The bells! The bells! Cycling in central Vietnam

We are heading south through Vietnam, as part of our "sabbatical" - riding around SE Asia (and maybe other countries, tbc) on our tandem (www.badgerandfrog.com). In the past few days we've been following the main artery through Vietnam, the QL1 which runs all the way from the north to the south of the country.

Our experience of Vietnam has been incredible: wonderful people, beautiful countryside, excellent infrastructure, fantastic food, great quality guesthouses - all perfect to make for a great cycle tour.

However, following this arterial road is tough. We are riding a bullet proof Cannondale MT1000 mountain bike from 1999. It handles everything we have thrown at it - has been shoved inside of and on top of planes, vans, buses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFHnC1mpKE), trains - has been ridden over crazy rough roads, handled biblical rain, lightning, sand, dust, rocks, everything! Despite this, the roads have been hard to handle.

Setting the scene
Let me try to set the scene...

Noise
First: imagine a world where engines stop running after 200 metres. That is, unless you beep your horn. A lot. About every 200 metres.
Second: imagine a world where traffic violations are negated if you beep your horn, before, after, and ideally, during the performance of a crazy manoeuvre.
Third: imagine a world where car, bus, scooter horns are so loud that they temporarily partially deafen you as they rattle pass inches from your nose.
Fourth: imagine a world where if you are a truck or bus driver you are expected to drive like a dangerous lunatic, safe in the knowledge that it is part of your job description, and that other road users will respect you for doing this (I will excuse car and scooter drivers from this category - they are by and large good and respectful drivers), as long as you beep your horn!
Fifth: image a world where this is the norm. Where this is established driving culture.
(Nota bene: I seem bitter about this - but remember I have lived in London, Italy, and Boston (MA) so I'm used to crazy driving, but this is unlike nothing I have ever experienced - yes, even in London.
To add on to this - most guesthouses and hotels back on to this main road. They have poor sound insulation, so you are exposed to the ongoing cacophony 24 hours a day.
And, to add on to this even more, in some cities we have what I can only call "The Communist Alarm Clock" - between 5:00 am and 06:30 am public address systems in the streets blare out music and talking which wakes you up.
The bells the beeellllls!!!

Mud and rubble
Like much of the rest of the country, the road is being constantly developed. It is being dug, widened, re-surfaced, extended - seemingly along it's entire length. We can see where houses that used to line the original road have been simply cut through by the developers - leaving exposed staircases and inner rooms exposed to the elements. Maybe in the near future the road will be wide and perfect and wonderful, but for now, February 2015, we find a muddy, dug up road, that forces us to leap between road and pavement, and rubble, and mud. Despite us having a mountain bike tandem we are finding the bike taking a pummeling, and we've ripped up another tyre yesterday, despite us using the toughest continental touring tyres we could find. 
We can also add sand into this part. This road kind of follows the coast. I say "kind of" because sadly it does not hug the coast, only allowing us infrequent tantalising glimpses of the beautiful coast. However, there is plenty of sand and salt around, just adding to the fun we've found from the mud and rubble.

Pollution
The roads are polluted. Ignoring the heavy manufacture lining the roads, the heavy lorries and buses kick out visible fumes. It's like how I imagine Victorian England rolling into the industrial age. The exhaust fumes from the traffic hang heavy in my lungs and a few days spending 6+ hours in the saddle. There's a description here which just covers the tip of the iceberghttp://climate-journal.asia/motorbikes-make-space-for-bicycles-in-hanoi-vietnam/ .

The result

The traffic forces us to hop between road and the hard shoulder/pavement area. Buses and lorries particularly will overtake at any moment, on a single carriageway, approaching a blind hill - and, as detailed above, as long as they beep their horns, then it's all fine. Yesterday, on top of our usual near misses, we had two very very near misses, once from a bus and once from a lorry forcing us to evacuate the road. That's not so easy on a fully laden tandem, with about 235 kg in total, including the riders.
Here's a video showing the view from the back of our tandem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2thP3LDlKM

Other options?
There really are no other options to get from north to south, without spending weeks finding side roads. That's a shame, as the side roads are truly stunning, but it would take some significant time out of our trip, which will sadly not last forever.

Solution:
So, we will fast forward from our current location, in Qui Nhon (http://badgerandfrog.com/where-on-earth-are-we-now/), thankfully off the QL1 to Ho Chi Min City (ex. Saigon) on the train. This will save us about 8 days and 700 km, and whilst we are disappointed that we will not complete this part of the jounrey, the combination of saving about 8 days, avoiding the pollution, and avoiding the crazy driving, make it an absolute no brainer.

