Zombies.Cycling.Project

It's a strange, complicated, weird world out there. Sometimes you don't know where to turn. Some folk turn their heads right around. Some folk laugh their heads right off. I saw all of the above whilst strolling through Birmingham last weekend on my lunch break...

Birmingham and its undead population

This zombie awakening was not just a phenomena happening in Birmingham. I was led to believe countries overseas were experiencing similar menace. Worse still, cyclist in particular were becoming affected (infected?!)

Didn't cycle at all during the week because I was hit with a shot of the man flu. Real disappointed as I wanted to commute to work by bike. I managed a quick 28k jaunt over the weekend on my single-speed road bike though.

On a brighter note, I managed to source more parts for my retro build. I am saying 'retro' now, rather than 'retroish' because a number of folk are dating the Raleigh Esprit to be an 80's bike. I thought my parents bought me my bike for my 16th birthday but they didn't. I had this bike when I was 16, but the presumption is that I had it for some time. At age 16, I would have been in 1991. So, my best guestimate is still late 80's.

My favourite new part was a set of Shimano Dura-Ace brake levers. I went over budget and spent £20.15 on this pair of beauties. Don't they look amazing?! Aside from some brake pads, this is the only piece of Dura-Ace hardware that I own! Dura-Ace has represented the state of the art in bicycle components since 1973. Ok, these levers aren't state of the art by todays standards (being about 25 years old) but you get the drift. Just need some brake cable and then I'll have a full brake set.

The other component I acquired was a Shimano 600 rear mech. This cost me £10.49 (under budget) so I guess I'm kinda square. Don't know a lot about the Shimano 600 range but my research revealed that a lot of races in the 90's were won using these components. Some have said it's roughly equal to Shimano 105 and others have said Ultegra replaced it.

The photo above is that of the Colombian women's cycling team. Their new designed kit makes them look naked doesn't it?! I can assure they are not, however, Brian Cookson the president of UCI says this kit is unacceptable. What do you think?