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