London Cycle Show

9 10 2009

Had a quick spin (pardon the pun) round the Cycle Show in London today. It wasn’t that busy (apart from when Alberto was around, see below) which was nice, but I have to say I was a little disappointed with the limited number of exhibitors, especially as there were some notable manufactures missing or not displaying their full range of kit!

Not that busy today!

The highlights for me were, the scrum to see Alberto Contador (who seemed pretty happy with all the attention) and the displays / test areas that were well thought out and put together.

The scrum to see Alberto

Boris Johnson’s grand plan to get us all biking around London was also on view,

Brois Johnsons Cycle Scheme for London

Out of the bikes on view, my favourites are definitely the Yeti ASR 5 (available Jan 2010) and the Lapierre Zesty 714, pics below,

Yeti ASR 5 CarbonLapierre Zesty 714





Take geocaching to the limit!

28 08 2009

Are the majority of caches a bit tame for you? Then check out this site, Extreme Caching.com

ExtremeCaching

On the site you will find reviews, recommendations and experiences by other thrill seeking cachers. The photo gallery is excellent too, showing off some of the challenges that await.

The site is pretty new so the caches are limited and mostly in the US, but I’m sure over time new and challenging caches will be added. Congrats to the extreme caching.com team for putting this together.






My favourite arty photos

27 08 2009

Just added a Flickr widget to my sidebar and uploaded some of my favourite arty photos I’ve taken over the years.

Just scroll down the page, you can see the photos in the last widget on the right side, enjoy…





Rapha launches new blog

9 07 2009

Earlier this week Rapha launched it’s brand new blog. Giving an insight into the world of Rapha from both sides of the Atlantic, the blog will feature aspects of design, news and photography and update readers on rides, events and upcoming products.

RaphaBlogLocations of visitors to this page

Check out the blog here: http://www.rapha.cc/blog

You can also follow them on Twitter @rapharacing





Cycling in Burgundy

7 07 2009

Back in June my family and I spent a week’s holiday in Burgundy and took the bikes down with us. We were based North West of Dijon in an area where the hills are gently rolling, weather on the whole was great and the excellent wine flowed nicely in the evenings (Top tip, if you want to enjoy a near Champagne taste at a fraction of the cost then when you are in Burgundy you should certainly try some Crémant de Bourgogne.).

My experience over the week was that the area is excellent for either road or off road cycling. I also have the impression that cycling in the region is very safe and on most of the country roads you’d be lucky to see one car every 10 minutes, and even those that pass generally seem very respectful to cyclists. It’s even quieter off road where you’d be lucky to come across anyone at all.

I didn’t have the time or opportunity to venture onto any single track but did experience the amazing set of farm roads that crisscross the countryside, highly recommend for a gentle off road cycle through the fields.

Tracks through the fields

We also tried cycling along the Burgundy canal, this was brilliant for a family ride with the kids. The cycle path is essentially a dusty road that runs alongside the canal with a very gentle incline or slope each time you encounter a lock. The views along the canal are stunning as it meanders through the beautiful countryside, passing by the very quaint villages where you can take a short detour to have a refreshing beer and lunch in any of the delightful cafes and restaurants.

Cycling along the Burgundy canals

We had a great holiday and look forward to going back very soon, maybe we’ll try out one of the many vineyard cycle routes :-) .Locations of visitors to this page

You can find a little further information about the Burgundy canal and cycling there here.





GPSies – Share your tracks

4 07 2009

GPSies is a very cool website set up by Klaus Bechtold that shares your GPS tracks, allowing everyone to upload and download tracks very easily and view in Google maps.

GPSies1

Tracks are available to download in a range of file types from KXML to GPX , there is also a quick and easy option to export tracks to your Garmin GPS too.

GPSies2

But with so many tracks available it’s good to see that an excellent search facility is provided. Search results can also be filtered by the following catagories: By Foot, By Wheel, By Motor, On Water, At Winter and Others.

