaires.

i feel like a bike nerd for thinking this, but this book is bloody marvelous!

no more piece of wood and hammer

2010-04-28T16:34:00.000+02:00

what can i say, im a sucker for that new tool smell. now its not that my trusty block of wood and nice big hammer havent served me well over the years, in fact many a chris king headset has been put into a custom built frame using this method, to the horror of any onlookers. but when a good deal comes a long, its hard to pass the opportunity by to expand my tool collection

so the sycip starts its 3rd incarnation with new powdercoat and reinforced disc mount. jay and jeremy did a wonderful job as usual. great to have another excuse to buy new bike bits again. this time around the sycip will have less gears, but i doubt thats gonna leave any money over for me to have more beers. see you at sswc10 in rotorua?

old and new toys

2010-04-06T11:34:00.000+02:00

got the snowboard out on a swiss hill a week ago. first time cartwheeling down the slopes in about 5 years! i gotta say that switzerland is a(n expensive,) well organised country. catch the tram to bern central station, put your credit card in the ticket machine and next thing you know you have a train/bus/ski lift ticket and youre ready to go. faster, cheaper and easier than going by car

and to reward myself for making it up and down the hill so many times without serious injury, i bought some new bike parts. been wanting to try this little innovation for a while now. supposedly lighter and stronger than conventional rails. actually way lighter than a thomson seatpost and a slr saddle. doesnt seem to have taken off tho, so theyre nice and cheap on crc. time will tell if theyre as comfortable and durable i suppose. so far so good tho

hairy legs on the track

2010-02-26T15:55:00.000+01:00

last week was my first time on the amsterdam velodrome, and i admit i was a little intimidated. its 200m long compared to the 250m im used in alkmaar which means the turns are considerably steeper and sharper. and when i say im used to alkmaar, after only 4 times thats being a little generous with confidence. so with this confident generosity, my best dutch and a bike i rode there and cleaned in the parking lot, i talked my way into a free training session. needless to say, me and fish were the only people on the track without shaven legs but we put on our best lycra and fish even broke out his chrome bmx helmet for the occasion, i'll try get photos next time. speaking of photos, riding to work just started looking up...

turns out there is a sweet network of trails just waiting to be strung together each morning thru the multitude of little green areas between home and work. perfect cyclocross bike territory, finally. otherwise a stroll along the beach promenade is always an option. apparently the beach is being extended from 40m to 70m - coastal defence they say - but the engineering doesnt stop where the water starts. apparently a designer was contracted to come up with a sea floor that produces better waves. cant wait till some swell arrives

alkmaar track day

2010-02-24T14:59:00.000+01:00

this happened last weekend:

thanks to taka, fish and tjeu

it was all about face melting speed in the scratch race. cheers to pierski for the photos

respect to kees as he and i snagged a 2nd place in the team sprint. cant wait till the next one

now what?

2010-02-18T13:11:00.000+01:00

there's no snow like the snow in osdorp, and there's no cereal like chocolate coated sugar bombs

fridays off

2010-02-14T16:47:00.000+01:00

suzue track hub gets a QR upgrade. 3rd lifetime of wheel begins :-)

winter blues?

2010-02-11T08:53:00.000+01:00

hoping these will be the cure

ecmc2009

2009-05-26T13:21:00.000+02:00

Manifesto (in progress)

We are primarily a group of current and former bike messengers, but welcome all good-natured, socially aware cyclists to participate in our events. Though we share no common political ideology, we share values that define us as a distinct social group, naturally beginning
with our shared love of the bicycle.

We believe in equality; we do not differentiate between sex, nationality, race, gear ratios, or riding ability. Men and women race together.

We believe in sustainability. We support products and manufacturers based on product reliability and longevity. (Followed of course by aesthetics, if money permits.)

We love to push the physical and mental limitations of our bodies. We believe in the inherent health benefits of cycling frequently, and assist others in adopting the lifestyle of the urban cyclist by openly sharing our expertise.

We ride “just for fun”!

We champion the superiority of the bicycle as the all-around fastest form of urban transportation. We have legitimized the bicycle as an essential component for every modern package delivery business.

We question the necessity of a substantial portion of inner city auto traffic, but are realistic and strive to promote balance. We are not bike fascists! Many of us have mothers, friends, children and loved ones who are non-cyclists (though we will never give up on trying to convince them to get on a bike!) not to mention co-workers in the package delivery trade.

We rejoice in the possibilities that exist for emission-free motorized transport. We believe a revolution in urban transporation is self-evident and well underway. We believe the bicycle is a central feature of responsible modern urban planning.

We rage at the senseless deaths resulting from the opening of car doors before checking for
cyclists, and we mourn every victim of road rage. We strive to promote understanding between all road users.

We are proud that our home, Berlin, is a world leader in cycling policy and home to hundreds of thousands of daily bicycle commuters, bike paths and bike racks.

We believe the increasing worldwide phenomena of urban cycling began with the example set by the bike messenger. We view this phenomenom as a fundamental shift in consciousness that will continue to grow and increasingly affect society in a positive way, not only improving urban transportation policy.

We are proud to host the ECMC in our hometown Berlin, to showcase our committment to the international bike messenger culture, our love of the bicycle and the lifestyle that follows its daily use, and simply spreading the word that riding around the city with your friends or alone is FUN.

We welcome you to join us in celebrating the culture of the urban cyclist, chiefly its progenitor and most expert adherent, the bike messenger!

