OzHPV rally Day 1

 

I drove from Melbourne leaving at about 6:30 and only stopped for a decent amount of time once I hit Gerogery, a tiny town just south of Wagga. Had a nice chat to this lady who filled up my car for me at the general store.

Just around the corner was this place which had

antique lawn maintenance equipment in the yard.

Went on from Gerogery to Wagga where I picked up the keys to a scout hall ozhpv had hired. It was occupied by elderly dancing couples but they assured me they would be gone by 4pm. Soon after I met William and Duncan outside the hall and told them the situation. After that I went out to the bike track. This shows our photo and interview session with Tahlia and Meredith from the Wagga Advertiser. We should be in the paper tommorrow.

Randall and his Trisled nitro low racer. He had made a copper (!) steerer extension. Pete Heal looks on from his lounge chair.

Flying nitro on the velodrome. There is approx 2cm ground clearance.

Nitro.

Scout Hall

Scout Hall

Scout Hall

Hi

Here are my pictures from day 1 at the OzHPV challenge and rally. Quite a good day, met up with a few friends and hung out at the Scout Hall we had hired, and at the nearby cycle track where the challenge is to be held. Regards  Steve

Rear Frame for Bike on thingiverse

 

Hi

A few days ago, I added a rear suspension fork design to thingiverse. This design makes a recumbent bike which is a variation on a leaning recumbent trike which is already documented on thingiverse.

The fork is an adapter which sits between an 82.5 x 28.6 x 2.3mm wall aluminium beam and a 20” bike wheel. It includes suspension and consists of a steel frame, 3d printed sliders and suspension blocks. The fork may be slightly harder to build than the trike, but it is lighter (4.5kg for bike version, 5.9kg for trike version) , and should be more aerodynamic and have less rolling resistance.

Note that this design is particular to one bike, but its design principles can be applied to different size beams. 

I think parts of the fork could be made using 3d printing in metal, and this would make an interesting project. For example the central join could be made in titanium as a lighter, more aerodynamic alternative to the chunky steel I have used.

References:

Tilting trike design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4201871

Hupi Article on Designs: https://hupi.org/HPeJ/0031/0031.html

200k Audax ride on the bike: http://modularbikes.blogspot.com/2022/08/winter-surf-2022-done-and-dusted.html

Some discussion on Wisil recumbents with pics of a few comparable machines. http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13024  

Regards

Stephen Nurse, Melbourne Australia,

A new vintage

 

Velamo Hub, a slightly closer look might reveal the year of manufacture

Distinctive notched seat lug

As traded

cranks - pedals are surprisingly good

After a small amount of work

Suntour skitter derailleur circa 1968

Hi

Firstly, an apology!  My last post about Macini bikes wound up in my Design Blog, where as it should have been posted here. No big deal, hope you will find it anyway! 

Back to this post - Riding back from some friends' place while visiting Aireys Inlet I came across a shedful of stuff - all free!  Included was this bike of unknown brand and origin. Anyway, it seems quite ok, and a little bit of a resto should fix it.  As well as the bike, another aquistition has been most of a Suntour Skitter derailleur. I am thinking of an unholy resto with 700c aluminium rimmed wheels, the Suntour derailleur and the rescued bike frame. Progress sofar has been good, with the often - stuck steerer stem being easy to remove from the forks. Pedals are impressive too - although very rusty outside, the bearings seem ok, and they should be salvageable. Wish me luck!

Regards

Steve

A different land

 

OzHPV challenge, Corryong. Christine holding court with Graham, Damian, George, Lloyd, Aki.

Grandma Chris

For a while we had a rickshaw

Christine rode a bike for a while, she was very brave doing this!

 

Hi

 Just now, I have posted on my design blog about my wife and partner of 34 years, Christine passing away. So only 4 pics here, please wander over to my design blog for more. Miss you Christine!

Winter Surf 2022 done and dusted

Batesford roadhouse

Batesford roadhouse

Golden hour, Batesford

Old and new at Anglesea

Anglesea

Near Batesford

Near Batesford

About 20k out from Anglesea. Some dogs on the farm opposite were barking madly when I made this wee stop. A lady came out eventually and asked if I was ok. (Yep, no problems)

About 10 k out of Anglesea

10k out of Anglesea

Anglesea

Anglesea

At the start

Phil and Ian at the start.

Spinup R03W Dyno

 Hi

The Winter Surf ride is done and dusted now, and I finished it within the time limit of 13 hours 20 min - with about 20 min to spare. Anyway, that was fine, Audax doesn't say faster times are any better than slow ones.  There ended up being only 7 on the 200k ride, and one extra doing a 100k "pootle".

Had a great start, and was keeping up with everyone till about 10k into the ride when I was fiddling with a map and lost the pelleton. Later, there were a few issues along the way - there was a bike-track only section around some Corio ferry terminal roadworks, and it took quite a bit of farting around to get past a Horseshoe Bend Road  detour in Geelong. As well, a wrong turn near the You yangs on the way back had me do about 2 bonus kilometres before logic forced me to realise I'd made a mistake, reread the cue sheet and turn round. There was possibly about an hour lost in all this stuffing around.

