Stupid New Years Resolution!
Discussion
Santa's side project.
I only spend £20 at Christmas for my niece and nephews. Two reasons for this, firstly I'm against the whole overcommercialisation of religious events and second I'm a minimum wage Muppet so £80 represents two months disposable income.
My older nephew has ADHD so I got him a guitar and DVD Rom guide to play it (so it's like a computer game he can take outside).
My niece is seven so a pair of Bongo drums and a Harmonica for her. Yes my sister annoyed me this year.
My other two nephews got BMX's last year and would like to step up to bigger bikes. So with a budget of £20 each and their help all the way we built a pair of bike to their specifications.
Both wanted bikes quick enough to ride to school and both like to go off road so mountain bikes was top of my list. There was a "Job lot" of bikes for sale local to me on eBay and I won them all for £23.
A couple of 24 inch wheeled cross country style bikes, a little kiddies bike (I cleaned up and sold for £10 back), a hard tail trickster and a BMX (I painted gave fresh cables and sold for £25).
Harley wanted something with full suspension, bull bars so he could go faster (his words) safe enough to ride to school but cool like a rat rod.
Rat Rod matte black and rough red paint.
Reflective clear coat for the ride to school. That bike was a mix of the two parts bikes, best bits of both, new cables and front mech'. The mud guards and lights he bought with his pocket money and wanted the rear light mounted on his mudguard like mine.
Jordan wanted a bike he could use for school, a paper round and still be able to off road and do tricks on. Most important he wanted something he could upgrade as he went.
Little jump frame with a pretty decent set of wheels, suspension seatpost to take the potholes and plenty of room to upgrade later on. Swapping the cable disc brakes for hydraulic ones in top of his list but I think binning the triple clamp forks would be where I would start. The bike needed new cables, a rear drop out and it has a spare rear mech' for now but that's just another upgrade away.
Both bikes came in around the £20 mark, both boys helped build them from the start so they are truly their bikes and not just ones bought from a shop. As well as getting what they wanted they've learned how to put them together and hopefully this will mean they get looked after better as well.
Back to work Thursday If (my neck is okay and) I cycle it will be 4,630 miles total.
I only spend £20 at Christmas for my niece and nephews. Two reasons for this, firstly I'm against the whole overcommercialisation of religious events and second I'm a minimum wage Muppet so £80 represents two months disposable income.
My older nephew has ADHD so I got him a guitar and DVD Rom guide to play it (so it's like a computer game he can take outside).
My niece is seven so a pair of Bongo drums and a Harmonica for her. Yes my sister annoyed me this year.
My other two nephews got BMX's last year and would like to step up to bigger bikes. So with a budget of £20 each and their help all the way we built a pair of bike to their specifications.
Both wanted bikes quick enough to ride to school and both like to go off road so mountain bikes was top of my list. There was a "Job lot" of bikes for sale local to me on eBay and I won them all for £23.
A couple of 24 inch wheeled cross country style bikes, a little kiddies bike (I cleaned up and sold for £10 back), a hard tail trickster and a BMX (I painted gave fresh cables and sold for £25).
Harley wanted something with full suspension, bull bars so he could go faster (his words) safe enough to ride to school but cool like a rat rod.
Rat Rod matte black and rough red paint.
Reflective clear coat for the ride to school.
That bike was a mix of the two parts bikes, best bits of both, new cables and front mech'. The mud guards and lights he bought with his pocket money and wanted the rear light mounted on his mudguard like mine. Jordan wanted a bike he could use for school, a paper round and still be able to off road and do tricks on. Most important he wanted something he could upgrade as he went.
Little jump frame with a pretty decent set of wheels, suspension seatpost to take the potholes and plenty of room to upgrade later on. Swapping the cable disc brakes for hydraulic ones in top of his list but I think binning the triple clamp forks would be where I would start.
The bike needed new cables, a rear drop out and it has a spare rear mech' for now but that's just another upgrade away. Both bikes came in around the £20 mark, both boys helped build them from the start so they are truly their bikes and not just ones bought from a shop. As well as getting what they wanted they've learned how to put them together and hopefully this will mean they get looked after better as well.