We are very much looking forward to being able to enjoy this awesome landscape again!

$6 of pure bike saddle heaven!

Laos does not have a lot of bike shops. There are even fewer bike shops as we know them in the US or the UK. Most people if they have a bike problem will travel over to Thailand for a day and get spares and workamnship out of the country.
There are plenty of shops selling bikes - but these are of the lower end Thai and Chinese commuter bikes, and they do not sell spares.
My seat has been killing me, I had started with putting one flip flop on it, and then it become two, then three, and then the flip flops started wearing out.
I tried Lydie's lady-specific saddle which was a great improvement - but I felt guilty about her having to use my old terrible saddle.

The old saddle, with flip flop cushioning

And then something wonderful happened. As we were riding into Thakhek, Laos we started to see kids riding fixies rather than the standard Thai Turbo-brand bikes. The area is very flat and there is a real bike culture there.

We found several bike shops selling fixies in all colours of the rainbow. And best of all there was a bucket of saddles in the back of the shop. Nasty, cheap, ugly, wonderful, beautiful saddles. Literally, the only saddles I had seen for sale in all of Laos.

A bike shop in Laos!!

I dug and I explored in that box, long and hard. Eventually I decided on a what Lydie has described as the biggest saddle she has ever seen. Poorly made, plasticky, with a cut out down the middle and some rudimentary springs at the back.

And the price - a magical 45,000 Kip - that's under $6 - NICE!

My new saddle! Huuuuge.

I was fearful as I removed the flip flop saddle off and put this new one on - but it has been amazing. It has revolutionized my riding life. I still get discomfort, but it starts later - after about 15-20 km, and doesn't reach that level of intensity which was forcing me to change my position every minute, and making the cycling a misery!

Long may it last.

In fact - if I could, I would happily buy a new saddle at $6 every day if I could guarantee this level of cycling happiness - it would be worth it!

So, my tips for cycle touring saddles:
     Make it big
     Make it springy
     Make it with a central cut out

Breakfast snacks anyone? Laos-style

Meaty breakfast treat?

This morning we were looking for breakfast in Thakhek, Laos. We have got into a routine of having omelette and bread and were looking for some different options. We saw a small cart outside a restaurant with some interesting looking meaty snacks on them and went to have a look.
Under scrutiny one of them turned out to be dried crispy frogs and another dried crispy grasshoppers.
#NoThanks #I'llStickWithMyOmlette

Crispy dried frogs

Dried grasshoppers

The art of finding a comfortable saddle

I am one of the group of cyclists that has severe problems finding a comfortable saddle. Any ride leads to discomfort within an hour. I have tried a huge range of saddles, with varying levels of success.

Currently, on my race bike I ride a Fizik Arione Tri 2 (http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/saddles/product/review-fizik-arione-tri-2-saddle-30846/) - this is the most comfortable saddle I have been able to find, although I have it at a crazy angle, at about a slope of 25% to the front. Looks odd - but it works.

It's a problem. Okay, I'm big boned for a cyclist, and have wide sit bones (http://yoga.about.com/od/howtospeakyoga/g/SitBones.htm http://www.artscyclery.com/learningcenter/measuresitbonewidth.html) but how can this still be a problem after all this time? How can there not be a saddle that suits me, someone who has done a lot of miles on different bikes? Clearly, I am a lot of kg heavier than the average pro cyclist whom most saddles are aimed at, but this situation seems crazy to me.

And it's not just me - many pros suffer from the same problem. One recent well publicized issue was with seasoned pro Ivan Basso who missed the 2013 Giro D'Italia with a golf-ball sized sore and ended up with a month off the bike - an absolute disaster for a professional bike rider.

I've tried a lot of saddles - The Specialized Romin, Brooks, the list goes on, but I have yet to find something that really suits me on any bike,

Fast forward to now and I have a huge problem. Currently I am riding a fully laden touring tandem around southeast Asia,

Fully loaded tandem touring

Take those pains and multiply them a hundred-fold. I'm not underestimating here. The weight of our tandem, with both of us on board must be over 250kg. As captain (http://sheldonbrown.com/tandem.html) I am responsible for steering and holding the weight of the bike in a straight line, along with avoiding road debris (glass, sharp rocks etc) and navigating and tricky issues. All the weight seems to be multiplied onto my saddle and gives me so much grief I cannot describe.

