Buckley's Ride Preview

Saturday evening at our place, blogging, measuring and modding a trike, knitting and watching Killing Eve on ABC Iview

New Audax bling (top and bottom) which can be added to my display .

Shoe dilemma!  If anyone knows of mtb shoes with the cleat up near the toe (lower shoe) please let me know. The shoes are Fluid from Anaconda which are no longer sold there. I have 2 pairs of the Anaconda shoes, both pairs falling apart to a greater or lesser extent.

Hi, I've been doing a bit of bike prep lately, with a few Audax bike rides booked in.  First up I have Buckley's ride on Jan 5 which is a flat 200k, and then the big one, the Murray 1200k which takes place on March 14.  I've done both of these before, and Buckley's ride (or Around the Bay in a Day which has the same route) many times.  The Murray 1200 was long and hard last time, and I know that it will be hard work no matter how good the body and how good the bike.

So up to now its been bike improvements with not much training except for routine ride to shops and about a 20k round trip to study at Tafe twice a week.  Improvements already done and to come on the bike are:

Fairing: reinstalled today.  It makes the trike go faster I'm pretty sure, and has no effect on speed on the flat.  It protects the messy bits of the bike like the chain and the derailleur from the wind and as already proved should be good for rain and sun protection.

Rear wheel covers: plan to make some out of corflute, white gaffer tape and some 3d printer bits.

Tailbox switcheroo. Already done, the lightest tailbox with the lightest corflute side plates is on the bike.

Head fairing for tailbox: this should be quite light and easy to build.

Lights: I don't think I will have a generator on the bike for the Murray 1200 so have ordered six lights from China as recommended by Dome and Pete Heal and they should be good enough for the stints of night and early morning riding. Will report on them when they arrive, and I need a rear reflector.

Drink bottle holder, not too hard, I have done a few of these before and have a standard design.

New front tyre.  I have a few of these spare, the one I have fitted is a bit manky.

That's it, will report on any exciting or new developments, and Buckley's ride in just over a week.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Ebike steerer mod

Scooter bits and 32mm adjustable steerer

Removing reinforcements from scooter fork

Setting up fork for brazing with 32mm mild steel tube.

Brazed part

Painted part

Brought the bike inside on a hot day to finish it off

Stripping brake and gearchange cables from the old setup

Aluminium shim beefs up the 1" od fork top to 1 1/8" to take the adjustable stem

Bit of finishing off, I swapped the pedals over for ones with reflectors but the threaded shaft stuck out a bit in one side, so off it comes with the angle grinder.

There, I fixed it.

Hi

A few weeks ago, I worked on a bike and did a sample job on the steerer, changing the steerer holder from a 25mm to a 32mm adjustable stem. This has proved to be reliable, so I bought a few more stems from ebay and have now changed my electric bike over to the same system. The above pics show the conversion process. The job of swapping over was held off until a hot day when I sheltered from 41 degrees C inside.  There have been several recent hot days here (it is summer after all), but some days broke Australian average record temps, starting or spreading bushfires across 3 states.

A brief ride confirmed everything's ok and now there is just a bit of tweaking of the handlebar position to do. The major problem that was there previously is gone now, that was the steerer flopping down during riding.

Its good to have the electric bike but don't use it all the time.  If I'm tired or the weather is a bit extreme or I just don't want to beat myself up too much it gets a go.

There are a few more mods I can do to hide away the wiring on the ebike, but I'm happy with things for the moment.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Jacarandas in Melbourne

At Wecycle, Jamie Friday drops some wheels off in his load carrying trike. Jacaranda in purple in background at left.

East end of Abbott Grove

North End of Abbott Grove

Hi

We're well in to December now, and the year's not far from over, and as usual the Jacaranda trees are all out with their purple flowers. They are a delight when riding round the streets and I'm slowly memorising where they are. One at each end of our street for starters!  There was one out in Northcote where I was volunteering fixing bikes at Wecycle today.  Quite an impressive array of bikes out on the grass today, but somehow they have to all fit back inside. Anyway, I fixed up a kid's Byk, and half did a flouro-green vintage mountain bike.

