About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Love your bike!

The laziest cyclist in the world? Possibly. After every ride for the last couple of weeks, through rain, general road muck and at least three types of animal 'detritus', I've been getting home and just throwing my bike in the shed. Come the next day, I'll give the tires a kick, test the brakes and set off without a care for my groaning ride.
Beginning to look far older than its years, the bike was developing frown lines, grey hairs and a chain with more crud than metal, with one, easily predictable end result. It was just getting harder to turn the pedals.
After stalling for ages I finally dug out the bottle of bike cleaner, grabbed my toothbrush and went to work.
An hour later, I've coaxed all the gunk off the bike  (distributing it pretty evenly on to me in the process) and my bike looks like it belongs to someone that cares about it again (while I now look pretty unloved). Obvious as it may sound, a clean chain runs a hell of a lot easier than a grungy one.
Moral? Love your bike and it'll love you right back.

Top ten reasons

I recently came across this top ten list of why you should cycle rather than drive. All true, except for number ten anyway, after our 'summer' I've forgotten what a tan line is.

How to please?

Great products and customer service:

    Hi,
    Just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks very much for the excellent service. I am really happy with my new bike, and especially happy to have only paid £201 for it!
    Cheers,
    Grant (Edinburgh)

Thanks Grant, we're only too happy to help. Enjoy the Globe, it's a great bike!

Learn with the Athertons

Need to improve your mountain biking skills? The Athertons (Dan, Gee and Rachel), are offering ‘training days’, using the knowledge and technology that has helped them gain over 30 podium finishes between them. The ‘quickest family on two wheels’ will give you advice on a range of issues, from bike setup to riding different types of transition.
You’ll be learning with riders of similar ability on the Atherton's home training ground in North Wales, with Dan and Gee taking general lessons and Rachel, sadly, taking ladies only sessions.
Sounds brilliant – but ‘training day’. I’m not sure even the freakishly talented Athertons could whip me into shape in just a day...

Gus on holiday

Gus is away this week, so no proper updates on his cycling for weight loss program, but he did get in touch to let us know that holidaying in the land of temptation (Cornwall) is proving tough for his diet. Clotted cream, scones and jam are calling out to him from every quaint ye olde tea shoppe. Don’t do it Gus!   

Tredz Downtown Race over

The Tredz Downtown Race is over. It brought Penarth to a relative standstill on Sunday as hundreds of riders and a jumble of downhill, XC, hardtail and BMX’s bounced down the fast, tight and crowded course.

Why I love cycling to work

At this time of the year its dark when I begin my ride to work, within five minutes the sky is a burning pink, then a deep orange. I barely notice the first couple of miles.

The vast majority of cars, pedestrians and other road users who treat me, the wobbling red faced cyclist with respect.

The kid, who can't be more than fourteen, who often cycles past me going at what appears to be about five times my speed, with what appears to be about five times less
effort, always shouting hello over his shoulder.

Getting to work in a good mood.

The knowledge that I've got my Allez with me at work and can cycle home too.

Getting home in a good mood.

 

Squeaky clean pro racers

Slipstream Sports, a green, clean US pro cycling team, are looking to take the world by storm next year. They stand out from the crowd because of their pro-active stance on doping; their rider’s agree to frequent testing and if there are any abnormalities, they quit. They’ve been busy signing up big names who agree with their ethos, including 2007 British Road Race & Time Trial champion David Millar. Almost guaranteed entry to Pro Tour events like the Tour de France because of their superior anti-doping attitude, you can have a say in what their 2008 team strip will look like here. Somebody at Slipstream likes tartan.

Happy customers

Our shiny new website has been up and running for a little while now. We've been paddling like the clappers to make sure that any niggles get sorted and our standard of customer care remains as high as ever (at the very least we’ll keep our IT related wrath to ourselves…).

So it’s nice to hear from people like Paul that we’re still headed in the right direction.   

