Challenge and Rally Day 3

Lindsay, a very colourful Wagga local trike rider.

with a very visible flag.

Rob Leviston and his home made moving bottom bracket front wheel drive.

By remote control: Tim was stuck down in Geelong on Day 1 due to covid but had sent up the event schedule which worked quite well. As per instructions, I set up the shopping race, and Dome did the obstacle course.

Duncan Macdonald is into his 70's but competed with aplomb on this fron wheel drive Performer bike.

Michael Taylor oversees the shopping race: we had witch's hats, half full drink bottles, packets of chips, sticky tape, sticks and rocks as shopping. 

Domes setting up the obstacle race.

Duncan Shopping race

Adam Hari, Shopping Race

 Day 4 info follows

 

Early Evening: OzHpv AGM

And a bit later at the Rules club - that is Aussie Rules, a type of football played in Australia. We were there last year when I arrived by bike and noticed the football on a plynth.

This year's kitch is the neon sign including Aussie rules goalposts and ball.

Inside the rules club.

Hi

Saturday was race day 1 at the challenge, and William was up early and bustling about getting equipment ready.

Challenge and rally day 2

 

Duncan and Pete, Lake Albert.

Meet with Pete, start of the official ride near a bike track near the base of Mount Austin

Adam, Michael, Duncan

Adam, Jason, Michael

Duncan on Airnimal folding bike

Scout hall, William, Michael behind counter and Adam

Day 2 and we have a few more hpv'ers rocking into town. We shifted our bottoms a bit earlier and were out and about in time to meet Pete Heal for a ride to Lake Albert, around Lake Albert and back. Around lunchtime I managed to find an op shop, and bought a few glasses and a shirt - at this stage my fluoro short had been worn for 2 sweaty days straight. 

Now we're just back from dinner. Our fearless leader Tim is stuck in Melbourne with covid, and we are carrying on regardless, printing copious waiver forms, entrant lists and event schedules with Pete, Will and I doing admin, and Dome bringing the prize packs.

One more big sleep and we are out at the track, yippee!  

Admin corner with Will and Dome

Bike fettling corner with Rob and Michael

Op Shop haul, I found some of the vintage car glasses for sale on ebay here.

 

Day 3 story follows here

OzHPV Challenge and Rally Day1

 

Will Reid and Jason Forbes

Caf break at Larry's

Steve, Will, Jason, Caf stop at Larry's Best St. Wagga

Mount Austin - I thought this was a flat park with gentle bike tracks,  but its hilly, wildly undulating, and some small bits of path are steep gravel.

Jason and Will, panoramic view

Local Newspaper article

Hi

I have been in Wagga for a bit over a day now, staying at a scout hall, and venturing out for a ride today with Jason and William - me on my bike, and Jason and William on trikes. What I thought from the map was going to be an easy ride through parkland turned out to be a quite tough trek over Mount Austin. But we got great views and there was a great cafe stop at Larry's in Best Street - the first place we saw after coming down from the mountain and over the train line. 

It was also great to get acquainted with this mountain and its accompanying phone towers. These are visible from all over Wagga, and having conquered the mountain I can now use them as a reference point.  Last year the Thursday and Friday rides were lead by Pete Heal and Lindsay Wilson, and started from the scout hall. But this year, I lead one ride, and a group of us rode to the start of the next where Pete Heal took over, so I'm starting to get my bearings. A bit.

We came home a much quicker way, through the town and fairly busy streets, and some gravelly bike paths. 

 The Challenge races start Saturday, we'll have another ride with a few more participants tomorrow. Regards Steve Nurse

Follows on to day 2!

Panoramic view #2

The Art of the Avalanche: Starting a PHD

 

Hi

I have been reading a few books lately and these are Dr No by Ian Fleming and My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin. 

You might be wondering what these books have to do is starting a PhD and and the first answer is that there's a quote in My Career Goes Bung. Miles Franklin says "I rebel with all my living force against sitting down under life as it is".

So basically I could be retired, and  I could be doing more things that I want to do immediately, but I would like to grab life by the neck and and shake it and do as much as much that's interesting and worthwhile as I can. For now, for me that is a maths education Phd.

So getting in to even start a Phd is no easy task.  Basically you need to convince an entire University department that it's worth while taking you on and I've had a few attempts at this. There was a fairly serious one at the beginning of the year.  It's September now and in February I was engaged with a supervisor who was willing to take me on but then that fell through at the department level.

 It was explained there weren't enough resources to take me on. So I had to get over that but I gained experience negotiating with departments, and writing about my work to the supervisor. As well I read a few education papers.

During the year, I engaged with a few other academics from different places and didn't get anywhere except for learning a bit more (topology!) But just in the last 3 months my friend Simon Batterbury sent an email on my behalf to Federation University. And he actually managed to start something!

 I think the first email sent to a University department or academic is a bit like throwing a rock at a cliff face and attempting to start an avalanche. Now if you throw a rock at a cliff face you may not start an avalanche, but you may see  a few small rocks falling off the cliff face in response.

But what you actually want to do is have those falling rocks fall on other spots and have more rocks falling in response, and eventually you will get a collapse, and you will get something happening, a movement of department,  and the end result is a phd candidature.

 This candidature can be seen just as much as a problem as a solution. You are actually under that avalanche and you'll have to dig your way out!

 Anyway Dr No has a bit of a avalanche scene near the end, or as the climax, where James Bond basically tips birdshit over the evil doctor know and causes his death.  So I was thinking of the PhD in in avalanche terms already and Dr. No sort of cemented the idea in my head.

