Commute to Nowhere

Decided to get on the Shogun even though I didn't have anywhere to commute to. Just to see if the knee held up which it did! Rode to Hastings Headland to look at the approaching thunderstorm first...



So much for cooling the weather it passed by out to sea and the sun came back out with it's usual intensity.

 

and another one for luck../

Tentative

So far so good the knee is holding up but I haven't pushed it at all, just spinning up any hills and not pushing into the wind cadence has been a little slow but not putting pressure on the down stroke.... hope it keeps up

Also this afternoon was the first time for a while that I passed another rider twice doing my loop though in the reverse direction... ahh the humidity

Shark Hunt?

Why are "they" discussing the hunting of a shark which killed a swimmer in WA but not car drivers who kill cyclists in Victoria???? Have been off the bike for anything more than 10 km rides since my trip away, the left knee begins to ache sharply after this distance.... I'll take it easy until I feel the ability to go longer distances without the pain... But have taken to the crappy surf with 2 x daily paddles with the grub for exercise.

Journey

Well, I'm off to the big smoke today for a few days via Grafton and the Central Coast.... taking the Cypress.... try to add some posts if I get rides then access and time.... later

Just One Attack

Just the One attack last night!

Host: 194.165.42.49
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Surprise! Surprise! Sargent Carter

It Should be called "Bicycle Sydney"

I Just got my latest issue of PushOn from Bicycle NSW. Nothing in it is pertinate to regional areas, especially this far from "the center of the universe" FGS why do they bother with a pathetic attempt at unified voice of ALL riders in NSW when they only provide articles and info within a radius of 2.5 hours of the CBD. The state is a lot bigger than that!

Get Some PVA

Did a bit of a loop to potty and then an up and back along the freeway thence kanes rd etc to get some PVA glue for a small project... a flywire door on grubs bedroom...

C Usual Comment's Attack overnight

Just for a record I'm posting the attacks by spam bots last night, this is the usual crap that the system has to stop otherwise all I would be doing is deleting viagra ads all the time.... so the preventative measures i have in place are working, so far...

Host: 82.215.135.141
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Host: s0106001bb9bc6fc9.wp.shawcable.net
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they always seem to originate in the usual place, the USA, and then migrate to the Asian bot servers, only occassionally are they from "local" Australian bot servers.

It's a pain in the ass but I think it exemplifies all things within the whole of society (world or local) where many cretans consider they have the right to scam "the system" and so they take, take, take whatever they can, selfish in the extreme, consideration for others zilch zip zero nil... Explanation? I've Got none.

Ignoring, allowing or being a party to inflicting anything onto an unwilling individual soul can only lead to a pretty crap society to live in, as all members will at some point become the victim.  Great heh?, i like having something to look forward to!

Waxing Warm

A night loop on the cypress to stretch the legs and test out a bodgie helmet mount for a light. It works so will be thinking of a bit of gravel over the next few weeks at night to avoid the sea breeze and summer tourists...

 

Sorry I should of said the waxing was to do with the moon and the warm was the nights temperature nothing to do with body hair, because i don't even like shaving facial hair there would be no way I could see a reason to expend the energy to delapidate any body part unless it meant less work not more!

Toothpick Required

The bugs were out again this evening! Even got a cane toad hitting my shin in the dark. Only one truck with it's lights on high beam... not one section of the loop seemed to have a tail wind tonight... thems the breaks

Shopping

Short Trip to Cabba to pick up a new saddle bag, tube and dry-lube all courtesy to yesterdays ride and an afternoon of maintenance...

A Bit of Everything

Thought about a ride today, even though I was feeling buggered and pulled a slow 45km which took 3 hours. Rode off toward Cabba, might as well get Cabarita Cycles to check the tyre pressure... My god it was humid with a brisk North Easterly blowing... Well even though it was expected to change to the South later in the afternoon I might as well ride North and look at climbing Duranbah and Farrants Hills. When I got to the top of Duranbah, I changed my mind and thought why not try to get through Forest Hill Road to Clothiers Creek.... it was not to be.

I rode round Duranbah Road to where I worked in 1987, memories.... and then back to Forest Hill Road.   After trying the center route and finding it ends in the swamp at the North West Corner of Cudgen Lake I climbed the return circle, coming off numerous times. At the top I noticed a fairly well marked track to the east, maybe this would make it around the Northern edge of the Lake... After rolling to the small creek at the bottom of this track I noticed a new fence line climbing straight back up the side of the spur on the otherside.... Nearly vertical! Ah well around here there are lots of old fire trails and I wrongly assumed there would be one along the ridge somewhere.... Dragging slipping and sliding my way up the very steep slope with the peddly over fallen logs and loose rocks slipping backwards occasionally. Finally after about 30 mins I made the 300 meters to the top and looked out through the trees toward another valley with another ridge beyond that.