Hello,
I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for you fast friendly efficient service and for supplying me with a bike that as stated on your web site that is ready to ride within minutes of unpacking.
All I did was to turn the handlebar and tighten the two bolts and screw in the pedals and off I went down the road.
I wish I had found your web site before buying from Amazon which after two attempts resulted in my sending the bike from them back as after two weeks I still could not ride it due to assembling problems!

Thanks again

Paul

Cheers Paul. More than happy to help!

Gus weight loss - week 13

Gus fell off the wagon last weekend.

He was one of the Tredz mob doing the rounds at the Cycle Show this year. He did all the driving (not to mention all the getting lost) and spent the entire day on his feet checking out new products. So we’ll forgive him for reaching for a generous number of free energy bars to keep him going. At least he’s feeling remorseful now, as all “that free rabbit food broke me” afterwards. Fibre overkill?

Anyway way, off track this week:

Ridden: 18 miles (28.9 km) (last week: 57 miles, 91 km)
Average Speed: 13.4 mph (21.2 kmh) (last week: 13.8 mph, 22.2 kmh)
Time on bike: 1 hr 20 minutes (last week: 4 hrs 8 minutes)
Current Weight: 18 stone 11 pounds (119.2 kgs) (last week: 18 stone 11 pounds, 119.2 kgs)
Weight loss: Nada (last week: 2 pounds, 907 g)

Remember

Starting weight at 19/07/07: 21 stone 3 pounds (134.7 kgs)
Target weight for 01/01/08: 16 stone (101 kgs)

Tredz Downtown Race this Sunday.

         

The Tredz Downtown Race is, like a monster full suss hurtling down a long flight of steps, fast approaching.

Race day is this Sunday, the 21st October, practise from 9:00am.

Entry for the event is now closed, but baying crowd members are still more than welcome, entrance is free!
The audience can expect a great day out, with amazing downhill action from hundreds of (amateur and professional) riders making the sleepy town of Penarth theirs for the day. Then when you’ve seen the action, laughed at the commentary and decided you can do better, come and have a word with Tredz at our Cardiff bike store. We’ll provide the best kit and advice, leaving you to concentrate on those steps…

Best of luck to all the riders, especially the Tredz boy’s Julian Poffley, William Jones and Edward Burns.

Nice rims

Campagnola have begun the next stage of their rim art contest with some amazing graphics on display. Well worth a look. Vote Kirby Angel!

Peter Hain is the new downhill champ (and there's a new trail in Afan)

Looking to build on it’s staggering recent success (2002: 9900 visitors, 2006: 60900!), Afan is getting a new trail. For those of us who already find Afan’s charms irresistible this is grand news. The Npower renewables Energy trail may have a peculiarly unattractive name, but if it’s a shade on the rest of Glyncorrwg it’ll be a much-appreciated addition.

The Forestry Commission of Wales (the single greatest forestry commission in the history of forestry commissions) and local elite rider Rowan Sorrell are responsible for the 3.5km of trail of almost exclusively singletrack, which was built to augment White’s Level. The new track is described thus: "berms, tabletops, jumps, timber boardwalks, four bridge structures over rivers, open fast flowing sections and dark tight windy sections, good views and the feeling of isolation." Which is more than enough to get this excitable little fanboy drooling in anticipation.

A few of us are heading up there in a couple of weeks to test out some 08’ bikes. We’ll let you know what we think of ‘Energy’.

2007 Cycle Show Review

As the sugary haze from all of the free jellybeans and protein bars on the weekend is slowly receding, we can look back and say that Tredz had a really productive and fun show. Good to catch up with a lot of people we usually only get to talk to on the phone and there were some really cool products on display... 

Tredz at the 2007 Cycle Show

There’s a bunch of us on our way to the 2007 Cycle Show this weekend in Earls Court. Some of us are looking forward to seeing the supermodel road bikes, some the big hitting MTB’s, personally, I’m just looking forward to running around like a kid in a sweetshop and leaving with a pocket full of fantastically useless freebies. If you can’t make it this year come and check us out next week when we’ll have a selection of what caught our eye at the show.

