Sunday afternoon shoot.

No riding this weekend. The medical proffesion is still pontificating over 6 viles of blood and an abdominal ultrasound, one day the mystery disease will be identified and hopefully I'll be back on the bike properly. For now though, I'm getting out just enough for some nice shoots, with the 10mm still attached.

The streets.

A fixie at the end of the rainbow.



Empty roads.

Riding in Denmark.

It's always interesting reading about riding and cycle culture in different places around the world. I visited Cycle Chic today, a website from Denmark. They had written an entry entitled "18 ways to know you have bicycle culture." It's very cute, if that's the word.

Out of the eighteen points I found these the closest to describing my current life style.

2. If a car honks at you in traffic, you hardly notice. Instead it makes you think that it's been a while since you took your kids to the park to feed the ducks... Hmmm... maybe this Sunday?*
3. You think nothing of riding home in 35 degree heat, with your four year-old* on the bike seat, two bags of groceries dangling on your handlebars, talking to your partner on the phone about dinner - all the while heading up a steep hill and STILL being able to growl ”Stay on the right!” in three languages at the weaving, gasping tourists on their rental bikes whom you just flew past as though they were carved in stone.
7. When your bike breaks down and is in for repairs you take your other bike, or you take the train or bus. Even though your car is parked out front.
10. You have, at one time or another, checked to see if your clothes match your bike.
15. Your entire wardrobe can be classified as ”cycle wear”. Especially those stilettos from Christian Louboutin or your new double-breasted trenchcoast from Tiger of Sweden.
16. When the odd motorist cuts you off you fix him with an icy stare and shake your head in pity before riding off and forgetting the whole episode 50 metres farther down the bike lane.

* Not sure about the duck thing, and replace 'kids' with 'Elroy'.



And the things I wish were true:

9. The odd-person out in your circle of friends is the one who has never fallen off their bike while riding home drunk. You mock him/her regularly.

I wish this was true, but it's only me who rides to the pub!! (At least I think I rode home from Clwedd's last weekend, the bike was there when I awoke, I'd hate to know how wonky I must have been!!!)

18. It takes you over fifteen minutes to find your parked bike at the train station.

Wouldn't it be great if there were TOO MANY BIKES!!!

Dissecting the habits of a caged monkey.

This is a photo of my cage. The place I sit for seven hours a day, watching a computer screen and feeling my hamstrings slowly contract through lack of use. I plaster the walls with pictures and mementos of happier times; the Scott 24hr, holiday snaps of Rachael in Adelaide and Queensland, Police Road rules stating that you can't lose your licence for drink riding and calendars of up coming events. There's a bike rack no more than 20 paces from my door but my bike sits by my side as a reminder, poised for the bell (just a figure of speech, although considering I don't get paid overtime, maybe a bell is not such a bad idea). JJJ plays on the stereo constantly in an effort to drown out the sound of commercial radio from down the halls. Papers are strewn over my desk, not because I'm untidy, but because I realise that it really does make me look a bit busier and it makes it easier to feign being overwhelmed by deadlines. Riding for a couple of hours before work every morning leaves me with quite an appetite, so boxes of muesli bars, fruit and chocolate line the shelves. Plunger coffee gives me barely enough strength to make it through the day. In summer it's too hot in the air conditioning and in winter it's too cold, so my shirt sits on the safe as my body tries to cope with a constant variation in climate.

Sure, it's far better than being shot at in a far away country, but it's really not my thing. I feel like a caged monkey......

Still wide.

Took the new lens out for some more images.

First was some big blue skies.


Then some parkviews.

Then some architecture. This time the old railway station (Est. 1910)


And finally, the empty ticket office. Nothing sold here since the new station opened, if the walls could talk....

It's a wide world.

My 10-20mm wide angle lens came in the post today. This thing is going to see a lot of time on my camera, it's just so much fun.







You can fit entire rooms in this lens.



In fact, the only issue with this lens is that it is so physically wide that the built in flash can't see past it, creating a significant shadow, as seen below. Oh well, all the more reason to invest in a SB-600 sooner rather than later. (It's also bloody hard to keep your own feet out of your photos!!!)

Clwedd's Birthday.

It was Clwedd's Birthday party on Friday night. 'Act your age' was the theme. It started off quite civilised......







And then everything became a bit hazy.....








Good times.

Catching the sun....

....before it goes down.

Cycle-smack-talk.

Received a text on Friday night, while I was enjoying some drinks at the Riverside Tavern.

T-bone: I'm pissed. What r u doing bitch? Specialized carbon technology is the best. I eat hills for breakfast.

Refering to his new Specialized Roubaix bicycle.

Me: Bitch. Get back to me when you can ride an Italian frame up Paluma Range in less than fifty three minutes. My gin and tonic is here, fueling up for the North Queensland Games road race tmw.

Smack talk that proves nothing. The gin is possibly the reason I was severely dehydrated during the race the next day. Live and learn.

T: You suck bitch. I did the Paluma Range (all of it) in 52 minutes on my Avanti. Btw. congrats on the world champs selection. Say hi to gordo.

Almost a reasonable reply.

2006 - Cervello R3 wins Paris Roubaix.


