Sustenance and Saddle Sense – Why a Brooks is like a well balanced meal. By Tuula Rebhahn
Every Brooks saddle owner has had this experience. You pull up in front of the store, school or work and some non-cyclist approaches you to gawk at your saddle. It’s sleek, they say, but where’s the padding? You couldn’t pay me to sit on that thing!
On our tour through the southern United States, my partner Hannah and I have these interactions frequently. But the odd looks we receive outside the grocery store are nothing compared to those we receive inside. Passing on the fried chicken, ramen noodles and “sports” drinks, we stock up on eggs, prunes and salad greens, then refuse the plastic bag at the checkout line. We know we’re marking ourselves as weirdos – but hey, we already did that when we walked in with spandex and metal in our shoes.
The bike is heavy and the pace is quick—driven by expressions of excited freedom and adventure. Months of anticipation and enthusiastic strategy is finally deployed into the unknown. A saturating realization of what I have just embarked on imbues every thought and translates into explosions of pedal cycles. The Southern Tier of the United States is stoically awaiting my progressive arrival. The only obligations I possess are finding the strength to complete this voyage and experiencing the wondrous phenomena which are literally in front of me.
Click the pic to browse through the entire first edition of Bunyan Velo in fullscreen
The past few years have seen an ever-growing number of new publications vying for the attention of people who like to read in-depth stories about cycling. And the fact has not been lost on most editors that these readers also tend to like looking at well taken cycling photos as well.
On your own. This year’s Transcontinental will demand much independent thinking of its riders.
If you were one of the thousands who avidly followed the heroics of Mike Hall et al last year in their race around the globe during the WCR Grand Tour, then we have news of a very special forthcoming event that should be of interest to you.
Two weeks of two-wheeled, human-powered, sleep-deprived talking to yourself, with little but Mother Nature and the purr of chain sliding over cog to keep you company along roads sandwiched by the Thames and Bosphorus. “Unmatched… Unconstrained…”, but perhaps most importantly, “Unsupported.”
Welcome to the Quick Energy Transcontinental Race.
If you’re keen on picking up glossy material issuing forth from one of the world’s venerable publishing houses specializing in cycling press, then you may have likely already come across our new ad campaign that focuses on the Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle journey.
While shooting this campaign, we made a video that will be released very soon chronicling the path taken by former Brooks employee Andrew Hunter and his friend Adam Ferguson as they made their way from Cornwall to Caithness.
During this adventure we managed to inconvenience Adam, by way of his unpacking, so that we were able to shoot a short video to explain the details of our new pannier bags and how they function.
If you would like to be notified the moment the full-length video of their journey is released, please register for updates at www.enjoyeverymile.com.
Excuse our French. A pair of knees at 2011′s Anjou Vélo Vintage. Photo by Edouard Sepulchre.
At the end of last year, we took a run through some of the finer cycling themed calendars available for 2013. If you got your hands on one of them we have a couple of dates for you to circle, or place exclamation marks around with a big black marker.
Actually, these dates are worth circling on any 2013 calendar, regardless of whether it has pictures of bicycles or not.
Nor in fact does the marker have to be black; let us stress again that these dates are worth keeping in mind.
Dave’s next door neighbour Marsha has been assigned the plant watering duties while he’s away.
Dave Gill’s tour around North America has come to our attention by grace of his fine pictures and equally fine stories from the road. He has been on the move since late last year, and fastidiously checks in with daily blog or photo updates. He also has a fine piece of leather under him, and got in touch with us recently to tell us of a narrow escape he had just before setting off…
We’ve seen this signpost before! WCR racer Juliana made it to the other side in one piece.
When Yorkshire’s Mike Hall made it over the finish line in first place earlier this year, the media frenzy surrounding the WCR Grand Tour began to die down a little. And when Irishman Simon Hutchinson rolled in to take the final podium spot, most people may have reckoned that tales of world circumnavigations by bike were done with for 2012.
Sean McAdam has been in touch with us recently with photos from this year’s Pendle Witches Vintage Velo ride. The PWVV is cosy charity sportive through the Lancashire countryside that is held each year, with a hot homemade pie and peas waiting at the finish, washed down with a few pints of real ale.
Registration for 2013 has already opened. We let Sean from Pendle take up the story…
We’ve heard of stones sufficiently hot to fry eggs on, but brewing coffee is another level.
Benedict, Chris, Daniel, Edward, and Shamoon got in touch earlier this year. The five final year students at Imperial College London had in mind one last memorable team road trip before their university days became a distant memory, replaced by the sort of days where you have to get up well before two in the afternoon.
