bikes and things

I wrote a little while back about how one of my photos went a little bit crazy on Flickr. It was a misty iPhone shot and it got over 9000 views in a day. I thought that was pretty good at the time. I also commented at the time about how it was almost inconceivable a few years back for me that an iPhone shot would be uploaded to Flickr by me.

Now it’s not me saying I’m amazing, I’m not, and this was just a shot of some mist and being there at the right time. What does surprise me is that quality of the camera in the iPhone and how much I didn’t actually miss my proper camera.

So since that I’d had another shot be quite popular – another snap I’d taken whilst waiting at a set of traffic lights in the car – with the handbrake on obviously and not breaking the law for a photo.

It was reasonably popular on Instagram so popped it onto Flickr whilst bored in the post office queue or something. It’s the same kind of thing – iPhone + VSCO + right time = popular photo. That got 60+ favourites and 9000+ views.

So again I was bored and thought I’d add something to my Flickr page. There’s a need to keep it fresh and I hadn’t sat down to edit any photos for a while. So I chucked this one up and went to bed.

I mean this really is a snap in every sense of the word. When I uploaded the square version of this to Instagram I cropped out my friend from the left. It’s also quite badly composed.

I didn’t add to any groups or try and draw any traffic to it at all. It then went stupidly crazy. As of checking now it’s had of 71,000 views and 270 favourites! It went to the top of explore and stayed there all day which is completely bonkers. Just to re-iterate my original point, I’m not blowing my own trumpet. This is a very average shot I’m just intrigued by what is popular on any given day and how things rise up in Flickr’s Explore page.

This is my stats graph for the day after it got into Explore.

Two days worth of 50k+ views on that picture and the rest of my stream. That’s nuts. I had to turn notifications off as my phone was buzzing all the time. And to prove it all here’s it’s position on the Explore page and what else was interesting. The other thing is that my three most viewed photos are now all iPhone shots which again is madness in my mind considering what I used to think of phone shots.

That’s what the text said from Magnus. I was completely shagged from driving to Bath and back for teaching the day before. A 5.30am start and not back to the house until 9.30pm as well as a lot more driving required on Sunday. Magnus is pretty fit and is a bit crazy when it comes to cycling. We’d talked lots about riding together but I’d been off my geared bike since early Dec and always had that excuse to use to not join him. But then I had told him at the pub on Thursday about how I was just using the fixed for everything, even longer rides and sprints round the park at lunch.

Somehow I’d run out of excuses to have a good thrashing from Magnus. I’d planned a relaxing day of little bits and bobs. I liked the idea but couldn’t help but invent more excuses… What if my chain snapped? What if… etc etc. Anyway, fuck it. I went. To hell with it.

So we set off from his house near Brockley, out past Catford, Bromley along some awful dual carriage ways which I really wasn’t keen on. Anyway, at the end of that the houses spread out a little, became smaller in scale (bungalows) and then lo and behold we were in Surrey on our way to Kent. My legs felt like lead for the first 25k. But a stop with some water and a gel as well as spinning out down a massive hill seemed to sort that out.

In fact the most alarming thing about the ride was riding down the hills. Whilst going up was hard, spinning out down the hills and feeling ever so slightly out of control was pretty freaky. I generally ride around London fixed so rarely ride down for more than a few hundred metres at a time. The urge to un-clip and let it spin out was tempting but trying to get clipped back in or the risk of the front brake failing was just too much to think about.

A few hills later we ended up under the M25 via a pretty little village that had a pub with the aroma of chips. Mmm chips. Unfortunately we weren’t stopping. We kept pushing on and we kept a pretty decent pace – around 30km/h (I think that’s decent for a fixed ride). We soon realised that Magnus was running a far higher gear than me as I was spinning out a little on the flatter sections. But I preferred that as some of the hills were still a big grind. I found getting on the drops and pushing out of the saddle helped a little. A couple of them I felt the urge to jump off and walk but the thought of defeat in front of Magnus, the loss of pride as well as trying to start again mid hill was far too much to think about so I kept on. I rode through the pain and made sure I looked as un-phased as possible for Magnus when I met him at the top. Being unfamiliar with the route didn’t help either. It’s hard to know when to give it gas and when to hold back for a longer slog.

