Boneshaker #11 Launch night

I spotted on the Boneshaker Blog that there was going to be a launch for issue 11 of their fine magazine just over the water at the Bristol Bike Project. As chance would have it I was supposed to be over there for a meal and drinks with some friends. Hurrah convenience.
I scoffed some lovely pizza and then walked out across the city to Stokes Croft to find the Bike Project. Heading down City Road I could smell fire and sure enough there was a welcome blaze in a front mounted bike basket just outside the Project's doors. Inside the rooms were lit by LED strips and the pooling light from the cinema screen. With the electricity being hummingly provided through human effort on the Cycletricity bikes that were running the show.

There were four bikes being used; a hybrid, a polo bike, a mountain bike and a tall bike.
At one point the tall bike had some candles pleasingly inserted and lit for additional light-

As time went on I took my turn on the mountain bike and can only say that it was like a turbo session, only more cramped due to the tiny bike size :-D
I had a bit more of wander round after finding the loo to wash the sweat off and bought a lovely tee shirt before heading back to the friends. A nice night.
Oh and I spotted these knitted bangers in the window of Blaze Studio as I headed back-

Climb On Bikes open night

Our club; Pontypool Road Cycling Club, had a generous invite along to the open night and fish n chip supper at Climb On Bikes, Hereford on Monday. Work has meant this hasn't appeared until now.
Anyway, it was great to have a good nose around a shop that's just local enough. Two floors of bikes and part that would skint me faster than a night in a bar. Maybe.
There was a good amount of people there-

Stand out bike for me was this Cervelo P5-

with fantastic integrated magura brakes

 A true speed weapon. I also got a call on Friday to say that I had won a raffle prize! Hurrah! It wasn't the P5 though...
Thanks to the shop for the invite and for a great evening.

Another first...*

Had a cracking pedal with my mate Al today up at Cwmcarn. The weather was cold and the snow was spitting about in the air but the conditions were spot on.

A knackered chain nearly put paid to the fun to start with but after a couple of adjustments it thankfully stayed put and didn't snap. That's not to say I didn't think of the potential damage to me if it had snapped on some of the climbs.
So, the first time on a singlespeed at a trail centre and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't make it on a couple of climbs, once due to chain jumping off with 10 feet to go and the other just running out of grip on the rocks. Hey ho. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks for a good day out, Al.

*thanks for the inspiration, you know who you are.

Makin' Bacon

Oh what the hell, I know it's a cliché but it's about as accurate a title as any.
Last night I began cold smoking the side of bacon left whole. I maybe hadn't thought it through entirely as well as I should have given that my smoking shack AKA the lean-to greenhouse I built on the side of the house, was on the side of the house. By virtue of crap windows and old brickwork (I'm blaming the windows) quite a lot of the lovely smoky goodness came into the house. This means that even now, a day later, there is a distinct odour of smoke.
Anyway, with the apple tree woodchips smouldering away nicely I left the bacon hanging for 20 hours. There are no pictures because a) it was really smoky and you couldn't see anything for all the smoke and b) I forgot and went to spin class and by the time I got back it was dark and you definitely couldn't see anything.
This evening then with the bacon lovely and cold I brought it in, admired the texture and feel of it and then got ready.

You'll notice the Ginger Pig Meat Book in the background. A great read but actually doesn't say much in there on how to slice bacon. So I took a stab in the dark and sort of rolled and folded it in half before tying with some crap string to keep it together.
My first few slices were just to even the end off so I won't show you those. I also grilled them pretty much immediately to see what it tasted like. It was very nice.
I began with a carving knife as you can see here-

but I found that it wasn't long enough and it also flexed a little it felt like as I was cutting through the meat. I swapped to a thicker and slightly longer knife and progress was far better, with each rasher coming away much better presented.
After getting about halfway through the side the meat was beginning to get warm and so wasn't cutting as well. I wrapped it up and put it back into the cold room and bagged up the rashers cut so far.

Where do good pigs go?

You may, or may not, remember that I had two rare breed Saddleback pigs up on my friends farm; Cinderhill Farm. They were called Genghis and Aristotle.
Well the time came for them to go to the piggy seaside after seven months of living the life of Riley on the hillside. They went to separate butchers as they were different statures. Aristotle (a meat pig) went to my local butcher, Neil Lewis and in return I got some cracking joints, plain sausages made to his award wining recipe, faggots, diced casserole meat and a middle side being cured for bacon.
Genghis (a bacon pig) went to a chap called Gerald who does a lot of curing. I received close to 50lb of lincolnshire sausages, offal, bacon and some lovely hams, including this absolute gem.

That's for a special occasion.
Here's some bacon;

and lurking at the bottom of that box was this beautiful side that I'm going to cold smoke.

I am so pleased with how the pigs turned out. The meat is delicious and for those that will look at the bacon and wince thinking it will be fatty, I can assure you that all the lovely flavour from that band of fat melts into the meat and the result is truly outstanding. I have eaten a lot of bacon and sausages and modesty be damned, this is the best I've tasted.
If you want to know exactly where your meat comes from and how it is treated then speak to Neil or Debs at Cinderhill.

The Flying Gate

Stopped for a brew and some cake on a club pedal today and as we were leaving this lovely bike arrived.

A bit of rummaging and it's a T.J. Cycles Flying Gate
Very interesting and I imagine pretty responsive given the short wheelbase and rear wheel position.

Wall of Death by Barry Slevin

I know this chap. He's a good chap. By heck he can draw too.
This is his latest commissioned piece, titled Wall of Death

and some detail from it-

You can find him on that nasty place, f**ebook as Barry Slevin Original Artworks