HOORAY FOR BIKE MESSENGERS!
VIVA LA BIKE-FRIENDLY CITY!
SUPPORT ECMC 2009!

walking is silly

2009-05-14T12:16:00.000+02:00

[11:45:20] james says: and im doing research
[11:45:27] B says: on facebook?
[11:45:32] james says: im not sure how work related it is...
[11:45:44] james says: hehe nope i just pop onto fb once in a while
[11:46:00] B says: haha i made research on bicycle helmets yesterday
[11:46:10] james says: oh yeah? which one u like?
[11:46:13] B says: there are actually a couple of really good papers
[11:46:18] B says: aah i don't use one!
[11:46:34] james says: u reading academic writing on helmets?
[11:46:43] B says: and i made research to find an empirical reason for it
[11:46:53] B says: yepyep 8-|
[11:46:56] james says: and?
[11:47:05] B says: okay... i try a short summary
[11:47:41] B says: laws making wearing helmets mandatory are bullshit
[11:47:43] B says: because
[11:48:16] B says: this makes less people ride bikes -> less bicycles on the streets -> higher risk for those left on the streets
[11:48:46] james says: ha ha ha i like it... so helmets = dangerous!
[11:48:54] B says: exactely!!
[11:49:17] james says: great use of statistics (smoking)
[11:49:44] B says: less people riding bicycles -> way higher costs for the public health system by people doing less sport then the actual little less costs by maybe little less severe head injuries
[11:49:54] B says: another thing:
[11:50:19] B says: riding with helmet -> ø 5,8cm less distance kept by cars driving by
[11:50:29] james says: hahahahaha
[11:50:33] james says: brilliant!
[11:50:38] B says: helmet -> more feeling of safety -> riding less careful
[11:51:02] B says: riding bikes is no risk sport
[11:51:22] james says: my mountain biking friends in cape town always say: there is only one thing more dangerous than putting on a helmet
[11:51:30] james says: and that is when someone pulls out a camera
[11:52:02] B says: of all serious head injuries: 50% in cars (passangers+öedestrians), 20% falls, 10% homicide/suicide BUT only 2%cyclists
[11:52:19] B says: SO why should not all the others have to where helmets???!!
[11:52:30] james says: hehehe
[11:52:33] B says: hahaaa, fucking right!
[11:52:44] james says: youre right! we should have to wear a helmet just to get out of bed...
[11:52:55] james says: but sometimes bed can also be a source of head injuries...
[11:52:59] james says: eish
[11:53:00] james says: sorry
[11:53:03] B says: hehe
[11:53:25] james says: i mean that after a night drinking i often wake up with a headache... damn bed!
[11:53:27] B says: you have to ride 18 000 years to get one fatal head injury
[11:53:31] B says: in average
[11:53:42] B says: hahqaa u so right!!!
[11:53:55] james says: aaah i love statisitics...
[11:53:59] B says: damn i found so many cool statistics

nope!

2009-04-03T13:58:00.003+02:00

how about a little mid afternoon subversion..?

our dreams dont fit on your ballots indeed

arnhem

2009-04-01T10:25:00.002+02:00

heres a race report in vincent's own words, respect to the man on his 13th anniversary of being a courier www.haute-courier.nl

so yeah, stinky messengers, beer, bikes, manifests and some flat out riding in a strange city following someone that i thought was a local and turned out to also be from another country, but me and stoffel definatly represented

mental note: wear more black

many people have asked what this photo is all about, am i asking for my dignity back? have i just set free a peace pigeon? erm well no not exactly... i was just telling the guy who beat me in the final sprint what i thought of him. lets just say if it wasnt such a bold overtaking move and there were actually some rules, i might have been grumpy, but respect to mr blom!

this weekend is the 'take me to the bridges' alleycat in amsterdam, this is all i know about it:

-------------

Tevens wordt op Zaterdag 4 april 19.00 uur een alleycat georganiseerd in Amsterdam:

Take me to the bridge Alleycat

http://www.dutchmessengers.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=307#p307

------------

see u at the belgique...

james dawson

u know when u just have to tell someone..?

2009-03-13T13:41:00.004+01:00

so i just did the un-do-able. or undid the totally done. or what ever way u look at performed a small miracle like just in the nick of time! i wish i had before and after photos to illustrate the tale, but i have at least a few witnesses of nico falling on my back wheel during last sunday's polo game, and the resulting "wheel-so-buckled-it-wont-pass-thru-the-frame"-ness. strangely, i was more concerned about the scrape he got on his arm than my wheel and he was more concerned about my back wheel than his arm. but anyway, what are days off for? fixing bikes! or performing small miracles, but yeah, witnesses are required for the latter i guess. anyway, it didnt need a new rim, it didnt need any new spokes, and its almost more straight than it was before the game of polo! all i did was totally reduce the tension on the spokes, hit the rim on the ground a few times and tension it back up till it was straight. and no, i havent measured the tension to check if its even on all the spokes, i dont want to. i dont need to infact. there is no chance it is. but the wheels on my bike go round and round again. just in time for the arnhem alleycat! see u there

u throw like a...

2009-02-06T16:45:00.003+01:00

sometimes all it takes is a serious act of defiance to make my day. 'who throws a shoe' indeed... nice photo selection at this site actually, pity they try so hard to not let u 'steal them' pshhh

who is coming to zwolle this weekend for some bike racing? second race of the kattenbakklassement. weather is looking good. better go polish my fixie, put on my flat bars and dig out those skinny jeans

the haters

2009-02-01T13:19:00.002+01:00

my friend harry is such a nice guy, he sends me such friendly messages

i guess that harry's message averages out then love i got from a 2nd hand bike shop owner on friday (having a day off from the office job once every 2 weeks to play with bikes is a beautiful thing). i needed a spoke and a cone for my back wheel to stop the wheel from brushing my frame and the hub from eating its bearings like secret candy treats, and to make me go faster of course. to cut a long story short, because im not welcome at the worlds most pretentious bike shop anymore (that also happens to be pretty much the only bike shop in amsterdam that i had a hope of getting the stuff i needed) this was possibly going to be quite difficult. until my new brazilian bike mechanic friend let me use his tools and collection of used but still useful parts, inlcuding perfect length spokes, while he had a sandwich and talked about stopping his fixie by skuffing on his front wheel. mental note: must try that sometime...

so now the bike is running smooth and fast and my brazilian bike mechanic friend has been introduced to artistic candy

low down

2009-01-28T12:24:00.003+01:00

i'd like to start by saying that, no, this is not me... just for the record. thanks for checking tho, deon.

on that note, both friday night at the korsakoff and saturday night at canvas finished upright (at least for some of us, no names mentioned huh sander?)

id like to finish by asking when was the last time you got full use out of a paperclip?

