When councils listen, you get a skatepark like this one in Cardiff Bay.
A football-pitch-sized nirvana of glass smooth concrete and interesting lines.
You know, stuff that skaters actually want to skate.
(not some waste of money playground company garbage that will rarely get used).
So well done to Cardiff City Council. .
Well done for listening to the end-user.
Well done for building it with such care and finesse.
Well done for giving up such prime real estate.
and well done for thinking different, you’ve built something great.

And the skateboarders salute you for it.

this 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!

Here’s me, having just finished the 2010 Bristol Half Marathon.

It was my first running race, and it was tough.

I made a few outlandish statements about running it sub 1h 30, and for a few miles it felt like that actually might be do-able. Even at the half way point where the clock read 48 minutes I was hopeful of making it in the 30s. But as the minutes passed and my mile times started to drop off, I began realise that running that fast for that long was harder than I’d thought it would be. Even though it was flatter then any of my training routes and the weather was perfect. Cool, a little drizzly and calm.

There were a few moments in the closing stages where I thought I might not be able to finish, or I might have to start walking. But I stubbornly kept myself going and crossed the line running. It was a mass start with chip timing, so I had to work out my time from my watch, and I thought I’d done enough to hit 1.40 but the official chip time online reads 1.44.02.

I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get under 1.40, as I was pretty sure I’d manage that, but after having finished my first race without stopping, or walking I’m still pretty happy about everything.

And I know I can go faster next time!

First easy run this lunchtime to free the legs after Cader Idris was tough.

They run beautifully but no padding on the heel takes some getting used to. By the end of the 6 miles I was tired in places in my legs where I don’t tire.

These are going to take some training into.

But one thing I loved is when you get on the rocks and roots you trip lightly and the flow feels great and you feel the trail just slightly distanced by the sole.

More later.

Next Friday the 10th of  September from 7pm – 10pm there is a bike based night at howies Bristol store.
In conjunction with Bristol bike festival, there will be the launch of Boneshaker magazine issue 2, which is a must to all cycle fans. Plus bikes and photos from the great Bristol bike project. On top of that we have 100 screen-printed cycle caps from ‘Thinking Caps’,  and artwork from some top designers including Peskimo, White duck and No gears!

If thats not enough there will be some beer!. A perfect Friday night, hopefully  see you all there…

cheers then Matt/45

I’m off then, see you next week

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

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.

No Gears designed this t-shirt to commemorate the 2010 Bristol Bike Week.

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

I had 3 huge bags to show them so it was a driving mission, but this means passing up through North Wales and mountains.

Which also means Cader Idris on the way home. The run is from 300ft to 2854ft and back in 7 miles.

4pm I parked up, hid all my stuff round the car. Put on shorts, shoes and merino, stretched and plodded off to the steps.

The first few hundred feet are steps and stones that need a slow constant warming pace.

By the top of these I am drenched in sweat, breathing to the bottom of my lungs and my legs are burning.

The steps stop, the mountain still climbs on rocks, gravel and grass. The sun is in my eyes, my shades are off as the lenses are already sweat stained. I tap out a constant pace. I pass all the walkers coming off the hill to go home.

I try to thank them for moving aside but my breathing is too hard and I am beginning to descend into that level of concentration you need when pushing beyond.

I reach the lake and decide that today is the day to go right to the top, round and down. But I have bought no water or food.

The climb from the lake really kick. I can run short sections and then others it’s marching pushing on my legs. I pass another set of walkers who look at me with questioning faces.

The trail flattens for a short spell and I calm my breathing and concentrate hard on a smooth pace.

I run, march, run, march up and up feeling the onset of dehydration. When I look back this was the toughest bit. I run a sentence through my head over and over asking the next walkers if I can have some of their water. Will I ask, won’t I ask?  The last people thought I was mad. Who wants to speak to a sweating runner in the wilds.

No one comes along. I see bilberry bushes along the trail that all seem bare. I search harder and find that bushes in the shade of rocks have fruit. I eat every one I find no matter how ripe.  50 berries kick in. Pace rises.

I see the top with a ladder over a fence where I stop and look at the view. 44 minutes.  I look down to the lake and rejoice.

I then look along the ridge and see I still have a decent and another climb. A big climb. To higher than where I am.

I am not at the top.

I am super hot, vision is blurred and my hands feel tight and cramp like. And I am not at the top. I am a long way off and this knocks me.

I have a very long steep decent followed by a sharp climb. People are coming down and I can only just see them. Should I continue. Will going on be harder than going back. I can’t get this far and not do this. Now or never.

Top off, volume up, wipe face and down the slope. It is really steep and loose and I have trouble slowing down. I am worrying about injury and my ability to get round and I am making mistakes.

