Sam Pilgrim Big Air Invitational at The Cycle Show 2014

I know I know, its been a while!!!

Lots has been going on, The Tour de France has been to Yorkshire and we went to see it, The Tour of Britain came to Liverpool, and certain members of the club, mentioning no names ( Alison, Fran, Pauric) stalked the riders for three days!! The club is getting bigger, as is my waistline, the house is getting done(r) and me and the family have had a great summer doing non bike related activities!

I went to the Cycle Show at the NEC last weekend. I wasn't going to go this year as I have been for the last few religiously, but when the offer of a comp ticket from Madison came along I couldn't resist! The set up this year was different to the last few, showing how popular cycling has become in the UK. There were more stands to see, and definitely more people there! One thing I was pleased to see was a Big Air competition. The first time I went to the Cycle Show it was focused on MTB and BMX with hardly any road bikes, and there was always some kind of Dirt competition. I have attached a video that shows the nutters flinging themselves off the drop off and on to the jump!!

Too many to name them all!!! 

The riders who took part in the Competition with Sam Pilgrim were Sam Reynolds, Matt Macduff, Blake Samson, Chris Smith, Steve Geall ,Ray Samson, Matt Jones, Chopper, Sherwy Pasamonte ,Daryl Brown, Amir Kabbani, Tom Cardy, Charlie Watts, Ryan Nangle, Eric Walenta, Danny Pace and Marius Hoppensack. My interest in MTB may well have been rekindled! (Don't tell Mrs Palefish)

I did have a look around the stands too, and there were too many new bikes to photograph! however there were a couple of special ones. A certain Mr Wiggins winning TT bike, Marcell Kittels bike from the Tour of Britain and Vincenzo Nibalis winning Tour de France bike.

We also saw a couple of famous faces around the show, our favourite was Lord Sugar on the Pinarello stand. I managed to snap a great pic that looks like Dave and his Daughter Sian are giving him some advice!

I am going to do a photo post from the Tour at some point, when I have a spare couple of days to upload the Pictures to Blogger!!!

Watch this space ;-)

Cycle Show 2012

I struggle to accept that a year has gone by since I was last at the NEC drooling over the latest bike porn!

This year I was accompanied by 7 other Palefish CC lads. I drove and took Ken, Iain and Phil, and Paul also drove Scott, Pauric and Tim. I would like to say that The lads in the other car were given a picnic for the journey by Tims Fiance!! 

We met up at the NEC, My group were there first as we didn't stop for a picnic on the way, and as reward for getting there early we managed to see Olympic Silver medallist Lizzie Armitstead being interviewed by Dave Harmon.

Right next to the Stage was the stand for the Tour De Force. Sarah from the Loch to Loch ride was there and it was good to catch up and talk about the possibilities of doing the famous Tour route, one day!

My next destination was the Onimpex Bio Racer stand. I thought I would take the opportunity to talk to Ken about our order, and also it was a good chance for the lads to see what they had bought! Ken was great and explained how the kit was made, and the differences in fabric and pads used ( very interesting ) 

It should only be a couple of weeks now and then the club will be kitted out!

Next to the Bio Racer stall was probably the biggest, and definitely one of the busiest stalls at the show, Pinarello.
After Bradley's successful Tour the marketing team had gone to town, and I thought it was a great concept.

After a bit of mooching I came across old friends, Craig and Mike from Onix. It was great to see them so busy that they didn't have time to chat at first. It seems that the next few months are going to be really exciting for Craig, so watch this space for updates. We also spoke about taking the club ride up to the new Onix showroom and doing a ride from there into the Ribble Valley. More details to follow.

Rob Hayles actual Onix RH Pro! 

 Throughout the day we seemed to gravitate back to the Onix stand and as we did all the lads had a chance to meet Craig and talk about his bikes.

A Mike tool time master class!

Next to Onix was the C3 products stand. I bumped into someone else I had met before here. C3 were the main prize sponsors for the 10 minutes of hell Tunnel Time Trial last year. It was great to catch up with Paul, and nice to know he still reads the blog!

We spent the rest of the day roaming the halls taking in all the new technology and Bling.
Here are some of my favourites.

Colnago Ferrari Bikes

Olympic Gold Medal winning Bike

Tour Of Britain King of the mountains Jersey, and Kristian House's  bike above

Albero Contador's winning Vuelta Bike

Paul Smith Designed Lotus Condor

Palefish CC Colours?

