Shed Fire

Making things better

RSS

• 

  Sourdough

  MORNING DAY 1, Put 30g of starter in a bowl with 30g of warm water and 30g of RYE flour. Cover and leave somewhere for 24hrs or so.

  Feed your starter with 15g of water and 15g of rye flour, give it a stir, put back in fridge.

  MORNING DAY 2. Then mix in another 200g of VERY GOOD WHITE BREAD flour and 200g of warm water, and leave somewhere warm until tea time.

  EVENING DAY 2. Mix in another 500g of VERY GOOD WHITE BREAD flour and 500g of water, 10g of salt, stick it in oiled tins, dust the top WITH RYE FLOWER, leave for 2hrs, then bake on hot as fuck for 15mins, then 210deg for 15mins. BAKE UNTIL INTERNAL TEMPERATURE IS 95DEG C.

  DON’T FORGET THE SALT.

  

  shedfire 10:11 pm on May 14, 2019 | No Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  Curry

  I made a really good curry last night. I’ve finally cracked it, I think, after many years of trying. Here’s how:-

  Into my big blue pot that I got from Tod Tip, before it got wrecked,  I put some sunflower oil. Enough to cover the bottom. And about the same again. Sorry I don’t do measurements.

  I heated the oil up for a minute or two on a medium heat.

  Into the hot oil I put one teaspoon of brown (or black) mustard seeds, one teaspoon of cumin seeds.

  These cook in the oil. They should fizzle, smell and after a minute or two, start to pop.

  Then I put in a teaspoon of asafoetida.

  Then I chuck in:-

  Half teaspoon Chili powder.

  One teaspoon Ground Turmeric.

  Two teaspoon Ground Cumin.

  Four teaspoon Ground Coriander.

  Two teaspoon Salt.

  Two teaspoon  Sugar.

  Cook that for a couple of minutes, stirring, to cook the spices.

  Then I chuck in three large cut up (finely) onions.

  Desert spoon of tomato puree.

  Water to cover.

  Stir.

  Five cloves of smashed garlic. Two smashed chillis – regular, not birdseye, unless you want to, to taste.

  Simmer. Low. For ages. For as long as you can.

  Stir occasionally.

  This makes a wonderful Bangladeshi style curry gravy base sauce, to which you can add anything you want. Split it up, keep in fridge, whatever.

  But you can’t really eat it on its own. So you can add stuff. Chucking vegetables in it, will cook them, but cooking them on their own a bit first, before letting them continue cooking in the gravy to finish off an amalgamate.

  Last nights was lentils (green, boiled, then added), aubergine and cauliflower (stir fried in a wok, then added).

  We had it with quinoa, after watching Terrahawk and Nigel on telly.

  HTH

   

   

   

   

   

  shedfire 6:15 pm on October 28, 2014 | 5 Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  Free Beer

  Of course there’s no such thing as free beer. But somehow, I’ve ended up getting involved with a local craft brewery and it’s a whole heap of fun.

  Last year I started making “Turbo Cider” – it was a weekend project with the kids as G said my recycling bin was filling up too fast, and maybe I could make my own beer. We settled on cider as it seemed easier.

  Anyhow. That, and the proximity of the wonderful Old Gate Hebden Bridge, a bar manager called Ollie who seemed determine to school me in the what’s and wherefores of beer. Moving to drinking halves from pints. And having a bunch of free time… I ended up somehow forcing my way into the largely family run Bridestones Brewery a few months ago.

  Dan Tasker who runs the brewery is an interesting chap. He’s a marketing and business background, and grew up at the farm he still lives at above the valley in Blackshaw Head.

  As a side project last year, he launched the Hebden Bridge Brewing Company brand, to make less mainstream, more edgy beers. The sort of beers that quite interested me.

  I thought I could help with his marketing, brands, that sort of thing, and we’ve had a fun few weeks bouncing ideas around.

  Our first new brew was a Green Hopped Bitter – which came about as the Incredible Farm in Walsden, near Todmorden, just up the road, called to say they had a crop of Northdown Hops, and did we want any?

  We did! And to add to the “green” aspect, I decided  to collect the hops by bike. So, to keep true to the ethos and echoes in the valley, I followed the ancient drovers roads and packhorse tracks of Calderdale to get from Hebden Bridge, to the farm, then up to Bridestones Brewery in Blackshaw Head above Hebden Bridge.

  And recorded it all on Strava of course – http://www.strava.com/activities/202666208

  The beer was brewed. Hops added. And then it was left to ferment.

  Today, I’ve just collected one of the barrels, and delivered it to OldGate for their beer festival this weekend. It’ll be OK by Friday when it’s settled a bit.

  That’s on Strava too – http://www.strava.com/activities/207183370

  My buddy Ed from Greatrock shot a pic of me – http://instagram.com/p/uIZsXJrNFw/?modal=true

  

  The beer is called Vertical. It’s great.

