"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "Like I always say, there's no 'I' in "team". There is a 'me', though, if you jumble it up." We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. Wisdom - that part of knowledge that isn't only true, but also happens to be helpful. Wisdom speaks softly... Thereafter the volume increases proportionate to the level of ignorance A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet? All designed objects are propaganda for a certain way of life. Sometimes we need to stop analysing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence." --Napoleon Bonaparte The best designed clothes: invite being removed but reward being kept on. It's that you just can't take the effect and make it the cause | Blimey this is a boring post. The argument has to be made, of course, but while one WILL NOT support loutish cyclists one will also not support fat, lazy people looking to persecute all cyclists and force helmet use to portray cycling as a dangerous as well as anti-social activity to excuse their idleness and selfishness. Last year, 14% of all road traffic accidents, and one quarter of road deaths, had exceeding the speed limit or driving too quickly for the conditions as a contributory factor. That suggests to us that taking measures to curb speeding motorists are a sensible [ continue reading Daily Mail calls for prosecution of anti-social cyclists ] Huge open spaces, vivid green valleys and tiny villages. Small meandering rivers and traffic free routes. There is plenty for the eye to feast on in the Peak District. Of course with all the inviting country pubs, the eye is definitely not the only thing that will be feasting. A visit is a must for anyone who enjoys jumping on a bicycle and exploring. In fact I would say that cycling is the best way to see the Peak District. Not only will you cover more ground but also you are sat in a nice elevated position. You will soon [ continue reading Escape from London and go cycling in the Peak District ] It will be fascinating to see whether Bixi, in time, brings about the demise of Australia’s helmet laws. And, should London’s bike sharing scheme prove popular, the percentage of helmet-wearing cyclists in the UK capital will no doubt decrease. Just about the only factor that would convince the UK Department of Transport to push for cycle helmet compulsion would be a high percentage of cycle helmet wearing from the current crop of cyclists: dilute with non-helmet wearers and compulsion fades to grey. via Quickrelease.tv » Blog Archive » Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?. A few months ago I did a couple posts on ankling. You can find them here. Ankling is basically a pedaling technique that recruits different muscles to either produce more power or to give your primary pedaling muscles brief respite. via Ankling. Look; Boris rides a bike and he is not a stupid man, no matter how convenient it would be for us to believe he is, and for heaven’s-sake the Office of Mayor is an organisation not a deity! This is Britain so we already know nobody can actually take responsibility for themselves and that everyone needs bottle-green railings around everything to make it safe for them and also that every driver has to know exactly where every ‘cut up the inside, go straight-ahead at junctions’ person on a ‘freakin’ ego-trip toy-as-transport’ bicycle is at all times but really! When will [ continue reading ONLY BORIS CAN SAVE YOU FROM KILLING YOUR STUPID ARROGANT SELF! ] The best part about this new dataset is that we’ve been able to add a lot of new, detailed information to Google Maps – information that helps people better explore and get around the real world. For example, college students will be pleased to see maps of many campuses; and cyclists will now find many more trails and paths to explore. Soon we even plan on providing you with biking directions to take advantage of this new data. Of course, in the true Google spirit of “launch and iterate,” we plan to work with more data sources to add new [ continue reading Google LatLong: ‘bike-there’ is coming! ] Amidst the sea of jerseys and bike shorts at New Jersey’s City to Shore — a 150-mile bike ride to benefit multiple sclerosis research — one unlikely rider stands out. A tiny 84-year-old woman wears a neat, green turtleneck dress and an embroidered jacket. On her feet is a pair of high-heeled pumps. Her salt-and-pepper hair peeks out from the helmet that indicates she is, in fact, a participant in the bike ride. Her old-fashioned one-speed bicycle is purple, with a large wire basket on the front that carries her belongings and her number for the ride. Lan Yin Tsai [ continue reading Biking 150 miles for a cause — in a dress and heels ] I’ve got a cycling mate who defines ‘hill’ as a gradient steep enough to come off the big