Extreme wind alert issued for Tenerife, 29th November 2010.

Extreme wind warning issued for TenerifeThere has been an «Extreme wind risk» issued by the spanish medioambiente site for Tenerife on Monday the 29th of November 2010. I.e. tomorrow!

There are also simultaneous «rain» and «coastal» risk alerts. The maximum gust of wind is predicted to be 170 km/h, with a 40%-70% probability. So yes, this is a serious weather alert folks…

There are three (four?) alert levels:

No Risk  Risk  Important Risk  Extreme Risk.

Extreme wind alert issued for Tenerife, 29th November 2010.It’s normal for there to be a few sub-tropical storms in the Canary Islands, especially at the start of Winter. This happens when snow is dumped on the peak of Mt Teide. The main danger for all road users are gale force winds, which can cause trees, branches and rocks to fall onto the road surface or vehicles themselves. The chances of this provoking other accidents is greater than normal, due to reduced visibility around blind corners, etc. Cars, trucks and buses may then swerve to avoid obstacles. Therefore, it’s highly reccommended that you don’t cycle at this time, especially above 1000 masl where the wind level is always esculated.

Last year a whole bunch of pine trees (hundreds!) fell down in the area called «chanajiga» in the North of Tenerife. That landscape is still scarred today by strong winds such as these. Anyway, the good news for tourists is that the weather forecast for Tuesday is much improved, with just the «rain» risk currently in place.

Do you accept credit card payments?

CajaCanarias logoYes, we can now finally accept credit cards wherever there is mobile phone coverage in Tenerife (most places on the island except Teide National Park). If requested to pay a reservation deposit during the high season, you can phone us to provide your card details. Other convenient forms of payment are IBAN bank transfer, paypal and Euros cash.

Bike service will be closed this July (26/06/2010 to 14/08/2010)

With well over 2 months notice, I’d like to annouce that we’ll be closed from 26/06/2010 to 14/08/2010. This means bike hire and guided rides won’t be possible during that time. Of course the website will continue to function and I’ll administer it while I’m away. Throughout July and August we’ll also still be able to answer emails and take advanced bike reservations for the remainder of the 2010 Summer & Autumn seasons. All current bookings for this period will be respected (currently there’s only one so Chiqui will take care of that).

The pro bike hire service will resume as normal after that date. We are of course happy to take bookings now for August, September, October, November 2010.

On a positive note, despite the global financial crisis we had quite a successful Winter season renting road and mountain bikes this year. As always, I look forward to resuming again in mid-August and we’re expecting strong growth into 2011. I think everyone deserves a break after working hard; so I feel that I deserve a good holiday! I’m really excited about going back to Australia for a month to see all my family there!

Happy cycling!
Leslie

Limited bike availability, Easter 2010

There’s just two small road bikes available this Easter long weekend, as well as one small MTB and large MTB. Other than that, we have full capacity this week. So if you’re a small rider keen to get out, now’s the last chance to grab a rental bike! The best thing is to phone me directly on +34 605 56 2020.

Free island-wide bike delivery service

pro bike hire with ford connect transit delivery vanWe deliver rental bikes anywhere in Tenerife. Since early February this year, we have been trialling a totally FREE island-wide delivery service!

This applies to all bike rentals with a 3-day minimum hire period. Delivery of bikes to the La Orotava / Puerto de la Cruz area is totally free of charge, all year round (and there is no minimum number of days required).

Please keep in mind that we are based in the North of Tenerife, approximately one hour’s drive away from Las Americas. For deliveries to the South of Tenerife during the low season (May through September), a delivery charge may be applicable in order to cover our basic running costs; the delivery fee for Los Cristianos, Las Americas and Los Gigantes is €36 (pickup included). The delivery/pickup charge to Santa Cruz, La Laguna and Icod will remain at €26.

New full-suspension rental bikes!

Mountain Cycle LogoI’ve had enough enquiries lately about full suspension bikes so I decided a few weeks ago to act. I just bought three lovely frames from Mountain Cycle. They are a small company that really lead the way in big-travel suspensions bikes way back in the nineties. They’ve now been around for 22 years, which is an eternity in the MTBing world. If you’re in your thirties like I am now, you’ll definitely know who they are… they were the whackos who insisted on 100mm+ travel bikes and dual hydraulic disc brakes to complete the package. Somewhat amazingly, that has virtually become standard now. I ask people if they’ve heard of Moutain Cycle now and the answer is resounding ‘no’. Visionaries!

The new dual-suspension MTB frames are coming!This is the model they call ‘fury’ and we will have small, medium & large examples of each. The aluminium frame is anodised black and has up to 5″ or 130mm of rear wheel travel, with Rock Shox Ario air shock & remote lockout included. The remaining bike spec is to be advised. Rest assured it will be good!

mountain cycle fury full suspension rental bike frame-setsThe good news is that I’m planning to drop the price of the existing Merida hardtails into the budget price bracket, so you’ll save 30% on the standard web-based prices by hiring one of those.

