Bobbing Along...

Fixed wheel
Real deal
Reynolds steel

Courier bike
Saves a hike
If you like

Cycle chic
Brakes don't squeak
They're not there

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Now I ride fixed wheel and love it (one gear, no freewheel). It's ideal for commuting, with less to go wrong, it makes you work harder up hills (so improving muscle fitness) and spin down hills (for that cardio workout), it just feels right, and encourages a more efficient pedal stroke, which translates to making riding geared bike easier whenever I move back.

But I always ride with a front brake (simple apply backwards pressure to the pedals to use the back 'brake'). Unlike a lot of the courier bikes I see tied up on Melville Street outside the printers place. I just can't imagine negotiating the hills here without that reassurance.

Anyway, three days until I wheel out with a massive thirty (30?!?!?) gears in tow for the challenge of the Bealach Na-Ba. I'm not one for big organised cycling events, they seem to attract a disproportionate wanker element who are simply into the latest 'stuff' and spend more time talking about it than actual riding.

My brother and I often talk about this after riding at Glentress. We turn up on our (admittedly nice) hardtails and just ride. There seem to be large groups of guys who go there on their big freeride rigs who just talk in the car park about how awesome or radical something was that they rode last week. Coming from the mouths of accountants and lawyers it all just sounds so naff.

A couple of guys on here ride big bouncers, but they do it properly (if the pictures are anything to go by), rather than tip-toeing down the hill with that suspension flattening absolutely everything.

I can see the sportive ride at the weekend being populated by people like that on their blinged up, ultra-lightweight machines. Well I have a Brooks saddle and I love it!

So there.

How did I get onto that rant? Oh yes, couriers riding brakeless. Mental.

(lunch with a friend I haven't seen in a while today at Bert's Bar, always good to catch up, and the Sheep Heid pub quiz tonight to keep us going this week - missing the wee man (see monday) and his yowl)