Peugeot

Gotta love a concept bike...

http://www.behance.net/gallery/PEUGEOT-B1K-CONCEPT-BIKE-SKETCHES/2997453

Fresh Corima

Just arrived in time for this weekend's Tour of Hong Kong, a fresh set of lightly used Viva S's -1223 grams of goodness! First ride impressions are of a very lively wheelset - stiffer than my old Winiums and lighter / comfier than my lightly trashed 45mm deep sections, these should make for a very versatile wheelset. Thank the lords for fleabay.

Chengdu Road Race Festival '14

Welcome to Chengdu- land of pandas and pigs....






Not to mention some quite pleasant scenery out of the city...

And an excellent place to hold a road race it seems- 120km of great quality roads with some kicker little climbs to liven things up. For this race I teamed up with Pierre and Adam to form a 'Time' team (Pierre is now importing these beautiful bikes)- we're on the far right off the start line here. And so we joined a big Hong Kong contingent of collective team gwuilo, to be looked after by our good Chinese friends.

The racing itself was pretty fast and furious- we averaged 39.5kph for the 120km, despite steam rollering 1000m of climbing in the process. I felt like I was on a good day, making a few breaks or feeling comfortable near the front of the pack. Indeed, it seems I have the Strava KOMs for both of the course laps we did.

But it was not to be in the real prizes- a bit of engine failure (cramp) with 2 or 3 kms to go after a local guy shoulder barged me sending my right leg into spasm going into the sprint, pedalling with one leg trying to recover off the back. Which in turn put me in the worst place for a Chinese sprint- near all the crashes. And so it was, just as my leg started to recover I was bunny hopping a stray bicycle on the ground- a bystander to the race that just disappeared up the road.

Of course, you can't win them all (and not like I make that a habit...), but I was more than happy to see my colossi club mate James actually win the race good and proper- a man on top form having a top day for a great win!




What's worth more- the fruit stall or the bike?!?

Still, what we lost out on in prizes, we gained in old men and fresh fruit- pineapples on a stick being a definite highlight.

The story of Chengdu at night is for another day, suffice to say it was an equally tough test of endurance as the race itself. Let's just say I've never been turned away from a hotel before for not being local- it's tourism Jim, just not as we know it.

But at least we didn't end up in the Eurasia men's hospital. I'm glad not all my weekends are like this, but it was fun for a flying visit! Viva Panda!

Time to

Go racing in Chengdu for the weekend!

La Vie Claire

Ode to 'The Badger'...

http://www.donhoubicycles.com/in-the-booth/

Poetics of Man Cave

One's Paris room, inside it's four walls, wrote Paul Claudell, is a sort of geometrical site, a conventional hole, which we furnish with pictures, objects and wardrobes within a wardrobe. The number of the street and the floor give the location of our conventional hole, but our abode has neither space around it nor verticality inside it. The houses are fastened to the ground with asphalt, in order not to sink into the earth. They have no roots and, what is quite unthinkable for a dreamer of houses, sky-scrapers have no cellars. From the street to the roof, the rooms pile up one on top of the other, while the tent of the horizonless sky encloses the entire city. But the height of the city buildings is a purely exterior one. Elevators do away with the heroism of stair climbing so that there is no longer any virtue in living up near the sky. Home has become mere horizontality. The different rooms that compose living quarters jammed into one floor all lack one of the fundamental principles for distinguishing and classifying the values of intimacy.

If this is Parisian living then what in God's name is Hong Kong? Gaston Bacelard's 'Poetics of Space' hasn't been the lightest holiday reading, but passages such as the above do have some resonance. On the one hand, I rather enjoy living on one level with no stairs to run up as you realise you left your jumper in the bedroom on your way out the door. On the other, I do miss the concept of cellar retreats and man cave hideaways. Intimacy is one thing, but identity is another. Perhaps this is at the root of the true meaning of metrosexuality?

Bauge

Cheese munching surrender monkeys produce another nice track bike shocker.

http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2013/08/eurobike-2013-uber-gallery-02/#27