Monday 26 December 2011
Sunday 18 December 2011
Open a Padlock with an Aluminum Can [Video]
Most us who've had school lockers or rental storage units know that lots of people trust inexpensive padlocks to secure their belongings. Tactical studies weblog ITS Tactical proves that this trust is a false sense of security by opening the two most popular type of padlocks with shims cut from an aluminum soda can. More »
Friday 2 December 2011
Shimano showcases the Ultegra Di2 electronic bike gears, we go for a ride
How much would you spend for an upgrade to smooth shifting on your next road bike? If $4,000 to $8,000 is in the ballpark, then a Shimano-powered electronic bike may be in your future. We took the cycling giant's latest gear for a spin in Central Park, drawing envious glances from various spandex-clad bikers during the ride. Outfitted with the company's newest Ultegra 6770 Di2 series of gears, the shifters gave us a taste of technology normally reserved for Tour de Francers -- at new, more affordable pricing. So what was it like to be the envy of cyclists everywhere? Jump past the break to find out.
Continue reading Shimano showcases the Ultegra Di2 electronic bike gears, we go for a ride
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Brand New Trail Centre in North Wales
Ever Been Tempted by the Trans Wales MTB Event?
2011 Trans-Wales Mountain Bike Challenge from robert on Vimeo.
Howies Coed Y Brenin Enduro 2011 Video
Neil Donoghue rides B-Line the New Black @ Llandegla
The new trails at Oneplanet Adventure Llandegla are now in full swing, so Donny and
Laurence CE figured they needed to get out and film. The new sections are serious amounts of fun...but dont just take our word for it.
Autumn Biking Inspiration
An Atmospheric Nant yr Arian
Llanrwst Running Routes - Page 1 of 1
www.walkjogrun.net/running-routes/UK/Conwy/Llanrwst/
Friday 11 November 2011
A New Form Is All You Need To Avoid Running Injuries [Exercise]
Modern society has seemingly decided that barefoot runners, including runners that don the weird/gross looking Vibram FiveFingers shoes, may know the secret to injury-free running, but nobody will listen to them because they're such extremists. But the injury statistics show that out of all current runners, 79% of them are injured every year. That's insane. We're obviously doing something wrong. More »
Self catering cottage sleeps 10
Monday 7 November 2011
Snowdon Sherpa Bus - round trips from BetwsyCoed
www.swissitalianpaddlesteamers.com/.../llanrwst.html
‘Challenge your Boundaries’ Adaptive MTB project
In partnership with the Snowdonia National Park, Sport Wales, and Forestry Commission Wales, the aim of the project is to develop and promote adaptive mountain biking (aMTB) as a means by which active people with disabilities can regain access to the mountain wilderness, or experience it for the first time. That’s the official party-line, but unofficially we like to think of it as giving a wider range of people the same chance to crash as we have. Our aim is to encourage risk-management and judgement in those competent to do so, and to create a suitable support structure for those who can’t. We are not going to be wrapping anyone up in cotton wool (though body armour is available!)
The launch party started with a series of short talks about aMTB from different perspectives; an experienced adaptive rider talked about mountain biking from a user’s viewpoint, whilst an army medical officer talked about the value of adventure activity from a rehab stand-point. After some quick thank-yous from me there was the formal handover of two aMTBs from the Snowdonia National Park Authority to the project.
From there it was out into the sunshine for a bike try-out session on a skills circuit set up next to the visitors centre. This open session gave the opportunity to try out a number of different adaptive bikes, but the balmy weather also encouraged a bit of an aMTB social, with groups of riders sunning themselves and swapping equipment tips and tales of aMTB adventure.
After a buffet lunch, a group of us, including 4 hand cyclists, set out for a ride into the park. The hand cycles were a variety of designs, some of which performed well on technical terrain, but were less good on fat trail, and vice versa. We made a warm-up loop of the MinorTaur trail to shake down lunch, and this was not without its moments. Steve (now to be known as ‘Swiss’ for the number of rolls he performed) had his own mini adaptive adventure off the side of those spectacular switchbacks on ‘The Slipway’, but managed to stay on the track (if not altogether upright) on a second attempt.
A long climb then took us to our first bit of technical trail, a rock-strewn and slippery climb up the remains of an old Roman road. The two ‘One-Off’ hand-cycles, sluggish on the flat, came into their own on this kind of terrain, and Adrian (a veteran of several Black Runs at Coed y Brenin) made light work of the tricky stone step mid-way up the trail. He was shortly followed by relative newcomer Martin who, on only his second go on the bike, perhaps lacked some of the technical finesse, but made up for it with sheer stubbornness and a blank refusal to be beaten.
