simon simpson

Today's Cycling Weekly (p59) has the start as Erskine Sports Centre...is this correct? ss

  "I still feel that variable gears are only for people over 45. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft. As for me, give me a fixed gear!" -- Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange, in a 1902 L'Equipe article. me: knee trouble again.javascript:emoticon(':cry:')..... no fixed or gears... new year shocker was new Audi failing to start..3pm last Friday of the year....garage diagnosed stuffed fuel pump....."four figures...." ...Audi price £2k500... Still Wednesday's link up to fault diagnosis gave no 'fault 59'...only a cracked fuel line.....phew!!!! javascript:emoticon('Oh%20ya%20dancer%20!')so the only gears I'll be running for a while are the 5 and 6 speed Ingolstadt ones..... hope to recover for Reliabilities Will it be Sinclair St Largs Moscow DonSmith or what? ps Lance claims to have only done 640 miles since July....javascript:emoticon(':!:') javascript:emoticon(':smash') ps Hannahjavascript:emoticon(':angryfire') is over my shoulder and ,aking me add Auto-emotions,,,,,

I'll come if a 'fixed into no gear changing' arrangement is ok... I'll come... maybe even a morning someday soon : Thurs/Friday? ss

I would come along but currently lack the fixed bike.... would we accept single free wheel or even screwed travel stops to prevent gearchanging? does anyone have a spare fixed or frame with horizontal drop outs or... what is the latest fix to fix a fix on a vertical drop out frame? ss

It's precisely because 10 inches seems like a a lot I've gone back to 24 38 46 and 13-28...and i used the 24 to 28 today ss

40 x 16 would be 2.5 times 27 so 69 again and so 39 would be 1/40 th less ie 67.2 which is fractionally out from the magic number so as I recall that's roughly rpm per mph so spin 90rpm the 48 16 on an mtb is 3 times 26 approx so 78......1/6 bigger than the above or cadence... fine for a big strong young boy like you Dave..... I suppose at the end of the day.......what count..big inches or souplesse? And besides.......... what's ten inches between friends.... ss

For a couple of years I ran a Claud Butler Majestic (crappy but ok tourer) on fixed... I think I only did 3 journeys on it tho' more than once each....I used it to mainly to go to work : 4 flattish miles up the great western rd..slight rise to the Drumry Roundabout, to go down the coast to the North Face Sale (no one would steal it...tho' I think that invoved the Clune Brae..nicht so gut) and a few saturday morning runs up and down the crow road ..always in winter...the 38 mph descent was fun..... Following the advice of a guy who lived in the basement flat below me at the time ( and he also redished the back wheel) I used an old 46 front chain ring and bought from wheelcraft an 18 back sprocket This gave a gear development of ....obsessive compulsive disorder log on time.....(in good old old-fashioned inches)...46 divided by 18 times 27 ..convenientltly the 18 and 27 there have a ratio of 1.5 so that's 46 times 1.5.. a dreamy 69 inches.....now again co-incidentally 66.6 inches spun at 90 rpm gives you 18 mph so 69 gives you 18 -19..... on a touring bike in winter 17 or 18 is a nice speed so spinning around 85 plus on the flat and hard work on real hills and spin down them the equivalent for 42 front is going to be about a 16 on the back.... 16 gives you 2,5 turns of that rear wheel plus another eighth (2.5 times 27 plus 1/8 of 27 = about 70...... If you go to 17 or 18 with a 42 the hills up are easier but down a misery and the flat will be 95- 105 at 18 or so That makes the Crow a misery, not in going up which at 6 mph means 30 rpm but , going down at 38 which is cadence of 190rpm I forgot to mention this gear ratio is real cool as it is 5 rpm per mph..... The two best things about fixed, however, are... you never have to worry if the next gear up or down would be more efficient / just the one you need and, perhaps most importantly, you really need never worry about being last up the hill. or indeed down it, ever, ever again.... I assume this is you forward planning the Torridon trip..in that case put a 32 on the back and a 26 on the front and make it a single free wheel... forget the two sided swapping over for hills nonsense ss

60 miles I think.. clubrooms to Clyde Tunnel = 9 Edinburgh on path via A89 and Bathgate etc 50 more... Falkirk way makes it a bit more ss post it up when you go...

Gold Pedal!!!!

