Short Trip to East Melbourne

Good even footpaths on the Wellington St. Bikepath.

Looking South along Wellington

Some finishing touches

Tony with the trove of fixies and bike bits.

My haul

The wheels

Hi

A few days ago, I needed some washers so headed out along Wellington Street to Bunnings: a large hardware chain store about 5k from where we live. It was great to find a separated bike lane which runs along Wellington St had been extended to Johnston St making for a 2k bike freeway in the inner city.  As well, I saw a pile of old bikes on hard rubbish and resolved to check them out on the way back. That would give me the opportunity to take some pics as well.

But when I got back, the bikes were already being picked over by Tony who I'd met before through various bike sheds. Tony claimed the whole bike on offer, and I settled for his leftovers, 2 wheels, carbon handlebars with some bits and a large steel frame. It wasn't far to get home and I was fairly cautious but managed to pedal most of the way.  One of the wheels was set up as a single speed with aero spokes and rim and was broken and a bit of a shocker. To me the flange spacing at the rim was way too narrow. Ok, I will put my boring engineer's hat away!

Nice bike lanes with plenty of good features for pedestrians as well as cyclists. Here is the Yarra webpage on the project. Good job!

Regards  Steve Nurse

Some Klapprads Part 2

Hi

In the last week I have worked on my Velocino (small bicycle). I made it by making half of a separating bike to bolt on to a back-half folding bike by Victoria cycles and blogged about it recently here .  So its done and painted now, and fitted with a Massload Kickstand obtained through Rev Bikes in Nunawading.

I have been out a few times on it, most recently to survey a site for a traffic action group I volunteer for. It rides well, has 2 gears to choose from via a Sturmey S2C hub. The hub has back pedal brakes built in, all that is needed. Its fun to ride although steep hills and very long rides are out I think.  Its good to ride "all the bike that is needed" in size terms at least for the short distances. It weighs about 16kg, very hefty for such a small bike. But I like it.

Regards  Steve Nurse

Update, Aug 10

I was at the Fitzroy library in the week but didn't have my camera. Remedied that today to catch the soon to be grown over fixie on my way to Wecycle.  Regards

Some Klapprads Part 1

Latest Buy, a Luxus: combine Luxury with Lexus (Salubrious Japanese Car) with a separating German Town Bike.

Ad that came with the bike

Velocino as it was this morning

Bolt for steerer before sawing and brazing.

Tubes and handgrips for steerer laid out. The T bar is a scooter steerer.

Tubes which fit inside can be cut with a pipe cutter because the cutter leaves a large burr inside the tube.

Outside tubes are cut with a hacksaw after marking a cut line with the cutter.

Steerer and steerer bolt almost done.

Hi

After not buying bikes for a while, and even selling my DA40 bike, I succumbed to a Facebook ad and bought a quite rare (I'd never heard of it anyway) Luxus bike.  A few pics are shown above, and this page explains a bit about them.  Suspension of any sort is quite rare on folding bikes, and this one looks quite cool I think. I bought it from Daniel who had a complete stable of bikes (Bickerton, Mostie bike, Moulton etc. etc. in a room in nearby North Melbourne.

As well, I've dragged my Velocino out to finish it off after almost a year of not much happening. I'm making a fairly minimalist steerer for the bike which shares its back end with this mule train load carrier.

Will report more later, Regards

Steve Nurse