Arrived 10:30 (after missing my turn-off on the M1) and made a beeline for Roger [the hilldodger] at the CycleMagic try-out area to say hello and have a chat.

I then wandered off to see what else was happening and walked past a guy who asked “Would you like a free smoothie?”
“Not ‘arf”, I said – I was parched from the drive down.
“Hop on” he said.
“What?”
“Hop on” he said pointing at the bike next to the blender. “30 seconds should do it” he said, and that was when I noticed the bike was on a turbo attached to the blender. You ride the bike to blend your own smoothie. Excellent! (The smoothie tasted very nice – thanks BlendaVenda!)

The next stop was the big tent where I was one of the first people to relinquish my bike to these two colourful and artistic ladies.

That silver puddle you can see next to my saddle is my rear-facing go-faster flash.

I’m not sure if they’ve added them at this point, but when they’d finished I had a mass of coloured spokey-dokeys.

(Later in the day I made my own yellow flag too!! Sad, I know!)

Anyway, the reason I’d given the ladies my bike was because I was having a go at the 500M roller spint that Derby Mercury cycle club had set-up. I was in my civvies (the lycra was packed away in the car) so had to tuck my jeans in my socks. Luckily I had my cycling shoes and they had a bike with SPD’s so I got warmed-up and then called to the guy next to me to start the timer. Off I went like a bat out of hell, watching the yellow distance hand slowly working its way around the face, dying-off at the end but knowing I’d given a good performance, and I turned to the guy and said “How did I do?”. He looked at me and said “I don’t know, I was timing the lad next to you!” … aaarrgghhh!!!!!

So I cooled down for a few minutes then tried again and got 27.13 … and a pair of leaden legs into the bargain.

This is where I bumped into my first CycleChatter. (I know this is really bad, because you told me your name, but by the time I came to write this blog article I’d forgotten – I’m really sorry. Can you PM me so I can rectify it please – thanks:-).

We had a good chat and a cool down after the 500M dash, then went to watch a comedy sketch that was starting in another tent. The sketch was good, and the kids watching enjoyed it, but then they were the intended audience. The next show was more up the street of us adults.

Next came the stunt / trick riders, Andrei Burton and Keelan Phillips. These guys were amazing. Keelan spins tricks on his bike like you wouldn’t believe, and Andrei jumps his bike to places you couldn’t imagine him getting (he also pulled a stunt where he jumped off an 8ft high platform to land inbetween two volunteers laid on the floor just a foot or so apart!).

I’ve downloaded the video from my phone (70MB), but not sure how many of you will be able to play it. (I’ll have to link to it later as I cannot upload it from where I’m writing this.)

Here’s a picture or two for now.

I then noticed some kids scooting around a course so went to see what was happening there. It turned out to be a skills training program using the little metal frame scooters that kids whizz around on. The aim being to teach balance and co-ordination on the move to kids who weren’t really old enough to learn how to ride just yet. (Having watched some of the kids I’m not so sure I’d be able to do, and I’ve been riding for years).

The next stop was Roger’s CycleMagic cycling emporium of old, strange, and wonderful bikes; such as the pedal backwards-to-go-forwards bike, the tall bike, the opposite steering bike (what a nightmare that is), the penny farthing, and many others:

 

Then I bumped into beanzontoast (and Mrs. beanzontoast) and Sh4rkyBloke:

As we were chatting, bizarrely a small wedding party walked across with their wedding photographer and began an impromptu photo session featuring some of the bikes. Roger brought out the tandem and to our great surprise the bride – in her crystal white wedding dress - climbed astride the bike and had her photo taken. And, yes, there were no chain-guards on the tandem and I cannot believe that beautiful wedding dress got away unscathed!

I decided it was time to go and try out some of the CycleMagic nutty bikes, so donned a helmet and headed into the play area … followed shortly after by Beanz and Sharky.

Easiest: the pedal backwards bike. Hardest: the opposite steering one – just couldn’t get my brain to do it. (If you’re coming tomorrow, give it a try – it’s mental!!).

Here’s a pic of the wobbly trike. Both front wheels have off-centre hubs, and so both go up and down at different times to each other, making any sort of pace incredibly difficult:

We were then joined by another CC’er – Will1985, who’d riden 50 miles from Birmingham to Derby:

Will joined in the fun with the bikes and managed to master the very difficult mount and dismount of the tall bike (can I just re-stress it was very difficult – no, it was, honest!):

Tall bike track stand (bloody showoff!)

I then pointed Will in the direction of the 500M dash to see how he would do.

Bloody hell, it took two blokes to hold the thing down and Will went like the proverbial clappers – 20.26 – the best time of the day!!!

Well done Will.

After a quick pit-stop for food and drink there was just one more thing left to do – get Will on the bendy bike.

He told me that a guy called Wobbly John had done the Dunwich Dynamo (100+ miles) on the bendy bike the week previous – quite an acomplishment when you see the frame:

Apparently, the trick is to keep your arms and body stiff, and sort of steer with your bum. I didn’t get chance to try it, so might have a go tomorrow. (More mad bikes here.)

The last of the bikes was packed away as we chatted with some of the CycleMagic team, then me and Will called it a day.

Had some fun, caught some sun, and ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Cheers,
Shaun