Journal
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May 12, 2013
Local Riders - Dean Downing
Read more →Another rider coming from the strong contingency of local talent in our area is Dean Downing. After seeing our recent Q&A session with Dave Coulson, Dean kindly offered to answer the questions himself. It's Lincoln GP today and Dean will be looking to place high after winning the race back in 2007. He's been a professional for nearly a decade, riding first in Belgium then back to the UK to race for the Rapha-Condor outfit. Today he rides for another new team on the professional circuit, Madison-Genesis. Here are Dean's answers... As a racing cyclist, which results are you most proud...
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May 10, 2013
How The Bike Got Into Me
Read more →I didn't know him at the time but I remember seeing Antoine Ventouse getting off his orange J F Wilson bike in town, lean, shaven tanned legs, Hebden cord short-shorts, vintage embroidered french jersey, looking the part in the sun. I'd already decided that I wanted to become a cyclist and I'd bought a second hand 531 steel bike and done a few short rides on my own but I had no idea of where to go from there. I introduced myself to Antoine, we talked about the bike and about clobber, became friends and he gave me the pointers...
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May 03, 2013
Local Riders - Dave Coulson
Read more →There is a strong professional and elite amateur racing cyclist contingency in and around the Peaks with a number of riders and ex-riders living in both the Sheffield and Rotherham area. Dave Coulson is one of them. Dave was born and raised in Sheffield and moved to the continent at the age of 20 to race. This is where he "grew up a lot and was very often hungry". He continued to race at elite level in the UK and Europe for close to 20 years. Dave has recently moved into team management after retiring from the racing scene at the end of 2010. He is...
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Apr 25, 2013
Peak District Climbs - #1 Burbage
Read more →I'm starting this run-down feature of my favourite Peak District climbs with Burbage. It's a fitting start as the road is a good example of what these features are here to do; a mixture of challenging climbs, great scenery and quiet roads. Burbage ticks all three boxes. Some riders may be tempted to stay on Hathersage Road all the way up to Surprise View and follow this road up to Fox House, but in missing the left turn up to Burbage, they may be missing a trick. The road is a longer and tougher climb than continuing up the main road but it's much quieter especially mid-week and...
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Apr 16, 2013
I cycle therefore, I am.
Read more →Cycling is a way of being. You've got to think about how you feel when you ride. What is it that makes us eager to ride everday? What better way to find your being within the world than on a bike. Through your bodily senses, your skin touching the air. You know you're working because your muscles sometimes ache and when you get home, off the bike, you've got this thirst, an unquenchable one and a hungry that never disappears. Your hearing perceptions widen and meander from a car coming by you, to your breathing, to a creak of your...
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Apr 08, 2013
Missing a Trick
Read more →"The bicycle is its own best argument. You just get a bike, try it, start going with the thing and using it as it suits you. It'll grow and it gets better and better and better" Many acute observations have been made and memorable things said and written about cycling but this line from bearded, crepe sole shoe wearing '70s cycling legend Richard Ballentine emphasises the bike's versatility; how it can be many things to many people. This versatility has led to a divergence of bike design to create specialised bikes which in turn has seen the emergence of various...
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Apr 03, 2013
How My Grandad Influenced Me
Read more →Following on in your fathers footsteps is something many people aspire to do, dependant on your fathers trade of course. My Dad was a miner when i was growing up, he worked at Maltby pit in Rotherham. When Thatcher closed the pits in the 80s he decided, like many others, to strike. Not wanting to waste any time he trained as an electronical engineer, something he still does today in Germany. My Grandad however worked within the famous Sheffield steel industry. Sheffield has been and always will be known for it's amazing steel. The city has an International reputation for...
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Mar 22, 2013
A Family Thing...
Read more →When a business has been in a family for years you will usually find that they know a hell of a lot about the field in which they are working. Our buttons supplier is no exception. They've been making buttons in Sheffield for decades - special buttons, buttons that have a life of their own. We're always keen to hear a story and benefit from the experience of the experts, we'd be stupid if we weren't to listen so when we visited the factory recently to place an order for our forthcoming Pilsley shirts, we took a camera and documented...
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Mar 08, 2013
The Priceless Feeling.
Read more →I remember Tony once saying to me when we were coming down Ringinglow road after one of my first 'bonk' rides. "Enjoy that feeling, you can't buy it". I must admit that at first I had no idea what he was talking about but in hindsight I now understood what he meant. We had been out for 6 hours riding through the Peaks District as far out as Goyt Valley. We had set off early on a sunday morning and met a few more lads at Hathersage before heading over Abney and then on to Dove Holes. A steady Sunday...
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Mar 06, 2013
Our Fabrics - Oxford Cotton
Read more →We've used Oxford cotton on four of our shirts so far; white and sky for the recent Clough shirts and white and marine stripe for the first Backtor shirts that we made back in December. The cloth has been woven for us in a Lancashire mill which we work closely with. Oxford cloth has a basket-weave structure. The threads are interlaced to form a criss-cross pattern which looks like a checker-board up close. There are a few types of Oxford cloth; Pinpoint and Royal Oxford are the formal variants which tend to be used to make dress shirts. Our shirts...