My biggest mistake though was to leave a bag with keys and my wallet at Batesford Roadhouse! I only realised this had happened about 20k from the end of the ride.  Luckily and thankfully ride organiser Phil Giddings helped me out at the end. He offered to give me a lift home, and my bike could be taken apart easily to fit in the back of his SUV.

By the next morning I had a wallet and keys recovery plan. I rang the roadhouse (stuff was there, yay!), then printed a Werribee time train timetable and bought a new Myki train ticket before riding to my paid job at Back2bikes. After checking with my boss, I left work early, rode to Flinders Street station, trained it to Werribbee, then picked up the car in Werribee using a spare key from home.  From there it was about 50 familiar km to Batesford.  I was able to pick up the keys and return home after a snack and drink at the roady.

Quite a nice place, the Batesford Roadhouse. It looks like it hasn't been renovated in years, and all the wiring just runs higglety-piggelty on the walls. Its decorated with pictures of bacon sandwiches and egg rolls and the like, but the food is good, there are toilets there and its pretty relaxed. Phil has been on or ran several rides through Batesford, and as he said,

"It is very basic as a checkpoint however in winter they have hot food and drink and are open until after the check point cut off time.  Over the years a few riders have been very grateful to be able to warm up there.   That's the joys of winter cycling."

As far as the lights went, once adjusted properly, the dyno combination discussed here  (Spinup R03W dyno, 20" Wheel, and Hi-Power Light) worked well and was enough to illuminate the road but was not spectacularly bright. I might be able to improve things though, at the moment the dyno cable and light wires are only twisted together, but tomorrow, I will solder them together, then cover the join in heat shrink. That should mean more current is delivered to the light, so its brighter and works at lower speeds. Will report more on this later.

In terms of training, I did about as much as I could within the constraints of injury and time, and it was about right for being able to finish this ride in the time limit. (I only had to walk up one hill which was great!) . Simon Watt was my unofficial coach and mentor for some previous big rides and the following routines seem to work for me and my recumbent 

* For several days before the event, ride at least 70k per day. 

* For long 1 day rides,  ride at least the ride distance in the week before the event.

* On hills, don't let your speed go below 10 kph. No other speeds count and its fine just to roll down hill.

* At rest stops, eat what your first instinct tells you to eat. This will probably have what you need in terms of salts, protein and carbohydrates.

* It's important to get good long sleeps in the days leading up to the ride. Don't worry too much if you can't sleep the night before, if you have slept properly the week before, that will mostly make up for it.

Thanks again to Phil for his excellent ride organiser support.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Update, August 17, 2022

The bling from the ride arrived today, see photos below. I did some bike maintenance and fixing after the ride, mainly  rewiring the front light and gluing a suspension block to the rear fork.

Coming up, I have already booked up for an extended 300k Buckley's (around the bay in a day) ride on September 24. So not much of a break in training.

Regards Steve Nurse

After the ride I

cleaned all this area up, and glued the suspension block (had been held in by magnets). Some extra glue in the join should exclude some of the dirt.

Rewired properly.

 

Winter Surf Prelude 4

 

Bike with fairing on the road

This works out at about 16 kph, or just above par for an Audax ride

Bit of a rest break every couple of laps of the Boulevarde

Testing the pump I will bring on the ride on the new back wheel.

Finalising front light connection using cable end caps.

Hi, a few photos from todays bike fettling and riding. The bike is finished off and I only have a bit of tuning of the light position to go. Quite happy with today's ride, a decent distance, almost entirely on hills, and completed at about 16kph which is above the required Audax average of 15kph.

Regards Steve Nurse

Winter Surf Prelude 3

 

End of day, fairing in place

End of day

Training on the boulevarde. This is a new installation of a seat, bike tools, bike stands and sensible ramps for riding between the footpath and road.

At home yesterday, a half bucket in place as the base of a new fairing.

This is the same top prop used for the last fairing, with an

extra prop which hitches onto some extended steering clamps.

Hi

Its getting quite close to my Saturday ride so really I have to train, and it doesn't matter whether the bike I'm riding is ready or not. So today I did about 40 hilly k's on the nearby Kew Boulevarde. I tried pumping up my tyres on the new toolset there, but only managed to tear the valve on one of my tyres, resulting in a puncture. Anyway, I found out the pump I carry is crap and doesn't work, I had the wrong size 16" tube but managed to fit it anyway, and the new installation is quite popular.

Back home and I worked during the afternoon putting on a new fairing (I had stacked on the last one, and the mountings were very dodgy). By the end of the day its done, and I only have to connect the lights to be on the road with the bike, and hopefully get a 50 - 60k ride on it tommorrow.

Tonight I found my Garmin and managed to load up Saturday's course, also print the whole route in cue sheet form from a spreadsheet file.

Oh yes, the back wheel on the bike is new, I swapped out one with a dyno for one without, but only after completely replacing the axle and building corflute spoke covers.

Regards  Steve Nurse