Posts Tagged ‘ride’

: He was….. fast

By: g | January 18th, 2012 | No Comments » |

5.50am.

Far to steamy for that time of the morning but the quietness was nice; no commuters jamming the bike path.

I cross the main road at the end of the path and head over to the flyover. That’s when he appeared.

Silent. I didn’t see or hear him at all. The morning commuter on his Kona.

He zipped passed me and sped off. I’ll catch him on the fly over, easy.

But it wasn’t.

He kept ahead and sailed off the footpath to cross the intersection; the cleanest, smoothest hop I’d seem in a while. He made no noise, just a ‘pop-hop’ and off again.

I got close half way over the flyover. I had reeled him in that little bit.

But then it was onto the bridge climb. A fast down and then up to the apex of the bridge. Maybe 4-500 meters all up.

Feeling good, warmed up, and pushing my single ‘big’ ring, my pace was not slow… his was just faster, smoother.

Better.

I hit the apex of the climb, I can still see him. Maybe, just maybe, I can pull him in on the drop down to the switchback path.

Not a chance.

Just as quietly as he arrived in my ride, he vanished. He dropped the hammer and was no where to be seen.

No where.

That dude was fast.

To you Sir, whoever you are, I tip my hat.

Tags:commute,cycling,fast,ride

: The Creak

By: g | January 12th, 2012 | No Comments » |

It came from nowhere. It started small, an innocuous *click, click, click*. The following week that click began to be a creak and in turn that creak began to sound like an earth shattering groan with each turn of the non drive side crank.

I could feel it though my shoe.

I’m not sure about you but I don’t want to hear anything other than the calming spin of the chain through the jockey wheels. So having a creak like this is, in short, fucking annoying.

So, after two weeks of hopeing it would go away, I pulled the cranks off, put in a spare bottom bracket, pulled off the chainrings and reassembled everything.

*CREEEEEEEEEEAK*

And there is was.

Another few rides pass and nothing changes, so I swap the pedal from my other bike.

And it’s even worse.

What the hell is this?

Off comes the pedal (and the one it replaced) and into the workshop. I pull off the end caps, only to be reminded these ATAC pedals are ‘non serviceable’. Nice. Plenty of grease regardless.

On they go again, plenty of grease on the spindles too.

Then the ride.

2 hours of almost quiet… except for a feint *click, click, click*.

Ok. Ride one leg. Look like a fool but the click goes away. Ride the other leg and still look like a fool. There it is.

But get out of the saddle (both feet on the pedals!) and away it goes. That’s counter intuitive as it should get louder.

I’m at wit’s end.

So I finish the ride, turn off all the various gadgets, stand and ponder. Then in an act of desperation I grab a handful of crank arm and push.

And there it is, I can even feel it.

It’s not the bloody pedals at all, it’s the arm/spindle interface (I thought I ‘sorted’ that??).

Ok, so they’ll come off now and receive the royal treatment.

We’ll see if that works…

PS: it did.

Tags:ATAC,bike,ride

: Ride It Like You Built It

By: g | January 2nd, 2012 | No Comments » |

A new Statement T graphic to kick off 2012. Available here. Could be a hint of things to come for 2012….(!)

Thanks to Dave for the tweaking suggestions.

Tags:clothing,cycling,ride

: Reflective goes pop

By: g | December 9th, 2011 | No Comments » |

When we got word that our supplier was now offering a reflective substrate, we had to give it a go – I’d been wondering how to add ‘effective’ reflective material to our clothing for a few years, knowing not everyone wanted such a detail, while others certainly did.

This is the first order we’ve sent out since starting to offer the new ‘reflective’ option last week. While the initial tests to work out if it was ‘the thing’, proved it was, this image taken in subdued indoor lighting with the trusty iP4 shows that this stuff does indeed POP!

Nice option for those riding in the dark and I think we are going to start playing around with what else we can do with it now…

Tags:cycling,ride

: ShutUpandRide

By: g | December 4th, 2011 | No Comments » |

Let’s face it, don’t you feel his way after reading or listening to the endless drivel from people who spend too much time talking and not enough riding?

Now an available option…

Tags:bike,ride