If you’ve not already seen this YouTube clip, then where have you been hiding? It’s about 4-year old Malcolm and his first descent of the first ramp on Hellion at Highland Mountain Bike Park. If this video doesn’t make you smile and want to go ride your bike, then nothing else will.
Enjoy!
For sale: 2011 Basso Astra (Black/Blue)
After moving to the UK over a decade ago and getting back into the world of cycling I said to myself that I should get a Basso again. Why? Well, in my last three years of racing as a junior all I rode on was a Basso Astra with Columbus EL OS (oversize) tubing. I have many fond memories of racing and training on that bike. So I wanted to rekindle those memories with a new Basso.
So in October 2010, off I went to Todays Cyclist and bought myself a new (well, actually a demo) Basso Astra (as you see it above). However, in November that year after entering a competition on Cyclingnews.com, I won for myself a brand new NeilPryde Diablo.
Over the coming months the poor Basso just stood in my study and gathered dust as I was now riding the NeilPryde. This was the main reason that last month I made the decision to sell the Basso. It was a hard decision for me to make, but it is something I had to do.
Now you have the chance to own this beautiful Italian racing machine! The total distance ridden on the bike comes to 300km’s. It did 200km while used as a demo bike for the 2011 range, and then I added 100km when the Diablo was in for a service at the bike shop. So it is mint condition and has been looked after.
The full specs for the bike (as it stands) are:
| Make | Basso |
| Model | Astra |
| Size | 53cm (seat tube, centre to top) |
| Colour | Black / Blue |
| Frame | Full carbon monocoque |
| Fork | Full carbon fibre |
| Groupset | Shimano Ultegra |
| Chainset | Shimano Ultegra 6750 10-speed 172.5 compact |
| Chain | KMC X10 Gold |
| Stem | MicroTech Race Black Carbon Bonded 110mm |
| Handlebar | MicroTech – Quantum Black – Carbon Monocoque 420mm |
| Headset | MicroTech |
| Rims | Mavic Ksyrium Elite |
| Hubs | Mavic Ksyrium Elite |
| Seatpost | Microtech Race Black Carbon Bonded |
| Saddle | Fizik Arione white |
| Additional | Comes with kevlar reinforced JagWire cabling |
| PRICE | £2000 ono |
If this interests you and you would like more information or have any questions, please give me a shout at: sweatngears [at] gmail.com (remember to replace the [at] with @). Now for the crème de la crème, the pictures:
Onix Black RH Pro
A couple of months ago I wrote about the new guy on the block, Craig Middleton and his own named brand Onix. Well, he’s back and this time with some BIG news for his new 2012 range.
For his new range, Middleton will now have the expertise of three time Olympic medallist and former double World Champion on the track, Rob Hayles, to help guide his company’s product development. A big kudos for Onix!
With this new signing, Onix has launched two new bikes for 2012: the competition focussed Onix Black RH Pro and the more sporting Onix Black RH. The RH of course refers to Hayles himself.
GnarLube making lube sexy
Don’t ask me how, but I stumbled across this new cycle lube brand on Facebook – GnarLube. The profile image grabbed my attention as it would any other red-blooded male in the world. Now I have to be careful about this post not to make it to seedy as there seems to be a lot of discussion of late in the use of sex to sell products. The recent news – BBC and PC Pro – from CES and the use of babe booths has definitely thrown the cat amongst the pigeons.
Gnarly
Either way, this seems to be working for GnarLube and they are picking up quite a following, albeit on Facebook. Their website offers two types of lube as well as clothing, for both men and women.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 83,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
Les mémoires du peloton 2012 Calendar
If you are still looking for that perfect gift for xmas, then look no further than the ‘Les memoires du peloton 2012 calendar‘ brought to you from the wonderful team Prendas Ciclismo.
It is a fabulous retro-inspired calendar with photographs spanning over 40 years. It features twelve former in black/white and full colour including Eddy Merckx, Joop Zoetemelk, Tom Simpson, Felice Gimondi, Johan Museeuw, Paolo Bettini, Mario Cipollini, Graeme Obree, Tom Boonen, Giuseppe Saronni, Jaan Raas and Mark Cavendish.
According to the team at Prendas, the 2012 edition was conceived around the time of Mark Cavendish’s victory at the UCI Road World Champs, hence the rainbow bands added to the theme.
