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Sounds like an awesome adventure.

I second the recommendation for the Surly Long Haul Trucker. I'm just back from a month long cycle tour - London to Spain - which was amazing with a friend who had a brand new SLHT. He loved it and fully recommended it. I'm saving up for one now too. He bought his from the states and had it delivered to the UK (so it was here in time for him to arrive from Australia for the trip). So, that's another option. He had to pay shipping and duty but it still worked out to be a good deal.

You are talking about one of the finest writers of the 20th Century here.

And if his fiction isn't good enough for you then try his journalism. The essay he wrote for Harper's when sent him off on Carribean Cruise ship holidays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) is one of the funniest pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. Or his essay on the work of David Lynch. Or the one about the Las Vegas Porn Star Awards. Or read about his own moral crisis when he visits the Maine Lobster Festival. They're all brilliant.

Heck, DFW was also a mathematical genius, so if that's your thing then check out Everything and More - his book on the concept of infinity. Wrap your brain around that one.

I could go on and on.

He was of the most talented and versatile writers to have lived in our time, and OK is the antithesis of DFW.

I completely agree with you. DFW was an astonishingly innovative and talented essayist. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Consider the Lobster' and consistently recommend it to others. I have recently bought 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again' and 'Infinite Jest' - ooh the size of it, lovely. His writing is such that I can't help myself from sticking post-it notes all over it, marking out visceral description, razor sharp wit and pure poetry, a practice that sadly makes my books (theory and leisure) look the same.

Nerd-y.

Not Kat and Charlotte by any chance?

Kat was talking to me about possibly doing it this year, with a support bike - as they can't carry anything, guessing she won't now she has a cracked frame :-(

You never know, Joff might be able to repair it in time?

Sigh.... sadly no. Joff's out of town for a few weeks. So, no chance of riding penny on Saturday. Good news though - it is apparently easily fixed.

Sounds like Charlotte is still mad keen and Andy, depending on the state of his penny, might join her.

A memorable moment for me was when a policeman asked me to get off my bike when I was cycling down the mall. He said I might scare the horse guards who were parading along the road. Ha. I obviously need a sticker - 'Warning: This bike might scare horses'.

Big thanks to Clefty and Miss Socks, the traffic stoppers and all the riders for a terrific day out. The weather was wonderful, the picnic was tops and I met and chatted to lots of lovely people - hoping to go climbing with some of you soon.

It sounds like the rest of the ride (post-putney) was just as good. Glad I spotted the the crack in the frame before it spread any further, but it was a shame I had to cut the day short and I missed out on beers. I definitely needed one when I eventually got home. Hoping to have it fixed asap.

ha, I remember that ad.

Me too. I always cycled to school without a helmet. No one wore one. Then when the law was enforced, everyone suddenly turned up with one on. Seriously weird. Except one kid who wore one of those styrofoam eskies on his head and he was fined $50 (or rather his parents were) by cops who were busting people around school that day. It was a hell of an incentive to wear a skid lid.

But they tend to be pretty pricey - which is almost worth it considering the quality of them, almost but not quite. So I tend to pick mine up via ebay in the states. Find a seller who is happy to post to London and even with added postage costs you still get garments that are either new or good second hand for much cheaper than UK prices.

I'm a big fan of Ground Effect - especially their 'witches britches' - http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/

I'm also slowly gathering a lovely lot of Icebreaker stuff - http://www.icebreaker.com/site/index.html - they have zip up collars, long tails and thumb loops.

I find that 100% merino wool is ideal for cycling.

I'm in!

1. Clefty
   
2. miss_socks
   
3. VeeVee (for the morning part)
   
4. EM
   
5. PicKle
   
6. habbi
   
7. nadia
   
8. TIKA
   
9. Sol
   
10. girlyattack
    
11. jayloo
    
12. gina
    
13. Cajeta
    
14. Stix
    
15. marie
    
16. diapo (...let's play girlie for one day)
    17.Wozza
    18.Epifania
    
17. tricitybendix
    
18. won't-do-hills
    
19. emmajean
    
20. scarysneeze (for the afternoon part)
    
21. Tash
    23.Van Damage
    
22. Teapots
    
23. Ada Place
    
24. Emilia (though I'm sure I have another engagement...)
    
25. Kat
    

Please tell me you're doing it on the penny farthing this year. That really would be awesome.

Quite possibly.

and quite possibly me too.....

Nice one charlotte. It looks lovely.

You might be surprised about Adelaide. Don't write it off. I personally really like it. It's not as show pony as melbourne and syds. You have to go looking for stuff. But, when you do, you'll find a significant underground bike culture (there's at least four different freakbiking groups and a burgeoning fixed alley cat thing happening and lots of penny riders) plus cool urban caving, as well as great climbing and lovely beaches.. and did i mention the food and beer! And it's a very easy city to ride around with the hills offering good hill climb training and mountain biking.

