Fixed Gear Wales

The Foot Down

2009-12-06T23:19:00.000Z

Chris Delia Gets Hooked Up

2009-11-07T15:05:00.006Z

FIXEDGEARWALES IS CLOSING IT'S DOORS, PLEASE GO TO THEFOOTDOWN AND UPDATE YOUR RSS FEED. WE WILL BE CROSS POSTING FOR A FEW MORE WEEKS BUT THEN POSTING WILL CEASE HERE, ALL POSTS WILL REMAIN LIVE. YOU CAN READ THE POST BELOW BUT THE NEW SITE IS MUCH NICER SO GO THERE INSTEAD...

Ison Distribution are a company that like to sponsor fixed gear events and now they are stepping up their game by sponsoring a rider. Chris Delia from Hackney is well known for his freestyle riding and it's great to see him getting hooked up.

From now on he's gonna be riding the new Identiti Persona frame (with which he has had design input) with Identiti FFX forks along with the new Halo 24mm wide/25.5mm deep Aerowarrior rims, laced up to Halo Track hubs with Halo Twin Rail Courier Tyres. A pretty sweet set up!

Ison are also sorting him out with parts, he chose the Gusset Pigmy 853 Reynolds cranks, a Gusset G-Wheel chainring, A Gusset Badger chain, Gusset Pinhead plastic pedals and ODI grips.

It's so cool that even though the fixed gear thing is still very much in the "fad" phase there are some companies that are putting their money where their mouth is and supporting rather than just cashing in. Fixed gear freestyle riding is here to stay as is going down hills like a rocket and I'd like to think that many years from now Ison Distribution will still be at the forefront of the scene very much like Shiner is for skateboarding.

Bristol Hacksaws Alleycat Photos/Results

2009-11-01T20:54:00.001Z

The Bristol Halloween alleycat was yesterday, I couldn't go but they had near 40 racers and from the pix it looks like I missed a corker!

Results:
PJ
Adam
Jamesy
Timpo
G bitch
Chris punk
Dave
Steve smith
Toby
John

Photos by White Duck on Flickr, click any of them to see the full set:

Well done to Steve for putting on another event, check out Trackdropouts for more info...

I Survived my Operation

2009-10-28T12:48:00.003Z

Well, I made it out of hospital alive, who'd have thought it? I was actually really well cared for, I can't make a single complaint which I find surprising.

I went down for the operation at about half 3 I think, all the anaesthetists were fellow iPhone users, I gave them some shit for using rubber cases then they pumped me full of something or other before poking needles into my neck to administer the nerve block. They were poking about for a while but I don't remember any pain, when they found the nerve my arm started freaking out, spasming all over the shop, it was quite funny and really interesting. I don't remember them putting me under so the next thing I remember was coming around and having some water cause my throat was pretty sore from the pipe that had been down it.

Back up in the ward I assume I was off my trolley for a bit but I felt no pain at all because the nerve blocker was in full effect, the right side of my face was numb as well as my arm which felt strange. I spent the night watching Season 6 of Curb Your Enthusiasm on my iPod before falling asleep. The pain kicked in at about 3am so I popped a couple Cocodamols which put me back to sleep.

Whilst waiting for my x-ray the next day I continued reading 'One More Kilometre and we're in the Showers' which is a book that I am more than happy to recommend. I was home by 3pm. Now I just sit and wait really, I'm in a sling for 6 weeks then I assume I will start the misery that is physio after that, at the moment my shoulder is still completely numb so I hope that rectifies itself!

My neck is killing, it's bruised to fuck where they were injecting the nerve blocker, look at all those damned muscles in the picture, they all hurt!

This is the area that broke, no doubt all the muscles around the clavicle will be withered and useless by the time the bone is fixed so I'm not gonna be back on the bike for ages :-(

Check out my monged face, it's usually pretty bloody funny looking but this takes the biscuit!

If laughter is the best medicine then Curb is surely the morphine of comedy.

The finished job, I already have 2 plates in my left arm, I am becoming more bionic by the day, I don't want any more no matter how cool robots are!

Track Racing at Maindy Velodrome

2009-10-25T21:02:00.002Z

Yesterday saw the first 6 Cat track event at Maindy outdoor velodrome in Cardiff. Me, Evs and Sion went up but only Sion could race cause me and Evs are temporarily out of action, gutted. The weather couldn't make its mind up, it was nice until race time then pissed down for a bit and soaked the track and kept off-and-oning throughout the rest of the day, nobody cared though.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, it's a nice change for us 'street' riders to hit the velodrome, I wonder how long before we see Chris Hoy skidding through rush hour traffic, haha. There were 6 different events:

- 1 Lap Time Trial (standing start)

- Devil - Bunch race. Last placed rider has to drop out on designated laps.

- Match Sprints - x2 laps, x2 riders - Head to head SpRinT!!

- Scratch race - Bunch race. First across the line wins.

- Cycling Unproficiency Test - Making use of the weird model village thing in the track centre...

I don't have the results yet, I wanted to get this up before I go into hospital tomorrow, I will update the post when I know. It was a great day out, thanks to Steve for putting it on, hopefully we can organise a collab event next summer at the track :-)

Numbering up just before the rain started

Pre-race briefing, was nice to meet Phil (on the right) who is from Swansea and is the proud owner of Julian Schmoos' legendary Mercian!

Awesome pose, mad steez

Sion blasting through the line

Actually quite a nice photo for an iPhone, I'm an ex-photographer don't ya' know?

Steve giving "the look back"

Zoooooooom!

I'm running out of captions :-s

I didn't get a shot of the fabled number 4, you had to be there.

Shooting with an iPhone is like shooting with a 1920's film camera: blurry, distorted and generally out of focus, but converting to mono always saves the day!

I Have Been Really Hurt By A Car

2009-10-24T00:47:00.000+01:00

A week ago I was on my way into town when a car pulled out from a junction right into the road in front of me, I tried my best to swing left around him rather than hit the bonnet but didn't quite make it, I hit the rear drivers side window smashing it into a million pieces. My collarbone followed through hitting the solid area above where the glass once was and I flew over the top of the car and landed flat on my back behind it. The driver got out and started shouting about how it was my fault and that I'd have to pay for the damage, he then said that he was more concerned about making sure I was ok and pulled his car over across the road out of the way.

A few people were on the scene by this point and within a minute or so they informed me that he was driving off, I assume he spoke to a guy who was parked in the bus stop and saw the whole thing and realised that it was actually his fault and not mine. I didn't really care because I'd touched my collarbone and realised that it was not in great shape. An ambulance just happened to be passing so there was no waiting about, I told them that my collarbone was broken but that the rip in my jeans was a lot worse than the graze underneath it. In the ambulance they took a look at it and told me it was a teeny bit worse than a graze then pumped me full of morphine, sweet!

I was attempting to go straight on as demonstrated by the red arrow, the witness in the bus stop is in green, the driver is in blue. The dashed line shows how I tried, in vain, to avert disaster.
A point-of-view shot of where it happened, the van is where the dude pulled out, you can see here how tight the corner I tried to get round actually is, I didn't stand a chance :-(
Just before I was put on the stretcher and bundled into the ambulance.
Morphine+gas=mongsville
Right clavicle, 4 pieces
The 'graze' on my right thigh required 3 stitches to put the muscle back together and 15 on the outside, gross!
I was stitched up and given a shit, useless sling and sent home to return 2 days later to attend the fracture clinic. After a four hour wait on the Monday I got in to see the doctor who said that I would probably need surgery and that I should come back on Wednesday to see the specialist (who agreed). So tomorrow I go in to have a plate installed, I already have 2 in my left forearm and really don't want any more but it's for the best.
I spotted this whilst having my leg cleaned, is it a sign?
Waiting for the specialist offered a perfect opportunity to shoot 'self portrait with x-ray'.
The driver has been traced, I don't know anything else about that and I don't really care, a solicitor will deal with him. Until yesterday I was very firmly in the 'shit happens' camp but now I am pretty pissed off about the whole thing, I am growing more bitter as the pain gets worse I think. Why do so many fucking drivers go about the place without really paying any attention to the bloody road??? I'm sure nearly everyone reading this will have at least experienced being scared whilst riding because a driver is useless, it's unbelievable how bad some people are at driving! Thats by the by though compared to the fact that this dude did a runner, I was actually involved in a hit and run! Thats the kind of this you see on The Bill or C.S.I not Llangyfelach Rd at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, how dare this guy drive his death machine in front of me, pretend that he cared then fuck off???
You see, a year ago I'd have been flat on my back in the middle of the road cursing him for not finishing me off and putting me out of my fucking misery, I have suffered with bad depression for the last 10 years and been plagued by an unescapable fixation with death and how and when I will die, and what is there after death and what is the point of life just to die and everything I did became extremely difficult because it meant NOTHING.
No amount of medication or psychotherapy will ever cure me but since I started cycling 10 months ago I have been the happiest I have ever been, the bike offers me a freedom that I have never experienced before, I can go where I want, when I want and which ever way I want, my mind is clear when I ride, no matter how bad the weather or how steep the hill or how bad the driver I have no once though of dying whilst riding. And now I can't ride, I can sit on my arse and ruminate about life and death again with no escape from my own mind; skin and bones heal but I have wasted far too much of my life crying and shaking and screaming in fear of the knowledge of my own mortality.
This fuckwit has taken away my happiness and I am really pissed off, I am going to be wheeled into theatre for this operation fucking shitting myself that I will be anesthetized and not wake up, I may be faced with something or nothing and the not knowing is killing me. I know it is going to be fine, I will awake to months of physical pain and mental anguish and for the first time in my adult life I welcome that now knowing that I can, in fact, be happy.
I know what you are thinking. The bike is fine.

Maindy Track Racing Tomorrow

2009-10-23T12:28:00.002+01:00

Just a quick reminder that the 6 Cat event is on at Maindy Velodrome in Cardiff tomorrow, click the poster below for more info...

