#MyCountry.cc

[my--country]

Hey friends, long time no chat. I just wanted to leave a little note here so it’s clear that I’m not a dead doggo. To coin the jape of of average friend (and now colleague), Matthew Allen, my career has taken a great leap forward and as of about three months ago, I became a full time industry insider douchebag and started as a staff writer at BikeRadar.  Unsurprisingly, my time is now spent penning wisdom for the man, so the likelihood of me maintaining this wee blog with any kind of regularity has diminished greatly. I may post the odd snap from time to time, but otherwise this will remain as an archive of my pre grown-up life that once was.  My advice to any of you who stumble upon this post and think, “cool! This l’il Scottish dude has landed the dream job, I want that!” is to start a blog, take a bunch of snaps and ride your bike lots. Simple, but proving you’re passionate about doing dumb junk on bikes strikes me as the most important thing you can do in my new environment. Until next time, keep an eye on my Instagram, stay positive and pull a sweet skid for me. (Snap from a somewhat ill fated trip to the Sierra de Guadarrama, North of Madrid last month)

[my--country]

The Ochils, April 2016

Seemingly overnight, Spring has become Summer in Scotland and I’ve wholly embraced it by bike with both #tapsaff and #legsoot nearly every day this week. I’m clocking up more miles, both solo and with the increasingly adventurous Alpine Bikes #naughtyboizbikeclub and it feels good to be in good form again. It’s been almost two years since my last double century attempt and completing one still remains a long term goal of mine.

So with this new found fitness, I hope that this summer will bring nice weather, good vibes and favouring winds so that I can finally achieve this must fruitless of endeavours. I hope there will be many more snaps to share with you all in coming weeks.

[my--country]

Wurst Stop, Leuchars, 2016

[my--country]

Channeling The Spirit of Grant Petersen

Operating on another plane of bicycle consciousness. Source - Manual Acosta

Grant Petersen visits me in my dreams. In my last dream, Grant and I were sitting in a car park on a sunny day, lazing by our bikes and drinking iced tea. While drinking the tea we talked about badges, axes and shorts.

After a while we decided to go for a ride but I hadn’t finished my tea. Grant said it didn’t matter as he took the tea from my hand and decanted it into a well used Stanley flask. He placed the flask into his basket and we left.

We rode down wide streets in what felt like a Californian suburb and my choice of 35mm Paselas was noted by Grant.

Eventually the road led us to the coast and we stopped to take some photos. Grant then told me that my photography degree was ‘cool’.

The Grizzly’s fork has the silhouette of a unicrown and it thinks about the city. But its lugs are as immovable as its Milanese accent. Thankfully the Griz’ respects its heritage and it wears them with pride.

Richard Sachs probably wouldn’t approve of the lugged/unicrown hybrid ATMO, but Kris Henry might. Both have a mutual appreciation for eachother so who do I trust? I trust the Bianchi.

The Grizzly’s long chainstays tell me to make quality time for myself. Tomorrow I’ll trim my shorts by one inch, curate my fleece collection, take the long cut and worry only about ‘stagrams. Leave the segments till tomorrow.

Its decals are like an old sailor's tattoos, or maybe just an old sailor. Probably not a navy man though. Weathered and beaten, it has been on many adventures. It won’t try to keep up with the new boys, but those north road bars and high-rise stem will make sure you get there comfortably.

The U-brake mount is the Grizzly’s achilles heel, forever at the rear and always on its mind. We all have faults and sometimes we don’t like to admit them, but unlike feelings, U-brakes can be thoroughly flushed and re-packed with fresh grease.

Lead me over well sculpted loam and you will thrive on my mirth, Grizzly. You will never jump babbling brooks, instead you will pause in them and dream of celeste coloured Apennine streams, cleansing your tan-walls and taking you back home

[my--country]

Veggie Princess Summer

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Jun 17, 2015 at 10:43am PDT

Summer has been terribly good to me so far. I’ve gotten out on my bike far more often than I have been able to in a long time and I’m settling in very well on my critically acclaimed #29durr. Long term goals are also looking more viable and I may even have another attempt at a double. I’m feeling as fit as I did last ‘season’, but the Croix de Fer still doesn’t fit me. Is it time for a new bike? Almost probably definitely as I am now working for ‘the man’ in ‘the industry’ and could probably build a bike that is approaching my ideal for far less than I’ve ever been able to before.

Me and my bike are tres tired

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Jun 15, 2015 at 11:31am PDT

Will I miss this opportunity? Likely.

Somewhat inspired by the Capital Trail, I’m going to attempt a Glentress and back ride next week. As I still haven’t got my life together and am still car-able-less, I’m going to have to get there under my own steam If I want to moan about how boring trail centres are. I will do my utmost on the ride to document it in a #artisanal manner and will #curate it when I get home. This is vital if I am to continue expanding on my body of photography work, which given my degree probably makes sense.

