Carbon-Monkey

Anyone got any experience of the cycle routes, or general cycle touring around the south / south east?

I’ve never bothered with road based stuff down there but am planning a 3day adventure early next month on an exciting new bike.

Any useful insights, routes, nust visits or camp site recomendations very . . . → Read More: south east cycle routes

Now that’s a big old chunk of wood, would have loved to have seen it . . . → Read More: big bit o wood

Earlier this week while riding my bike on dartmoor I kept getting stuck in traffic. stubborn, large, slow moving traffic (no not caravaners).

Seems the best way to with this kind of traffic is to wave your arms about and shout at it, which to onlookers may look crazy and certainly isn’t very ‘british’.

But then when have . . . → Read More: early morning traffic problems on dartmoor

It’s been a sunny, warm, lovely day on dartmoor with some great trails riden and some unplanned hike a bike’s

The summer won’t last forever and I’m sure glad to have got another days good weather riding in . . . → Read More: sunshine and trails on dartmoor

Now we all like getting parcels through the mail and even more so if it’s new bike parts. So when a fair sized box arrived for me this week I got excited and wondered what I’d ordered and forgotten about.
A new seat post maybe
Or a new groupset
Or maybe some DVD’s

But when I picked the . . . → Read More: packaging gone mad

At the end of tonights ride, just as we were approaching the city and running out of trails to ride and fuel to power the legs we smelt a chippy… And what a chippy it was!

Sustainably cuaght, freshly fried fish and nice big fat well cooked chips. Washed down with a can of pop and followed . . . → Read More: much deserved, sustainably caught, yummy dinner

Since @jamesgillies and I started riding together last month we’ve fallen into a regular tuesday night bike ride, some weeks we aim to be home before our respective (and very understanding) partners have given up and gone to bed, and some weeks we have a late pass and ride til we (usually I) can’t go any . . . → Read More: tuesday is ride you bike night

@jamesgillies lent me some funny bars last week and over the weekend I finally got chance to pop them on the bike.

I’ve just ridden home on them and yup they feel a bit different.

To give them a good test I took a hack through the pothole ridden industrial estate, then down onto the canal and then . . . → Read More: funny bars

Earlier this week James and I got out for an after work explore on the cross bikes. We’re trying to piece together a big off road link ride from Birmingham city centre to the Peak district and I fancy going via Cannock to link in the trail centre loops.

So this weeks explore was up the . . . → Read More: the long way home

I’m on the south downs today biking a section from amberley heading west.

At the bottom of a long descent is a farm and up on the hill opposite is a little old church with a bench outside.

I’m sat on that bench at thw moment, the sun has just popped through the clouds and I’m going to . . . → Read More: jazz by the south downs way

After months of planning (procrastinating) I got the plywood, 2″x1″ and box of screw out last night and built the much needed bench in the back of our van.

Now I can eat, sleep and cook in the van even when it’s got a months worth of kit and three bikes in the back.

Got it built just . . . → Read More: chop, sand, screw repeat

The only thing that’ll quite quench my thirst after a good ride, and the wee visitors from up north came down bearing gifts of extra large 500ml cans of the stuff

Oh and one more thing… If you don’t eat your porridge you’ll be cold all . . . → Read More: it’s made from molten girders you know

After a storming event last year, high spirits and fast lap times this year’s mountain mayhem did have a lot to live up to, but I don’t think our poor weekend can all be blamed on overly high expectations.

Rubens first lap out went well with an excellent run and a fast lap that seemed to dodge . . . → Read More: 24 hours of… mayhem? not exactly…

With mayhem coming up this weekend I’ve been getting a few more MTB miles in and started to realise my old workhorse bike has developed a few ailments. I started to get really bad chain suck and poor shifting so last night finally got chance to strip things down and take a look at what’s . . . → Read More: hope xc hub servicing

Whilst rolling through the woods this weekend I came across an area that was being managed using fairly traditional looking techniques. Now I’ve always loved the woods and more and more I’d love to be near some woods where I could learn some of the old skills and live a simpler life. A life . . . → Read More: now that’s a log pile!