10% off Rapha

Promotional code I picked up at the Smithfields Nocturne:
SMTH2009
gets you 10% off on their site.

Although that still leaves them a little dearer than Halfords.

Valid at http://www.rapha.cc/ until the 20th

Penny Farthings and Bike Week

Last Sunday I caught the tail end of the Veteran Cycle Club's annual event at the Herne Hill Velodrome. It has to be said, there's something pretty awesome about seeing a Penny Farthing "racing" around the a bike track against other cycles from antiquity (I'd tell you what they were, but I haven't a clue - a velocipede? Solid tyred bike? No idea!). Unfortunately we only got there for the very end, so I think we'll have to return next year, but it does look they put on other events

Loads of bike events coming up this week (being Bike Week and all), but a few which have caught my eye are:

• Bike and Kite Festival - Blackheath, tomorrow and Sunday
• Southwark Cyclists Film Festival - Shortwave Cinema, Bermondsey, Monday evening - showing shorts plus Breaking Away. Email barrymasonuk@googlemail.com for details
• Greenfest - Furnival Gardens, Hammersmith, Sunday - not just bikes but general hippy-dippery
• Free breakfasts for cyclists - (Camden, Tower Hamlets, Hackney. Plus many others)

Bike Tubes

One good thing that might come out of this - the LCC organised some "Bike Tubes" today, where they led a number of groups of cyclists into central-London from pre-arranged locations (Ravenscourt Park, Finsbury Park...).

I couldn't see from the site whether they are repeating this tomorrow, but they do say they'll be running more Bike Tubes in future, even if there's no disruption. Sounds like a good introduction to commuting into London to me.

Mayhem On The Roads Today

As you may know, there's a tube-strike today. Rather than use it as an opportunity to "work from home", Londoners seems to have decided to battle in anyway possible, with the streets already rammed at 7:15. Here's your I-Spy cut-out-and-keep guide to the strike

• Red-faced tube workers manning picket line outside a station (10 pts)
• Commuter shouting at red-faced tube workers (20 pts)
• Twelve people trying to hail the same taxi at once (20 pts)
• Pedestrian walking out in front of you because their head is buried in their A-Z as they attempt to work out how to get to their office (50 pts)
• Cyclist, riding a bike that hasn't been used since the late 80s and certainly not in rush-hour London, wobbling across three lanes of traffic in an alarming fashion (100 pts)
• Company director, in flash car, equally un-used to rush-hour traffic, cutting up the novice cyclists in order to try and grab the last parking spot (100 pts)

It'll be an interesting couple of days.

Back On The Road

Finally, my Evans voucher arrived and I popped over to the store to pick up the new steel stead. With hindsight, I should have perhaps got the voucher for a bigger amount, as it's not often you get the opportunity to buy what you want in a bike shop, effectively at half-price with six months to pay it off. In the end I contented myself with a new lock and some SPD pedals.

I've also added a Brook's B-17 saddle, as per Purple Traveller's advice. Bit early to tell yet, although I'm sure we'll be very happy together. If nothing else, I think it makes the bike look a lot nicer (you may remember I wasn't sold it's appearance) and it complements the ace, Carradice Barley saddlebag I've bought.

After 4 months or so, off the road, I have to admit I'd forgotten the sheer joy of cycling, even if it was on a clogged up, drizzly Euston Road. I'll take it out for a proper spin over the next few weeks and let you know how it is.

Still Waiting For Evans Ride2Work Voucher

Apparently they've received the payment from my company, but not the form. Obviously, it's too much to expect Evans to email/phone my company and ask where the form is. Oh well, duplicate form on it's way now. It's like living through an enforced No Bike Week

On a more positive note, yesterday proffered an unexpectedly, nerve-wracking end to the Giro, with race leader Dennis Menchov falling off his bike in the final kilometre of the Time Trial around Rome. Some pretty sharpish bike changing by his team car, and the decent buffer he'd built up saved the Giro from a pretty unfortunate end in it's centenary year.