[caption id="attachment_316" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="That Steep Bit"][/caption]

The push up the hill had left me disorientated and the sky was closing in so I was not sensing where I was I decided to follow the ridge upwards. I came to a fence line of a property follwed it and it happened to be on Duranbah Road thus I had completed a Circle... the hard way... By now I was fairly exhausted, not to speak of wet from the rain that had started to fall and decided to take the Cudgen Quarry track down to the coast road via Kings Forest...

Here I missed a turn and when I lazily did a U-Turn over the edge of the track to rectify this I managed to pick up a large thorn in the rear tyre and the rain was getting heavier. I pushed the bike to an area of clay fill near a cattle grid with a gate? in amongst all the sand tracks covered with pine cones. All thumbs I swapped the tube for a new one taking out the thorn and refitted the wheel.... By now the rain had decided to really come down and with it the wind was picking up from the South....

I cruised slowly back along the track towards the coast road, where all the cars had their lights blazing in the rain. Thinking of the waiting beer in the fridge at home didn't get me riding any faster!

Bower Bird

OK! Mark what was it you were collecting on the side of the freeway on Tuesday Morning?

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Just a really quick 10 km this evening right on dark, had to breath by snorting in through my nose, it really cut the ride short. The bugs were a massive swarm and I swallowed a few before I wised up. On another note many of the glass shards have gone, thanks to some considerate people?

Slothing

Was just a flowing cruise around the loop today on the Cypress, warm yes but pleasant, wind was slight most of the day with sunny blue sky. The low lying paddocks and drains were still filled with quickly stagnating water after the storms of the last few weeks. The mozzies are going to pretty amazing over the next couple of weeks.... something to look forward to when i get my next puncture! 

The amount of glass shardes from broken bottles has shown a big increase over this weekend, in one 150 meter stretch I counted 5 freshly smashed ones from last night alone. So the ride consisted of a lot of swerving and saying S*#$% as I failed to avoid a new patch, with a holding of breath listening for the tell tail shhhhhhhhh..... but today i was lucky.

So... that's a Tail Wind

Saw Mark on his morning ride this morning, unsure how far he finally got before turning back towards home, but the wind and temp at 7:30am was looking good for a ride, I slacked out and got a lift to work with my Shogun. But I still got some exercise, when myself and a couple of Garbos were going up Sextons Hill. In a stationary traffic jam we jumped out ran up the hill for 50 or so meters and pushed a stranded car, causing the delay, from the left lane of the North bound lanes and then ran back to the car. Quite a workout for this little going grey duck.

Today's afternoon commute was quite amazing. Bright sunny sky, and a strong NNE wind blowing. The ride through South Tweed was as usual through the afternoon traffic but the wind made it a 40km/hr spin just about matching the car/truck traffic... Then the chug up Sextons Hill was nice as it included the cooling effect of the strong tail wind. Ah!

The only bad, if you can call them that, times during the ride was the occasional tree and hill lee sections that appeared every now and then along the freeway where the tail wind was equal in direction and speed to my forward movement. These spots caused the body temperature to rise very rapidly and required a bit of water pouring to get some relief. Thankfully these interludes were gone as fast as they arrived.

Quicki

A quick Commute with a 25km/hr tail wind today got a average for the 23 km of 29km/hr.... on the Shogun. I rode the Coast Rd without incident! Just the but got numb.... I must look at getting a better saddle?

Dry Windy Ride

The ride today was hot and windy. A strong WNW-NW wind was blowing. The humidity was a low as it gets here about 30% and there was no sweat in the eyes at all. The perspiration evaporated before it even came out of your pores.
I used 750ml of water just occasionally tiping some over my head and back through the 35 km spin around Reserve Creek Round Mountain gravel sections... The wind has dropped this evening.

[caption id="attachment_305" align="alignnone" width="159" caption="Dry and Windy "][/caption]

Save Hasting Point -Battle Win

The locals have had a breakthrough! The Tweed Shire Council has voted to create/implement a Development Control Plan (DCP), see the Echo Story, the developers and their council sympathisers were out voted by a slim 4-3 margin.

This may not be the end of the war on every natural and cultural environment destructive development in the area but at least it is a small battle victory.  The general idea that more of anything is better than less is something that I disagree with.

I feel a rant coming on....

The idea of sustainability was summed up in the late 70's when I was undertaking a Business Degree at Ku-ring-gai CAE and the theory of the Steady Sate Economy was presented to me! Ah the light was blinding... but the greed is good promoted to the community during the next 30+ years has lead to the economic crisis we find ourselves as a community fast required to deal with. Many of the precepts of a Growth Economy can easily switch to become that of a Shrinking Economy. The magical multipliers work geometrically just as well in both directions!

Both the Federal and State Parliaments are proving themselves incapable of consensual action, even though the economy ship is on the verge of sinking the powers to be are deciding what colour to paint the frigging lifeboats, even though there is no rescue ship close by to save those that can fit in the limited capacity lifeboats.

