bikes and things

Managed to get a ride in today with Matt. Rather than the usual trip to the Surrey Hills we gave the Lordship Loop pump track a go up near Tottenham. Good fun but knackering really. Would be great to have this on your doorstep to play on when you had a spare five mins. Incredibly hard to pump all the way round and feel it should have had a shorter figure of eight and then a longer section for those who had the first bit dialled. Anyway, still good fun. Beer and pizza for after and a snooze too.

Image © Matt Noble

Pretty crap day until I logged into Twitter at 6.15 to see this wonderful little video. Who doesn’t like a bit of slapstick eh? Oooooohhh whahhheeeey! The music and commentary makes it. Some of it is like the scene from the Matrix when he comes out of it and is born through those big pink tubes.

Via @lawrencebrown

A quiet drink with Emma in East Dulwich on Sat – no such thing really. Ended up in the draft house talking to randoms and then making it home late followed by a raging hangover the next day. Still, we had a good time and I managed to get a few pics.

Shockingly beautiful images of an empty school. They’d make amazing pictures probably shot on film with a 5×4 view camera, only they weren’t – they’re paintings!

All images © Gina Heyer.

via It’s Nice That

I completely understand people’s choice to wear a helmet or not. Personally I do but don’t look down at others who don’t – unless you’re at a trail centre where it’s just dumb not to. But I’ve still never understood the “helmet clipped to bag” or “helmet hung from handlebars approach”. If you’ve gone to the bother of buying one, taking it out of the house then why not wear it?

And a great response from Richard on Twitter.

Cycling through Camberwell this morning I had a cab come a little close and did the usual “check behind and make him know I’m there” head turn. He was still close and I shook my head a little. A few seconds later…

Cabbie “Sorry mate I was a little close there wasn’t I? I saw you shake your head”.
Me “Ahhh, no worries, thanks for saying sorry, really appreciate it. Just a little grumpy in the mornings”.

Smiles and thank yous all round. Then 200m up the road…

Cabbie “Hope you cheer up but the time you get to work mate”.
Me “Ha, thanks, take it easy”.

Such a great little video and so much better than some dry picture and bit of text on a website.

Which also gives me an excuse to show my other favourite member of staff at DeMatos Ryan..

Or maybe not.

Via Engadget. Image © Sascha Pallenberg.

Fascinating set of images and story which accompany them over at It’s nice that on the legacy of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

All images © Jamie McGregor Smith

Via Angus.

We finally got round to choosing our print to have from from Marc Wilson and his “The Last Stand” project. The project was a crowdfunded project along the lines of Kickstarter (which wasn’t in the UK at the time). I funded the project in Jan and am now looking forward to receiving a 10×8″ print of the shot below to get up on the wall.

You can see the full set of images over at his portfolio site. I also liked the the below collection of iPhone shots from the various trips which I thought was worth posting too.

All images © Marc Wilson.