That would look nice above the fireplace.

oops!

 We  also spent quite a lot of time in the Campagnolo Box. My personal favourite bling is the Super Record carbon groupset. Very light and extremely stylish.
As the day drew to a close we took advantage of the reduction in numbers and managed to get close to the Campanolo EPS test bikes. Paul was first, then Phil. We are not quite sure how it happened, but Phil managed to slip the chain off the rings! after a little fettling the chain was back on and we carried on abusing the extremely well engineered highly tuned piece of tuned engineering!

 I think my favourite bike of the show was the Demon Manhattan. Typically I didn't get a good photo of it, but here are some from the website. http://www.demonframeworks.com/

 I also liked the track bike, and the Copper plated finish.

So, that was the 2012 Cycle show. The Wiggo effect was definitely apparent, and the traders were commenting on the high level of interest from people new to cycling, long may it continue.

I haven't got any ride information to add this week. We didn't have a club ride on Tuesday, we decided to have a social at the 12th man instead, and have an opportunity to chat in comfort. It was well attended, and some great ideas about group riding safety were discussed. I couldn't make Thursdays ride as I was driving the length of the country, almost, and back to deliver my eldest Sons birthday present! And of course, we were at the NEC today!! Some of the lads went out yesterday, and on Tuesday I shall be back in the saddle too!!

When did a Cafe and back ride become a 50 mile spin?

Summer has definitely gone. Not that it was ever really here! Knee warmers, Arm warmers and even the winter jacket have had outings this week! What is good though is that there are still a high number of riders out in the cold wet windy dark night rides.

Mrs Palefish was working all weekend, so I had to rely on my fantastic in laws to look after the boys this morning. I promised to be back before lunch, which meant a 7am start for the club ride today.
There was a definite nip in the air this morning, in hindsight I should have worn some overshoes too, but I was only planning a quick Cafe and Back spin so didn't think it was necessary.

I was joined at the 12th Man by 11 other mad riders in the 4 degree chill. We rode up to Irby, then on to Thornton and Raby where we met up with Tim. We had an hour to waste until Eureka opened, so we rode through the lanes, including the Missing Link, or "Sh1t alley" as it is locally known, and on to Little Sutton, then back to the Cycle Path and never Ending Lane reaching Eureka just on 8.30. Anne questioned our mental state for being up so early, and was a little worried as she hadn't expected to have 13 people turn up at opening time, and had given her staff a lie in till 9o'clock! She coped fantastically and we were all warming up with steaming cups of coffee and the best pick of Cake in no time at all!

Palefish CC first at the bar!

Any excuse for an Instagram Photo!

We left Eureka as it started to fill up and headed back through Puddington, Burton and Ness, including Denhall lane climb, just for fun! After a dip down to Park Gate and the climb back out up Boathouse, we headed into Lower Heswall and decided it would be a good idea to go up School Hill, a jolly little bump that climbs up out of Lower Heswall!
From this point we started to shed riders peeling off as we rode near to their homes, and after a fast run from Heswall to Caldy and then a ride into the wind along the front at Hoylake 6 of us arrived back at the 12th Man, as planned at 11o'clock. It is a good measure of haw far we have come as a group of riders. When we first started, 25 miles was the cafe and back distance. Today we did more miles after the Cafe stop than before and the whole ride totalled 50 miles!

I popped in to the 12th Man to let them know that the noisy bikers who disrupt their car park three times a week were actually going to spend some money in their premises on Tuesday night, for the 2nd club social. They have kindly agreed to reserve a quiet corner for us to be rowdy in! If you are around the Greasby Area on Tuesday night why not pop in and join us?

It looks like next week will be a quiet week in the saddle for me. Social on Tuesday, Going to Newquay and back on Thursday, so I don't think I will make the Club ride, and the Cycle Show on Sunday in Birmingham! I wonder what goodies will be on display this year? Photo's and thoughts in the next update.

I have been messing about with a free web builder this week, as I think eventually the club will need a site, rather than the FaceBook group page. Have a look and feel free to comment, and offer advice. http://palefish.moonfruit.com/ (it needs Flash player so don't look at it on your Phone or iPad)
You will have also noticed the new Blog format. I really liked the old one, but it somehow became corrupted and didn't layout correctly any more. Again, any comments or ideas please let me know.