Fir Cone Pattern Lace Shawl

For the past couple of weeks, I've watched while a skein of rather beautiful fine wool was transformed into an even more beautiful shawl.

On occasions I had to do some maths to estimate if the amount of fibre left was enough to complete the shawl - it was ... by 5 grammes. But mostly, all I had to do was watch Linda skillfully knit together this rather fine garment.

I didn't know that when you knit lace the finished article looks like a wrinkled dishcloth. The final stage is called blocking and pulls the fabric into the required size and shape.

And here it is.

Nice, isn't it?

Read more on Linda's blogs; here and here.

Bike 04 : More About Punctures ... or not

Well, so far so good. From the point of despair; ie: a puncture every twenty miles or so, I've now pedalled well over 100 miles without incident.

Undoubtedly this is down to two things:

1. Continental GP4000 tyres - cool website ...
2. Sludge tyre sealant - hmmmm ...

Anyway, cool websites or not, these are two products which do exactly as they say on the can.

Firstly, the Contis.

These are very nice tyres indeed. Handmade in Germany and an obscene price here in the States, fortunately they're available from the UK at a much more sensible price, which my LBS tells me he can't even match here in the US at wholesale.

The first big plus is that tyres can be pumped up to 120psi, but despite that feel much smoother and more comfortable than my old tyres pumped up to 100psi.

Further, the shell fabric, called Vectran, is employed as a breaker belt, which I assume resists punctures, also combines with the high pressure to make for a tyre with a very low rolling resistance. It was noticeable in the 5 Boro Bike Tour how I would just drop away on even the slightest descent leaving the people without hand made, German tyres in my wake.

Next, Sludge. What an inspiring name. Okay, so it's as good a name as Slime, the local bicycle tyre sealant. And of course, who knows if it works or not, because if it is working, you'll never really know ... However, I enjoy the sense of security it gives me, and that's a good thing. 50gms isn't a lot to add the weight of your bike for that sort of confidence. Besides the Contis are probably 50gms lighter anyway. And you really can pour it in through a presta valve. thus using any inner tube you like, even those very fine latex racing inners.

As I said, as to whether this combination works in the long term remains to be seen. But I'm pleased so far.

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* see my Bike Index here

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Bike 03 : 5 Boro Bike Tour : images

Well, brightroom.com did manage to take some pictures of me during the tour. In fact, I think I'm looking pretty purposeful though I say so myself.

More images here. My report here.

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* see my Bike Index here

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Stuff : 07.05.2008

Another day in Paradise:

• Went out this morning for a quick ride; maybe 90 minutes or so. Felt good, but I really need to go out with other riders so I'll check Princeton FreeWheelers' ride list.
• Bought a Sangean WFR-20 Internet Radio.It looked very good but was D.O.A. Oh for the Sale Of Goods Act; Fit For Purpose. Anyway, Sangean USA have taken delivery so I'll keep you informed.
  
• After 5 Boro Bike Ride I have an urge for a fixed wheel bike, or as they say here, a fixed gear bike ... mmmmmm ....
• My turn to wield the magic rope at badminton this Friday ...
• Yes, I'm using Euro date format (dd.mm.yyyy) ...

More Stuff soon.

Bike 02 : 5 Boro Bike Tour : 04.05.2008

I did it.

Of course, so did thousands of others, from kiddies on fairy-cycles to guys on unicycles.

The morning started grey and threatening. I emerged from MiL's brownstone on Upper West Side and wondered if I really had to do it. It was cold, it was mizzling, had I put enough miles in? Was that puncture stuff really any good?

Well, I was committed now, so I pumped up the tyres hard and headed for the 1 & 9 subway station at 86th. New York really is the city that never sleeps - or was that Chicago? Anyway, the trains were packed. No chance of getting a bike on one.

I emerged onto Broadway and spotted a few cyclists in event bibs and started to follow them down towards Battery Park. It was actually very easy that time in the morning. New York's finest waved cyclists through red lights and there was very little traffic so I ended up nice and warm, yet still behind thousands of other cyclists at the start line on Church Street ... or rather about half a mile from the start line ... with thousands more lined up behind me.

