Corflute Wheel Covers

 

Finished!

The old version of the same thing are about a year old and are documented here

Almost done, this side has 2 slits and a coreflute hatch to allow valve access

Nail used to find screw hole position.

This is the "plain" side without valve access. It only needs one slit to make it slightly conical and fit in with the wheel shape. Seven centre slits accommodate spokes.

Special printed parts each side of the valve.

One side done

Bike before wheel mod on the Kew Boulevarde

Coloured hair elastics serve as lap counters. I managed 6 laps on this occasion, about 90k's.

Hi

This year I've signed up again for the Audax Buckley's Ride, or round the bay in a day ride. Last year my Mum and Dad were sick but this year everything seems to be going ok, and I've done a bit of training, the highlight being 90k of hills a few days ago. And I knocked off about 50k on the flat today.

Anyway this post shows one of my bike-goes-faster things for this year, a rear wheel disc.

Elsewhere, I will cover the tailbox mods I've done. And I started work on a fairing as shown below, but times running out and I won't finish it in time. This is no great problem though, I think the bike is already fast and winds are forecast to be light. Temperatures not too hot as well. Will report more later.

 

Fairing is a work in progress, it didn't make the cut this time.

Fixing Bike 46, Ricardo

 

One that didn't make it to Wecycle. Saw this bike next to Victoria Park when I was laden with shopping, and came back the next day to check it out closer. It was a heavy clunker with Ashtabula cranks and without the saving grace of a cute frame.

Hi

This bike was advertised as free by the side of the road when I went to Wecycle one morning with a bike to give away. It was still there on the way home, and it seemed to be quite like the Repco Summit, but with several upgrades already there, ie aluminium rims and cranks. Only about 200m from home, so easy to transport and rescue.

Weighing the bike showed I was right, the Repco was 17.5kg at the start, and this one is only 14.8kg. Like the Giant Cypress, it has cable cancer on the brake cables. Anyway, I started in on fixing it yesterday with a very effective vinegar bath chain derust. Will report more later. 

Regards Steve Nurse

Update Jan 20 2022

One of my wife's carers accepted the bike, and I passed it on to her on Tuesday. She's very happy with it and took to the bike quite quickly. Photo below

 

Audax 50 and a bayside ride with Bryan

 

Wheels of Audax turning, my ride is registered, and the bling I ordered (cloth badge) is on its way

Boiled version of the ride route. It was mostly on bike tracks and roads I know.

Official route. Helps if you have a GPS (Global Positioning System)

Hi

A few weeks ago I put my toe in the water again with an Audax ride, "only" 50k this time, but there was at least a high chance of success, something I needed after failing to complete both 300 and 600k rides earlier in the year. 

The start was only about 3k away, and I got there in plenty of time for the 9am start, a chat, and a bit of a hand to the organisers setting up. I met up with Paul who I'd met before, and a couple of riders on Curve gravel bikes, and they ended up being the riders I went with most of the way. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, so its only word pictures plus a few ride instructions for this one. 

I'd downloaded the ride details the night before, but didn't bother with the GPS for this one. Many lines of instructions boiled down to just 4 or 5 chunks of bike paths and 2 or three roads in the middle of familiar territory. Paul and I were at the front and ended up at a caf on the Port Melbourne about 5 minutes ahead of everyone else. I had my own snacks and drink with me, but Paul was well into his coffee and croissant from the cafe by the time anyone else arrived. The Curve riders had ridden straight through. We caught up with them in Moreland, and they stayed with Paul and I until the end of the ride. I was able to lead on familiar paths for the last 15k of so. We only made 2 small glitches on the way, overshooting a bridge over Merri creek once, and a bit later diverting off the trail for a few metres near Ceres. 

So us 4 came in first, and were welcomed by Audax clubmembers and a few partners who had been cooking a barbecue and preparing food. There was nice chat in the barbecue shelters, a speech or two, and lots of sausages, bread, onion and tomato sauce. 

The bling arrived. Correct, not very far by Audax standards.

And here's one I took later, at the local bottleshop against a mountain of grog (Note, the bike is for sale, AUD 700, as is, where is.

 

and this one, the bike can carry this much beer and whisky though.

Thanks to Audax and this year's ride organisers. Some very tough riding this year, but I finished off with an easy one.

 

Bryan in black with Graham Signorini. Graham is one of my friends and we passed him near his work maintaining a boat at Docklands. Graham's bike is a new / secondhand Barchetta highracer he had bought in Shepparton.

