extreme bike riding

This is just insane.

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driver's paltry road rage fine

This motorist (Scott Lomas) tried to knock a cyclist (Martin Porter) off his bike, and admitted he was trying to kill him when confronted.  Luckily Porter caught it all on his helmet camera, and the driver has been taken to court and fined. But only fined £250, which to me, as a sometimes cyclist, is a load of crap. If he had actually hit Porter and sent him flying, there is a possibility he could have killed or seriously injured him. He would also be the sort of person who would drive like this on a regular basis, but because there is no evidence, gets away with it. Don't get me wrong, l have broken the law many times when l have been driving, and if caught, l expect to be harshly punished. £250 is bugger all, and acts as no deterrent to anybody. Bloody horses in the road get on my nerves, and it drives me mad having to slow down and be careful to pass them, but l haven't started beeping my car horn and driving into them (yet). If it will only cost me £250, l might re-consider my options. Saying that, the judge (or magistrate) probably does not like cyclists himself (I assume it's a man), but would punish me more for upsetting the horse riding community of (mainly) posh bastards that will be part of his social set. Purely a speculation you understand, and we may indeed find out more in the near future.
The video and more information is here.

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bikers in catterick

While l was out and about today minding my own business, l went to Tesco in Catterick for some much needed provisions (wine/cheese - you know how it goes), when l viddied a load of bikers by the new sports centre. I know it was a sunny day, and they like to meet up, but l think l would rather have been driving through the countryside, rather than hanging around, looking at an industrial estate. Honestly, some people have no imagination, and they are meant to be rock and roll hellraisers.

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tron motorbike

Ooooohhh, once again, if l only had the money........
This is just the sort of motorbike l should be riding. A rather magnificent and powerful Tron one from Hammacher Schlemmer, which is a snip at $55,000.
Still, it's lottery time again tomorrow, so there's always hope.

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animation on a bike wheel by katy beveridge

Why have l never seen this sort of thing before? There must be a market for it (including putting adverts on the spokes). This demonstration is by Katy Beveridge.

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slam

After cycling home from work today, once again cursing the wind, but at least not getting any more punctures (bloody thorn caused three!), I jumped into the bath when I got back and started Nick Hornby's 'Slam' (didn't read it all of it in the bath, I finished it later on). Now I would not say I am a massive fan of Nick Hornby, but I have read some of his other books and enjoyed them, such as Fever Pitch (the first one of his I read, and still my favorite), High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good and A Long Way Down (hmm, more than I thought - that's quite a few). This one however, was the worst I have read. It concerns a young skater (Sam), who gets a girl pregnant and then they have their baby. There is some more stuff about their families and life, but that is about it. No surprises, unless you count Sam going forward in time now and again to see his future, but he was (to me anyway) just dreaming. It was Sam narrating the tale all the way through, but the tale just enfolded as you would have expected (more or less). OK, but nothing special, thankfully it was only about £2 from the charity shop. If I had paid full wack for it I would have slapped Nick Hornby so hard the next time I saw him.

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bloody bike

The bike was magnificent yesterday after being souped up and the puncture fixed by yours truly the day before. It flew like Icarus himself towards the sunshine that is my work, only like Icarus, not quite making it all the way, as I got another bloody puncture about half a mile from my workplace. I therefore walked the last bit into work, yet still made it in on time as I had been going so fast previous to the puncture. Had to drop the bike off this morning and get a lift home at 3pm, so I have just been in the garden fixing the bloody thing again, so let's hope it will be OK for tomorrows journey in. At the moment the tyre is once again throbbingly hard and ready for action, begging to be mounted and taken to the promised land that is my work. It will probably end in tears.

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fixing a hole

Damn! Got my first puncture last week and got round to fixing it last night, as I have work again today. Took me back a bit, as I used to fix them all the time when I was but a nipper, but for fucks sake, I am nearly 60! (or feel like it). The memories came flooding back though, and I remembered what to do (I think). I have just been outside to check and the tyre is still throbbingly rock hard. I just hope the whole wheel doesn't fall off when I am half way to work. I am going to double check it is tight before I go. Souped it up a bit and altered the brakes as well, so I will get to work in half the time or kill myself, one or the other.

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