Cycle Show 2009 - London

2009-10-12T16:03:00.006+01:00

Kerry, Owen and me (Ty) hit the Cycle Show in London on Saturday, it was a nice day out, pictures:
This was just one of the many cutesy, attractive fixies at the show, practically every booth had one of their own, they nearly all sucked in the way that any ready made fixie does. As a first bike they would be ok I suppose but I stand by the conversion route, even though your conversion will be shit and have a terrible paint job and start falling part pretty soon it's still a great way to learn about how your bike works.
I'd seen this in a picture not so long ago and loved the idea of it, at the mo I'm carrying around a Pedro Trixie which is great and has a lifetime guarantee but it's a bit long and how often do I really need a lockring tool? This new folding adjustable wrench from Knog just looks awesome to carry for the occasional wheel adjustment. As with all of the other Knog stuff it's pretty AND functional, they should be available some time around the end of November.
Owen gives the BMX inspired PK Ripper the thumbs down, so do I. We aren't into trick bikes.
Kerry gives this one the thumbs up, it's an SE Lager and was at the nicer end of the 'bike in a box' ones.
Absolute classic jersey.
The new Bianchi Pista Via Condottie looked awesome on screen and at first look was pretty snazzy in the flesh too, but after looking past the shiny chrome and Celeste paint job I was left a little bit less impressed.
Owen giving the international sign of the spaz at one of the few belt drives in the show.
Just a funny picture of Kerry.
Kerry got a free tent to wear after signing up for something or other.
Thumbs down for another belt drive.
Like, seriously?
Kerry loving one of the handmade jackets in the Cyclodelic booth.
Sweet forks on one of the Globe Bikes.
Kinda nice looking but not all that really.
Cool customisable headbadge casing on the Globe.
Owen gobbling up some sweaty crotch.
There are the shite Urban Outfitters bikes, poop.
I don't remember what make this is but it's quite snazzy, not sure what the point is though.
Me rocking the fastest hat in the show.
There were a few 3-speed fixed gears in the show, the idea is good BUT the whole point of the fixed gear is that it has a single fixed gear is it not? With these you get all the fashion of the fixie with non of the misery of struggling up hills.
Victoria Pendleton talking about chocolate.
Vicky Pendleton absolutely LOVING Fixed Gear Wales, she loved it so much she said "this is NOT a sponsorship", I feel obliged to submit to her demands and not claim that she is our newest and most powerful ambassador.
Kerry in the most redneck, death defying hat of the show.
We all like to have a laugh at the Specialized Langster, but when we saw the new one with it's chrome forks and classic styling on the internet we were almost prepared to give it a chance. Unfortunately in the flesh it sucked ass, it's gross and cheap looking.
Me getting as close as possible to Eddy Merckx 24hrs late :'-(
This is one of the GB Team track bikes, it was IMMENSE! The highlight of the show for me, after all the pretty, shiny price point fixies this industrial, black beast was a breath of fresh air. It looked like a weapon, not a toy. I tried counting the teeth, I'm pretty sure it was 98 gear inches, booyaa!
Some serious bike porn!
Me loving it.
The Cyclodelic fully customised bling machine, nice!
Kerry giving one of the Demon bikes the thumbs up. We spoke to the frame builder for a bit, he was nice. You can get them fully custom right down to the lugs but they bring a VERY hefty price tag!
Nitto stem porn.
Kerry was loving Andy Schleck.
And this chap who I'm sure I should know but I don't (comment if you know!)
Trying out one of the Swobo's. She was quite fond of them indeed.
It's fair to say that Kerry doesn't love Contador, in fact she hates his guts, she still enjoyed stroking his winky.
She couldn't wait to try out some of the Eddy Merckx brand "energy juice".
After 6 hours we resorted to coming up with cool hipster outfits.
I just can't look cool.

All touched out and tired Kerry resorts to pointing at nuts.
-
And here are a couple of things we missed but Evs and Amy caught the day before...
Fuck knows how we managed to miss this beast, Bruce Bursford hit 209mph on this thing in 1996, wild!
The obvious highlight of the show, the one, the only, the legend that is Eddy Merckx! I was fuming that I couldn't get up there on the Friday to meet him, damn you Evs!
The biggest shock of the show was the £25 parking bill at the end of the day, fuck you London, fuck you very much!

Hacksaws Challenge Fixed Gear Race

2009-10-09T21:34:00.002+01:00

Bridge the Gap events in Bristol are running their second event on HALLOWEEEEEEEEN, oooooooohhh! Click on the poster to go to the site for more info...

Bookworm Alleycat Post Race Report

2009-10-08T15:11:00.014+01:00

Last Saturday we put on Wales first ever alleycat race, it was a great success. 21 Riders from Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, London and Manchester braved the gale force winds and threat of torrential rain during the 15+ mile course.

Everyone took off from the dock area of the city centre and hit up 5 libraries where they got books that they brought with them signed, Swansea is pretty hilly so there were no easy routes, at some point you had to go up some big hills before coming back down the other side. Riders split into two parts, those that wanted to get the hills out of the way first and those that wanted the 'time trial' section over and done with asap, those that took on the hills had their wills broken by the wind pretty bloody quickly, I was in that group and within minutes was thinking that we'd made a pretty bad decision, haha. An hour after taking off the racers started trickling in, everyone was knackered, in the video you'll see how many people were so tired that they couldn't get out of their peddles fast enough and just fall flat on their faces. I took first place (whoop!) followed by Aled and then Alex from Manchester (who had gone about 2 miles out of his way by accident and would have won by a mile).

When all 21 troopers were back and had been to Sainsbury's for pop and crisps (and where I got I.D'd buying a scratchcard, I'm 28!) we cracked on with the trackstand comp, with thighs not being quite as fresh as one would like it proved to be a rather wibbly-wobbly affair, more like a trackstand jelly impression comp really. We did 3 minutes standard, 2 minutes one-handed and then no-handed until we had a winner in Aled.

The longest skid comp closed the days events. I managed to dive off my bike like a pansy and bust a rib which is killing me right at this very second, the highlight for me was David Clapp from Bristol skidding out of his clips and with only 1 foot at times, mental. Owen managed to somehow stay out of the water no matter how much his bike wanted to fling him in there. Alex flew into first place.

Just as it started to piss down we headed off to a couple of pubs for drinks and the prize giving. Prizes from Bike Food, Cantgoslo, Charlie The Bikemonger, Cyclodelic, 14 Bike Co, Halo, Hell Yeah!, Howies, Hub Jub, Hunting Lodge, JOL Straps, Knog, Prendas, Re-Cycle, Skullcandy, Solder Gal, Tokyo Fixed Gear, Urban Hunter and Velo Solo were dished out to the relevant champions and as about half the riders had gone home by this point it turned out there were enough t-shirts in the prize kitty for everyone to have one to take home, as well as shit loads of stickers and some other bits and pieces on a first grab basis. I think everyone was chuffed that they got some goodies no matter where they placed, it really was the taking part that counted. Everyone had a great day and it was really nice for us locals to get to ride with so many people from out of town, we really appreciate your effort in coming over the bridge for the day and we all look forward to riding with you again soon...

Race

1st Ty

2nd Aled

3rd Alex

4th Jason Beynon

5th Sion

6th Scott Pullins

7th JT

8th Kerry Pillai

9th Owen Pillai

10th Steven Owen

11th Osian Meilyr

12th Yohei

13th Cab

14th Dave Clapp

15th Chris Punk

16th Tim Moshi

17th Tim

18th Adam Haycroft

19th Damien

20th Grayme

DFL Jason Veall

Track Stand

1st Aled

Longest Skid

1st Alex

2nd Owen Pillai

Photos by Jono (Blog, Flickr)

Yohei's ingenius bottle holder

Scott hit's the road

Kerry having the time of her life, bless her

Photos by Jack (Website, Flickr)

Team Bristol arrive at the start

A last minute tyre change

Eyes on the prize...

Everyone gets their map

Busy at work finalising routes

Some final discussion

Scott WALKING up a hill, tut tut!
Grrrrrr!

Owen taking 2nd place in the skid comp

One of David's no-toe clip skids, wild!
Alex 3rd place (1st out of towner, 1st skid)
Aled 2nd place (1st trackstand)
Ty 1st place
Yohei is overwhelmed by Wales

Uhhhhhh

Bookworm Alleycat cha-mone!

Kerry, 1st and only girl

Half the gang stayed for beers
-
Video by John Fisher (More)

Swansea Bookworm Alleycat 03.10.09 HD 720p from progressive media on Vimeo.

Video is also on YouTube.

A big shout out to Jono & Jack for shooting photos and John for the awesome video. Thanks to Ev, Sion, Amy and Owen for help with the organising. Cheers to Tom, Nigel, Jack and Amy for working the checkpoints and Ev for doing the start/end duty.

The last thing for me to do is pimp our awesome sponsors, pretty pretty please click on the adverts below cause they were all very generous and deserve to be supported, thanks a lot guys and gals, we love ya!

But wait, there's more! We have a few very limited edition Bookworm Alleycat t-shirts left, if you wanna buy one it will cost you a measly £10 (free UK postage). Just send us a message using the contact button over there>

Fixed Gear Wales Film

2009-10-08T14:55:00.003+01:00

Ok, so it's not the best timing, with the short nights and cold weather coming fast, but a friend of ours Jon Fisher is up for doing some filming over the next few months and coming up with some sort of film. We are looking to get some decent footage of our little scene here in Swansea, as well as gathering some footage from any trips/races etc. and maybe even of foreign friends. Jon is a pretty talented filmer and is good at making stuff look pretty. He recently got himself a new snazzy HD camera, and shoots with a few different cameras to mix it up a bit.

I guess the wider the variety of riders up for this, the better, so next time you see me or Tyron let us know if you're down.

Alleycat Video Trailer

2009-10-04T13:13:00.002+01:00

There will be a full report and zillions of photos from yesterdays alleycat very soon, for now check out the trailer for the video:

Bookworm Alleycat, Swansea 03/10/09, video coming soon. HD 720p from progressive media on Vimeo.

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: SOLDER GAL

2009-10-02T23:27:00.003+01:00

Solder Gal can be summed up in just eight words:

"It's a ring. A lockring. For your finger."

Solder Gal make cool little lockrings for your finger, you can even choose from either 2 or 6 notches! They are hand made in the U.S and it's really cool to have them on board. I'm pretty sure that having one of these is cooler/geekier/more hardcore than a cog tattoo, haha.

Click the photo to go to the site for more info...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: HELL YEAH!

2009-10-02T22:57:00.005+01:00

Hell Yeah! is the clothing brand of Juliet 'first lady of fixed gear' Elliott, she says:

"I make a new shirt every now and again and i have to sell most of them before i can afford to get the next ones made." (Text from Wah Magazine)

Juliet is a lady that needs no introduction and I don't think Hell Yeah! really needs one either, if you haven't seen the tees already then you need to remove yourself and your bike from under that rock, yo. If you wanna support a (at present) small scale project that is 100% centred around fixed gear culture then Hell Yeah! is a bloody good place to start, you'll get a cool design that is really limited in quantity, much better than waiting for the inevitable 'sequinned fixie t-shirts' that Topshop will be bossing out at any second!

Hit up the designs below to visit the site and buy buy buy!

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: HOWIES

2009-10-01T22:41:00.002+01:00

I'm sure you have heard of howies, if not then here is a teeny bit of what they are about...

"A higher quality product will invariably last longer. It will keep on performing as it was designed to for longer before it finally needs replacing. And so over its lifespan it will have consumed less valuable resources than an inferior product that will have been replaced many times.

That's why we make the best quality products that we know how. Because ultimately the best thing we can do for the environment is to make our stuff last a real long time."

…That barely scratches the surface of what howies stands for so click here for more about them. It's great to have a successful Welsh company supporting the race, I had a chat with Tim on the phone and he was really into it and up for organising more events in the future. howies are all about producing clothing and accessories from the absolute best quality materials that have a reduced impact on the environment, you won't find anything made in sweatshops that will fall apart in a few months, you'll likely grow out of your howies clothes because of a big fat old mans/ladies belly before they wear out! I have a bunch of catalogues to dish out on the day, make sure you get one because there's plenty to read in there and you should be supporting brands like this. Clickity click the pix, you know the drill...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: HUNTING LODGE

2009-10-01T22:10:00.003+01:00

Hunting Lodge is a store/gallery based in Oslo, Norway:

"…selling exclusive designer led products from around the world. The direction of the store has its roots in contemporary street-wear. The main product will be clothing, which will be complemented by art, books, toys and accessories. It intends to be a platform for new and established artists, show casing work through exhibitions and products. "

Sion hooked up the sponsorship in this case, as far as I know the dudes are from Wales and he knows them. It's fairly unlikely that you are gonna pop over to Norway to go to the shop but they have tonnes of cool stuff in their web store. They stock real designer gear, the kind you get in that London, it's killer stuff. Tees, sweaters, hoods, sunnies, shoes, shirts, trousers, they've got the lot. A few of my faves are below, click on them to go to the website!

