About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Jody Cundy preparing for the World Cup

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so thought I’d bring you up to date on a few things.

Since my last post I’ve signed with a new team, actually my 1st cycling team: VC St. Raphael.  I’ve also competed in my first set of races outside of paralympic events. I rode the 1st round of the Llandow crits, in which I was 7th in the 4th Cat race, which wasn’t bad for my 1st race. It taught me a few lessons, like not to sit on the front too much as it fatigues you out more than you think and secondly, don’t get boxed in when the strongest rider decides to make his break with 2 laps to go!

And then just a few weeks ago I rode the first round of the Sprinters Track League at Newport, which didn’t go too bad, although I was quite cautious about getting stuck in as the Paralympic World Cup is coming up soon and I want to be fully fit and ready for it.

Speaking of which, preparations are going very well. I managed to top my personal best in my flying 100m efforts both in training and also fully kitted. In Manchester last week I finally managed to crack 20 seconds for my opening lap with a 19.72, so things are going well.

Classic Lance

Idly surfing bike sites last night I stumbled on this classic Lance Armstrong Nike video. It's well worth skiving for 90 seconds to watch the great man ride with a special effects crew. [Shame Nike look like they’re binning cycling from their sports folio from 2008, gutted.]

Cyclo Sportive definition

What is Cyclo Sportive?
Cyclo Sportives (spelt in several variants e.g. cyclo sportifs) are long distance, organised, mass participation cycling ‘events’ - not races - typically held annually. Sportives challenge participants to complete a set course, usually between 100 and 200km, within a time constraint. Organisers typically offer two distance choices and will provide support with supervising marshals and food and/or water stations which will be heartily welcomed by entrants.

Sportives are the cycling cousin of running’s marathon. As with the 26 mile event, rather than racing other participants, sportives see cyclists challenge themselves in a personal battle against the distance and then ultimately, the clock. The already lengthy course will traditionally include climbs and difficult riding conditions, adding to the kudos of the event (e.g. the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix).

Who rides sportives?
These events are not just the preserve of hardened racing regulars, but they are certainly not for the faint hearted or unfit. The distance should be off-putting for any occasional summer cyclists, and, as the marathon would demand of a runner, genuine distance training must be performed well before considering joining the start line.

Sportives are open to all cyclists. No club membership or association is necessary, nor is there an ability criterion. This openness and the thrill of the challenge means sportives are becoming one of the UK’s most popular cycling disciplines.

Chris' hat collection

Chris likes caps.

He has loaaaaaaads. This is about 1/3 of 'em.

Scott Ransoms get a holiday

Scott are offering a prize draw so that 3 riders get an all expenses paid riding trip to Switzerland. To qualify you need to buy a 2007 Scott Ransom between 1st April and 1st July.

If they pull your name out of the hat in the first week of July you’ll get return flights (you take your own bike), transport to the riding location (I’m not sure exactly where), accommodation and meals. They also throw in a local guide for the weekend’s trail hunting.

Bargain Boulder

Recieved this email on Friday:

Hello,
I just wanted to say how pleased i was with the bike i ordered.

I ordered a Giant Boulder on offer at £160.The price was great and the free delivery was excellent. I was also really chuffed to get a free helmet with it too as well as all the leaflets etc! I have had no hesitation in recommending your website to a couple of friends who are looking to buy bikes.
Thanks,
Gareth B

Specialized Stumpjumper grows 3" for 2008

The yanks have an annual event called the Sea Otter which is billed as “the largest outdoor cycling festival and tradeshow in the US.” This equates to a ton of races (MTB orientated) held over a week and the cycle trade turn up with their spangly new kit to show/sell to entrants and spectators.

Now, it's not even the summer but Sea Otter always fuels speculation as to what's coming bike-wise over the pond for next year. I have it from a very good (and hairy) source that the 29er revolution continues apace – see the 29” blog. This isn’t just for eccentrics like Gary Fisher, even Specialized look like they’ve been re-tooling the jigs to get an extra 3" of rubber in the dropouts (I know it’s not really 3”, don’t get all Blue Peter on me). And boy, check out that dropout; it’s bolted onto the seat stay, very different for Spesh. Can anyone confirm if this in their UK line up for ‘08? Perhaps I’ll finally have to change my ever-so-slightly-stubborn mind about 29” wheeled bikes.

A happy cyclist dropped us a line

I would like to thank you for your excellant service on our recent purchase. Telephone queries were quickly answered. The final product came with minimal final assembly and some unexpected extras. We will certainly recommend you to friends. Once again thank you.

Tony F

Ed's Northshore Nirvana

Ed and his mates have been busy over the winter building some really crazy northshore. It's not quite what you'd see in mountain bike DVDs but as the boss said "You've got to admire the engineering genius. I wouldn't bloody ride it though". Would you?

IMBA has a blog

I didn’t realise that staff at the International Mountain Bicycling Association have an ‘official blog’.  It’s only been going for about three months but has loads of photos and plenty of riding talk. I hooked into this video of Nat Lopes from there. It’s worth watching to the end to see him bail on some big marble-looking stairs (too much "Dude" but hey, they're in Minnesota). I’m honestly thinking how we could set this up in our local hospital?

Test bike days kick off

As well as supporting cycling events (more on that in later posts), Tredz will be holding test bike days for our fifth year in a row. Yesterday saw the first of 2007 where we introduced Kona and Giant full suspension bikes to the public in their natural environment - the forest.
24 mountain bikers pre-booked their tests on Gaint's Trance, Anthem and Reign, along with Kona's Kikapu, Dawg and Coiler. These were mostly riders who'd never really experienced full suspension and were "blown away" with how much faster they could take the trails. Another 30-odd tests were held by riders who'd turned up on their own bikes and just wanted to try something new. That's exactly what we'd hoped for. Thanks to Mike from Giant and Jonny from Kona for helping make it happen; cheers guys.