  Press Release in Docx file here

  Pump Artwork here in pdf

  Hebden Bridge Brewing Company – @hebdenbrewco (Twitter) @hebdenbrewco (Instagram)

   

  Oh yeah – and the other day I started a new bike company – http://pactbikes.com/

   

  shedfire 4:36 pm on October 14, 2014 | No Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  New shorts please

  When I was 16, I got a Saturday job in Two Wheels Good in Leeds. It was the shop where I’d bought my first mountainbike, and, it transpired (I only found this out lately) my mum had rung them up to see if they would give me a Saturday job. They said yes, and John Stevenson called me up later that day to ask if I fancied working there. I bit his hand off, and started the week after. Arriving late, in ripped jeans. Not a great start.

  I’d not been there long, but knew a fair bit about the stock. We had a good selection of clothing in stock, from Castelli to Been Bag, even some Scott Tinley, Cannondale… there was a fair bit of kit there. Something for everyone.

  A gentleman entered the shop, just after lunchtime, and was browsing the shorts. I moved over to help him.

  He was quite well presented, in his cycling kit, with a kind of “single man” smell about him. He said he wanted some new shorts… And so it began…

  Him: “Yeah, so I ride to work every day. It’s about ten miles each way. And then I do a bit at the weekend too. But these shorts… they’re just not right. Seem to be wearing out fast. The last pair did the same. After about three or four months they just start getting really, you know, uncomfortable and start falling to bits on me.”

  So, he was doing regular miles, not mega miles. They were, he informed me his only pair. And did he…

  Him: “Oh yeah. I do the old, er, ‘no pants’ thing, yeah. Do that. No difference. Uncomfy. I suppose I do put the miles in. I guess it’s 100 miles a week, then another 100 or so at the weekends. I guess that’s a lot of miles over the three months isn’t it?”

  Had he tried chammy cream?

  Him: “Yeah. Tried that. Just made things worse if anything“.

  So I took him through the range on display. Been Bag were making some shorts with a fleecy liner in. He didn’t think much to those.

  Him: “Can’t see that working.”

  Castelli were a wonderful racing bred short.

  Him: “Bit garish and clingy those. No.”

  So I moved on. To then, our favourites – the Cannondale ones. They had a brilliant construction with this cool one piece seamless chammy, and were our top seller.

  Me: “So these, have a clever manufactured chammy. No seams. Really good synthetic construction.”

  Him: “Synthetic? Synthetic! That’s great.”

  I looked confused.

  Him: “So I’d be able to wash these then?“

  shedfire 10:02 am on August 13, 2014 | No Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  #vainvagrant

  A minor starring cameo role…

  Vain Vagrant from Ed Oxley on Vimeo.

  shedfire 10:11 am on July 28, 2014 | No Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  Kickstarter?

  I’ve had half an eye on Kickstarter over the last few whenevers. Was fascinating to watch Steve Domahidy of Niners new venture form and pass it’s target just hours before the end. It was dissapointing to watch Axey McBeardy, sorry, Jamie Hibberd’s Nu-Man magazine –βeta Male magazine fail. But maybe that’s because it’s hard to write Beta. Dunno.

  Sam at Singular has funded a couple of projects on there – the Rooster 29+ and the Puffin Fatbike.

  I tripped over this project the other day – a truly amazing project – for technical reasons – there seem to be a whole load of mountains to climb there, and also for funding reasons – exceeding it’s lofty target by a significant amount – the Vanhawks Valour is an amazing machine. Quite unlike anything that’s on the market right now, and created by people who don’t seem to have any current involvement in the cycling business. I hope they get it sorted. It’s a breath of fresh air, and from the funding received, and the style of bike it is, it’s an indication in the market that there’s something amiss in the specs and ranges from many large manufacturers. I’m a bit sceptical though…

  It’s not all fun and games – Nuseti seem a long way off their half million pound target, though have 36 days to run. It could all change.

  The Universal Bike is cute, but solves problems that I don’t think most people even understand.

  Dave  Weiner’s Priority Bicycle ticks similar boxes to the Vanhawks. Something that the big brands don’t have in their portfolio, certainly not the ones that they’re pushing in the UK or USA to my knowledge, and by the sign up rate – the public seem to think so too.

  Bikes should be simple, and so many are not. Brands that offer zillions of combinations of slightly different thing. Does a mountainbike brand need eight styles of handlebar, each coming in five or more colours?

  Anyhow – Rhys (not Reece) who works evenings at Old Gate Hebden up the road plays drums in a band called Leopards that are trying to raise some funds to do an EP release. It’s not on Kickstarter, but it’s on a music thingy like it.

  I’ve backed them. Rhys is great. Maybe you might like to back them too.

   

   

   

  shedfire 5:56 pm on July 24, 2014 | No Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  Been at this a while

  Just sorting a few things out in my office. Well, my dining room that’s a mess. Tripped over my reference from my first “industry” job at Two Wheels Good in Leeds, which I ended up with after my mum rang up John Stevenson to see if there were any Saturday jobs going. There were, he rang me back, and I didn’t find anything out about their conspiracy until last year.

