A few weeks ago I subscribed to Mountain Bike Rider magazine.  I could pretend that it was for the pull-out route maps; the skills advice; the workshop articles… but to be honest, there are two reasons for me subscribing:

1. 10% off the cover price.
2. A FREE Altura Nevis cycling jacket.

Smug Man in Free Altura Nevis Jacket.

The jacket’s last year’s model I believe, but it’s a cracking windstopper, and waterproof too.  The reflective bits on the front (as you can see here) and on the bumflap will be helpful and this used to retail at more than £50.  It cost me less than hat to subscribe to a magazine I was going to buy anyway, so I’m a winner! Hurrah for me.

Check Out My Cherries!

While I’m on a cheapo tip, look at these babies:

Virtually Free Cherry Tomatoes-In-Waiting

Regular readers will know about my £7-greenhouse-£25-base exploits.  Well, this propagator is full of seeds we dried out from actual cherry tomatoes, stolen from a salad.  They’re growing, actually growing and everything, which is cool.

They should be ready for transplanting outside before too long, then later in the summer we can have lots and lots of cherry tomatoes.  Salads; sauces; pizza; barbecues; soups… I’m going to be heartily sick of cherry toms by autumn but it’s pretty cool for the kids to witness.

Next year I think I should try to grow amusing-shaped vegetables. Any ideas what’s good to grow?

Similar Nonsense :

1. Garden Growbag Bargain – Or So I Thought

One of the girls has been doing allotmenteering at school this year, and has developed a healthy interest in all things home-grown.  Keen to reinforce this and to build on the wonderful appreciation of our garden-grown strawberries (all 6 of them) last year, we’ve invested in a few small self-sufficiency projects.

1. Improved strawberry growing. I’m not saying how this has been achieved. It’s a secret from the kids.
2. A raspberry plant. I bought one last year but a neighbourhood idiot uprooted the “sticks” from the embankment in front of our house and threw them into the canal.  This time they’re in the back garden!
3. A growing house for tomatoes.  This is what this blog entry is about.

The Tomato House

In an attack of bargain-hunting that orange fraudster David Dickinson would be proud of, my Other Half snapped up a steel-and-plastic mini-greenhouse for about £7.  “Excellent!” we thought.  Over the weekend I took the bits out of the box and realised that, while a very good idea and no doubt excellent for tomatoes, the weather-proofyness of said greenhouse was less than ideal for the foothills of the Pennines.

So, down to B&Q I went and spent £25 on materials to build a suitably stable base for our £7 greenhouse.  Brilliant.

An hour or two later, with blistered office-worker hands thanks to my battery failing on the power drill, I chocked up the base so it was level and attached the uprights of the greenhouse to the shed.  Now the thing will only blow away if the shed blows away too – and the bikes should stop that happening!

A job well done, I think.  What do you think?

The tommies are propagating at the moment so they should be in there in about a fortnight.  Watch this space…

p.s. I did get out on the bike, 9.3 miles around Hollingworth Lake after being delayed by my own poor workmanship.  Time lost due to a 3-step puncture repair, gah.  But a nice ride nonetheless.

Unique Information.

My boy has a 24″ Mountain Bike. Ever since he knew he was getting it, he made it clear he wanted some bar ends like his Dad’s to help pull the thing up hills and rest his weary wrists on the bouncy trails.

I know bar ends are a love or hate thing. Frankly I’m not going to discuss it.  I love them. With crappy sore hands like mine, anything that helps you move your hands around the bars makes it easier to keep riding.  They’re also a boon on steep easy descents, where they help you to get down low into the bike and eek a few more mph onto your maximum reading for the day.  Simple!

How’s It Done?

It’s easy, really.  Grip shifts look pretty unmovable, but really they’re just slipped onto the handlebars and screwed into place.  So grab a cross-headed screwdriver, some allen keys, a little elbow grease and your new bar ends … then get stuck in.

The first job is to loosen the collars of the brake levers and the Gripshift mechanisms.  The Gripshifts have a screw concealed which, once you’ve loosened it, allow the units to be easily slipped along the handlebars.  Use the depth of your new bar ends as a guide so you know how far to move them inwards along.  Then tighten them a little.

Using a good craft knife, cut the end of the rubber grips.  Don’t overdo it, you can always take a little more off; you can’t put any back!  Then use your elbow grease to move the rubber grip along the handlebar, to make room for your shiny new bar ends.

Attach the bar ends, being careful to get the angle right.  If you’re using a stand to hold your bike, now’s the moment to take it off and sit astride the bike to get the angles right.  Tighten up the bar ends, then the Gripshift units and brake levers.

You’re done!  You can now pull your bike up big hills and lean right down on those fast descents.  You can’t, however, use the brakes without a wift alteration of your hand position.  This fact is sort of important.

As an added bonus, your grips don’t get busted when leant against walls or scraped (accidentally of course, Joby) against passing cars.

If you end up in Accident and Emergency, don’t tell ‘em Phill sent ya!

Unique Information.