The last week of January is lame. The Canteen, Clayton St. Newcastle isn’t. Steak Ciabatta with onion rings and chips, 6 GBP. Can of Krononberg, 1.95 GBP. Spent most of last week in this gaff, and mean to go on.

Just as the ground was dry and the rides commenced, we were snowed on again. Not keen on the weather dictating the weekend we hit the road anyway. It lasted about 20 minutes.

Took this picture of a cool cat earlier on in the week, all grey, white socks, good colourway, going to use it in a project I’m working on…

Then I clocked this Prefab77 sticker that I must’ve put up about 2 years ago, faded old stickers are amazing, might start hunting out more.

Back in late ‘09, Billy took these photos of the Prefab77 installation at Newcastle venue, TheCut, they came out amazing.

Look at that top tube SHINE.

Blew off some serious Winter blues today with a good old Northumberland countryside ride, probably clocked up 25 miles, which isn’t bad after a super heavy night and a massive lack of riding in months.

To say it was hard to get going, would be a MASSIVE understatement.

I can’t take credit for the two silhouette photos, snapped by David Bilbrough.

UPDATE : Gold, Sugino Messenger matching front vinyl !

Just pimped one of my B43 rims with this custom screenprinted  Prefab77 vinyl sticker… better pics to come when I have light.

Almost forever without any riding because of snow is no good, so I hit the road a few Sundays ago before my bike became an antique. Mostly clear, freezing, some ice patches, and a bit of deep snow. Wish I’d been out more in the snow now.

This is another Madrid related post, but fully deserves to be a post of it’s own.

One of the first things I do in other cities is sniff out the bike shops, or more specifically any track bike shops / fixed specialists. To name a few, 14BikeCo London, King Cog Brooklyn, and Trackstar NYC being the best off the top of my head.

Black Track, Madrid, is now easily the best ‘bike boutique’ I’ve ever seen. Parts including Chris King, Thomson, Phil hubs, and Affinity to name a few, they literally sell no crap. The most select parts I’ve seen in one place. All in a city which has NO fixed gear culture whatsoever. Nothing.

The store is tiny, I reckon 3 people in there and it would be claustrophobic, but it just adds to the charm.

So if you’re in the area, pop in to Black Track and say hola.

First blog post. I just spent 4 days mooching round Madrid taking photos, eating tapas, and drinking ale. Good times, and also the start of some serious iPhone photo play.

I only ever really have my iPhone camera handy, so all the photos on this blog are / will be taken on it, and since it’s renoundly crap, tinkered with in a variety / combination of apps.

Bit of tilt shift, bit of lomography, bit of both. Enjoy!