By Recently, I read an inspirational and interesting article in one of my favourite mountain bike (MTB) magazines, CRANKED (see link at bottom of page). It was about an organisation called Trash Free Trails (TFT), who have set about the task in the UK of collecting and reducing the amount of
86!
The reason this post is entitled 86 is not because it’s the country telephone code for China, nor is it because 86 is the atomic number of Radon, and neither is it because there are 86 metals on the modern Periodic Tables. No. To date, I have hammered out 86
ATZ forks for my Swiss Cilo Mountainbike
Without getting too scientific, which would push the boundaries of my own physics and chemistry knowledge quite quickly, an elastomer is a type of polymeric material that can be repeatedly stretched beyond its original length with little or no permanent deformation. It can also be compressed repeatedly and still return
Cilo Mountain bikes and bears?
I’m riding up a tiny, Swiss road that has 27% gradient and it keeps going up at this rate for 3 kilometres. For a couple of months of the year, it’s impassable due to snow. It’s only a very narrow road with rough tarmac and it’s not used enough for
Rapid Prototype
I think that the most exciting sounding jobs are those that are in the field of design and prototyping, which then (hopefully) realise an exciting and iconic product. In reality, most of these jobs are about failure, although with a fast learning curve. This is what I call ‘failing forward’,
Do you buy ‘quirky’ or ‘mainstream’ things?
When the offerings that the cycling world present to us have a high level of sameness, it forces designers to do something different, something out of the box, something perceived as a bit weird at first sight, or even a bit quirky. Quirky is a strange English word that means
The Beach. On Any Sunday.
There’s a certain sense of freedom on a beach. It’s locked like a border between the land and the powerful sea. The beach can provide tranquility, interest in washed-up sea shells, dead fish, international litter and wood that has travelled the oceans, only to be finally deposited with a smooth,
August. Weird times indeed.
Apparently, the word August is derived from the Latin word augere, meaning “to increase,” and it is also the basis for the Latin name, Augustus, which means “esteemed” or “venerable”, and was a title given to Roman emperors. Anyway, right now, it’s August, and the end of it to be
A big white Yorkshire horse and a Swiss Cilo horse
I’m currently in North Yorkshire, UK, and I have for sale on my eBay site, two vintage Cilo road bikes. The slightly higher specification of the two is a Columbus framed, Cilo Challenger. It is priced very competitively for a bike of its age, condition and specification. I’m obviously interested
Life as a Projecteer
I must admit that I’m a bit of a ‘Projecteer’. This is a new term that I’ve dreamed up to illustrate people like me who always have a project on the go, have a few in the pipeline and at the same time, on the look out for another suitable