ring. There were 16 such hills on the Tour of the Peak last weekend, meaning a good baker’s dozen to test the legs as well as the three major headliners of Cat & Fiddle, Winnats Pass and Holme Moss. And if that wasn’t enough, torrential rain and high winds were on the menu. The result: a sportive to remember. via Riding the Tour of the Peaks 2009 | road.cc | The website for pedal powered people: Road cycling, [ continue reading Riding the Tour of the Peaks 2009 ] ADULT CONTENT – bare cyclist, NSFW, do not click through if you are of a prudish disposition. Loose Morals. Women cyclists make up a far higher proportion of deaths involving lorries than men. Why? Many of the fatalities involving cyclists happen in collisions with a heavy goods vehicle (HGV). This year, seven of the eight people killed by lorries in London have been women. Considering that women make only 28% of the UK’s cycling journeys, this seems extremely high. via BBC NEWS | Magazine | Are women cyclists in more danger than men?. Here’s an interview with leather artisan Kara Ginther, who carves Brook’s leather bike saddles. ‘I’ll never forget how nervous I was to make that first cut into the gorgeous seat. Carving leather leaves little room for error; not only can you ruin the design, but with one slip of the blade you can render an object useless!’ To Be, Inspired: Interview with leather artisan Kara Ginther” (CLICK HERE FOR MORE -> Boing Boing Hand carved bicycle saddles: .) (Via Boing Boing Hand carved bicycle saddles: .) [ continue reading Hand carved bicycle saddles ] Couple more great days in a row after giving an armful of lots of very big red corpuscles to the greater good and walking Mam Tor to Loose Hill. Firstly through Sherwood Forest in brilliant sunshine for the first time since I was a teenager, what is it about forests? Today spent tour-guiding VIPs around Redmires to exhaust a very appreciative Porridge. Blissful. Early start tomorrow to ‘turn-up and ride’ with one of the local clubs on their Sunday club-run for my first time. Feel funny about this which is daft. Have already done drink, sandwiches and snacks (20.30). How [ continue reading they never told me there’d be days like these ] In the countryside, riding a bike, Spinning wheels take you off where you like; Whereas, here at the gym, Where you cycle to slim, You see less than you would on a hike. call on me, call on me call on me, call on me call on meeeee, I’m the same boy I used to be I was going to go up Mt Ventoux some day. Not happened yet. This article about ‘The Great Souplesse‘ and how to climb Ventoux is pretty good – over these ratios work is work, is work. Keeping all my toes though! If you are a simple cyclo-tourist you should never do the Mont Ventoux without having done some tough Cols in the weeks before. Simply accumulating kilometers on the flat isn’t enough. You have to get used to climbing again, the thin air etc… In the neighbourhood (north & east) of the Mont Ventoux you have some medium sized cols [ continue reading So you think you can climb, and even climb the great Mont Ventoux? ] It’s that time again … Autumn – season of mists and mellow fruitfulness -and suffering. Hill climb time trials are an exercise in masochism. I love the indifference shown by the photographers in the image above. Voyeurs wanting to see the national championships do not have far to go from Sheffield this year. Details on the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire CTC site here National Hill Climb Championship at Combing my hair….. Say if I only could, I’d make a deal with God, And I’d get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running [ continue reading National Hill Climb Championship at Combing my hair…. ] Don’t look at the summit all the time while you are climbing a hill. Look at the points in between, look around and see the view. Stare a few metres in front, stop at points sufficiently far ahead to challenge you and keep moving toward targets you set yourself and acknowledging, to yourself, the achievement of them. This is particularly true on a bike (except the stopping!) as looking down also keeps your windpipe open! Doesn’t mean you have taken your eyes off the goal; just that, having set your ultimate objective, you deal with the immediately attainable. I was [ continue reading best advice I have been given: #3 ] “A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness” (James E. Starrs) Tyre-pressure calculator – fascinating stuff! Personally I like them as hard as hell and especially with our roads. I like to repel thorns and wire which, this week, I have failed miserably with. Two punctures alongside trimmed hedges after a year without one on the Weigh. Took a left off last-laugh lane. thelazyrandonneur.com, tyre pressure and comfort. A punctured bicycle On a hillside desolate Will nature make a man of me