Santa Cruz Chameleon

We never got a Tufftrax from Saracen for FG to review, but here's the next best thing - a primer-grey Chameleon from Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz's website says: "still as workhorse solid as ever, with a heavily gusseted head tube region capable of handling the loads of 160mm forks, blah blah blah super-bomber tough seat blah blah blah and a new hydroformed top tube.
Blah blah blah stealthy new ultra-light eccentric BB blah blah blah vertical dropouts for blah blah blah and disc brake use with either blah blah or set up as a single speed, and rhubarb rhubarb the swank replaceable derailleur hanger blah blah blah"
FG says: "For some reason that bike looks very small."

A little bit of sulking does you good

Like a strange dream from the depths of Drugzilla's brain, the whole of the UK is under snow this week and EVERYONE IS GOING TO DIE. In the meantime, Jason went riding, although not for very long as his brother was in a sulk and there was 3" of snow on the ground. He sulked because he didn't like having to push up the hill out of Elterwater over to Little Langdale (as soon as your back wheel span - which it did all the time in the snow - you came to a halt so had no option but to push).

He then sulked because we did a fair bit of climbing up to High Arnside (although most of that, from the bottom of Hodge Close quarries, was rideable) and kept riding off and saying that he was going to go back on his own although Keensy would have to go along because his clothes were in the Land Rover. Jason, being his usual diplomatic self, told him to stop acting like an 8 year old and suggested that he curled up in a ball and cried himself to sleep. This didn't help matters.

(Jason's new bike, which he'll probably have for about a year, ride three more times, get it resprayed and then flog it)

Biking in Hong Kong (1)

Here are some steps:

I'll have more to say about this in a day or two.

Whatever happened to April Lawyer?

This interview gleaned a few details: when we found out that April ate the same breakfast for every race we immediately tried emulating her. Sadly, it was never made clear exactly what the secret 'egg concoction' is; Twelve Stone tried a dozen egg yolks in a pint glass, washed down with jam. Jason had an omelette and I missed the race because I was waiting three hours for my meringues to rise properly. Colin Newbury got salmonella and apparently you can't get eggs in Florida (well, that's what Kent told me - I reckon there's something suspicious about that, but I don't know quite what).

Intense Slopestyle

It's the shiznay on the biznay, it's mo'fizzle fo you shizzle, it's the new Intense Slopestyle, and we got Phil Mitchell to ride it for an exclusive review. And he said:
Went for a quick ride around the local wood (Kirkhill). Didn’t fall off, which is a good thing. I have to be more careful about pedaling through rocks/roots (it’s lower).
The bike is shorter than the AC and a little heavier. It climbs as well as it, corners a lot better and is generally more fun.
So there you are. Don't spend all the extra pennies on a Giant, when you can get a cheap-as-chips Intense. Mind you, by the sounds of it you'll need to save a bit of cash to upgrade to a 130mm stem and some shorter cranks to stop the pedals clouting on roots.
Next week we FLIP REVERSE IT on a Saracen Tufftrax. Be there!
Phil will be appearing as Widow Twankey in this year's production of 'Aladdin' at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, between December 23rd and January 15th.