About flying with a bike. If you've booked with Virgin, you're set. They don't advertise it, but they allow one free piece of sporting equipment in addition to your 20kgcheck-in and 10kg carry-on. Sweet. Otherwise you are stuck trying to wangle a bike into your normal check in allowance.

i need only left brake lever , will take them if someone needs right one so we can split the price

I'd like the right brake lever..... we could split?

A tasty 3-bird roast (non-sexual). A quail inside a pheasant inside a duck, or some shit like that.

Guess you could keep going if you had enough different birds. Maybe stuff the duck in a goose and the goose in a swan and finish up with an ostrich.

makes note for next year

That's kind of like a turducken, right? - 'A dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken.'

Not to be confused with the tofurkey (the tofu turkey).

mulga bill: legend. the original brakeless hipster.

kat, your post reminded me to go and look up the poem, which I used to love when I was a kid. my dad could recite it from memory.

http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/mulga-bills-bicycle.shtml

ha. yes. it's a classic. and made all the more resonant to me these days.

do you normally brake by putting backward pressure on the pedals? does it have a hand brake? sounds really cool and i'd like to have a go one day!

Yep, I brake like any one else who rides fixed brakeless - by exerting backward pressure on the pedals. Though, I am not clipped in, which makes it a little harder. And more fun. You are welcome to have a go sometime.

I think gear inches were invented by penny farthings, so given that most of us ride 60-70 that's a pretty spinny gear! Can you skid it??!

A few times.... but purely by accident. I'm also trying to learn to brake with my shoe on the back of the wheel, for extreme circumstances. It'll save me doing running jumps (mulga bill style) which can be terrifying depending on speed/gradient.

If you bring your pf down to one of the drinks it will be the best thing ever. People can you imagine East TT on a Penny Farthing?! Plus there will be plenty of people to help you learn to trackstand

that's a plan!

Saw her on CM on Friday. Shame you have to dismount to get through traffic. That would fucking annoy me.

To be honest, I was talking so much that night I dismounted more than I normally would and I had also had a bit to drink so I was a little less balanced than is ideal on a pf. But yeah, my new years resolution is to learn how to track stand.... that would rock.

With wheels that big, you could ride over traffic. It's like a monster truck for the bike world :p

Ha. Nice idea! Problem is, it only takes a pothole or a curb to flick you onto your head, with broken wrists or legs. Plus, there's the problem of a very big taco'd wheel. Ergh.

spotted: a woman on a fucking MASSIVE penny farthing on kingsland rd on friday eve...
you madame, are truly steezing it out. restekpa

Hi gusyup. Mine's a 52" wheel. I've seen people racing 54" and 56" down at Herne Hill and they are truly massive. Apparently I have advantage at the start and on corners but they will always catch me on the straights.

I've think I've seen her on a couple of Critical Mass' before, lovely woman - had a conversation about mounting it (ooer)

Hi clefty. Sometimes conversations about mounting then result in a person riding my penny. Oh, the euphemisms ...

That'll be kat, who posted here earlier. Ordinaryengers including kat on the November CM:

Hi O.... blinks.... sees picture of self on forum..... hi, everyone.

(oh, and I really hope you are appreciating the irony of this….the fact you are calling me 'fucking ridiculous' and deserved of abuse and I am riding the first ever fixed bike. Hilarious.)

(and more..... i never have a slack chain).

Penny farthingengers times 2 on Shoreditch High Street at 4pm. Has it come to this??

think I may have seen the same two dick heads down neal st this afternoon. You deserve some abuse for riding that shit...fucking ridiculous

@adoubletap - I own a penny. I live in Hackney. I'm guessing one of them might have been me. Not sure what it has come to exactly... I have lots of bikes. Several are fixed. This is one of them. It's a racing penny and I'm currently using London traffic to prepare for this.

@slaytanic1 –The other ‘dickhead’ is the man just back from riding around the world on a penny he built himself. Sure it’s ridiculous, but that's half of it. Not many people actually yell abuse at me. But if someone does, I guess I will know it is you.

wallowing in the safe, cavernous, warm bosom of academia

oh how she laughs and laughs

hey eWoo. yep, that's me too. aimless cycling is the antidote for stubborn ideas/writers block/ laptop curvature of the spine. i usually have to stop though and write things on my arms. never remember to carry paper, but always seem to have a pen. where do you ride aimlessly?

oh to be that close to finishing.... wow, well done Steve_com! A huge achievement.

I'm doing/struggling with a PhD (sociology) at Goldsmiths - just handed in a full draft (90k) and am currently in edit/re-write the crap bits mode now. I'm aiming for an end of year finish. It'll be four years for me. Owww. And it won't go easy, that I know for sure.