Many of you know that i run the fixed gear blog ‘Deaf Pigeon’ and if you follow this blog or know me personally, you will understand how excited i am about the BOIKZMOIND film.

The premiere for this is on Saturday so as a little promotion i decided to ‘reskin’ the Deaf Pigeon site in some BOIKZMOIND livery.

Go check it out

Today was one of those days that i’ll never forget. I’m not exaggerating when i say that either. It was the Preston Cycling GP today, and i was obviously going to go and have a watch.

Every year they open the circuit up for a couple of laps for anyone to have a ride around and this year was no different. The first lap i was sat in a group of people who were just riding around REALLLLLLY slowly, and i managed to mingle my way through to the front of the group.

As we crossed the start/finish straight i thought i’d just go for it and have a blast… so i did! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but i did leave them quite a way behind (i wasn’t really expecting a couple of penny farthings to overtake if i’m honest).

Riding a closed circuit is so much fun! It’s definitely something i want to experience for real! The guys and girls who ride semi-pro/professionally have some immense power to hand whenever they need it, which is awesome to watch when you’re literally about a foot away from them!

Things to do:
 
1. Get my UCI license
2. Quit smoking
3. Get fit
4. Race

I have a lot of bike components dotted around the flat and with the constant addition of more and more, my girlfriend was getting a little annoyed. So i decided to build myself a workbench to house all of my bike parts. In addition to the stand, i got myself a Park Tool TS8 wheel truing stand so i can build wheels properly instead of using a set of old forks and a brake.

I think it looks awesome and cheers to my mate who helped measure up, draw it out and put it all together over the course of 2 evenings! Super stoked on it and i think it looks awesome!

If you need any wheels building, you know where to come :D

Been wanting a Leader bike since i started riding Fixed a year ago and when i heard that Leader were dropping the 2011 version, i had to get one. I got it from Tokyo Fixed (awesome guys) and went to pick it up in person, which just so happened to coincide with the Fixed&What’s first periodical launch, which was also really cool to go to.

The bike is awesome, so much better than my Peugeot conversion for so many different reasons! You can see all of the photos in detail over on Deaf Pigeon.

I’ve been collecting bicycles for a few months now. I’ve somehow acquired 2 fixed gears, a vintage road conversion for a friend and a BMX in pieces. This called for some space saving techniques.

What’s the best thing i thought… A BIKE RACK! So i had my girlfriends dad knock me up a rack system that would fit my bikes on.

We only had one small problem, i live in a basement, so the ceilings are really low! We worked something out in the end though! Really pleased with it, and i can now fit more bikes in ;)

I did it… i finally got my front wheel. An awesome Spinergy Rev X full carbon 700c front wheel. So stoked on this it’s not even funny. It rides so nice, the sound is insane… so much more responsive than my old Charge dish wheel. Only problem i’ve found so far is crosswinds. Rev X wheels do not like crosswinds :)

Since the first time i saw these foot straps i’ve wanted some. My delivery arrived today, a pair of awesome black/grey Monster Traps.

There’s so many different types/brands of foot straps available to buy out there and picking one you like is a difficult task in itself.

From the pictures i saw online, they looked perfect and i needed to have some. I’ve been running on Dualism’s since i first started riding fixed. They were perfect from day 1 but i just fancied a change. I ordered these bad boys about a week ago and i installed them today. The build quality of them is awesome and they are so comfortable.

I’ve ridden them everyday for about 2/3 weeks and they’re by far and away the best straps i’ve tried… They’re comfortable, easy to adjust either riding or off the bike, look perfect and can fit shoes bigger than Van’s in without breaking a sweat. All in all…. AMAZING!

After destroying my Charge Dish wheel in a fit of rage in a Preston Docklands carpark on a rainy, wet, cold evening due to inner-tube valve failure. I had to get a new rear wheel. It took a lot of decision because there’s so many awesome combinations and so much price fluctuation. I finally decided to settle on a Velocity B43.

Click through to read more and see more pictures.