Sneak a Peak
Monday 25 July 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
Monday 6 June 2011
Friday 3 June 2011
Saturday 28 May 2011
The Meadowsweet Hotel Slideshow
Friday 13 May 2011
Trwbador/Y Niwl: Y Dolydd, Llanrwst, Thursday 12 May 2011
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Sunday 1 May 2011
TripAdvisors latest
The people are so friendly, very accomodating, happy to help and very warm making you feel very welcome. Nelson and Mary clearly promote their ethos amongst their staff. Mary helped us settle in very well and we're very grateful.
The food in the restaurant is just scrumptious - great choice - well cooked - you can see why it's open to the public.
Nelson as a Bar Manager is simply great. Made us feel very welcome, very comfortable and helped us out with dinner on our first night when town was booked out and got us a table at the hotel (we didn't want to swap our bookings around however - Sirloin steak fantastic - chocolate box dessert fantastic !) Thanks again for the Lagavulin 16 yr birthday drink, i'm already sourcing a bottle !!
It's the little touches that make all the difference - that coupled with the stunning backdrops, this is a no brainer, we're coming back again for sure.
Thanks Nelson and Mary !!
- Date of stay: April 2011
- Visit was for: Leisure
- Travelled with: spouse/partner
- Member since: 04 July 2009
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Wednesday 23 February 2011
“Great hotel, great food” - Tripadvisor.com
Wednesday 9 February 2011
Free riding
Sunday 30 January 2011
From the Archives: Top 10 Facts From America Bikes
[We occasionally pull articles from our archives to re-post. This list from America Bikes is too good to not re-publish now and then. —Alan]
From America Bikes:
- Bicycling and walking make up 10% of all trips made in the U.S., but receive less than 2% of federal transportation funding.
- Bicyclists and pedestrians account for 13% of traffic fatalities, but receive less than 1% of federal safety funding.
- 40% of all trips in America are two miles or less, 74% of which are traveled by car.
- Americans spend, on average, 18% of their annual income for transportation. The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is 3.75% ($308) of an average car ($8,220).
- A small reduction in driving causes a large drop in traffic. In 2008, the number of vehicle miles traveled dropped 3%, translating to a nearly 30% reduction in peak hour congestion.
- Transportation sources account for 70% of our nation's oil consumption and for 30% of total U.S. GHC emissions.
- Simply increasing bicycling and walking from 10% of trips to 13% could lead to fuel savings of around 3.8 billion gallons a year. This is equivalent to having 19 million more hybrid cars on the road.
- 89% of Americans believe that transportation investments should support the goals of reducing energy use.
- 71% of Americans report that they would like to bicycle more. 53% favor increasing federal spending on bicycle lanes and paths.
- For the price of one mile of four-lane urban highway, around $50 million, hundreds of miles of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can be built, an investment that could complete an entire network of active transportation facilities for a mid-sized city.
More →
Related posts:
- Top 10 Facts From America Bikes
- Our Automobile Use
- Encouraging Signs
- The True Price of Cars
- The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments
Climber stands after 1,000ft fall
Saturday 29 January 2011
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Course you can ride in the snow!
Sunday 23 January 2011
Friday 14 January 2011
Oatmeal Pancakes
GoPro HD Video Camera Review
My birthday present for my 40th this year was a GoPro HD helmet camera – A small, HD video camera in a rugged, waterproof (to 60m) housing.
On paper it doesn’t look like anything too special. Compared to most modern tech-toys and other video cameras it has very few features. Other than recording in HD quality or a variety of other resolutions (5 in all) and being able to record either video, single photos, triple shot sequences of photos or time-lapse photos, the settings are minimal. It doesn’t have a viewfinder or LCD screen to see what you are recording or even to review your footage.
The GoPro HD did come with a charged battery though and lots of connection options for helmets, including adhesive bases for curved and flat surfaces, a head-torch style elasticated head strap, a strap for vented helmets and I also had a handlebar mount (bought separately). There are plenty of other moutnign options available too. The camera takes SD cards (not supplied) so I popped a 16GB card into mine.
