As utterly bonkers as Simone White may be, I must confess to owning (and regularly playing) her surprisingly excellent album ‘I am the man’ which is how I came to know of this equally bonkers song. Originally, I bought the CD after falling in love with ‘The beep beep song’ made famous by this brilliant Audi advert so please feel free to listen to that instead whilst I bore you with cycling related trivia.
So why the fascination with the bonkers (albeit cute) Simone White all of a sudden? Well, regular visitors will know I like to post a song which is at least semi-related to the topic I’m boring you with writing about and today is no exception. In fact, dear readers, I have a semi-exciting new feature for you which may or may not become a regular fixture here at life in the cycle lane.
A great many of the hits my humble little blog gets are referred from various search engines around the world and, through the magic of the stats WordPress provides me with, I can even tell what people were searching for when they landed here. So, I thought it might be fun to answer some of the questions I’ve been indirectly asked this week.
First up: “what cane creek headset goes in the ogre”
Err… any one you like really; providing it has external cups of course. I use an S-1 in my Troll which looks and works great… I replaced the plastic top cap with a metal one but other than that it’s cool.
Second (and a bit more interesting): “how my cycle will go wrong on commute”
Any number of ways… Main things to watch out for are:
- Punctures – Stop being a lettuce and spend some money on a decent set of tyres with puncture protection; they’ll pay for themselves in no time. I ride on Halo Twin Rails which are awesome as are Scwhalbe Kojaks (in fact, almost everything from Schwalbe is good for commuting).
- Visibility – Get yourself a bright yellow jacket if you absolutely must but any decent cycling gear should have reflective bits on it which go a long way to getting you seen out on the roads. I wear a Gore Phantom II jacket almost all of the time and it has plenty of shiny for me.
- Lights – Technically, this comes under visibility because commuter lights are really more about being seen rather than seeing (unless you ride home down a completely unlit street). Again, you have to be OK with spending a few quid here and you’ll want something with several modes (including flashing) to suit various light conditions.
- Luggage – Dependent on how much stuff you want / need to carry, you’re going to need some decent luggage to house it if you’re serious about commuting; to carry said luggage, you’re also going to want a decent rack. I use a pair of Ortlieb Back Roller Classic rear panniers which are rugged, waterproof and downright cavernous; they hang off a Ragley rack ’em up pannier rack which is awesome. Many, many other bag & rack combinations are available and some are more suited to certain bikes than others… head down to your local bike shop and get some advice.
And finally this week: “surly troll frame weight”
It’s heavy; stop being a lettuce.
