Well it appears the main website has gone down. This is a server/database issue. It’s probably going to take another 24-48 hours to fix. I will use this opportunity to get this blog to appear under the www.Tenerife-Training.net url without the «/Tenerife-News-Cycling-Blog/ which is essentially just keyword spam.
So the new website, the one that went down, will appear on its own domain, www.probikehire.com (as it should because that’s what we call the business, the logos are all Pro Bike Hire, etc).
The forum is still ‘working’ (although hardly anyone contributes so I’ll probably be deleting it outright).
One of the more mundane things I’ve has to do lots of with ProBikeHire.com is cleaning bikes, so I thought I’d share a few secrets on how to clean your bike fast -and more importantly- on the cheap. (más…)
I’ve included a few maps of the tricker sections. After heaeding out the Botannico/Martianez exit, you go under the TF5 hihgway. Skip the first turn on your right to La Orotava as that is about 20% average gradient for about a kilometre. If you do do that, you’ll be quite tired before you’re even a quarter of the way up to Mt Teide. An easier/nicer way is to take the turn off to «Cuesta de la Villa». Mt Teide will in fact be behind you at this point, but don’t worry.
After one or two kilometres of gentle climbing, you’ll come to a sharp intersection that can take you the nice way into La Orotava. Note the cosy restaurant called Bodeguita de Enfrente nestled between these two roads. You may want to come back here for a typical Spanish dinner. (on the other hand, don’t bother stopping at the cafeteria at Humbolt lookout itself because the coffee is terrible and so is the food)
If you’re heading East or over to the Anaga Mountains this is also the way, just continue straight instead of turning back on yourself…
It’s been a while since I updated the website, mainly because I have been working on my new career move, especially over the last 2-3 months. Trying to juggle two things at once has been A LOT harder than I thought. It’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Anyway, in the mean time, I thought that it would be a good idea to use this site as a platform for doing what I now love most (writing, illustration, photography, and generally speaking, design).
As many of you already know, I’m in the business of renting out bikes here in Tenerife. I’ve been a part of the bike industry for the last eight years. I might not repeat this much so I’ll say it now: I am extremely grateful to have been able to do something that I enjoy all of that time. Above all, I thank my customers who have continue to support me over the years! Thanks so much – you’re the best!! 😀
[Apologies for the negative tone of the post. It’s pretty clear that I need a change of direction and all I can say is that I’m already working hard on it] (más…)
I still get the odd complaint (or rather, observation) that there are a lot of cars on Tenerife. So in keeping with this being an information site, I’ll be totally honest and admit that, yes, there are a lot of cars on this island. I still feel a little responsible for this perception as I took all the photos on the website and being a photographer, I often wait until all the cars are out of a scene before taking any snaps. It doesn’t really make sense to promote a cycling website by including a load of ugly cars in the photos, does it? My point here is that you won’t see many cars or trucks on any tourism website cycling or otherwise.
Generally people used to cycling in city traffic will find local drivers are very polite towards cyclists here. If you live in the country though, it might not be for you. (más…)
More bikes = less time to ride?
I have 3 MTBs myself. A hardtail with slicks for commuting and easy straight up & straight back rides. A dual suspension «all mountain» with 140mm travel bike for most offroad rides. And a wicked downhill beast. I also have two road bikes. A top-specced one and a still-lovely backup one. But the more bikes I own, the more I have to work for them and the less time I have actually riding them.
Planned obsolescence:
Those in the industry tend to call this ‘progress’. (más…)
Generally in the Summer time we have bike bits and other components for sale. Sometimes they have been used, but we often sell brand new things at amazing prices on ebay – when we have too much stock of a particular item or if something was sent to us erroneously for example. Items that we know will be popular usually start with a listing price of only 1¢.
Complete bikes, frames, and wheelsets which are too bulky to post internationally from the Canary Islands are posted on our forum classifieds. The forum is a great place for locals to buy and sell bike parts in Tenerife free of charge (and it’s also a great place to chat about cycling Tenerife of course!).
And my inspiration these last few days has been none other than Bradley Manning. Reading through the chat logs, it’s clear that he has some issues – yes I’ll certainly admit to that. Perhaps it is because he was basically a social outcast that he himself felt betrayed. The irony is that a man so small [physically] could do so much ‘damage’. If anyone, Lamo is the real traitor / liar here.
To me he is one heck of a courageous and empathic individual. I believe that yes he knew the shit would hit the fan, but he had the balls to do it anyway. He put himself in the place of those innocent men and children in Iraq and that my friends is highly commendable. It shows perspective. And perspective is what the US is in dire need of at the moment.