  Two Wheels Good was a great environment. A CoOperative, with a frame building workshop on the top floor of the building in Call Lane, Leeds. Andy Morris, one of the partners, patiently assisted my teenage enthusiasm for lathes and brazing, and let me loose on making stems and even frames. Malcolm assisted in teaching me about geometry. And Stevenson was Stevenson.

  Good times.

   

  

   

  shedfire 10:24 am on July 16, 2014 | 6 Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  I should probably do some diagrams for this… but quickly…

  Reach is often claimed to be the be-all-end-all dimension to help sizing, but staring at it too hard can be the wrong thing to do:-

  For example:-
  1) Adding 10mm to headtube length, with a typically slack head angled bike shortens reach by 4mm (for the same front centre).

  2) A hardtail at ride height will have an effective reach that’s perhaps nearly 20mm longer than it is statically.

  I still think that hardtails should have geometry shown clearly at ride height. It’s only saddos with iphones and no mates who care about static hardtail geometry.

  And then there’s the issue of disparate-travel full suspension frames. But they’re daft, clearly.

  shedfire 12:21 pm on July 14, 2014 | 1 Comment | # |
  

   
• 

  Tiling the shower. Business bollocks ahoy

  My shower’s been leaking. It’s always done it, and even when I put a new shower tray in, and loads of silicone sealant, it was still leaking after a few weeks.

  It got so bad that the floor in the bathroom went all wonky and floor tiles started lifting. I didn’t know that’s why the floor tiles were lifting, but the damp had got out of the shower room, into the floor in the bathroom which made the adhesive on the tiles fail.

  The reason why was obvious when I went in the shower with my glasses on. Which I don’t normally do, but anyhow…

  Though I had lots of ceramic tiles on the wall, the grout that connected them together and sealing the cracks, and making the water run smoothly over them? It wasn’t there. I’d forgotten to grout the tiles.

  The business motto is this, I think… It’s all very well having your key employees in place. Key employees are like the tiles on my shower wall. They can be boring white ones, the cheapest that B&Q have, or they can be those funky rectangular ones with bevelled edges, or those expensive natural slate ones. Whatever they are, they’re utterly useless unless they’re all grouted in place, connected, and solid. Thankfully I was able to grout my tiles, and things are much better in my shower room. There are a few cracks in my downstairs ceiling, but things are solid now.

  I don’t write this sort of business bollocks very often, but I thought this was worth a post.

  Cheers

  shedfire 8:10 pm on July 10, 2014 | 2 Comments | # |
  

   
• 

  Knuckleball

  Last summer, I was in China. I had been at an alloy frame factory, and was heading back to Shenzhen to meet my girlfriend who was flying into Shenzhen airport. She’d been working in China, moving an exhibition between two cities, and was meeting me there, to come and see some carbon fibre factories. Her idea of fun. Anyhow.

  I’d got some general industry spam a few weeks earlier from a company that said they could make us things in carbon. I’d politely replied, and said I’d drop in to see them on my trip. I’ve worked with a lot of factories – this was a new one.

  The journey from the frame factory to the carbon factory didn’t go that well, and I was a bit pushed for time. So I got there late, embarrassingly late – and was met by ten people. The CEO, GM, Head of Production, Head of Sales, Sales Assistant, R&D manager. Loads of people. And just me and my rucksack. And the raging horn to meet up with my girl who I hadn’t seen for three weeks.

  Anyhow. They started showing me round. The usual stuff. Powerpoint presentation. Chiller room with carbon. Cutting room. Layup room. Molding room… All the usual stuff. They made “sporting goods” – not just bike parts. As well as the very high end Euro TT aero bars, they also made golf clubs. And baseball bats.

  Their prices for carbon frames was off the scale expensive. Their rims seemed pricey too. I don’t always try and work with every factory, but these people seemed good. But I couldn’t work out what to do. And so, I high tailed it out of there, with their sales guy in the car. His english was great. And we were chatting.

  I was thinking back over the stuff I’d seen. Golf shafts being tested for stiffness. Baseball bats that had tough outer coatings. And that’s how the Knuckleball bar was formed.

  I remember seeing some very flexy carbon stuff way back when, when I was at MBUK. I remember John Stevenson having a flexy carbon post snap and nearly impale him. I knew people were offering carbon bars which could “absorb trail shock”. But hey – I couldn’t remember anyone making the same bar, in two stiffness moduli. A stiff and springy version. “Hard and Chewy” said William. Like candy!

  And so it started. That’s the On-One Knuckleball Bar.

  

  shedfire 10:07 am on July 9, 2014 | 3 Comments | # |
  

   

Flickr Stream

© Shed Fire 2009
Don't steal content without appropriate acknowledgement - it's just good manners.