Month: April 2012

Seriously?

/ Dominic

On the phone looking out of my window and I see this brand new Toyota Rav 4. Notice the rear windscreen wiper and how it is off centre to the left? It has cleaned the rear view for the passenger a treat. However, the driver gets to look through a semi-dirty piece of glass as UK cars are RHD (right hand drive).

 

Toyota obviously doesn’t value the RHD customers enough to move the wiper over along with the wheel and pedals. This is cost cutting gone a bit too far IMHO. It certainly demonstrates a contempt for the customer.

 

It’s All Gone Quiet

/ Dominic

Fifth Ave., Easter, 1914 (LOC)

Because it is the Easter Holiday and for 3 weeks I am nearly always doing childcare, being the stay-at-home-dad. I keep having these deep and insightful thoughts about the customer, data, publishing etc etc and by the time it is time to commit it to a post my brain has emptied.

Normal service resumes in a week.

Decisions Decisions

/ Dominic / 1 Comment

I ride a Fixie (Kona Paddy Wagon) and it is my only bike. Not sure why I started – I blame Warren Edwards mostly – but the more I ride it the more I love it. I guess it’s the simplicity. I also have a supremely comfortable Brooks saddle on it that looks pretty retro mixed in with a sprinkling of carbon on a modern frame

Nonetheless, I can’t decide if I have left it too late – training wise – to enter the London to Brussels 24h ride with David Newton. A triathlete that i swim with told me that as long as I can endure 8h in the saddle then the rest is mental. It’s not a race win but a finish that I am after.

I think the mere act of writing this post is a sort of displacement activity as if I say yes then some pretty serious training needs to be undertaken in the next 145 days. I will also need new cycle clothing (was 4st heavier the last time I bought stuff so it hangs from me now in a comical way), a proper bike fit to stop from being too easily crippled, 700c x 28 tires and some more bits of carbon (seatpost, stem and possibly bars) as it damps road vibes beautifully. Actually, looking on the bright side I get way more bike bling!

Any thoughts?

Henri Desgrange on a bicycle

Henri Desgrange on a bicycle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer?
We are getting soft…As for me, give me a fixed gear!

—Henri Desgrange, L’Équipe article of 1902