Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: Chris

Order: Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2012 Attendee

Location: The Cambridgeshire Flatlands

Social: Website / /

42 year old father of three living in Cambridgeshire and working in London. I've always been into bikes but it wasn't until 2011 that I got my first road bike. Childhood and early teens were all about BMX in Hong Kong, Late 20's to mid thirties were the wilderness years, Got back into riding bikes when I borrowed a mates MTB for a weekend and ended up a fully fledged DHer but there are no hills round here so road bikes have taken over although I'm still but a novice without many miles in my legs. My wife travels with work a lot so much of my mid week riding is on the rollers and the kid's sporting interests tend to clash with the local club rides. I've also been indulging in a spot of Rule 12: 2011 Cannondale CAAD8 105, 2006 Cannondale Prophet, ???? Redline Flight Pro (Standing around watching the kids ripping up the BMX track gets a bit dull so I'm building it up from ebay parts) Had a 2007 Marin Quake as well but sold that to fund my attendance at KT13

@Chris's activity:

The Theory of Special Relativity states that time for a moving object passes more quickly than for a stationary object. Einstein, in deriving this theory, demonstrated great insight and creative power for which he is considered perhaps the greatest mind in human history. If he had owned a set of rollers, however, he’d be considered a common...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Marcus why would you want to tune into US sports? »

  2. @frank It did look like there was two of you on the track at times. Is that a bit like having two magnets on your wheel, which would mean you only did about 18.6585km? Chapeau Frank, can’t wait till you try it again on a properly Dutch Monkey fitted b… »

When done correctly, Cycling can be both the hardest and dirtiest of sports. We relish in the glory of returning from a ride, battered by the four winds and soaked by the seven rains; our bodies, faces, and machines covered in the reasons why most people might stay indoors. Given that, there is something almost cavalier about submitting to the delu...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Deakus That is a major concern but I reckon I’ve a few years yet, especially if I train with her. »

  2. Without prompting or reference to The Rules, my daughter told me that she thought her new (to her) bike would look best with white tape (the current tape is a bit tatty, the brakes aren’t ideal and the cables need replacing). She wasn’t at all discouraged… »

This photo is perhaps the greatest of all time; it shows The Prophet riding in the 1969 Ronde van Vlaanderen, kit and machine perfect. Rule #9 conditions in abundance. He’s gone off the front with some 80km left to race, which predictably sent his directeur into a rage. Ordered to return to the bunch, Merckx calmly suggested he go screw hi...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Cyclops Livin’ the dream. »

Every once in a while, you stumble across a quote that changes your outlook on how you approach life. Of course, this requires that one does a good deal of “reading”, which is a problem for me, as reading anything that isn’t Cycling-related feels the same as doing “work”. I do the odd bit of it nevertheless, and in a r...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @meursault Maybe you’re more confused than I am (which is quite an achievement in itself) but your name is Simon, isn’t it? »

  2. @frank I must have a dud copy, I’ve put on a kilogram or two since I got it. »

  3. @Mrs Engine Why is the Engine family eating off bits of the roof? »

Update: You can watch the live stream (assuming it works from the velodrome) on the Velominati channel at USTREAM. When you log in, you’ll first see my little test video of my puppy eating grass. Please disregard me yelling at it. That never happened.I have always considered myself to have a good imagination, something I attribute half to my...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Bespoke To be fair to the others, the session was open to anyone under the age of 16 and to kids passing with a bike. The photographer was lying down which plays down just how small the lead out rider was. It was a bit tough on some of the older/more… »

  2. @ped Next set of Speedplays and Bonts will be in my size! I think I’ll start her off in something she can use for cross in the winter. I know that might not be entirely rule compliant but there’s a need to match the budget to the household cycling needs. … »

  3. @mouse The V is strong in this one. Purple. The bike is a cracker, an ebay special, Reynolds 531, Sora drivetrain and hubs, Mavic Open Pro rims, old school Cinelli quills tem and traditional round bend bars. Evil little Onza cantis, soon to be replaced… »