Remind you of a story you may have heard? Does the Sinking of the White Star Line's Titanic come to mind, not enough lifeboats, a ship said to be unsinkable, musicians playing to placate the passengers while the ship goes down, water to cold to survive in for long, passengers deciding when is the right time to jump ship, passengers thinking the crew will save them they can sit back and be told what to do, not enough life jackets for those that can't fit into the lifeboats, no practice drills in case of emergency, etc... the list of similarities between the economy and the Titanic sinking goes on, definitely neither are or were a boy scout

... ah that's better

Dry Dawdle

Well I did manage to get on the bike today, just 12km checking both headlands to the South and North, but I was only very gently and sparsely sprinkled on. The weather prognosis is for more rain and a lot heavier, lucky we missed the mess that hit North Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, although I sure noticed it from the passenger seat in the plane on the way home on Sunday!

Today the rear rack worked well as a spray reducer through todays puddles. Although it did nothing to ease my mind as I approached the Coast Road, Round Mountain Intersection. When I was about 100 meters away from the corner this pale blue late model ute suddenly appears turning out of the South bound traffic on the Coast Rd onto Round Mountain. The young male driver decided it was a good place to give himself a bit of an ego boost through the self administering of adrenalin by drifting sideways through the corner taking the whole width of the wet, greasy intersection. I felt luck to watch from a distance rather than be closer and directly involved!

Just Wet

I have been slowly unwinding after the express trip for lunch on Saturday with Mum in Sydney for her 90th birthday next week. Quite exhausting the drive, flight, train, bus, taxi, walk and talk repeated in reverse on Sunday.... anyway as I was feeling lazy I waded through all the past Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand comic strips but noticed there was no full view images of Yehuda on his bike in any of the past strips and thought I would muck around with Paint.NET and cut and paste one here are the results... feeble though they might be...

Me Doing a Yehuda or is that Yehuda doing a me!

[caption id="attachment_301" align="alignnone" width="160" caption="Long Ride yehuda -slowing down"][/caption]

Enjoy... I might even get on the bike this afternoon if the weather holds clear for a bit!

Thinking of the Whole Forest

RANT RANT RANT

After reading through the comments on Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery today. It becomes pretty obvious that the whole Cycling community is split over what is Best Policy, and it seems to depend upon the "Self", that is, Promoting the idea that will give the best outcome for themselves... The idea's are always set as the best from and for that individuals perspective. I think I find it difficult to describe what I am saying but thinking is that it really comes right down to selfishness, the same thing that is behind the so called bad attitudes of all road users, cycles, cars, taxi's, trucks and buses etc... The real situation is not going to simplified by saying "this is what I reckon ... the rest of the available ideas are just rubbish because....".

In a utopian reality, one in which the big picture were to be taken into consideration, that is, a long term world view rather than a selfish narrow minded view promoting only a short term gain for the individual, what does it matter what methods are implemented to get bums on seats as the norm for the general population of the oil fueled transportation obsessed western cultures.

With a dramatic climate change forcasted to be just around the corner and no foreseeable successful attempts to impliment any policy at all that might see it's impact diminished.

It's always the same thing. Points of view that diverge on how to achieve the consensually agreed outcome. The circular argument over the detail then begins. Why can't all the protagonists keep seeing the forest not begin focusing on just the tree in front of them!

Any action must be better than none at all! Inaction, for what ever the reason, is going to have nothing but a told you so effect on the situation in the future. Consensus is rubbish. With everyone agreeing that something needs to be done sometime. But it must only be imlimented by having the smallest proportion of any sacrifice going to themselves, don't you agree? 

BUT the present and past generations have already taken all the benefits long before they NEEDED TO BE PAID FOR, we and our kids have got to pay for them, now it is the time to pay up! Not unlike free primary and secondary public education you are "given" long before you are required to start paying for it with your taxes! It's not free, just bought on credit! There is no such thing as a free lunch!

Anything is better than nothing, if you have nothing to start with!  Why don't more people get started making a noise, any noise will do just so long as it is not in argument for pedantic selfish causes!

Human nature will continue to move along the same path it usually takes, with the same eventual outcome for everybody as it has always been for all previous generations. The individual will end up dead! 

The present generation of individuals will continue to look at decision making by what it considers the best option for themselves as an individual with little thought for it's consequences in the future, Why are so many overweight people? It tastes good so eat it, now!

As for complaining about taxation. Taxes are only required if society openly recognises that it's members are incapable of sharing without being told they have to and that they need to be penalised if they don't! Every society views greed as good and hoarding as one of the pinnacles of success (well not every society, but at least the modern western one does)... Take the lane and "F" everyone else! Slip past where there is no room and "F" the other person! Get out of MY way!  I'ts my space! Share, Why? Whose going to stop ME taking what I can? I'm here now I don't care about those that come after me I'll just chuck this here! I'ts not in my way or messing my car up now! 

 

WHOA! WOAH! enough already!!!!!! END RANT RANT RANT

 

PS I must of had too much coffee today!

