News and Events

Keep up to date with the latest news and events of Modular Bikes.

Friday, February 28, 2020

Great Ocean Road 200 2020

Part of pre-race prep: pump up tyres to 65psi then this happens. Not a disaster
Inappropriate use of a bicycle 1, awreck as a sign for the Deans Marsh Caf in the Lorne direction

Inappropriate use of a bicycle 2, awreck as a sign for the Deans Marsh Caf in the Bambra direction

Inappropriate use of a bicycle 3, wrecks as scrap metal near Moriac
At the start, courtesy Rick Harker

At the start, courtesy Rick Harker

This was about all I saw of the rest of the 200 riders for about 100k courtesy Rick Harker

Lorne breakfast stop, courtesy Rick Harker

Peter Donnan the legend courtesy Rick Harker

Great Ocean Road sign near Spout Creek courtesy Rick Harker

At the start, courtesy Rick Harker
A couple of the ladies come in, I had a bit of lunch with them at Lorne

Phil Giddings, Charles at the start, courtesy Rick Harker
Return leg roadworks

Outside of Lorne roadworks
A lone surfer out at "Sawmills" near Kennet River

Near Apollo Bay
Long Shadows approachin Anglesea at the end
Done
Hi,

On Wednesday I finished a 200k Audax ride.  This was the Great Ocean Road Midweek ride with options of 150 and 200k rides out of Anglesea organised by Charles Cooke. I chose the 200 as I am in serious training mode for a 1200k ride, but a few of the seasoned Audax riders I know chose the 150k route. But some of them had done a 300k ride out of Bendigo a few days before!

Rick Harker did the 150, and he kindly let me use his photos.  All the 200k riders were well ahead of me on the hills out of Anglesea leading to Moriac, except for one, he turned back citing bad weather.  Which there was!  A headwind for 40k out of Moriac, but with occasional relief from sheltering vegetation. Then we had the big hill out of Deans Marsh, lunch at Lorne and on ito more winds to Apollo Bay. I was relieved to turn around there for some tailwinds.  I was back in Anglesea by about 8:10 pm,  and greeted by Charles waiting patiently.

Thanks Charles and Audax for the organising! Next post follows here.

Regards

Steve Nurse

PS Happy Birthday Blog, 10 years old!  I will write a bit more about this later.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Peugeot NS Load Carrying

451 tyres for Byk bikes are available from a very local bike shop for only $20.00. The catch is they have a low weight limit (50kg) and are low pressure (45psi). But I am frepared to give them a crack. Newly shod for $40.00!

Making a timber piece for the back rack.  I made a small steel bracket to go with this part. Really the timber won't stand up to too much stress so the bracket should help.

Drilling the timber piece for the back rack. This setup on the big drill ensures the hole for the front is drilled square.

Everything in place, it just needs brazing. Its intended a milk crate be plonked on top.

A bit more detail


Not much to say here. The Peugeot NS22 came with a front rack but nothing on the back, and here is what I'm doing for it. There is a bit more brazing, screwing and drilling to be done before its finished, and I will post pics. More follows here.

Regards  Steve Nurse

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Murray 1200 Preview

New through-levers for brakes have

Their cables very low and discrete.

I bought a couple of pairs, but the idea really started when I tried this old pair of  aero levers out.
Packaged Fairing has arrived
Shoes - Shimano left, Rumble right
A buff, or tubular scarf to protect from sunburn.

I have had 4 of these lights (black, right) for a few weeks, and have just started using the Garmin, (the other thing attached to the handlebars, left) to record distances for training.
Trike with 56mm diameter pipe

Hi


Within a month I will be embarking on my second ever Audax 1200k ride with 350, 350, 250, 250k days.  This is the flat-as Murray 1200 run by my friend Simon Watt.  This forces me to lift my game a bit from my standard ride-to-shop and ride-to-go-to-nightclass routine. So here is a bit of a summary of prep sofar and prep planned.

