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I promised myself I would write this post once I'd managed to reach some kind of conclusion...

During October 2014, I became increasingly aware that the bearings in my Mavic rear hub were really on the way out (too many winters) and, being of the cartridge type, adjustment wasn't as straightforward as the standard cup&cone variety.

I hankered after a pair of traditional handbuilt wheels - Ultegra hubs, 32(ish) spokes, Mavic Open Pro hubs.  After a bit of searching (admittedly not too much - more of that later), I came across David Hinde Racing.

The spec was good and after an initial email enquiry, I received a response from the company suggesting I call them to confirm the order and sort out the shipping, which is quite normal when seeking delivery to Guernsey.

This was October 28th 2014, and they took my £208.34 immediately over the phone...

Since then this company 'David Hinde dot com' (no I won't put up a link - but if you're interested, google the reviews.  I wish I had.) have bluntly been the absolute worst, appalling and rude retailer I've ever had the misfortune to be involved with.  Repeated emails, various phone calls, advice from Trading Standards, Consumer Protection and Citizens Advice, a variety of attempts to reach an amicable conclusion (refund? - nope, wheels? - nothing, apology? - kidding) have got me absolutely nowhere.

I finally contacted my Credit Card company, and went through the process of putting in a claim in the hope of getting my money back.  Today I got a letter from Marbles confirming that they had indeed refunded my account - so a big thanks to them and no thanks whatsoever to Dave Hinde and his mob.

This is a rare occurrence - the vast majority of online retailers are brilliant, and even the not-so-good ones can usually be relied on to have at least a modicum of integrity.  This company doesn't.

OK so it's not cycling and it's not about photography, but hey it's my blog and 2015 is set to be a significant year for Land Rover with the demise of the iconic Defender.

I'd always wanted one of these vehicles for no other reason than I think they look fantastic and hark back to a bygone era (glory days?). How many other vehicles can you say have remained largely unchanged for 67 years? So in May 2014 I took delivery of a Defender 90SX and literally from the second day of ownership I've been 'personalising' it - essentially treating my landy as a great big Meccano kit.  

It's certainly not without it's flaws (you'd think after 67 years, they would have ironed out all of the wrinkles), but it is absolutely full of character and a lot of fun.  I have to also add that the devoted community are a fab bunch of guys and girls, who are really open minded about why we own these things - some live on the farm, some spend their life in Chelsea - but they are all quite unique to their owners.

Now I'm a self confessed lover of technology, but there really is something very calming about a vehicle that doesn't bing at you to do up your seatbelt (since when did we think it was OK to be patronised by our car?).  And I love the fact that I could (and in fact did) change the steering wheel. 

These things will continue to be handbuilt in small volume (around 15,000 per annum) at the Solihull factory ("a place where vehicles are given their souls") until the middle of December, with various 'special editions' appearing as a swansong.  If you hanker after a new one, you'd better hurry.

A friend of mine has the older Series 3 and a softop classic would be just perfect for the summer, but I think the wife will take some convincing.

Welcome 2015

2014 was a very busy year for a variety of reasons - photography trips to Paris, time spent in Tuscany, more time visiting new towns in the UK, buying a new car (a Meccano kit really), spending way too much time working and a bit of unexpected time in hospital.  All of this meant I neglected both my blog and, to some extent, photography.  The cycling was always here but not the the same extent as I would have chosen.

2015 will be different.  

Resolutions:

More cycling

More photography

More quality time with the family

More sleep

More blogging

It's been a long and eventful summer, which means unfortunately that my photography, cycling and blog post have all taken a back seat.  Just wanted to assure everyone that I'm still here and just to prove it, above are 2 photos of outrageously rusty chains following our group ride along the seafront on Guernsey's west coast in horrendous weather.  These are complimented nicely by the contents of Andrea's saddle bag - normally we keep tyre levers, spare tubes and CO2 cannisters in there, but a women's prorities can be a little different ;-)

I'm a huge fan of English cycling brands - in particular Brooks.  Very cool, and the saddles aren't bad either. Once they're broken in....

The Bicycle Bell reinvented

On the 30th August last year I committed real money to my first ever kickstarter project.  I'd seen these guys attempting to raise crowdsourcing funds to begin the manufacture of what looked like possibly the most beautiful bicycle bell I'd ever seen.

Strangely (and I guess in line with my mudguard fetish), even though I had no issues with bicycle bells per se, I'd never found anything sufficiently exquisite enough to adorn my pride and joy(s).  Reading though the promotional material and watching the video, I thought this was the one, so I took the leap and ordered er. two - one black, one 'raw'.

After many month of updates (which were fascinating in themselves and kept me completely in the picture), I was notified yesterday by the local post office that a small package had arrived with my name on it from the USA.

I'm absolutely delighted (see images) to say that these tiny bells are just the most gorgeous things and worth very penny of the $85 I paid for the two (inc. international postage across the water).  Spurcycles have experienced many (most) of the challenges imaginable to get these into production, but they've persevered and been brilliant in their communication.

I like pretty much everything about this - the idea, the way it was promoted on Kickstarter (did I mention I am a bit of a fan?) and most of all, the attitude of Emily Brooke, the founder of Blaze.  Respect and I wish them every success.

Autumn last year, after a few failed attempts (and the occasional mis-direction from their website), we finally made it to Pontadera in Italy to experience the classic Vespa museum.  Piaggio really have something here and it's amazing that this iconic design centre doesn't appear to see much investment or promotion.  I guess they don't know what they've got...  

7 Steps to Great Black and Whites in Lightroom 5 Levi Sim, photofocus.com

Not my usual type of 'cycling' but really - how mad????