Laurent Fignon, two times winner of the Tour de France died two years
ago today. He won the Tour in 1983 and 1984, he also won the Giro
d'Italia in 1989. On 31 August 2010 at the age of 50 he died, losing his
battle against cancer. Tragic.
He'll always be remembered with great fondness and respect here at the small office. We liked his style, both on and off the bike.
Throughout these summer months we have witnessed some great sporting
moments, not just in cycling out on the roads of Europe, but at the
Olympic Games in London. Heavyweight performances from true sporting
champions. But more on those later.
Today we pay our respects and
remember Laurent Fignon - a true champion, a real heavyweight, and one
hell of a classy bike rider.
Well .... there it is. We're almost ready to press the button that will re-ignite the small office blog after a long summer break. Just need to get to grips with the new blogger dashboard, then it's all systems go.
So - now you can stop nattering us to get our arses in gear and do something!!
Before we begin, this will be the last entry until the beginning of May - we're away again.
*Edit* Best scratch that and say instead that it'll be the beginning of June before we're back posting to the blog. We were back for a week but now we're off again. I'm beginning to get confused where my home really is - but, such is life. See you in June.
So, just been giving the older one of my bikes a good once over this afternoon. It got a thorough cleaning, I gave the rear wheel a re-truing because a couple of spokes had worked a bit loose after the winter pounding it's been given, and then gave the gears a good lubing. I spent a bit of money on it before the winter began, I was thinking of maybe buying another winter bike but decided in the end that I couldn't part with my 'old faithful' bike. Now I'm really glad that I didn't because the bike rides absolutely perfect, the frame could do with a refurb but all the components are almost immaculate, perhaps the rear derailleur will have to be replaced at some point, which isn't surprising after the miles it's done on the bike. I can't imagine how many gear shifts that derailleur has done but it's got to be in the tens if not hundreds of thousands - surely. They say that Campagnolo never wears out, it just wears in. And I tend to agree with that because very rarely do they miss a shift.
Aluminium frame, carbon forks. Campag throughout - gears, nine speed shifters and brakes, ITM stem, Cinelli bars, Selle Italia saddle and a set of Rubino's to roll on. It has 52 / 42 chain rings with a 12 / 27 block at the back. It rides like the wind and holds the road like it's on rails. The winter bike .... the silver machine.
That's an old photo, it's been posted on the blog before somewhere but it hasn't changed much in appearance since then. That's pretty much how it looks today, but it now has different pedals and tyres to the ones in the pic.
I have absolutely no idea how many miles I've ridden it, can't remember just exactly how many years I've owned it, maybe 12, it was built brand new for me. But me and that bike have been known to ride 150 plus miles in a day on several occasions, and many more times in the low 100's. It feels more comfortable to ride now than it did the day I bought it - that's a fact.
The newer bike I ride is better in almost every department, and so it should be for the money it cost, but still, that old bike takes some beating. It doesn't climb as well as the new one, and it's not quite as sure footed on the fast descents, but get it out on a long undulating road and it gives you a wild ride when you put the hammer down. It's super smooth, it never gets dropped when the pace hits the high revs, it gets up the road as quick as the rest I ride with - fair enough, that's where I come in, because I'm the engine. But you can't motor on at a high pace without good kit.
I love that bike ... I really do.
Do you want to ride? See yourself going by? The other side of the sky? I've got a silver machine
It flies, out of a dream It's antiseptically clean You're gonna know where I've been ... on my silver machine ....
Only one song to describe my winter bike - and that's it.
So I've decided it's not going to get stored away all through the summer months this year, it deserves a good airing out on the road now and again. The flashy Italian bike will definitely get the most use in the coming months, but the silver machine is going to get the chance to sparkle in the sunshine, more than it did last year.
Did I already say how much I love that bike? .. well, I'll say it again. I reallydo love that bike. :-)