T: You r a lame arse pussy mother fucker euro bike frame riding pussy bitch with a face like the arse of a british bull dog licking piss from a nettle. Bitch.

I assume someone either took custody of his phone and sent this, or he just consumed at least four Jagerbombs simultaniously.

Me: There's a cheap asian hooker here, she says you regularly ride her, but she's never satisfied by your pathetic endurance and cheap taste. She will pass on the details of the shemale she knows in richmond.

Responding with equally pathetic insults. Although I do like the way I created a correlation between a cheap Asian hooker and a Specialized road frame.

T: Your legs are like rubber bands. Talk to me when you know how to ride like lightning. When your legs are like steel springs. When you r as fast as a leopard. When you take one breath and inhale the next hill. When you can do all that, come down here and ride with me. Bitch. Yeah! I talk tough.

Me: I submit to your quite obviously fierce riding prowess, i have nothing. Teach me.......How to be gay! Stomp stomp stomp slam!

I'm a child, a drunk child.

2007 - Cervello R3 wins Paris Roubaix.


Sunday arvo, while I was enjoying some drinks at Jamaican Joe's. The day of the Paris Roubaix.

Voice Mail message from T-bone: "Just letting you know that the race on tonight is named after my bike. The Roubaix Pro is such an awesome machine that they named a town and a race after it."

Me (text): You are such a wanker........

Me: Oh. And i forgot to mention, my bike has won the P2R the last two years in a row. Is anyone riding your bike this year?

Sometimes the facts need to come out.

2008 - Cervello R3 comes second in Paris Roubaix.

Monday Morning, while I was not enjoying work.

T: Old wise man once said - "build the Specialized Roubaix carbon frame, and he will win". The prophecy is now true.

Me: Pity they had to add extra carbon inlay to make it strong enough. Oh well, not everyone can make a raceable frame that is also available to the general public! Thank god for the Cervelo R3. Two wins, one second place and there's one sitting in my bike room!

Three days later, Cervelo R3 is still scoring.

Rasterbator!

Sounds like something someone would yell at you when they catch you doing something......untoward. But no, Rasterbator is a really cool program that rasterises (cartoonerises) any image you enter and then prints it onto as many pieces of paper as you like, leaving you to piece together a masterpiece.

I chose a picture of Rach from one of my March blog entries. It came out as 32 pages of A4 paper. I got home today and tacked it to the wall to see what is was like.


It is AWESOME!! The photographs do no justice at all. In the right setting and done in a more permanent fashion this could really set a room off.

Oh, and that's my new (100 year old) teak cabinet, I love it, so much character and history in all the dents and scratches.


And the token cycling shot.

Poser.

I got home from work today and there was a slip in the mail for a parcel. So I put my Rapha jersey on, grabbed my Chrome bag and jumped on my fixie to head to the post office.

I picked up my new favourite piece if cycling garb. Then it hit me, I am the biggest poser I know. If I came across this website and saw this article alone, I would immediately label the blogger as being a poser! Then, as I rode home I gradually qualified my need for all of these beautiful things; my Rapha jerseys are the highest quality, most comfortable and stylish jerseys I have ever worn. My Chrome bag has been designed the way it has by couriers who carry shit on their bikes, just like I do instead of driving my car. The fixie is my favourite bike for it's purpose; simple, maintenance free, fun and a theft deterrent. I gradually talked myself out of the fact that I may be the biggest poser out there, then I took these photos and realised that it was all true.......

If that's not a pose I don't know what is.

And I ride Campagnolo, that's euro, you must be impressed.

I just added this photo to impress you with the artistic calibre of advertising I react to (yes that is two girls kissing).


So it's true, but posing aside, aren't these just the coolest gloves? Goat skin, Love/hate logos, old school white, what more can I say?

Although they are really hard to type in........

Edit April 13:

There was some concern that these gloves would suck, after I received a comment from a well respected bike connoisseur, not dissimilar to myself on the bike fashion front, singletracking. But fear not.

I have now worn these gloves for almost a week, and even though Woodie from Knog said that they would take a few rides to wear in, they didn't. They were virtually perfect as I wore them home from the post office after picking them up.

I spent 143km* testing them yesterday alone, and they are the most comfortable gloves I have ever worn. They feel the way I would imagine it would feel to rest the palms of your hands on Scarlett Johansson's lips for five hours.

Personally I have experienced no bunching or restrictions and the goat skin feels great, even when it gets a bit sweaty on the bike. Might it be the humidity up here that has aided in the wearing in process? Possibly.

The verdict - 10/10 so far. A big call, but I love everything about these things.

I'm really getting into these new and technologically advanced materials (wool, leather, steel) I might try the Trojan diet, whole grains only, yum-yum.

*And the 143km. I raced in the North Queensland Games. The first half of the race was great, the last 40km by myself into a head wind, not so great. The bunch virtually disintegrated and I decided not to stick with any bunch as I prefer my own pace (call me a true mountain-biker). I assume I started the ride dehydrated as made it up the mountain with the front bunch fine, then started to feel it, by the time I finished the race I was parched. Two and a half litres of water post race and I still didn't piss for two hours!!!