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: CYCLODELIC

2009-09-30T09:48:00.003+01:00

Cyclodelic make bags, accessories and clothing:

"CYCLODELIC combines thousands of miles of pedaling experience with the simple goal of creating beautiful CLOTHING and ACCESSORIES for WOMEN who don't want to forfeit fashion over function when arriving by bike.

After success selling their bicycle accessories range through the TOPSHOP flagship store on Oxford Street during the Summer of 2009, CYCLODELIC are launching their first women's clothing collection this October which will be available online through cyclodelic.co.uk.

Expect heavenly soft antibacterial CASHMERE base layers, tailored WATERPROOF JACKETS and glamorous SOFT SHELLS in Autumn hues. "

Cyclodelic is a brand just for girls, so I shall embrace my feminine side for this! The Cyclodelic bags and accessories are lovely, well designed and hand made in London. If I was a girl I'd be all over the ankle cuff they do and the large messenger bag is way more classy than the "snazzy" ones you usually see. They also organise events for private companies, local authorities and charities which is really cool. If you are a lady and you cycle then be sure to click the lovely photos below to go to the site, even if you are not a lady go there and get something for your lady, she'll love you all the more for it!

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: URBAN HUNTER

2009-09-29T00:48:00.001+01:00

Urban Hunter is an online shop that has this to say about itself:

"Urban Hunter is all about being on the bike in the city and the kit that goes with it, mixed together with our love of track and road racing. This is functional urban cycling gear made by people who care about their products, allowing you to get out on the bike and look good while riding."

I think of Urban Hunter as being a bit underground, I don't know if I am right but going to the site is a bit like finding a brilliant shop that you've never heard of but feel like you should have been to a loooooong time ago. They sell, mostly, clothing and bags and have a huge selection of both as well as a bunch of accessories like tool pouches, wallets and top tube protectors. Their selection of fixed gear specific t-shirts is next to none so make sure to leave the t-shirt page on the computer for your other half to see if your birthday is coming up, haha.

Clickity click the products below to go to the site...

Bookworm Alleycat: CHECKPOINT MAP

2009-09-26T14:16:00.004+01:00

Riiiiiiiiiiiight then you crazy kids, here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Below is a map containing the start/end location and all the checkpoints. You will be hitting 5 libraries where we will have someone waiting outside with a stamp, DO NOT FORGET TO BRING A BOOK WITH YOU! The size of the book is not important, just bring one! Here are the checkpoint locations:

- Fforestfach Library, Kings Head Road, Gendros
- Llansamlet Library, 242 Penial Green Road, Llansamlet
- Townhill Library, The Phoenix Centre, Paradise Park, Powys Avenue, Townhill
- Treboeth Library, Llangyfelach Rd, Treboeth
- Library and Information Services, Swansea University, Singleton Park

View Bookworm Alleycat in a larger map
Feel free to go about making your own detailed maps if you think you’ll need them, we’ll also have maps available on the day so don’t worry too much, nothing will be too hard to find. Please note that the organisers will be racing too but we certainly haven’t been practicing, we don’t even know where two of the libraries are (except on the map of course)!!!

Anyone that is staying the night down here we look forward to having you, anyone that needs to stay the night but hasn't told us yet please register on the main alleycat page and tell us so in the message box. Bring pillows and a sleeping bag to be safe.

One last thing: BRING A LOCK! You’ll either need it at one of the checkpoints (haven’t decided/checked the loaction yet) or you’ll need it at some other point during the day…

See y’all in a week :-D

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: JOL GURNEY STRAPS

2009-09-25T16:15:00.002+01:00

JOL/Gurney Straps are a new foot strap produced in the UK, read this:

"The concept was born from straps failing at the hardware/join point so we decided to remove this element all together. Our multi-directional hook&loop layer system prevents strap movement while being infinitely adjustable. The construction of the straps provides rigidity to allow for easy entry and keeps the foot comfortably secure while riding. Whether for Bike Polo, Freestyle or general riding, Gurney Straps provide a solid, adjustable and comfortable solution to foot/pedal interface."

As soon as I saw these straps I wanted to check a pair out, they are hand made and the materials and construction make for a super strong feeling strap, no corners have been cut with regards to quality. There are a few different options out there now if you wan’t this kind of strap but why buy any of the others when you can have a set that are made in the UK? I look forward to trying these out…

Click the pix to go to the JOL blog.

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: SKULLCANDY

2009-09-22T22:33:00.003+01:00

Skullcandy make a bunch of instantly recognisable headphones, they say that:

"Skullcandy is the result of a bunch of snowboarders, skaters, surfers and x-pro athletes getting together to create products that work for their personal lifestyles."

Whether you want a nice small set of classy looking earbuds for your iPhone or a huge set of bass heavy headphones Skullcandy will have something for you. Shed loads of development goes into all their products, they are not just pretty looking they sound really really good, I swear by my set of Full Metal Jackets which are way better than similar Sony and Sennheisers that I've had.

And you wanna know the best thing? They offer a lifetime guarantee! Has that convinced you that they are a safe buy? If so then get them from Nucleus via the advert over there >>> to get 10% off the already guaranteed lowest prices in the UK.

Click on the photos below to check out the full range...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: TOKYO FIXED GEAR

2009-09-21T20:39:00.001+01:00

Tokyo Fixed Gear is an awesome webshop, here's a bit about them:

"We started in 2007 exporting keirin frames & parts from Tokyo, Japan. Soon after we launched our web shop stocking stocking high end clothing from Tokyo based brands such as Nari Furi & CCP. It was & still is our aim to offer the exclusive goods styled by the Tokyo track bike scene to the world. Now based in London we are still stocking the best product from Japan as well as clothing and parts from any other countries doing it well."

Tokyo Fixed Gear have all the cool gear, there is an emphasis on top quality parts and exclusive designer clothing. They have everything you'd need for your bike, if you are looking for "a cheapo this" or "any old crap" then this is not the site for you. If you are on the lookout for great parts that are not only top quality but bling too then why go elsewhere? To give you an idea of what they stock these are their most popular brands: ALEXANDER LEE CHANG, BROOKLYN MACHINE WORKS, COG, DIA COMPE, MASH, NARI FURI, NITTO, PEDAL.E.D, PROFILE BMX, SUGINO, SWRVE and VOLUME.

Click on the photos below to go to their shop...

Alleycat Update

2009-09-20T11:21:00.006+01:00

Hey guys and gals, the alleycat is just under 2 weeks away now, we've had people pre-register from Manchester, London, Leeds, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Warminster and DUBLIN!

If you are planning on coming please pre-register so that we have an idea on numbers, everyone that pre-registers gets a slightly snazzier spoke card too!

If you are in two-minds then please know that we have well over £1500 in prizes from these guys:

Bike Food / Cantgoslo / Charlie The Bikemonger / Cyclodelic / Exist / 14 Bike Co / Halo / Hell Yeah! / Howies / Hub Jub / Hunting Lodge / JOL Straps / Knog / Prendas / Re-Cycle / Schmoos / Skullcandy / Solder Gal / Tokyo Fixed Gear / Urban Hunter / Velo Solo

...so it is well worth coming down for.

Even if you think you don't have a chance of winning the race (does that really matter???) then there are prizes for longest skid, trackstand, footdown and hill climb as well as whatever else happens that is awesome.

The day isn't all about winning sweet product though, it's about meeting up with like minded people and having a laugh. After the riding is over we'll be heading to a secret location to watch videos and have some beer or pop.

See y'all on Oct 3rd, the checkpoints will be released next Saturday, stay tuned...<

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: HUB JUB

2009-09-20T11:00:00.002+01:00

I'm sure you've all heard of Hub Jub, how could you have not? Read:

"Hubjub launched in 2003, but the business really got started a couple of years earlier, when Will Meister dug out an old Maillard fixed gear hub and a set of cross tyres and started riding the bridleways around his parents' house on the South Downs. The idea is pretty simple: to bring the best fixed gear parts and tools from the US and other countries to UK street and offroad riders at prices as close to US standard as possible."

Hub Jub stock loads of high quality products like Nitto, Phil Wood and Sugino, if you are looking for quality then it's a good place to start. They also like to fulfil custom orders for hard to get stuff so if you are having trouble finding those hard to find Nitto horns give Will a call and he will try his best to hook you up. They have a whole load of NJS stamped parts which are the absolute best of the best in terms of quality. Hit up the photos below to see the rest of their gear...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: PRENDAS CICLISMO

2009-09-19T23:05:00.003+01:00

Prendas Ciclicomo is a great online shop selling cycling clothing and other essentials, they say:

"We consider ourselves to be clothing specialists focusing on the unique, the stylish and the most practical items which will work for you, the rider, whether leisure, weekend warrior, commuter, clubman or racer.

All of the people involved in our organisation are keen experienced riders with a passion for the sport. We only sell items that we would be happy to use ourselves and consider it to be good value for money. "

I remember when I first found the Prendas website, I was looking for cycling caps and came upon the mother load. They must have the best selection of classic and new cotton caps available in the world. If you want a cap (and you should want one cause they are just the best thing ever) then just go to Prendas, don't waste your time Googling and forget about eBay, they have the cotton cap market on lock down, huh.

Below are some of my faves, they have millions more as well as jerseys, jackets, gloves, shoes, socks, sunnies and this calendar :-p Click the pix below to go to the site you crazy cats!

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: CANTGOSLO

2009-09-19T17:52:00.006+01:00

Cantgoslo is a clothing brand from Manchester (home of The Fall, the greatest band of all time!) aimed at fixed gear riders. Here's what they have say about themselves:

"chris drinks guinness and likes campy
nasty drinks sierra nevada and likes njs stuff

sometimes these guys help us out:
charlie tries his best to keep us on the straight and narrow and likes all bikes
dangeruss drinks lager beer and likes doing bar spins
dave10 drinks lambrini and likes riding very fast
liam og drinks lager beer too and likes riding on rollers

none of us can rollerblade"

I sure am glad to hear that they are non-rollerbladers cause I'd have to return their prizes if they were! At the mo they have 5 designs up for grabs including the awesome Love Park one. Click on any of the designs below to go to the new website...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: 14 BIKE CO.

2009-09-14T22:39:00.003+01:00

14 Bike Co. is the hottest fixed gear shop in the UK, this place has all the gear you would need from nuts and bolts to full custom built bikes and everything in between. I was at the shop a couple of weeks ago and was really surprised by how nice all the staff were, not something I am used to in London! There's so much stuff in there I came out having really not looked at anything and as soon as I got home I wanted to go back there for a proper look!

The custom bikes they build are just perfection, words can't explain how awesome they are so check out their flickr stream: flickr.com/photos/shopfourteen and then click on any of the photos below to go their blog.