Stevie... stop the bollocks about worrying about how much you've spent on your lights.... most of us would love to spend a few hundred pounds on a light... and as for cycling to work...that means at a minimum that your 'carbon footprint' is minimised. Think of this.... every km my car does puts 200 grammes of co2 in the air... 3 miles (on average once warmed up ) is a kilo.... 12000miles is 4 tonnes of co2...... we did 20000 last year..... a single seat on ryanair to a week in the sun... 1.25 tonnes co2.....so a family car for a year is better than 4 seats to majorca..in fact you could run a 3 litre auto and still feel 'green' as long as you drive to Spain a degree or two too hot in the heating in the house..who knows... Out of season Organic Zimbabwean Mange Tout from Sainsbury's who cares.. There's a Hopi Indian saying: We don't inherit the Earth..we borrow it from our children.... and carbon footprint is so much the new black that even petrol companies are into it : http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle ... Id=7009881 Oh it's too confusing......enjoy your lights..... and get the CTC Euro Bike Express to Europe next summer.... 30 hours with a bus full of bike geeks.. but...but...but...low carbon footprint.. cheers ss

yip it's winter time again..... You have too go hard to beat the cateye kit... last year i had 2 hella micro halogen 3 watt lamps rigged to an Ultegra dynohub; shocking ly good but I put a single Led Cateye (the £45)one on the bars too and had the 3 led torch shaped cateye on the helmet set to flashing ..good for eyeballing sidestreet folks.. my 'viz-me-baby' kit was an old workman's roadside discard with extra sewn on scotchlight from other roadside plunder over a flourescent top..I sewed it myself with 3/4 sleeves with viz bands on.. This year I'm missing a 3 watt (through disorganisation and the catyeye single runs off the dynamo; it's not as good as last years but ok- the led uses mass power and flashes at under 12mph due to the dynamo passing over its magnets...the halogen 3 watt only glows white at above 14..nowhere near as good as last year when both went white above 9 and I could switch one out the circuit.. Clothing; given up th hommade look but like Tony purchased 2 inch wide self adhesive scotchlite and covered my flouro jacket in it ( a ctc activent)..front of arms and rear..plus front and rear faces of helmet Talking of being seen..has anyone's seen that guy Dougie da Daddy..I hear he's not been on the bike due to organising a housewarming? ss

You heard it here first.... Contrary to recent rumours in the cycling press Alan Yeoman will not be joining the Couriers next season and has, this weekend, confirmed that BOTH of his rides next year will be in Johnstone Wheelers kit. Alan will be available for advice on tapering, extended intervals, rest periodisation, how to split your season into two distinct halves at BOTH the Don Smith Reliability in March 06 and at the Johnstone Wheelers' Torridon Youth Hostel Weekend. The dates of both these events will be posted on the bunch. There has also been much talk in the press of a split in Team Pannieria and your correspondent can reveal, exclusively, that the Blair -Brown style rivalry between Gunson and Simpson has been worked out and it has been agreed that they will only use rear bags and a barbag from now on..... Gunson has further agreed to fill his frame with lead and eat as many double chicken tikka with chips and cheese portions as possible by March. Their directeur Sportif expects this will eradicate their uneven pacing in the final section of events. Team Pannieria strengthened its line up for this year's Arran Attack with pannier toting stalwart Martin Mulholland and new recruit to Pannieria Scott Donaldson. Scott claims that, " three weekly sessions on the turbo and a 900 calorie slice of Gordon Ramsay's fudge cake have allowed me to fine tune cadence and power to the demands of loaded touring..." Rumours that a local sponsored club are currently recruiting a bagman are just that...they are, in fact, seeking to appoint a 'barman'. Mr Simpson has accordingly withdrawn his application. JOHNSTONE WHEELERS TOURING SECTION HOSTEL WEEKEND 2006 TORRIDON YHA is suggested as the venue for the next tour of the JWCC: formula as before except communal car transport arriving Friday p.m.: catering to be confirmed tho' Scott Donaldson's 900 calorie slice has to be on there..... Torridon puts the Applecross ride in for day one Torridon, Sheildaig, round the coast to Arina, up the bealach (2053 feet ascent ) , down the bealach (2053 ft descent) over the bridge, sandwich, back up the bealach, descent, lunch at the Applecross Inn , back up the coast to Sheildaig and over the (wee) hill to Torridon. Given last Sunday's experience, day 2 will be checking out if someone is together enough to drive home.........maybe a ride to Diabeg and back will shake out the cobwebs. The cost of the Arran weekend was £50-ish inc all accomodation, food and drink. Yours ss

going for clubrooms but don't hang around for me keep your phone on 7.30 on sss

I make that 11 riders..assuming that's eleven eaters....... anyone who doesn't want a pasta meal please post so I can cut down on quantities...I've only got 8 bottles of wine....... ss

