Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned.....

Hello all.  Forgive me, it's been 4 months since my last confession. Reason? Couldn't be bothered. That and our interenet connection was busted. Consiquently uploading pics wasn't happening. After 4 months complaining we've finally got a new wire fitted.
So since last posting heres a round up of events Burley:

Built Charge Plug into a charming drop bar sunday bike (pics will follow).
Raced in the Chain Reaction Enduro race involving 35 miles across the Long Mynd in south Shropy in blistering heat. Had one of the biggest crashes of my life. I landed on the bike and cracked 2 ribs. Finished the race like a hero and took two weeks of painful sleepless nights to recover. What a guy. My son asked me if ribs help us to watch telly. I told him they do.
Turned 41 and had a top weekend riding with old friends across old haunts. Ate meat and drank brown ale.
Started my mini/midi ramp build project. See pic attached. Hope to have it finished in a week or two. Full body cast to follow.
Bought a new car for 5 grand...
Rode my Brompton folding bike from work the long way to Piccadilly station in Manchester to avoid "The Troubles".
Did art, see pic.
Will post more soon, but for now bed. I leave you with some pics.

It now has its full skeleton in place awaiting surfacing. I hope to eventually be able to leap the hedge.

Thats not going to be enough paper,

Rad Dad appears in Classic BMX magazine.

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Hello once again. Well its been an emotional week as far as computers are concerned. A week ago I managed to empty a glass of very nice red into my lap top and then our BT home hub thingy melted.
We've got a new home hub 3 now with what appears to be some kind of broadband streaming fluctuater built in. The lap top is dried out/sober and serviced. The lesson for us all is BACK YOUR SHIT UP! I have a glam external hard drive now but info wise I nearly lost everything . Looking into getting a Mac Book and drinking white wine.
Art wise; not much to report just sketches.
Bike wise; the triple speed bonty is actually a double speed (or twin) with the middle gear acting simply as a shifting aid. Works a treat though with the 32x16/19 speed being spot on for local single track. Romantic pic attached.

Did  a trip with the family to Llangollen last week to ride the steam train through the mountains. I now want to move there. Its only 25 miles away...

ARTCLUB! Evening out.

Ok, so Dan decided that last thursdays ARTCLUB! should be an evening out. So we packed our pencils into his sensible family car and headed to Telfords warehouse bar in Chester.
In a snug DJ friendly area under the restaurant we found tables laid out with blank canvases for anyone to come and do some doodlin' on. After much shuffling of locations and sharpening of pencils Dan got stuck in...he'd only come with a plan! 
So I just drew some stuff as it spilled out. Not very good I'm afraid but might be a line worth following.
Dans was very good mind...the twat.

Dan being good.

Mine

Mine as well...

Triple speeder!

Ok, so the new ride is developing nicely. I wanted to do something different with this build but I seem to have exausted every sub genre there is in mountain cycling. I've done fixed, single speed, full sus, front sus, sub £20 build, 29er, 20in, 24in, flat bar, riser, drop bar, swept, rigid, road, the list probably goes on...or so I thought. On a recent vist to our local trail centre up at Llandegla I became aware that even though I had a wide spread of gears at the back (nine), I shifted in groups of two or three. Double shifts wherever possible. Not utilising the whole block. Now Llandegla is a natural home to the full sus but I've fancied riding my single speed up there through the winter...but my knees just wouldnt cope. Hey presto! The triple speed was born and with it another pointless and untapped genre in mountain biking. That's right! Have you had enough of the limited scope of single-speeding but don't want the faff of more than say, maybe 3 gears? Then the triple gear (or Tripler as it'll will surely become know) is the one for you! Simply tell the shifter "Fast, Medium or Slow please!", which are realistically the only gears you ever need. You'll all want one next year! See images... Still no wheels though.

Ok we have wheel now...and the shifting works!

stuffffff

Hello again.

Rad Dad finished at last and accepted by the magazine. It was a tuffy but I'm pleased with the result.

Spring! Sprung!

Got two rides in today. One on the Santa Cruz at Hales bowl and one on the Plug single speed.
Spring is here!!!
Check me out trying to be RAD!

Love this ramp!

Dave K crashed to head, I crashed to leg.

Back again!!!

Back once again. Been fighting redundancy but at last have the situation resolved. The company I work for are making big cuts and sadly that means friends out on their arse. If anything it makes you keep looking for alt self employment.
Artwise, well a couple of projects on the go. See below...

First off got this (pre Trek) Bonty Off Road frame and I'm cobling it together out of bits found at Valiant Cycles HQ. Not sure if I want to run the curly gentlemens bars, we'll have to wait and see. Its a slow work in progress...be nice to have a fresh ride for spring though.

Next up, I landed a regular gig doing a 'toon for Total Tattoo magazine. Another robot based idea. The magazine supply the text as chosen from their forum and I illustrate it. Going with Inkbot and can see some T shirts on the horizon.

Got my iphone running-no small miracle for a tool like me.

Got a deadline for second full page cartoon for the Australian Classic BMX magazine on monday (saturday at time of writing) and haven't even started yet!

STREWTH!

Back in a bit.