There is a routine that we are into. For the first 10 minutes the bike seems heavy and twitchy, and the legs are cold and stiff to get going. After a while we get into a routine. Then the hands start to get sore - holding all that weight on standard road handle bars is tricky and not for the faint of heart. The saddle I have chosen is the standard one that came with my bottom of the line Claud Butler mountain bike in 2006 (150GBP new for the entire bike - similar to this http://www.evanscycles.com/products/claud-butler/cape-wrath-2005-mountain-bike-ec004575?style=5801) - it is a heavily padded wide saddle, and in my tests prior to leaving on this Asia tour, it was the only one that was comfortable over 50 miles. After about 30 minutes the bottom feels something - a quick shuffle and it's ok again for 10 minutes. Then the time between shuffles gets shorter and shorter, decreasing to me needing to perform the bottom shuffle every minute. After more than 4 hours on the bike, it becomes extremely painful all the time, with the only relief coming from a short break. This limits the distance we can ride, and the pain that I am in after riding is done.

Interestingly, despite the angle of the saddle being tipped crazy forward (25-30% - I have played with this a lot), the pain really goes away when cycling up hill. Maybe it's not going away, and then focus shifts to the legs as we struggle to get that beast of a bike up another hill.

Another approach I have tried, is simply going slowly. Going hard builds lactate - I find this on my road bike - when I sprint, the lactate in the big muscles - backside,  quads, hamstrings - builds up quickly - and the pain comes in more quickly. By going slowly I am playing with a delicate (!!) equation - there will be a longer time in the saddle - so more time for the ass to hurt over. By going quicker, there is less time for the ass to hurt, but the lactate builds up quicker, and the pain comes on quicker. When the pain comes on more, more breaks are required and ends with a longer ride distance.

The last few days, as we have gone over the 1000 mile mark in this trip, the pain day by day has come on quicker and harder, and I have to do something. I have been imagining new designs saddles as I am riding along.

I have ordered a saddle from kickstarter that will be arriving to me in 2 months time - the Infinty Saddle (http://www.infinitycycling.us/) - this is a new approach to saddle design and does away with padding and uses a broad frame - when this arrives I will be providing a review.

Infinity Saddle

Of course, the Sheldon Brown site provides an excellent review of saddles (http://sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html) and the one that I am most interested in with my experience right now is the concept of split saddles - they are cast aside by him, but there are plenty out there - with names such as Spongy Wonder, and Moon saddle (http://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plus-50/150921-has-anyone-used-spongy-wonder-spiderflex-seat.html). The reason they are rejected from the racing world seems to be due to the nose being essential for control, leaning and steering. This may not be a problem on a touring tandem.

Spongy Wonder

And then of course there is the Brooks Champion Saddle - a sprung leather saddle that is well loved by many tourers.

Brooks Champion Flyer

I will be trying different saddles as I can get my hands on them - at my current state I sill be struggling to continue riding in a few weeks so need to do something drastic.

I've snapped a few images of some saddles that I've seen on working bikes in Thailand - how these guys can continue pedaling working bikes and pedocabs just defeats me! Maybe I am being soft and need to "Zitto e Pedala" - shut up and pedal!

PedoCab in Thailand

Close up of PedoCab saddle, Thailand

That's gotta hurt! Thailand

For me it has now reached desperation point. Today as we were cycling along I saw a manky discarded broken flip flop on the side of the road. I jumped off the bike, ran down the road, picked it up and put it on my saddle. The result? Heaven!!

It is now taped on to my saddle, and working so much better than without. I don't know how long it will last, and if the comfort level will stay, but I will be experimenting as much as I can to find something acceptable in the forthcoming months - watch this space!

The discarded flip flop taped onto my saddle

Pleasure! Relief! Ahhhhh!

If it's good enough for Alberto Contandor ... make a free bike mudguard/fender from an old water bottle

Alberto Contador was spotted in London earlier this week, sporting a mudguard/fender made from an old or repurposed water bottle. If it's good enough for Alberto Contador - it should be good enough for anyone!

It's a neat and nifty idea, thanks to road,cc for posting. http://road.cc/content/news/136561-alberto-contador%E2%80%99s-homemade-water-bottle-mudguard

I was thinking about how to make one (albeit, I am sat in Khon Kaen, Thailand, with 32C heat, in an air-conditioned hotel, watching a Chinese dragon dance ceremony outside) and found that from this idea, to the ass-saver, there are a myriad of ways to get this done, including just sticking a water bottle between your seat stays.

