bikes and things

Mind blowing.

Real time tracking of bubbles with lasers to Daft Punk. No idea why you’d do this but it’s pretty awesome.

Top to bottom of the Heron Tower by Lawrence.

It’s far more rapid than you might think too.

Today I headed out to Swinley on my own to ride the new range of trails they’ve put in there recently. I’ve seen bits of them before but the markers weren’t in and a lot of them weren’t open. This was the first time I could ride it as a complete loop and tie it all together.

What I hadn’t realised when the development was taking place was that all the other trails will be closed now that these are open which is a bit of a shame. The official loops do use quite a lot of the existing trails though. There’s a blue and a red loop as well as a very short green loop – for kids I guess. I did the blue then jumped over to the red before coming back to the centre on the blue.

I got there at 10am and even then struggled to find a parking spot. I don’t think I’ve seen so many riders at Swinley. There’s were 100’s of them. I can’t tell if this was due to everyone bunching up on the trails or just the sheer number of riders wanting to try the new trails out. There were loads of large groups too which I still never understand. Riding with more than five or so others as it just takes so long to regroup all the time. I had to keep going to make sure I didn’t get caught behind them all.

Off the compacted trails it was a total shitfest, muddy as hell and slippy too. I had a few funny moments in the corners and it took me a while to get used to the terrain after riding rocky slabs last weekend in Wales. The trails also felt quite sanitised at first but then they’re often taking the place of a fire road and getting you to better trails. To be fair they’re also generally flat and work exceptionally well. As the trail progresses there are some really nice moments in there with some enormous berms which switch you from side to side rather nicely. I’m hoping these will be maintained properly as I’m sure people will drag their brakes through them.

Being on my own it’s hard to judge how fast you’re going. Normally I’d gauge it against those I was riding with but I did feel like I was riding faster than normal and only stopped twice to take on some food and water. I tried to not stop and constantly adjust my bike all the way round. The saddle stayed at the same height and I just pedalled as hard as I could round the whole lot. It was all a bit XC but I got a lot out of it and not stopping all the time helped keep a lot of momentum and speed. I whipped round the whole lot in around two hours and got back to the cafe for a veggie burger and a drink.

Some of the jumps on the loop back had the tops ripped out of them already, presumably from some overzealous braking. I hope it doesn’t get ruined too quickly and that a decent bit of maintenance goes into it. I’m sorely tempted to go back next Sunday and have another go when hopefully its dried out a bit.

I was completely caked in mud by the time I got back so hit the jet wash in Streatham to wash the bike (and shoes) and then went to the Albanians in Peckham who did a great job on the van. Clean as a whistle all round!

Had a great day out in the sunshine.

Take a bad drummer and make them awesome.

Well kind of.

I never made it through casting but fortunately my avatar I use online did. This was drawn a while back by the super talented Meg Jones when she sat next to me at work. Unfortunately (for us) she decided to pursue a career in film and television instead of Architecture where she’s been working on The Hour, Kick Ass 2, The Muppets to name a few. The icon has been pretty successful and I use it everywhere online. It’s so good that people recognise me in real life from it, which is always amusing.

So Meg used this icon to create a poster for some of the shots in Kick Ass 2 and she sent me this preview ages ago. The poster is meant to be an ad for my new album. I love music but am terrible at playing it which makes this even more amusing as well as it being like some awful Jack Johnson kind of album.

I’d totally forgotten about it until this morning when Jamie Wieck started asking me about my avatar and where I’d got it from. He then posted a screenshot from the trailer after we’d established it wasn’t just off some website somewhere.

So yeah I’m pretty thrilled to be taking a starring role in the new film. It’s at 52 seconds in if you’re interested. Looks like a fun film too. Thanks Meg!

Edit: Looks like that video has been taken offline. Maybe the trailer was a little premature.

A superb TED talk by Susan Cain on why not being surrounded by others all the time is a good thing. One of the best TED talks I’ve seen I think.

Via Weequzzie.

Doesn’t bother them at all. They just get a large excavator, dig the road out, use a snow blower and find the road again.

Marvellous!

Via Core77

I recently had the pleasure of watching the fantastic Bill Cunningham New York documentary with Emma. As the name implies it’s about a man called Bill Cunningham, as I’m not being entirely versed in the fashion world I hadn’t heard of him before. The first time I’d heard him mentioned was in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy where he was still out shooting photos on his bike whilst the whole city was shut down.

He’s a fashion photographer who has been taking shots on the New York street since 1978 according to his wikipedia entry. He’s now well into his eighties and is still shooting each and every day on his trusty bike. His work predates much of the current fashion imagery we’ve come to expect.

He has seemingly devoted his life to the art of photography and fashion and yet not sought any real financial gain or stardom. His quotes and insight, especially on money, are inspirational in themselves.

If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. That’s the key to the whole thing.

And yet more genius.

Money is the cheapest thing. Freedom is the most expensive thing.

Those quotes on their own don’t mean much outside of the context of the film, which is inspirational in so many ways and I’d recommend watching to anyone. It’s hard to describe but you get the sense of such a decent human being enjoying everything he does in the world without worrying about anything insignificant. I can’t resist one more quote on his attitude to work.

I don’t work, I only know how to have fun everyday.

Watch the trailer and then go and buy the DVD. It’s utterly brilliant!

At 20 mins long it might be a bit much for work but save this for later as it’s well worth watching. If you have an Apple TV or any other way of viewing this large then I highly recommend it. I found it incredibly moving.

On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.