Best Wishes

Steve Nurse

Missing Link Found

Robert Wood Leaning trike from about 2001

Hi

A few days ago I was browsing the internet looking for leaning trikes, and I came across a new one (to me). Although I had tried to find all sorts of leaning trikes, it seems I missed this one in my thesis research. Anyway, here is the link to Robert Wood's leaning trike project, on the Wisil recumbents web pages.  Robert cites Greenspeed's Paul Sims as a designer who inspired him.

Another leaning trike discovery was the Maruishi, found and restored at the Wecycle cycle shed.

Regards

Steve Nurse

OzHpv Challenge 2019 Day 2 Sunday. Slow!

Dome and his Baron bike next to the Stevemachine, Belmont Scout Hall

Early morning coffee at Peter G's, thanks Peter!

Just one of Peter's many bikes and trikes, a nicely restored single speed in the lounge room. He said it is super wobbly.

Phillipe, a master at the bicycle slow race,

Ewan , not quite so good,

but all were beaten by The Zen Master of the Slow Race, William R. , as shown in this video.

Dom, Shopping Race

Dom, Shopping race

Geoff, shopping race

Phillipe borrowed Tim;s rig for the Sunday events

Ewan, shopping victory ride

William, Go to Whoa

Tim, Go to Whoa

William, Bob trailer with lugs on back meaning another one can be fitted behind.

Philipe Slalom

Philipe Slalom

William Slalom

Ewan Slalom

Prep for go to whoa

Ex-Masters Champion Graham S.

Masters Champion Trophy handover

And the winners are! Courtesy Tim via facebook.

(Continued from here) After a quiet night and good sleep and pack up at the scout hall we headed off to Peter G's house who lives "just on the way to the track" in Belmont for coffee, Dom and I on bikes and Geoff in the car. Tim called in briefly but he was watching the clock and needed to open up the track. Peter was not very impressed by the state of roads in Geelong and I could relate to that given our experience rolling in to Geelong on Friday.

At the track, my son Ewan was already there warming up for the obstacle / off road, go to whoa, shopping, slow and twin slalom races to follow. There were six of us competing, and previous Masters Champion Graham Signiorini turned up to help officiate and hand over his trophy.

The events all went well and were keenly competed however, I must admit that I found some of the slow races excruciatingly well, er, slow. Perhaps they might have passed quicker if I had a deck chair and Sudoku to while away the time while watching (in particular) William and Geoff exchanging the race slowership in subsequent battles. The action packed shopping races took less time for each run.

After the events, Tim started tallying results and I went to the bakery and supermarket across the road and bought everybody a lunch of pies, coffee scrolls, chocolate milk, custard tarts and orange juice. This was my "event sponsorship", Simon W. had chipped in with an entry he didn't use,  Dom had organised the scout hall and provided breakfast for 2 days, Tim had organised the event, and William donated his timing services, so it was just me doing my bit.

After the presentations, Ewan and I got on the quite busy train back to Melbourne, getting off at Footscray, and riding the few k's on lightly trafficked bike paths back to his place.  From there I continued on home.  I got the same question about my bike at both South Geelong and Footscray stations, "What's it for?" and the answer stayed the same, "Just Transport".

OzHpv Challenge 2019, Day 1 Saturday. Speed!

Start of day at base camp

Rob L. road race

Rob's front wheel drive raptor

Briefing before start.

Dome Deli

Criterium start

Dome, Rob, Simon

G-trikes crew

William and Tim run the computers

Sarah needs to race next year!

Velo lineup

Tim C, road race

Sam Duttli dominated racing on day 1.  In the road race he couldn't see due to the rain for 1/2 a lap so stopped and removed the windshield, and still won!

Tim M, and Simon W.

Dome and Rob's bikes

William, Road race

Geoff, road race

Rob L. road race

Jamie Friday had won several Challenges like this one in Wodonga in this bike.

Back at Belmont Scout Hall base camp, a game of cards before turning in.

Hi,

This posts continues on from Fridays post about bike touring here.

After a good nights sleep at the Belmont Scout hall we headed down to the track a few minutes away. And its a very quick downhill and only 4 streets away.

Here are Saturday's challenge pics, a few of them taken during the road race. My placing was quite secure, ahead of William and Jamie and behind everyone else, so was able to take a few pics without losing Challenge points.

Here is the video I took on the day, Tim C v. Ben P. in the drag race final. Will post more later.

This series of posts is continued here with day 2 of the Challenge.

Regards  Steve Nurse