So here are some options!
http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2011/02/bottle-bike-fenders.html Simplicity itself!

http://www.shapeways.com/model/847987/bicycle-bottle-fender-mount.html 3d printable mount

http://ass-savers.com/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bike-fenders-made-from-water-bottles-and-clothes-h/

Danny Macaskill's latest video is simply breathtaking

Danny Macaskill's latest video combines all the superlatives I can think of, but mainly: awesome, breathtaking, and absolute freaking scary as heck. The guy is a legend. No more words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA

Ello - from Budnitz - the next anti-Facebook?

Social media sites come and go: some soar and some sink, others soar and then sink, others just go away without reaching critical mass. Today, to keep in touch, you need to create a communication strategy that hits all the key social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, Renren, Tencent, Uber, Cyworld...
These days, hitting your news streams and social media platforms you will be hearing about, if you have not heard already, about Ello (www.ello.co).

But why am I interested? Well, the founder of Ello is Paul Budnitz (http://paulbudnitz.com/) - inventor, creator, designer - but most of all for me, he's the owner of Budnitz Bicycles - one of which has been on my wish list for a long time (http://budnitzbicycles.com/).

So - let's talk bikes and why I love the look of his bikes so much.

His bikes are beautiful, made with the best equipment, with the cleanest lines - simple, functional and boundlessly elegant.

Classically he makes urban bikes, with swooping elegant lines. Frames are typically titanium. Accessories are kept to a minimum, giving a light speedy ride. Single speed drivetrains are powered by a carbon belt drive - maintenance and oil free. Disc brakes give stopping power, and the saddles are typically from Brooks. And of course, they make a beer opener :) (http://shop.budnitzbicycles.com/products/budnitz-titanium-beer-wrench)

This is a bike I would love to ride, love to own, love to use, and probably most likely, would love own just to look at!

Back to social media. After making these beautiful bikes he has now dived into the world of social media by starting Ello. The brand is designed to be simple, elegant, and ad-free. Commentators are calling it the anti-Facebook. And, frankly it is time. 

I have been riling against Facebook for some time now, really typified by the ice bucket challenge and most annoyingly the stupid seemingly non-sensical removal of the messenger function from Facebook and putting it in a separate app. I can't really understand the driver behind this - is it to gather more data, to find a better way to get their claws into us, or is it just to be annoying? Who knows?! Maybe this time we have reached the zenith, the nadir - maybe we have the critical mass to finally move away from Facebook.

Somewhere we need to strike a balance. Social media drives to bring people together, to connect, to share positive messages, to share real news away from the influence of some of the worst news reporters (Fox, and more recently the BBC seems to have lost it's way), and to allow people who are distant to stay in touch (this is particularly dear to my heart, having lived away from home for 5 years). All social media forums seem to start with a similar proviso - to connect, to be positive, to spread the word, to give a voice to all, and certainly to not be evil ("Don't be evil" - at the very heart of the Google ethics code http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html). Sidenote: I really hope this is the case! Most business leaders I have known are driven, but with a very strong ethical core

Culture and values run deep through the core of  every business. Some of them live and breathe naturally through the lifeblood of small businesses, and sometimes, it can be seen throughout every employee. I cannot possibly say that it is always like this. So, for now I am going to take the physicians code - Primum non nocere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere) - at first do no harm, assume that all players are occupying their space to make the world a better place, and to be a good human being.

I was impressed by the words of Brian Chesky when advising the rapidly expanding AirBnB organisation (https://medium.com/@bchesky/dont-fuck-up-the-culture-597cde9ee9d4) - "Don't Fuck Up The Culture".

However, there comes a time when the pendulum has to swing - bills have to be paid, shareholders have to make money, social media platforms have to pay back millions of dollars to investors and venture capital has to be, well, re-capitalised.

As this happens, expansion continues, bottom lines are balanced more aggressively and the culture has to be re-embedded into new employees, and re-affirmed in existing employees. High level decisions are made to re-enforce the culture. In real terms - how does this happen? Someone at C-level sees a behaviour that is slipping in their organisation, insists that this must be re-enforced. The message filters through management levels and workstreams, possibly via external consultancies, and finally every employee receives another training to complete on top of all the others stored in the training management system. Certification is performed, typically at a workstation, whilst the employee is in another meeting, on a telephone conference, but rarely, oh so rarely, with dedicated engaged brainspace. Is this the way to balance the pendulum? Does adding another training address what the C-level executive was trying to achieve? Does adding another training embed the right culture and values in the organisation? Does it engage the employee or does it put them off kilter from the culture even more? 

