Wooden Bike 200k ride

On the latest "round the bay" ride, the first and hardest bit was wet, windy and rural.....

and the last bit was all sunshine and seaside.

Hi

As mentioned in my last post, I enrolled for an Audax 200k ride a week or so ago and this was to fulfil one of my bucket list items for 2013, to ride 200k on one of my wooden bikes.  I'd had a previous attempt, in the Audax "Winter Surf Ride".  On that occasion, a conspiracy of bad weather and buggered up bicycle forced me to ride another machine.

On this occasion, no such stuffing up occurred and I got ready to ride my homemade iLean trike on "Buckley's Ride" ( Audax parlance), or "Round the Bay in a Day" (Bike Vic parlance).

In the past, I've done this ride on homemade and commercial vehicles, single and tandem recumbent bikes, a tandem recumbent trike,  clockwise and anticlockwise, in organised Bike Vic Rides, and solo unsupported.  Gosh one time right at the start (1993 or so)  I even did it on one of those upright bike things. (Yes, I was wild and crazy back in the day....) And now add wooden HPV and solo recumbent trike to the list. Here is video from a few years ago.

Anyway, the latest ride, although chosen for its flattness and general mild manners was not a pushover.  You still can't choose the weather!  There was rain and a south-west headwind just about all the way to Geelong and it was a struggle to keep up 15-20k.  The route I took to Geelong was the Audax  / Buckley's Ride and Winter Surf Ride route which doesn't go along the Geelong Road,  (major highway) provides great scenery but adds distance and wandering to the direct Geelong Road Bike Vic route.  So after a 5 am start, I was at the ferry at 1pm, and about 120k into the ride.  The Queenscliffe Music Festival was on and I hooned down the packed main street in the last few k's.

I had a big lunch on the ferry and kept going on the other side.  By this time the sun was shining and the wind was behind me but the damage had been done on the other side of the bay, I was knackered and couldn't take much advantage of the good conditions.  One of the highlights was riding the meandering,  hilly, ocean hugging road around the coast near Mornington. (The Bike Vic Route avoids this road because there are a lot of people on that ride, and the road is just too narrow to cope)  Eventually I pulled in at home at about 8pm, 235 k on the speedo.  A cup of tea, a shower then bed.  That was my Sunday!

Although I did this ride almost completely according to the ride guide from Audax, the 200k Audax permanent rules are actually not that strict.  You can ride "round the bay" either way and as long as you get your brevet card signed after the 200k point and within time limits the spirit of the ride conditions are met.  Of course I read about this "laissez faire" set of rules after I had finished the ride and did it far tougher than I needed to.  You live and learn: RTFI! (Read the Instructions)

Regards

Steve Nurse.

You self-check the paperwork the send it off and get it approved by Audax

Wooden Bike MK2 Part 2

Progress to Date

Seat

Rear Triangle Pivot: an old front hub.  Note the dark brown knot in the wood.  I did some rearranging so the knot would be in compression.

Hi

Well, a bit of progress on the bike this weekend, I have put together the seat and have the rear triangle in place but not fully complete or strengthened and no suspension.  More progress to report soon!

Regards

Steve

Wooden Bike Mk2 Part1

Hi

As promised in Tuesday's blog  the nc routed timber for a couple of wooden bikes arrived yesterday.

(When I got home from work, Damian from TGC Building was at the front door, having a chat to my wife Christine.  His ute double parked in the street, I double parked my car in the street and joined in.  Damian lives in Nicholson St. very close by and sees me pootling around on the bike every now and then.  He's pleased to have had a small part in its making.  The  equivalent post from the last bike I made is here, you can compare and contrast)  

The wooden bits include the rear triangle and seat and this will be bolted on to a wooden frame made easy to build - not too much more than a plank of wood with some holes drilled in.  Anyway, will go on reporting progress.  Although there are still a few glitches, overall I'm happy.  The features shown in the sketch on this post came through fine, that is
* 2 types of cut outs to let the bits be put together with cable ties and
* the slots to hold the seat to the frame, a bit more aero than the current version

The rear triangle should be very aerodynamic and simple to build.  See how I go with strength - and flexibility - always possible to use fibreglass to reinforce.  Ok, more soon.

Actually very soon, an hour or so after this post was done I did an image search for furniture using "cable ties" and came up with some interesting results,

Here: Quite Neat
Here: Let it All hang out, I like it!
and from the same page, this! , art meets science meets human powered vehicle.  Ok, more next time, bye!

Seat held together with cable ties