If you read my blog regularly, or even every few weeks, you may have read about me getting a new wheel for my bike. Well it arrived this weekend, and a beautiful wheel it is too. I got a Velocity B43 rim, laced to a Black Origin8 hub with Black Spokes. Lovely!

This wheel prompted me to the bi-monthly bike strip down, clean, lube and rebuild. It’s just something that i like doing. I like knowing if everything on my bike is working how it should, and if there’s anything that i need to be wary of just in case. This took just over 3 hours on Friday night to complete.

Saturday morning i decided to take some pictures of it in my back yard.

Here is my bike as of 2 days ago.

So it’s been ages since i blogged about my bike. Maybe that’s because i’ve been busy riding it instead of just keeping on buying things for it :D

My cranks were playing up a bit, they were obviously not liking being converted from being used on a geared bike for 23 years and then thrown into some serious stress from being involved with a fixed gear :D, so i decided to grab a Sugino Messenger in white with a 46t chainring (4 more teeth than what i was used to), which is so much easier to ride and so much quieter aswell! My old 42t conversion was fine until i got the Sugino and now i know i was mistaken!

To go with the new front chainring, i decided to scrap the Charge Masher halflink chain because it was too chunky for my liking, so i decided to get an Izumi track chain that was recommended to me. So far this is has been far superior to the Charge Masher for my personal preference.

I thought that would be it for my purchasing streak of late, and that was the case until the other day when i was trying to learn to how to bounce backwards off a wall and then ride away again (but backwards). I didn’t realise how old the headset that i had was until this point. I did a bounce off a couple of times until i heard a massive clunk as i did it and then my headset went all loose and really horrible to steer!

Took it to my LBS and they told me that it was some shoddy old school BMX type headset that wasn’t going to last at all so i had a word with them about getting hold of a new one. I decided to get a Shimano Dura-ace 1″ Threaded headset. I thought ‘Awesome’, and proceeded to ride the bike home. The bike was perfectly fine for a short time until it started to go really loose. I know that newly installed threaded headsets can have a tendancy to go a bit loose over the first few weeks of riding it, so i just tightened it up a bit and it never actually got better so i headed back to Hewitt’s and had a talk to the mechanics there and they suggested some new forks because the threads on the top of my steerer weren’t holding the headset properly. I wasn’t really thinking about new forks just yet, but if that’s what i needed then that’s what i’d get.

Here are those beautiful black, straight, track, Hewitt’s made forks! So nice to ride, and a lot smoother than my previous bended forks. Seriously wish i’d upgraded them earlier! The clearance on the front tyre is silly, i won’t be able to ever ride a tyre thicker than a 23 (just how i wanted).

I decided that because i was upgraded pretty much the entirity of the front end of my bike that i should also upgrade the stem aswell. I love the look of a nice quill stem and out of the massive selection i had in front of me, i chose a Nitto Technomic stem. Another beautiful bike component that fits my bike perfectly.

Now that all of this has been upgraded, the only remaining parts that are from the original purchase and build are the bars and the frame. I won’t be upgraded the frame any time soon, the next frame i want is a custom build from Hewitt’s that is pretty much what i have right now but with some additions and changes. I am currently in the process of designing it and will be talking to Hewitt’s frame builder before christmas to arrange the build/fitting of it. Cannot wait!!

The bars on the other hand (no pun intended) will be bought next month hopefully, i’ve got my eyes on a couple of different options. One being some lovely Nitto B123′s (below)

or some riser type bars, but there’s a million and one different choices on that front. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

• Frame/Forks: 1987 Peugeot Triathlon (Reynolds 501 Tubing)
• Bars: Stock Peugeot
• Drive: Nervar Cranks 42t Chainring & 17t Rear Cog with Charge Masher Chain
• Seat: BKS X-Mission Saddle and Stock Peugeot Seatpost
• Wheels: Charge Dish
• Tyres: Vittoria Rubino Rear and Continental Ultra Front
• Misc: Dualism Straps, Wellgo Pedals, Atax Quill Stem, Cinelli Lumen Bartape

Here are some pictures:

This has obviously been a long running project now, so if you want to read back over it, please go here :) and if you want some more information about riding fixed gear then please check out my Deaf Pigeon blog.