We are coming to Manchester  this week for what I think will be our most Northerly Sample Sale this year. (Time and staff levels are the only reason)

Last year we came to the Triangle shopping centre and it worked so well that we are using a larger space.

The address is The Triangle shopping Centre, Exchange Square, Manchester. M4 3TR and opening times;

Thursday 18th 4pm to 8pm.

Friday 19th 10am to 6pm

Saturday 20th 10am to 6pm

Sunday 21st 11am to 4pm

This time we are upstairs in Unit 28. Our friends at Thoughtful are helping out and have made a MASSIVE howies banner, so look up when you come in and you should see us.

Mel and Lisa our clothing designers went through all their samples 3 weeks ago and have pulled out some unseen gems.

Naomi and Clare have spent 10 days in our cold back warehouse sorting and hanging and boxing.

Sinead is up from our London store (she’s a local) and Barney from our Bristol store and little ol’ me from Cardigan to work the 4 days and do some running, ride the fixeds round town and judging by how busy the hotels are, Saturday night should be fun.

Thursdays at every sample sale are always the busiest, and where you get the pick of the crop, but be prepared to hustle and bustle for your bargain.

Oh and as ever, bring a good bag as we will not have any.

And if your up for a 6 mile urban run, I am.

Anyone fancy running the city with semi fit me?

I sent them back to 2Pure and they worked on them but they could not be fixed. They tried hard.

So they sent me a new set which came yesterday, and they really light my way home.

Thank you 2 Pure

I only ever use it to ride to work in ice or snow or when the road to work floods to knee deep.

So during 2 lunch breaks and telephone calls that just require chatter the drop bars got ditched and flat bars, bar end (i have not had a pair of these since my first riser bars in 1995) v-brakes and new grips fitted.

Rode it in this morning and felt that I had a new bike.

Gotta get rid of the kelvar tyres now which feel like riding on deep pile carpet.

While lighting the fire this morning I found an article in a Times mag about the top 30 albums of the last decade, so it’s on the wall and is our playlist for the next few days.

We are working from 30 to 1. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but a nice exercise. I have got a couple that I really not looking forwards to, and some that are great, but very slow for a busy day.

You can see what we’re listening to right now over here on last.fm

**Update: this is the list we’re listening to.**

I had heard the story of Birch creek canoes where originally build by a gentleman called Allan Bridges. His canoes where (amongst canoeists) classed as possibly the best canoes, revered for their superior design because they were a lightweight boat that’s extremely responsive to the paddler. Alan stopped building his canoes in early 2000.

Scott who runs the howies shop in Cardigan is a great waterman came in on Friday saying he had just bought a new canoe. Turns out that recently Allan has taught his son-in-law to build his canoes and Scott had the first one out of the mould.

So this this morning with the 18ft canoe hanging 2 feet out the back of the howies van we headed up the Teifi, and we hit the water at 7.00am and minus 2 degrees and paddled the 7.32 miles to work.

We made LLechryd bridge in good time, took the 2nd from the left arch and shot the “rapids” .

Check out the dodgey “explorer” hats. Elmer Fud and Crocodile Dundee.

When you pass Cillgeran and head into the gorge for about a mile there are no foot paths and no people and no cars and no noise.  It’s a real special place to paddle.  The water was flat calm and the kingfishers provided the colour. It must be 2 years since I paddled to work with David, and something that we never did before he left. So I raised a swig of water to him as we passed his canoe pulled up below his house.

Because the canoe is fibre glass we couldn’t crash over the rocks into the wildlife park, so we had to get out and carry it 100 yards to deeper water. After an hour paddling with my legs tucked under the seat, once I plunged them into water that should have frozen, I was a muscles twitch away from cramp in both legs and once back in the canoe my feet felt like someone had hammered flat. When it came to shallow water again, Scot let me stay in and waded knee deep in his Epic jeans. (It was a product test day cause I was out in my new Quick burst) Look at that lovely woodwork.

even we were amazed by how well they shed water. they were not built to wade!

Even though it really isn’t one, when you paddle into work and reach the final straight you feel like you have had a real adventure. And that’s before work starts.

My life is always too busy now for big adventures, so today felt great to have squeezed one in between lighting the fire, breakfast and work.

And thanks Scott for letting me have the first ride in your very precious adventure craft. May you realise your dream to paddle it in Italy.

Running a longer distance from a to b feels more of an adventure with an uncertain outcome than doing a loop.

The first 5 miles on the road were hard and when I got to the bridge at Llechryd bridge I played eeny meeny miney mo to see if it was the shorter road way with hill and no pavement, or along the river over rocks and roots.