Do you accept credit cards?

Paypal cartoonYes, we can now finally accept credit cards wherever there is mobile phone coverage in Tenerife (most places on the island except Teide National Park). So you can pay directly with your Visa or Mastercard when the bike is delivered. Bike reservation deposits are also more easily paid via this method (you can either telephone or email your card details to us). Other convenient forms of payment are IBAN bank transfer, paypal and Euros cash.

Do you offer guided rides?

en bici estas mas guapoIf you can’t be bothered reading this, the short answer is ‘no’.

Inititally, all I did was guided road rides leaving straight from the hotel, but from the very beginning most of our potential customers had something different in mind (meaning they wanted to be picked up, taken on a shorter ride and dropped off at the hotel – not so much about the training but more of a sight-seeing tour for the wealthier folk). For a while I started to do a few guided MTB rides in my spare time (which I also enjoyed doing moreso than onroad), but I think we have greater competition in that area; that alone was never enough to pay all the bills. There’s technically even more chance for offroad accidents due to the steep descents invloved.

Basically we have had to look at who we are, what we are about and where we want to take the business in future. [Read more →]

News in Tenerife for Autumn 2009.

Thinking ahead during Autumn 2009The Autumn season is finally here! Thanks to all those that are coming to cycle Tenerife! I finally had time to take new photos of the bikes for the webpage, so you can see exactly what you are getting.

All of us here at Tenerife-Training have been anticipating a busy Winter season for quite some time. There are now several current bookings up as far ahead as December, January and even February 2010, so if you are interested in renting a bike with us during that time, please consider booking early!

New Pro Lite frames have arrrived!

Pro Lite www.Pro-Lite.net logoIn recent news, we received a package from Pro Lite yesterday (well 7 actually). Included in this shipment are two new road framesets in 56cm and 60.5cm sizes as well as one 19.5″ hardtail MTB frame. These are manufactured from 7046 aluminium alloy and the weight of the 54.5cm alloy road frame is a respectable 1258 grams! They definitely look like they are worth the money. [Read more →]

Vertebrae website update!

The ultimate gear and brake housing!I’m pleased to announce that the Vertebrae Components website has been revamped! I wanted to keep the simplicity of the original webpage and also make it easier to navigate & update.

I don’t want the new website to be associated with a blog, because it isn’t one. It’s an online shop. I chose a very simple 1-column design template; I think what gives most blogs away is the sidebar with the blogroll in it. I also removed several things like search windows, RSS feeds, etc. The vertebrae-components webpage is essentially written page-by-page, not one post on top of the other.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you notice any bugs with the new layout or have any suggestions about how to make it more professional…

The website is back online.

Actually the reality of a website attack was more like the Hollywood version of the hacking cartoon. You can’t simply unplug your personal computer - hackers still have access to your host server!As you are probably already aware, if you’ve tried to access this website in the last week, it hasn’t been available most of the time. It was either extremely slow, full of errors or showed an «account suspended» message.

This was because my entire web domain was subject to a prolonged Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS). Now up until a few days ago, I had no idea what this was. It’s basically a webmaster’s worst nightmare, that’s what it is… because I soon found out it’s one of the best way to bring a website down and simultaneosly get banned from your web hosting provider. [Read more →]

Closure during May/June 2009 low season.

With nearly 4 months notice, I’d like to annouce that we’ll be closed from 09/05/09 – 25/06/09. This means bike hire and guided rides won’t be possible during that time. Of course the website will continue to function and I’ll administer it while I’m away. Throughout May and June I’ll still be able to answer emails and take advanced bookings for the remainder of the 2009 Summer. The bike hire service will resume as normal after that date.

The reason for the closure? After two years of non-stop work, I’m long overdue for a break. I haven’t left this island since June 2007 and I haven’t seen my family in Australia since then either. The May / June period is the slowest time of year for bike rentals, so I’m taking the opportunity to catch up with family, friends and relatives over there. At this time, we’re still unsure if my partner will be able to travel with me. I’m really look forward to it!

I do sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope business picks up more in future…

New rental bikes coming with full carbon fibre framesets!

New rental bikes coming with full carbon fibre framesets! Hasa full carbon fibre rental bikes for hire: 3k monocoque frame and fork.For 2009, I ordered two new Hasa full carbon fibre frames and matching 3k carbon forks. These are manufactured from carbon fiber composite with a 3k weave and come with a beautiful clear coat and no logos. Weight for the frame alone is quoted at just 1150 grams for the medium size and 1200 grams for the large! That’s 150 – 200g lighter than my own personal road bike!!

hire a carbon road bike, carbon fibre rental bikes, Hasa full carbon fiber frame, new rental bikes.Sizes will initially be available in either 55cm or 57cm; possibly these will be followed by a small 52/53cm and another 55cm model if the quality is as good as it appears in the photos and they prove to be popular. They should be completely built up by around February or March and are intended to augment and then eventually replace the two current 55cm Decathlon bikes some time after May 2009.