T-was-OK

Well the 27-12 was excellent for my climb over Sextons and also the grind against the 40km/hr head winds on the way home this arvo. Nice

Day's Mech

I rode the Samurai to Cabba Bike Shop this 'arvo after work to get the front derailleur fitted and also to have the cluster changed to give me a granny gear of 27-12 range. Ahhh! Sextons Hill without any knee pain is what i want! So I will most likely see tomorrow if the reality is what it's cracked up to be....
hear's hoping! The Chain was OK for length so I will have a spare 10 speed chain now.

The 105 cluster didn't come in so Jeff put a 10 speed Ultegra 27-12 on for the same price, thank-you. Some have said I should have used e-Bay but I don't completely trust main component parts that may be used or faulty rather than as described.. It was only a few extra dollars for a local guarantee.and supporting a shop that I will want to be there for long a while yet especially when I need it in a hurray! Things are fairly quiet in the shop at the moment, after the flurry of activity during the last school holidays. Is it the rain, wind or heat? It might even be the economy!

Windy Worker

Just returned from a quite windy rerturn home commute just managed to get an average of 21 kms/hour. the wind was a head wind all the way except for the last 200 meters.

 



And it was cool on the verge of raining all the way threatening to but not able to with the wind blowing it away...

Afternoon Delight

The mornings bothers were forgotten in the heat and humidity of a quick 25km circuit on the Shogun (in thongs again) this afternoon. The heat was quite draining, but a little nap later in the evening was all that was required to feel refreshed again.

Roadie Respect, or the lack there of

Begin Moan;

Today's little trip saw me pass by a couple of "roadies", don't know what else you would call them. I do not think they are members of the fellowship of general cyclists. The first, after I said Gid'day, returned the greeting whereas the other saw fit to yell a callous or could it be spiteful remark "Hope you fall off!" Nice I thought! I was in usual attire, so probably stood out like dog balls to a lycra clad unpaid billboard, but, as is often the case at this time of year when going for a light road cruise, wearing thongs on my feet. (yes If I was to come off at any speedI could do some damage to my feet, but lets not forget my elbows, shoulders, knees, palms and fingers, head,hip, bum, did i forget anything? oh yeah my face.)

During the rest of the ride my thoughts drifted to contemplating the passing comment. Why bother saying that? Why not keep your negative remarks to yourself? Do you hope that others will go through your own experiences? Are you such a bad rider that you expect to fall, again, during  every ride?  Is he the type of person who verbally abuses people whilst in a queue at the bank,etc? Does he just like to tell other people they are wrong to make himself feel better about his own decisions? Is he a road rage practitioner when he gets behind the wheel of his motorised vehicle which is probably a hotted up ute or some such thing? 

It must of got to me a bit, as our paths crossed only a couple of hundred meters from the start of my ride. 

Later around the half way point in the ride, I passed another solo rider near Clothiers Creek road and that consisted of a more standard experience, just exchanging "the wave" and move on about your business.

Moan Ends here;

Got in a Commute, at last

This morning saw a nice still and mild start to an uneventful ride, 27.4km and the expected NE sea breeze was a ENE so more a cross wind for the afternoon return which clocked 25.5kms?

 

The cheap ALDI Tronica Wireless Cycling Computer for $20.00 seems to register 99km/hr at times when you are stationary or wheeling the bike... ahhhh the price of crap

Over Analyse

Just a quick commute today to Pottsville for an on-site job. Rounded the trip out by riding around the Kanes/Wabba Road loop through to Cabba before home again. Managing a 27.0 km/hr average. Never dropping below middle ring and 4th gear, Why? I'm still trying to build up to the power/cadence required for successful little hill climbing on the Shogun. This requires me to unlearn all the easy riding gear habits of my lower geared Hybrid's. Hopefully it won't be much longer. Sometimes it takes a little bit of the enjoyment out of riding when you analyse everything during a ride....  

Distance: 31.5 km on the Cypress.

Looping Daydream

Rode the loop on the cypress, this arvo. The only thing that came from it was the ability to daydream, hopefully I was concentrating when required! The main focus of the thoughts was not obvious just random thoughts... Such as when I recently rode over the Cudgera Creek Interchange there was a highway patrol vehicle sitting there doing the freeway radar bit... anyway as I approached I noticed the tinted side window being wound up... Why? was it just a coincidence?or, was it a privacy issue based on policy? or, a subconscious technique by the patrol(wo)man to avoid any personal interaction?

Or something along the lines of must clean the bike  etc or when will I drop the ride in for it's first service?

Other thoughts drifted to riding technique, like cornering and trying to ride in higher gears to prepare for the drop bar rides etc

So really a blah blah ride... but a pleasant wind down to the day's endeavors

Tanked

Last 2 days I have been trying to get the plumbing done on the old 1000 gallon water tank. But as an amature the swearing has been the most successful part of the impression! What a bitch to get the bung out until i realised I needed to get at the nut on the inside of the tank! and that also meant having another arm about 15 feet long with a strong hand on the end!

