New Wheel Covers

Hi

Over the last few days I have been working on some aero wheel covers for my trike and have finished them now.  They consist of some cut up foam mats and gaffer tape.  On one side there's a removable valve cover.  Have yet to see how they go but they might add a few k to my speed on the flat.  I'm about halfway through making a front fairing as well.  The chain at the front seems to be quite messy from a wind resistance point of view and I hope to rectify that a bit. Anyway, I plan to take this trike to Rutherglen this weekend for the OzHpv rally, see how it goes up there.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Regards

Steve Nurse

Support Crew at Darebin

Kyle

Tim leads Kyle

Fttling and synching the Garmin

Tim and Kyle

Nick and Tim

My trike at Disc.

Hi

Today I was expecting to see Tim Corbett from OzHpv at the Darebin Velodrome (disc).  I'd been up there and ridden at an OzHpv day a few weeks ago where I officiated.  Anyway Tim rang and was running late, could I officiate again?  So I rode up to disc in time for the start, but had to wait a while till anyone turned up, and that was Tim and a bit Later Kyle Lierich.  I didn't want to ride so acted as roadie for Tims trikes, helping to change pedals, adjust boom lengths and pump up tyres which was quite enjoyable.  After a while Nick Chau turned up but a "track ready" inspection revealed a huge crack in the welds of his trike with the front part likely to part from the back any tick of the clock, so no riding for him either.

Rode back home before it was all over, and later Tim dropped by and left some OzHpv gear at our place.  Spent some time in the afternoon making wheel discs for my trike and plan to ride to work tomorrow, no real excuses for a 20 degree day with tailwinds on the way home.

All for now, Regards

Steve Nurse

A Mamachari

Hi

Most weeks I volunteer at a bike fixer-upper-shed, Wecycle, helping get older bikes out of peoples' sheds to those that need them. Its fun work, the volunteers are friendly and easy to get along with and occasionally you get to fix a a nice old banger of a bicycle like the ones shown in the photos. I started work on her last weekend by this week she was up for sale for $100, someone else having completed the work.  Anyway, nice bike. This blog post by Simval84 shows the same model bike, with more extensive descriptions of  Mamacharis.

Regards

Steve Nurse

A few commutes

Hi

After landing back home from Darwin, I started a new job in Dandenong South a few days later, and I've had 2 weeks of work now. Didn't manage to ride to work in the first week (drove our car), but commuted 2 days by train and bike in the second week.  Getting to work by bike and train is the hardest bit, once you are there you are committed and have to use some form of human power to get home.  It helps that its coming into summer with long days and no real issues with bike lights and visibility.  Its also quite a bit cheaper than driving.  Aside from the petrol use, there are direct tolls on the M3 I use to get to work which are more expensive than the train fare.

Anyway, its all gone well sofar, and I have worked out that 2 hours is about par for getting home on the mostly flat 40 - 44k trip, and it can take 2 1/2 hours.  Anyway, I have a short term fitness goal of getting home from work by bike in under 2 hours.  That might be a bike fettling goal too, I think I can get 2kph faster with rear wheel spoke covers, and maybe 2kph faster with a front fairing. Then add a lighter seat, woohoo! Yes I know, dream on!

Regards

Steve Nurse

In Darwin

Darwin velodrome is near the airport and I....

.....snapped this lady practicing cyclocross in the centre of the field.

Slightly dodgy bike path on the way to the airport.

The load carrying.....

setup.

A presentation from Steve Rogers from the Centre for Appropriate technology was about their mobile phone signal magnifiers.  These are installed in remote communities and allow mobile phone access beyond the normal range of existing networks.  They are completely passive and don't need power of any sort to run. The installation shown in the pic was installed at a remote location called Boggy Hole on the Finke river where (the name says it all) Southerners who didn't know how to drive their 4wd's would get bogged and ask the ladies for assistance. The phone magnifiers gave them mobile phone coverage

Posters at the.....

Darwin Outdoor Cinema.

Lisa at the croc zoo where the dinner was held amidst.....

the raucous squawking of these birds overhead.

At the croc zoo, Abraham Leung right, Alexa Delbosc left.  Abraham gave a great talk on Non-government ways of paying for cycleways, he is an enthusiastic and charming presenter.  I'll put up a link to the paper when it becomes available. He had a short go on my exotic Bickerton when strolling between conference sessions.  "You should see my other bike", I told him.