1 gear

2009-01-12T16:27:00.004+01:00

is better than 27

so i dont think the organisers quite get it... singlespeed class started at 6:55am. im assuming thats the earliest most of the guys on the start line were up in a long time! but respect to the 10+ people that showed up and provided some awesome start line atmosphere and mid singletrack banter.

crosstown cycles represented and took the top 2 spots on the podium. or was it 7 of the 8 beers provided as prizes (thanks william). 4 beers for 1st, 3 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. but as i remember it, at least everyone in the top 6 had a beer in his hand before 8:30am. thanks for the loan of the frame dob, and the helmet and gloves, gav, couldnt have done it without them!

results

pink gav's race report

2009-01-08T11:58:00.002+01:00

So, the inaugural Thursday Night Fixie Race was held at the Bremner Builder, just above the Baxter in Rosebank last night.

The race started somewhere around 8:47 after a few beers, the format was 5 minutes on the circuit
plus 1 lap after that, 15 points were awarded for lapping the bunch, 20 points for crossing the finish line 1st, 15 for 2nd and 10 for 3rd.

The race got underway, timed and controlled by Dick (of course) and the action was hot from the start, eventually after a few scraped pedals on the corners and some near misses with parked cars in the dark it came down to the final sprint.

Final results were:

1st in the Handbag category was James “Whipping Boy” Dawson

2nd in the Handbag category was Stevie “I can like to be hard” Burnett.

1st in the fixie cat was Pink Gav

2nd in the fixie cat was Santa Dave

3rd in the fixie cat was Camo Dave

Some smack talk and abuse was exchanged, the beer was drunk then we headed down to Champs on Vic (a fine establishment) where James (the winner of the handbag category) bought some quarts.

All in all a fine evening out!

See you all on Thursday the 22nd of January, for round 2 and a new format.

Later boys and girls (we’ll send out pic’s a bit later, not much lighting was available though).

(handbag = freewheel - james)

72 gear inches

2008-12-03T09:36:00.003+01:00

i like this so much i stole it, from someone else who stole it...

and i think i've figured out why off-the-shelf fixies come with a 48-18 ratio. 72 gear inches (exactly). oh and 51 also divisible by 17, deon.

a while ago

2008-11-20T15:10:00.003+01:00

a little bike project happened... when it was still sunny in amsterdam. wow that was a while ago :-D

the skinny bridge

2008-11-18T16:11:00.004+01:00

so eventually u stop fighting it and just let people take photos of you. often theyre kind enough to send them to you. this was a marvellous place to spend my lunch break...

Grotere kaart weergeven

kinda like this one: "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race... cycle tracks will abound in Utopia." H.G. Wells. i stole it from here.

htfu

2008-11-15T18:19:00.001+01:00

great name for an alleycat (in london)

a bit of a race report here even. if u get a chance, browse the charge site and check out the ti fixie trickster frame, mmm...

fixies and maths

2008-11-13T15:59:00.002+01:00

when youre picking your next chainring or cog, its important to know how many skid patches the resulting combination will leave u with... ok im assuming two things here: firstly you dont have all the money in the world and enough time to go with it to keep changing your back tire, and secondly that you use your back tire to stop, not your front rim or something similarly silly. so here is a list of relevant prime numbers

2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71

currently i ride a 51-19. jees i thought 51 was a prime number..? noddy badge for anyone who can tell me what it is divisible by (other than 1 and itself). apparently it still gives me 19 skid patches (according to the application on my mate's iphone that is). thats kinda cost effective, no?

found this on an irish forum, so im not the only one talking about it:

"You will never get more skid patches than the number of teeth on your sprocket, (you may get less, depending on the chainring) so more teeth is always better in that regard. You can get up to the max skid patches with a non-prime sprocket, you just have a wider range of possible chainrings with a prime sprocket (and vice versa.) A 47T chainring will give you the most possible skid patches with any rear sprocket, so it could be a very good choice."

why do almost all off the shelf fixies come with a 48-18 then? only 3 skid patches, unless ur an ambi-skidder... i guess they also come with brakes

berlin

2008-11-02T15:00:00.002+01:00

almost 4 hours, almost all the checkpoints, berlin rocks. thanks to astrid for having us, and to fish and jur for, well, being fish and jur

5degrees and raining

2008-10-29T17:22:00.004+01:00

makes u feel pretty alive. well afterwards. like quite a while afterwards, after the shower and much toast marmite cheese and eggs. like when u get the feeling back in your toes. im finding out that warm dry toes is pretty much the holy grail of being a bike messenger in a wet northern hemisphere winter. speaking of the wet northern hemisphere: u recognise anyone here?

now i gotta go look for an outfit for the berlin halloween alleycat race. apparently its gonna be fast. like crazy fast. but the real winner is the best outfit. so in 24 hrs ill singing karaoke in berlin with crazies from all over europe preparing a good german beer hangover for the next morning's festivities. speaking of germans

didnt watching die fetten jahre sind vorbei make u want to join a radical left wing political movement? or just start your own... whats the most radical leftist organisation you can think of? do u have to be mexican to join the zapatistas? i think we should tell all the stinking rich people that they have too much money and their days of plenty are numbered

msngrng

2008-10-05T11:23:00.004+02:00

so i tried to go big corporate (again) and it seems this time they even saw thru my suit and my old boys tie. or maybe i was given away by the glint in my eye that came from riding in the rain for nine hours the day before. ill be honest, i thought of quitting the messenger dream more than 9 times the day before the big interview cos it was cold, frikken cold, and still early days in the european winter. but when i arrived back to the office at the end of the day and saw the looks on the faces of guys from cold countries like finland and um well, the netherlands, it became a little clearer to me what had just happened. this was one of those special days, u dont get many of them in a year. they suck. normally when its that cold, it doesnt rain so much here. on tuesday it was cold and it rained all day long. then there was friday, blue skies and sunshine, no wind, it was good not to be stuck in an office again. oh, and to be paid to ride a bike!

