Wooden Bikes at Melburn Custom Bicycle Show

1890's Bamboo bike from the Farren Collection

#1

#2

#3, A Vaughan Plycycle.

#4, Bamboo and carbon Cyclocross

A 36" big-wheeled mountain bike with custom aluminium suspension forks from Fikas

Bowls in the middle of the Velodrome.  None of the bowlers were paying any attention to the bike observers and the feeing was pretty mutual.

My newest trike.  Note Spokey Dokes!

Lyrebird Frame and tube sample. The tube is very light with carbon and veneer layers.  There is a little bit about lyrebird cycles here and the build process (which makes my build process look incredibly simple) here .

Lyrebird Cycle under Construction

Lyrebird bikes

1890's Bamboo bike, obverse.

Hi

A couple of days ago, I received an email notification that this event was on and I pootled up to see it, (a few km away) and saw friends Peter Falconer, Chook and Matt Benn up there.  Lots of nice bikes, creative in the frame material department, a bit less so in the frame configuration department.  Anyway, it was an enjoyable time, I got to visit the dumpster, the bakery and the op shop on the way up there too.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Audax Vest

Modified Audax Vest

Hi

A few months ago, I bought a cheapy night visibility vest at an Audax event, and I wore it occasionally.  But this winter, I've been commuting to and from Uni, and it means riding home in the dark every night.  The straps holding the vest at the bottom were too high up to secure it easily, so I set about changing it.  The photo is of my second and best attempt at fixing it.  I used some velcro sourced from a bmx handlebar protector in this rework.

The small red bits of velcro are the "sticky hard" part and the long bits are soft velcro.  This minimises the chance of the sticky bits sticking and tangling on other things when you don't want them to.

Really, I don't mind helmeting and thoroughly daglowing and lighting up when I ride a bike.  My bike is a geek bike anyway, by riding it I'm rebelling anyway, and I probably look like a dork when I'm riding it, and helmets and bright clothes won't make my any more dorky.   Here is a link to a recent storm in a teacup about Australian Helmet laws.

Menwhile, Louis Vuitton, you know my number.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Wilson Recumbents

Hi

I've posted about Wilson bikes before here .  A few recent events reminded me that I had a Wilson bike brochure buried away somewhere in the large collection of paper known as Steve's HPV Archives.  * George and Chris Durbridge came for dinner and we somehow got to discuss Peter Wilson and his bikes.  * I saw another on at uni and that was a kick in the pants to finally put the brochure up.

Red bike at Monash Caufield Pt 1

and Pt 2

Anyway, without further adue, here is the link to the brochure files, 2pdfs for a 2 sided sheet, have fun. Peter, if you're out there, your bikes still seem to be very much loved.

Regards

Steve nurse

Underwater Velomobile

Hi

Its not very often my habit of buying trashy videos and dvds from op shops (or rescuing them from dumpsters) coincides with my interest in Human powered vehicles although this older post seems to be all about videos.

Anyway, my most recent trashy dvd purchase was a triple movie dvd ($1.00 from a Malvern op shop) including the movie "Monster from the Ocean Floor" from 1954.

You know, its the old story, girl hangs around Mexican fishing Village, girl meets hunky scientist who rocks up in pedal powered submarine, girl is filmed swimming underwater to the accompanyment of nice music, girl is threatened by unfriendly locals, girl is threatened by shark and amoeba grown to gigantic octopus-shaped proportions under influence of underwater nuclear explosion, hunky scientist rescues girl and they live happily ever after, or at least until the end credits roll....

Anyway, for all its apparent trashiness, the film is possibly worth watching.  Underwater filming was probably quite new and filming the submarine and a few people swimming underwater takes up quite a bit of the short running time.  The submarine is the spitting image of a modern fast velomobile and was made by Aerojet General. Here is a quote from the "all you needed to know and probably a whole lot more" 100 misspent hours website:     "And in what might be the biggest production value-adding coup of all, (producer Roger) Corman finagled the use of an experimental, pedal-powered, single-seat submarine with what we would today describe as a product-placement deal. The fledgling Aerojet General company let Corman use the sub for free in return for one plug in the opening credits and another in the dialogue itself."

Due to the wonders of modern technology, you don't need to scour Op Shops of Malvern to find "Monster from the Ocean Floor".  It is right here on the Interweb. Thingy.

 Here is the link:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xm8619_monster-from-the-ocean-floor_shortfilms

Regards

Steve Nurse

Stolen Trike

Stolen Trike, missing about 20k South of Wodonga

Hi, I am posting a picture of a 20 /26" trike stolen last week from Lloyd Charter, a long time friend and Albury OzHpv'er.  Here is his email, I can't really put it any better than Lloyd

" Hi Steve ,my last trike that i built that you saw in Corryong has been nabbed approx 20km towards Wangaratta from Wodonga.
I loaned it to a prospective buyer for a few days so he could get used to it but he had tyre problems so he ‘hid’ it amongst some trees but it had gone when he returned."



