‘Tis the season of the Fêtês, when every little village digs out the long tables and benches, usually stored by the Mairie in an abandoned barn or church, goes hunting for the bunting and gets ready to party! But this isn’t about those because there are other events that take place over the summer of a more musical nature and here are just three of them from July this year…
CSF Picnic
This musical evening was in aid of Cancer Support France. The weather was wonderful, the food was great (well it was if you had packed something nice in your picnic basket), but the stars of the evening were the numerous talented musicians that provided the entertainment. The Free Drinks Band, Rag Mama Rag, Neil Innes, Gaynor PUGH and many more…
CSF Picnic
Stanley Sisters – Saux
The Stanley Sisters
The Chateau d’Aix near Saux hosts a Marche Gourmande every Wednesday evening in the height of summer, with various vendors offering food and the Chateau supplying the wine. An additional attraction is the musical entertainment that is always provided. In this case by The Stanley Sisters…
Stanley Sisters – Saux
Le Boulve Garden Party
This evening garden party was another “bring a picnic” event. The stars of the musical entertainment were The Stanley Sisters (again) and a Sax Quartet. At the end of the evening all the musicians and singers got together to perform an unrehearsed rendition of Baker Street.
I’ve always had some connection with push bikes – from the early days having to cycle to school each day. I even had one at University in Durham and used to cycle in from Langley Moor when it was too wet for the motorbike.
I did quite a bit of running when living in Sussex but got into mountain biking when I had some issue with my knee. First MTB was a Specialized Stump Jumper – front suspension only and V brakes (rim brakes). This was fine, but as I used to ride in all conditions I found the brakes limiting in wet/muddy conditions. So wanted to upgrade (like you do) to a bike with discs and full suspension (as that was supposed to be better) – that was an Ellsworth Isis (a £3k bike when new) which I had for 20+ years and only recently sold. In retrospect I think the frame size was a bit big for me and I didn’t really need the full suspension. In the old days I used to time my routes and have heart rate monitor etc and it was faster than the hardtail, but only because you could sit down and keep power on over roughish ground. Brakes were great though.
Over here I did some MTB stuff but for some reason switched to road riding and put some road tyres on it.
Then when my American friend Roger GALE was selling up I found my self the owner of a “racer” – a Specialized Allez Sport with ridiculously thin tyres running at bullet hard pressures, loads of gears, drop handlebars, alloy frame and carbon fork. A kind of upper entry level road bike. Compared to the MTB this was a revelation – much lighter and easier to climb hills – but the most surprising thing was that it was more comfortable so it was easier to ride longer and further. Doesn’t make a lot of sense as everything about the road bike is stiffer and harder. Maybe just the design and I think the frame size (Medium) seemed to fit me better.
Have been using it quite a bit recently as I’m trying
to keep up some sort of exercise regime and it’s too hot for running – I
even find cycling cooler than walking in this 40 degree heat.
Things I don’t like about it…
It’s dangerous ! Because 1. all riding is on the road (traffic risk) and 2. in my normal riding position (on top of the bars) it is not an instant grab to get on the brakes and when you do they have some effect on the speed of the bike, but not much. As usual I’ve been looking at other options…
There seem to be a hybrid category of bike (sometimes called trainer or fitness bikes) which are similar to a racer but have MTB style flat bars and conventional at your fingertips controls – and are available with disc brakes. They also tend to have bigger rims and tyres. I should add that my interest in riding is just as another form of exercise (that can be fun as well) and I never just go out for a ride – I always head to someone’s house or a cafe and then come back – typically half an hour each way (Prayssac) – Montcuq is 45mins and I think Cahors might be an hour.
So I’ve specced my new hybrid bike –
Lighter than an MTB – no suspension, not as many gears.
Easier to ride than a racer – flat bars, more upright, fatter tyres.
Plus disc brakes.
Seems like a great concept to me but doesn’t seem to be catching on…
When to a dealer today to check out frame sizes etc. They had loads of bikes in stock except the hybrid model I was interested in, but they did have one in for servicing that we looked at. Decided on spec and size and put it into their system – not available in my size in the whole of France. Possibly an issue with the French being generally smaller the XL frame size is hard to find.
Getting one shipped over from the UK…
Sirrus X Carbon
Bike arrived more or less OK – broken reflector on one of the wheels and a couple of small dings in one wheel rim.