i have new found respect for the cold and the wet. luckily the boss gives us good clothes to wear. now all i need is some shoe covers and i can test my theory that winter is worse when ur indoors...

amsterdam alleycat

2008-10-02T13:34:00.002+02:00

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=7980879

click about half way. ignore the dutch if u cant understand it. look out for the pink handlebars.

i wish i had given this speech

2008-09-23T22:18:00.000+02:00

This is a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quintile at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.

"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know.

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living.

But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul. People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today:

Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again.

It is so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination.

I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face.

Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".

this song reminds me of u

2008-09-03T21:56:00.002+02:00

ever had someone say that a song reminds them of you? well it happened to me today for just the second time (as far as i can remember). its kinda of a weird feeling... as it turns out both are pretty intense, quality tunes. here is the most recent one, thanks kuki, good tune, video and thought provocation. this is the other one which is still kinda smells of beer and mercury, nice, 'ey davo?

fair

2008-08-20T11:57:00.004+02:00

the video is over a year old but i guess it sums up the work that oxfam novib and other people are doing and what fuels it. sit thru the 6 minutes odd, note the solutions suggested, its not all negative!

fancy a slightly more light hearted approach? or just a snack from the FEBO? mmm mmm mmmm

catch up time

2008-08-18T14:44:00.002+02:00

have u read einstein's dreams? i just did and its pretty special! just a few days later i get an email from me mate marco in switzerland telling me he saw me on tv. as i read his email it all unfolded in my head... i remember that night at the waiting room. kinda. well i definately remember the obnoxious german film crew. i think i was rude to them. past that i took very little notice of them and got on with the evenings activities: you know what happens where they serve erdinger and play fat freddies drop...

these are me mate marco's words:

well, you can find it on www.zdf.de. the you look under "search" and wright in there "traumstädte". then you will find Kapstatt witch means capetown :). click on it an look the video. an i think after 34 minutes you can see you an sara shaking hard!
this is super! how small the world is.....

but the connection to the book... well. there i was just living my life and on the other side of the world, in another language, some friends from an almost previous life see me and get back in touch. little loop in space time created? anyway. good book. read it.

who knows this one, yes, WHO knows THis ONE!?

2008-08-14T14:09:00.002+02:00

swift anyone? davo, how do u actually spell 'mampy'?

lets do some web 2.0 stuff. yeah i just figured out what those people in their IT ivory towers were on about whenever they say two point owe! honestly guys. get over it. its just sharing. so because the idiots at universal music wouldnt let me embed 'their' video in this posting, i got it from some other guy who spliced it together with some random clips and stuff. i think this one is better anyway. good old hoobastank.

i couldnt help but connect the video above with the video below. yeah papa roach its a real blast from the year 2000!

u gotta love guys in white suits playing golf in the grounds of a mansion. at least it diverges from the cliche of chicks and cars. actually i think it may well have preceded the cliche.

share more

walking around de pijp

2008-07-20T13:50:00.003+02:00

i was just walking around de pijp looking for the fietsfabriek shop that was rumoured to have the best new €100 bikes available in amsterdam. the closest i got to said bike was an offer of a cup of coffee from the owner of the fietsfabriek shop who enjoyed hearing my attempts to speak dutch. turns out these fabled bikes were (a) not made by the fietsfabriek whos cheapest bike is around €800 and rather stylish (if you live in amsterdam), and (b) sold out.

really tho this post is just for my mom who is probably the only person who will appreciate the fact that i found a meditation centre called shambala (while walking around de pijp) and took photos of it with her old phone

i did get a bike in the end tho. its purple. and a sticker says it was made in holland. no one is quite sure when tho.

poor kids

2008-07-12T19:48:00.003+02:00

according to a postcard here in the netherlands: 'arm zijn is uit. rijk zijn is in.' basically thats saying that being poor is out and being rich is in. i agree, being poor is so last season. unfortunately i feel like im still adhering to last seasons fashions.

but being poor does have its advantages i guess. before that gets taken the wrong way im just trying to figure out why i fix what others throw away. and enjoy it so much. yes. thats a lot of white saddle. the middle one is enjoying its 4th incarnation while the other two are infants in the cycle starting only their second lives as saddles. i guess moving up the saddle wheel of fortune can only take a saddle so far. but i reckon being a white saddle has to be pretty near the top. too many potential mixed metaphors to safely continue. gonna go ride now.

heaven help the roses

2008-05-19T14:43:00.005+02:00

when the bombs begin to fall

go andy

2008-05-16T11:04:00.002+02:00

nice sunnies mate (circa 1988)

honestly

2008-03-02T13:36:00.002+01:00

whats the problem? after a big night to say cheerio/bugger-off to our mate duncan who succumbed to the pull of joburgs gold, we decided to go jump off some high things into the hermanus reservoir. good times. the water level was pretty damn low, so i'll freely admit we didnt even attempt the big guy. we reckoned it was like.. too high. dunno how high that is in metres, but probably over 20. but there is still something special about hiking up into the bush on a (mid-summer) winters morning until u cant see any people or their houses and then jumping into a dark dark full-of-tanins dam. it was probably the same temperature in the water as the air. now it was raining right, so both my walking clothing and my cleverly brought along separate swimming clothing got wet. so my original plan to protect the old man's nice leather seats was foiled.

anyway, i still dont think there is anything wrong with driving home in your boxers. some hermanus grannies did tho and they voiced their disapproval quite clearly through their hooter. hence the photo. nice one deon.