  4. Strong work @frank. A hefty dose of Sambuca and dancing on Friday night left me without the stamina to last beyond the halfway point before drifting off.  Everything I’ve ever read about time trialling had the DSs lying through their teeth about their ri… »

  5. @brett Has he just gone hypoxic and run into the camera? »

  6. @G’rilla Get the beers out and tell him if he doesn’t hurry up they’ll be gone before he’s done. »

Every once in a while, you stumble across a quote that changes your outlook on how you approach life. Of course, this requires that one does a good deal of “reading”, which is a problem for me, as reading anything that isn’t Cycling-related feels the same as doing “work”. I do the odd bit of it nevertheless, and in a r...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @ChrisL Too fucking right it’s confusing! My surname is Lawrence! »

La Vie Velominatus isn’t a part-time gig. La Vie means the life, and The V is my life. Otherwise, I’d be Some V Velominatus, some of the time.Even when I’m not riding my bike, like the last two weeks (for reasons which don’t really matter, and offering them only renders them excuses), I live La Vie through other avenues. Eve...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @ChrisO ”Je suis vegetarian” “Ah, qui, would you like ze chicken?” is probably better than being offered a vegetarian sausage, most of which are about as offensive as alcohol free beer. I’ve met a few people who claim to be vegetarian but really just dra… »

It’s not a secret around these parts that William Fotheringham is my favorite Cycling journalist. Growing up as a budding Velominatus in the isolated island known as North America, I could count on one hand the publications that even mentioned Cycling, let alone provided reliable coverage. Winning Magazine and Velonews were my source for race...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Deakus Haven’t got the book to hand to check but is this the photo? »

La Vie Velominatus isn’t a part-time gig. La Vie means the life, and The V is my life. Otherwise, I’d be Some V Velominatus, some of the time.Even when I’m not riding my bike, like the last two weeks (for reasons which don’t really matter, and offering them only renders them excuses), I live La Vie through other avenues. Eve...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @brett Nice article. Do you eat fish and sea food, I can’t remember from talking to you about it at the Keepers Tour. I’m a confirmed meat eater although I do find that I tend to eat much less of it and be much more selective about it’s quality and sourc… »

Update: You can watch the live stream (assuming it works from the velodrome) on the Velominati channel at USTREAM. When you log in, you’ll first see my little test video of my puppy eating grass. Please disregard me yelling at it. That never happened.I have always considered myself to have a good imagination, something I attribute half to my...

@Chris's posts:

  1. Anatomy of a Photo: @frank’s hour @frank’s wildest dreams @frank’s first lap @frank’s second lap »

Every once in a while, you stumble across a quote that changes your outlook on how you approach life. Of course, this requires that one does a good deal of “reading”, which is a problem for me, as reading anything that isn’t Cycling-related feels the same as doing “work”. I do the odd bit of it nevertheless, and in a r...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @Deakus why complicate things? @chris posters can be categorised as either me (small boy in a velodrome gravatar) or not me. »

  2. @Deakus Just to be clear, I’m @Chris, currently +1 Conttibutor but also KT12 Attendee (@frank hasn’t recoded his little orange Flandrian lions to KT13 status). @ChrisO, V-Contributor, might be my alter ego. I suspect he’s the product of my schizophrenic,… »

We are the Keepers of the Cog. In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@Chris's posts:

  1. @meursault Don’t you be winking emoticons at me! I rode a lot more over the winter than I have recently. To be fair the lack of summer is a piss poor excuse. We’d be waiting forever. »

  2. @thebaron I’m waiting for the summer. »

  3. @thebaron A good point but it seems to me that the ability to be a twat that looks down on people can be found at all price bands. Some ride shit bikes and look down on those with nice bikes as posers, others think they can ride and complain about others … »

  4. @mouse +1. If the ownership of expensive bikes was limited to those who could truly do them justice we’d be in the shit. The bike companies don’t make pro level bikes for the pros to ride around on, they make them to sell them to the public and use the p… »