howies®

next Tuesday, 7th September we have the creators of  ‘the ride journal’ joining us at Carnaby Street to do a Wee Do Lecture.

they will be here to tell us all about the inspiration behind the books, how they put their ideas into reality, the huge success they have now become and what’s going to be happening from here. 

if you missed your chance to get hold of the first 3 they are available to download from the website and are well worth it, issue 4 is still currently available to buy but be quick because i doubt they will hang around for long.

the lecture will begin at 7:30pm, if you would like to come down or know anyone else who may like to come then just drop us an email at carnabyst@howies.co.uk or ring us on 0207 287 2345 and reserve your free tickets.

the usual beers and juices will be available to quench your thirsts.

we hope to hear from you all soon!

This Weeks T-Shirt of the Week is ‘No Gears’ by 45rpm

No Gears is a group of like-minded cyclists who live and ride in Bristol.

From premiering some of the best cycle films in the world, to curating bike-based
art shows, they have a love for anything with two wheels.

45rpm is an artist and member of the collective. He has designed this t-shirt
to commemorate the 2010 Bristol Bike Week.

Click Here for the Men’s
Click Here for the Women’s

A bunch of fantastic people in Scotland are orgainsing a girlie downhill camp with Helen Gaskell the first weekend in October.

Looking to be a great event, drop them a line if you fancy taking part.

On bank holiday Sunday, little old Cardigan hosted it’s first ever Criterium bike race.

While the pros rolled up with their swish carbon bikes & shaved legs and set up their turbo trainers along the sides of the back roads, the focus of the day for us was the traders race. A 15 minutes +2 lap race, open to any local business people, shopkeepers, delivery drivers, barkeepers and the like.

Ade and I joined Jon Heslop of the Do Lectures on the motleyest of motley start lines.

Ade and Jon were sporting fixed wheels, I was on a borrowed road bike with gears and a freewheel. Also in the mix were a few classic town bikes, a couple of more serious looking racing frames and at least one 26″ MTB’er.

The flag fell and off we went. A leading pack quickly took charge of the race and built a lead over the rest of the field, with Ade and I trading places in our own race behind them.

I kept in touch until the final lap, when he made his break and my tired legs capitulated.

The real hero of the day was Josh, though. Who shot off with the lead pack and went on to win the race (but only by a whisker) on the carbon Look he borrowed from the bike shop, wearing jeans with a pair of flat pedals and a 15mm spanner in his back pocket to swap them back onto his BMX for the ride home.

Many thanks to Carl, Tom and the rest of Velo Teifi who laid on a great event. We hope to take part in many more Cardigan Street races in years to come.

(From Chris Jackson @ Kingdom Bike)

Part 2 – The Riding.

After the incredibly slow drive to Åre in Northern Sweden for the 3rd round of the Maxi avalanche enduro cup, we were more than happy to wake up to sunshine and fresh mountain air. After the official morning coffee we’re back on our bikes and stuck into some epic riding.

The area around Åre is by no means the highest mountain range, with it’s peak at only 1420 metres it’s a mere blip compare to say the Alps, but don’t be fooled by this lack of altitude as it’s part of some of the most epic ‘big country’ in Europe.

When the sun shines the light and the expanse of sky become overpowering on top of any of the local peaks your view is uninterrupted for miles as the mountains just roll and roll only stopping to be punctuated by mountain lakes and more mountains. Riding in mountains you find yourself surrounded by huge house-sized boulders that dwarf the trails and make Northern Scandinavia so distinctive.

The riding here is simply Åresome (sorry!). There are so many trails littering the mountains it’s difficult to know which to start riding first with all of them keeping you grinning all day, and riding late into the evenings.

Even the light is epic, which also happens to last from 5am to about 10pm this time of year, it’s pretty much 24/7 daylight in June so if you fancy taking some taking epic nightrides, head north.

What do top mountain bike riders do when they are not racing or riding? They go on Facebook of course! James McKnight relaxing after a days riding…. And pre race training for the Maxi race.
More coming up in Part 3 when we cover the Maxi race, it might not be sunny so wear something waterproof.

Desirable riverside location with striking views.
Easy access by foot or bike (no tubes or busses, sorry).
Large conference room*
Mooring point.
Adjacent to pub.
Otters and herons.
Many Sq Feet.

*field

Just had this cool little link pop up in my twitter feed (thanks to @CliveAndrews)

This video is made up of screen shots from Oliver O’Brien’s London cycle hire station status map (oobrien.com/vis/bikes/).
Each second of video is 1 hour in real life and the video starts midnight Tuesday 10th August and ends midnight Wednesday the 11th.

It really shows all the bikes flooding into central London in the morning and then leaving in the evening!

Blue circles represent bike stations that are less than half full, red circles are over half full.

(From Chris Jackson @ Kingdom Bike)

Part 1 – The longest Day and Night.

The internet attention span is so short I know I’d better keep this quick, so here’s the details behind this micro blog and our bike adventure.

Take 5 bike bums including howies team rider James Mcknight and plan a 3000km round trip through Scandinavia to Northern Sweden for round 3 of the French enduro series the Maxiavalanche, all in a VW from 76’. Interested? Read on. Bored? Click.

We all meet up in Copenhagen airport and headed directly to the ferry which would take us overnight to Oslo. The ferry leaves promptly at 17.00pm every evening, so with our lungs full of exhaust fumes and a flat battery we ‘pushed’ our VW onto the ferry at approx 16.55pm.

Fast forward 16 hours and we roll out onto the port of Oslo, bump start the love bus over to a lurking customs official, who pronounces in a lovely mockney accent ‘Nice van geezers, where you orf too.’ Erm Åre!

The following 12 hours became a sea of u-turns, oil changes and uphill chugging through some of the finest ‘widescreen’ scenery there is in Europe. Epic countryside. Crossing the border from Norway into Sweden we entered the last leg of this slow motion voyage as the sun tried to set and get some rest for the day.

Rolling into Åre too late to get the keys for our apartment; we silently unloaded our bikes, took a quick nightcap and poured 5 fractured bodies into a fried out combi. Night.

In the morning, the retro cramped interior of this classic motor had started to feel claustrophobic, so we decided it was time to get some space, put our bikes together and do some riding instead of bonding.

We’ll continue regular updates and adventures all week from Åre, finishing with some Maxiavalanche race coverage on Saturday.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the start of this little adventure.

(I got this up a little late, part two tomorr0w!)

This week’s T-shirt of the Week is ‘Follow Your Front Wheel’, by Joby Barnard.

The ride is not about what bike you’ve got,
or how much it cost, or your fancy gearset.
It’s not about time or speed or winning.
The ride is not about the destination or how far you go.
The ride is not about this way, that way or the other.

The ride is just a ride. All you have to do is pedal.

Click Here for the Men’s
Click Here for the Women’s

How do. I’m the new boy at the Bristol shop. My name is Matt, and I spend most of my spare time painting or riding brightly coloured stupid looking bikes. I’m pleased as punch to be part of the howies team as i do my best to wear out their clothes on the weekends, so its great to be part of something i believe in. I’m a bit of a blog geek so expect lots of blog postings about my travels and growing collection of old rusty bikes. Im a keen photographer and worked as a camera man before this job so keep your eyes peeled for some new howies videos in the near future!

cheers then, Matt/45