Once you’ve found an interesting track, detailed information can be viewed for it including an altitude profile, and users can provide feedback via ratings, so you’ll know if the track is going to be good or not!

But it’s not just us Joe Public using the site as I was delighted to see that MBR Magazine uploads their routes to the site, currently they have 52 tracks uploaded, see below,

GPSies3Locations of visitors to this page





Memory-Map Routes to Garmin Edge 705

29 06 2009

If you have a Garmin Edge 705 and Memory-Map then I’m sure you’re probably having a few issues getting your routes downloaded to your Garmin device. I believe this is fixed with the latest version of Memory-Map but here is a way to get round the problem if you don’t have the latest version or just don’t want to run the update.

Before you get started you’ll need a small utility (GPX2CRS) to convert a GPX file to a *.crs file. The generated *.crs file can then be imported into Garmins Training Center application and then finally exported to your Garmin Edge. You can download GPX2CRS for free here.

The GPX2CRS utility also has some extra features like speed simulation, speed adjustment, track reversing and automatic creation of course points. And it also allows you to add track points to avoid the ‘Off course’/'Course found’ problem.

OK, to get your route over from Memory-Map to your Garmin just follow the steps below,

  • Firstly plan your route in Memory-Map then right click on the Route and select Save As…
  • In the Save as type drop down select GPX eXchange files (*.gpx) (see below)

MemMap1

  • Give your file a name and click Save
  • Now start up the GPX2CRS utility
  • In the Convert GPX to Course tab, click the button next to GPX File: and select your previously saved GPX file (see below)

gpx2crsLocations of visitors to this page

  • Now click the Convert button and give a name and location for your *.crs file
  • Now start Garmin Training Center (you can get this for free here)
  • Click File, Menu item Import and select Courses… (see below)

Garmin Training Center

  • Select your *.crs file and click Open
  • Connect your Garmin device and click File, Send to Device…

And that’s it, you should now have your course loaded onto your Garmin and be ready to hit the trails. It certainly works for me and I can convert my files pretty quickly now just following the simple steps above.





Geocaching for the kids

20 05 2009

My kids absolutely love geocaching and as we don’t have a dog it’s a great way to get us all out of the house on a dreary Sunday. But our trips out into the wilderness are not without the usual wrangling over who is going to carry and use the trusty Garmin Vista HCx. I’ve no problem handing the Garmin over to the kids but try to look away, usually as the unit is either being swung around or all the buttons and menus have been flicked through and we’ve ended up heading in the wrong direction!

Geomate.jr

Well now it looks like there might now be a solution and whilst hunting on the web I came across Geomate.jr. This friendly little device is designed from the ground up for kids and is extremely clear and simple to use. It also comes with 250,000 pre-loaded cache locations, but the downside is that these are only available in the US today. So for now, us folks in Europe will have to wait and hope the device makes its way across the pond sometime soon!

Click here for the Geomate.jr website and here for an interesting review on cnet.





Chance to meet Victoria Pendleton

6 05 2009

A quick heads up that Victoria Pendleton, Olympic Champion, will be making an appearance at CycleSurgery Holborn, London at 3pm on May 8th.

The event is organised by Oakley UK who proudly partner with the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care.  At the event Victoria will  be promoting two special edition breast cancer awareness sunglasses which are new to the Oakley eyewear collection.

victoria-pendalton1





Favourite Shirts Exhibition

1 05 2009

If you’re lucky enough to be on Melrose Avenue in L.A between 9th ~ 31st May why not drop into the Paul Smith store and view an exclusive exhibition of classic cycling jerseys.

The exhibition features a collection of iconic jerseys curated by Rouleur’s team of writers and photographers. A selection of vintage jerseys from Paul Smith’s personal archive will also be on display, including a commemorative jersey produced by Paul Smith and Rapha in 2007 to celebrate Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France in London.

I wish I could be there and would love to have a collection of classic shirts, how cool! Anyway back to reality, you can find out more about the exhibition by clicking the image below,

favshirts-branding1