So I was 40 in the summer and although the psychological hurdle I expected to accompany this birthday never really came an outpouring of kindness and generosity from family and friends most certainly did.

Yesterday I travelled to darkest West Lothian to visit the factory where the frame my wife unbelievably bought me is being built. Excited doesn’t really cover it, but I’ll need to be patient!

And today I’m heading to Innerleithen for one on one coaching with Dirt School courtesy of a voucher some good pals got me as a birthday gift.

So 2 days in November and 2 great reminders how lucky I am to have great mates and a loving family who understand and tolerate my obsession with these here new fangled dandy horses!

Much love to the universe on this fine Friday.

You must also make sure you show your wife how appreciative you are by letter her give you a BJ as well, they say luck comes in 3″s – go on try it……

lucky bloke……what frame?

I cannot imagine what the result would be if my other half took it uppon herself to buy me a frame etc.

Maybe I’ll leave some magazine cut-outs of dropper posts around the house.

Isn’t cynic-al in West Lothian?
Do you like spoons & CF? Or is your wife trying actually trying to kill you?

I’d guess at Shand..?

great stuff, my wife was very understanding when I acquired a new frame and associated bits a little after my 50th..

enjoy and appreciate.

Well. Yesterday’s coaching was great. Obviously I’ve doing everything wrong for 10 years and somehow getting sway with it….but seemed to be able to grasp what he was showing me Nd hopefully now I can unlearn all my habits and become a riding GOD!

Regarding the frame it is a Shand and was cool to see around their factory, various frames in different stages of completion hanging around….and the guys were very accommodating towards me and my family…

Scandal42 – my wife did start out trying to sort all this as a surprise but quickly realised that if she was going spend a Klondike on something special she would be better off getting me to choose rather than get it all badly wrong!

And although my actual 40th was in August, I’ll put your suggestions to her Lucien!

Phil Wood hubs?

Aye? How’d d’you know that? Are you spying on me? (Reaches for tinfoil hat)

Aye? How’d d’you know that? Are you spying on me? (Reaches for tinfoil hat)

https://twitter.com/shandcycles

Phil Wood hubs by shandcycles, on Flickr

Ah, saw link to that on FB yesterday but didn’t think they were my wheels for some reason…

Give Shand a kick in the bollocks from me.

MussEd. I think maybe you are a really decent bloke and deserve it! Those hubs are gorgeous!

Cheers Jam – though you’ve obviously not met me!

Well, after a slight delay I finally got my hands on the bike. Any humptiness about a 5 month hiccup was swiftly forgotten about when I clocked the frame in all it’s glory…not to everyones tastes I accept, but I’m in love…

5 month hiccup

Sounds almost terminal.

Can we see it then?

it very nearly was, but I’m glad I never pulled the plug on this…

I dont actually have a picture of it in its entirety{those above were from Shand’s flickr}..I’ll take one now but I’ve only got my phone handy and I’ve had a cider and loads of cheese…

its very retro, not my cuppa but still a beaut

It’s like my Rockhopper Pro and Jake the Snake had a baby.

Very nice, not sure how it’ll fair on bumpy singletrack but each to their own. :o)

lovely

I like your radiator.

No one loves me.
So for my 40th I’ve entered.
2 national Xc races (and a load of regionals)
2 national 4x races
The welsh Dh champs
One of the henduroe thingies
British marathon championships
6 Road Races
Loads of Crits
Already done a cx season.
And now I can actually justify owning 9 bikes 😀

I like your radiator.

+1

No one loves me.

+1

I’m glad the rads are getting the love they deserve, surpised no-one has spotted the Grrendale Rocket though…

My biology teacher was known as Jones the Oracle due to his never ending stream of useless trivia. One of the many gems he enriched my life with was, “Radiators should be black – look at Africans!”…

Looks like a lovely bike but not sure about the brown and red. How about green tape and saddle?

oh yeah………..lush bicycle

very nice bike! (cables look very long for some reason) and you’ve chosen your favourite colour – red walls, red picture frame etc 🙂

Grand looking bike that. But really, the red walls clash, so time to redecorate the house. 😉

It’s going to be stored against the white wall to avoid that very scenario…

pretty 🙂

Lovely but I’m drawn to the thin white antlers. Can nothing better be done with the cables?

Other than change the colour.. No. Unless I change brakes later on but they’re there for the foreseeable. White antlers!

Btw suffered it’s first crash this morning, 9 month old pulled it over on top of herself. Resulting in a sort of diagonal Adam Ant bruise stripe across her lovely wee face. Bike is unscathed however.

Bike is unscathed however.

If those cables remain unchanged, that statement is debatable 😉