Back to work Thursday If (my neck is okay and) I cycle it will be 4,630 miles total.
Edited by Liquid Knight on Monday 24th December 16:44
I've been thinking about next year and worked out that 4,300 miles is approximately two thirds of my days and nights at work on the saddle. As there haven't been eighty one days of fog this year I feel like I've let myself down a bit. Having said that 4,300 miles id bloody good going.
2013
1/ So this year as well as the continuation of the cycling to work theme I'll also cycle everywhere if I'm going less than thirty miles in total.
2/ Supplement my fitness with some other exercise as my legs are doing most of the work I need to balance it out a bit better.
3/ Sort out my diet. As I'm working twelve hours a day and cycling another two I've been living out of a microwave and it's not doing me any favors.
4/ As 80% of my project time is spent procrastinating I want to reduce this to a 75%t least.
5/ Get to PPC in the Park (driving or spectating) and compete in the £999 Challenge.
Back to work tomorrow and I have come up with a solution for my rear mud guard that doesn't involve duct tape.
Yep a cable tie and a spare bracket. This will have to do until I can replace it.
2013
1/ So this year as well as the continuation of the cycling to work theme I'll also cycle everywhere if I'm going less than thirty miles in total.
2/ Supplement my fitness with some other exercise as my legs are doing most of the work I need to balance it out a bit better.
3/ Sort out my diet. As I'm working twelve hours a day and cycling another two I've been living out of a microwave and it's not doing me any favors.
4/ As 80% of my project time is spent procrastinating I want to reduce this to a 75%t least.
5/ Get to PPC in the Park (driving or spectating) and compete in the £999 Challenge.
Back to work tomorrow and I have come up with a solution for my rear mud guard that doesn't involve duct tape.
Yep a cable tie and a spare bracket. This will have to do until I can replace it.
This paint is brilliant...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250979618890?ssPageName=...
...see for yourself...
...my next bike's going to be covered in the stuff.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250979618890?ssPageName=...
...see for yourself...
...my next bike's going to be covered in the stuff.
Last night it took me fifty minutes to cover the twelve miles to work. 
Stupid forty plus mile per hour head wind.
This morning I spent a lot of my journey flat out. The side wind was tricky, I had to lean about ten degrees to keep the bike straight. A few head wind sections were trickier than normal because I was in such a hurry my legs were like jelly when they had to work. I made it home in a record thirty four minutes.
Stupid forty plus mile per hour head wind.
This morning I spent a lot of my journey flat out. The side wind was tricky, I had to lean about ten degrees to keep the bike straight. A few head wind sections were trickier than normal because I was in such a hurry my legs were like jelly when they had to work. I made it home in a record thirty four minutes.
aka_kerrly said:
Well done on your ebay bargain hunting and getting bikes within such a tiny budget.
You Sir qualify as a top uncle for your efforts!
Thanks. Another really good thing and to be honest this worked out a lot better than I expected the new bike kids have to sit and watch my nephews have fun because they're not allowed to get their bikes dirty. You Sir qualify as a top uncle for your efforts!
New year.
Sixteen miles into town and back looking for a new job as I may be made redundant soon, and the usual twenty five today for my commute. The morning was crystal clear with a superb view of Mars on the SSW horizon. I was worried this afternoon as from lunch time onward the fog got pretty thick but if became drizzle when the Sun set. I prefer to get wet than ran over.
Happy New Year (again) everyone.
Sixteen miles into town and back looking for a new job as I may be made redundant soon, and the usual twenty five today for my commute. The morning was crystal clear with a superb view of Mars on the SSW horizon. I was worried this afternoon as from lunch time onward the fog got pretty thick but if became drizzle when the Sun set. I prefer to get wet than ran over.
Happy New Year (again) everyone.
Today I learned the value of five minutes.
On the way in this morning as I arrived twenty minutes early yesterday I spent an extra five minute in bed. Thus resulting in my leaving ten minutes later than yesterday and due to the unexpected headwind I barely arrived on time.