So the solution was? Maneuver the tank, after emptying it, to a location I could ti it on it's side rotate it until the large Inlet hole was close enough to the ground wiggle inside after propping a pair of Stiltons to the outside nut/bolt securely so that they wouldn't fall off! 

After squeezing myself inside ( with the sides chocked to stop me becoming part of a mixing machine) I stood over the outlet nut and gave a gentle push on the second pair of Stiltsons I had with me, torch secured into my mouth. No worries the nut rotated smooth as though it was brand new, better even! 

Next task is to try to quickly find a 1¼ inch inlet bung supplier! Hopefully before it rains again!

Also been mucking around with a couple of scripts at night ie the Ride Stats Plugin and the Google Feed Reader Linking Widgit.... both were ok after a bit of tweaking of code to work better in Wordpress 2.6.x

A Day Catching Up...

Didn't ride today, unusually! I did manage to get a few tasks completed in the yard and shed which have been on the "todo list" for a while so it was to be a leisure paced day with a few items crossed off the list and a couple of others added, as usual... maintain the status quo

I have a couple of plumbing connections to pick up this week so will see about riding to South Tweed and make a visit to bunnings on the Shogun tomorrow if work commitments allow.

Wabba-Solo

Rode off today without too many plans. I turned onto the road as a shower was passing over at about 12:30pm with the intention to ride a loop on the Cypress. As I rode down Kanes Rd the rain stopped but the clouds stayed around. As it wasn't raining and was quite cool still I thought a little climb of Cudgera Creek Road would be appropriate.... When I managed to put together a climb above 9 km/hr. It seemed a possibility to ride Wabba Rd through the Mooball Forest. I was a little unsure as it is a little isolated to ride solo, but what the heck! Just do it. After reading ChrisL's ride recent report, I thought conditions would be excellent it turned out that that is what it was like. Very short grass, dry gravel patches etc and few if any large rocks strewn on the track. The only obstacle was a fallen tree across the track, and that was easily negotiated.

[caption id="attachment_287" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Wabba-Solo elevation"][/caption]

The most common creature beside birds were Goanna's scurrying away as I rode past. I didn't see another vehicle from the time I left the freeway interchange at Pottsville until I got to the Pistol Range at Murwillumbah when a 1930's car went past towards Wardrop Valley. About 2 hours of complete solitude, bliss.
The ride was undertaken without sufficent water or any food... not something I want to repeat!

Occasionally toward the end of the ride the bike started to act up on a few of the changes down to the small ring as I was climbing Reserve Creek Road, but it was suffer-able.

The distance: 50 kilometers
Average Speed: 14 km/hr
Duration: 3 hours 30 mins

Still Shovelling.....

Well I have finally managed to sieve two of the 8x10 cubic metre truckloads of the Terranora Red. Completed building the first stage of the vegie garden and planted it out... started with seedlings this time mainly as it is a little late to plant seeds for most crops... But have not managed any rides of any length this week... the energy and need has not been there. My arms, especially, as well as the rest of the body aches and groans. The hot weather has also been difficult wearing long trousers and long sleeve shirts in the full sun to ward off any more photosensitivity. I have found usng my bike gear (actually long sleeve ice-hockey shirt) to be the best alllowing the perspiration to evaporate rather than drench me!

Picked up an ALDI Tronica Wireless Cycling Computer for $20.00 for the Shogun. I will see how this very cheap computer holds up and post again later about it!

I will ride a couple of short 10km commutes tomorrow on the Cypress and  maybe a lop to finish off the day. I will post again after the outcome is clear and therefore more concise.

Too much digging!

Well, the last few days has seen me only put together some small commutes for computer system repairs and some of the standard training loops. All the earth moving through the sieve by shovel has created a rather stiff upper back and neck. 50kms and longer rides have been light on the ground.

The standing around in the sun with shorts and thongs ( Note: sifting soil ) has also seen the remergence of my photosensitvity, especially my feet and lower legs, but thankfully, the Aloe Vera lotion Joyann discovered has been a godsend in relieving the itch!

This means I just might have to get the longer night rides happening once again this year now that the evenings are getting warmer! I noticed last njigts moon came up very late and was quite bright.

I've only got to shovel another 7 truckloads of the Terranora Red and I will be finished creating the new massive vegie garden and also maybe ward off the stiff neck/back? A little each day is a good recipe!

At last some precipitation!

Tonight saw the beginning of this years Early Summer storms. Even though there was no lightning and thunder, locally, the build-up was there and the rain has begun. Hopefully the tank will get a fresh supply if we get at least 25mm plus, that is. I have noticed the water carter about over the last week or so. Now also the mangoe tree will not set fruit for another year with the full tree of flowers getting wet! Also the possibility of a bush fire has been put on hold for another couple of weeks...