Looks amazing – carbon frame which looks black but is very dark purple. Other features… Flat bars – more upright and comfortable riding position Right size frame 1 x 11 speed gears – no front cogs to mess about with Disc brakes Hybrid tyres – not as chunky as MTB but a lot bigger than the “racer” rubber bands Shock absorbing spring built into the headset
Disc Brakes
For low rolling resistance and minimum effort maintaining speed the old bike was better – mainly due to the tyres, for everything else this one is brilliant. Fantastic brakes, comfortable riding position, no bent neck, one set of gears – no fiddling about changing chain rings I’ve only used gears 4-11 (11 is top gear). Much better cornering and confidence on the bigger tyres. Better ride. And a fantastic gear change – just flick, click, next gear – seems to be assisted going up and down. No fiddling about just click and go.
So we spent an hour or more plotting bearings on a map to places we couldn’t find – there were cryptic clues “water comes out of the ground near under Uber” was one. But the bearings were all taken from the lunch stop and we didn’t know where that was. Eventually with help we found all the places and set off with a target distance and speed to achieve – but with no time to plan the best route. At each place you had to find something and then solve a problem to unlock a combination lock and collect an arm band. At some places there was a challenge – ride around an obstacle course balancing an egg, pot as many pool balls in one minute, wine tasting, crazy hill climb and swimming for the clue in Montcuq lake. I didn’t try the hill climb – most people did and crashed. Lunch stop was in the middle of nowhere – and we couldn’t be sure where. I was leading and following a trail on the map which I thought would get us close. But it entered a wood and petered out. Simon decided to bash on through the wood and within 50m we were there. Emerging from the trees to the surprise of the others. More clues at lunch time and more route plotting. No idea who won!
Long weekend in Paris with Lucy – organised by me this time! I had been to Paris a couple of times before but far more years ago than I care to remember and had fond memories of the experience. So I thought a trip to Paris in the spring time would be a nice thing to do. I could and would have gone on my own but it is usually more interesting to go with someone else and the first person I asked was Lucy and she said yes.
Our little apartment (AirBnB) was perfect and the location was ideal, near Montmartre. We had three full days and managed 25,000 steps per day and covered all the main sights. The weather wasn’t very encouraging but we managed to avoid getting wet. Lucy insisted on visiting the Haute Couture Boutiques, which seemed to be frequented by orientals. And she managed to find some lovely summer shoes for Bella (not from Prada though).
Overall I did feel a little let down because the Paris I remembered was exotic and foreign and exciting. Having lived in France for 15 years the novelty seems to have worn off, which is a shame. On an earlier visit the Pompidou centre looked new and exciting, now it is looking a bit old and tired – like many of us I suppose.
Nevertheless it was wonderful to spend some time with Lucy and we had a great time. Although Lucy wasn’t very impressed when we stopped to chat to some artists in Montmartre and they thought Lucy was my girlfriend!
Earlier in the year, I sold my Scorpa Trials and Scorpa T-ride and replaced them with the KTM 250 EXC, on the basis this would be a do-everything bike. However, having gained a reasonable amount of experience with the KTM I have come to realise that the only thing I am reasonably competent at is low speed balance and control. These are important skills when negotiating difficult terrain on a very tall heavy bike. Once the speed gets up the KTM comes into its own and loves to go fast, providing an amazingly comfortable and controlled ride. But at low speed it is very easy to dump it on the floor – something I have done a few times. Trying to hone my low speed skills further on the KTM by riding around and over obstacles in the garden is just too difficult – what I really need for this type of training is a trials bike!
After some research (as usual) I found a Montesa 4RT 250 4T – the same bike as ridden by Toni BOU (well I think his might be a bit special, but has the same name). Went to see it and it all looked good except that it wouldn’t start. The seller was very annoyed because “it always starts first time”. After an hour or so of checking the usual things and failing to get any life I left him to it. However, I did contact him later and make an offer as the rest of the bike looked good and surely it can’t be that hard to fix?
We agreed a deal and I bought the non-running bike. After some checks I traced the problem to the high pressure fuel pump – it is a fuel injected bike – which was completely dead. the genuine Honda replacement was very expensive but I managed to find an equivalent off another Honda model. Now running fine.
Stripped 4RT
Stripped the rest of the bike for cleaning and checking and all still OK, but when attempting to ride it, the clutch was dragging making it very hard to control and impossible to select neutral. Changed gearbox oil and removed 2 of the 6 clutch springs to no avail so ordered a new clutch pack. Once I had fitted that it ran perfectly.
My brother Chris came to visit recently and was rather taken with the 4RT (he only has road bikes) and spent quite a bit of time riding around the garden, doing figure of 8s etc. But then he tried to move up to some log hopping and it all went wrong…
