So my plan was simply, pack uber light and make my way from London to St. Andrews Scotland in 4 days on my fixed gear bike. The theme of this trip is about simplicity in a needlessly complex world. Hence why I decided to take only 10.5lbs (including backpack weight) for a month journey, to tour on a bike with only one gear and why the bike could have next to nothing attached to it.

You see, too often we are fooled by modern society into believing we need to buy, possess, and carry far to much crap. Not only is it a bother, but I think this ethos detracts from the quality of life. For me, I wanted to see how much I could do with the minimal amount of gear possible.

So that in mind I knew I could not start the trip (i.e. getting to the airport) without following that same ethos and here is the rub. Transporting a bike overseas can be difficult. You need to pack it down, put it in some sort of box and transport yourself and your bike-box down to the airport.

Clearly this will not do.

The bikesinside party was a smash! Among the interesting events was the microcross, a cyclcocross race on bikes with no bigger than 16 inch wheels. Incidentally I was the unsuspecting cover model (the picture used was from one of the BC cup races). Not to be outdone, rather than wearing my usual overly tight spandex I opted instead to wear a micro-skirt, red wig, beeds and a BMX helmet. It is a long standing joke to cross-dress for a cross race, since this was a microcross a micro skirt only made sense. Somehow I won a heat and made it to the finals. It was a riot.

So I got off my duff the other day and bought an external 320 GB external hard drive (Enclosure + HD = cheapest way), so that I can FINALLY start organizing my 100 + gigs of photos. They have been scattered across CD's, different computers etc, plus I plopped down the mucho dinero so for that Lightroom application (edu discount) so that I can quickly organize, edit and export photos to this here website. Its been a busy month none the less (and some how I got a 5th in the Harris Roubaix too boot! I lead out the sprint and lost 1st about 10 feet before the line... hrrmmm).

ANYWAY. The point of this babbling is that I have starting to go through my photos and will be uploading more to my photo gallery. And with that note I present LAST month's critical mass photos. It was an overcast day, but plenty turned out and the Velofusion and the bike burlesque show.

Well, I have been in a bit of a hovel for the last while. Not seeing the day of light while I busily work on various thesis projects. That said, I was going stir crazy so I decided to get out and hit a couple events: February's Critical Mass and St. Valentine's Day Massacre alleycat race. I even took some photos (something I haven't done in months!).

So there has been a bunch of discussion on recent rides about bike bling... colour matching and various ways of making your ride that 'little bit more special'... Well after I stumbled on something interesting I thought I'd compile a list of gold bling bikes/bike parts...

It should be noted that I am actually not a fan of gold parts... but it seems like the endpoint of showing off bling (outside of diamond tipped cogs/chainrings... which i haven't seen yet).

The fork legs are 3/4 length GOLD plated, with real gold, NOT gold paint. This was a feature on a limited number of Brian Hayes A.I.S. Track Team frames, to commemorate the Australian Team winning gold on the Track at the Olympic Games. From here...

Nikcee Mixing it up

So the first Learn To Race (LTR) clinic down at the Burnaby Velodrome was lots of fun. Tons of city fixed gear riders showed up to, as Nikcee so eloquently stated, ride some boards. It was good to see such a diversity of riders interested in the track.

From what I understand everyone enjoyed their time. Some were a little intimidated by the steep banking of the turns (47 degrees), but soon everyone was riding like a pro. My personal favourite is the black line. The black line is the is the lowest point on the track you are legally allowed to ride at, if you are racing. As a result it is the fastest line on the track. There is nothing like coming out wide and high then dropping down into the turn, grabbing the black line and rocketing around the turn at break neck speeds. Yeee haw!

So I'm sitting here over a month after this race thinking 'Is this even worth it?' but you know I have to have something to show my kids when I get old so if peole are even still using the internet then I'll point them to this post and say... 'Here... I did that, or at least I put that race on!'

The background:

I have had the chance to participate in a few alleycats here and found myself eagerly looking forward to the next one as summer began. I feverishly read stoires of races in other towns, laughed at ridiculous themes, gasped at amazing feats of cycling strength and skill... but where was my chance to test my hard-earned street knowledge?

Just before the CARcass dropped [Album]

Well as part of Bike Love Weekend, last weekend, I went out to the two wheel madness that is Bicycle CARcass.

There were a diversity of events including bicycle derbies, blindfold slow race, the down to the ginch race, the strap on race, bicycle chariots (move over Russell Crowe) and the Main Event... Bicycle CARcass.

Two parts rugby, one part wrestling and all bicycle this one of the typical examples of the crazy Vancouver bike culture. Reason again, while Vancouver could be considered on of the premier North American Bike Meccas. Damn, I love it here.

Aerial shot of Hornby Island

There is just something about Hornby Island that is hard to describe. If you know me personally, in any sort of manner, then you probably know the love affair I have had with the Gulf Island ever since my first visit in the late 90's (previous verbage).

I remember the time fondly. I had just gotten into mountain biking, just owned my first car (I no longer own a car) and itching to travel to some XC races when I came across a flyer for the mystical for the now defunct Hornby Island Bike Fest put on by imfamous Tig Cross and friends.