It looked like rain all day but we only had a light isolated shower last night showing on the roads during this mornings 50km ride. I have managed to sift one of the eight truckloads of Terranora soil for the NEW raised Vegie garden, so that only took me 4 days, lets see that's another 28 days left to go! and the dumped loads are only going to getting further and further away from where I want the soil to be so more and more wheelbarrow work to come as time goes by... I was desperatly in need of some upper-body workout so it's convenient really??? All up I rode about 65kms today riding to Hastings twice and Cabarita once to get some replacement tubes after todays puncture.

One thing I didn't say about this mornings ride2work was that during the 52k trip I saw only one other rider!

Ride2Work day? What Work?

Let's see... to participate in the National Ride-2-Work day I decided to commute although I had nowhere to commute to! I was going to test ride my new (second-hand) Shogun cro-mo commuter I have got hold of and put together with some new parts from both Cecil Walker Cycles (Shimano105 2x10 groupset $629) and Cell Bikes ($50 no-name wheelset) with an added bonus of being able to see what time I could anticipate getting to South Tweed from home on this commuter rather than the old Giant Elwood (2007 model).

Well I was enjoying the ride, even the fairly easy Southern climb of Sextons Hill, when the next thing I know I've run over one of the bloody new Cat-Eye reflectors at about 80km/hr on the Northern descent and got myself a snake-bite flat on the rear..... so onto fixing that... bugger no tyre levers but I was carrying the spare and repair kit.... searched the side of the road in the debris looking for bits of plastic and metal for a 100 meters and managed finding some make do levers.... but the now rushed repair was not good enough and was later going to have to involve me in replacing the tube on the uphill climb returning back over Sextons Hill... called into South Tweed Bicycles to get the pressure checked but it wouldn't hold it. that was it! the end of testing the time to do a standard commute.... Changing a tube on both legs with no tyre levers, which I found I need to get the bead off but not back on the 19mm rim! unlike on the Giant Hybrid 25mm rim which I can do with just my hands, on and off.

anyway heres the Shogun with the new 105 groupset....

[caption id="attachment_278" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Shogun Samurai Commuter"][/caption]

Sextons Hill - "The Scary Bit"

Just thought I would post an image of the only part of My Commute which always scares me! You have been cruising along at about 30-35kms/hr with the 60kms/hour traffic to hit the climb to the top of Sextons Hill where the traffic merges to 80kms/hour and you have been riding along the 800-900mm verge against an Steel Armco Railing with lots of past evidence of bad driving only to hit this little beauty about 1/2 way up and no way of looking leisurely behind to see if trucks, 4WD's or buses are about to take the left turn into Banora etc only to be confronted by NO Road surface space to make it past the Very Badly positioned Traffic Island. Sometimes I just ride over it and others I will turn into the intersection and wait for the traffic to clear before doing a U-turn to get back onto the Pacific Highway.

[caption id="attachment_276" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Scary Bit on the ascent of Sextons Hill South Tweed Heads NSW"][/caption]

Thanks to Google Maps Street View....

Reminder

It's National Ride2Work day on the 15th of October.

Just like last year I'll try to get the energy to make the distance!

It's Here

Today, after I finished welding the Sieve {900 x 1.8 weldmesh} I will be using to remove the rocks from the 8 truckloads of TerranoraVolcanic Soil over the summer for a vegie garden, my new Giant Cypress arrived at Cabarita Beach Cycles. Excellent!

I got a lift down with Joyann taking the helmet and a full water bottle... anticipation....

Gee it looked nice and clean, well lets put paid to that! So after quickly finalising the fit it's on the bike... rode along Clothiers Creek Road to the freeway to take a flat smooth 15kms to check out the feel... I was suprised at the speed and power that was available from the 24 gears with the front suspension locked out, but I must try out the handling on the dirt with it unlocked... so onto Cudgera Creek Road and off the tar onto the gravel of Reserve Creek Road and then further onto Round Mountain gravel so about 15kms of loose dusty gravel... not so clean now! The hill climbing was surprisingly easy but there was still no need to use the granny gear! I'll have to try somewhere else for this experience, maybe Cudgera Creek Road tomorrow?

Handling was throughly enjoyable with no nasty surprises! There was still some time left before sunset, ( I haven't added any lights yet! and I must remember to take a pump next time just in case that is) so rode off along Kanes Road through to Pottsville and rode over the forge hill at a speed I have never achieved before! the bike seemed to maintain it's momentum easily ah beautiful! Then it was a bit of a windout along the Coast Road at a high cadence with the wind finally on my back to be amazed that I will need to find more energy to get the ride into top ring and attain the highest speed possible on this bike. I was still able to peddle riding down some hills that i know top out on the old Elwood as soon as your speed reached 40kms/hr. Wow! I might be able to increase my long term average speed above 19kms/hr on this bike! 

Ah the pleasure of taking the first run on a new ride!

I'll post some more later about the second hand commuter with drop bars I have also just bought, but I don't want to lose the feeling of breaking in a new steed just yet!

