#SummerSolsticeChallenge

Take one humble bike engineer...

Add the longest day of the year...

Add a sprinkling of old knackered bikes...

And what do you have....

A crazy idea to see who can ride the furthest on the Summer Solstice, starting at Dawn and finishing at Dusk!

The only problem is.....you've got to do it on a broken bike that has been donated to the Bike Hub....and you've got to repair it before you start!!

Watch this space for more details on how you can take part, sponsor the challenge or simply watch our world of pain!!

#ramblings from #bikehub Dan!

Social networking and what have the romans ever done for us?

The bike scene has changed so much over the years.

Looking back ten years or so I honestly don't know how we knew things were going on, we just knew. You could argue that this word of mouth networking would have excluded people who didn't know other riders in the know, but if it did, I never noticed it.  I felt a lot more in the loop back then.

People would also congregate more based on their hobbies and the trails where much more sociable, because that was where you would go to meet riding buddies and you'd spend half a days ride chatting.  

As a teenager I think all of my friends were riders, largely because if you wanted to ride with other people or race etc you had to spend time with those people to find out what was going on.   Or to be invited out.  Whereas now, you don't need to hang out with riders to hear about the next race or to get invited out on a ride. Now you can just send a message out on face book stating an intention to ride at a set time and place and expect any number of people to meet you. Or you can google your local race series to find out where and when, and worst of all you don't even need to see your buddy to invite them out for a ride, just call them on you mobile phone and arrange it and call them again if your late/lost/not coming. Our kids must wonder how we survived "back in the day".

I'll be honest, I think I'm just being grumpy because I'm now out of the 'social networking' loop. If I was to be objective, nowadays anyone who has an interest in riding and access to a computer can find out what events are going on, join a bike club, or find a forum of local riders and find riding friends, which has got to be great news!  And really there's nothing stopping people making friends on the trail, we just need to try more and if we don't make a million friends each time we go ride, it simply means we'll spend more time actually riding!

Actually come to think of it, social networking and IT is crucial,  without it I wouldn't have found this job, I can now keep up to date with the latest technology, and we can let you guys know what we're up to online.

SO IGNORE MY GRUMPY INITIAL RAMBLINGS!!

ROLL ON THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION AND JOIN US RIDING.

P.S check out our twitter page @ www.twitter.com/#!/CornwallBikeHub

and our web page @ www.thebikehub.org.uk

and our endomondo profile for ride details @ www.endomondo.com/profile/4218543

;) CHEERS BIKEY DAN

#Cardinham #BikeRide a real success...

Saturday 24th saw The Bike Hub's inaugural guided MTB ride through the fantastic woods around Bodmin.

Ably led by Lead Bike Engineer and MTB Guide Dan Smith, our intrepid crew set off from RE:SOURCE, winding our way down to Cardinham.

The ride lasted 2 hrs give or take a few and included some technical downhill, some lung busting climbs and a great piece of Carrot Cake and a cuppa at the cafe at Cardinham.

Suitable for intermediate riders this was a great start to the Bike Hub Guided Rides and has given us much inspiration for future expeditions!!

If your interested in joining us for a ride in the future, don't be put off by the words 'technical' and 'lung busting'...all things are relative!  We will ensure that there is something for everyone in our rides and to be honest, they will be more about enjoying the best of the great outdoors and meeting new people...

Here's our route from Saturday...watch this space for further rides and let us know if you have a great ride that you know of in and around Bodmin...

#Bodmin #BMX #Bandits ....

We've discussed the practicalities of commuter bikes, now it's time for a bit of fun this week… It's all about BMX's. The RE:SOURCE drivers have been good to us and we've had a great haul of BMX's in the last week. We've got an Apollo BMX ready to go in RE:SOURCE at this very moment.

We've also just finished work on an immaculate diamond back grind sporting 4 stunt pegs, gyro and although still an adult bike, it would be ideal for younger riders or those of a smaller stature as it's a junior BMX. 

A junior BMX usually has adult sized cranks but the shorter of the available sizes, a shorter top tube in this instance, which is 2" and smaller bars which all means that the geometry is similar to that of the adult bikes but compacted.

We also have two diamond back jokers which sport three piece cranks, 14mm axles and probably the best geometry of any BMX I have ridden. The joker is a very underrated bike due to its largely hi tensile steel construction. The weight on these may be a tad high but they are as strong as anything else out there and are very easy to get on with. The geometry makes them super stable for street, park and dirt and their strength allows it too. I honestly don't think a better BMX exists for the money. I've been seriously contemplating selling my Guchi BMX to buy one of these gems but I swore I wouldn't be a magpie when I started this job. (at least for lent anyway)

More important is the busy few days we have ahead of us. On Friday we have the bike hub open day in the RE:STORE building from 10-4. Please do come on down to see what we can do for you. It's a great opportunity to get involved and to find out more about what we do.

On Saturday we have the bike surgery at RE:SOURCE from 10-2 followed by a brilliant mountain bike ride starting at the RE:SOURCE and heading round towards Cardinham.  The ride is  off-road and Cornish(hilly) and will therefore need some level of fitness and riding ability but nothing too hardcore, and we'll be there to look after you!