I have discussed with Martin catering etc and we have come up with the following Dinner Main Course Pasta and salad Pudding : Beer in Lochranza hotel Breakfast: weetabix Martin and I will co-ordinate and supply this: veggies and weird eaters note this also All club members are welcome bit...... WE NEED FINAL CONFIRMATION OF NUMBERS BY TUESDAY EVENING thanks SS

What a jolly good idea..well done!!! ss

I could be on the wrong track here but assuming the Hill Climb is on lYle Hill or somewhere not too far from Ardrossan.... why not keep the club hill climb champs on the Arran weekend but make it early and people who want to do it can ride there / cadge a lift and go on down to Arran.... If the hill climb goes off at 9.30 am and is over by 11 you could easily get a ferry at one and be in Lochranza by 3. Maybe possible then and Maybe not ss

Scott I've got one daft pair of wheels with 16 spokes and I tell you when I hit the back of a car it took Big Al about 2 hours to straighten it.....load of crap,,,every other wheel I have has 36 holes...most of them have sapim 2.3 2.0 single butted tandem spokes..that's 13/14 sb to the rest of you.. ......I wouldn't even think about 32 on the back... It all comes down to economics...in the golden era of 4 and 5 speed touring.... okay okay up to about 1989,,tourists had front wheels with 32 and rear with 40..even better to have a Maxi car or Campag screw on freewheel hi-lo 40 on the back... this had differential flange heights to give shorter and therefore stiffer spokes on one side and to equalise the spoke tensions...however come about 1990 most bikes came with a freehub and shimano standardised that at 36 on touring bikes... as a bike shop ( as opposed to your specialist wheel builder like big al)what a pain in the neck to stock 32 and 40 and 36...any it was only those silly old gits with saddlebags and plus fours who wanted the 40 hole... The dream wheel has to be 48 spoke xt....Sun Rhino if you're flush and daft Sensible money xt 36 on alesa endevour / sputnik (if you're smart and want one like a sun rhino but without the adverts and reputation @ £15 not £30 each..) Spa cycles: http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s116p0 buy 4 get the post free and big Al will build them up as you need them I was up at Al's today and he was building an XTR 36 onto a Mavic m281 cd (last made about 1995).. a great rim..really heavy..billions of grammes.... I had to have it......it's dt double butted not sapim single ......you know I need to save few grammes somewhere. ss

I spoke to Trisha Hughes on Saturday night and she has, unfortunately, broken her elbow which was due to be operated on on Sunday at Hairmyres, East Kilbride. ss

include me too ss

Start list included 33 riders and a number of riders paid the entry fee but didn't sign in The event raised £385.10 which will be forwarded to the Erskine Hospital: thanks to all those who took part and all those who looked after fallen riders and riders from other clubs out on the road. Thanks ss

see you from 8.30 a.m. onwards Lunch stop is before Dunoon or Just after if you do the full route. BBQ (weather permitting at 4.30 onwards til 6.30) order form at start. Tea and coffeee from 8.30 a.m.

From the North side of the Clyde by bike go out to the Erskine Bridge ..cross it ...down the bike / ped exit turn right stay on the pavement ignore the return bridge entry and take the first right into Erskine Hospital... carry on down the drive over any speed bumps etc and there's a big building on the LHS with a big car park and a wee building nearby on the North side of the car park... The only other way I can describe it is as part of the Erskine Sprint Triathlon bike leg route... after you go down the big hill away from Erskine go through the roundabouts and at the one after you've gone under the bridge on ramp go right.. that's usually about the point where you question if 12 mph is ok in a triathlon... As for 12 hour helper vs. Harry's Hunner... no contest..anyway the 12 hr is on the Sunday at 6am...plenty time to get up there........ ss

Harry's Hunner will run from Erskine Hospital from 9 a.m. on Saturday 20th August. Tea and coffee available at the start snacks for small cost on return all profits to Erskine Hospital There is no entry form... so....... if you will be riding please post a reply below Thanks Simon

I've got some old fit cinelli bars + possibly stem? small jerseys old old old ultegra short drop single pivot brakes old old old ultegra brake levers ss