On the way home yesterday I had a nice tailwind and hardly any traffic. Today I stopped and chatted with my colleague for five minutes and it was like running a gauntlet. Three left hooks, one drive who failed to signal on a roundabout and got miffed when I pulled out and two drivers who clearly couldn't see me approaching them and decided to pull out.
Oh; and another spoke has snapped.
Dear DT Swiss,
Your wheels are chobe!
Yours sincerely LK
On the way in this morning as I arrived twenty minutes early yesterday I spent an extra five minute in bed. Thus resulting in my leaving ten minutes later than yesterday and due to the unexpected headwind I barely arrived on time.
On the way home yesterday I had a nice tailwind and hardly any traffic. Today I stopped and chatted with my colleague for five minutes and it was like running a gauntlet. Three left hooks, one drive who failed to signal on a roundabout and got miffed when I pulled out and two drivers who clearly couldn't see me approaching them and decided to pull out.
Oh; and another spoke has snapped.
Dear DT Swiss,
Your wheels are chobe!
Yours sincerely LK
Edited by Liquid Knight on Monday 7th January 20:15
d f
63 miles.
Cycled three miles in the Winter wonderland and observed four cars off the road. Two understeered into the curb, suspension and wheel damage, one drove straight into someones driveway hitting their car and the other a bit of a lad decided to try and handbrake his works van around a corner and hit a post.
I thought I'd be far safer if I'm hit in a car than my bike so went home dug it out and drove to work.
Cycled three miles in the Winter wonderland and observed four cars off the road. Two understeered into the curb, suspension and wheel damage, one drove straight into someones driveway hitting their car and the other a bit of a lad decided to try and handbrake his works van around a corner and hit a post.
I thought I'd be far safer if I'm hit in a car than my bike so went home dug it out and drove to work.
98 miles.
Stupid lying butthole weather forecast.
This also happened...
...because the tyres are wider than the mudguards (they were bought with slicks in mind).
Having said that...
...it could have been a lot worse.
The ride home was equally frustrating but only took forty six minutes at least.
Stupid lying butthole weather forecast.
BBC Weather girl said:
Up to 5cm of snow overnight
Turns our it was 5mm, minus five degrees and it was either wet or icy. My nobblies were wasted. It took forty eight minutes to get to work this morning and felt like I was dragging a corpse behind me. This also happened...
...because the tyres are wider than the mudguards (they were bought with slicks in mind).
Having said that...
...it could have been a lot worse.
The ride home was equally frustrating but only took forty six minutes at least.
129 miles. Two commutes and a quick run to the shop.
I'm getting more and more annoyed with the alleged weather forecast. According to them there should be two feet of snow but there has been two centimeters at best.
Snow tyres have been mostly a waste of effort. Times have been down eight minutes due to drag on gritted roads and the one time there was enough snow to bother with it only took three minutes more than slicks on a wet day. Much to the annoyance to the egg shell drivers I was overtaking.
I'm getting more and more annoyed with the alleged weather forecast. According to them there should be two feet of snow but there has been two centimeters at best.
Snow tyres have been mostly a waste of effort. Times have been down eight minutes due to drag on gritted roads and the one time there was enough snow to bother with it only took three minutes more than slicks on a wet day. Much to the annoyance to the egg shell drivers I was overtaking.
So I got fed up of the nobblies feeling like I was towing a caravan and the loss of yet another spoke meant the tyre was touching the rear triangle again so it felt like I was towing a caravan full of water. I'd had enough, this months Payday Fairies were recovering from last months Payday Fairies being mugged by Santas Elves. Next month will be six weeks between paydays as the company I work for have lost the contract and I've been taken on by the new firm. So it's the same crap but a different colour tie. I know that situation could be a lot worse and do appreciate having a job in the first place but...
Okay that was turning into a rant and I stopped it because this is a cycling forum not a washing line.
Great I decide to avert the rant and Thumbsnap is down again so I can't show you what I've been up to.
Next time I'm online I'll try again.
Okay that was turning into a rant and I stopped it because this is a cycling forum not a washing line.
Great I decide to avert the rant and Thumbsnap is down again so I can't show you what I've been up to.
Next time I'm online I'll try again.
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