Lloyd can be contacted on 0466263498.

Bullock Ladies Bike

Me, riding the bike up and down the

Driveway at Airey's Inlet.

My brother Richard,

Ditto!

Richard with Wooden handski at Lorne

Streamlined Austin Healey Sprite Car at Lorne

Rainbow near Spout Creek

Bullock 25741

Saddle

Coaster Hub

Under the Hub

Nestor Paint Job

Hi

My brother Richard has been visiting from England with his girlfriend, Sarah.  Last week they visited my Aunt Lorna (84 years young!) and they picked up a bike from her Port Fairy house which was "surplus to requirements."  I had supplied her with the bike about 25 years ago, and it was very old then.  Anyway, the bike is a Bullock from Adelaide, possibly repainted by Super Elliot as a "Nestor".  Bullock bikes were made from the early 1900's to the late 1950's in Adelaide.  Anyway, the bike rides fine, and the brown dusty bike looks good against a brown dirt road, except its (one) gear is a bit high.

Here are some links about Bullock Bikes

Forum Discussion
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=78843
The Excellent Aussie velos site has information about Bullock Bikes, Jim Nestor and Super Elliot
http://aussievelos.net/bullock-cycles/
http://aussievelos.net/jim-nestor/
http://aussievelos.net/super-elliott
You can look at ads for Bullock bikes till the cows come home on the trove website
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?sortby=dateAsc&q=%22bullock+bike%22

Miles Smith - a record attempt starts

One of Miles Smith's bikes - note the infamous large "Pizza" chainring.

Helen Lew-Ton delivers "The Speach", generally wishing Miles well.  Note exceedingly manky Abbotsford Cycles sign in the background.

Front of Abbotsford Cycles

"Follow Me"

Miles and Helen

A couple of mates were accompanying Miles for the first part of the trip.

Cargo Bike Chat, scene outside the Hive shopping centre in Richmond.

Hi

This morning I responded to an Audax email and pootled down to Abbotsford.  In part, the invite read

"Next Saturday, April 11, local Audax rider Miles Smith will start his attempt to break Tommy Godwin's 1939 record of 75,065 miles [120,805 km] in a year (365 days).

While you're still sleeping, Miles will set off to on the first 200 km leg of his year-long endeavour. He will then take a short break before commencing his second ride of the day.

Join us in a celebration of this truly audacious challenge and to wish Miles all the best for the coming 365 days."

Miles' trip will consist of laps between Portsea and Richmond, with Audax volunteers supporting.  There are 2 others on the hunt for the record as well, as per this link to an Age article.

The rules for this particular long cycle challenge allow recumbents and drafting but not fairings or other aerodynamic aids.  And 2 of the 3 now attempting the record are using recumbents, Kurt Searvogel riding a Barchetta bike as part of his riding regime and Steve Abraham because of an injury (broken foot which needed surgery and a plate put in it as per this link) 

So - some very committed cyclists there!  Go Miles and thanks to Audax for providing the support this morning.

Regards

Steve Nurse

A few repairs.

Ladies Bitsa Town Bike

Cable ties and corflute used to repair ilean trike (inside)

Cable ties repairing slightly manky tailbox (outside)

Replaced back axle from recumbent bike.  Note that the right hand bearing seat is completely knackered.

Hi

I spent a bit of time over the last week fixing a few things on bikes and trikes, and the in the first few days of Easter, swapped around bike parts on a couple of 24" bikes, destroyed the frame of another 24" bike for parts, moved some stuff around to make better bike storage, and made a storage space for bike wheels.  Here are a few photos.

The 24" bike shown in the photo now has a front fork and a new home by the beach, I have been pootling around on it a bit, its good fun and rides no hands very easily!

 The trike tailbox repair was at Uni.  Approaching the uni, my toolbox (lunchbox used as toolbox) fell out of the back of the tailbox which is not a good sign. Closer inspection showed a rip down one side of the base of the tailbox.  This was fixed with an extra bit of corflute and some cable ties, all courtesy of the workshop "upshop" (or upcycling shop) for $1.00.  Thats it, blown the budget for a week or 2!

The reason I was riding the wooden trike instead of the wooden bike (which is a bit faster) as the back axle on the bike was knackered.  Last Saturday I rode the trike to the Ceres Bikeshed with a nut from the worn out axle and got a bike wheel with a matching axle, then fixed the bike at home during the day.  Hey Presto, a happy bicycle.

All for now, Regards

Steve nurse