The event pushed off at about 8.20, so it meant we had spent at least an hour standing around in the cold and damp. It wasn't even possible to see the top of the taller buildings in the fog, so as I clicked my feet into the pedals my hands and feet were freezing.

It takes a mass of 30,000 cyclists a few false starts to get going, but after a few minutes we were heading up The Avenue of the Americas at walking pace, which meant there were a lot of wobbles and a few crashes, but nothing too serious.

Unfortunately, by the time I was starting to get some warmth back into my feet and hands, we were pulled up just short of Central Park, so that cross-town traffic could pass. It took about forty minutes to go the last two blocks into the park, so once again, cold feet, cold hands ...

Many of the joggers in Central Park were clearly not aware there was a bike event going on. Some seemed intent on jogging against the flow no matter how hazardous ... oh well.

There was a brief excursion into The Bronx via Harlem, then a twenty minute wait to get on the Queensborough Bridge into Queens because of riders having to push up the ramp onto the bridge. Naturally pushers spread themselves all over the road, so everyone had to get off and join in.

We then did a circuit up to the first rest station at Astoria Park, just under half way around the course. I had possibly the finest bananas in the world in that park, possibly because they were the best bananas in the world, or maybe 20 miles of bike riding had sharpened my appetite for bananas. However, they were really good.

Then it was south, back down through Queens and into Brooklyn, often through areas which were charming, although terribly run down, but full of potential if people used their imaginations.

From Brooklyn we went up the ramp onto the Brooklyn Expressway, a motorway type road which was closed for the day, for the leg down to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. There were a couple of bad tumbles here, probably because riders were getting tired. This caused a wait of about 20 minutes before we could get going again.

Everybody has probably driven or ridden in a car over a big bridge and not realised that from a bicycle point of view it's like a climb over an Alpine col. And the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a BIG bridge; the biggest in the world at the time it was built. So it was a 228ft climb from sea level to the centre of the span. Once again there was a lot of pushing, but I managed to thread my way through and then enjoy the drop into Wadsworth Fort National Park for the Expo and a well-deserved drink and a sandwich.

While I was waiting for Linda to pick me up, I pedaled down to the Staten Island Ferry. I had considered going across just to truly close the loop, but there was a 40 minute wait at that point so I rode back up to Fort Wadsworth and waited for my lift home.

All in all it was a great day, a real chance to enjoy New York and some of its not so well known corners on motor traffic free streets.

How some of the riders got around on their big old wrecks of clunkers I'll never know. And the number of children who managed on their toy bikes was amazing. There were a few sights; a really small guy with the most perfect, serious, miniature Italian racing bike I've ever seen; a family on a 2.5 triplet towing a kiddy half-bike, towing an infant's trailer; guys on big-wheel unicycles.

A great day - I really enjoyed it.

My number : 38495
Read the tour guide here.
5 Boro Bike Tour.

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* see my Bike Index here

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Stuff : 02.05.2008

Okay; some odds and ends:

• 5 Boro Bike Tour: I haven't got in as much riding as I would have liked, but I have managed a 30 mile medium pace ride and a fairly hard 20 mile hilly ride. I managed the hill on Zion-Dutchtown Road, partly because my feet were fixed in the clips and I couldn't get them out, so it was better to keep going than fall over. My knees are a little wobbly, possibly because ...
• ... the floor at badminton is just vinyl over concrete. Anyway, we move back to the middle school gym for the rest of the season ... nice sprung floor. That should help.
• I'm still hunting for a job ... any reasonable offer considered.
• Back to the UK for a lightning visit soon.
• Nursed ORB's internet connection back to life. Every single setting had to be sorted manually. It works okay now tho'. At least for the last twenty minutes or so ...

TTFN.

One Thousand!!!

Yes, phonostage has just clocked up its 1000th visitor.

So, thank you visitor from The Bronx, New York, NY. I hope you found it interesting ...