Ello are communicating their manifesto and it is a refreshing diversion from where Facebook has arrived at. Facebook is driven by data, by advertising, working with personal data to get click throughs, purchase and selling. Ello are saying they will avoid data usage, advertising revenue, and will aim to eventually drive revenue through in-site, voluntary purchases. The manifesto is here https://ello.co/manifesto

"

We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.

"

I'm looking forward to following the story of Ello. At some point, if Ello is successful they will have to address the culture, be wary of the pendulum, maintain the manifesto and yet continue to keep the shareholders happy.

If Budnitz's beautiful bicycles are anything to go by he can balance the pendulum and maintain the culture. Good luck!

Pro bike mechanics

Pro Bike Mechanics

Beer, scissors, tyres - #sopro

Quick version

Bike mechanic challenge

If your back wheel is so bent that the tyre rubs on the frame, drink a beer, and cut the edge of the tyre off with a pair of scissors, so that it no longer rubs - bike mechanic genius!
#sopro

The long version

I have several bikes, well a lot of bikes, I adhere strictly to the rule of n+1 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#12. Recently I have sold several of them as I prepare to downsize my life, which means that I am down to a mere 5 (Race bike, fixie, MTB, singlespeed, tandem, beater - actually - that's 6, but you get the idea!).

My beater is a beauty - I bought it in 2006, new for 150 GBP. It is a Claud Butler MTB, which originally was a 3x8 speed. It was very badly built, not surprising for a 150 GBP bike - the frame geometry is terrible, nothing ever fit particularly well. Despite that, it has been an absolute workhorse - it has seen me through a couple of years of adventure racing, trail riding in forests and recently has seen me through a tough Boston winter, being kept outside. Despite that it has gone on and on, through the crazy snow, and me leaving it locked outside without it being actually locked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUNjZJerlSc&list=UUnHivw3dRZQpUeLiqzDJB8Q

After the winter things were getting pretty bad. The rear wheel was struggling and more of an oval shape rather than round, and the derailleur was shot to pieces. So I decided to convert it to a single speed. I whipped off the front derailleur, the rear brake (it was rubbing), and disconnected the rear derailleur. It has still been trusty, and I love riding it - taking it on the trails round here, commuting every day, and jumping off kerbs like an excited schoolchild on every trip. It's inherent value is now considerably less than the lock I use to secure it - in fact, I would literally be more upset about the loss of the lock if it got stolen.

However, it is now completely shafted. Recently I added on some locking skewers so I wouldn't have to worry about the wheels being stolen, for the few cents they are worth.

http://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Lock-n-Roll-Skewers/dp/B002K2IYPY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1408678064&sr=8-8&keywords=locking+skewers

However, the jumping and the years and the snow have taken their toll. On Sunday the hub collapsed so that the back wheel constantly rubbed on the frame. I attempted some TLC, checked the bearings, and decided it was shot. Of course, a new wheel would cost approximately four times the entire value of the bike so I am doing all I can to keep it going.

So, after a couple of beers, I hit on a genius idea. If the wheel is so bent that the tyre rubs on the frame - cut off the knobbly bits of the tyre with a pair of scissors - and hey presto! no more rubbing. Genius.

#sopro

Boston Bike Party

The Boston Bike Party is one of my favourite things to do in Boston. A monthly critical mass of bicycle lovers who just want to hang out and enjoy the city on two wheels.

The group is young (just over one year old) and has some great organisation. Routes are scenic and well monitored by other riders, controlling safety at intersections. On the rides are a couple of guys who tow trailers with enormous speaker systems, playing the agreed set lists. Frequent stops allow a little light dancing and some photo opportunities. The usual characters can be found on two wheels: the guy who plays drums, a guy with his dog in a panier bag, a tandem, and of course "wheelie kid", It's great fun, and is well-loved by the Boston locals, always giving a cheer when they see us riding around.

Boston people get involved!

https://www.facebook.com/BostonBikeParty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLhv73D3H54&list=UUnHivw3dRZQpUeLiqzDJB8Q