Roughstuff Reconnaissance

I've got an itch to organise a decent old-fashioned Roughstuff Ride with the club. I've been slowly piecing together little sections I know of and poring over OS maps to find other bits. Today was a chance to find out how parts of it might join up, and what a glorious day it was.
I don't believe there's such a thing as lost when you've got a map with you, you are momentarily misplaced shall we say. I had the advantage of a decent visible landmark in the form of the Sugarloaf to aim for which was useful as I got a little misplaced by the NCN 42 signs.-

My bike for the day was my usual road bike, still on open tubs and running 39/53 chainrings. I did come to regret not changing to the compact.
From that point on there was some more dithering, sorry, ascertaining direction and after a rude fat lady in her Rover tried to force me off the pavement where I was mapchecking I as away again thinking I'd head off course a little to get a swift half only to find that the pub was shut. Gutted. Oh well, onwards.

The road became a section I knew from motorbike travels and so I was expecting a climb. Even though you know it's coming, it's still a bit of a wrench. This one is worth it though as it puts you at the start of a short off-road descent leading to a ford.
The beginning-

Those rocks are big enough to trouble a road bike so after avoiding going over the bars I walked a short section before hopping back on for the smooth run down to the ford-

and across the ford I went rather than trying to stop on the greasy concrete bed-

Lovely. From there it was just a 20 mile ride home.
Granted it's not going to be a proper roughstuff ride as there will be large sections of road joining it all together, but it will be the road less travelled.

Hiut Denim open day

This time yesterday I'd just ridden through some fabulous countryside in the warming morning and arrived outside an innocuous Unit 2 on an industrial estate just outside the coastal town of Cardigan.
A good number of people milled about outside with the open space behind a roller door enticing and welcoming us. This is the manufacturing home of Hiut Denim. There are many explanations of the brand elsewhere so to me this is the company that makes the best jeans I have found, makes them 110 miles from my house, stands by their products and knows how to make the small be big.
"Come and get a tea or coffee" sounded out from inside the building, and in we went.

The day was a great relaxed affair, we queued for coffee and tea, patiently handed out by whomever was by the machine (thanks Steph) then David ran through what was going to happen. The first of the things was Norman talking about pattern making and how to be efficient at it followed by Claudio (more later) demonstrating the cutting of the denim.

Onto the Grandmasters; the ladies who with great charm had fielded the tens of staring faces and accompanying questions from our attendance. I'm sure there are many synonyms for describing what these ladies do, and how they do it but to be blunt they're bloody good at making jeans. That's Jean by the way, she made my jeans. She's lovely.  Elin (2nd right) provided us with a blow by blow narration of the process and kept us in order

Here is one of the machines which does one of the many processes that go into making the jeans. Amanda is just out of shot here working on sewing the yoke into the jeans. Two things occur on this machine as firstly the denim is folded and then sewn. Amanda has to get things lined up correctly, modulate the speed of the stitch and then snip the free off. All I could focus on was the thread oscillating as I was astounded by the skill involved.

Paul gave us a demonstration on how the jeans were repaired when we, the customers had holed them, torn them or just plain worn them and then it was lunch. Still reeling we descended on the delicious empanadas, falafels and custard tarts. None of which are Cardigan native I believe but frankly I've not tasted a nicer tart or empanada so couldn't care less.
There was limited clearance stock to be purchased if we so wished and I took fancy of a pair of raw organic jeans and decided they'd make nice shorts for summer so planned to cut them off once home. Word of this spread (thanks for dobbing me in, Emma) and Claudio volunteered to do them properly. After a quick measure they were marked up, checked and cut

then I had some shorts. Pictures of my pasty white legs will not be shown, no worry there.
Clare handed out maps and we wandered down to the Theatr Mwldan for some outstanding live music from a 14 year old lass (edit to add, her name is Hana Evans ) followed by David describing the plans ahead for the company. Ladies, your time is coming with stretch denim. Other plans were presented and the ambition of the company is both measured and also bounding.
It was a great pleasure to meet the people who made my jeans, other customers and in total a great quality company with real full vision of making small big. The lure of the pub for discussions was strong, but the lure of the evening road back was stronger.

Mini Milestones

The mighty Princess Sugar Sprinkles ticked over 38,000 miles in my care yesterday.
That's the same distance as Rick Mereki travelled in 44 days,
The same distance as this lovely Datsun 240z has covered in it's life so far, and about 1 and a half times around the Earth.
Thanks my lovely.

Beach holiday in Iceland

Away for just a few nights but what a great place to visit.
Despite having the smallest hire car in the whole country (shown here for perspective against the normal Icelandic vehicle)

we did quite a bit of driving and managed not to get blown off the road in gales, nor crash on the snow. Studded winter tyres are fantastic.
This is just a short post with a few pictures of somewhere I really want to go back to, Vik i Myrdal on the South coast. None of these have been altered other than being resized.

With the Atlantic raging in the 36 mph winds blowing on shore it was a very bleak place but yet somehow incredibly enticing.
I want to go back.

The old broom...

With injuries putting paid to plans of buying a Time Trial (TT) specific frame for the upcoming season, I had a think about how best to approach things. After some quizzical moments (and a limited stable) it came to me; surely the most suitable bike was the cyclocross bike. It ticks the majority of boxes in that it's stiff, light, has a short top tube. Granted it's not the most aerodynamic of frames but hey, my body position will be doing more against that than the frame, see a study here.
So, to the exciting bit, the picture.

There's still some work to be done with saddle position and possibly stem length but I'm excited. Last years results will be hard to top for improvement as I took my PB down by 4 minutes, but it was all on a road bike with no aero at all.

Three different streetlights

Foggy this way tonight. Walking back from the village the streetlights were casting pools and it wasn't until I looked at the photos here at home I realised they were all different colours.

Beginnings

Finally I've pulled the finger out and can move it. Allegorically.
Working with a friend we cleared some fallen branches and after leaving them over night for a delicious curry (thanks mate) and cake (thanks mate's wife) it was time to do something useful with them.

Trousers, boots, mitts and head protection donned (don't fuck with something that can go through you like a knife through butter) and the chainsaw fired up.
Gadingadingadinga.
After I'd left a wheelbarrow full of sawdust I also had a pile of logs to arrange into something less avantgarde.
They're now all piled neatly in the beginnings of a long term investment.