Just at the top of a hill that is Friendly street, just near my house, there are traffic lights for the single lane of traffic joining the A20. A woman in a burgundy Fiat Punto pulls up to the lights, first in line, right in the middle of the lane (just as if she had stopped at the lights, as usual). She then turns the engine off, puts her hazard lights on, gets out of the car, locks it, and walks off to nearby shops. Within seconds there is a queue of cars hooting. I was quite incredulous at such flagrant disregard for just about everything and everyone!
PHP Barcelona Conference
PHP Barcelona’s conference site just went live. I’m speaking on email in PHP at the conference, along with PHPLondon regulars Zoë Slattery and Scott McVicar. It all happens on Saturday September 27th. Tell your friends!
Mud vs Sheep vs Bike 2008
What an excellent weekend! Driving up to Slimbridge in the pouring raid hearing flood warnings on the radio filled us with a certain foreboding, but it was great! Real proper mud, a sprinkle of rain, some excellent biking (but not too much!), brilliant company and excess food as usual!
My new cranks fared very well, freshly serviced cables a big improvement, especially the front shifter. I’m still not fit enough though – my shoulders and my bum still ache!
The T-shirts went down very well, pretty pleased with mine.
On top of all that, it was a very happy 40th birthday party (if a little early) for Fraser.
Luc learned to say “Dog”, “Duck” (there were lots) and finally figured out how to say “Bye Bye” instead of just “Hello”!
Cracked Crank
Last Sunday I was doing some interval training on my turbo trainer when I noticed a nasty mechanical clicking sound from somewhere around my bottom bracket. It sounded just like a cracked bearing, so I borrowed a crank extractor, took the cranks off, only to find that my BB bearings were absolutely smooth, no sign of a problem at all. Mystified, I put the cranks back on, and while I was doing that, noticed that the left crank was cracked from centre hole to the outside of the spider, all the way through. I’m very glad I wasn’t riding when it finally went! XT stuff isn’t meant to do this!
It turns out that it’s more or less the same price to have a new combined BB and chainset rather than just replacing the old taper-fit chainset, and it should be lighter, stiffer and stronger into the bargain. So Chain Reaction delivered me a nice Deore LX Hollowtech II chainset, and Brockley Cycle Team fitted it for me today, along with some good advice.
(Added a picture of it 22/9/2008).