I hope you can come down to one of our events and meet us so we can find out more about our customers.

Daniel Smith

Lead Bike Engineer 

Achieve more with the bike hub

#Bikes selling fast at the #CornwallBikeHub, plus exciting events to come...

BAD NEWS! I would like to apologise to anyone who stuck their nose into RE:SOURCE (www.myresource.org.uk) and found less bikes then they had expected. We had the full range that I had hoped for but they all sold so quick our range was almost gone by the time the weekend was over but

GOOD NEWS! We have another batch of bikes winging there way over to RE:SOURCE today.

This week we’re doing our best to get more commuter friendly bikes out at RE:SOURCE for you.

The key characteristics of the commuter bike are skinnier smoother tyres for less rolling resistance.  Bigger diameter wheels (700c) on a road or commuter bike essentially give the rider better (longer) gearing for longer distances.  As with anything there are drawbacks. This gearing essentially gives you a higher top speed but slower acceleration. Commuter bikes are most suited for those travelling longer distances whereas a mountain bike will be better for travelling within town due to the better acceleration and improved agility offered with the smaller diameter (26”) wheels. Mountain bike wheels are also stronger not only because they are built for strength but because a smaller wheel will be stronger then a bigger one as the gap between the rigid bits, which are the rim and hub, is smaller.

Some examples of our commuter friendly bikes are.

This ridgeback 602 a good quality rigid bike thats lightweight simple and has 26” wheels for better acceleration. Also I had one for three years so it must be cool right?.........

This emmelle is very cool (maybe because it’s a bit retro), it has 700c wheels, slightly knobbly tyres and mudguards which are great for when we inevitably get a wet summer. This style of bike is very comfortable and designed to give the rider a comfy hassle free ride over longish distances.

The Saracen offers similar ride position to the emmelle but offers a stiffer more rigid frame for the more aggressive rider but still plenty of comfort and efficiency.

Last but not least don’t forget our open day at the Bike Hub inside the RE:STORE building on Friday 23^rd of March, all day, and the cycle surgery at RE:SOURCE on Saturday the 24^th from 10am-2pm, they should both be great and give you a better idea of how we work and what we offer to volunteers, customers and enthusiasts.

There’s so much going on I almost forgot to mention we’re going on a little Bike Hub Ride around the Cornish countryside at 2 pm after the cycle surgery so come along and get involved.

Events just added to #CornwallBikeHub

We've got some events coming up at The Bike Hub so let us know if you fancy joining us....

Lots of lovely new bikes for the shop this week!

Bike Hub Volunteers Wanted!

Join us at the bike hub and learn some new skills....like Anthony here, one of our great volunteer bike engineers!

A lovely Saracen commuter bike...available soon!

Helium Full Suspension MTB

Coming soon to our shop at RE:SOURCE!

The Bike Hub is back open for business!!

The Bike Hub

01/03/2012

Hi, I’m Dan and I started at the Bike Hub in Bodmin on Monday which is very exciting! 

I have been a keen rider for 15 years when I started out riding XC on a second hand bike using my uncles hand me down parts. I started fixing my own bike from a young age as I had no money to take it to a bike shop to get fixed. (Although I wouldn’t call what I did to my bikes in the early days fixing!)

I worked in various bike shops in my later teens which alongside my diploma in outdoor education lead me to my first job as a MTB Guide in Greece.  Before long I was running the biking part of the resort which included route planning, guiding  and maintaining/repairing the fleet of bikes as well as other administration.

My next season was as a Lead Guide for a small company based in the French alps.  The riding there was another level of riding with some of the best trails I have ever ridden on my doorstep.  Although the riding was fun it was tough with an average of 60k of hard riding a day, 6 days a week!!

When I returned to the UK I taught biking as well as other sports for various companies. Over the years I have taught and competed in cross country, downhill, road and 4x/bmx.  I also have a degree in outdoor education and a BAHons in sports performance and coaching, so hope to bring some of that in to the Bike Hub role.

I have always loved bikes and all they can mean to a person. They can be simple cost affective eco transport. They can be a way of seeing the countryside.  They can be used for fitness or for an adrenaline fix or you can just hang out with your buddies, sessioning the trails. I don’t know of another activity that can offer so much. For these reasons and many more I feel that cycling can change lives just as it has for me…so being given the chance to work at the Bike Hub is amazing!

Although there’s been some great work going on since the Bike Hub started in October, we’ve decided to make a few changes to give the customer a broader range of even better bikes!

Thanks to some lovely volunteers  helping to get them ready we will have a full range of bikes of all shapes, sizes and prices for your perusal, available from RE:SOURCE (www.myresource.org.uk).

We’ve had some really exciting bikes come through so far. These include some retro goodies in the form of a lovely early 80’s Raleigh Burner Mag 20.

The very cool Schwinn Stingray cruiser. 

And a very funky lime green 2010 Viking XRR road bike.  

Archive photos only not of actual bikes.

Not only have we managed to get bikes back out this week but we have loads of exciting things in the pipeline, like an open day for anyone interested in volunteering or training with us, a Cycle Surgery at RE:SOURCE and you’ll be able to join us for a group ride in the great Bodmin countryside. Keep reading and you’ll be the first to know.

Cheers

Dan Smith