After hatching the great idea of a trip to London the date were booked, the riders sorted and the car racked borrowed. As the day grew near the weather reports looked increasingly grim so surprisingly the list of riders got shorter and then some dropped out due to technical bike issues. However some people would not let the idea fade and would brave whatever London had to throw at them.

Alarm, wake up with hangover, scratch bits, breakfast, pack bag, fix a flat, pack bike, pack car, take shower, clean teeth, dress, fill up with fuel, drive to west London, short pee stop and the ride was on.

Heading from Ealing Broadway directly into the belly of the beast of London and Oxford Street at that, was an eye opener for the trackdropouts riders to how busy the traffic was going to be on this a Saturday mid afternoon ride.

After a short coffee stop in Soho Square to meet up fellow trackdropouts rider Chris Punk and fellow fixed gears riders, Alex, Ben and Dave from London the group was set and were off.
Alex our friend and local guide for the day had an idea in mind about the route and places to see which included, Soho Square, Carnaby Street, Piccadilly Square, Regent Street, Oxford Street. Then out West past Olympia, Harrods, The Royal Albert Hall, then on to the Channel four building for a short photo opportunity.
At this point we had been lucky to miss the bad weather by taking cover in Sex shop don’t we all? Chris punk’s friend worked in here surprise surprise and that is the real truth and the one I’m sticking to. After this short break we headed back out into the now damp ish London streets.

The group headed on our way to East London via Fulam, Chelsea, Kings road, parliament Square, The Houses of Lords, along the river Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral up to Spitalfields market on to Shoreditch for a beer or two then some great food but bad services in one of the famous curry houses on Brick Lane.

After all this riding food and drinks you would think that we were about ready to call it a day and head home well that was not a option as the lads from fixed mag and 14BikeCo had put on the London premier of the new fixed gear film “The Revival” The film was fun and it was also great to hook up with old friends Juliet Elliot from Charge bikes and Ian Sansom from fixed mag.
After chilling and watching the film for about one hour it was time to jump on the bikes again and this time head North to Camden for out last drink before the long dark ride back to the car in West London!
OK on route to North London we all got very wet, but what the hell it had been a great day and one that I and the rest of the crew would love to do again soon.

[caption id="attachment_390" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Yo loving it in 14bikeco"][/caption][caption id="attachment_393" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Our guide for the day on the left Alex and happy Yohei on the left."][/caption] « Older Entries

This was a few months ago, James, Adam, George, Andy and Myself all hopped on our bikes for a Sunday slog to Cheddar, we pretty much picked the worst day as it was the beginning of super rain season. We arrived to find the village pretty unoccupied so we all got a roast dinner and dried off.

By the time we got home, it was pretty dark and we were all soaked to the bone, Andy has a Sauna so we all got macho and had a free for all, the winner took the heat.

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60Miles

Emi Rides with the MASH Boys, 3 hours to see his mother, I suggest you do the same…

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ATP in Minehead. indie noise madness.

shellac, lightning bolt, battles, josh t pearson, the drones, papa m, j mascis, mars volta, the breeders, fuck buttons, all kinds of mad things.

ricky powell slideshow: ‘homeboy throw in the towel’

stay up homeboy…

josh pearson was the best.

there were flumes; one called the spacebowl. it was amazing.

i’d like to thank our sponsor but we haven’t got a sponsor.

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Shame to see you go man, thanks for hanging out this summer…

Good luck in the future, safe flight home and we hope to see you again some day.

Team Dropouts.

X

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Guys got some nice photographs, go check it!

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New Issue of RUGGED

Has featuring a one page article on the Bike Film Festival and four pages of images from a visit to Oskaka fixed gear.

Pick it up free from typical stores like “COOSHTI”

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Could never get on with messenger style bags so i thought i would try one of these, Thanks Japan.

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So some of you may know that I recently went on a little trip to the US. The main destination was the college town of Gainesville, Florida and the reason was The Fest 8.

Before I left I knew there was a big cycling scene in Gainesville, primarily due to the big student population but also a large D.I.Y/underground scene. The Fest itself is run and organised by independent punk label No Idea records.

The first thing I noticed as soon as we arrived was the abundance of fixed gear riders. I’d have to estimate a guess but I would say out of all the people I saw riding for the 4 days were we’re there, at least 3/4 of them were riding fixed. I spent the first day checking out EVERYONE that rode past us and I’ve never seen so many unique bikes in such a short period of time.

So where does everyone get the bikes and bit from? Well there are about 8 or 9 bike shops in central Gainesville and it’s not a big city so you are spoilt for choice. On University Avenue, which runs through the centre of the city, there are 3 or 4 shops alone. Spin Cycle first caught my eye, with the little Fuji tent out front with a selection of some nice old road bikes stacked up. Then there is also Recycled Bicycles which is much smaller but as the name suggests they stock some tasty secondhand treats.

Now you may all be asking…..why is riding here so popular here? Well…..it’s flat……VERY flat. From one side of the city to the other you’re unlikely to encounter anything that we’d classify as a hill. Secondly, the roads are HUGE. There’s plenty of room for both drivers and cyclist to share to roads without conflict and after driving there for a week, I also noticed how much more laid back drivers were…..I didn’t see anyone driving aggressively once.

I have to say I was a little depressed on my return to the UK. I was keen to get out on my bike straight away but it was a drastic change from the +30C weather I was enjoying in Florida. I’ll be heading out next year again though and I will be so very tempted to take my bike with me next time so I can explore a bit more of the city.

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I woke up today and needed to clear my head. Rain City.

Fresh Air.

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