back in black

2008-02-28T07:20:00.003+01:00

deep dark africa huh? is it really all that dark? well negativity can make things seem pretty dark. the threat of no electricity dims things a little. zuma being on trial however may provide a little light at the end of the tunnel. its sure not boring to be back in cape town! i went to a super-insightful lecture by clem sunter and chantell illbury last night at UCT's graduate school of business, well, dawson fabrications had to sent a representative. i guess i was (naively) wondering why the zuma trial and eskom being morons was making such headlines before this lecture. i mean sure we need electricity but right now i'v got it and president shmeshident woe woe what is he good for anyway..? clem put it pretty succinctly when he said (and i dont quote him) that the economy wont grow until we have power, and if there is political violence related to the zuma trial we will become another kenya, plonkers... so im back to watching the news i guess. that is when im not riding with the boys, plum pudding, yeah welcome back!

almost somewhere

2007-11-25T04:33:00.000+01:00

ive been instructed by his holiness the dalai lama up in mcleodganj, been a celebrity at the golden temple in amritsar, seen a food poisoned blur of the taj mahal in agra, some buildings from james bond in udaipur and somehow we have found ourselves on a sun-and-trance-soaked-beach in goa. kingfisher makes great beer, good aeroplanes and pretty average bottled water. ok i give up trying to describe my indian experience, hopefully these pics will help otherwise lets have a chat, ill be in cape town on the 6th of december! see you on a bike

red bridges

2007-09-28T09:26:00.000+02:00

this is what we did on the last sunny sunday of amsterdam summer

2 more weeks till india baby

almost a fake-enger

2007-09-02T05:08:00.000+02:00

its almost there, one gear, new colour scheme and it rides like a dream...

pity the streets of amsterdam have holes thicker than my tires and the tourists ride soooo damn slowly! haha jokes, we love them really... :-)

now i just have to stick to the origional plan of selling it before i go cos im kinda getting attached to it, aah 1 more bike wont hurt will it?

the bike project

2007-08-22T05:37:00.000+02:00

wow, its been a while... i have been to and come back from south africa, pretty much finished a thesis and started a new bike project! in amsterdam there are far too many uncool bikes (yes yes thats my opinion) and i have owned a few of them, so now its time to make an uber-cool bike, as only those who ride bikes all day can do, its time for the messenger bike! or rather, cos i may never be hard/cool enough to be a messenger, its time for the fake-enger bike! only a few rules, low budget, low number of gears (preferably just one), low chance of injury (so it will have brakes)... after scouring the online marketplaces i found just the bike, it was a half hour train ride away, the right size and not very expensive... i bet you dont know what 1985 shimano 600 looks like, i give u a hint, 5 gears, i think ornate is the word

so its gonna be a 4 maybe 5 phase process, these photos are at the end of phase 1, ie i had pumped up the new tires and straightened the saddle etc... just wait for it, oooh its going to be shweet!

writing on the wall

2007-06-21T10:22:00.000+02:00

any ideas what it means? saw it on a wall opposite from a great curry in cambridge

choc chip banana muffins anyone? mmm good...

racing again, at last

2007-06-04T09:20:00.000+02:00

so i think i have a little theory about fitness... its got to do with there being a difference between being 'in shape' and being 'out of shape', ja ja i know thats pretty obvious, but especially obvious to me now that i have finally raced a bike again! i think being out of shape is like having an engine limiter, u got plenty of power but ur never gonna be able to use it all. well at least thats how i felt when i had to sit down and swallow half way up a few hills during the race... hmmm humbling! but fun! so i rocked up thinking i would be the only guy who knew which way to wear a helmet at the amateur section of the benelux (belgium netherlands luxembourg ie international) championships only to find 160 other guys on flash bikes with sponsored kit all looking really fast (and some of them werent only fast in the parking lot), amateur my ass... so i got thumped, but i still beat a good few of them so its all good, the best part about it was that my knee held out fine so... its time to get out of my 'out of shape' state, into an 'in shape' state so i can train properly and get fast, oh ja that was the rest of my theory.

barcelona

2007-06-03T09:13:00.000+02:00

wow that was a sneaky holiday! whats the best part about your girlfriend getting a new job? when she books you tickets to barcelona to celebrate! even the bus driver was cool, im almost ashamed to say id never heard of 'cat power' before, but it made for the most mellow bus ride from an airport into a major city i ever had, and then the bus driver busted our some kruder and dorfmeister for good measure, nice... after that it was a blur of sun, tapas, spanish beer, gaudi and remarkable short spanish people! or is that just cos the dutch are remarkably tall... there was a great system of bikes that you could drop off and pick up where ever there were stands (www.bicing.com) only it was all in spanish so i had no idea how it worked other than that. what a cool city!

bye bye bicycle

2007-04-24T10:49:00.000+02:00

thanks for all the comments on my last post, im looking forward to seeing and riding (not racing) with you all again soon too! is it something in what i say that makes everyone want to race me? or am i just so over-competitive that i am hyper-sensitive to any kind of challenge..? hmmm i bet i can still eat more pancakes than u! hehe
well they say you havent lived in amsterdam until your bike has been stolen, ok... so now that i have lived, can i have my bike back please? no no dont worry, it was just my crusty city bike (sniff sniff and ill miss the rusty ol bugga) that has been recycled... maybe there is a limit to the number of bicycles one can have imposed by the universe, cos no sooner had i built the sycip again and poof there goes my crusty bike... oh well back to walking!

a well spent monday night

2007-04-17T09:08:00.000+02:00

after the complaints about the lack of racing on my racing blog and in response to the cocky emails about how strong i will need to be when i come back to south africa, i thought i would post a few photos to show you what i think of all that... jip, those are very light rims, crazy light spokes, xtr hubs and there is a drop of lube in each alu nipple: just for you dobinson! he he bring it on fatboy, yes... im still hungry :-)

making candy

2007-04-02T10:33:00.000+02:00

my job is giving candy to strangers... cool huh?