yet ? “I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together again” (Michelle Pfeiffer) This pretentious place [LINK], never before visited, is so off ‘the list’. Took 4 minutes to choose a sandwich after a fifty-mile ride only to be told at exactly four PM that ‘we don’t do food after four PM’. “Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls” (Bob Weir, Grateful Dead) Some describe the climb as a sprinter’s climb. The start is pretty much flat for the first 150 yards but soon starts to climb once you pass the driveway on your right. All then goes quiet for while until you can hear the roar of the crowd and the voice of Doug Bond commentating. Once you pass the road sign on your left the lactic kicks in and from there till the end is a non stop effort to the line which is right outside the Monsal Head Hotel. The course record is held by Malcolm Elliott with an amazing [ continue reading Monsal Hill Climb, Sunday 11 October ] Chalk up more bikeway innovation to the folks at the NYC Department of Transportation. Now nearly complete, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge is now safer and more enjoyable thanks to a first-of-its-kind in NYC: a center-median, two-way, protected bike path. Frankly, the facility is a perfect solution to counter the dangers posed by a tangle of roads and highway on-ramps that burden the area. Dramatic before and afters tell the delicious story. via Streetfilms » Sands Street Gets a Sassy, Center-Median Cycletrack. I don’t like cycle paths but this one is on a whole new scale from [ continue reading Sands Street Gets a Sassy, Center-Median Cycletrack ] “Ride lots” (Eddy Merckx) I have always been told that Merckx was called the ‘cannibal’ for the strength he drew to himself from taking his opponents apart on the road, that’s fine; he became the greatest competitive cyclist. I have always wondered about this kind of person if they carry it into other parts of their life. The person that has to crush everyone else, has to be the bullying manager, the person who has to win in a friendly knock-about, people who snipe everyone down in social settings. They say you most despise in others the trait you fear [ continue reading The Cannibal ] Joules, the Tandem Bike Robot that Pedals for You (Video) : TreeHugger. Ok people say my posts are eclectic and disjointed – they aren’t – the world is. This thing will not encourage you, push you, chat to you, pass you toffees and dates, and directions like a McNeill junior. Both my daughters have been the best stokers anyone could ask for and I can only remember one unplanned dismount with each of them. Thanks to Boing Boing again for sending me here. YouTube – For whenever you feel like quitting. “It never gets easier, you just go faster” (Greg LeMond) I like this quote because I don’t believe we actually want it to get ‘easier’. If we wanted it easier we would just stick to the same routes and routines. When it gets easier we just take different, steeper gradients. Then the roads we used to struggle up become simply a route to ever steeper ones. We have no ‘broad sunlit upland’ destination; the gradient is the objective. Of course some days the road that has become easy and predictable presents itself to us with a strong headwind and is [ continue reading Greg LeMond ] I’m a tad bit uncomfortable with all-carbon wheels, but I’m also not a professional racer. For those that are, and who have a nice $6000 burning a hole in their pocket there’s the new Reynolds RZR wheelset. Under 900 grams, carbon spokes (which are replaceable) and they have aerofoil spokes. via Reynolds Carbon Wheelset Under 900 Grams – Bike Hugger@Interbike. Sunday: Edale – Mam Tor 1:6 Monday: Subconjunctival haemorrhage Definition: Subconjunctival haemorrhage is a bright red ‘patch’ (if you are lucky) appearing in the white of the eye. This condition is also called red eye or crazy eye. via Subconjunctival haemorrhage. | Shirdi Sai Baba: "Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, does it improve upon the silence?" Well known fact that any kiss where one or other party is in control of heavy machinery doesn't count for quality assessment purposes. There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. The honest heart that's free frae a' intended fraud or guile. However fortune kick the ba', Has ay some cause to smile. Life consists in replacing one worry with another, and one desire with the next, what the Buddhists call ‘grasping’ or upādāna in Sanskrit "Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future." "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." A wrong decision isn't forever; it can be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved. heavy words thrown lightly And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” |
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