LOL. Red, you seem to have built a relationship with your bike and "he" (sounds weird when it´s always been it or she to me) has probably become personal to you!. He could well take up some space in your room, near your bed, side by side with your teddy bear, and it´s highly likely that you had named him (and no puns here) LittleRedboy -Reddy- , FruitLoops -Frooty- , Mobydick -Dicky- or something like that . Anyhow don´t get embarrassed, since many of us can feel kinda "maternal" with our bikes as well. ;-). Dude, You did it Chain! You detected a nice cunning pun that I didn´t mean to make. No intentional at all but your expertise in English made it blindingly funny obvious to us all!. Cool, I truly liked this one!. Consequently, does the sentence "Lance Armstrong is a drug peddler" have a punchline to you? ;-). Furthermore, If you hear "bike pedaler", you could take it as a person selling bikes in the street!. So, I guess it´s better to say "bike pusher" to avoid any mess here. I hope all of our viewrs can learn English with all this funny stuff coming from Chain´s mind. I myself am impressed by his analytic spirit to interpret things!!!. He´s a real bike ped...something. ;-)
For the moment I'm a bike pedaler, but maybe one day I'll open a shop and be a bike peddler as well, ha ha. Have been thinking about improving technique and one way to do that is watching videos of the pros. So here's a vid of Cedric Gracia and Brian Lopez. Of course these guys are bad ass and do things I can only dream of, like back flips and gnarly jumps. But watching them negotiate more conventional terrain can be educational, like when Brian Lopez glides over a series of dips or ondulations (starting at minute 3:02). You couldn't possible do that going more slowly, but if you go fast enough you can sort of float over obstacles. But it takes nerve and talent to pull it off. [video=youtube;ZMs2ePa0RWQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMs2ePa0RWQ[/video]
I've given a sleep to that pun and still nowt, what a riddle! Your level playfield is sometimes far away from mine! Well, it doesn't matter, you'll have to stand my English for a long time yet. hmmm oh aye! something i'm learning at the moment is Cockney slang, let's see how it works in spoken English my chinas at school will kill me! Chain, running makes your heart get bigger and stronger , it works fine when you're either short of time or the weather sucks Interap what are you thinking about when you propose a twist to call her bike Dick , yo kinda' sick minded guy!
WOW! I´m totally lost on cockney. Maybe you´re the perfect candidate to play Eliza Doolittle in the next My Fair Lady´s film, cause she had an incredible cockney accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd9grNBmGCY and then... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc_IHte0bpo LOL!. Forewarned is forearmed. Since I fairly warned Red with a previous notice of "No pun here", I´ll tell you I was just thinking of supporting Dick Cheney by naming her bike that way. Doesn't sound pretty convincing tho... :compress
Wouldn't mind learning Cockney rhyming slang, but I'm cream crackered now, ha ha. There's really a lot of it, suppose I could try it out on my mates (china plates) at work. Rhymes and puns, isn't life fun. Tomorrow Interap and I will be out on our pennies (just invented that, our skinnies, our road bikes). Cheers mates!
Dont't learn cockney, the next step will be getting fat, going bald and wearing lots of bad gold jewellery. (this may be you already though)
Guys, while you were learning how to speak Cockney, We we riding to the snow. (Chain´s going to post a pic of the three of us) That´s life. Now that you´re leaving for a ride, we have to learn how to speak Cockney. And then some redneck words! Cheers!
Here's the pic of the three of us: Interap is the really good-looking one (on the left), he's ever better in person! I'm just saying this in case there are any bike girls out there in the market for a true gentleman cyclist. Anyway, Juan Carlos is in the middle, he's pretty much fully recovered from his accident of about two years ago. And I'm on the right, showing my legs, it's spring, isn't it? Today Inter went to Soto, and JC and I had a hard ride to Bustarviejo, believe me we were really hurting when we got back to Madrid, and we had an annoying headwind coming back. I guess we were pushing pretty hard, and I wanted to get back asap because I had to work this evening,. We went 124 km at an average speed of 27 km/h. Seems the average should be faster considering how cream crackered we were.
JC sent me three photos from his camera, here's one of them. Inter, if you want I'll send you the other two.