I mo’d the long way. I practised what Russell Ashdown taught me about going downhill. Let it all go and run like the wind but there are a few paths through the wildlife park that need a surely planted foot.

And then there is that feeling you get at the end of a long run when you see the finish and the pins and needles wizz up your neck and your empty legs fill and you can smell the coffee.

When I got to work I knew that if I looked in the mirror the image of a tired looking 39 year old wouldn’t tally with the fit 20 year old I felt like.

Next run is in London with Molly who we ran with at the do.

Roars of laughter came across the office cause Jon was working to get this  syphon to flow.

Get a physics student to explain if the picture doesn’t.

police, fire and ambulance whilst I bought cake and inhaled smoke.

One of our riders, lee, is also a welder and he has made me version two of a log holder that will clip directly onto my trailer and allow me to saw long branches into logs that then drop straight into the trailer.

The black box section is an old Texaco Petrol station sign.

There is an old Landrover tow bar plate and some old steel rod.  If it works it will remove the need to  collect and load all the cut logs.

Tonight I ride home with the retina burning Nightrider cherry bomb under my ass.

There are only three people who ride on the dark and fast road back to my place.

Keep me safe…-

I haven’t slept well due to tight hamstrings.

And this morning I am a little dehydrated.

It was raining hard.

The head wind brought me to a standstill many times and made the whole journey just pain.

I couldn’t spin in the saddle on the hills because you are a fixed wheel.

So I shouted out on the climb my hate for you , I cursed you and regretted choosing you over the bike with gears and it went round and round in my head, I nearly stopped to throw you in the hedge in anger, real tears came to my eyes as I tried to raise the pace over the last climb to work and I walked in soaked with sweat and empty legged.

Today I hate my fixed wheel.

Alot of entertaining, thinking, talking, showing, explaining, justifying, projecting, reviewing, mapping, noting and bonding.

And I gave it my all.

Worked paid back the 2 hours it owed me to change into spiked shoes, run down the high street in the sun light, over the river, along the bike path to meet David. Then round the boardwalk in the marshes, along the squirrel trail, uphill to fforest farm, then back along the bridle path above the Teifi,  scramble down 100 steps to the rivers edge and then push on home through the mud and brambles to our Cardigan shop and a great coffee.

Make sure you take honestly what it owes you and you’ll no feel cheated.

Gonna try and get the office to run on Thursday.

What a blast. My mind has not processed so many thoughts in 30 minutes for so long.

1. shake to shuffle on the i-phone is rubbish for running.

2. Melt water is cold, but wet snow is colder.

3. Summer shoes let your feet  get warm as soon as they are out the water.

4. Wild horses look at you like you are mad if you are on the mountain in bad conditions.

5. Tread lightly and reduce speed on deep snow.

6. All that beer I drunk in December weighs heavy.

7. David Hieatt would have thrashed me today. I wanted him and Molly along.

8. Cold thighs run slower.

9. Running somewhere beautiful is beautiful.

10. Warm  dry clothes are such a reward at the end.

11. howies have made and will make some amazingly technical kit. (Ran in the long way home shorts, 2 NBL light base layers, the 8 miler jacket and the new bike jacket for spring)

12. Music helps a hard run.

13 Bad music don’t.

14. The effort to get up, get out and run in awful weather is always worth it.

15 . The track on the map is not always where it should be in real life.

16. The farm dogs bite is worse than his bark.

17. Cows with horns and babies need back of the head eyes.

My goal this summer is to pick a great place to run and run and run and run and run…

And we have been putting out lots of food for the birds and in the tough times we get more than the usual crowd. We have had clouds of Fieldfare and Redwings. Woodpeckers have also been drawn out of the forest.

But this heron has been finding the winter too hard. I have seen it three times close when I have been walking and instead of taking to the air, it’s just stood and watched me.

I found it lying in the river this morning whilst splitting firewood. It’s energy stores had run out just before the thaw.

Good rain. real heavy, thick, robust sustained rain which I prefer to ride in than thin drizzle.

Last night my lights failed, so I had to ride home with an emergency Petzl head torch.  Could just see the road ahead. When I got across Llechryd bridge the road had a huge puddle across it which could be a small flood, or a big flood.

It was big.  Just under waist deep in the deepest parts for about a mile.

Quite an adventure, but the legs were stone cold for the last 6 miles home.

My old friend Russell who sells Cannondale for the South West is having a garage sale for all his salesman samples. He has got bikes new and used, components, clothing the lot. And it will all be bargain prices.