maart roert zijn staart

2007-03-19T09:18:00.000+01:00

iiiits snowing!

last week it was almost summer, but in retrospect it was a bit early for that summer haircut... (the title means: march wags its tail - i think the ducth have a joke about the bad weather for every month actually)

2 quick things

2007-03-14T04:27:00.000+01:00

(1)i just read something on the MIT OpenCourseWare site (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/index.htm - if you enjoy the site youre also a nerd!) regarding sociology of knowledge... you see now iv been wondering just how is knowledge created - more specifically: how are objects of knowledge formed? - and it was put so simply that i feel a bit stupid for wondering: by experiments, by theories and framing questions and by ethical presuppositions...
(2)but back on earth iv also been thinking about how to wash my bike living on the 6th floor of a building without a garden... just how angry can a landlord get if he catches you washing your bike in the shower (or a girlfriend for that matter)? at least the grease seems to leave a slightly sticky layer on the floor rather than a slippery one... anyone got a good recipe for bike wash from common household cleaning products?

why stress?

2007-03-05T09:57:00.000+01:00

in all my stressing about writing a masters thesis i have forgotten to write anything here about it, which is stupid cos seeing your own words on a subject most of the time allows you to think about it more clearly, or realise that you are completely stuffed and need to start again, what ever the case, write it down, it really helps... i have been thinking off adding guest writers to this blog, anyone keen, just post a comment and ill contact you. So the one thing I have realised while stressing about thesis writing (you see i decided to force myself to finish by the middle of july by buying a flight back to SA) is that interesting topics are not hard to come by, there are plenty of controversies in science and loads of inconsistent policies in the political and scientific arena, but how (the big H word) on earth does one approach it from a science dynamics or sociology of science point of view? ok ok i can almost see all the engineers cringing at the use of the 's' word (sociology) but its not all up in the air here, there is some wild hugely computer intesive quantitative research going on even in the realms of the sociology department, i could recommend a paper (have u read it yet dave?) but im not sure ud read it... back to the plan: i have meetings with two potential supervisors today and im not going to leave their offices until i have 3 examples of great methodologies that will work for a 4 month thesis projects in my hand! oh an i maxed out the credit card and bought lots of xtr too...

a new day

2007-02-13T10:54:00.000+01:00

having a laptop, especially a shiny silver one, is very cool, but with each new technology seems to come new problems... has it satisfied my consumer tendencies? i think not, it seems merely to have wet my appetite! well im not going to go on much more about this, but i would never have thought that having a laptop would actually exaggerate the lack of internet connectivity frustrations, its kind of like getting buyers remorse before youve even paid... is it?
but really, i have thought about white picket fences for a while and im not sure they can make a come back, things have changed (just read steve's comment) and thinking whether it is for the better or not is irrelevant...
now im thinking about what to write a masters thesis on... i started out being totally sure that i want to write about health and food and maybe even specifically sugar, but then climate change and political rhetoric just got more and more interesting... (heres an interesting article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6335899.stm) the important thing to consider is that i am not to investigate specific technology but rather how a specific technology is interpreted by society, we all know that sugar was invented pretty recently (do we?) and some of us know that it is present in larger and larger proportions in all our food, even few of us know that it may be this sugar presence that causes grumpiness, lack of concentration, diabetes, obesity to name but a few... but what does this mean? why do i react differently to this information to you? again, no better or worse distinction implied, im just finding what is truth for me... any ideas? its gotta be done by july so i can race the imana again!

something other than bikes and pancakes

2007-01-30T08:21:00.000+01:00

you want to know a little more about what im doing up here in the north west of europe do ya? well i just finished a marathon of 5 essays in 5 days! nope thats not how hard they work you here in amsterdam, thats just how hard i made it for myself by having a holiday at an inappropriate time... but all that writing (it was somewhere near 6000 words) did make me think just a little bit, and there was one particular thing that i felt was share-worthy... its a concept that a guy (actually a really famous british sociologist) called anthony giddens came up with that just keeps bouncing around in my head, it may do the same if you're one of the 'just-about-everyone-i-know' people in a relationship, well, actually i think it affects all of us but here goes: he talks about how the institution of family is becoming more flexible, how we are increasingly free to choose our mates and how we relate to them, sounds good huh? in fact he goes on to say that this creates unparalleled opportunities... but and its a big butt... it also creates a lot of work, because a relationship becomes a reflexive project which has to be interpreted, maintained and at times worried over... no those arent all my own words, but you get the point, no? cant we go back to the simple days, i want a white picket fence... i think... you happy now, davo?

the italy experience

2007-01-23T09:10:00.000+01:00

start with cold pizza in the park... then walk along a big old river

to a reaaallly famous old building (or is it a reaaallly old famous building?)

but make sure u watch out for the italian traffic...

shiny things

2007-01-22T23:10:00.000+01:00

aah i nice shiny apple laptop sure keeps you warm at night... nope its not mine, although i should have mine in a day or three, im just house sitting for a friend and in return for taking care of the kittens i get to play with her laptop, and wireless internet, and that has taken up just about all of my time! well, apart from it being 2 degrees outside, actually that has something to do with it, it might snow... i was going to say that apart from that, things are looking pretty peachy up here in north western europe, the sycip is on its way back home, all shiny and new, they even fixed the dents, those nice men at the bike factory are quite something huh..? pictures to follow

is it too late to say 'happy new year'?