Matthew Burke gets animated during a "Transport Debate", a small piece of theatre and lightheartedness amidst mostly serious presentations.

This was one of the possible routes between conference venues, a covered walk-and cycleway atop a breakwater.

Clinton Hoffman from Driveabout showing off his companies amazing ......

phone app which teaches road laws and learner driver information. It is available in 8 aboriginal languages, and aims to decrease barriers to aboriginals getting properly licenced and driving within the law.  Fully 25% of aboriginals in custody in the Northern Territory are there for driving offences, and the phone app is Clinton's attempt to rectify the problem.  The animations included car crashes, graphically demonstrating what happens when you try to overtake a road train doing 90 kph in a (say) crap 1982 Honda Civic.

Herbs growing at the Youth Hostel.

Bike at the place where I went swimming a couple of mornings in row.

Hi, a few more pics of my Bickerton folder on my ATRF conference trip to Darwin.  The presentation of my research on Human Generated Electrical Power went ok! 

Don't want to add too much, except to say that there is fairly laissez-fair helmet wearing in the Northern Territory backed up by some laws with plenty of wriggle room to not wear a helmet. Coincidentally, a facebook post alerted me to this article concerning one of our major cycling organizations attitude to helmet wearing in Victoria moving away from agreeing with helmet compulsion.

My own position on helmet wearing is this - I make my helmets into daggy ensembles including lights, reflective tape, a visor and a mirror which held make me visible, see map instructions, not get sun, wind or rain in my eyes, see behind me and generally function well as a cyclist on my usual recumbent trikes.  That makes my helmet and me daggy or a bit of a Fred.  But for others - make up  your own mind I reckon and it is a bold and welcome move by the Bicycle Netwirk to advocate against our helmet laws.

Regards

Steve Nurse at Darwin Airport.

Planes, Trains etc.

Packed & ready to go

Caught up with Lisa and Sarah ............

Airport Bus.

Jetstar terminal before checking in baggage.

Crap photo taken at airport using flash, but....

turn it off,and hey presto this happens.  The long aisles to the departure gates are festooned with ecstatic pics of people on holidays all round the world, and I think I caught one of them in reflection. 

Carrying all my stuff is rather an effort, (my bike bag lacks the 2018-essential wheels) so I used this trolley to transport my stuff to the Airport Novatel where I stayed the first night.

With Bickerton travelling from.....

Airport to town, and finally to

the youth hostel.

Seats on the foreshore.

Ducks? on the foreshore.

Hi,

Most of the time, the vintage, creaky, venerable, wonky Bickerton bike I own sits on the top of the wardrobe at home crying use me, use me, I still work y'know, and mostly I ignore it, choosing to ride my recumbents instead. But occasionally it gets pulled down, dusted off and ridden on, mostly when I want a very portable bike. 

Three years ago, I visited a transport conference in Sydney, having got there by train, a year ago I used it for transport back from fringe furniture, and this time I am in Darwin, having got here by walking, train, bus, plane, trolley and lastly but not leastly mighty Bickerton. Anyway the pictures tell most of the story.  I bumped into phd students and conference presenters Lisa and Sarah on the airport bus - they were flying out an hour before me.

Best Wishes

Steve Nurse from Darwin YHA and ATRF conference.  

Timber Chainguard Part 2

An old tailbox used for research was put to the hammer....

to make the new timber chainguard.....

Velcro had been used to hold the sidepanels on, not really strong enough!

Bottom Panel marked out for new chainguard

Old version used as partial template

My wife Christine painting the new version .....

and it put into place on the bike.....

For drilling mounting holes.

Cutting in 2 with a hacksaw. The electric jigsaw was too harsh and caused parts of the timber to split.

Bracket 1

Bracket 2.

Done, the front part spins, the back part doesn't so the chainguard becomes a changing artwork.

Hi, don't think I need to add many words here.  After a trial run last time, I have now completed an "artwork" timber chainguard for my Victoria separating bike.  I didn't have any loose 4mm ply so harvested timber from an old tailbox which solved 2 problems, the space the tailbox took up and the need for timber! 

Christine painted it, and I spent a fair bit of today attaching it.  I'm not sure it was worth doing but its different!  The front part of the chainguard spins, chainging the picture made by the chainguard as a whole.  And bits don't bump into other bits, a frequent problem with chainguards.  Regards

Steve Nurse