It’s this Sunday 8th November 11am to 6pm at Barefoot Photography Studios, Bishops Chambers, 14 Cathedral Close, Exeter, EX1 1HA and it will be worth the effort.

Can you save me a hard tail?

it’s taken 3 weeks to build my new frame up.

it needed a new seatpost and front mech cause cannondale have made the seat tube and bottom bracket one piece. so i had to wait for the 31.6 and the 34.9 to arrive.

then the kids bikes needed a service. then the chicken shed needed a coat of paint before the winter. then, then, then…

so i spent four great unrushed nights locked in the shed with bike bits, a full tool set, long wave radio and beer.

it got it’s first ride to work last week. 8 miles of road and then a hack through the woods with no i-pod to test the kit and hear what wasn’t working.

it ripped it up. what a bike. what a smile.

time to book a sunday out on the mountain.

at 3pm about 25 riders met nick in clevedon across from the pier for one last round of tea, coffee and cake before the big ride into bristol. the bikes wer a mix of tour de france technology and the oldest of school.

when i got to howies bristol shop there was just under 100 friends and family waiting to cheer him home and then a group of people who had joined the fray to see what was going to happen. Over 10 had made the trip over from Cardigan.

then he rounded the victoria rooms and rolled into queens road to clapping and cheers.

then hugs, kisses, smiles, tears, tea, cakes, beer, music, conversation, stories and pictures of the journey.

and then at 10.30 a very tired nick drove himself home, and his bike rested the night in store.

welcome home.

what a great night

when I started at howies 6 years ago you could only order by phone, by post or by fax.

If you old school shoppers need to fax your order tomorrow the number is 01239 615598. Don’t put your card details on it, but a number to call you on to get them.

She’s full of paper.

the only way to buy it is to either wait by it till he gets in and drives off, or follow him to the motorway and get up along side and shout through your passengers window to agree a price.

it may take a while to shift.

So the Principia is giving up it’s 25c and getting these 23c winter ware, and the fixed gets the 25’s.

orangebox came down last week and gave us a whole pile of amazing chairs that have transformed our lives. we did a swap of some tees for 4 new chairs, and when they saw how bad the others were they gave us all chairs.

that is super super kind. check out their cradle to cradle chairs

our previous ones were tough to spend a whole day in, so they went off to a charity last week. they are the ultimate in kind.

so to see how much better they are than the old ones we took them for a test down the old howies race track.

the old ones could roll, but these babies are super smooth and slickly fast.

We have had the jacket finished for the last few months, but some things haven’t been right so we have been biking, changing, biking, changing. It’s done many miles commuting, Brecfa and the hardcore Preseli mountains.

Mike from YKK has also been working with Louise (our make it fit and work great person) on how best to use the zip so it works the best (he helped design the zip) and after 3 prototypes it’s there. Just need to do some final trim stuff now.

The customer service team have been in with him today learning about the zips ability to support 40kg, resist corrosion from salt, mud, oil, diesel and the sun and remain silky smooth. (They don’t look it in the photo, but it’s exciting).

Spring launch roll on cause I want one.

and there is a back log of post still to be delivered.

did you get your copy?

the sloes this year are as big as grapes.

just laid down a couple of litres of gin for christmas. it’s going to be a vintage year.

my wife has made the most amazing hedgerow jelly from blackberries, hawthorn berries, sloes, rowan berries, crab apples, rose hips boiled with a little sugar then hung in a muslin bag between the legs of a chair over night to drain out the clear liquid.

pure autumn on toast.

this morning we found the secret stash.

because they are out and about every day from their pen and they have been laying them secretly under a rose.

12 eggs float tested for freshness and planned for tonight’s tortilla.

The van ain’t been well recently. I thought that is was going to be death by profit and loss spreadsheets.

But then we found Neil.

To run diagnostics, weld the exhaust in 2 places and fit a new back piece, all new bulbs in the headlights, new head light lense, new #1 injector, buy ship and fit a second hand prop shaft with a new bearing and labour cost…drum roll…think about what you pay for your car…..and what you think it should be…include  vat…and he was really nice on the phone offering to fit a shaft from his van……we could not believe it either….

One Hundred and Thirty Pounds.

Call Neil at Reeds motors in Eglwyswrw on 07769 842200. He’ll get you trucking.

He also said she has another quarter of a million miles in her with a little welding.

Rock On.

which blew our ability to work for a bit. then our creative server went down, and it’s back up tape draw crashed.

then we lost the internet.

wayne and bob from our it support people are looking fretful while they spread wires around and changes boxes. this never happened with box folders and a Rolodex.