I will need to readjust the front derailleur before tomorrow's ride it seemed a little askew and shifts between the three front rings was quite hit and miss during todays ride!

 



 

All in all I felt like an 8 year old on Christmas day!

[caption id="attachment_281" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The new all purpose ride bought in October 2008"][/caption]

Bike2Bruns Ride Report C-

Well what could you say? The event, to me was a quite over-rated affair.

A number of standouts being..

• Totally unco-ordinated


• Losing a bike rider less than 5kms from the start!


• No signs or signallers at critical intersections.

these were for the ride itself, which featured for me at least a couple of brushes with Eastern Brown Snakes and a 2 foot Goanna although NO Magpies! Also a long slog against an ever increasing NE headwind on the return ride (25-40 km/hr) with no shelter by anything resembling hills!

The Event, at which I lasted 10 minutes, was also, as classified by me, as...

• General feeling about the event - "A big group hug, with indifference to outsiders".


• Lacking general information for "Guests" (ie upon arrival, which was done in drips and drabs by the riders of Route #4 because of the lost rider [who was found safe and well riding with the leader], there was no marshaling areas etc)


• The person on the registration desk at the end was more interested in talking to their BUG mates than providing any pertinent information, even when queried!


• There was far too limited secure/safe parking


• Everything seemed disjointed and chaotic.


• Rider leaders etc were more interested in BUG fundraising by way of a raffel than the actual Bike2Bruns event.


• If you didn't want to join their BUG then and there you were conveyed a pleasant feeling of irrelevance with a casual air of indifference. (ie left standing there with the same "You are dismissed" feeling you get after receiving a tongue lashing from a headmaster.)

All up a nice enough very FLAT 60 kilometer ride spoilt slightly by the addition of a lot of unnecessary crap. It will be quite a while before I bother to undertake another group ride such as this.

Interested in Yehuda Moon?

Yehuda Moon Comics at the Kickstand

There is a podcast available of a radio interview with the Creator/Writer/Cartoonist Rick Smith. If you are interested the URL is http://kxno.com/podcast/kimwest.xml from "the kim west radio cycling show"

rick smith...yehuda moon...joe...fred...thistle...fizz...the shakers...the bike ninjas...the grail...and all the readers. sunday, september 21, 600 to 700pm, central daylight time.

Cheers

Update: the download is 52mb be forewarned!
Dont have Podcast Software? Try podcast software link at http://www.sitecreations.com/podcast-software-list.html 

If you are interested I use Juice for my Podcast needs, getting ABC etc downloads automatically to listen to/watch at my leisure, derrr!

Brunswick Social Ride - Byron Shire BUG

After doin' a Google about Bike Week NSW  I came upon only one fairly local location that seems to be doing something about it, I found nothing available in the Tweed Shire. I've read details of routes and timetable available at both www.byronbug.org.au and www.brunswickheads.org.au

I have phoned and registered myself for the "BIKES TO BRUNS" - Sunday September 28th. Just to see what an organised ride is like, Organised by BSBUG with the Brunswick Chamber of Commerce.
Planning is well advanced,  they still require more ride leaders for this fun event - please contact NickBowden on 0427 620 711 or MikeWall can be contacted for registrations and Information regarding the Billinudgel - Route (4) on 0413779223

Route #4 8:45am, Departs the Pocket via Ocean Shores (16km) but riders, I have been informed, can join at various stages along the Route, registering early will reduce unnecessary enroute delays. They invisage the ride to be SLOW paced as there will be riders of all ages and abilities! For anyone interested....

Route #4 Start -> Pocket, Billinudgel, South Golden Beach, New Brighton, Ocean Shores, Bruns; Total Distance of 16km (there is a hill! ie getting through Ocean Shores to the Brunswick River Bridge, with the Estimated Times of...

8:45am   - Junction Pocket Road & Middle Pocket Road
9:00am   - Billinudgel Shop
9:20am   - South Golden Beach Shop
9:30am   - New Brighton Shop
9:40am   - Ocean Shores Shopping Centre
10:00am - Brunswick Heads

Therefore an avg speed of ~12km/hr

You will need to make your own way home.Remembering that if you ride the Wooyung <--> Golden Beach Track you will probably have to contend with the head wind the whole way home along the Wooyung to Pottsville Coast Road! Be forewarned and take plenty of water!

I might be riding my ElwooodSE 2007 for the last time as my main bike before I get my 2009 Cypress, Hopefully!! But might consider riding the old Royce Union depends on the wind and if I feel like a low tide Beach ride on the way home. But 16kms along the beach exposed to a howling North Easterly would not be fun! Nor would it be good for the bike!

NSW Bike Week 2008

Just a reminder that next week is Bike Week in NSW

[caption id="attachment_269" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Bike Week 2008"][/caption]

ie 20th - 28th September

Cycleways of the Tweed Shire - Submission

Updated!