Clothing

For a while I have been struggling to get the right bike shoe. Anaconda used to stock the "Fluid"ones I liked but then stopped stocking them. I bought some Shimanos from a local bike shop but they had the cleat too far away from the toe as per the pic. After 20 plus years of recumbenting, I am just used to one cleat position and it gets hard to deal with any other, and I can't click in! Anyway, at a family lunch, my son had some Rumble shoes which are available through Wiggle, and I bought some online and, hooray, they fit, and hooray I can click in with them. One problem sorted.

Its summer, I'm a white guy and I sunburn.  So while its ok slathering on sunscreen on my face, it's improbable that I can do it all the time properly during sunburn hours for 4 days straight.  So I bought a few tubular scarf things called Buffs. They seem of sofar, I have worn them on the bike twice. They are said to be uv 50+ protecting.

Training

Its been 6 weeks or so since I did my last Audax 200k ride, and I am now booked in for another, a Great Ocean Road 200  this coming Wednesday. As the ride profile shows, the trick is to not go too hard too early. The biggest uphill is from Deans Marsh to Lorne, and its worth saving a bit of energy for that. Anyway, befor Christmas, me and Jamie Friday did the same stretch of road in pouring rain.  I can't see conditions being that challenging again!

As well, I have done one session of 3 hours and 80k or so last Sunday on our local set of hills on the Kew Boulevarde. To help this sort of training (record the k's) I have got the Garmin do dah (oh yeah, gps. thingy) out of storage and by various combinations of button presses have worked out how to make it tell me how far I've been on training rides.

Feb 23: About 45 hilly km today. Have got into the routine of using the Garmin so I almost know what I'm talking about regarding distances now.  Its helpful for riding on the boulevarde too.  Simon Watt told me to stay over 10kph on the hills, and I am trying to stick to that.

Aero

I bought and installed some through brakes which are lighter and have more aero cabling than the ones I had before.  And I ordered a custom fairing which has arrived, but I fear it may not suit my bike perfectly!

I'm not sure I will get to this, but I think I can make a lighter and more aero tailbox than what I have now.  I bought some coreflute and found a 56mm pipe on some hard rubbish, and these along with should be all I need to build it.  The idea is to have the trailing edges of the tailbox round rather than square. Here is an example of an aero tailbox with rounded edges.

Lights

I ordered 4 front lights from China and they have arrived. They were recommended by the NSW recumbents facebook group and several esteemed Audax riders including Dome Deli use them. I have been riding home from night school using 1 of them and they seem very good.  They don't look terribly flash: thieves have not taken any yet!

Spot Trackers

This actually isn't my prep, but Simon Watt is threatening to lay on Spot Trackers for Murray Tour riders. This is great news Simon, my friends and family can be happy dot watchers.

Will continue reports of training etc, next post follows here .

Regards

Steve nurse

Monday, February 17, 2020

Peugeot NS Rear Brakes and Stand

Steel plate (rusty brown) bolted across existing brake bosses to mount centre mount, centre pull brakes.

Another view

Stand in original condition with a weld across the 2 plates at top right.

Weld removed to weaken the stand, and stand bent to fit new frame height from new smaller wheels.

Strength put back into stand with braze welding.

All back together.

Stand in place and doing its job.

We are up to about test ride number 5 now, a trip to get Thai Takeaway and

to the grog shop attached to a local pub. Milk crate is not permanent at this stage as it is held on a bit flakily for this short term job by velcro.
More progress on the Peugeot NS22 from the past few days. Vastly sophisticated with 2 brakes and a stand now! More follows here.

regards  Steve Nurse


Sunday, February 16, 2020

A Small Victory

Pic of the issue as it appeared on Streets Alive Yarra under the heading Yambla St North......

And now, complete with my bike and highly professional graphic commentary.
Hi, I am happy to report a small victory here. Through our council, and with a possible nudge from out councillor Stephen Jolly, a problem I'd highlighted on the Streets Alive Yarra has been fixed.  It's only part of the problem as there are still cobblestone laneways and driveways which are difficult to navigate on foot. But we will take any small improvement. Thanks Yarra Council and Stephen!