2006 TOUR NEWSFLASH!!

I know I said that we’d had enough of the Tour, especially the one that finished over a year ago, but Floyd Landis isn’t going quietly. In fact he's still kicking up a bit of a stink.
He's now down to his last chance to prove his innocence before a generally disbelieving (or uncaring) world.
The final judgement is due from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We now dare to hope that we'll get both the truth and that, win or lose, Floyd and the rest of the 2006 Tour debris will go away quietly. With any luck by 2008 we’ll almost have forgotten all about it.

 

Gus weight loss – week 12

A ticking off from our Energiser Bunny of a boss and a new bike (more of which soon) and Gus is back on track. 2 pounds weight loss and its as if last weeks blip never happened.

Ridden: 57 miles (91 km) (last week: 10 miles, 16.09 km)
Average Speed: 13.8 mph (22.2 kmh) (last week: 12.2 mph, 20.3 kmh)
Time on bike: 4 hrs 8 minutes (last week: 38 minutes)
Current Weight: 18 stone 11 pounds (119.2 kgs) (Last week: 18 stone 13 pounds, 120.2 kgs)
Weight loss: 2 pounds (907 g) (Last week: nowt)

A massive improvement.

Remember

Starting weight at 19/07/07: 21 stone 3 pounds (134.7 kgs)
Target weight for 01/01/08: 16 stone (101 kgs)

Pedal power

The Innovate or die Specialized contest hasn't really taken off yet. The entries so far don't grab us; Cycling to power your computer anyone?

Until the entries get a bit more creative than allowing me guilt free access to my e-mail, we've came across some shots of pedal power already being put to some good practical use.

Some of them look quite workable, like the pull-a-long attachment on the left, whilst some of them look like the sort of things Mad Max would take to his lawn. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell the guy on the right that you've just bought a petrol mower. If you want to see an entire gallery of these bikes (they give the term 'hybrid' a whole new meaning), go and check out this Treehugger page.

Impact of cycling

Seen this Transport for London video yet?
>
We like! A very cool representation of the naturally low impact of bikes. Love to see this idea rolled out nationwide.

End of the Nationals

More Jody results have come in following the end of five days of competition and forty laps of full tilt racing at the nationals.
Jody’s back to his winning ways with a gold and a world record of 11.458 (to beat his own previous WR of 11.676) in the flying 200. He also got silver in the kilo, 2nd in the B sprint competition and a top ten place in the open kilo. His team came 5th in the team sprint where he scored another personal best of 19.4 in the opening lap.
The CWAD (cyclists with a disability) kilo was the final event. Not surprisingly considering the amount of racing he’s been doing, Jody’s legs were a bit knackered by this point so he came a ‘disappointing’ second. He told us he dropped a gear to try and give his legs a break but couldn’t take advantage of the easier spin. Just a tiny bit glad to hear that lactic acid affects champions as well as your average fair weather commuter...
Another fantastic showing Jody, congratulations from all of us.

Jody doesn't win shocker!

So he is human.
Jody Cundy, our resident world champion, made it through to the final's of the BC National Track Championships in Manchester but got twice narrowly beaten by Mike Partridge. He's still got the  team sprint, flying 200 and the kilo to go though so we're still hopeful that he can cap his tremendous year in style.
Jody told us he's looking foward to the break he's getting after the nationals. Well deserved!

Phil Marland Wins Welsh Grand Prix Championships

Another week, another Tredz rider making headlines. Phil Marland has won the this year's Welsh Grand Prix Tri Championships.

A huge effort, spanning four races in Bala, Pembrokeshire, Aberavon, Llanelli and Tuska. The unique Welsh landscape (for unique read hills and rain) makes the Welsh Grand Prix Championships a particularly hard won event.

I spoke to him recently and asked him about his triumph and found that because of a combination of a hectic work schedule and a dodgy leg, he wasn’t even planning on taking part in the entire series.

So how did he end up winning?

