Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

As regular readers of the blog will be aware my cycling tastes have evolved ever since.  The Orbea donated many of its parts to my next purchase, a lovely Post Office Red Thorn Audax Mk3.  That was ridden a fair bit, including my first 100 mile ride, and in the summer of 2010 I sold that and bought my Thorn Raven Sport Tour with the Rohloff gear hub.  Along the way, I also acquired a Circe Helios tandem as well.  So why, you might ask, am I now writing about my most recent purchase, a 2011 Cube Streamer road bike?

The Cube was one of those ‘too good to be true’ bargains in the autumn sales, when bike shops habitually clear out the ‘old’ year’s models in readiness for the coming years bikes.  This one was reduced in price significantly, but also had an extra 10 percent off as well, which made me crack.  But why a road bike, after all this time?

Well, I have to admit that the frequency of my riding has dropped off somewhat this summer.  Partly that was due to being busy most of the time, but it was more than that.  The Raven Sport Tour is a heavy bike.  It runs 1.4 inch tyres on 26 inch wheels.  I guess I was finding it hard to get excited about doing my regular circuits on a bike which, I was painfully aware, took a massive amount of dragging around.  And the problem with doing less riding is that you get less exercise.  Which kind of leads me full circle – I began to recall the excitement that a lightweight bike with close tolerances gave me.

Since about March this year I have been using the excellent Garmin Edge 500 GPS computer on my rides.  This, when you connect it to the Garmin Connect web site, allows you to upload ride data and analyse it – average speed, distance, time, elevation, heart rate, etc.  When you are faced with actual metrics regarding your riding, it becomes too stark to ignore.  My average speed was declining, my ride frequency was less; in other words, alarm bells were ringing.  And so it was that I began to seriously consider a road bike again, as an addition to my stable.

A quick look at the bikes on sale caused the usual problem – where to start?  I anted to go for something rather less entry level than my Orbea, which, although an excellent bike was rather sparsely equipped.  And I must admit to having considered Cube last time around as well – the dealer I bought my first bike from was also by chance a Cube dealer.  Being German, they are a very respectable marque, who along with the likes of Focus, Rose, etc have penetrated the UK market quite successfully in recent years with bikes that have a standard spec way above their price bracket.  The Streamer is a mid-point model – between the entry-level Attempt and the ‘serious’ level Agree, it had the same Aluminium frameset as the higher priced line, and a decent level of kit – which included Ultegra levers and rear mech, 105 triple chainset and front mech, cassette and chain, and ‘old’ 105 brakes.  I’m not sure why the Germans tend to supply so many of their bikes with triple chainsets, and after much pondering I decided to change this to a double Ultegra chainset and front mech.

So, what was it like taking to the tarmac on a sleek road bike, after a year of riding an upright, long wheelbase comfy tourer?  In a word, my first ride scared me senseless.  The excitement and engagement that a road bike gives you came flooding back.  I rode around the village in a mile long loop, and came back heart pounding and smiling all over.  Since then, I have managed a couple of decent rides, the last one being just over 30 miles.  I am getting accustomed once again to the feel and position of the bike, and the very direct feedback that it gives.

I have replaced the standard fit saddle with a bargain last years model Specialized Romin SL, which is feather light and very comfy.  I have also fitted the cadence sensor that came with the Garmin, so I can now use the ANT+ links that allow the heart rate monitor, speed and cadence sensor as well.  These modifications have got me motivated once again.

The bike has a Deda carbon fork which gives a nice comfortable ride, and on normal road surfaces it is a very firm but not uncomfortable bike which seems to be stiff and not given to flexing under accelleration.  The standard fit Easton EA-30 wheels [made specially for Cube, I guess, as you can't seem to buy then anywhere else] are perfectly reasonable hoops, although a wheel upgrade will be on the cards at some point.  But even so, it gets up to spped easily, and seems to hold that speed as well, the awesome Ultegra brakes bringing me back to a more sensible pace when applied.  I have taken the step of replacing the standard pads with Koolstop Salmons for the winter.  The Ultegra levers, which are carbon bladed, allow very precise modulation on the brakes, and the gear shifts are sweet.  Having moved from 105 triple to Ultegra double seems to have been a smooth transition, given that the left hand [front mech] shifter is actually designed to work with three gears not two.  I just figured that living in flat old East Anglia, there would be little use for the small 30 tooth ring and I always liked the 52-39 gearing on the Orbea, so have replicated this against a 12-27 rear cassette.  I just have to accept that next time I try and do Holme Moss, Mark will beat me to the top as I struggle and puff away….

I’ll report further in a few weeks, but initial impressions are good.

Sorry about the break – you know the kind of thing.  Work, real life, tonsillitis – but tonight I’ve decided to post some things just to get me back in the habit again. August was such a great month for FR – I was acually exceeding one post per day at one point – and then…only one for the whole of October!