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Peugeot NS Brakes

Peugeot and Dia Compe Brakes from front...

and back....

and combined.
Hi, a few pics of progress on fixing the brakes on the Peugeot NS22. Continued from my post on rescuing the bike here . And more follows here.

Regards Steve Nurse

14 Feb 2020, I fixed the combined brake onto the bike this morning and here is the result.  I had to move the brake arm bracket down a bit and did that by brazing on a tab of steel.  Quite good and robust now.

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Peugeot NS restoration

Peugeot NS22 in as-found condition, rear wheel is 24"

In liberating it, I broke this cable cutter, but Christine has found a use for it as a hand-exerciser.
BYK 451 wheels and stripped down parts and frame.......

and more parts........

And the slightly nasty fork wear.

Byk short cranks and bolted on 46T cog.
Byk 451 7 speed.
Hi

A few days ago, I took some photos of an abandoned bike, it had been locked up to a post in a neighboring street. I was doing some writing at the time and was interested in both locked up and unlocked abandoned bikes, and this one, a Peugeot NS22 folding bike was a classic locked abandoned bike, having been there for 2 years and slowly deteriorating.  Anyway, photographing the bike also meant examining it, and then working out that I wanted it, maybe some wheels I had at home would be ok for it.

So the next day was Sunday and I got up fairly early armed with tools and recumbented down to where the bike was, and started taking the front wheel of the bike off to disentangle it from the lock. I got as far as the mudguard stays and broke my cable cutters trying to snip them.   Not giving up, I went back home for more tools, and found a ring spanner to be the best of them. With that I could remove the mudguard stay, and with a multi-tool, I could remove the spokes the lock was around, and hey-presto, the bike was free and able to be plonked on the recumbent and wheeled home.

It was a quick turnaround at home, I dumped the frame and headed off for a bike ride where I managed to catch up with a few friends in St. Kilda. Later in the day I showed my wife Christine the busted cable cutters, and she immediately adopted them as hand-exercisers!

It's been a few days since then and I have stripped down the frame to reveal its occupant, a rather scary 3cm length spider, and also some wear on the fork thread. I think I can fix this and did a similar job here .  Will report more later, probably just carrying on with this post rather than writing new ones.

Regards Steve Nurse

Update Feb 7, 2020

I've decided that this fix-up is more of a resuscitation that a restoration.  Restoration implies some sort of authenticity, but the way its going I will need to do a bit of parts swapping to get things fixed. For example, the new steerer thread is not the same and I will need to fit some new parts there.  But I like this!  It gives me the option to do some slightly more creative things than just fixing it.


Layout for fork repair, the existing steerer tube is cropped, and a sleeve and threaded tube have been prepared to replace it.
Fork repair started, the basic weld is done. Note the bearing and bearing housing are in place, they don't fit over the sleeve.
Old and new steerer tubes, and
.......... another simpler but maybe dodgier option for repair.
How it looked at the end of the day. After 3 or 4 sessions, the frame has been cleaned, the fork fully repaired and reassembled.  Its all ready for repopulation. 


Here is the maiden voyage of the bike, up to WeCycle to take back in the rubbish bins after collection.  I had neglected to bring tools (doh) or tighten up the back wheel (doh, doh).  But I was able to limp along to the Darebin city bike tools and was able to fix things.


My first ride on the bike went ok, with no problems except for failing to tighten up the back wheel!  Gears are good, but brakes (only the front one connected at the moment) are horrible.  So I will keep on plugging away at things, installing a back brake and fixing the front one.

And here's a slightly better photo, the bike is now 2 rides into its new life.  I plan to fit the blue milk crate to the front of the bike.

This is the end of this post now, I'll report about fixing the brakes (sofar the front brake was pathetic and the back brake not fitted) in a separate post. The story follows on here.