Healthy food porn

Preparations for this blooming bike ride have completely taken over my life (what do you mean 'what bike ride?' where have you been?!) I've found it very hard to sustain anything else and this blog has definitely suffered as a result.

Still, there's always combining the two things isn't there? This shot is of some date and nut energy bars I made the other day when it dawned on me how much I'm spending on the shop-bought variety. In truth I don't expect huge savings - these are way too more-ish to be saved just for bike rides - but they're completely delicious, packed full of good things and, more to the point, rather photogenic too.

Nice try...

I thought this shot had enormous potential but I fear it falls a bit short. I was about 15 miles into a long training ride this morning when I spotted this view of the Seven Sisters park from a hill above Alfriston. It looked rather lovely - considerably more so than it does in this rather lacklustre shot. Then I saw the mirror and thought I might be able to position myself in the shot, together with the rather lovely farmhouse behind me, to create something quite interesting. But I don't think it works really.

Ah well, you'll just have to take my word for it - it was lovely out there today.

Enigma - new object of lust

I've just realised I didn't add any photos from my visit to the Enigma workshop last week. Enigma make beautiful bikes - they made my beautiful bike - traditionally from titanium, although they recently started making steel bikes too. The reason for the visit was that I'm writing a profile article about them for the CTC magazine, but the real reason was to lust after all those gorgeous bikes and learn a bit about how they're made. It was a fascinating morning - who knew that TIG welding could be interesting? And I emerged with a new object for my bike lust, the Extensor, a drop-dead gorgeous steel framed beauty that I'm told rides as well as it looks - and as you'll see from the linked photo (not the rather poncey detail shot above), it looks pretty good. But then for around £3K, it should really shouldn't it?

Bike porn

I went to the Cycle Show at Earl's Court yesterday, feeling ever so slightly sad about the prospect of spending a day wandering around a large hall full of shiny bikes I had no intention of buying, but also quite excited (sadly enough). I thoroughly enjoyed it, just like I knew I would. I spoke at some length to the Enigma guys about theoretical future purchases of course. They told me about a man who had bought his beloved a titanium framed roadbike with diamonds inlaid into the top tube (as dots on the i of the word Enigma on either side of the tube), and with gold-plated front and rear mechs, gold tyres, and a gold chain. It was an engagement present (she said yes I believe) and amazingly it didn't look at all tacky - no idea how they pulled that off.

There were remarkable bikes everywhere, many of which I took photographs of, needless to say. But there's something about this Moulton that really caught my eye. It's the top of their range (which means it sells for about £6,000) and is made of very narrow stainless steel tubes arranged in an intricate pylon style. An amazing bike and one I'd love to own, obviously. I must be growing up though, because I returned home having spent just £10 - eight of which was on a sandwich and a pint of beer.

Centurian cyclists

Ignore for a moment the unusual pose I've adopted here. Try not to think about what I might be trying to conceal. Don't dwell on the reasons behind the almost freakish jollity on the faces of my two companions either. Focus instead, if you will, on the reason this photograph was taken: I'd just finished my first 100-mile bike ride and was feeling so overwhelmingly elated that I demanded someone took a picture of me and two of the three cyclists (the third is the photographer) whose apparently limitless energy had seen me through the dark miles from Plumpton to Devil's Dyke - miles 85 to around 97 of the 100.

The Brighton 100 is a new organised ride that starts and finishes in Preston Park, taking in quite a large part of East Sussex in a huge double loop that goes through Newhaven, Lewes, Eastbourne and numerous villages in the High Weald before heading over to Hurstpierpoint and back to Brighton - with a killer climb to Devil's Dyke three miles from the end. I finished the course in a shade over six and a half hours, at an average cycling speed (ie not including the compulsory 30 minute break for lunch) of 16.7mph. I was more than pleased with this time although I confess I was slightly disappointed not to hit the 17mph average mark.