I meet the walkers at the bottom of the climb. They all smile and say hi and I cannot bring myself to ask for water. Am I embarrassed about being so far out and so unprepared?

I start the last climb. I can’t run, but I maintain my fast march. I look for bilberries but up this high there is nothing but rock. I look for pools of water, but the only ones are peaty.

Then there is the last gully to the trig point. It’s looks like a greek mountain. And then I am up.

I spend 10 minutes at the top. Absolute silence. Birds are on the floor resting. No wind. The Irish sea to the fore and North Wales behind. There is a rock shelter.

It all come back. My legs. My breath. My confidence. I have done it and now I just have to get back.

I hear voices and decide to descend.

The fist section is over grass. Steep and fast. Rocks appear. Picking a line has to be fast and acurate.

I then enter back into rocks and gravel and the perfect hip hip mix enters the head phones. I pick up the pace across the rocks despite the gradient feeling like vertical and relax into the tune. I dance down the boulders. The more I relax the faster I can be.

There is nothing right now but the rhythm and my rhythm.  I am now flying along and I have shoved the fear of falling away.

I join the path I climbed up on and know it’s steps all the way to the car. I pass all the walkers I passed on the climb. I replay the last track and dance the last decent to the car.

On the very last step I stop and whoop.

I am soaked, boiling hot, my knees and ankles are painful, my shoulders and back are stiff but I feel like I won.Further, higher, longer and faster.

And I beat my head.

Click here for some insanely great photos including shots by Ricky Adam,
who has worked with howies before.

Personally, I vote for Stéphane Candé.

the car parks are empty

the beaches are quiet

there are no queues in the supermarket or coffee shop

the mornings are clear & crisp

the berries are bursting out of the hedgerows

the evenings are drawing in

there’s a nip in the air before the sun goes down

jumpers are coming out of storage for snuggling into

there’s some surf on its way

hurray hurray hurray I love september

Well, I  say ‘running’ … I mean going out with a specific route in mind, and aiming for a speed at least a couple of times a month, usually a couple of times a week.

This weekend I will be running in my first organised race, the Bristol Half Marathon.

With 4 days to go, it’s playing on my mind, I can’t stop thinking about it.

Have I done enough training? (probably not.)
Can I pace myself for the first half? (maybe…)
Will I be able to finish? (yeeeah.)
Will I be fast? (Don’t be stupid.)

I’m aiming to finish in under 1 hour 40. With my own absurd target being 1 hour 30.

I figure there are three key points that will help me in the race as opposed to training on my own.

1 – Bristol is flat. A lot flatter than Pembrokeshire.
2 – There will be well organised and regular drink stops. I often dehydrate half way through my run and finish with a headache.
3 – I will be running in a pack and will be able to tune out easier once I find someone to pace myself with.

The nervous energy is building in my legs.

It can’t start soon enough.

Sometimes you forget to get out and breathe when you get into the daily 8-5 and when this is on the doorstep it’s easy to take it for granted, so I decided to take time out to enjoy the wonderful September sun before we start knocking on Autumns door.

Forget the usual hustle and bustle, this is lunchtime Cardi style and all I had to dodge were butterflies, dragonflies and one or two binocular toting Twitchers round the wildlife park.

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

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.

They have a tent that can fit 100 people.

20 speakers and 80 attendees.

It’s 4 days long.

The location is idyllic and accommodation superbly comfortable.

The lectures inspiring.

The food will be local and made by Anja who worked here and is now writing her own cook book.

The company will leave you with friends and stories for life.

And I will be taking attendees running.

And they have just 4 tickets left

So if you want to spend 4 days washing around in intellectual compost that will  return you to your world ready to make change then buy now.

It is one of the most inspirational things that I have ever done.

Call 01239 62 35 84 and tell em we sent you.

Despite Steve getting us up and running on Friday we still only had one line so no e-mail for the shops.

Paul was on site today and spent the morning sending tones from our end down the line to the “pot” and from the exchange to the pot then joining the right wires.

And it worked! We have two lines again.

They widen the hole on our wire side later next week…

Always nice to have an artist in the group. You can find more about the new jean washes here for men and here for women, and you can find more of Sinead’s work on her website.

(If you really wanna be in our gang, you’ll have to get yourself a new pair of howies jeans fella!)

Hey it’s a bank holiday.

Go get some…

I’m scanning in the new merino bits (Men’s and Women’s. Seriously soft stuff).

And Sinead and Toby are handling the new window and wall display (Jess is helping with that too).

New stuff. Holding hands. Good times.

Jeff.

This week’s T-shirt of the Week is ‘Multitasker’

Modern life has its demands.
So much to do, so little time.
Work, play, family, money and updating your Facebook page.
That’s why modern man (but primarily woman)
has become so good at juggling.
It seems it’s now the only way we can function.
Just don’t drop the ball.