We managed a quick stop to get more water and some Haribo then back up onto where we’d left off and followed our route sort of the same way back. We had a few sprints on an open section each sitting on each others wheel to keep up the speed. At points we were hitting 40k on a flattish open section. We also had a quick stop to admire the M25. Clearly far better to be on a bike above it watching it all go by than to be driving around it!

We then found our way back towards the more urban area of Bromley without event. Apart from one bit where I sprinted up a short hill and then my brain being so tired forgot to keep spinning around and I felt a jolt and the bike coming up behind me. Fortunately I held it and rode it out but I haven’t forgotten to pedal on a fixed in years! A lucky escape. As we got closer to home it was clear that it was going to be a bit more than the 60k promised. The dial read just over 81k by the time I’d got back to mine with 960m of climbing. Not bad really for a few hours out from the front door. Can’t wait to get my proper bike back this Sat and do some even longer rides! Thanks Magnus.

I got the train to Oxford yesterday morning and these two got on. They sat down and the dog proceeded to wrap himself around his owner to make sure he knew he was there. He barely moved except for when the announcement was made for a stop when he proceed to prompt his owner. They were getting off at the next stop so he told the dog to wait for the next one. As the dog felt the train slowing down for the correct stop he got his owner ready by standing up and moving him to the door. Mind blowing stuff really. It must be reassuring to have a companion like this with you all the time if you have issue with your sight.

In my opinion everyone should support Guide Dogs for the blind.

We went to the Sensing Spaces exhibition a few weekends ago after I did a quick shoot in town. Surprisingly they were happy to let me in with my camera gear and even had no issue with the tripod! Everyone should judge for themselves but for me it was a refreshing take on an Architecture exhibition. No boring boards, models, sketches and pages of text as usual. Even the 18 minute long film was enjoyable and thought provoking. It felt like it treated the viewer with some intelligence of their own and seems to invite people to explore and make their own minds up about the spaces and broader issues of Architecture. Perhaps it will also stimulate further awareness in the public of the environment, built or otherwise. Furthermore it wasn’t the usual suspects* showing their wares but new and interesting people.

Go and see it and make your own mind up. It seemed to be a real hit with children too. What was also nice was the space around each area. Whereas our experience of the Photographers Gallery was of a conveyor belt there was plenty of space at the RA to spill over and wander around. This space is so important to the overall experience. Go before 11am on a weekend if you want to get the best out of it.

Emma went a bit crazy for the coloured straws! She completely loved them.

*When I saw usual suspects.. well I’m referring to this design competition. The shortlist had me hopping mad and I’m so glad the RA avoided the same mistake.

This is pretty mad. Live video from space…. from space!

Like all those clips in Enemy of The State.

Via Alex.

It’s been a long winter but today I cycled in without a jacket or gilet. Amazing. Feels so good to be riding in just a short sleeved jersey. Roll on summer.

Soundtrack for today, Phil Collins – No Jacket Required.

I would heartily recommend watching this video of a lecture at MIT by Bruce Schneier entitled “NSA Surveillance and What To Do About It” which covers the NSA, code names, security, the future of the web amongst other things and lots more. Fascinating and rewardingly nerdy from start to finish. In particular this quote about how the NSA’s remit changed from the Cold War era to the post 9/11 era of preventing it ever happening again.

…that’s when the intelligence agencies got an impossible mission. Never again. Make sure this never happens again. If you think about it, if you’re given the goal of making sure something never happens. The only way you can possibly achieve that is to know everything that does happen.

Scary stuff indeed.

I used to love tumblr. It’s been an incredible resource for amazing Architecture and I’ve loved creating the pastebook and keeping it up to date with lovely images. I also loved how easy it is to spin up a site.

Got an idea for a site? Got a funny parody that’s of the moment? Sure, no problem, create a new site, pick a name and off you go. If it lasts, pick a domain, point it at it. Achieve world fame then profit?