2007-01-10T01:06:00.000+01:00

so we're back from italy feeling over pizza-ed and a little broke, what a cool experience tho! new years eve was spent with a bottle of champagne (and thousand or so other people also with bottles of champagne) on a hill overlooking rome watching the fireworks, then we were prevented from going to a party a long way away by the diabolical taxi system in rome, we just couldnt get one... but all ended well cos i got to eat a donut that was to big to hold with one hand! well anyway, its a new year and i wish you all well! i got an appointment with a coach at the university of amsterdam sport centre, its time to get back into shape!

blingle bells

2006-12-23T00:47:00.000+01:00

who else wants some pink chris king parts for christmas? well im busy negotiating some as we speak... with myself that is! so its been a busy few weeks with school and work, but its all going to pay of because its holiday time! first stop is a farm in a place called... um waldrighem? ok i know the spelling is completely wrong, so anyway its a friends parents farm somewhere in the netherlands. christmas is going to be spent there, then its off to somewhere else for first christmas day (the dutch have 3 christmas days, the less important the person the later they get visited... jees no pressure) and then its off to rome!!! woohoo bring on the pasta pizza and icecream... see you all in the new year!

almost christmas

2006-12-04T05:03:00.000+01:00

and all i want since i have some front teeth is a flight to somewhere warm... and a macbook pro... and a nice tasty snack right now... actually what i want is not to want... does that make sense to anyone else? it seems im affected by the christmas spirit... although i would like to complement the dutch on the fact that it is already december and im not completely sick of the christmas spirit, i do think the fact that they have a whole seemingly separate tradition of Sinterklaas on the 5th of december has a large influence here tho... look it up on wikipedia, get to know a dutch person today! i think im going to go get that tasty sinterklaas inspired snack right now!

cheaper bike parts

2006-11-21T10:56:00.000+01:00

i wish they would start genetically engineering these

cheaper food

2006-11-20T16:54:00.000+01:00

has anyone seen the movie 'we feed the world'? well i watched it yesterday in dutch (achievment of the week) and found it quite unpleasant... no not the dutch part... its not that i learnt a lot of new things about globalisation, genetic modification and general human cruelty, its more that i had been hiding my conscience quite successfully up until now, shopping at supermarkets etc and that movie blew its cover! one of the things brought to our attention is that the amount of bread thrown away each day without being sold in the largest city of one european country is enough to feed the second largest city of that country... will someone explain to me why we need to genetically modify our food? www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/index.htm check it out!

a photo story

2006-11-06T11:37:00.000+01:00

only a short story tho but plenty of space for imagination...

thats a nice bike isnt it? but how am i going to get it?

i reckon ill try hustling all the indoor trainer competitions

or maybe ill make candy!

much respect on the world champs effort Gav! read his story

a pic from the imana wild ride

2006-10-24T15:30:00.000+02:00

they needed a helicopter to keep up... damn that was a cool race

bike candy

2006-10-22T10:42:00.000+02:00

what is a better way to describe how i felt yesterday while walking, with the dutchie in tow, around the huge bike exhibition in utrecht yesterday? happy as a pig in shit, or a little boy in a candy shop - well i suppose that depends on who you talk to... that was a brief escape from the exam week i am currently in the middle of which entails writing writing writing, it seems its all about essays in this course... the outing also coincided with the arrival of my free transport card, thanks dutch government, i can travel anywhere in the netherlands for free! (week days or weekends, i chose weekends as there is no chance i can get away during the week) well try as i might i am not going to be able to write this without mentioning the wpmba provincial probably taking place right now, hope it goes well for the people i like, and just a touch less well for everyone else (is that fair?), heard it was a kuk course anyway, anyone want to give a race report? hey gavin, how was world champs?

ok, who am i fooling?

2006-09-26T10:59:00.000+02:00

so i dont have much to say about cycling... i managed to ride twice last week, a grand total of just under 4 hrs of cycling... but there definately is something to be said for the training advantages of a completely flat course (i spose that depends on whether ur a climber or not), maybe im just getting unfit, but 2 hrs on the flat really takes it out of your legs... ok so i spose still do have a bit to say about cycling... how was road world champs? maximum respect to paulo bettini for doing his gold helmet justice and dominating, what a machine! but actually i was going to write about what has been distracting me recently... if ur wandering what im studying, well i had to read an article for our class today about the different space station designs that NASA has come up with and how they have been shaped by the political system of the time (as well obviously as the technology available, but in a way the technological advancement was paid for by the government so really, its all political... hmm interesting!) oh what colour should i have my red bike repainted (im considering getting disc brake tabs welded on...)?

(junk)food for thoughts

2006-09-05T10:25:00.000+02:00

just to prove to you that the netherlands is not just about cheese and baked goods (i mean seriously good high fat baked goods, which as market forces would dictate it seems now all have lower fat equivalents, c'mon guys margarine causes high cholesterol, wait, or is it the other way round..?) here is a party photo (from left to right, its floris, me, wietse, cynt, marijn and jof)... and a photo of some baked goods the south africans amongst us may be familiar with (dont we have like international rights to marie biscuits or something?) this big pack only cost 60 euro cents! oh, and this is the masters course im doing: www.studeren.uva.nl/msc_science_and_technology_studies/

life in between cycling

2006-08-31T08:38:00.000+02:00

hi, my name is james and im a cycle-a-holic, its been a week since my last ride tho and it feels a bit strange... it hasnt only been the weather that has prevented me from riding, id have to admit there is an element of laziness, a general lack of motivation to train (ive realised that one really needs this in the absence of mountains and beautiful trails) and a thousand other things to do! Lets start with the thousand other things to do: I am studying a Masters at the University of Amsterdam! Signed up yesterday, start lectures on Monday! Feels like a bit of a crazy last minute decision, well not that crazy actually im pretty stoked that i can start straight away... So im going to be here for a year at least, which brings me to the general lack of motivation to train: Theres not much mountain biking here, but there is cyclocross! Now all i need is a cyclocross bike and a schedule of the races and bingo, motivation! But as with starting up in every new city there are a tonne of forms to fill out and queues to stand in, and jobs to find... ahem... jobs please..?!? Well after approaching anyone that looked like they would have me i now have two potential job opportunities, dont want to jinx either of them so post more about that later!

which way do i point this thing?