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

Thought id share this little gem from last week, two great things. My favourite t-shirt in the howies store at the moment the ace Ride Like The Wind t-shirt and a whole heap of meat, cooked to perfection I may add. Just pop in tomorrow to buy the t-shirt get some meat on the way home and this dream could be reality (fingers crossed for no rain). You know you want to.

Cheers then Matt/45

The internet died a few hours before the Autumn site was due to go live.
Turns out it’s hard to run a website when you can’t get online.
So Plan B was a 6am start in the Cardigan shop to do the final bits and pieces.
Two sprints across town to HQ to get some files (my best time for the 1GB is 10 minutes)
A rebuilt SQL database and a jury-rigged XML upload.
And we’re live. The Autumn clothes are online and you can see the catalogue here.
Hope you like it, it’s been fun getting it ready.

School starts
Early sunsets
Picking berries
Trees transforming
Eerie mists
Migrating birds
Bonfires burning
Evenings snuggling
Rustling leaves

Autumn is on its way. And so is our new catalogue.

A copy of our full catalogue, or one of our cut-down newspaper versions
should be landing on your doormat any day now.
New jackets, jeans, dresses and knitwear. And the story of our surf team’s
trip across Ireland in an old Winnebago.

Alternatively, you can go look at all that stuff on our website, where youíll also find a downloadable PDF version of the catalogue.

Click here for men’s
Click here for women’s

Man of the moment.

My favourite bloke today.

Steve from BT.

Repaired the cable in 30 minutes.

We are live live LIVE.

So clear your desktop, file away your files, do a tweet, make a cuppa and prepare to have a browse.

So did next doors.

BT and everyone were no help despite many many phonecalls.

Then going home I saw the new hole in the ground that the construction company dug yesterday full of telephone wires.

So I went to have a look today and met Ray the massive  foreman and we had a look at the wires and I found this.

Despite us not having access to the world he did all the swearing.

Today we cannot download your orders, so if you need stuff give us a ring and we will get your order done over the phone and out.

01239 614122. Emma, Hollie and Ed are waiting.

And our Bristol, Cardigan and London stores are open as usual.

BT man due in 1 hour. Tick tock.

we’ve all pack one home and Pete and Aron are looking for mistakes.

Open a box.

Count its contents.

Seal the box.

Onto the shelves.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

All on top of the orders that keep coming down and need sending out and only the odd cuppa and lunch have stopped them.

They have sped in the new season. Thanks warehouse.

Just found this on Vimeo.

A day in the life of New York City, in beautiful tilt-shift miniature.

Winner of Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction 2010

Love it. Tilt-shift makes the world look so cool.

We had a pow wow today with nearly everyone in the office to discuss what we all thought our ticks and crosses have been over the last 14 years.

The people in the pic run the website, design the clothes, buy the clothes, find the factories, shape the words and pictures, land the clothes and check them, print every single one of our tees, pay the bills, service the customer and guard this brand everyday.

It was great to look back, to flick through all the catalogues we have made that usually spend days on our shelves.

And I felt all those good vibrations that photo’s and uttered memories stir up.

And today’s pause was a great reminder of why we are on this journey, what was great and what we left by the roadside.

Go get your company together and listen to it’s voices and remember what you have all achieved. We spend a long time working and it’s getting longer.

howies tyres are the right pressure, the chain is oiled, the sun is shining and everyone is pedalling.

Onwards

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.

I met up with Geraint at the dodgy car park on the way and follwed the GPS.

However I had made a bit of a mistake in true Mel style and set the GPS up slightly wrong and we almost ended up in Swansea (we were too busy talking  about clothes and stuff), so we turned around and headed back the way we came before turning off into the Brechfa forest.

The rain poored and the view was white, untill we got to the smaller lanes winding in and out of the valleys, then we we could see bits of mist drifting through the hills.

The roads got smaller and smaller until we went past the post office and up the hill I had seen on the google satellite view, we dropped down the hill, through the ford and up to Jos’ studio which is most definitely out in the wilderness..

We poked and proded clothes into the right shape for hours and when we popped out for lunch we met the dogs.

They took a shine to Gerait and jumped all over him, luckily or unluckily he was wearing a howies hoody (don’t tell Lisa) which got covered in mud.

Here are the lovely chocolate Labs, they watched us untill the evening when we finished and the sun was shining for the journey home.

Thanks to Jo for coffee, good music, lots of dog talk and your expertise in shooting clothes.

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

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 is Paul!

A lot of people I know would say that he definitely stands out of a crowd. Can you find him? (Comment on the bottom if you can find him. If you don’t want to cheat don’t look at the comments…)

I’ll add another one soon…

From Kev displaying his hand built boats, to climbing walls,

It was the river and Food festival but much bigger…

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

cheers then, Matt/45