Had some nice meals out of late. I was in Paris, working, last week and had a wonderful meal, with good company at Aux Vieux Comptoir on Rue Lavandieres just behind Rue de Rivoli and near the Louvre. Despite being in a popular area, it has retained very reasonable prices, period, not just for Paris and yet retains the charm of a restaurant that has been largely unchanged for many years. It is my vision of a classic French restaurant/bistro. Its not formal, just a lovely atmosphere and very nice staff with high quality food. I highly recommend the Charcuterie, the Truffle risotto is a delight for starter and the Cafe Gourmand a lovely finish. They also know how to recommend a wine with your food.
In cycling matters my Fox F34 fork has turned up. looking forward to getting it fitted to the bike, when it arrives. Tubes should have been welded this last week so hopefully another couple of weeks will see it in the UK.
I've been trying the Rockshox Reverb seat post this weekend. Its nice and smooth and looks great. There is a little more travel on the lever than I would prefer to adjust travel, that might take a little getting used to for micro adjustments. My old KS i900 cable remote had better feel.
I've pimped my Hammerschmidt cranks for the new bike. Can't decide whether to leave them polished, and go with a Matt black/silver colour theme or go with a few anodised colour parts to spice it up.
One of my favourite looking bikes ever here, I must say, not usually one for copying but I think this is class..if only the F34 had a black fork crown instead of white..
I really like the look of Easton Haven wheels, but I think they have a few issues I'm really not sure about, spoke count and spoke strength, bearing fragility..I won't be using them but they do look good.
Also finally got a pretty foolproof and brilliantly simple CO2 inflator..highly recommended..
A very wet and cold ride on the AC29 demo again today on local trails. Getting to know it a bit better now and really looking forward to the new one
On a personal note I've had a little more motivation for work of late. I had a breakthrough and it's given me a bit of a lift. I don't like just 'turning the handle' so that's all good.
My eldest had the last xc running race of the season this weekend. She ran pretty well coming 9th, but that's a top ten in all the races and helped the team win the area overall prize. Really proud of her. Looks like they might be racing county next so competitive Dad here thinks he might get her doing some training...
and on that note she's out grown her bike so its time for her to step up..a year or so ago I bought a second had Curtis T1 Comp 11" trials bike. We had a 'fit' the other day and the top tube etc is all fine now..
Its a small and nimble frame if pretty heavy, being T45 steel, but its a lovely brazed frame from a very small scale maker and very cool. I figured I could restore it and use high quality secondhand parts to build it up light elsewhere. Children's bikes usually have pretty heavy kit on them built to a price, even aluminium ones.
She's not quite big enough for it with 26" wheels so I've got a set of 24" wheels to go on, XT hubs on Sun Ringle Singletrack rims. I'm I'm planning some Aerozine super light cranks (kindly donated by a good friend) modified to 150mm crank arm length and run them single ring, fit an XT cassette, derailleur and shifter, Rockshox SID world cup 100mm forks I've been saving from an old build, some flat bars at 580mm and a 50mm stem, white frame, new graphics and bam...then we can go and do some proper mountain biking. I think in a year or so she'll need the 26" wheels which will lighten it up a little bit further..
Youngest is stepping up to the Isla bikes beinn 20". Its a nice light bike for kids too.
i think that's it for now. Plan for the week is to try and get some training in, get up earlier and stay healthy...