So point your browser towards Prendas right now to ensure you get your copy for 2012. Not that you need any more enticement but here are some of the awesome images you will be able to have hang from your wall:
This past week my dear brother sent me a link to site that contains ‘225 photos of sexy girls riding bicycles‘. Although there a lot of images from new photography site TheFIXFIXFIX, there are also a host of old and new images of girls on bikes. Including celebrities such as Katy Perry, Heather Graham, Kate Moss, Cheryl Cole, Zooey Deschenal, Monica Bellucci, Kelly Brook and Heather Graham to name but a few. Even cycling’s very own Liz Hatch makes an appearance.
There aren’t too many images of girls on road bikes, but those that like cycle chic and fixed wheels will be pleasantly surprised by what you will see here. Here’s a sample of what you may see on the site:
Taking a ride around Chieveley in Berkshire
Back in November of last year you may recall I became a NeilPryde Epic Rider. The main point of the team is for the riders to provide feedback 0n the bikes but also to provide NeilPryde Bikes with rides that we would consider epic. This is so that we could inspire more and more people to get on their bikes and go and try out these routes we were taking on.
I filed my first Epic Ride report with the team at NeilPryde and here is a snippet of what I wrote:
I first heard of the Ride It! events when it was launched in the Spring of 2008. The event series was designed to ‘cater for both mountain and road bikers in a non-competitive environment, with an emphasis on having fun with other riders’. So when I heard the event was coming to West Berkshire, I …
Now to get the rest of my ride report, make sure you head over to the NeilPryde Bikes website and see what I have to say. And if you like it, please feel free to share it with your friends and family.
Thanks!
Team Garmin-Cervélo lightens up with a new Tour de France kit
Slipstream Sports, today unveiled its limited edition team kit for the 2011 Tour de France, created by its innovative Italian clothing partner, Castelli.
The new jersey and shorts retain the distinctive Garmin and Cervélo logos, but reverse white with black on the jersey. The signature Slipstream Sports argyle is prominently displayed.
“We’re really excited about the Tour de France kit,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports and Director Sportif, Team Garmin-Cervélo. “The lighter color is perfect for hot weather and our signature argyle is more prominent.”
This is the third time Castelli have introduced new clothing at the Tour de France. “We consider the Tour de France a very special event that deserves a special design,” said Steve Smith, Castelli Brand Manager.
“This team is rider-centric, and Castelli has done its part to make sure the riders have the most comfortable and technically advanced clothing for this big event. Racing in hot weather is physically demanding, that’s a given, and despite the fact that Castelli makes some of the lightest and coolest fabrics in existence, wearing a lighter colour will make a big difference, both psychologically and physically, to a rider’s well being,” explained Steve Smith.
The limited edition Tour de France kit will be available in early July at Castelli dealers and from the team store.
In addition to the new color, the Castelli Speed Research Unit has been busy making sure it’s the fastest gear in the peloton. With new innovative thinking, fifteen rounds of sampling and numerous tests later, the Castelli Speed Research Unit and has invented the first skinsuit for road racing.
And, working with Robby Ketchell, Director of Sport Science for Slipstream Sports, Castelli created a nearly seamless Body Paint TT Speedsuit to cut through the wind better than almost any other suit ever created. For the mountain stages, the riders will be supplied with an unbelievably lightweight jersey that virtually absorb no moisture so the weight savings multiply in the most extreme conditions.
NeilPryde Alize
For those who read my blog regularly will know that at the end of 2010 I became a NeilPryde Epic rider. What this meant was I could choose which NeilPryde bike to ride – Diablo or Alize – and then spend the next 12 months riding it, with the purpose of writing about it for the NeilPryde website. So for the past eight months I have been riding the Diablo and have loved every minute of it. An extremely stiff and aggressive bike that keeps wanting more from its rider.
At the start of last week, I took my Diablo in for a service at the local bike shop. Unfortunately I don’t have the specific tools required by Shimano to service its products, otherwise I would have completed the service myself. I had a ride on Sunday so six-days would be more than enough to get it serviced. Well, so I thought. Turns out they hadn’t even started on the service yet.
Not worrying too much about it as I have my Basso at home that I could ride, I let it be. So on Friday I was exchanging a few emails with Scott, the UK agent for NeilPryde, and we were talking about the weekend’s upcoming ride. I told him about the situation to which Scott then suggested I ride the Alize. Jumping at the chance to ride it we arranged to meet up the following day.