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: KNOG

2009-09-13T22:25:00.001+01:00

On their website Knog say this about themselves:

"knog is SEXY URBAN BIKE simple"

Knog are a bit like the Crumpler of cycling gear, they are wacky and instantly recognisable. The difference being that Crumpler stuff is quite expensive but Knog represents great, innovative design and awesome value for money. Their Frog range of LED's must be the most popular choice for fixie riders the world over, recently their other lights have been popping up on bars and seatposts all over town too and the buzz about their no-nonsense cycle computers is louder than an orgy of bees inside a traffic cone. I must insist that you support Knog (I'm sure you already do) as they have been very generous, whoop! Click the pix below to go to the official site...

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: CHARLIE THE BIKEMONGER

2009-09-13T21:52:00.004+01:00

Charlie Says:

"This corner of the internet is here to help people who want to singlespeed and ride fixed wheel. It provides solutions to the technical issues that fixed and singlespeed bikes throw up. Building a single speed or fixed is not always dead straight forward, so I am here to make it easy. You get free advice including "how to" movies and we can also sell you everything you need.

There are a few UK based online fixed gear specific shops and charliethebikemonger.com is definitely the one that screams out "I am like you!" more than any other. He clearly loves to ride and it comes through in his descriptions of the products he sells. From single half links to track frames via hip flask bottle cages there is something for everyone on his site. Go an have a looksie by clicking on any of the products below...

Tredz Swansea Complete Fixie Sale

2009-09-11T22:47:00.003+01:00

I went over to meet Nick at Tredz (Swansea) today about supporting the alleycat (stay tuned for news). They have a bunch of complete fixed gear bikes there all ON SALE! So if you are on the lookout for an off the peg complete rather than trying to restore a big old hunk of junk then now is a perfect time to pop over there and try one for size. I took pictures of the sale tickets rather than the bikes, click on the first pic to go to Tredz' website and each of the other pictures to see a nice shot of the bike in question...

Fixed Gear Wales says "Nice!"
Fixed Gear Wales says "mmmmmm, nice, nice!"

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: BIKEFOOD

2009-09-09T23:31:00.005+01:00

From the horses mouth:
"Bikefood is an energy, re-hydration and recovery drink that has been designed and developed specifically for anyone who rides a bike and wants to perform at their very best.

The Bikefood sachets are durable and easy to carry in your kit, weighing little and taking up minimum space. All that's required is water and a bottle, making it easy to stock up for day long rides or lengthy training sessions.

If you are looking for clean, convenient and performance proven sports nutrition that is specifically designed for cycling - it's got to be Bikefood."

I'm really chuffed that Bikefood have sponsored the event cause asking them was a bit of a punt really. A few of us have been riding further and further and plan on riding to France for Le Tour next year so we certainly have an interest in all this energy stuff. We are planning on having a bottle made up at each checkpoint which will be given to whoever hits the stop last as a way of giving them a bit of a kick up the arse, haha. There are plenty of spares too for anyone that fancies trying some out. They are vegan of course!

On top of the gear they have sent down for the race day there is 20% discount on their products for people in the know. Pop over to mybikefood.com/bookworm and place your order now :-)

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: VELOSOLO

2009-09-08T21:32:00.005+01:00

In their own words:
"We distribute a range of UK made precision bike components including bolt-on and threaded track cogs, CNC chainrings, spacer kits and the new Squeeze bar. In addition we offer products from companies such as Token, Sugino, MKS, Nitto, KMC, Miche and many others - for fixed wheel or singlespeed bicycles, both on and off-road. We ship worldwide every day with customers in over 40 countries and across the USA."

VeloSolo don't just sell other peoples parts they are making their own too, most notably the VeloSolo bolt-on cog which can be attached to a disc brake hub. No more slipping cogs or loose lockrings resulting in you going nowhere when the lights go green and a truck running over you killing you dead. Head on over to their site by clicking any of the photos below to see the rest of their own stuff and all their other brands, it's all awesome!

Alleycat Sponsor Profile: HALO

2009-09-08T20:57:00.004+01:00

In the words of Halo themselves:"Halo is one of the market leading UK brands of rim & wheel products. Recently, Halo have exploded onto the Fixed wheel arena with some of the finest hubs and wheelsets on the planet. In addition our groundbreaking 700c Twin Rail Courier tyres continue to exceed all expectations. Halo products are designed in the UK by riders for riders, engineered to the highest standards and offer exceptional value and performance."
They say it better than I can tonight, I have man flu. Check out some of their fixed specific products below, clicking on any of them will take you over to their website where you will find loads more info. Halo stuff is very easy to get hold of as it's a UK brand so check out your LBS first, it's pretty rare to get to play with stuff before buying with a lot of fixed stuff, innit.

Bookworm Alleycat - Sponsor Profiles...

2009-09-07T21:59:00.004+01:00

Over the next couple of weeks I'm gonna be posting a bit about all our sponsors (so far we have 22 with more coming each day!), these posts are not about how much they have donated because that is secondary to the fact that they are actively supporting the fixed gear scene and not just cashing in on 'the craze'. So far we have:

Bike Food

Cantgoslo

Charlie The Bikemonger

Cyclodelic

Exist

14 Bike Co

Freshtripe

Hell Yeah!

Howies

Hub Jub

Hunting Lodge

Halo

JOL Straps

Knog

Prendas

Re-Cycle

Schmoos

Skullcandy

Solder Gal

Tokyo Fixed Gear

Urban Hunter

Velo Solo

I hope that you all click through to check out their websites from the profiles, tell people about them, buy their stuff and generally appreciate all that they are doing to make out first alleycat a day to remember.

Stay tuned y'all and if you haven't registered to race (ride, have fun) then hit the button over there >>>

6 Cat Bike Race - Cardiff - October 24th 2009

2009-09-05T00:58:00.003+01:00

The Fixed Bristol dudes have got an event planned in Cardiff next month, check it out...

Click on the pic for more info
Maindy track in Cardiff is outdoor, tarmac 460m, banking's pretty gentle. Unlike Newport, you can ride your own bike whatever it is, as long as it's fixed/brakeless (for these events).

Other stuff: £5 to ride, 2.30pm 24 October. Prizes!

Pre-register at: 6ix.cat@googlemail.com

Fixed Gear Wales Does No Gears Bristol

2009-09-01T21:16:00.004+01:00

Yesterday a few of us went up to Bristol for the 2nd No Gears event, we missed the first one because we are complete idiots. Luckily the weather was good so we had a couple of short rides around the city (turns out that Park Street is actually a piece of piss to go up!). We managed to worry some of those English drivers with our Welsh "any side of the road will do" steez. Owen managed to run into a parked car when one of his straps failed and just came apart then later on went straight into a wall, he was on form :-D

Amy, Kerry, JT, Evs, Ty, Owen
Round the corner from The Cube Cinema was a nice short but steep hill which we enjoyed going up and then skidding down to the detriment of mine and JT's formerly rubber coated tyres. There was a BBQ at the venue which catered for all, except me, I say all vegan BBQ's need to have vegan sausages not just "burgers" made of peas and sweetcorn cause that is just peas and sweetcorn in a circle in a bap. I ate a packet of biscuits instead. We put up shit loads of posters and flyers for our alleycat, hopefully people noticed them. In an ideal world I would have dished them out to people and had a chat and stuff but chatting to 3 or 4 people in a day is plenty for me, 80 is too many.

They had loads of awesome t-shirts for sale by Death Pedal, No Gears, Hell Yeah! and the, frankly, incredible Death Before Derailleurs one below. I tell you I couldn't get that 15 squids out of my pocket fast enough when I saw the opportunity to be a genuine fixed gear fascist...

Click the picture for more info on the design and why it was created.

The films kicked off with the trailer for a Bristol documentary about the fixie culture called BÖIKZMÖIND. It looks like a banger, check out the trailer then go and 'like' and comment on it over on Vimeo.

BOIKZMOIND Trailer from Xynthetic on Vimeo.

Second up was Death Pedal which was ok but pretty much entirely trick based, there was no good hill bombing or anything which left us (The Swansea lot) all a bit deflated. The locals seemed to love it, there is clearly a strong trick based culture in Bristol, something which is missing from here, although we do try some tricks we are all about the riding in traffic with some trick practice at the end.

The last film was Macaframa which kicks some serious ass, JT had bought it the week before so 3 of us knew it already but seeing it on the big screen was great. If you haven't seen it yet it's like Mash but shot really well with colour grading and proper editing.

After the films there was a skid comp outside where a few of the locals blew us away, one dude (on the Nelson frame with Zipp front wheel) took a pretty nasty slam which I half missed luckily. The longest skid went to a guy in a yellow t-shirt, he hammered it and his skid went on, for, like, foreverrrrrrrrr!!! There was also a girl from Oxford there who was terrifying to watch bombing the hill in hotpants and a boob tube, she was proper mental. All in all it was a great day out and I think I speak for us all when I say I can't wait for the next one.

Bookworm Alleycat Info and Registration

2009-08-20T00:38:00.041+01:00

Wales' first ever alleycat race is taking place in Swansea on 3rd October 2009 at 3pm. This thing is going to be bonkers, there will be 5 checkpoints, all at libraries, where you will need to get a book you bring stamped. The checkpoints will be spread far and wide, both in the city centre and the suburbs, up hills and down hills, along main roads and back roads. This race has something for everyone, whether you are used to the hills of Bristol or the crazy traffic of London you will be in with a good chance of winning some awesome prizes. After the main race there are gonna be longest skid and trackstand competitions before heading off to the road where poet Dylan Thomas was born for a hill climb challenge. To wind down (or up) after a hard days riding there will be an after party playing everyones favourite fixie videos and shit loads of great music. Check out all the info below, sign up to race and then pop over to all of our sponsors websites!

We have shed loads of great sponsors for the race, these guys have all put their time and money into supporting the fixed gear scene and you should all support them by remembering who they are and buying off them. Click on each of the adverts below check out their websites.

For more info about all our great sponsors click here.

Six Pack Tour Tshirts Available now!

2009-08-19T22:02:00.003+01:00

From Exist Clothing, Swansea.

New emergency wheel

2009-08-19T21:42:00.003+01:00

Jt very kindly loaned me one of his spare back wheels today. I broke yet another hub (Third one so far) the other night whilst climbing a hill. It's time I invested in a rich man's hub and hooked myself up with a Phil Wood.

Alleycat News - 18/08/09

2009-08-18T00:38:00.004+01:00

Hey y'all, we have some more confirmed sponsors for the alleycat, check them out:

Tokyo Fixed Gear
Hunting Lodge
Bike Food
Hub Jub

and don't forget the others:

Charlie The Bikemonger
Schmoos
Exist Clothing
Skullcandy
14 Bike Co.
Hell Yeah!
Velo Solo
JOL Straps
Ison Distribution
Re-Cycle

To be kept up to date with alleycat news and other sutff join us on Twitter.

53 Miles and 3 Sore Bums

2009-08-16T01:27:00.005+01:00

This is a week late, I've been busy organising alleycat stuff, so instead of blabbing on for ages it'll be mostly photos with captions. Exposition: Kerry, Owen and me (the one and only Ty) are trying to cycle further and further each week in preperation for cycling to Paris next year. This trip was 47 miles (53 for me), we took in Gorseinon, Llanelli, Pembrey, Burry Port and Kidwelly...