Not much commentary with these as I had originally felt that they didn’t make the cut – but I think I was also getting a little to technical – precious about my shots as well, and I had forgotten that a picture can be worthwhile even if it’s not technically perfect.  So….they do at least convey, to me at least, the end of summer on the bleak Suffolk coast – the crowds have gone, the temperature is cooling, the clouds have obscured the sun, and the leaves are starting to drop.  Some are HDR’s but the people on the beach one is just a single exposure.

It’s a long haul ’til next spring…

And finally, moving north-west again,I took this one in my New Brighton Beach set which I posted last month.  To some of you it will be horrendously over-cooked, and that’s why I held off from posting it.  However I have just looked at it again and I think it’s worth posting – it certainly conveys that ‘end of summer’ feeling, although some might say it’s more ‘end of the world’……if you have an opinion, use the comments box below to let me know!

The Dove is one of a rare breed – a ‘proper’ pub which is run by a beer enthusiast, the impressively bearded Roger Waters.  Dating back to the mid-1800s, the pub has, probably by virtue of its rather out of the way location,  managed to remain unaffected by the march of lager, jukeboxes and fruit machines, remaining a basic, bare-floorboarded two room bar which does not have gastro pub pretensions, but instead concentrates on serving six real ales at all times.  In recent years there have been a few ventures in the town that aim for a similar purpose – The Old Cannon being one, The Beerhouse being another.  Both of those pubs are also micro breweries as well, and the Cannon is very firmly in Gastro Pub territory.  But they both just miss the ‘real pub’ ambience – they just seem to be too self conscious in their attempts to be the real thing, and end up looking like they are trying too hard.

Our arrival saw the pub in a nice, half full state, with locals already enjoying the available ales. We were sharp enough to bag one of the scrubbed wooden tables, which was a shrewd move because the bar soon filled up with drinkers.  The ales that were ‘on’ constituted an interesting choice.  Woodfordes Wherry and Crouch Vale Brewers’ Gold are always available as the staple beers, but in addition we also noted Nethergate IPA at 3.5 percent and a very interesting 5.2 percent bruiser from Lowestoft, Green Jack Mahseer IPA.  One for later, I thought.

We began almost unanimously on the Nethergate.  All the beers here are kept fastidiously, Roger being apparently something of a font of beer related knowledge.  The pint was clear, amber-coloured and had a lovely frothy white head.  At this relatively low strength, it didn’t pack much of a punch, but had a nice, malty flavour and a reasonable finish of [apparently fuggles] hops.  As somebody who used to live in Huddersfield, now the apparent real ale capital of the UK’, you do get somewhat used to a certain style and the northern hop-monsters do make you a little blase when tasting anything else.  In order to have something to wash down with our beer, we also bought a pint of pork scratchings from the bar – not the plastic bags of Black-Country rind you often get in pubs, but big, majestic bits of salty crackling which were ideal for producing a continued thirst.

The problem with a sessionable beer such as the Nethergate is that you are tempted to drink it very quickly and then want another one.  This was the case and so I suggested to my fellow drinkers that we move on and try a pint of the Green Jack, a much more formidable beer.  The bar, although now full, was being served efficiently and waiting doesn’t seem to be a problem like it is in some pubs.  The other thing that I noticed, first with surprise, but then delight that such a reactionary step could be taken, was that The Dove has no lager taps on the bar.  Now I did not trouble myself to look into the fridges behind the bar, but I am sure a meagre supply of bottled lager may be available.  However, what a statement, and what a great one at that.  If you want to ensure that your pub is kept free of the kind of person who quaffs Carling habitually, then here is your template.

Now as I mentioned, The Dove does not ‘do’ food.  However, a short chat with landlord Roger later on revealed that a bespectacled stranger sat at the bar was, in fact, also a local butcher, and his pork pies were available from the bar, wrapped individually in greaseproof paper and with a little mustard sachet included.  We felt we had to continue our beery patronage of pork in its many, manifest forms, and so a pie each was procured.  They were quite excellent – firm, meaty, with good short pastry and little jelly to distract from the taste.  What a great drinking accompaniment – and luckily the Green Jack Mahseer IPA was strong enough to cut through the fatty pork.

Mahseer is a really great pint.  It tastes like all of its 5.2 percent strength – you feel a sense of respect for it in the mouth.  It is a strong, amber coloured pint with a creamy, tight head and a very long, almost American IPA kind of finish – probably because it has both English and American hops in the brew.  I would place it close to Adnams American IPA for taste and strength.
And so the evening carried on – although we were generally sensible enough to swap back to the sessionable Nethergate after one Green Jack.  Full marks to Roger and his team at The Dove.

Above: The tram station at mediacity, where the long exposure has resulted in a little artistic blurring of the people on the platform.

Above: The CBBC studios.  The shot is not a great one, because I took it ‘straight on’ as opposed to at an angle.  But I like the lead in that the floor mounted lights give it.  It could do with a little straightening up as well.

Above: Aargh!! The evening I shot these pictures, it was quite windy.  Whilst I was using my sturdy Manfrotto 190 tripod, this shot is slightly blurred because the camera moved imperceptibly during the long exposure.