You know when something is up, but you just cannot put your finger on it?

As the post title says "You know when something is up, but you just cannot put your finger on it?"... well upon my first ride out on my Silverback Synergy Fat I put my finger or should I say fingers straight on the problem. Omg the brake levers are the wrong way around. Now after a few rides I find I am continually  going for the rear brake and confusing it for the front. It does nothing for your street cred when you are trying to show off and do a skid and whip your bike around, when in reality each time I almost go over the bars lol.

Just some of the Peterson clan. I love these guys

This immediately brought back memories of my trip to Ogden Utah in the US of A to meet up with my awesome friend Mark Peterson and of course his absolutely fantastic parents.

You see upon my visit Mark had arranged for me to get a loaner bike. A Trek Stasche 29'er from a very kind gentleman named Matt Howard who runs The Bike Shoppe. The bike was practically brand new and was fitted with a dropper post. This was my first go using a dropper and it converted me, so that all my bikes run droppers, yes even my road bike.

Here is Matt and da man that is Mark Peterson

Anyhoo for those of you in the know you will know that not only do American's drive on the wrong side of the road, but also their  brake lever set up is slightly different to here in the UK. The left lever is the front and the right is the rear in the US, whilst we are the other way around. I wasn't aware at the time and even when I had discovered forgot. Now yeah you will probably think "It's no big deal", however imagine flying down a trail trying to keep up with your good buddy who happens to know the trail and coming to a tight right hand turn, then grabbing for the brakes. "Oh crap" you confuse which is which and  your front wheel starts to wipe out. Mark's friend Lance was following close behind and he found it hilarious when I shot off into the brush. Thee stuff I went into reminded me of those tumble weeds you see on the old western movies. It was a case of "agghhh" "oooooh! and as I came to a stop in the middle of this scrub a "phewwww!". Now that could have been so much worse.

The following day I was recounting my near miss to Mark's dad Cliff and he said "you do know there are rattle snakes in them there hills". Really well I had no intention of going in there again. Saying which as I recall whilst out on a steady upward ride up into the hills I encountered a switch back which was tough to manoeuvre due to my prosthetic side. Luckily there was a tree to grab on to so I could stop and hold myself up. Unluckily when I pushed off, "ahhhhh"  not enough momentum. I can't unclip whilst riding with my prosthetic side so ended up tumbling down the side of the bank. It was funny as I was more worried about Matt's bike so as I fell I tried to hold it out and protect it. Mark immediately stopped and shouted "Hey are you ok dude", once he got my reply "Yeah I'm good" he burst out laughing.

So getting back to the Silverback Synergy. At moment it is fitted with Shimano Deore's with 180mm discs. To be honest even if the brakes were the right way around I would have thought about changing the set up, the Shimano's just don't seem to have enough power or bite. 

Silverback Synergy with wonky brakes

Last year I bought a set of Sram Guide CR's for my Ibis to replace the old Elixr's which snapped at the master cylinder on two occasions. Anyhoo the new Sram rear brake has been sticking from the start so this has put me off going for that brand. Now my Hope's on my Sandman, they are another story. They have never failed, plus you can pretty much buy every component separate if you need to replace something. So I have decided to opt for a pair of Hope Race Evo 4's along with 180m floating rotors. They don't come cheap, coming in at just under £180 per unit, but at least I know I won't be grabbing the wrong lever and going for a trip over the bars and that the Hope's have great stopping power.

Very Special Birthday Wishes

It's always nice to receive Birthday wishes. I have been particularly lucky this year as even though I tried to keep my birthday under wraps, (well I am fast approaching half a century) one or two of my friends at work remembered the day and signed a card for me and gave me a lovely box of chocolates. I also had a very warm welcome in my new job and received a few cards and a rather splendid Mud Cake. It was lush and didn't taste of mud at all.
 

Nothing beats a hand written message

 Today I received a very special belated birthday card and an even more  special hand written letter from my adopted mom and dad Sandy and Cliff. When I flew out to meet and stay with my awesome friend Mark Peterson in Ogden, Utah, this is when I became acquainted and fell in love with his amazing parents Sandy and Cliff Peterson. They proper looked out for me and gave me the most amazing tour around where they live. 

It's awesome to actually receive a hand written letter. I consider it important not just because of it's contents but in that Sandy actually took the time to write down her thoughts. Writing a message in this fashion is a lost art. What with modern technology and the advances in things like electronic mail and the various messengers, well to receive a piece of paper and know that someone has put time and effort into telling you how they are doing and how much they miss and care for you, it's something I  really appreciate. I myself am terrible at writing and like the majority of us tend to take the easy option and fire off an email.

Thank you

 
A huge thank you to Sandy and Cliff. I really miss you guys and I miss hanging with Mark who was a fantastic host and  continues to be a very special friend.

New friends,new places and unforgettable memories.

                           Well I'm back from my holiday's and what a holiday. Actually it's funny, as in weird saying holiday as my last one was when I was around 14 or 15 and that was only a school trip to London. This time around I ventured a little bit further afield and chose The US of A as my destination.

I'm going to try and write not so much that I bore you all, however enough to tell you about the fantastic time I had.

I took the 4th of September off work, this was my get everything sorted day, packing my new hard case and trying to get it under 23 kilo's was errrr interesting. I had already done a dry run a few days earlier and discovered that  the new size medium case I had purchased wasn't quite big enough after I bust the zipper... Oops! So I had to go out and buy a larger case.

On the morning of the 5th my dad took me to Newcastle airport. My flight was quite early and we got there in good time. I said goodbye to Mr Hinks and my dad came with me into the airport. I headed for check in. Everything went according to plan, which is quite unusual for me lol. And so I said bye to Ern and I set off up the escalator to departures.

I found my way around Newcastle airport reasonably well,finding where I would board my plane without incident and just waited to be notified when it was time to board. Boy I was nervous, though not as much as I expected. I mean this was a huge thing for me full of firsts. I've never been abroad,I've never flown (well apart from a quick jaunt in a helicopter doing some ariel military type manoeuvres) and I've never been away from home for quite so long.

My plane arrived I got on,stowed my bag in the overhead compartment,strapped in and prepared for my first flight, which was to be Amsterdam and Schiphol airport. The take off was scary yet exhilarating and after the initial buzz I soon settled in feeling comfortable and excited about my  adventure. It was a very pleasant flight over and the landing was nice and smooth, a slight bump as the plane set down on the runway. Hey there's nothing to this flying stuff I thought.

Newcastle Airport and me messing with my phone