I was pushing quite hard throughout so by the time I got to the refreshment stop at Plumpton, 84 miles in, I was getting tired but feeling ok. Leaving the pub I latched onto the rear wheels of my three new friends and clung on for dear life as they careered through the countryside at a pace that was very nearly too much for me. About eight miles outside Brighton I started getting cramps in my inner thighs. Then we hit the hills heading up to Devil's Dyke. Blimey but that was hard. I reckon I would have clung on to finish come what may as we were so close to the end, but having a wheel in front of me to focus on going up those hills felt like a real lifesaver. When I got to the top of the hill and knew it was all downhill from here to the finish I was filled with an incredible sense of elation and achievement.

It's the toughest physical challenge I've taken on I think - one I've been training for for around three months. I'm delighted to have stuck to the training and I'm even more delighted to have completed the course in a respectable time without crashing, falling off or otherwise disgracing myself. I think I may be a cyclist...

Scary bike

Yet another apparently fruitless amble along the seafront revealed a golden picture opportunity the other day, when this rather distinguished chap rode past on his unfeasibly tall bike. I was intrigued by what he'd do when the time came to dismount but I'm afraid the answer's rather prosaic: he simply swung a leg over the back of the saddle so he was hanging off one side of the bike, then tilted it until it was safe to skip off sideways. The manoeuvre was dexterous but undramatic so I won't dwell on it. But I wouldn't fancy trying it in traffic...

Sunset bikes

Back on that shadow theme again. It would have been good to capture the full bike shadow image on the ramp in the foreground and maybe have slightly less clutter in the image as a whole but I do like the setting sunlight on the huts and the graffiti wall below them. I think this one would have been improved if I'd stuck around a little longer too - both to get a richer, redder, sunlight and to catch some gnarlier jumping. But hey ho, I was on my way to a bowl of chilli and a subtitled movie and missions don't get much more serious than that.

I really feel lucky about the number of opportunities there are for photography around my way - you could really go in any direction around dusk at this time of year and find something amazing within a 10-minute cycle.

Teenage boy love

Teenage boys and their too-cool-for-school nonchalance! There are things about this picture I'm not that wild about but the thing I do like about it is the expressions on these boys' faces. As their BMX bandit mate flies within inches of them, twisting his bike this way and arching his body that, they do their best to pretend nothing's happening. Except they're fooling no one! Although the kid in the white t-shirt is doing a reasonable job of looking bored, some of his mates are disguising their admiration for the flying cyclist - and their obvious delight at just being there, together with their mates - very poorly indeed. The expression on the face of the lad with the peaked cap can only be described as love. Bless them.

Am I a Leatherhead?

When I was at university I met a chap called Mike 'Jobey' Johnson, whose main claim to fame was that he'd played drums in a band, some of the members of which went on to play with The Housemartins. It was Mike who told me that Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook's real name is Quentin - a fact that tickles me to this day. The other thing that sticks in my mind about Mike, who came from Guildford, is he swore blind that the practice of sniffing the recently-vacated bicycle saddles of young ladies (and presumably old ones too, although I suspect their saddles are a little safer) is called Dorking. I wondered at the time if the practitioners of this dubious activity were called Leatherheads, but he wasn't sure.

The reason I raise this is that I seem to be offering a second image of a well-used Brooks bicycle saddle within a few days as my photograph of the day, and I'm wondering if this makes me some sort of dubious fetishist. I'll try to resist their photogenic charms from now on - although it won't be easy because dammit they're so easy on the eye!

Old-school perch

I saw this magnificent saddle at lunchtime today on a handyman's bike leaning against a railing on Holland Road. It looks like his arse has been shaping it for years - I love the little paintspots.

As the proud owner of no fewer than four bicycle saddles, all of which are skinny and very light, I can't really relate to the Brooks springy armchair experience, although I imagine once you've gone through the pain of breaking one in you'd never want to change it - and you wouldn't have to very often because they last forever. But I can't help wondering why anyone's prepared to go through that slow, expensive and painful process when there are cheaper alternatives that are comfortable straight out of the box, don't go all soggy when it rains, and look just as nice on your bike if you ask me.

Actually, I think I do understand it - there's something appealing about the idea of a beautifully-crafted old fashioned perch that's been gently persuaded over weeks of painful use to mould itself to your backside. But that's where it stops for me - at the idea stage. They do look nice though don't they?