We have had days of hot sun and heavy dew over here, so the farmers have been cutting and turning the hay.

Dan who has a farm up from our valley was the first to call in his 2 hours yesterday at short notice to get the hay in the barn he had cut before the dew fell.

So 8 of us stacked hay in the barn from 6 till 9 and did the whole lot. Then drank cold beer.

I had to slipstream a friends car home through the lanes cause I had left my front light on my fixed. 40 mph downhill for 3 miles  through pitch black lanes looking through the back window to the road ahead for potholes was quite a buzz.

the tube that punctured was on it’s last legs. the spare tube was for a mountain bike not a road bike. i had one patch left. my mobile was out of battery. the quick release on the brake wouldn’t. the glass/stone holes in the tyre made it look like a tea bag.

it was a nice morning for a warning.

We bought her in white for £2000 3 years ago with 175000 miles on the clock. She had been used by a courier company called Air Cargo Wales to collect clothing on hangers from the airport and deliver them direct to shops. She was just what we needed.

Pete and Paul peeled off the stickers from the logo on the side so it read Go Wales, and the autumn/winter 2006 catalogue was born. 24 people, 7 days, 6 bikes, 5 skateboards, 4 surfboards, 3 tanks of biodeisel and 2 kayaks did a tour of Wales with the van. Where she needed her first repair after the window screen got bust when it got ridden down.

Then she was painted black by Alison and taken on the blackboard tour. They toured the UK’s skate spots and asked people whether they thought nulcear power was a good idea and got people to write their thoughts on the van in chalk.

She has delivered clothes to over 25 sample sales from Edinburgh to Brighton. She has delivered the interiors of our shops so they could open. She has been to many bike races. Shifted fire wood. Attended many parties. Shifted a ton of stuff to be recycled. Attended many bike races. Done the little big voice and the Do lectures and attended every photoshoot since we bought her, her last being a faultless journey to Sweden carrying everything that was needed for the shoot.

She has been our one and only van, silently and faithfully serving us, and always being present on those adventures.

Then had to spend £1800 on all new brakes this year after they totally failed. Then she lost power on the motorway. Then the bulbs blew. Then the propshaft bearing went, along with all those other little bits that need doing.

And suddenly there is talk that we should get another van.  She’s only worth a grand and may cost more and more to repair as she ages.

Every garage that I take it to says the same thing. Other than a bit of wear and tear and rust, she is sound.

And she has only done quarter of a million miles. Maybe because I have been the one to do most of those miles, I am misguidedly attached to her and her history.

Ethically should we repair her, or should we buy something more modern with lower emissions?

I hope that when I get to that time in my life when things are going a little wrong, that people look back and what I did and see the value, the hisory, the stories and invest in a new prop shaft bearing to keep me trucking.

my frist was a super v 80 in orange. I absolutely loved it. I have old pictures of me on it looking miserable and young racing in Ashton court in  Bristol circa 1994. I sold it and bought Super V100, then a Raven, then a Raven 2, then a Jeyklland finally a prophet.

Then I met Russell on the Cannondale stand at the bike fest and the next step had to be a rize.

Stiffer back end, lighter and a better rising rate on the shock. A plush first 25%, a stable mid section for pedaling and then the last 25% ramps up when it goes wrong on the rocks and drops.

And that happens round this way alot. The dyfi enduro throws up those alot, and I need something to hide my lack of a skill set.

There is something so exciting about building a new steed. That final bit where you lift it down from the stand, set the stem straight to the front wheel and then pedal it out the garage and up the road.

This weekend will be work stand, new cables, nice tools, some beers and no interruptions.

a lovely new mountain bike frame.

looks like the bearing is shafted on the propshaft and needs replacing.

neil’s got more work to do.

Firstly the engine lost power, so from London to Reading the van would only do 50 mph and it struggled to get there.

With an engine restart at the services it sorted itself our and we trucked on.

Then we heard the sound of tinkling metal at the Severn Toll. The back of the exhaust was dragging on the floor. We snapped it off and set off again.

We got through the 50 mph road works at Cardiff and then the engine lost power again.

Restart.

Then all the bulbs in the headlights blew. All of them.

So we stopped at Bridgend and got one full beam bulb and two side lights and some fuses.

Then stopped at Swansea, Pont Abraham, Cross Hands and Carmarthen looking for more bulbs.

We got none.

So we limped home through the lanes at 1am.

The vans off to the doctors tomorrow.