But then it got bought by Yahoo. All the nerds and hipsters were worried. But then Marissa Mayer was there so it would be ok. Generally day to day it has. The app has continued to evolve, the web interface continues to get nice tweaks and things seem to be ticking along nicely. But then some fucking arsehole decided that they would start sending emails to their users twice a day. To all those loyal users who check the app in the morning, lunch and evening. The same arsehole or collection of arseholes (collective noun?) decided to give those emails some pretty crappy headings too.

Awesome stuff from the people you follow. Here’s what happened this week on your dashboard!

PS. FUCK OFF!

PPS. I KNOW I FUCKING LOOKED AT IT THREE TIMES A DAY.

On your marks, get set, scroll!!! tumblr. Explore what’s trending on Tumblr.

PS. YOU STUPID IDIOTS, I DONT FUCKING CARE.

PPS. YOU USED A LOWER CASE T FOR TUMBLR THEN A CAPS T FOR TUMBLR IN THE SAME BLOCK OF TEXT YOU DICK WADS.

Your dashboard is literally on fire!

OH GO AWAY.

This is the kind of thing you expect of Google Plus not Tumblr. What’s maddening about this is that they must have the ability to see who is engaging and who isn’t. I am was engaging and yet they still send me these stupid fucking emails begging me to be on their site more. Stop it. Each time I get one of these emails I flick to the left, delete and think less and less of Tumblr. I want to spend less of my time on their site, invest less of my time there and so on. Why pester the people you already have on board? Please T(t)umblr grow up and stop being so needy.

I’ve been off my Condor for a while now due to a little off on a patch of diesel before Christmas. It’s been in the shop getting rack mounts brazed on and a new powder coat done. I’ve been left with the fixed and the Brompton as my choice of bikes for getting around.

When I had the Condor I was getting in to doing more distance and getting my weekly numbers up. I’d even started doing laps of the park at lunch and finding longer ways home. Having just the fixed to use, for some reason I didn’t feel like it was the right bike to do this kind of activity on. I’m not sure why but it felt like I’d look stupid, not the part, out of place or just wouldn’t be right. Dare I say that it would be too much like hard work too. My bike is a knackered old thing held together with jubilee clips and stickers and is completely filthy. It doesn’t quite match my nice cycling clothes I’ve got and the silly little hat I wear under my helmet. To make matters worse I had added a rack and now ride with a pannier.

As time went on I cared less and less about these things. I still wanted the exercise and to improve my distance ridden during the week. My fitness improved slightly and I gave a few laps of the park a go one lunch to shake some midday stress out. Thoroughly enjoyable if a little tiring. I then started adding some more miles in on the way home, three laps of Regents then up Dog Kennel Hill. Again with rack and pannier and a shitty old bike.

The best thing is no one cares. Well that’s not quite true, some of the roadies in the park hate being overtaken by me. I’m sure the pannier rubs extra salt in the wounds. But as I’ve said before, I’m not racing against anyone else, just myself and my own fitness. I always want to push myself that little harder. Its only self consciousness that had stopped me before. Besides I’m still out on my bike with a reasonable pace getting the miles in and who cares on what bike I’m using.

The whole experience has been liberating and I’ve gained a lot of fitness from riding fixed at a quicker pace over longer distances. I can’t say I haven’t missed a freewheel at times. The sound of a lovely clicky free hub behind you sometimes drives me mad. I’m just hoping that this extra will pay off when the Condor returns. That feeling of the bike running away from you will be hard to get used to at first but I’ve got so many nice rides in mind. I’m also going to join Brixton Cycle Club and join the Sunday club run which was partly inspired by reading the Escape Artist by Matt Seaton.

I’m no petrol head or F1 fan but this clip blew me away. Apparently these pits stops are now down to sub three seconds. I have watched this a few times and it still seems impossibly fast.

There’s loads more information over at kottke.org on this. The attention to training and precision is quite something.

Teams now spend huge sums to design their own equipment and improve the fitness of their teams who also work as mechanics. McLaren is working with the English Institute of Sport to hone their 24-member team’s technique while Williams has partnered with Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s Performance Center to work on everything from diet to eye-hand coordination to core strength.

Practice makes perfect as they say.