WCR Survivor. Episode Number 7.

Our latest WCR race update finds Riders and their Machines In various states of repair.

Everything’s bigger in Texas. Richard pondering a quick roadside snack, perhaps.

Timewise, any WCR Grand Tour riders who harbour hopes of bettering Alan Bate’s Guinness record will need to consider themselves as nearing the halfway point of their quest this week. Realistically, a couple are still in the running. Mike Hall and Martin Walker could each theoretically make it to London in under 106 days.

Remember, of course, that Mr Bate’s record was a partly supported ride, and all of our racers are going solo. The previous best unsupported mark of 160 days set by Vin Cox is still very much within the grasp of most of our competitors.

More B(r)ooks. Grant Petersen’s “Just Ride”.

Lugged steel framebuilder lays it all out there for us.

The new book cropped from www.pushingthepedals.com

For nearly 20 years, American indie Rivendell has not only produced some of the finest lugged steel frames in the world, its chef d’équipe has also published some of the most consistently readable bike-related prose in the English language.

Since 1994, Grant Petersen’s Rivendell Reader has proved to be an inexhaustible mine of information, opinion and rhapsody on the general theme of two human powered wheels and their tangents.

And while The Reader hasn’t quite been replaced by the Rivendell “Blug” (their blog), the online format perhaps offers a flexibility and spontaneity not normally associated with print on paper. Which is kind of good, in a way, but sometimes there’s just no substitute for words on a page.

So now Grant Petersen has written a book.

Ai Weiwei’s “Bicycles Forever”

Dissident artist's love affair with bike undimmed after detention.

Here on the Blog, we have examined more than once the different ways in which two wheels function as Muse in the creative process. Denoting a clear expression of Human Freedom from the moment of its invention, the bicycle is a deep mine of material and inspiration for artists of nearly every hue.

The Canons of Photography, Painting and Film have of course all been enriched to a degree by Artists’ use of the bike. We only need to think of Graham Watson, Frank Patterson or BMX Bandits to see this. But it is perhaps that most contemporary of Art forms, the Installation, which has seen its practitioners in recent times finding the most novel and interesting ways to engage Beholders by framing, ahem, frames and other bike parts in new contexts.

French for Saddle.

Collaboration with l'Academie Française yields new nameplate

Magnifique. Our new Breuque Soixante Sept has been well received in tests with French people. photo: Alun Lennon

Regular readers of the Blog will recall that recently we touched on the rising popularity of Cycling in France. Paris now has several Brooks Dealers Of Excellence, and the MyBike show in February had a record numbers of visitors keen to learn about the possibilities offered by  la bicyclette, not just for professionals of the Peloton, but for urban commuters and theme ride enthusiasts as well.

Which has led to a growing interest in Brooks saddles there, a fact borne out favourably in the profit column of our Ledger Book.  Because of this, Brooks is pleased to announce that henceforth, all saddles leaving Smethwick for export to France will no longer bear the name “BROOKS”, but its nearest French equivalent, “BREUQUE”.

Week Six of the WCR Grand Tour.

Clouds, Linings, Etc.

Rarely a dull moment on the WCR Grand Tour. A lot of the news reaching us over the ether this week, however, hasn’t been terribly good. Whether this news is better than no news we can only guess, because a couple of our racers seem to have started Lent a little later than everybody and decided all of a sudden to give up Tweeting, Texting, Posting, etc..

Though nowadays, of course, there are limits to how Dark you can Go, and we’re glad to see via their trackers that the quieter riders like Mike Hall and Simon Hutchinson are still out there gunning for Alan Bate’s record. And so, to our news.

Brooks at Bespoked Bristol pt. 2

More Visual Flavour From Last Weekend's Handmade Bicycle Show In Bristol

If this photo didn’t already have a caption, we’d have run a caption competition.

The former Great Western Railway Terminus, now named Brunel’s Old Station, was designed in 1841 by one of the world’s most famous architects, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This year it was chosen as the marvellous location of Bespoked Bristol – UK Handmade Bicycle Show 2012.

And such was the event’s success that almost before the doors had closed on Sunday evening, visitors were already anticipating with eagerness next year’s installment.

Brooks at Bespoked Bristol 2012

Roving photojournalist Liz Seabrook took a look for Brooks

There’s no paint job quite like a Pegoretti paint job

Over the weekend hoards of cyclists hungry to see beautiful handmade bikes headed to Bristol for Bespoked 2012. Saturday alone saw a massive 2,500 rammed into Brunel’s Old Station all grappling to pick the brains of the 80 exhibitors.

Bespoked is a festival unlike any other in the cycling world. It is a place where companies – no matter how well established – come together with a shared passion for the handmade, keeping production close to hand and bespoke perfection.

Fahrradies Hameln

No Rats here.

A Vintage Ambrosio laced to, ahem, a rather apt six inch diameter piece of vinyl.

The town of Hameln, as we all know, is famed chiefly for its Pied Piper, who back in the Fifteenth Century or thereabouts and armed with a magical flute, enticed all of the local children away with him, never to be seen again. This dastardly act was his way of meting out revenge upon the adult citizenry of Hameln who had refused to pay for his services as rat catcher par excellence at some unspecified time earlier.

Anyway, nowadays if anybody is doing any luring in Hameln, it’s Carsten Slabon at Fahrradies with his magical array of the finest in English leather saddle work. And it seems that neither Man nor Child is immune to their charms.

Forget Personal Hygiene. Grand Tour Update Number Five.

Killer Bees, Dangerous Winds, and the Taj Majal. What a week!

Beard Experimenter and Serial Non-Showerer Paul Ashley Unett. Photo BBC.

As we mentioned before the start of the WCR Grand Tour, the Guinness Record Book does not differentiate between supported and unsupported attempts at Fastest Circumnavigation by Bike. Nor does it have a special category for riders who go for a very long time without washing. Which is a shame, because if they did we’re sure we’d have some good news for one of our racers this morning.

Brooks Bicycling Bandwagon Budget Bulletin

Alas, this could be more expensive, if only it required more components

With the World Cycle Racing Grand Tour underway, we are reminded once again that circumnavigating the earth by bike is not just an objectively admirable undertaking, but an expensive one.

Because of this, the riders taking their tilt at Alan Bate’s Guinness World Record are assisted by sponsors to help cover the costs of gear, flights, visas, insurance, gear, accommodations, and of course, gear. Not to mention spending cash to cover the steady stream of bills arriving in their letterboxes while away. Did we mention gear?

An unhurried circumnavigation can run to comfortably around 30,000 US Dollars, and not many of the Fast Trackers arriving back in London this summer will have had outgoings substantially less when they take stock of their trip’s ledger book.

Which set us to wondering. How much money would we need to jump from a standing start into full membership of some other cycling niche group?