Hasa carbon road bikes for hire.These are obviously premium bikes so they will likely cost a tiny bit more to rent than the standard bikes (possibly ~15% more depending on the remaining equipment spec).

Latest site update.

Latest site update - Please update your bookmarksThe main site has undergone a few updates recently. The first was caused by the unexpected server changeover, so I was forced to rename all the file extensions to php. I realise now that some people with bookmarked files were not seeing the site correctly, so I’ve redirected the old files to the new ones. Once you have migrated to the new site using php files, please update your bookmarks…

I have also started the tedious process of re-formatting the main pages with css styles. The navigation menu now appear a little cleaner with no underlines and all the active links appear in red when you hover the mouse over them. If and when I have time to learn css fully, I’ll re-code the rest of the headings & paragraph text formatting using this method as the pages load a bit quicker and they’re easier for me to update in future too.

It’s also supposed to be easier to keep the formatting consistent, but if I accidently omit even one html tag or forget to include a css tag, then it’s not going to be. So for now I reckon «if it ain’t broke don’t fix it». Looking at the code now, I’m amazed I started with a blank notepad almost 3 years ago, not knowing any html.

Last night I also updated the Spanish and German menus so that they match the English layout. If you notice any missing links, links that don’t work a they should, or pages without the navigaion menu, please contact me so I can fix it.

New online bike rental availability calendar!

New online bike rental availability calendar!My sister has been hassling me halfway across the planet for the better half of 2008 to include a calendar on the main website showing current bookings for the rental bike fleet. I’m pleased to announce to the world that I’ve now incorporated one into the same page as the online bike reservation system.

It’s taken a while to set up and it does mean a bit of extra work for me. Hopefully it will encourage people to reserve a bike; at the very least it should make them book them early if they can see that their frame sizes might not be available!

The main site goes down. Damage report.

The main site goes down. Damage report. Advantages and disadvantages of self-employment.So I woke up today to find that the website didn’t seem to be working properly. Here’s the full damage report:

The main website is missing all the contact information + navigation bar, my two subsites www.BikeNode.com and www.ProBikeHire.com are completely offline, the last two days work has disappeared completely from existence and the web hit counter on the homepage doesn’t appear to be counting anymore.

Suprisingly, both the forum & blog (which are normally very susceptible to these kinds of changes) are working perfectly.

I eventually found out that this is due to the host provider changing servers. An analogy? Well, this is like waking up and finding that your landlord has moved all your stuff while you were sleeping -with no prior warning!

I just wanted to say that I’m already tackling the problem but at the moment it’s beyond my control. At least I’ve updated the homepage with the nav bar.

Road rental bikes still available for christmas 2008!

Road rental bikes still available for christmas!Just a quick news flash that road rental bikes are still available around this christmas period! Normally they’d be fully booked out by now, but if you get in quick you can still easily make that winter cycle training vacation in Tenerife a reality. You can book here.

Submit bike links.

Add Cycling Links Bikes Blogs Forums Components BicyclesHello blog readers,

You might have noticed that I haven’t written many new articles in the past fortnight. That’s because I’ve been working behind the scenes on a few new simultaneous projects. One of them is called «www.bikenode.com«, a new global cycling links directory. It took almost a full day to create the Bike Node logo… hehehe. Anyway-

The aim is to make it «the fastest growing cycling link directory for the global cycling community». The idea is to help generate exposure for us little guys. Whatever. But the good news is that I am now taking link submissions. So please feel free to add any appropriate cycling-related links to «www.bikenode.com«. It’s easy & it’s free!

There are still a few features I’d like to add, such as an email confirmation of link submissions, an info page, and an easy way for you to add reciprocal links with & without the Bike Node logo (to encourage activity within the directory, reciprocal links are not mandatory but are HIGHLY appreciated).

If you want a bit of extra exposure, a featured listing (highlighted & placed at the top of each category) costs a one-time fee of only 5$ and will result in more traffic to your site. I’ll also ensure that links are added to the directory in a timely manner if you choose a paid link.

If you feel that an appropriate category isn’t listed in the directory yet, you can also suggest new categories for the directory by commenting below.

Thanks,
Les

Roadworks near Aguamansa!

Roadworks near Aguamansa! Main road to Mt Teide receives road upgrade.The main road TF21 to Las Cañadas is currently receiving an upgrade around the Aguamansa region, for a distance of approximately 300 metres. That brief section is currently not sealed. I feel obliged to point out that beyond the cafe’s in Aguamansa, the road to Mt Teide resumes as normal (just in case cyclists think that the horrible road surface continues the whole way up). It is possible to bypass around the workzone, but it is not marked as an official detour. [Read more →]