 So anyway we'll see how I go in the next 3 years. Wish me luck!

Moulton from Broadford part 1

 

New and old Sturmey Archer AW Hub controllers

Just a bit.....

agricultural in ....

some  ........

places.

Hi

Last week I saw an ad on Facebook marketplace for an interesting bike, and thought I might buy it, although I don't really need another bike! I waited till I had got rid of some commitments, and after that the bike was still for sale so I contacted the seller, and a day later I have the bike back in Melbourne with me. Its been good fun to work on sofar, with a stuck cotterpin the only real problem.

To justify buying it I am planning to offload all my Peugeot NS7 folding bike stock - that is 1 bike and about 3 frames, 4 wheels and numerous parts.

Washing the drive side crank ......

while trying to extricate the other one.

Here are a few repair photos. The cranks are different on each side, one crank was wobbly, and on the other crank the cotter pin is stuck. I have oiled it and waggled it with vicegrips and hit it with a hammer to try to get the $%^& of a thing out. Excuse my french.

Update August 18

After realising I didn't have a good gearcable, or tyres or tubes for the Moulton, I ordered some online, and paused work on it for a while. By then I had removed, cleaned and regreased the bottom bracket. So by today the tyres and tubes had arrived, I did some final frame cleaning and fitted the pedals and chain and front brake. After that I wanted to head out on a HUGE trip to the op shop to buy my dad some tracksuit pants, but only made it round the corner and the chain started clunking, so I finished the shopping on my recumbent. The bike as is shown below. I've stolen my very best old-style-seat-with-saddle-bag from another bike and put it on the Moulton. Will keep working on it!

Cruzbike 26 / 20 quick review

 

Drivetrain

Folded. It takes about 20 seconds to go from full size to this, which fits easily in the back of my Kia Rio hatchback. Best to carry it with the wheels closest to the body as that's the side with the weight.

A few views of the......

bike and me on the....

Great Ocean Road near Aireys Inlet.

Hi

After my last post on the Cruzbike, I bought a 406 disc brake front wheel, with the intention of trying it on the back of the bike. A few nights ago, I solved a small valve problem on the wheel, fitted it, and hey presto, a 26 / 20" Cruzbike. The main idea with the small back wheel was to make room for a tailbox, but it has the effect of raising the bottom bracket making it marginally faster. Also, the front wheel trail is increased and the centre of gravity lowered slightly - all steps in the right direction.

The bike is comfortable and fun to ride, and I managed to get up a reasonably steep hill on it. But I'm wobbly up hills (the bike is moving bottom bracket so pedalling affects steering) and wouldn't want to try riding hills on busy roads or narrow bike paths - it could be a bit dangerous.

It was easy to fold the bike to put it in the back of my car. Remove the bolt at the top of the shocker and the rear swingarm folds down. Then the front wheel swings round and you have a package that's fairly tall and narrow that fits fine in the back of my car. When folded, the drivetrain is in the centre of the bike which is great, the oily bits are kept safely tucked away.

Overall the bike is nice to ride but lack of luggage storage is an issue for now. I have been promised a Radical pannier (thanks Pete!) and may still fit a new seat and tailbox. Looking forward to a few more rides.

Switcheroo and upgrades.

 

Ouch! Uri Geller I told you not to think about my trike! (Actually the result of an accident 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Damaged trike

Bike with racing tailbox before....

tailbox swap

allowed me to collect a considerable amount of groceries. Everything on the list plus a big tub of olives.

Hi

A few weeks ago, I was involved in accident on my leaning trike, and that left me with cuts and grazes all down my left side, a damaged trike, and inability to ride for a few weeks. Now (thankfully) I'm just about recovered. 

So my trike with the load carrying tailbox won't go for now, so I have installed a load carrying tailbox on my bike, and will do a few more mods and swaps and upgrades over the next few days. For now it has been great to get out on the bike and do a decent amount of shopping, not in pain, and not sweating over luggage space. will report more later.

Tailbox Upgrade May 7. Today I started upgrading one of my all-timber tailboxes. This is the one that was on the leaning trike shown 2nd picture down. Here is the list of mods I will do.

1. Block off hole in base of tailbox. Things tend to get lost in the hole (keys, bike parts).

2. Keep side-panels on with screws. As described in this post, when I first designed the timber tailbox I wanted to have the timber side panels to be swappable for lighter corflute versions. But now I have specialist aero and load carrying tailboxes, and the timber box can just be made as strong and as good for load carrying as possible.

3. Put a bit of padding under the box lid so it doesn't rattle.

4. Seat padding. The 'box is ok without it but it makes things more comfortable and secure.

5. Leather belts as tailbox lids. This allows the lid to be raised a bit to hold more stuff.

6. Hole in tailbox lid for carrying milk crates. That's all I can think of for now!

1. This is blocking off the.....

bottom of the tailbox with a piece of timber so luggage doesn't get lost down there.

2. Found a few cockroaches who were passengers when

converting the sidepanel fastening from foldback clips to screws.

This should be stronger and more secure than...

the old version of fasteners shown here.

Update May 8: Here is today's progress.

Attached the lid with extendable straps. This helps when carrying loads like a few bike wheels. Also stick on velcro stops the lid from rattling. The lid at the bottom is a template I copied.

Box closed up. There are a few unvarnished patches on the outside, and that's where I sanded back the new screws which poke out a bit from the inside.

The sort of job the tailbox does. This is an early version of the tailbox I'm working on now. The lid is loosed a belt-notch to better accommodate the wheel.