 |
Carbo loading: a big bowl of pasta, cheese and sauce for dinner the night before
|
 |
Ouch! A tyre switcheroo on the bike caused me to look a bit closer at the bike rear fork. It was a bit rattly in the bike, and inspection revealed this, a broken bushing.
|
 |
Late night / early morning plan B. (Cue Thunderbirds Music) Get out the tilting trike module.
|
 |
Albert park, getting ready for the ride off.
|
 |
Balloon sunrise Albert Park
|
 |
Lara Servo: Paul, unknown, Heather, Frank, Tim
|
 |
On the ferry
|
 |
First break on the Sorrento side was underneath a shrub with some fellow picnickers. The beach was busy and resplendent everywhere. This was
|
 |
at Safety Beach where I rested in prep for the 30k or so of hills around Mornington and Mt. Martha.
|
 |
2nd rest stop, about 5k out of Frankston. Although it looks quite nice,
|
 |
it is right next to a busy main road with cars whooshing past every 3 seconds or so.
|
 |
Done! Back in Albert Park with a respectable average speed of about 18.7kph.
|
Just to start, I did a previous post which shows a picture of the bike I had intended to ride.
Hi, here are some photos from my Buckleys ride, just completed today. I will add some more words soon. I averaged 18.7 kph over the whole trip which I am very pleased with.
Update 9/1/2023
The drama concerning this ride all happened the night before! I was doing a last minute tyre switcheroo on the recumbent bike shown in the previous post when I noticed the rear fork was rattly. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but later (about 10pm) I went out to the car (bike was already split in 2 and loaded inside the car ready for the next day) and took out the rear fork. A 3d printed bushing was broken. I took the fork inside, and superglued what was left of the bushing to the frame, then put the fork back in the frame in the car and went to bed, a bit worried about the state of the bike still.
About 3am I woke up and had worked it out! Instead of riding the bike, I could just break out the leaning trike module, pump up the tyres, put it in the car, and reassemble my vehicle as a trike in the morning. (I had already done this sort of thing for the OzHPV challenge at Wagga) Some of the vehicle disassembly had already been done when the bike was put in the car, so the only extra work would be to swap a tailbox over between frames. I first did this ride (Buckley's / Round the Bay) on a Vuong style leaning trike in 2013.
So that all went according to plan, and I even managed to find a spare 16" tube to match the back wheels which was great. By 5:40am on Sunday I was assembling the trike from the back of the car, and was ready for the "off" at 6:15.
The ride itself all went well. By the time I hit Werribbee (30k in, and where I had to turn back last time) , I had settled in with Paul and Frank as ride companions and we had discussed Frank's Audax riding (almost 75,000k's of official rides) and beekeeping! The time seemed to pass quickly and pleasantly.
After Lara, Tim and Heather joined in and we all arrived at the ferry at about the same time. Paul had had luck with traffic lights in Geelong and was ahead, I was quite fast from Geelong to Queenscliffe, and Frank punctured but caught up and got the same ferry as the rest of us. Frank is 72 and as tough as old boots.)
Over on the Sorrento side I was again quite fast and traffic became an issue. The perfect Summer Sunday weather had bought beachgoers out in droves. This included big utes towing jetskis, and queueing to launch jetskis, pedestrians on the road, pedestrians crossing the road, Harley Davidson riding bikes, sports car owners, you name it they were there. There wasn't much letup from the traffic all the way back to Melbourne. Thank god I have a mirror on my helmet, I would be stuck without it.
I had 3 rest breaks between Sorrento and Melbourne, at Safety Beach, near Frankston and at the Mordialloc Kiosk. The Safety Beach stop was quite necessary, as the only real hills of the ride followed shortly after.
While my speed from Sorrento to Melbourne was probably pretty good, all the rest breaks added up and by the time I hit Albert Park again, most of the other riders had past me and it was close to 6pm when I got in. Still, my average speed for the whole ride including the ferry was 18.7k, not far off my training ride averages of 19 to 20.
Just a few observations,
Was quite proud of my cool thinking of using the trike module. I have been swimming in the Yarra which is very calming so I think my stress levels are low. This helps!
Not really ashamed of the bike being compromised by the failed bushing. "The person who never made a mistake never made anything" is my motto. I have been reading Ruth Brandon's excellent "A Capitalist Romance, Singer and the Sewing machine", and Singer's publicity once claimed that Isaac Singer never made engineering mistakes. This is utter crap of course. Progress has to be made from attempts. mistakes and corrections.
Its worth taking about twice as long to prepare as you think you need. So this time an interrupted training ride (called over to my son's place) and all-too-late tyre switcheroo and bike inspection didn't lead to disaster and were dealt with fairly calmly on the spot.
I'd probably wear a watch if I did this ride again. On the Queenscliffe side, there is no need for speed if you are well on time for a ferry, and I could have relaxed a bit more.
Paul Kalitsis asked me if the recumbent position caused any physical pain, and I couldn't come up with an answer. But after a day to think about it, besides sunburn, the only soreness I get from my bikes is tingly feet after very long rides. The much more noticeable difference is in the amount of attention you get - heaps more - so recumbents are not for the shy and retiring.
Overall very happy with the ride. I think the repair of the rear frame won't be too hard and the bike will be back on the road and dragging off bicycles on downhills and flats very soon.
Posts
