Month: March 2012
My new bike
At last, I’ve finally got a bike that’s worthy of my ability!
Well not really, if I can get close to its quality I will need a new one though so its more than enough for me.
I’ve been looking at a new bike for a while as my 5 year old Giant was a budget sub £500 bike that has done me well but if used more will need a few parts replacing including the chainset, rear mechs and brake/gear levers since I had an off. The wheels also could do with replacing due to wear and movement. When I priced all this it was IRO £600 with current parts pricing, always doable over time but still costly and with a few compatibility issues to boot.
So, in comes the RidetoWork scheme as promoted by the government as a way to encourage people to commute in ways other than cars and busses. This has the added advantage of allowing me to purchase a bike on instalments which would be taken from my wage prior to tax and NI contributions therefore saving me IRO 40% on the purchase price. So, a £1k bike would cost about £600, the same total amount that parts for my existing bike would cost. No brainer there then!
Whilst in London for the velo racing, I did get a morning to go into an Evans bike shop to check out a bike I had my eye on, just so I could get my leg over it and check out all the dimensions to be sure it was the right size. I was looking at a small sized frame which was a step down from the medium Giant I was currently riding, but I reckoned the lower back pain I was getting from riding, could be down to riding a bike frame to large for me, in length rather than height. I did some research on the frame I was buying so new what I was after and hey presto, I ended up buying it with my C2W vouchers.
Velo racing
So, finally get round to blogging how the race went in the velodrome.
Had a craicin weekend, all my shifts where evening shifts apart front the last, which meant I got to be there when the big finals where on and all qualifying had already taken place apart from Thursday. So many differing jobs to do, the role really exists of adhoc jobs within the velodrome as needed and some external maintenance work. Can’t really describe it too well as the event security is so high they don’t want us to pose a risk to ourselves really, fair enough I think, don’t want to be asking for trouble.
I rode the motorbike down Thursday and parked in the new shopping centre in Stratford. The new car park advertised a limited space bike park outside the entrance so I had no idea what to expect. Strangely enough, when I got there, there where no sign for the parking so it took a minute or two to discover them on foot, which also led me to discover the sign for motorbike parking….inside the building! They had put the sign on the door which opens inward…..didn’t think that through did they?
Other than that, I was thankful to find indoor parking with marked spaces for about 12 bikes. No locking rails of any sort so I just locked the bike to its own pannier rails so it couldn’t be wheeled away. Out of sight can be good as far as making it more difficult to browse for bikes but also gives the thieving beggars privacy to break whatever locks you have. Still, I didn’t have any problems and the parking seemed to be popular.
Great location for the parking to as its just a short walk from the main entrance each day and open as late as the park was, thankfully as Thursday was a 10.30 finish and that was the earliest one.
I’ve since read a lot about the bus issues in the press but really, what do people expect at events of this size. Even if allowed to walk across the park, it would take over 30 mins to dander from entrance to velodrome so a bus that took 15 wasn’t exactly an imposition even if it took 10 mins to get to you. At the end of the day, they had 4000 people exiting the velodrome at once looking for buses and in fairness, they where caught short, maybe expecting a fair few to have left already, but all this was sorted the very next evening and when I went out to look at the bus que just after ten, it was completely gone by 10.30 when I was checking again for staff.
All buses ran well, on time and regular with informative staff too. Volunteers didn’t take any different buses to the spectators so we had to arrive early to be sure we didn’t have any issues, but then the same option was open to spectators, they didn’t have to arrive at the last minute and where warned it would take 30 mins to commute across the park. Just can’t please some people.
As I’ve already said, I can’t detail my duties to much but one thing I did get to do was to stand trackside during many key events, albeit not watching the action fully as I had a job to do, but aware of what was going on. The best memory I will have of this race was the noise level at trackside when the Brits come out on track or really attack and the crowd get behind them. Sir Hoy described it as a ‘wall of noise’. He wasn’t wrong.
On my last day, I finished at 3pm and went up to the public concourse level to see what it was like up there. You would not believe how much quieter that wall of noise is up there, or more to the point, if you think it’s loud up in the stands then appreciate that your not even hearing half of it, it’s so much louder at track level!
Many have stated that they fear the noise level and atmosphere will drop with a non-cycling crowd during the competitions but even if it does, it will still be loud enough for the riders, just maybe not as much of an impact for the crowd.
I got to chat to the track builders and they showed me their private pics taken during the building and it’s an impressive bit of work i can tell you. I didn’t realise that the boards are actually 2×2 pieces of wood, I always thought ‘boards’ meant they where like floor boards we all use, maybe a cm or two thick, not 6cm deep. How on earth these all bend into shape and stay there is down to the craftsmanship of these chippys who have built tracks all over the world.
As always, there was an Irishman in the middle of it, we can only hope he takes his skills over to Ireland some day and builds a decent indoor velodrome for the Irish some day. It would contribute greatly to the riding scene there but obviously it costs a lot to keep a velodrome never mind build it, you have to maintain a constant 25deg in the room so the wood used to build the track doesn’t get damaged from expanding and contracting.
I was thankful for a floor in a mates bedsit about 10mins away on the bike. Keeping the Irish links over the weekend, he lived in Belfast Road which made me feel right at home. Hardly got to see him though. I was back about 11.30 each nite and just had time for a cuppa before bed after an 8 hour shift on my feet, something I’m not used to these days. All being well I will be able to avail of the same accommodation over the competition days as the alternatives aren’t great. I can camp a short bus ride away but there’s no facilities for parking my bike.
I’ve had dates confirmed for the road race and will be working the first weekend on the motorbike so just waiting to find out what dates they want me to work over the velodrome competitions now, hopefully they won’t coincide so I can do both and maybe get back home inbetween to see my wife. It’s a big commitment volunteering for these events but I’ve got it easy compared to some. I met people coming down form Leeds and Manchester who where already paying £80 a night for b&b and some had booked rooms for the competition period at over £150 a night, just so they could volunteer!
One thing i reckon they missed out on organising the volunteers was a forum dedicated to the volunteers so they could discuss things like accommodation facilities and maybe inviting venues to support them. There is a campsite close by as I mentioned, that is offering a secure area for volunteers only, at a reasonable price too. They state that campers can book but will only get access with accreditation or letter of offer of position, all of which sounds great but I can’t find anything official to confirm it.
So, now the long wait to July. I’ve got no holidays left and most of next years will be gone too. I usually buy an additional week from my employer so I can cover races like the Tour of Britain but I’m going to have to give that a miss this year as I’m covering the Olympics and won’t have the holidays to cover it. Shame really but something’s gotta give.
The racing season has already started and I will be covering my first races soon so more posts to come I’m sure. Maybe a bit more picture rich too.
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