King of the Itchen - 1st edition

All bow to the one and only King of the Itchen, undisputed lord of the mighty valley that links Southampton and Winchester.

His name is Ben, and he shall be referred to as King, until he will open a new challenge for the mighty title.

 

One more reason

Why do your ride a track bike outside a velodrome? Is a question that many of us have received many times, and many times we had to come up with all sorts of different answers.
There is the esoteric/philosophical answer: on a track bike you are directly linked to your bike, your speed, your cadence, the road, the traffic. Your mind is sharpened, it is zen...this answer can actually go on for a while.
There is the utilitarian answer: a track bike, on the long run, is mostly cheaper and easier to maintain than a road bike or MTB of comparable quality, mostly thanks to the lack of components that can break down.
There is the playful answer: track bikes are fun to ride, no one can deny this.

I think all of these answers are generally relevant and partly true. All together they give a pretty good picture of the whole urban-track biking experience. Nevertheless there is one more, of which I only thought yesterday: less bike parts also translate in less chances of being forced to walk home...As you can see in the picture, someone had the brilliant idea of locking his/her bike to the bike rack...and to the brake cable of my CX bike.

Now, I am sure that he/she did it without realizing. He/she surely was in a rush and did not really see what he/she was doing. No harm done, it was just a bit annoying to walk home. Yes, I could have easily undone the brake cable, but I was in a rush myself and I did not have the right allen key with me. I maybe would have liked him/her to realize his/her mistake and leave an apologetic message on my bike...it did not happen and I am not going to complain. I only wanted to share this new good reason for riding a simple bike to work.

Now you will ask: "so, why were you riding your CX bike and not your track bike?". Gelatina, is stuck at home without wheels as I am rebuilding them. But this will be the topic for another post...

Stay tuned

Bicycle rack

Recently I moved to a new house. My housemates and I have 5 bicycles, plus plenty of spare parts, and a wide range of kit for more sports. This could become a problem, as the house did not have a shed in the garden, nor a garage to contain all this material. We then decided to use the front room on our ground floor as a sort of storage area, and I proposed to built a bicycle rack to easily bring in and out of the room our valuable means of transportation without having to move everything else all the time. This is a quick description of the rack, and of its construction. It is not a fully detailed tutorial. If you are interested in more detailed drawings or pictures, or if you want to suggest ways to improve the design, you can contact me leaving a comment.

First of all our rack needed to be free standing, as we are not allowed to drill the walls. While this makes the structural design more critical, it also means that the rack itself leaves a storage space behind, where we can put the things that we certainly do not need (i.e. the rolled up carpet that used to be in the storage room and which we do not want to ruin.

The rack itself is built with
 -3 square-section wooden posts on the floor
 -3 square-section wooden posts placed vertically on top
 -2 square-section wooden posts placed laterally on the floor to link the bottom section of the rack
 -2 boards at the top, to link the top section and hold the metal hooks of the bike rack
 -6 diagonal boards to link the vertical posts to the ones on the floor, providing stability ans stiffness
 -the posts are linked with L-shaped metal links and bolts
 -boards and posts are linked together with simple bolts
 -and the hooks are bolted to the top boards

The top boards are bolted to the back side of the vertical posts, to gain some space, to bring back the center of balance of the whole structure, and so that they work in compression, not in traction. The hooks are attached via two bolts, one for each board, reducing the load on each board. the load on each board. The position of the hooks is alternated, allowing to put them closer to each other and to fit more bikes on the rack (potentially we can fit 9). The down side of this is that it might be difficult for a week person with a heavy bike to reach the higher hooks. When stored all the bikes are completely lifted from the ground, allowing to store flat boxes underneath.

Our rack has been standing for two months now without any problem. It daily holds two really heavy steel MTBs, a lite MTB, my track bike, my CX bike and my set of road wheels, plus the bikes of occasional visitors. I think it has proven to be quite a versatile and simple solution for our situation, alleviating the problems connected with the lack of a shed. It has also been really fun to design it and build it.

Well, what to say, coma and visit us with your bike, and she will have a safe and comfortable place to stay!

Purbecks coast path - from Lullworth to Winspit

A while back, almost a month, I went with my housemate Robin to explore the coast path on the Jurassic Coast. I had already been there many times, but always hiking, or just to get to the many climbing spots that can be found on the sea cliffs. This time instead we wanted to cycle along, starting from Lullworth and proceeding eastwards to ideally get to Swanage.

We catch the train at 9am, directed to Wareham, while we wake up with a take away coffee and some brownies baked the previous evening. It is a lovely sunny day and we can't wait to get started. From Wareham we head south past the A351, and then right on Holme Lane where we take some layers off. The road is nice and quiet, the legs are warming up and we can't stop smiling. We get to West Lullworth quite quickly, but from there onwards it is all going to be a struggle. This section of the coast path, which I have never walked before, is much more hilly then the eastern bit (between Swanage and Winspit). From the beginning we already have to dismount and walk the bikes, both uphill and downhill. The view is gorgeous, and luckily we manage to find here and there ways to avoid the steepest bits. The only real fear is to end up in a closed road: a large shooting range for tanks occupies most of this areas and visitors are not allowed everywhere. It would not be nice to end this trip blown up into pieces.

By lunch time we are back on the path, but way behind where we were hoping to be, so now we know that we will not get all the way to Swanage. In a way it is a relief because now we know that we can take a left at any time and start heading back to Wareham. First though we want to get to Winspit: this is a nice little cove where a quarry used to be, and now the cligg is all bolted for sport climbing (even if the sign says that it is not allowed...). The idea for later on in the season is to come here for the whole weekend to enjoy camping, climbing, cycling and swimming.