Bike route 273881 - powered by Bikemap

Owen had spotted some bike parts in the window of an old shop in Gorseinon so we went there first, we were shocked to find a Penny Farthing hung from the ceiling and loads of really old Raleigh signs on the walls. We spoke to the dude there for a while, he was as deaf as a door post but judging by this it will be worth going back for a longer chat!

We hit the Millennium Coastal Path, I'm not sure which part of 'cycle track' they don't understand but most of this thing is gravel, the nice parts are really nice but riding 700x23's on a gritty track is not ideal.

This very use(less)ful map (didn't) showed us exactly where we'd been and exactly where we were going, Owen tried explaining to me with the aid of, and I quote, the "gun show", he's very helpful like that. Just after this I busted a textbook backward circle and an old dude on a road bike in all the gear stopped and clearly wanted to talk to us, he didn't though.

Burry Port has the absolute worst example of a skate park that I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of shit skate parks, unfortunately the useless bastards at Swansea council won't even cough up for an embarrassment like this!
Kerry was off like a rocket at times, later on in the day I spotted a slow worm on the path, said it was a snake and she did a great bit of classic Merckx acceleration, haha, GIRLS!

Amelia Earhart landed in Burry port after flying over the Atlantic way back when, there is a plaque commemorating her journey and this classic small town sign showing just how far away it really is from anything exciting.

We got to Kidwelly Castle, it was quite expensive to get in to so we just sat on a bench debating whether we wanted to hit the massive 12 or so mountain miles to Carmarthen, we decided it was too late to go any further. A classic Chevy Chase style American car pulled into the car park and this dude got out wearing sandals, a t-shirt and the brightest damned Speedo's ever, they were maybe even older than the castle.

First stop on the journey back was the Co-Op, in the car park we very much enjoyed looking at "Sue Per Snax", a crappy burger bar whose name is only topped by "Wots Cookin' To" in Clydach Market. For this picture my art direction was "you look in the bin and I will sit here like a king on a throne", I think Owen captured my vision perfectly.
This is where things got weird, we were about to find that the gravel track was quite a luxury earlier on. Cycle Route 4 goes through some private farm land in the Pembrey area, we had lost our way earlier and ended up on the road but this time we were determined to take the path. I've not been on a cycle path before where you have to descend a set of steps, go through a secure gate and come face to face with a herd of bloodthirsty cows. Me and Owen though that the "path" went right around the herd so we decided to have a race on the bovine velodrome, half way round we came up against a hurdle, namely a great big pool of slurry composed of shit and water, we turned around and raced back, our spirits and dreams shattered.

This cow was freaking Kerry out so we had to leave, there is something far more scary about a single cow than a whole load of the buggers don't you think?

Now this may look idilic but we were concerned about rapists and murderers at this point, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, we hadn't seen another human for a long time and all 3 of out iPhones were refusing to find the network. We kept going for what seemed like yonks, then the "SNAKE!" incident happened, Me and Owen took off in pursuit of a shaken but not stired Kerry...

...Something was wrong, gravel seemed badly thought out, steps and cows was a bit mental but an uphill stretch of 'cycle path' made out of sand was something else...

...Then the inevitable happened, we were on the beach...

Again the iPhones we hating us...

Even the 3Gs could not save us now!

So we just had to turn around and go back, at a crossroads we went right on to another gravel track and into the woods, we were sure this was Pembrey Country Park so all was well at last, we even started pulling some skidz.

Kerry's Charge Plug has been ringing, we had thought it was her bell but it turned out that all along it had been her back brake cable (she rides singlespeed cause she is a big girls blouse, ha!) pinging against the frame, luckily girls are an inventive, multitasking, weird bunch of people so she had a plan...

...Stick it down with a brightly coloured plaster, sweeeeet.
Back in Burry Port the bunting, brass band and general buzz across the water attracted us, we went over there to find the end of a fishing competition. Any other vegan would have walked away in disgust but not me, I love animals so much that seeing a squashed squirrel is as good as seeing a bear and seeing a big dead fish is better than seeing no fish so I had a quick look, made a few "I can smell fish, close your legs, love" jokes to myself then we headed off on the final stretch. The wind was behind us at last and we flew the last however many miles. The End.

Alleycat News - 12/08/09

2009-08-12T19:00:00.006+01:00

We've been working on the alleycat for a few days now, all the checkpoints are libraries and the name is the "Bookworm Alleycat". It is for fixed gear riders only: no geared bikes, no singlespeeds, no BMX, and no complaining about this! The date we are gunning for is Saturday 3rd October, so anyone from far away can come and not have to worry about work the next day, there will be plenty of floors for people to sleep on if they fancy a whole weekend in sunny Swansea.

No more details are gonna be released yet but stay tuned, all posts related to the race will be consolidated and easily reachable by clicking the button over there >>>

We already have some awesome sponsors donating some great prizes, more news on those soon, check out everyone that has confirmed so far:

Charlie The Bikemonger
Schmoos
Exist Clothing
Skullcandy
14 Bike Co.
Hell Yeah!
Velo Solo
JOL Straps
Ison Distribution
Re-Cycle

That is all for now...

Performance, baby.

2009-08-12T18:09:00.000+01:00

SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!

The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power

2009-08-09T23:48:00.002+01:00

Has anyone out the read this book? Is it any good?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Immortal-Class-Messengers-Human-Power/dp/0375504281

Alleycat Race

2009-08-08T22:56:00.004+01:00

I've started work on Wales' first ever alleycat, so far all I have is a name, concept and a pencilled in date of September 27th. MORE INFO TO FOLLOW SOOOOOOOON...

Fixed Gear Wales' Irish Correspondent...

2009-08-04T23:35:00.002+01:00

Rebecca, who is from Wales but now lives in Ireland has just built herself a new fixie for her birthday, it's a real beauty, check out the specs:

Frame: Pake 49cm
Forks: Pake
Bars: Nitto
Stem: Unbranded
Crankset: Brick Lane Bikes 48t
Wheels: Weinmann Deep Vs and Hubs (17t cog)
Seat: Grunge
Chain: Pink KMC
Seatpost: Oval
Pedals: MKS
Cages: Brick Lane Bikes
Straps: Mt. Christophe

I think the term "sweet whip" is called for, hopefully she can bring it back over with her one day or we will make a trip over to Ireland for a ride :-)

The Gower Explorers

2009-08-04T22:39:00.003+01:00

On Saturday Kerry, Owen and me hit the Gower for a 35 mile ride or as I call it "the 35 mile vodka sweat-out torture session", actually it wasn't that bad, ha.
We started out from Kerry and Owen's pad in Gowerton after he had emptied her bag of the full set of spare clothes, bath towel and the kitchen sink, it was a really cool ride, lots of little but long hills to get the blood pumping and a couple of scary hill bombs including one where I gave up trying to skid and just went hell for leather instead which was both awesome and probably safer. We headed for Rhosilli, which is waaaaaay over towards the end of the Gower and a really beautiful spot, I found out that they fry their chips separately from any fish and shit so I went wild and gobbled down a full feast (see pic) which I was sure would be for the best but judging by the wall I hit on the hill back up and out of the area I'm not so sure now, It's a pretty bad feeling when you can barely turn your peddles innit. We were only nearly half way at this point so there was no point in feeling sorry for myself and I soldiered on.
I think I have run out of story, it wasn't the most exciting trip ever but it was great; the real story is that Kerry is planning a 60 mile round trip to Kidwelly this weekend which is gonna be a real killer but seeing as I'm 'never drinking again' at least my sweat will smell like roses and not like Smirnoff this time, ding ding!

Bike route 264999 - powered by Bikemap

Kerry fingering her sensitive eyes and me trying to work out which part I'm meant to sit on

The "shall we go left or straight on?" meeting

Me gobbling up chips and beans with a bap and some pop

Kerry with her health food, clearly green with envy
The whole gang posing in front of Worms Head

Aberystwyth to Cardigan Bay

2009-08-02T11:59:00.002+01:00

A couple of Englishmen on a trip from Aberystwyth to Cardigan Bay to visit Howies for some reason, I don't know why they were visiting them but I do know that Howies used to make this cool t-shirt.

Aberystwyth - Cardigan Bay from Jonathan Cherry on Vimeo.

Spontaneous Tube Explosion!

2009-07-28T14:55:00.002+01:00

A few of us were hanging out at Exist yesterday when we heard a loud "PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!", I joked that it was Ally's (thats Ally like Ollie not like alley, and from Allchurch) bike locked up across the road thinking that it was actually a bus engine. We all glanced across to see his front wheel as flat as a pancake, his inner tube had just exploded all by itself, it was the most excitement that we experienced all day.

No Gears - Bristol - 31st August

2009-07-28T13:35:00.003+01:00

We missed the first one of these events a while back so I really wanna get up to Bristol for this, £6 entry, 2 films (one of which is Death Pedal), some drinkies, some riding and a BBQ which, according to Juliet Elliot, will cater for Vegetarians, no mention of vegans though so I may have to pack a disposable! Click the poster for more info.

Scott's First Build

2009-07-25T20:18:00.004+01:00

One half of Swansea's finest cock rock DJ duo has just finished building his first fixie. Scott is a long time BMXer so I'm sure he's gonna be busting out all sorts of wild stunts in no time but for now we are trying to kill him with some fast rides around town :-p The lucky bugger struck it rich at the casino and got himself a sweet Volume Cutter 3 frame and a bunch of other bling. Scott is a tattoist, check him out and join his group on Facebook.

Loadsamoneyyyyyy!

Charge saddle and some riser bars

Sprocket, seat post clamp and Surly chain tensioner

Campagnolo front wheel

Halo Aerotrack rear

Volume Cutter 3

Volume forks

Bling gold chainset
Finished!

Worst Advert Ever, LOL

2009-07-25T00:35:00.001+01:00

I just knocked up the worst advert ever, ROTFLMAO

Dopey Sion, Oh Dear, Oh Dear

2009-07-23T11:47:00.002+01:00

I'll apologise in advance to Sion for stealing this picture and embarrassing him here but sometimes it just has to be done!

He'd been having some trouble with the arm coming loose so he was probably a bit pissed off and flustered when he re-attached it, he's not usually so silly...

"...thats what happens when you re-attach bits of bike in morrisons car park without paying attention. tightened it right down like a bitch and then couldnt get it back off."

Skateboarding. What a Twat.

2009-07-19T14:50:00.003+01:00

I don't usually post video links but this one is just the funniest video ever made!

Hit by a Car!

2009-07-12T00:30:00.002+01:00

So Thursday night I was riding home when, at the bottom of a big long hill, I passed a bus at a stop so I decided to race it home. I made it about 3/4 of the way up before it overtook me and about a minute from home it got caught at a red light, I checked left, I checked right, there was nothing coming, I could run the light and beat the machine...

...I went through the crossroad with a bit of caution then got my sprint on, about 25 meters later I spotted a car parked on my left indicate, I was close enough and going plenty fast enough to just glide past him before he pulled out then he pulled off as fast as lightening into a u-turn, I made every effort to swerve around him, I even almost managed it, but he hit me and threw me through the air like a rag doll. Thanks to the brand new "Google Street Gif" technology the whole thing was caught on 'video'...