The terms ‘betrayal’ and ‘traitor’ should only be used if he attacked the US, which he did not. I mean, did he join the taliban, take a gun and start shooting at US soldiers? Did he sell weapons to them? I think not! So «aiding the innocent» is more like it…
Oh and why the heck were my wikipedia edits about Bradley Manning’s troublesome early life promptly removed? That does influence his actions as «experience affects behaviour». Every socialogist knows that. There’s clearly a major coverup / conspiracy going on here. Why the heck is there no jury in this trial? Is it because they would be split? I think so. Seems to me that yes the US is involved in war crimes, yes they are breaching several of the Geneva Conventions. And no I won’t be visiting there again.
«They dehumanized the individuals they were engaging and seemd to not value human life … For me this seems similar to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass.» Bradley Manning
It’s not often Les gets inspired by something. This month it is this track. I realise I may be two months behind the times… sorry I was on a vacation in outback Western Australia. Hehehe
So this has been a week of getting our social media back on track! Just click the LinkedIn logo to the left to see my professional profile. You can see a little more about my background and expertise. A great site for networking.
Winter has been very busy & it’s that time of year again (Spring) when we need to disconnect and go on a holiday ourselves! This is actually a honeymoon vacation and we’ll be visiting Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria as well as New South Wales. As always, looking forward to starting work feeling refreshed. We plan to be back in Tenerife by July 5th, 2013. We’ll still have internet / email access so feel free to submit your bike reservations during this time… Thank you, Leslie.
Some of you might like to know that we just opened up a Twitter account. I used to make fun of Twitter, but I’ve slowly come to realise that it has become a great (fast) way of providing up-to-the-minute info. So there you have it. Only time will tell if it works for us or not…
In case you weren’t aware of it already, the local weather authorities have recently issued yellow & orange wind & rain alerts for most of the Canary Islands. Wind gusts up to 120km/hr are predicted in La Orotava and Vilaflor municipalities. There is even a red alert situation currently in place in La Palma (Wind gusts up to 130km/hr!) It’s definitely not safe for cycling over the next 48 hours or so until the storm passes, for two main reasons:
Gusts of wind make riding in a straight line extremely difficult and may blow you off your intended course.
Debris will scattered on road surfaces and could possibly hit you.
Generally it is windier as the altitude increases as the mountains are more exposed to wind. Coastal regions tend to be more sheltered although the seas are also affected by this weather. Should be interesting to watch cloud formations continue to develop with this webcam. For more info, see this link.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all had top-down radar view of all oncoming traffic in our cars just like they have in those little learning to drive manuals? That way we could effectively ‘see’ around corners and we could drive accordingly. It’d also come in extremely handy when parking wouldn’t it? Well until it arrives, here’s my advice: if you can’t see around a blind corner, don’t risk any fucking insane overtaking manoeuvres!
Yes of course you’re supposed to give cyclists a full metre or more of space when overtaking. Here in Spain, it’s the law. Now here’s the catch:
Unlike somewhere like Australia where the continuous white and double white lines are seen as some kind of imaginary vertical wall which can and will not be traversed under any circumstances, you are in fact allowed to cross this line in Spain under ‘special conditions’. One of these conditions is overtaking cyclists, with the proviso that you can see what is coming and you’re not endangering either the cyclist or oncoming traffic. So to put it simply, yes you can legally wander into the oncoming lane – but only when it’s safe to do so. Do I even need to spell out that «safety is never guaranteed around corners»? That is why you’ll see drivers in Tenerife patiently waiting there turn to overtake cyclists. They only do it on the straight & level bits of road (i.e. not on the crest of a hill where you can’t see anything either). SO IF YOU FIND YOURSELF ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND YOU HAVE AN ACCIDENT AS A RESULT OF BEING THERE, IT’S YOUR FAULT. YOU CAUSED THE POTENTIALLY FATAL HEAD-ON COLLISION. NOTHING MORE REALLY NEEDS TO BE SAID. Why? Because driving safely is all about being predictable. And, for example, meeting an oncoming car in the wrong lane, not just anywhere, but at the apex of blind corner is not really very predictable. Is it?
It sounds pretty simple, right? Not for some… (más…)
I have replaced the re-catchpas which were getting more and more difficult to solve with these fun games from playthru. As a result, it’s now even easier to sign up to the cycling forum and make comments on this bog.
You may have noticed that we are currently adding some translations to the main website in Spanish, Russian and Finnish. Next to follow will be German. We’ll do our best to finish translating the site as accurately as possible. If you should notice any mistakes or things that don’t work as exptected, we’d be grateful if you let us know of any problems you encounter. Thank you!
Well it appears the main website has gone down. This is a server/database issue. It’s probably going to take another 24-48 hours to fix. I will use this opportunity to get this blog to appear under the www.Tenerife-Training.net url without the «/Tenerife-News-Cycling-Blog/ which is essentially just keyword spam.
More bikes = less time to ride?