I have just finished reading the very good Charlie Cunningham interview on Pinkbike and was taken by his suggestion that writing should be like telling a story to your best friend. Advice worth following. Have a wicked-sick weekend, friends. 

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Jun 15, 2015 at 11:22am PDT

[my--country]

I present to you what can only be described as three steps forward and at least one backward in my rarely evolving line-up of bikes. Unashamedly following (fan-boying?) in the footsteps of people such as Team Dicky and Dr J0n, I’ve come rip roaring into the mid to late noughties with this mish-mashed rigid 29er.

This bike reflects my on-going and very trendy shift towards longer and more involved rides. Regardless of the distance, I was also  finding myself very over-biked in most of the places I rode my now departed, but not forgotten, ’09 Blur.

The nature of the mountain biking in and around my native Edinburgh also tends to involve a degree of ‘riding in’, so something with a little less squish was undoubtedly going to make heading out a little less of a slog.

Lastly, having ridden full suspension bikes all of my cycling life, I felt the need to change things up a little.

Thus – the #29durr.

So what’s new for me? Disregarding the rest of the bike, the biggest move has been towards 29” wheels (One step forward).

We all know that fad has been and gone, 650bro proving to be the winner for most. But I’m an alt guy and the much-touted ‘trail-smoothing ride’ of a 29er made sense given that I wanted to run the bike rigid (one step backward). First impressions are much the same as everyone else’s; it climbs supremely well, rolls over everything and feels extremely stable.

The one thing I hadn’t anticipated was the rather drastic difference on handling the larger contact patch of the tyres would cause. The bike tracks supremely well when powering straight ahead, but feels a little reluctant to turn quickly in twisty situations. Given this is my first foray into toobless setups (another step forward), the lower pressures I am able to run further exacerbates this effect.

I am admittedly yet to dial in the tyre pressures to my liking and may find I prefer running a slightly higher pressure for this reason alone, but only time will tell. Perhaps some more enthusiastic body language is all that’s needed.

Another fad I’ve caught up with is the now ubiquitous 1*X drivetrain (My last step forward). One of my only gripes with the SLX M670 groupset was the slightly vague feeling front shifting when things got sloppy.

But now having installed one of Superstar’s IO chainring’s upfront, I’d find it very difficult to recommend ~£130 extra for XT. The only real advantage I could see would be the IceTech rotors, which if you’re so inclined can be purchased when the stock ones wear out

I’m excited to see where this bike is going to take me over the next few months. It is such a departure from the Blur that I can only image that the nature of my gnar-shredding will move inline with the overall ‘feel’ of the bike.

[my--country]

I finally got out on my bike for the first time this 2015 heading up the very atmospheric albeit wee Cloan Glen followed by Corb Glen.  There's not much to say about the route over this pass apart from that it's a very worthwhile #epicgravel link for any route that heads this way.  Incidentally the pass is part of the Mary Queen of Scots Way, which looks like a potentially excellent low level cycling route right through the heart of Scotland. One to keep in mind for this summer. 

[my--country]

Retrospective

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Sep 13, 2014 at 9:53am PDT

It's been four months since I last swung my leg over a bicycle. It's hard to pin point exactly why I've not felt as motivated to go out and ride bikes, but it's undoubtedly got a lot to do with the shift to a 9>5, Mon>Fri job alongside the particularly muddy and dark feeling winter we've had.  But there was something else that was lacking towards the end of last year. During the summer I began to feel the fittest I ever have in my life and was completely taken by the increasingly longer rides I was going on. So having to shift from generally longer and more involved rides to shorter outings around and about Edinburgh left me feeling totally dissatisfied. 

I enjoy seeing the world at the contemplative pace which cycling affords me and being limited to these short bursts of action never really fulfilled my need for this. 

I generally deplore writing which paints 'epic' rides as some shared and significant struggle, but the mental/emotional aspect of longer trips is something that is very important to me. People worry and write far too much about the 'experience' of cycling, but in equal parts to the physical satisfaction it truly is what drives me to go out and ride bikes. 

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is other than a statement of intent for the rest of year. I knew I hadn't turned my back on playing bikes, but it's vital that I revisit these thoughts and photos to remind myself of why cycling is so important to me. 

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Jul 25, 2014 at 8:06am PDT

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Jul 25, 2014 at 8:08am PDT

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Aug 3, 2014 at 7:40am PDT

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Aug 5, 2014 at 3:42pm PDT

A photo posted by Jack Luke (@jacquelucque) on Aug 26, 2014 at 5:14am PDT