Me and Graham

Bryan at Mordialloc, testing my mirror helmet with ear flaps. Yes, they are a thing as reported by Jun from the Biking in a Big City blog. Mine stop sunburn and its evil sibling skin cancer, whereas Jun and his mates wear them for cold protection.

We swapped bikes at this point, neither was properly adjusted for our height or body shape though.

A few days later, and I have organised to meet Bryan Taaffe for a ride. We have a regular meet spot at the corner of the Chandler Highway and Boulevarde in Kew, but the route was up to me, and I decide to take in most of the Audax ride but also do a "slight detour" (50k or so) to Mordialloc on the way back. 

I am on my faired recumbent, and Bryan on his upright bike, an endurance model with cableless DI2 shifters. He'd ridden it from Perth to Melbourne in 2019, and it really didn't show much sign of wear. He is very fit and currently averaging about 1200k a month for maintenance fitness. We stayed together most of the way to Mordialloc, but he's a much fitter and faster rider than me, and if any riders passed me, he would flit off ahead with them before slowing to let me catch up.

On the way back we saw Graham Signorini near the boat he works on and had a chat. It was good to see him again. 

Hopefully I will be in the 200k Buckley's ride on January 2, and I will be able to fit in a few more training rides like this one. 

Regards  Steve Nurse

Fixing bike 45, Mongoose

 

This Mongoose is one that's already been allocated to a lady, so there was a need to get it fixed. I looked at it a few weeks ago, and managed to change the right hand gearcable inner which goes to the rear derailleur. Then Gian (bottom photo) had a ride and said it wasn't ok. I had missed a Saturday at Wecycle and it was still there last week, so I concentrated my efforts on it. The main thing was to change the gearcable outer which I did. This time I handed it to Mike for final quality control, and he pronounced it ok. Hopefully it will go out to our customer soon.

PS Its December and Jacarandah time in Melbourne. Trees which go unnoticed during the year burst out in vibrant purple colours. One can be seen in the background of the top 2 photos.

Regards

Steve Nurse 

Mongoose (centre). I went up to Wecycle on the Repco Summit at right, which I left there.

Simon delivering in Deer Park. Mike had a crook shoulder and decided to take it easy and not do deliveries as usual, so Simon and I went.

Update, December 17, Simon and I delivered 4 bikes including the Mongoose, to a Mum, Dad and 2 daughters in Deer Park. They live in a Court that is closed to through traffic so should have plenty of opportunity for riding.

Fixing Bike 44, Konas

 

This post is about 2 Kona bikes, and I only worked on one of them, but a good fate awaited the other, so I have put in a bit of background here.

A few weeks ago, a rider came in to Wecycle and donated his well worn Kona bikes, one a flat bar and the other a drop bar. The drop bar had a broken rear lug, more on this later. The flat bar had been kicked by someone outside a pub, so the front fork was missalligned. After a few goes I fixed that. At first I tried without luck to straighten the fork, and eventually gave up on that. Then, after going through most of the forks at wecycle, I found one to replace the bent one, it had to be non-suspension and disc brake.

As well, the drop bar bike had a broken derailleur hanger, and Lucas hand-filed one to fit, using a larger hanger as a base. Great work! As at last week, Carlos and Simon were straightening the front wheel, and it was almost on the road.

The pix below shows progress on the other Kona. It was going to replace a bike stolen from a secondary school student just as it was finished off and on its way home. Another good result, and good networking by Simon.

Fixing bike 43, Repco Tracer Step Through MTB

 

Nice graphics, head tube and ......

Frame

Rack alone

New front wheel

Old front wheel

New back wheel

Old Back wheel

New cranks

Old cranks

Bearing clean

New crank, removing a chainring

The weigh in at start:

17.43 kg!

Hi

This bike came from our friend Jill, she had it at home not being used. Its a Repco Tracer, with nice graphics. It calls itself all terrain, but in fact it was quite heavy (steel wheels, handlebars, stem and cranks) and the gear ratios limited. So before even starting on it I sourced lighter aluminium rim wheels, one from Ceres and one from home. 

So after wheel and crank mods, the weight is down to 14.8 kg. The rack was broken, so that was taken off. The tyres are still a problem, they have very heavy tread and they really should be swapped before the bike is given away. Anyway, the weight loss could go further with alu steerer and handlebars, but these are white and match the bike, so I won't change them. 

Regards  Steve Nurse

Update December 10

From the dumpster at Back2bikes where I have been volunteering, I sourced 2 tyres and a bell and an old gearchanger. The tyres and bell have made their way onto the Repco. They are a bit worn but are much lighter, better-rolling, and more flexible than the old tyres which are dstined for the scrap heap. Weight is now down to 14kg.