Ossie Nicholson Memorial Ride Prelude

Ossie Nicholson Ride Route: Short description is a 200k ride from Melbourne to Portsea and back.

 Hi

Since the beginning of the year when my bike failed, I've been repairing the bike, but also looking for a new opportunity to test it - and that's come along which I'm pleased about.  At the same time as I decided to ride, I heard my wooden tailbox kit will be ready today, and I should be able to build it up into a lightweight, aero 'box and test in the ride.

As well, I am building a small fairing for the bike and running the dynamo lighting cable through the frame. Anyway, will report on all this in this post. Maybe even do some training as well.

More to follow soon, regards Steve nurse 

Fairing mod. I'm keeping only a small fairing for this bike.

and this begins the cutting process. Managed to peel away and keep the black border moulding.

Making the base, its only small and gives the fairing support and shape at the bottom

Mounted on the bike, still a top cut and mount to do, but I have made some parts for that already.

Oh, I'm famous! Visiting Billy from Sean and Horn to pick up seat parts. I gave him my Cycle Zoo book and he's in it.

Parts safely home by bike. Will be 2 or 3days before I get to them. I have work and volunteering days and a wedding!

Parts are ready! Didn't see this till about 4:10, left soon after that to pick up parts

Here is a pic of today's progress, I bought 2.1m x 2m of acs10 / ventisit padded material. This is a standard padding material for recumbents.

Not a greenwash blog. Picking up corflute by car.

Update Saturday 9 April

Some work on the fairing yesterday morning and seat today. With the fairing I have to secure it at the top and do a few mods on existing components. With the seat. I have made a start, gluing some of the lower parts together, and using tee nuts to allign parts. Also I have varnished some parts which are inside and hard to reach after assembly.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Dipping tray for plywood. Plywood is easier to bend after about an hour in water.

Tray with my current biggest part in it. The tray has survived from previous uses a few years ago.

Bit of work on the Zipper fairing. Zipper do a great job by covering the fairing with masking tape so it stays clean while you are working on it.

End of day with a temporary prop at the top of the fairing.

Monday's progress shown above.

Dipping tank in use.

Basic setup is to clamp the spine to the frame material.

In progress

Back view. All held together by cable ties

Tuesday April 12: Today's progress. Front part of seat almost ready. I have parts to make 2 seats but won't make the next one yet. Will just press on till the bike is ready, then maybe start building the 2nd seat up once its done.

1st ride using the fairing. Not great unfortunately. The fairings ok but the mounts could do with a bit of work.

End of the first day on corflute

2 ribs each side set up the shape of the corflute.

Tailbox inside.

End of day 2 on corflute.

Hi For the last 2 days I've been working on the bike tailbox. The front timber is done, and I've been on the corflute for a while. A partial 2d plan for the bottom bit was quite useful, and now the corflute I made for it is on the bike, for the most part trimmed and finished. The cable ties securing the corflute also holds 2 layers of Ventisit padding. The corflute for the 'box top is cut out, I just need to fold it, bend it and attach it tommorrow.

Tailbox on and working by the end of Sunday

including drink bottle and

bottle mount.

Rear panel.

Clamping the top piece. The clamp needed to be hacked by removing the stop pin which stops the slidy bit from sliding off. This increased the largest gap of the clamp.

Fitting the lid

A soldering iron used for quick and easy corflute hole drilling with a bit of a spot welding effect.

Corflute strip is at the top on each side. It helps join the top and bottom of the tailbox. Mainly its held on by cable ties.

Plan for top of tailbox.

Top part of tailbox cut to plan.

Update April 17: Quite a warm windy day today, and I spent most of it making and fixing on the tailbox lid and back, effectively finishing the 'box. I need to attach a tail light on the back, adjust the bottom plate a bit and tidy up the lid opening but its just about ready. Weight is a bit over 3kg, roughly what I was aiming for. Test ride was ok.

I feel I've done everything in the right order. The new 'box includes Ventisit padding which alters my posture relative to the bike meaning some steering adjustments might be necessary - best to make those adjustments before hanging the final version of the fairing all over the front.

Hopefully the fairing will be fitted and finalised tomorrow. Its been a few days since initial testing, and I think I know what the problems are.

Regards Steve Nurse

Bike out the front after....

a shopping trip- there is gaffer tape, 4kg wine, 3kg oranges, 2kg milk all in the back, and all trasferred without incident.

Slightly more than usual interest in my bike at The Hive shopping Centre Abbotsford.

Here are today,s photos. With 4 days to go till my ride, I am glad to be switching from building to riding. As well as shopping, I did about 8k on the Kew Boulevarde.

Internal wiring for headlight from rear wheel dyno. This worked, poking the wire through the frame with a broom.

Not great, but it works. Lighting wires need to be separated  / connected when bike is split or reassembled.

2 training rides over 2 days, Airies Inlet to Lorne and return, and Airies inlet to Kennet River

I don't use the Garmin much but for this trip it acted as a speedo. Pleased with my average speeds and the trip back was a blast with some nice downhills and a tailwind.

Still some ripe blackberries on the roadside. Its mid April and they've been fruiting since January.

Same as it ever was, Kennet River Surfing.

Kennet River eating. After looking at the Little Book Library, I turned back round to find sparrows pecking at my pie. No real harm done.

Sparrows

View from the cockpit

Netting on the cliff face to help prevent landslides and erosion after storms.

More of the same type of work underway. This was a queue, waiting for roadworks.

Beach side erosion near Spout Creek

Hi, a few photos above from Wednesday and Thursday, when I was staying at Aireys inlet. There was some ok surf around but I didn't go out, contenting myself with a couple of swims, and putting in some training kilometres and bike fettling.  The light cable now runs through the frame, making things much neater, and the light is in front of the fairing. The trip from Airies to Kennett and back was a bit of reclaiming - on travelling through Wye I was remembering the last time I had been there by bike - a fairly hopeless middle of the night trip on a failing trike. Much, much, much better progress this time and the bike is going well.

Replacing the rear fork after bogging and spraying. The last few k's from Kennet had been on a dirt road, and the open parts of the fork had picked up heaps of dirt inside and out. This latest mod at least stops the muck getting in.

And one last mod! Adding a catch to the tailbox lid.

Hi

Counting down hours to the ride now, just about everything is set. 2 mods shown above were finished. Also rode about 30k today, a shopping trip on the trike, and a bump in ride on the bike. It goes well and seems to be very fast downhill. See how it goes tommorrow!

Regards

Steve Nurse