Note: it was actually dark as it was about 22:30

...He got out, I got up off the ground and checked my bike, it was fine, phew! I checked myself, just my finger was cut, phew! Nobody was completely to blame, he obviously didn't "look, look and look again" and I (very very stupidly) had forgotten to re-attach my lights after spraying my frame last week. He apologised and was pretty shook up, personally I wasn't too bothered cause after 15 years of skateboarding falling over and hurting myself is nothing new. We agreed that I should have had lights, this was literally only the second time I have ridden at night without them, I know how bloody stupid it is but I'm the 3rd person this year I know of that has been hit by a u-turner so it MUST have been partly his fault too, innit.

All I could really think about was that fucking bus. So smug as it cruised past the bruised and battered cycle hero. I twisted my bars back into place, clipped myself in and took up the chase. No sign of him on the remainder of Llangyfelach Rd, I turned right onto Rheidol Avenue, "Welcome to Clase", this is MY hood, no bus is gonna beat me off in MY hood. I see him up ahead, waiting, revving, and then, he, pulls, off. I dig in, by the hill I am on his wheel, neck and neck, 'take him' I hear myself think, I could have, I should have, but I take it easy and wait until after the roundabout to shut him down. Man 2 Machine 0.

So, in summary, I got hit by a car and I thought I was fine but my shoulder and hip are pretty hurty, also my knee and ankle have been aching a lot and I have a scab on my knuckle which is pretty uncomfortable but it could have been a lot worse.

Custom Bob Jackson Frame - Ev Chuffed

2009-07-07T23:43:00.002+01:00

Ev's new Bob Jackson frame arrived today, it's a beauty! Here is the proud father looking just a little bit excited, haha :-p

Shop - County Cycles, Cross Hands

2009-07-06T20:06:00.003+01:00

I popped into County Cycles in Cross Hands the other week, it's a nice little shop and the staff were friendly too, which is nice (rare). Downstairs is filled with accessories and general bikes, like a little mini Halfords ;-) but upstairs is filled with some serious kit, they keep loads of top of the range road bikes in stock as well as a truly impressive selection of jerseys! They don't keep any fixed gear specific stuff in stock but said they can order stuff in which is fair enough as Cross Hands is hardly the epicentre of all things 'new and exciting'. Check out their website: http://county-cycles.com

Sun Worksop Re-Paint

2009-07-03T19:07:00.004+01:00

The last paint job I did on my frame was bloody awful so I decided to give some enamel paint a go and to at least try and strip the frame properly first. I busted out some Nitromors and it beat the living daylights out of the graffiti paint, it came right off. Unfortunately as soon as the Nitromors had done its job it started pissing down so I had to paint ANOTHER frame in a dark, small, filthy shed in damp weather. I primed and painted it blah blah blah, then made a truly pathetic attempt at baking the enamel dry using a rotating heater, they paint still wasn't fully hard this morning and I ended up leaving some fingerprints on the top tube but they may come in handy one day! I can't be bothered to write any more now, if it's boring to write then it must be really boring to read.
Primer, enamel gloss, Nitromors, Bianchi cap, Silver Jews t-shirt, boosh!

Ready for action

As dangerous as they make out?

Within seconds!

Within minutes...

...fizzle, fizzle

After some chiselling
Mostly free of paint

Primed in the shed

All the bits wait patiently

A pathetic attempt at baking the enamel dry

Looked nice in the morning

Ready for work
Outside Exist in town

Raleigh Record Ace Moderne For Sale

2009-06-28T22:13:00.006+01:00

Julian from Schmoos is selling his Raleigh Record Ace Moderne, it's a real beauty and in nice condition. It's rocking a 56cm, Reynolds 653 frame, sweet Mavic MA 40 rims, a double ring crankset that can be taken down to one ring for fixed use, an awesome saddle with gold accents and full Shimano doodads. He's looking for £200 and will chuck in new tyres and bar tape for that price. If you are interested give him a ring on 01792 467070.

New (old) Drops

2009-06-23T21:36:00.003+01:00

I got myself a bangin' set of drops today from Re-Cycle, it took a fair amount of scavenging through the bar box (see pic) to find a super shiny, rust-free, wide (I've been watching all the old 70's documentaries), nice shaped drops. A bit more looking around for a long stem and I was in business. Now my bike feels like a rocket :-D

Swansea, Llanelli, Cross Hands, Carmarthen Done!

2009-06-18T23:56:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I decided that today I would get on the bike and just ride, no plans, no messing about just me, my bike and the open road. So I left the house with my phone, a 15mm, puncture kit, an airstik and some cash money. First stops were Lidl and Tesco looking for a saddle bag, Lidl didn't have any and the one in Tesco is so wacky that I couldn't figure out how it would attach so I left it.

Next stop was Parc Trostre for a TK Maxx visit, they had some killer jeans for 8 squids but I had nowhere to put them :'-( when I came out it was pissing down, luckily it only lasted for a minute, I went into Tesco again to try and figure out the saddle bag but it still didn't make any sense, I bought some tyre levers cause I'd forgotten mine (didn't even need them!). Using the GPS on my iPhone I tried to find County Cycles with no luck cause it wasn't there anymore, heart broken I hit the A476 to their other shop in Cross Hands, this was quite a trip! It was only about 10 miles but pretty bloody hilly at times, I really enjoyed the country views but not the stink of shit. I won't say much about County Cycles cause there'll be a post on them tomorrow, they gave me a free energy gel and a map to Carmarthen drawn on a bit of till roll which was very nice of them.

Another 10 or so miles of hills and getting blown all over the place by HGV's and I was doing laps at Carmarthen Velodrome. (A quick note on the energy gel: I'd never had one before so I probably imagined this but a few mins after popping it I was off my tits, I couldn't stop singing Totally Wired and was flying up the A48 like a bolt of skinny lightening.) The velodrome is in pretty bad condition but still really fun, I didn't stay long cause I was on my own but another trip soon is on the cards, anyone up for it???

I got lost 3 times trying to find the city centre but I got myself a cola Slush Puppy so it wasn't that bad. I went to TK Maxx, it sucked. I then got the train home cause it was getting late and I was hungry. Half way through a packet of salt & vinegar Walkers I discovered that they are no longer vegan, twats!

5 More miles from town and I was home proper, 40 miles in total, smashing my previous longest days ride of 22 miles. Check out the cool map below and some pix from the day.

Bike route 218667 - powered by Bikemap

Hover over the graph to see the killer hills.

6 Miles to go...

Pffffft!

Click the pic for a great big version

Classic grafitti

Mmmmmm, Slush Puppy

Sexy mannequin

Last stop: TK Maxx

Knee Cap -vs- Bar Stem

2009-06-13T04:12:00.002+01:00

Me getting my ass kicked (and I don't mean by 'Ginger Balls, 'Jenny' or the 'spit by me again and I'll kick your fucking teeth in' kid from the skate park today)...

Knee Cap -vs- Bar Stem from FixedGearWales on Vimeo.

Fixed Gear Wales Spoke Cards

2009-06-11T00:56:00.003+01:00

Sion very kindly designed these awesome spoke cards for us. If you want one send me a message through the contact page with your name, address and what colour you want an'd I'll cut one out, laminate it and post it out to you asap :-)

Cycling with music - Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket Earphones

2009-06-10T23:13:00.008+01:00

I've never ridden with earphones in cause it seems pretty dangerous if you wear both and can't hear traffic, a lot of people do but personally I think its plain crazy riding and not being totally aware of your surroundings. I've tried riding with only one earphone in and it's ok but so much of the music is lost that it's hardly worth it most of the time, until now...

...Skullcandy hooked me up with a set of the Full Metal Jacket for iPhone earbuds a few weeks ago and they kick ass! The sound is great and they come with 3 different ear buds as well as foam ones so they fit so snuggly that even with only 1 side in your earhole the music stays nice and clear whilst you listen for police cars coming up behind you to bust your fun-loving ass for not having reflectors on your peddles. The best thing about the iPhone model is that they have a built in mic on the cable so I can safely and easily answer the phone and chat whilst trackstanding at the lights which I have not had the need to do yet but one day it's going to happen and I will look flipping amazing, haha. The mic has a play/pause/skip button too which turns the iPhone into a usable iPod when you are on the bike.

Another great point about the Full Metal Jackets is that they are fully metal so they are really tough, the cable is real strong too which makes a change, it's also nice and long so the buds don't get yanked out every time you peddle like the pile of crap Sennheiser cx300's did which I had before these.

If you have an iPhone (or a Blackberry) then buy yourself a set of these if you wanna listen to music and talk whilst riding cause I don't think you'll find anything better out there. You can get them from nucleus-online.com cheaper than anywhere else. Be warned though that I do work there so if you phone up you'll have to talk to me :-p (Note: we stock the whole Skullcandy range at great prices, hehe).

If you do actually order something from Nucleus send an e-mail along with your order saying you came from here and I'll stick a Fixed Gear Wales spoke card in the package for you.

7-Week Cycling for Fitness (and alleycat winning)

2009-06-09T23:29:00.004+01:00

I got this book from the library today, my training regime for the Bristol Alleycat starts tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't have 7 full weeks before I attempt take the gold medal from the Bristol locals so hopefully cramming the 7 weeks into 4 weeks will be enough to teach those Englishmen a lesson, haha.

Check it.

Bristol Alleycat

2009-05-19T12:59:00.004+01:00

Who's up for entering this? I know I am!

Fixed Gear Wales Drawing

2009-05-18T23:04:00.003+01:00

Jack Kirtley, doodler extraordinaire, winner of Swansea's first big game of S.K.A.T.E and head honcho of Horror Skateboards has drawn up this awesome picture for me, I'm gonna use it for spoke cards, posters and flyers to promote the site and some limited edition t-shirts. Stay Tuned...

Fixed Gear Wales iPhone Theme

2009-05-12T23:04:00.003+01:00

Here is a nice little present for everyone out there with an iPhone, I've knocked together a Fixed Gear Wales iPhone theme, it's nothing special really but it is nice. It is a springboard theme, not a full one. It features a lockscreen background, a bike slider button with modified "skid to unlock" text and, finally, a springboard that resembles this here blog.
To use the theme you need a Jailbroken iPhone, then SSH the FGW-THEME folder to Library/Themes and using Winterboard drag it to the top of the list and select it. If you don't understand any of that then use Google, pretty please don't ask me because this is a bike blog, not a geek blog :-p

DOWNLOAD

My New (Old) Frame is back on the streets

2009-05-09T20:33:00.011+01:00

So I sold my white frame the other day and, while I wait for my new Bob Jackson to arrive, I've set up my o.g Raleigh 'Kellogs Pro Tour' frame. This frame was part of my first ever build and I forgot how much I dig it.

Sun Worksop Frame Fixed Up

2009-05-09T14:54:00.001+01:00

I picked up this snazzy 19.5" Sun Worksop frame at Re-Cycle, it had seen better days, in fact it looked like it had been stored outdoors for the last 20 years but that didn't put me off. It proved to be quite a project, the cottered cranks were well and truly stuck so I 'employed' the services of my good friend Julian who is a real man with tools.
The crank arms had to be angle-ground off the spindle, then one of them welded to a bottom bracket cup in order to unscrew it, he then went to work on the pump arms, cable guides and the hideous light thing on the right fork. Next he beat the living daylights out of the worst of the rust using a wirey attachment for the grinder. Last but not least he got the head badge off for me.
I then did a terrible job of sanding the remaining parts of the frame before masking it up and spraying it Montana 94 Valley Green (9r-6018) which is a super thick, sweet smelling graffiti paint available at Exist. The colour is awesome but its a bit knobbly bobbly cause I really really hate sanding, it's gotta be the worst thing in the world!