The lack of options and settings is in fact one of the features of the camera. What it lacks for here, it makes up for with ease of use, size and ruggedness. The last thing you want to be doing whilst bombing down some rocky rooty, muddy, slimey singletrack or launching into a forward loop on a windsurfer is thinking about the setting on your camera or trying to adjust the point of view on it. The idea is tto set it up, start it recording and get on with whatever it is you’re doing. The lack of options and screen make this possible and provide few distractions.
The wide angle view captures the scene beautifully without the need to fiddle to make sure you’re getting things in shot. Focusing seems perfect with a large depth of field and exposure has so far proved perfect, even when going from bright sunlight into dark forests where it adjusts quickly and accurately.
I’ve yet to try it out fully but my initial tests at the weekend were simply a matter of attaching it to myself or my bike, switching it on and getting on with it. The results are great, good quality, HD video footage of my exploits, just what I wanted. Here’s the video I shot with it – I know I’ve already posted it, but here it is again.
I can’t think of much else that I’d need from it yet, although a little eyelet on the housing that would allow me to attach a piece of rope or something to a secondary attachment point would be nice when using it attached to a helmet with nothing but an adhesive pad. GoPro seem pretty confident of the ability of the adhesive pad to hold the camera on, but if it fails then you’d lose the camera. If I could also tie it to my helmet or person I’d probably feel a little more confident of not losing it.
Look out for more videos coming soon, and maybe even some time-lapse videos as that feature sounds like fun.
"First Ride of 2011
We didn’t do an end of month ride in December as the snow was still deep in the hills, so instead we rescheduled and had a ride a week later around the entire Syfydrin Trail at Nant yr Arian. There was a good turn out too, with 13 riders, including the regulars such as myself, Dave, Pete and Joh. Dan was out too on his new single-speed bike and James B joined us as he often does on the end of month rides. There were also quite a few new faces, not all of whom I got to meet properly, but there was Colin on a bike that was brighter than both of mine put together and Rupert and a few people from Machynlleth, including David who rides with us from time to time.
The weather was good although temperatures were below freezing most of the time. The trails were riding well and weren’t too icy or wet and we had a good day out with no incidents – just a couple of punctures for Pete. Everyone was struggling a little on the hills though thanks to the Christmas excesses but hopefully we all burnt off a few calories in the wild Welsh hills.
I took my GoPro camera with me, so here’s the first clip of some of the trails.
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Mist and Murk
The record breaking low temperatures and snowfall of December have gone and in its place we have rain, rain and yet more rain. The whole of West Wales seems to have been plunged into a great big bowl of mist and murk and it’s not at all pleasant out there.
Bring back the freezing temperatures and snow please, I much prefer that.
There are flood alerts all over Wales, the River Dyfi is higher than ever and much if the surrounding farmland is under water. Our neighbours garden is now a pond and our water feature is surrounded by a second, temporary water feature - At least I don’t have to worry about filling up the sump at the moment.
On a brighter note though there are a few little daffodil shoot just beginning to poke their heads out of the ground heralding the onset of spring. Don’t worry, we’ll soon be basking in glorious sunshine and moaning that it’s too hot!
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Thursday 13 January 2011
Burning off the Christmas Excess
I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I ate far too much over Christmas and did very little exercise so it’s now time to get back to it. The ‘rest’ doesn’t seem to have done too much damage as I felt OK on our Mountain Bike Ride at the weekend although I have put on some weight so it would be nice to get rid of that again. I have started getting back into it though and just finished a hard turbo trainer session and run.
On the Turbo Trainer I did a 3:2 minute interval session and I did them at the highest power output I’ve done so far. Here’s the session:
- 10 minute warm up, increasing power output from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
- 4x 3:2 mins @ 350 Watts : 120 Watts
- 3x 3:2 mins @ 360 Watts : 120 Watts
- 5mins @ 250 Watts
- 6 minute cool down.
It was getting pretty tough on the last couple of intervals but I stuck with it and managed to complete them all. Here’s my heart rate, cadence and speed traces from the session to prove that I was working hard.
Turbo Trainer Session
It was then straight off the Turbo Trainer and into my running kit for a slow, steady run along the beach. The run may have been completely flat, very slow and only 4.5 miles long but I was suffering come the end and my legs were certainly aware of the previous hard session on the bike.
At least it gives me an excuse to try out my compression socks that I got for Christmas, they are supposed to aid recovery and many people swaer by them so I thought I’d give them a go. However, I think I’m going to need more than hi-tech socks to get my legs back to normal after that!
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