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...
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 :-)
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!
"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.
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 >>>
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!
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.
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.
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