The barby didn't go so well...

Cardiff bike store opening

Exciting times, Tredz is expanding. We open our Cardiff bike shop very soon (signed the lease yesterday). Yippee!!

Many early mornings, late nights and zero riding hours will mean the doors should open by the end of May. (Apologies for the poor picture, but I was rushed. You get the idea though.)

Come and see us at: Unit 2, Penarth Road Retail Park, Penarth Road, Cardiff CF11 8EF

Ed on new Cove Shocker

I may have upset Ed by showing some footage of Jules on his new Cove Shocker. To kiss and make up, here’s some stills of Ed last weekend as we've finished building up his new frame.  

Tredz rider named in GB squad

It was a bit of a foregone conclusion that Tredz rider, Jody Cundy would be chosen to represent Britain on the cycle track at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in May this year. His outstanding results in Australia clearly did him no end of good. No surprises then when the news broke on the Beeb yesterday that he was in the 10-man set-up. Well done Jody, you deserve it mate.

Former swimmers Jody Cundy and Sarah Bailey are in action too on 11 May in the Manchester Velodrome. Cundy, who made his international debut in last year's event, will compete in the LC2 kilometre time trial and the scratch race.

Get cycling back on track

I’ve pretty much copied this from a CTC article I found here. You’ll see why:

As Ministers prepare to set out a 30-year policy framework for Britain’s railways, CTC is launching a major campaign, urging all cyclists to lobby for the cycle-rail combination to be included in the Government’s plans.

CTC, the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation, has set up www.ctc.org.uk/cyclerail from which any cyclist can automatically email their MP, urging him or her to support better cycle-rail integration. This can be done in just two minutes.

CTC president and journalist [yes, him off the telly, Ed] Jon Snow, said:
“Cycling and rail travel are perfect partners. The combination provides a ‘doorstep-to-destination’ option for longer-distance journeys which might otherwise be possible only by car. It is also a really simple way to set about tackling a whole range of problems all in one go: obesity, air pollution, congestion and climate change to name but a few.”

Personal anecdotes about the problems (or examples of good practice) you have encountered will help them to impress on Ministers that this is an issue which really needs addressing.  Again www.ctc.org.uk/cyclerail

Visit Wales gets e-update

You wont be surprised to read that Visit Wales is an the organisation responsible for promoting tourism activities in Wales. (The clue is in the title, right?) Well, they’ve had a website for ever at visitwales.com but they’ve gone all Web 2.0 and built wales1000things.com.

The difference? They want to become a home for everything you could want to post about activities in Wales. Get out and about, take some photos and post them up. There’s even vouchers available as an incentive from them.

Scotty Cranmer's Felt ad video

I’ve made a conscious decision not to constantly post about great biking videos I’d discovered on YouTube etc., but Felt sent me a link to a MySpace video that you’ve got to check out. It’s a bit of behind the scenes footage of an ad shoot. I couldn’t download the vid from MySpace but the link is here, and I put this vid up to show you just how good this guy is.

Cycling tests are reborn

After a successful pilot of more than 5,000 children tested in eight regions, the new cycling proficiency test gets the green light. This more modern test will take place in the real cycling environment not the playground and is known as the Bikeability award scheme. The BBC said,

The government is putting £10m into children's cycling, which will pay for around half of all 10-year-olds to take the Bikeability course.

Amazingly they went on to claim that more than 90% of youngsters have never cycled to school. The government wants to buck that trend and is investing £10 million into children’s cycling in order to convince parents and teachers alike that cycling is safe. There’s a video article and a new test here.

Giant's new spring bike range

Most cycling brands change ranges annually. That means every May they start to run out of bikes. ‘The trade’ usually get shown the new range at the launch in about August, and, if we're lucky, the new bikes are in stock with supplier X by the end of October. To be honest, it’s all pretty long winded and inefficient (not that most bike bosses think so).

Not so with Giant. They launch twice a year - road and kids bikes each spring; MTB full sus every autumn. But the best thing about Giant (for us and you) is they bring in the new bikes before the launch. Ingenious! That means they avoid the embarrassing problems that most of the big boys find themselves in every single year – a vacuum of stock.

The ‘new’ which we saw last week is perhaps more a refresh than a complete revamp. Well, if it aint broke... The full suspension line up is unchanged until autumn (and will be called the 2008 range, whereas as this latest catalogue is 2007.5) but the 'lifestyle' MTBs from the Rock to the Terrago disc get new paint and the odd spec change, although it’s mostly cosmetic.

One area which has benefited a great deal is the choice of ladies models. Like other top brands (Specialized and Trek to name just two), Giant are championing women’s bikes and now have over 32 models to chose from. This includes many first-time models like the Terrago disc and the XTC. I think they’ve done a great job on the colour ways and livery but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to call myself qualified to comment.

The ever-popular SCR racers are called ‘new’ again but only the saddle (from Giant to Selle Royal) and chainset upgrade (from FSA to TruVativ) is really different. That said, there's a new entry level in the SCR 4.0 at £350 with aluminium frame and cromo fork, and a gorgeous limited edition (pictured) at £650.

One of the highlights of the line up was Oli Beckingsale's Giant Anthem Advanced carbon fibre rig with 90mm of travel. Doesn’t it look full of pace, even with his hack training wheels on?

Bike rack meets optical illusion

Equals bike as urban art. I got this from the fabulous Go Clipless blog.