Ridley #2

Frame arrived today - I couldn't resist - I had to have a go at transferring the components - just to get a sense of what kind of bike its gonna be....I like it. It has a much better energy about it - plus its protected by the black, the red, the gold and the green...

It fits me much better, looks like no toe-overlap. Strangely the bars will end up just slightly closer - since the head tube is at an angle, as you raise the bars your going backwards too...

How anal is it to torque....?

GPS on a bike...

Been Cycling with a GPS app running on my phone....

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...I was keen to have a go without shelling out for a phone, or contract - I've been a happy PAYG customer for a while now.

I tried out a few Java apps - native apps for Nokia series 40 phones seem to be a new thing, I'll be after a 6300i when they surface. I tried eGPSTrack, GSPJ, Mobile GMaps, TrailExplorer, TrekBuddy. The one I ended up using was TMJ-Mobile - it has a lot of features, and a bit of a learning curve - but its stable.

Nokia's Sports Tracker looks interesting, other services I looked at include MapMyRide, MyCyclingLog, Bikely, OpenStreetMap, MapMyTracks - the most useful I've found is MotionBased. That and a bit of Google Maps.

TMJ also provide some Java based map creation tools for your PC. With these I was able to pull the cycle route maps from OpenStreetMap and stick them on my mobile - this actually stopped us taking a wrong turn into an industrial estate...

Dirt

I've just been out on my new Ridley - what a beast! When you get it into the mud, you realise you have two bikes in one...