HARO BIKES

The winter is well and truly here and the salt is on the road so my Raleigh Carbon Race says farewell for 2009 and my winter bike (which might have been Special once but now seems a bit ordinary) makes a reappearance for training runs until April showers wash the corrosive salt away. If you are a fair weather cyclist, don't lose fitness in the close season - speak to us about our Minoura turbo trainers. If you are a hardy individual, as well as giving consideration to the obvious essentials of lights and winter clothing (have a look at the new Altura range) don't forget to check the suitability of your tyres for winter riding. At Mike's Bikes we recommend Continental Ultra Gatorskins with Kevlar (£22.99) to help guard against fixing punctures with cold hands. If the thought of exposing your carbon frame and Ultegra groupset to the worst that Highland Council Roads Department can throw at it fills you with horror, pop into the shop and have a look at what the Merida 880-24 offers for comfortable winter riding at less than the cost of the afore mentioned Ultegra groupset.

The Scottish Cyclocross circus arrived at Glenmore Lodge last week for two days of racing on a testing, technical trail. We all know that pride comes before a fall so we are all interested to know why Mike was proud three times in a row in the Saturday race! A local venue meant a larger contingent of Mike's Bikes customers riding and despite Hamish managing to push Mike and Carl into 2nd and 3rd respectively in the local vets category, pride of place goes to Julia on her M-Trax 3.0 - a podium finisher for her 3rd place in the girls' race. Sunday's weather was more characteristically cyclocross in nature but the worsening conditions saw an improvement in Mike's fortunes as he managed to gather a few more points on the series leader board. As you might expect, at Mike's Bikes we would be only too happy to introduce you to our cyclocross bikes from Ridley and Raleigh but this growing sport can be experienced by XC MTB riders as Julia did - there is an ex-demo M-Trax 3.0 in the shop on offer at £750, a significant saving on the SRP 0f £949.99. Have a look at the Bike Radar review of the M-Trax 4.0 here. Well done to all other the riders from Cairngorm CC who entered the weekends events and good luck for the rest of the cyclo cross season especially to the young riders.

Adventure junkies will have spotted Mike's guest appearance (at 39min40sec into the show) on The Adventure Show's feature on the Corrieyairick Challenge, explaining the mysteries of road biking to a breathlessly excited Duncan McCallum. Was it the pace needed to keep up with the camera car or the sight of Mike in full Team Avanti lycra race gear that was causing all the heavy breathing on the soundtrack? Meanwhile, providing evidence of further strings to his bow, who was the tall guy at the piano (this time in conventional clothing) in the Ski-ing Doo? Word has it that he's a better player than Liberace was a cyclist...