Mike Deere

Bit big, but here's one of me photos that makes a nice wallpaper.

I know this sounds silly but 8 days ago I had a bit of a stack, going pretty quick and hit the concrete pretty hard but I got up ok and carried on riding. My initial worry was the massive pain in my wrist, so I strapped it up and rested it well presuming that it was a sprain... It seems to be almost completely normal again now. However, as I've been more concerned about my wrist I'd not really notice my chest until the last few days. To start with it was just an occasional pain as if I had a very tight chest on one side (I occasionally every few years have trouble with my asthma flaring up during winter) but I've none of my usual symptoms of asthma such as a chesty cough and a lot of mucous coming up. The pain is on the side that I fell on (left side) and is causing me to only take shallow breaths and be very careful with my movements and stresses due to the pain it causes. There's also no sign of external bruising. Broken rib or two? I might head to the hospital this evening.

Yeah that shot of Lee was a bailed one! Or we could just say that it was some kind of downside fufanu on that vertical pole... Those who asked, oh your GOD yes the California road trip was awesome! Lot of work to be done now though, so many photos to be sifted through and people to contact. Hope Santa brought you all the gifts you wanted this year, you good boys and girls.

Here they are folks. Sorry I got lazy, there's 11Mb of photos on that page so be patient as they load one by one down the page

Porcupine Tree Trials! (shock horror) GTA San Andreas Tic-Tacs Egg and Soldiers Zip-Up Hoodies http://arbroath.blogspot.com Disappointment Hard-Wired Keyboard, Mouse and LAN Breaking phones (two this week!) Kosher food! Borat Wearing riding gloves again Ilford HP5 400 Look Around You

No way! You have a Hanimex flash too? They're rarer than hens teeth these days.

I've since looked up The Paradox and had a read, there are some of Roo and Greg C's photos in there... Other guys from Flowtography. I no longer a part of Flowtography as I never really uploaded anything to the site, and things were realy starting to take off with freelance work so I was concentrating my efforts into that. I still keep in touch with a few of the guys and really wanna hook up with them for some shooting and funtimes to be honest. And cheap wireless kit? Yes! Off eBay, there's plenty of them. At first it worked fine but over time loads of problems have started to develop, half the time now the flash doesn't trigger. Damn. I've since bought a 5 metre flash sync lead instead!

It's an XTR standard wheel on the front, the ones usually used for XC but in his case perfect. I didn't know he had Marzocchi RL signature forks until I saw them either!! Look really good, stiff as hell and lighter than a gnats gonad. They look around 60-70mm travel.

You're right, I do need to take more trials photos... But now that I'm living in a household where 4 people ride trials and another rides downhill I can imagine I'll be returning to my trials roots. I've even just picked up an old Saracen MAD off a mate, so that I can get back into trials properly... I've missed it. In other news, yes I did indeed use off camera flash for all of the photos. I use a really old-skool manual flashgun along with aperture priority mode. I use a medium aperture of about f/8 to f/11 and make sure that the flash is as strong as possible when used in sunlight, as it has to balance out the almighty powerful sun. A lot of it is guesswork and luck! Edit: I just remembered something! In that shot of the wheelie, he is actually covering the back brake! The bike is German (he's from Germany) and the Europeans do have something funny about having the levers the "wrong" way round.

Thanks peeps :$ Responses in no particular order, and no particular aim (it's more fun that way!): - Yes - Nikon D70 - Caren is really supportive, he appreciates that! - Dirt Magazine (the other guy is a reader, Johan Koke, also a really nice guy) - Paradox? Got a link? - Thanks!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of missing my first day of uni, in favour of going to London Town to spend a day working (if you can call it that?) with Ryan Leech! Damn nice guy! Even let me borrow his flashgun when he saw that mine was being rather tempremental. Enjoy.

Got some hot riding shots there! Loving your use of fisheye with fill-in flash I certainly encourage that kind of behaviour

All called Martin... Firstly, my housemate: And this nice fellow, also a Martin. New to the area and new to riding, but he loves it! Runs a rad website too.

If the weather is good, I'm there.

Seeing that I'm normally behind the lens, here's one from a recent XC race.

I brought along two more guys from PostArt, they were Dave and Paul. Not had any photos from them yet but it will be interesting as they don't usually shoot sports. It'll be nice to see a few more peoples perspectives on the ride.

I've finally found time to upload all of mine. There's about 250 in total, but I'm having server trouble trying to make the directory accesible to the public! So in the mean time I've just put together a page of about 40 or so photos from the day. R.I.P. Deej...

We had poo weather last year but it didn't stop anyone. Quite a lot of the local guys have said they'd be willing to let people crash, Skandy was even suggesting taking the party to the Halls of Residence and running riot!

There's loads of room at mine and Jons place for bikes... Seriously. We got the basement for a start, we could fit about 15 bikes down there, then the conservatory, and of course my en-suite is only used for my bike... Room for another 10-15 bikes in there easily (it's huge.) Not long now...

I've heard so many good things about GET1... Can't wait to get some money cleared so I can part with it again for the pleasure! Did you use any of me photos in the end Nick?

Plastic moulding is a fairly cost effective method of producing components. Especially given some of the properties that plastics offer over metals, such as better thermal properties in a wider range of conditions or the lighter weight that some polymers offer thanks to lower densities whilst maintaining an equivilant strength and toughness. Or the fact that plastics don't require an additional surface finish like most metallic substances do as a protective coating. It makes sense, and Maguras are amazingly well priced to say the least.

If anyone would like to model or ride for these Reecall Clothing promo photos on the Saturday then MSN Mobile me on (mikeDOTdeereATgmailDOTcom). I won't be online but you can send messages to me mobile... So if you just drop your number I can sort things out. I don't like posting my phone number online, see. I still don't know EXACTLY what's going on on the Saturday with regards to that, but I'll see what I can do. Epic Jam in the evening is definite though!

I still can't believe so much damage occured just as a result of a chain breakage...

I'll be in Birmingham that weekend, and that Saturday I'm hoping to do some more promotional shots for Reecall Clothing. No arrangements as of yet, apart from a few friends up in Brum to help me out there... If you're interested then that'd be cool. Then there's Epic Skatepark Jam on the 11th at 7pm... 26" and 24" only!

I shall be there to pay homage, and to document day in photographic form.