Thanks a lot David. You got pm with the details on where to send them. Hope we have another day like that of the photo, the weather was beyond gorgeous... :razz:
Huzzah! my new mech hanger arrived, quickly got my bike in order and had a nice local mooch round the coast. Second ride with a dropper post, have to say it's the best mtb invention since disk brakes. I had been thinking about a full-sus frame but with the seat easily out the way with a nice big fat tyre (and arse) I dont feel the need. Brilliant thing (a KS dropzone btw, about 140 euros from our German cousins)
Mmm... interesting and high-quality device, cool as well, but except for a fat -let´s say it the posh way!- butt and bigger tyres you mention, I don´t truly get how you compare a remote or a finger-triggered (Both models available from KS firm) up and down movement of the seat with a full-suspension frame. It´s so convenient when you have to actuate it without having to stop at all, and everytime you need to, and you Know, some people are thinking of suspension posts as alternative to full suspension bikes, but as far as I know they´re wrong ( I just got a hardtail) because I have heard some comments that even a suspension post is no substitute for a full suspension bike, just a device intended for comfort, so suspension on rough terrain has nothing to do with dropper posts. Am I right?. Dropper posts are a whole new ball game on the convenience of going up and down your seat but many full suspension bikes are "dropperless-post" ;-). I´m glad you are living in blissful hapiness now with your mech on and your seat up and down in a split second!!! ;-) ;-) ;-) Leaving for a quick ride now...
At long last your mech hanger! I'm sure that after being grounded a ride was sheer bliss. I think I'm going to experience the same thing cos tomorrow it's looking like my enduro ride will be rained off. This is the longest I've been off my Rallon, I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms, aaaahhhh. But the weather is supposed to clear up on Monday and since it's a holiday we're heading for the Pardo. A dropper post in very high on my wish list, but like Inter I was unaware that they can be considered a substitute for a full sus. But I suppose that if you can easily get the seat out of the way you're freer to use your legs to absorb the shocks. In my case I know that when facing a technical section I lower my saddle in spite of being on a full sus. Don't want the saddle to get in my way, and want to get everything I can working in my favour.
Well, despite threats of heavy rain, it just sprinkled a little in the morning, so I´m pretty sure you put the maintenance work you did on the Rallon to the test!. Hope you had a blast and everything´s allright. More to come tomorrow, it´s a holiday, another enduro practice day for you! ;-) Cheers!
I don't know quite much about posts, but a suspension post of course does not substitutea full suspension frame, because among other things the post doesn't keep the wheels in touch with the terrain, what a suspension really does. In addition, the vertical movement of the seat modifies the space between that and the crankset, which is nothing but good for your knees and your pedalling efficiency. A dropper post is a quite interesting device, helpful for step and broken downhills like this I found in Cantabria (for your info, the bike is standing)
The post I was talking about has no suspension ability, it just goes up and down. BUT, getting it out of the way, combined with a big tyre (2.35") and the flexiness that my frame has, with the ease of having my weight back and using the legs has meant I've found it so easy to get down stuff (exactly like the stuff in the pic above). You dont notice how much a seat gets in the way until it isnt. I could just stop and put the post down manually, but that's boring and breaks the ride up, so I rarely bother.
Unfortunately didn't go for a ride today. Since it looked like rain I went to bed late last night and had a lie-in this morning. And of course now it's raining. So have to wait till tomorrow, but it should clear up, I know I'm counting on it. Mario, good comment about full sus bikes: they keep both wheels on the ground. Mackem makes a good point as well, just getting the saddle out of the way really gives you more confidence and control. I'm always stopping to lower or raise the saddle, a real pain in the ass, so really need a dropper post. Nice picture! That looks like a challenging downhill, actually I don't much like rock-strewn downhills like that one, but that's when lots of suspension travel comes in handy, obviously with drop-offs and jumps as well. In any case, going fast actually makes going through rock gardens easier, if you get going fast enough and have the skills, you actually float over the rocks. Can't say I stand out at that, but having body armor on boosts confidence.
Hi guys!! After a few days out of here... I'm back... My hometrainer is gone, I send it back to the warhouse as "the geras" weren't working too well, and I know I don't need them, as just using my bike's it's the same, but as I payed for the whole lot, I want it to work as supposed to... On the other hand I'm considering rentig either a minivan or a bigger car for Easter, as I'm thinking taking the bikes with us, and my dear for Focus isn't enough for taking them and our luggage in the trunk (in fact I know it's not legal) so, I've been giving it quite of a thought, either to get a proper bike carrier or to rent another vehicle... BTW, we've made our minds, we're going to Portugal. Cheers and enjoy this bank day where ever it is!