2006-08-21T13:08:00.000+02:00

What does one do when there are no mountains to ride one's bike thru? Race a road bike on a Criterium ciruit! So lets just say Im new to this game, road bikes, angry roadies, going really fast in the same gear for 2 hrs... Hmmm So its Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at the Sportpark Sloten in South Amsterdam for some roady craziness for me. Ive been twice and lets just say it hasnt been uneventful. I got shouted at by some guy before we had even started the second lap of a 3or4 minute course on Wednesday (still not sure what i was doing wrong). I ended up in the grass on the side of the track after clipping the back wheel (while drinking) of a muppet who clearly saw my weakness (being the fact that i was drinking i assume) and took the oppurtunity to overtake. But today will be different, I will learn how to go forwards in a peleton rather than backwards, and I will pedal harder... oh yes... pedal harder!

a photo or 2

2006-08-10T21:55:00.000+02:00

its all about having your name on a number board...

training amsterdam style (yip its raining)

swiss mud bath, i mean cup

2006-08-07T11:42:00.000+02:00

ok so firstly... heatwave, what heatwave? its done nothing but rain since i got here... its still at it, oh wait no its just overcast now...i asked one of the swiss guys what tires i should use and he smilled and we went to his basement... he pulled out some mean looking (check out shwalbe black shark mud tires i think) skinny ass soft mud tires and some latex tubes and patted me on the back...well it was touch and go on saturday with the weather forecast being sunny for the race, so i pre rode the course on my normal race tires and it was ok, bit slippery in places but ok... but when the heavens opened one more time on sat nite i went down to the basement and started changing tires, damn those things were skinny...oh the course... well now... i reckon there were about 5 or 6 sections that would have scared the crap out of almost everyone at nationals in SA, how do u say chicken run in swiss? well there werent any... wicked... sunny my ass... all it did was rain on sunday, the course was an absolute mud bath... the start was two laps of a grassy field section, i knew right away that the tires were right, i was cornering like i was on rails while others where sliding everywhere with feet out... started right at the back and passed quite a few people (prob about 80 ppl on the start) by the 1st single track...raced hard but very soon i was getting chainsuck, most ppl were running up the steep stuff anyway, but by lap 4 my brakes were gone and it was getting a little dangerous, soon i decided to save myself the pain and just stop... most of the pros were already in the showers anyway, i reckon less than half the field finished and my buddy old julien absolom (who will now be know as his royal fastness) had lapped all the way up to 15th place or so...ag it was a cool experience, i had my name on my number board and people were shouting it all over the course, it was wicked... ill be back for sure...

Bern baby...

2006-08-03T09:53:00.000+02:00

Long haul flying, what is it good for... Well i spose its faster than riding but only marginally more comfortable than spending 100 days straight in the saddle...
The bike and I arrived fine and we were reunited before you could say `big ass swiss mountains`, it was good to stretch the legs having not ridden since the Imana and sat in one place for 10 hrs more recently. Mike (one of the swiss guys I met in Stellenbosch whos house im staying at here in Bern), Martin (aka Tiger) and I rode up a hill called Gurten which is where the race is being held on the weekend. We then bombed down a downhill run with some mean jumps and a road gap for good measure. Bern is a pretty cool city, a lot smaller than i expected and surrounded by hills and forest. Pity its raining right now cos id love to be exploring it!
I wont lie, im getting a little worried by the fact that every person i ask about the race and whether they are taking part (even some pretty hardcore looking cyclists) kinda laughs and says no thats just for professionals... hmm bring on the ass-kicking! oh and apparently its an 8 lap course... nice!

Boldly into the unknown after conquering, well... the unknown

2006-08-01T13:53:00.000+02:00

Well the pieces went back together pretty well, in fact maybe all that super glue added a bit of overall strength... The Imana Wild Ride is quite possibly the best mountain biking experience one could ever have, get on the waiting list! A word of advice tho: Ride it with someone who knows the course! I did and it was like riding 200km of marked off goat tracks, beach and 4x4 track!
Well, team James (Jamie Smith and myself) had a bit of a disastrous day getting a little lost (following a previous winner of the event on a serious non-sneak) and finished in 5th place... We didnt take our eyes off the goal and chased hard and eventually starting day 4 in 1st position with 2 stage wins in between. Day 4 was tough but we held them off and took the win overall! Stoked! We'll be back next year to defend, see you there!
Its just a matter of hours now before i hop in the plane to switzerland. Last round of the swiss cup here I come!

picking up the pieces

2006-07-11T09:08:00.000+02:00

Before i am asked how the knysna race went, lets make it clear - we dont talk about the war...
Lets just say the wheels fell of at about the 2okm mark and no amount of sugar in the world could stick them back on. Came in the top 50 i spose but was beaten by the 1st lady and when you're going for top 10 thats a little soul destroying! So what now? The WPMBA race this weekend has been cancelled, not quite sure what to train for at the mo but i reckon i'll just train crazy hard in the meantime cos something will come up... See you on the trails!

Recovering well.

2006-06-27T17:24:00.000+02:00

Sometimes you ask yourself why you train so hard... just to crash like a cheese-filled sausage on the 1st lap of the big race! Well I must thank Jeroen and all those who convinced me to keep riding, even at my new slower speed resulting from a mangled leg I was able to secure some valuable points, official results to follow... It appears I was not the only person buying the farm or destroying their bike, what a cool course!
Back to Cape Town tomorrow just in time to head up to Knysna, see you there!

Day Before Nationals (Pretoria XC#3)

2006-06-23T11:37:00.000+02:00

Chilling in Joburg right now, just finished building the Sycip. Didn't take any chances this time and packed it in a box after the SAA staff played a game called 'jump on the expensive bike' last time... Oh well, they payed for that...
Going to go check out the course later, I've heard its flat-ish but technical, cant wait...

The beginning...

2006-06-17T21:24:00.000+02:00

Day 1... its late, check out the photo!