I'm not afraid of a bit of rust!

Angle grinding the cottered cranks off

Off comes all the "faff"

Welding a crank arm to the seized bottom bracket cup

A gentle whack and...

...out it comes

Removing the snazzy head badge

Sweeeeet!

Sanding the worst of the rust off

Before

After

Ready for graffiti-ing

"Heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power!"

Lookin' fresh with the classic 'Kids of Clase' graffiti, booyaa!

Broken Chainring

2009-05-08T22:56:00.005+01:00

Oliver from Cardiff added this photo to the Fixed Gear Wales Facebook group. He was riding with only 3 chainring bolts, did a skid and KABOOM! You have been warned...

Tyron Francis' First Build

2009-05-08T13:46:00.003+01:00

"This thing ended up taking forever and costing waaaaaay more than I had thought it would but it has changed my life. Cycling is perhaps the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I hadn't ridden for 15+ years before I built this fixie, I suppose I jumped on the bandwagon in a way cause a few of my buds had them, its hard skating at the same speed as a bike! It was built up from an Apollo Challenger that I found in the paper for £30 (I thought it was ok at the time but after a couple of months came to realise that it was a pile of crap frame, the dropouts starting wearing out, it rattled and was a bit big for me). I bought everything else new. Since these pix were taken 5 months ago I have changed the saddle to a Charge Spoon, the tyres, destroyed the back hub which I've replaced with a System Ex and gone from risers to horns to drops and back to risers."

Apollo Challenger

All the useless bits: gears, brakes, cables etc.

JT getting busy with the angle grinder

Sanding, boooooooooring!

Mach 1 Omega wheel set

Primed, ready for paint

All the bits: chain, tyres, tubes, grips, seatpost, saddle, peddles, clips, bars, 18t
All built up (pretty much) and ready for action

Beynon's First Build

2009-05-06T01:11:00.005+01:00

'This is my first fixie build and a return to cycling after a number of years out of the saddle. Have bulit BMXs as a younger man and ridden a hard tail MTB for several years.

The frame was bought from ebay after about 2 months of searching for a fairly decent frame at reasonable money. After some research i believe it is from a Raleigh Pursuit 12 speed from the early 80's. Its a reynolds 501 frame, not the best but good enough! I stripped the bike to its bare frame, used 'green' Nitromors to strip the frame of its paint and removed the majority of the protruding metal work with a grinder then filled the resulting nasty bits with a smooth car body filler.

The frame was rubbed down with Scotchbrite pads before given 2 coats of Plasticote grey primer. After drying the frame was wet flatted then given 3 coats of Plasticote gloss black, then given 2 coats of Plasticote gloss protector.

Components:
- A new SRAM GXP30 track crank (Bought from Schmoos, Swansea)
- Chain is a Charge Mash item in black (Wiggle)
- Cog is a 17 tooth item bought from Schmoos (the only one they had in stock!),
- Wheels (Charge) were bought from Sion (originally sourced from the London Fixed Gear forum-cheers Sion) cos he couldnt afford them at the time that i was looking for alternatives.(green wasnt my first choice but i do luv em now!)
- Shimano Exage front brake with Dia Compe cable and Dia Compe Tech 99 straight brake lever (gay or not, its staying for the time being!) (Bought from Velosolo)
- SR Laprade 27.2mm Fluted Seatpost (Velosolo) with Charge spoon cromo rail saddle in black (Wiggle)
- Tyres are Vittoria Rubino 700c x 24, standard black (Wiggle)
- Current gear ratio 48 x 17 (17 skid patches)
- Drop bars (Charge bar tape in black) and current stem are from Sions pug.

Soon to add new quill stem and maybe new bars....oh and maybe a chrome finish head set. Then the process starts all over again with a new paint job, new
wheels.......:)'

80's Raleigh Frame

The all important Reynolds 501 sticker

Nitromors doing all the hard work

Plasticote black

Sram s300 GXP cranks, charge wheel

All done

With a 747!

First lesson learned!

Sion's First Build

2009-05-06T00:54:00.003+01:00

54cm Peugeot road

Nitromors Attack!
Socks, sandals, nitromors, perfect

This stuff is awesome

Beynon being a real man's man

Sion on spray duty

You know a good paint job when it glows

Velocity Deep V

The "can't wait to build it up" shot

Magic invisible chain

Completed, looks great!

Metal!

2009-05-03T19:19:00.004+01:00

Had a good "trick session" on Saturday with Ric, Ev and JT. Everyone was trying the both legs on one side of the frame skids with not much steez. There were some leg over the bar skids from the other dudes but I'm still not happy about the slam I took on one the other week. I failed terribly at Keo spins, how the fluck do they work??? I've even frame by framed some on video but instead of the wheel coming off the ground all that happens is that my arse comes off the saddle, they are haaaaard!

Ev managed to snap a toe clip after going through all the effort of finding one of the nut, bolt and washer combos that held it together, luckily there was a handy metal recycling facility close at hand. Then later on I realised that I'd snapped one of the serrated spacer / nut things on my System Ex rear hub, quite a common problem apparently, I've replaced it with a track nut for now which is way wider but does the job.

Anyone up for some bike polo? Get in touch.

Sweet Stunts down in SA1

2009-04-28T23:03:00.003+01:00

Me and Evs blowing up the spot earlier today, booyaa! The Norwegian church really is the ultimate spot for fixie dudes in and around the Swansea area, ha!

Sweet Stunts on Fixies, Yo! from FixedGearWales on Vimeo.

Sun Worksop Frame

2009-04-27T19:39:00.004+01:00

I've been on the lookout for a 19" frame for a while cause my 21" is a tad too long for me. I've been scouring the paper and every week I've been calling into Re-Cycle in the hope that something will have been donated but no cigar. Until today. Turns out there has been a 19" frame there the whole time underneath a bunch of other frames, it's a Sun Worksop which as far as I can find was gobbled up by Raleigh, from Wikipedia: "In 1960, Tube Investments acquired Raleigh and merged the British Cycle Corporation with Raleigh to form TI-Raleigh which had 75% of the UK market. TI-Raleigh then acquired Carlton Cycles in Worksop, England, at the time one of the largest semi-custom lightweight makers in the U.K. Raleigh brands acquired and marketed were Phillips Cycles and Hercules Cycle, Rudge, BSA, and Sun, however these were cheaper machines in The TI-Raleigh range. Production was switched to Nottingham, however the Sun branded bicycles were made in the Carlton factory at Worksop, England."
It's nothing special but at least it will fit me and it's certainly better than the Apollo Challenger frame I'm using currently. Check it out:
It's pretty rusty but nothing a bit of sandpaper won't fix

Pretty cool headbadge

"Sweet lugs"

Pretty weird?

Best Find Ever: Charity Shop Fixie

2009-04-27T19:24:00.002+01:00

Today the unthinkable happened, Aled from Slam on the Breaks was walking past the back door of a charity shop, glanced in and to his amazement he spotted a golden fixie and a Raleigh converted to a dirty singlespeed! He picked up the pair for TWELVE QUID which not only makes me sick to the stomach but also to my socks. It's a bit (way) too big for him but he's gonna give the fixie a bash and he donated the other to Re-Cycle. So, Aled, welcome to the bestest gang in the world.

Fixies Suck! (Upcoming DVD Releases)

2009-04-25T18:47:00.006+01:00

I just found this on Facebook. November 21st last year I remember watching the Council of Doom trailer that Ev posted and genuinely thinking that it was the crappiest, most 'gay' thing I'd ever seen.

But according to this picture just 13 days later I had bought myself a fixed back wheel, God knows how that happened but I'm pretty chuffed that it did :-)

On a separate note Council of Doom, Macaframa and Bootleg Sessions 3 should all be available very very soon, yeeha!

Backwards Circle - Fixed Gear Steeze, HA!

2009-04-22T00:25:00.000+01:00

This is how I be rockin' it yo.

Backwards Circle - Fixed Gear Steeze, HA! from FixedGearWales on Vimeo.

Once You Go Black...

2009-04-13T13:41:00.000+01:00

"Mourning Glory"

Review - Cycling Caps

2009-04-08T19:54:00.004+01:00

Let's not beat around the bush, I have a TINY head, it's shocking, even children's baseball caps are too big for me. There is only one brand that fits me ok but they just don't stay on when cycling, as soon as I lift my head up they are off.

I bought myself a Campy cycling cap a while back thinking it wouldn't fit but they are so bloody cheap that it didn't really matter. It fitted ok and was soooooo good for riding, it did the lot, it stopped my stupid floppy hair from flapping about, it kept my head warm, it kept the rain and the sun out of my eyes, basically it did exactly what it was designed to do. People seem to think that they are hysterical looking and its true, a bit. How they look really doesn't matter though when they work so perfectly!

Campagnolo

I lost the Campagnolo one a couple of weeks ago and have been really missing it, today I bought myself an Assos one from Cyclopedia in Cardiff. This one is even better, its a bit smaller so fits me better and even has a mesh panel in the back for ventilation which actually seemed to work today on the uphill ride home.

Assos
Wikipedia tells me that "a traditional way to keep the head cool when cycling in hot conditions was to put a cabbage leaf under the casquette" so if you see me around and I look a bit like treebeard on a bike don't be alarmed, I'm just keeping it real, yo.

These hats cost anything from £6 to about £10 with more "classy" ones costing much more. Try and get them from your LBS but if you can't try prendas.co.uk or eBay. This is the best one ever:

Stripped Thread, New Hub, My First Wheel Build, Swans

2009-04-04T23:45:00.005+01:00

I got a new 20t (!!!) sprocket to try out a lower gear inch, I wanted to bring it down from 70 to mid 60's so that I could take on some more hills. I whipped the 18t off to find that the thread on my hub was completely stripped, I don't know why but it was and was unfixable so I had to spend out on a new rear hub. I got the System Ex from Schmoos cause it was all I could afford and gets good enough reviews. My first wheel build began. I used this article to learn how to lace it up and then this video to true the bugger, which took ages! It's still a little bit off but I'll get some help to get it spot on, every time it was practically perfect one tiny turn would throw it out again, I enjoyed though. Here is a photographic diary of the process...

Stripped Thread

System Ex 32 hole hub

All the bits

Don't copy this!
Or this!

Note that the spokes are coming from the inside out...

On both sides! :-(

They should be from the outside in

3rd of 4 groups done

Now some go from inside out

Turns out that brakes are actually useful for something
First build, DONE!
And now for something completely different, me with some swans...

Riding in Traffic Video, Backwards Circle Success and Posing

2009-04-01T02:05:00.005+01:00

Here we go, its a jumbo post! Tuesday I attached a video camera to my bike and filmed my ride into town, the footage came out ok but not great. I need to secure the camera a bit more rigidly to the frame next time and head out during rush hour cause the roads were quite quiet. Check out the video below, I've cut it down to the most 'exciting' bits but had to take others bits out because of the crazy shaking...