From Winspit we head back north. First a big climb, then some tiny country lanes lead us back to the A351 which unfortunately we have to follow past Corfe Castle. From there we cycle on some lovely country roads and paths, through woods and fields. Overall these final kilometers are flat and allow us to quickly get back to the starting point in Wareham.

Here are some photos from the trip. Enjoy :)

Movescount

The road to ECMC: 1 - checklist

So in the end I decided to register  to the ECMC that will take place in Milan from the 28th to the 31st of May.

I am not a courier and this has already raised some complaints. Nevertheless I think that what matter most is the spirit with which everybody takes part. If the idea is to support the couriers, to learn from them, to share the subculture that makes us all urban cyclists, then I think that taking part is not a problem. More on this will follow later on, there is about 5 weeks to the event, plenty of time to discuss these issues.
In the meanwhile I just want to write down a quick check list of what I need and what I already have.

Bike-wise:
- re-build wheels
- fix the fork and change the steering set
- buy and fit front brake
- general checkup and tuning

Registration-wise:
- registration done
- housing done
- flights need to be dealt with soon

I will try to keep a short but frequent update on the ECMC front, like a short diary of this campaign. Stay tuned

Lodi - Lecco - Lodi 2015

UPDATE 21/04/15: Classifica ufficiale

Dovevano essere delle tranquille vacanze di Pasqua...e allora non c'era modo migliore per concluderle che mettersi a gareggiare sui 160 km di argini sterrati della terza edizione della Lodi-Lecco-Lodi.
Ho preso la decisione un po' cosi, perche' in Inghilterra mi mancano le sgambatelle fra amici, la fatica, la competizione sana, il sole, la folla di ciclisti sconosciuti ma amici. Ho deciso di partecipare pur non avendo una bici veramente adatta: a quanto pare nessun negozio di bici di Firenze vende copertoncini da 30 nella settimana dopo pasqua. E cosi, con la vecchia bici da corsa in acciaio, copertoncini da strada, leve del cambio al telaio, e reggisella in fin di vita son partito alla volta di Lodi. Alla partenza si dice fossimo in 115, affluenza record, e mi sono sentito a casa nonostante l'ansietta per quello che stavamo per affrontare.
I primi chilometri sono andati via abbastanza lisci, ma il reggisella ha subito perso colpi: il sellino non stava orizzontale, cosi dopo 20km mi sono fermato per provare a stringero. Inutile, tanto la vite si e' ri-allentata quasi subito ed ho fatto il resto della gara seduto piu indietro possibile, per cercare di stare sulla parte alta della sella.
A parte questo la bici non andava male. Il cambio era preciso (san Campangolo), la tenuta un po' incerta nelle curve con sabbia, ma tutto sommato sopportabile. Dopo la pausa meccanica ero rimasto solo, quindi ho iniziato una lunga cavalcata per riprendere il gruppo di testa. Per strada tanti attardati, Fanino che cercava di sistemarsi i raggi, pescatori, coppie con il cane. Si e' pero' ricerato un gruppetto di 6-8 ciclisti dalle parti di Cassano e ci siamo messi tutti all'opera.
Arrivati in cima al lago abbiamo finalmente avvistato il gruppetto di testa sulla sponda opposta, pensavamo di avercela ormai fatta, bastava spingere un po'. Solo che la stanchezza ha cominciato a farsi sentire, specialmente sulla mia precisione alla guida: capitombolo in una curva a sinistra con sabbia. Riprendo i miei compari dopo una decina di kilometri, stanno facendo una pausa birretta e non posso fare altro che accettare il loro invito (epic win).
Si riparte un po' piu lenti. Abbiamo ripreso alcuni attardati, e a mia volta perdo contatto dal gruppetto: va a finire che rimaniamo in 4, Niccolo', Sitton, Lupin ed io. Non resta che stringere i denti, bere e mangiare regolarmente e seguire la traccia GPS. Per non farmi mancare niente decido di stamparmi contro la ringhiere che separa la ciclabile dal naviglio mentre sto rimettendo la frutta secca in tasca. Ma a parte le ferite non c'e' nessun danno grave.
Cerco di fare la mia parte tirando sui pezzi di asfalto. Sullo sterrato non riesco a stare a ruota: penso che sia una questione di testa, per vedere in anticipo le buche che altrimenti arrivano inaspettate e dolorose. Santa pausa caffe' a Paullo, ormai manca poco.

All'arrivo, c'e' il fan club di cuginetti e sorella che mi aspetta :) Sono esausto ma l'euforia e' alle stelle mentre mi godo la compagnia di questo fantastico gruppo di Atleti (si, con la A maiuscola). Ogni evento, anche se scelto a caso nel fittissimo calendario, vale tanto quanto una coppa del mondo. Si da sempre il massimo per l'onore e alla fine ci sono una stretta di mano e una birra per tutti.
Davvero non c'e' modo migliore per finire le vacanze.

Un grazie a Dens per l'organizzazione
all'Ura d'Aria per la calda accoglienza e il lauto pranzo
a Sitton, Niccolo' e Lupin per il supporto reciproco negli ultimi 60km
a Max Bigandrews e Emanuele Barbaro per le foto
Un saluto a Fanino e Joanfran, Riccardo, Michele e tutti gli altri che non vedevo da secoli. Spero di rivedervi presto

STATS
dst: 163.2 km
moving time: 6h15'
total time: 6h28'
speed: 26 km/h
HR: 170bpm (!!!!!)


movescount