Although he didn't say as much I would attribute a lot of it down to mental toughness. When I was talking to him about the swimming (his least favoured event) he told me he “…landed on some rocks in the mass start, I was in agony for ten minutes and I got a few kicks in the face, but the adrenaline soon kicks in.” Nails.
He made up for the swimming and the fact that he can only run once a week (that leg) through his favoured event, the cycling. Riding his Tredz issue Specialized Roubaix he achieved a higher average score than everyone else over the series.

Congratulations from all of us at Tredz, Phil.

Gus falling short

It’s all true! Gus has returned to sugary tea and crisps! It’s reaching a tipping point for him now; he’s already looking at a 3 pound a week weight loss to make his target. Doable, but he’s making it tough on himself now. Our merciless boss is suggesting he gets himself on a turbo trainer every morning to sweat it out – whatever he does it’s now or never for our intrepid dieter.  Come on mate you can do it!

Here’s a chart showing the size of his task:

Gus weight loss - week 11

There have been shocking whispers around the office that Gus has started taking sugar in his tea again. Whether the fact that his weight has not changed since last week can be blamed on that or his admittedly dodgy bike is up for discussion.
Anyway here are this week’s stats:

Ridden: 10 miles (16.09 km) (Last week: 33.49 miles (53.7 km)
Average Speed: 12.2 mph (20.3 kmh) (Last week: 13.5 mph, 22.6 kmh)
Time on bike: 38mins (Last week: 2 hours 27 minutes)
Current Weight: 18 stone 13 pounds (120.2 kgs) (Last week: 18 stone 13 pounds, 120.2 kgs)
Weight loss: nul points.

Remember

Starting weight at 19/07/07: 21 stone 3 pounds (134.7 kgs)
Target weight for 01/01/08: 16 stone (101 kgs)

Breaking news!!!
Just finished speaking to Gus and a new bike is on order, a Specialized Tri-cross sport. Nice! Leaves him with no excuse for next week though…

A day in the life of a mechanic

Being in the bike industry gives us access to stuff that isn’t widely available. Take the Scott magazine and catalogue for example. Whilst it's obviously on the sell (unlike the majority of commercial bike mags that are far more subtle), the quality of it is quite high. Interesting news, articles and plenty of the good bike porn you'd expect from an in-company magazine.

What took our eye was this article titled “A day in the pro tour.” It looks at a day in the life of a mechanic at Saunier Dubval Prodir, is written by Virginie Ducrot Geinoz and we’ve shamelessly nicked it and hand it to you here.

Save money on a bike

After writing about the economic affect of cycling recently, I read an interesting Times article. It shows how wealthier people are more likely to cycle than poorer people. They tend to be better educated about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and how much commuting via bike can contribute towards one.
Fine. But does this strike anyone else as a backward state of affairs? Cycling to work/school is a way of saving money, even if we forget all the other good stuff for a minute, it seems like basic economics to me that people with less money would be happy to embrace a form of transport that runs on beans (baked), rather than a fuel so expensive it's confounding petrol station signs with extra noughts.

Customer feedback

The days are getting darker and so is the Tredz office as our riding time is being curtailed, but we’re sucking it up and still providing the kind of customer satisfaction that generates comments like this:

Hello, thanks for the recent order, delivery was quick and I was impressed with the bike being already built. Thanks again. Matt

Happy to help Matt.

Cycling for the economy

We all know that more of us should be getting more exercise. Cycling England has just released a report outlining precisely why we should choose to make that exercise on a bike.
Lots of data and graphs – mostly saying what we already know (but in pie form), but there are some pretty depressing stats about the decline in cycling in the past couple of decades. Hopefully with the cycle to work scheme and the ‘Bike it’ school training programme the trend can begin to be reversed.
Interestingly, all of the reasons for cycling are also outlined in an economic medium. How much is cycling to work worth exactly? If there were an increase of just 15% in the number of cycling trips there would be an overall saving (in health, congestion and pollution terms) of £523 million. If there were a 50% increase that number would rise to £1308 million.
Need any more reasons? The full report is available here.