It’s official: as the sun goes down tonight it marks the end of Welsh Summer Time (WST) – that brief period (8 days this year) between the snowy wastes of last winter and the even snowier wastes of next winter (Easter). The forecasts are out and we can definitely expect to be back in sub-zero […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.I get paid about £10 an hour. (Bike trade!) That’s £2.50 for every 15 minutes. This morning I got up 15 minutes early, which meant that by the time I’d climbed the Bwlch I had enough spare time to face this choice: carry on down into Dolgellau on the main road with all the traffic, […]
Continue Reading... 5 Comments.Heavy traffic on the ride home from work this evening: 1 runner, 17 sheep, 2 squirrels and a woodcock. Unfortunately, by the time I’d stopped, got the camera out, and lined up a shot, the runner had jogged by, the sheep had wandered back into the fields, the squirrels had scarpered, and the woodcock had […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.I’ve added several new dates for MTB skills coaching and bike maintenance courses for March and April 2012 -check out the calendar for full details. As per last summer I’ll be running some basic skills short courses on Saturday evenings at Coed y Brenin, and these will start this spring and run throughout the year. […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.I’ve been off the bike for too long. A bad cold followed by a week away snowboarding, swiftly followed by a heavy bout of flu has left the bike(s) festering in the shed. That said, the forced absence from the saddle has provided the opportunity to actually get in the shed and do some long […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.Yesterday was a good day. During the daylight hours I rode with Mark and Stu from Bala Watersports, around some of the trails at Coed y Brenin that they were less familiar with. At various points during the ride we’d all stop and I’d break their bikes. Trailside Maintenance was the reason for such vandalism: […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.Yesterday was all about the bits that create movement – wheels and chains. Today was about the bits that help to control that movement, so we’re talking gears, steering, and brakes. Oh, and bottom brackets of course… First up, gears – we looked at identifying shifting problems, straightening hangers, replacing cables, adjusting mech stops (front […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.I had a busy day today running Day 1 of our Advanced Bike Maintenance Course for the guys at Bala Adventure and Watersports. Mark and Stu got their hands dirty getting to grips with wheels – from removing the tyres and repairing tubes, through to truing the rims and tensioning spokes, all the way to […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.So, I cried all the way to work this morning and, by the time I arrived, the tears were frozen to my face. That’s the last time I commute in January without glasses! On the plus side, I managed to slipsteam a tractor towing a muck spreader on the final climb out of Ganllwyd. It […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.Okay, so in a previous post I said that my new bike had arrived and posted a picture of said bike. Well, for the purposes of accuracy and honesty, I should point out the bike in the picture wasn’t actually my new bike. Rather it was the extra large size model we’ve just got in […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.