...Secondly, I FINALLY nailed some backwards circles today, after weeks and weeks of trying them, watching videos on YouTube for technique tips and even dreaming that I could do them (yes I am that sad) I got 8 in the bag. I didn't get any on video but I did get Nigel to confirm that they happened.

Lastly, just after the successful execution of 3 circles a young lady and her friend wanted to be photographed with my bike. She seemed to want me sat on the saddle with her straddling my top tube but I wasn't 100% so I just let them do whatever they wanted cause I was so chuffed with my new skillz.

Oh, and I managed my first leg over and through the frame to trackstand and back combo :-D

More Ways To Calculate Gear Ratio and Skid Patches

2009-03-30T01:06:00.005+01:00

Today I found another two ways for you to work out some stuff. The first one is a java based online gear ratio and skid patch calculator and the second is a Mac Widget for calculating only skid patches. Click on the pix below to go to the relevant pages.

I also spent all day failing miserably (AGAIN) at backwards circles, threw a big paddy, shot my bike into a wall then rode home, burned my food and threw the oven glove from the kitchen into the bath. WHY THE F*CK CAN'T I DO BACKWARDS BLOODY CIRCLES???

Drop out with...

2009-03-26T23:43:00.002Z

...my worn dropouts!

My chain has gone really lose and come off THREE times since Chrimbo, it's been driving me nuts and I've just been waiting for it to happen as I'm flying towards a red light. I went into Schmoos today to check out what they had in the way of botchable chaintugs but ended up buying a bangin' set of Schwalbe Stelvio tyres which have completed my bikes transition from "gay hipster chic" to "BLACK!"

When changing the tyres I decided to sand all the paint off the dropouts in the hope that it would stop the back wheel from slipping and discovered that they were pretty badly worn which may explain why the wheel keeps shifting. I'm assuming that they are badly worn at least, maybe it's normal. Anyway I need to start seriously thinking about whether to track down a nice old road frame or buy a new track frame...

Normal?

Surely not!?!
Now go and check this out.

Trackstand skilllzzz

2009-03-25T14:40:00.002Z

Skidsville

2009-03-23T21:13:00.002Z

Me doing a skid down in skidsville whilst pulling a jibsville whilst being pulled along by a stream of magical Knog light!

FGW Strap-On

2009-03-19T22:22:00.002Z

What do we have here then? It's the first Fixed Gear Wales product. The exclusive FGW Strap-On is a multi function strap featuring velcro fastening for ease of use. Use them to attach anything to your frame without the need to permanently spoil the "smooth lines" of your "whip". Why use a bottle cage when you can use a Strap-On? Why go without a packet of biscuits just cause you can't carry them?
The FGW Strap-On is not available in the shops, but you can get your hands on a set in classic black directly from us here at Fixed Gear Wales for only £20!

Paint Your Frame!

2009-03-19T21:12:00.001Z

When I painted my bike the first time I used regular car paint, the colour was ok but pretty dull and it certainly didn't "pop" so when my girlfriend asked me to build her a bike (singlespeed) for her birthday I wanted to try something different. The obvious choice was graffiti paint, it did an amazing job, I used a matte pink by Montana from the Exist shop in Swansea and the colour just blew me away, the paint is so thick that the frame was practically done with just one coat! I stuck a few more on top and didn't bother to lacquer it cause the finish is immense. I have resprayed mine matte black using Molotow which also did a great job. Now that spring is here why not give your frame a new lease of life with a quick paint job? Check out existclothing.com or pop into the shop to get your hands on some killer colours.

Mr. Hankey, The Fixie Bike

2009-03-18T13:50:00.003Z

Sooooooo, Ric has painted his frame brown to match his seat and bars. His bike is now completely brown. His bike looks like Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo.

No-Hands Trackstands, Booyaa!

2009-03-15T22:37:00.003Z

Had an awesome ride into town today, I took out the same car on 3 different red lights, bet he was gutted :-p I then learned no-hands trackstands before having a crappy skate on a curb. Later on I was killing the no-hands left right and centre, of course when I got the camera out I couldn't do one for toffee! Check out the worst video I have ever made:

And also a very nice photo of Ric on my bike and a self portrait:

City Sprint Bike Messenger

2009-03-14T22:20:00.003Z

Last summer I spent two days in London shooting photos for City Sprint which is the UK's leading courier company. I had no interest in bikes back then and didn't even know what a fixed gear was so I shot some pictures of a girl on a fixie wearing all the gear and going about her business blissfully un-aware that in 6 months I would be eating, sleeping and breathing bike culture, weeeeeeeird. Check a few of them out below...

Hetchins Bicycles

2009-03-12T22:58:00.006Z

Ric at Exist pointed me in the direction of Hetchins bikes today, they are identifiable by their truly amazing lugwork, or as my girlfriend called it: "poncy" lugwork. These frames are seriously flashy, check it...

...they remind me of cowboy boots, but in a good way not in a Topshop boots and shirt combo way.

Hyman "Harry" Hetchin and Jack Denny started selling their flashy lugged bikes in the early 1930's and as well as the swirly bits they also feature distinctive curved rear stays. These things really do look amazing, I'm gonna be rummaging in skips looking for one until I find one, no matter how long it takes!

Here are a bunch of their fixed gear bikes from the last 70 years or so:

Did that whet your appetite? If it did then head over to www.hetchins.org where you will find tons of photos of bikes from the 30's up to the present day as well as loads of information about their production methods. There are even some great old action photos dotted around the site like this:

Enjoy! :-)

Shop - Cyclopaedia, Cardiff

2009-03-07T22:43:00.006Z

I popped into Cyclopaedia in Cardiff today to get some bar tape for a singlespeed I am building for my lady. I wasn't in there long but it seems like a really nice little shop, it's well stocked with all the usual gear and the staff seemed to be very knowledgeable to me, I don't know why but they just did.

There was a fairly sizeable workshop area out the back and their website says that "Cyclopaedia is run by Cyclists for Cyclists - every member of staff is a Cyclist, some are triathletes as well!" which I can believe and I think we'll all agree that this is essential when looking for any kind of specialist shop. They deal with over 50 different suppliers and stock 200 brands so they should have what you need, if they don't they will try and order it for you.

I haven't been to any other bike shops in Cardiff yet but I'll happily recommend this one for now cause it was well stocked and had the kind of feeling you get when you go to a skater owned skate shop or an independent record store, know what I mean?

Cyclopaedia
116 Crwys Road
Cathays
Cardiff
CF24 4NR

02920 377773
www.cyclopaedia.co.uk
When you pop in there tell them that Fixed Gear Wales sent you, happy riding! :-)

Free Fixie!

2009-03-04T23:10:00.003Z

We all love a fixie but we can't all afford a whole bunch of them. Yes it is cheap enough to convert a road bike but you would usually buy a fixed wheel for the back which is at least 60 bucks and often 'need' to buy a new crankset at another 60 quid or so. You also will find that trying to work on a bike without the correct tools is a bloody nightmare so you'd need to buy or try and borrow a tool kit.

Today I found a dude on YouTube that doesn't give a damn about the correct tools, the proper wheel or new cranks cause he's got a hammer, a wrench, a full sleeve and a funny accent. Check out his "Free Fixie" videos below, they are hysterical, especially when he's beating the crap out of things!

Frame Size

2009-03-04T00:09:00.003Z

I came across some interesting videos today about frames, they are not fixed specific but they are road bike specific which is plenty good enough, especially if you are converting an old bike. They are by Georgina Terry "The first and last name in women's cycling". In the four videos below she basically works through the names of all the sections of a frame, how everything is measured and in the final two how a designer goes about fine tuning the size. I found the first two to be particularly interesting and the second two will help tall or short people understand how to find a frame that suits them. I am currently on the lookout for a new frame as I think mine is a bit big, I'll be wielding a tape measure everywhere I go from now on!

Pink Bar Tape, The Manly Choice?

2009-03-02T19:45:00.002Z

I picked up a set of drops from Re-Cycle to try out today. I started with risers, then cut some drops down to horns so these are the last option to try out. I love the horns for going up hills but they are a bit on the thin side for much else really.

Schmoos are running low on tape so I pretty much had the choice between silver and pink, I'm not sure that I made the right choice...

Re-Cycle Bike Project and Workshop

2009-03-02T18:57:00.011Z

Swansea has two very cool things, one of them is me and the other is the Re-Cycle scheme which in the words of Swansea Council is "a project of the Black Environment Network and supported by The Countryside Council for Wales. [It] takes in donations of unwanted bikes which are refurbished, repaired and supplied cheaply to low waged people, asylum seekers and refugees." So if you are making good money and want a fixie then order yourself a Charge Plug or something, if you are strapped for cash and fancy a bit of a project then head on down to Re-Cycle and have a rummage.

They always have a good selection of road bikes which you can strip down, you'll be lucky to find a set of cranks that will do the job but you never know, there are always plenty of spare bars and peddles etc though. You are free to work on your bike in the workshop which always saves the failed attempts at trying to scrub grease out of your living room carpet and every tool you could possibly need is there for you, so no more rushing to Wilkinsons for a spanner before it closes.

Re-Cycle is based in a little alleyway on Catherine Street and only open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Remember that you can donate stuff to them as well as pick up cheap bikes (from as little as a tenner!) and parts so take any old bike bits and bobs you have rusting in your shed down to them. Tell them Fixed Gear Wales sent you.

Located in the alley between 19a and The Mill pub

Turn right at the sign, you can't miss it

You will be greeted by fun guys, guaranteed

A full selection of tools is available

Complete bikes

Complete bikes and tyres

Wheels

Crank sets
Peddles, brakes, seatposts, stems, cables etc

Review - Monster Track 8

2009-03-01T14:09:00.004Z

"In the underground world of "alleycat" messenger street racing, one race stands tall among all: New York City's MONSTER TRACK. In the dead of winter each year, the finest city riders from around the world descend upon NYC to battle it out to determine who will be King of the streets in an outlaw bicycle race with one rule: NO BRAKES." Sounds good, right?

Ev pointed me in the direction of this video, the footage on the website was awesome, it was a video we HAD to watch. I got to acquiring it, luckily I acquired it via less than legal methods because if I had actually bought it I would be a very pissed off dude right now cause it sucks. In fact I am still a bit peeved cause it took 3 days to download slowing my connection right down.

Monster Track is an annual alleycat race in New York, riders from all over the world travel to it, it's a big deal. The competition is fierce and would make an awesome film so how could this DVD possibly be so terrible? Well, it turns out that the only race footage is the 12 minutes that is available for free on the bloody website and the rest is some dreadlocked dude just walking around talking crap to people. He just keeps going on and on about this Japanese rider called Shino or "The Fixie King" as he is also called, "do you know The Fixie King is here?", Shino comes FIFTH, HE DOESN'T EVEN WIN! So why the hell does the whole video revolve around him? I'm confused, its just so terrible I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why didn't they just send out 5 riders with headcams to cover the whole race, have someone with a camera at each checkpoint and edit that together into an hour long video of awesome riding through NYC? Why not put all the interview stuff in the extras where you only have to watch it once? Seriously, don't bother buying this if you want to get amped up before a ride but do buy it if you like seeing the same interview footage over and over split into separate sections. Just go and watch the race footage here and be done with it.

If you wanna watch a really decent alleycat video check out "London Calling" by Lucas Brunelle...

Then go and check out all his other amazing videos here.

End Transmission

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