I wrote a little submission to TSC via the LINK, which may or may not be published so I will post it here as well....

Where do I start? I commute by bicycle as well as ride for pleasure or you might say leisure. Riding to the south, west or northerly directions on many streets and roads, both gravel and sealed, from the Tweed Coast area. Nowhere in the shire, where I do manage to ride my bike, is there evidence that bicycles are considered as more than a toy in the design of local bike paths, the dinky little signs at road crossings are amusing rather than any form of informative traffic signage for users.
Many other examples of to the irrelevance bike riding and it not being recognised as an alternative form of transport in the Shire are many…

Beside the football fields of Bogangar the bike path becomes a clean and dry viewing area for whole groups of families to watch the little tackers play there games and thus an obstacle course during these occasions. What say you, get off and walk? Gee I’d like to see the shire say that drivers should get out and push their cars through certain streets!

Most Tweed Coast bike paths seem to be designed first as pedestrian paths that are widened where conditions make it easy. Many residents would say they are there so use them, Why when the trip from South Tweed to my home is 6 kilometres longer if I take the bike path and possibly more dangerous when pedestrians are included in the mix than the freeway! Now that’s scary to think!. That said the verges of many other roads are strewn with loose gravel and/or broken glass. Many of these same roads when they are resealed are left with 50mm plus ridges splitting in half the verge area safe to ride in such as the Coast Road through the new developments of the Tweed Coast.

During recent road works outside the Kingscliff Library the bike path has been cut. The bike path, used by lots of students daily, had no temporary location during the works and riders were forced to line up with the cars and trucks, unlike the Cudgen Creek Bridge, thankyou.

The foot/bike-path along Marine Parade in Kingscliff has misleading signs stating that riders should use the Dedicated Path. It is not dedicated but only designated! Pedestrians still have right of way car doors still open onto the path! 

I could go on and on… but I will end with a question, Why not provide areas in residential locations, such as for example Casuarina, where cars should be the ones made to give way to both pedestrians and cyclists? This is shown to work. Warringah Shire in Sydney has areas around Narrabeen where this is implemented and working! There is then no need to provide and maintain pathways in these locations.

Most people that would read this might say what a whinger, and they are intitled to say it, that is their opinion. I have presented this because you encouraged comment.
I know it will fall on deaf ears and that decisions are made to appease the majority.

I will see if they let it through the moderation and update this post if they do..... OK today the Moderators have published the comment, the link above will take you to the TSC webpage to post your own comments if you so wish.

their site says "

Have Your Say

Only constructive or appropriate comments will be placed on this page. Please note that the comments posted on this page are not necessarily supported by Tweed Shire Council or Council officers."

Parking Drama

Well today sees the first block to commuting, lack of bicycle storage facilities at the workplace. Out of a staff of approx. 60, there are only 3-4 bicycle commuters (none of these ride everyday). There is a semi-secure car-park provided for those who wish to drive, many car-pool, but only outside bike racks open to the general population of the school for those that wish to ride to and from work.

That location is open to easy abuse. The work location is inside a "fairly tough" high school where some students would enjoy using any easy anonymous opportunity to upset a staff member, through any combination of misplaced humour, malice, spite or more likely just some thoughtless prank such as letting down tyres (which often happens to the few students who brave riding to school).

Up until today 2 staff members, including myself when I am called in, have been using a small lockable store room to park the bikes out of harms way. But today a fellow non-riding, and has said never would, staff member made a complaint at the location. In their favour it IS an OH&S issue in that location we have been sort of (un)officialy allowed to use for the past term. As with any group the decision of an alternative location was not successfully determined. I also don't have any sway in the decision, but one of the locations offered was an abandoned lockable Male Staff Toilet. Which, as I understand it, will be soon pressed into active service. I could see that it would once again soon become another contentious location, not to say insecure with the door being left unlocked Accidentally and the entrance completely hidden from any easy casual observation.

Another offered location seems to be Nearly Perfect, to me anyway, with the space to hang 10 or more bicycles with locker space, access to a male shower. This location is only accessed by one other person in the school and that is only occasionally. But this was argued to be too far to walk in bike gear in public by the majority vote user? I could not understand why? The area allows changing into work clothing, isolated storage of summers sweaty riding kit, showering, overnight storage if required and even a ramp for access!

At this time it looks as though it will become one of those situations where workplace politics will cause angst, division and ultimately become the reason to stop all work commuting by this little black duck.

 At this time I will try to take up the second offer, that is if I can get access to the storage area (if I am the only rider it might be overruled) but even if I do I am unsure about whether it is worth the effort to put in a hanging rack and locker, screen the barred windows for both Security and Vanity reasons, if it is just a short term solution.

Don't I just love workplace politics! I do understand the workplace is for students first and foremost, but I see the simple example of someone commuting by bicycle for no other reason than they enjoy it to be a good one for the whole student population and should be supported!

Strange Light

During yesterday's ride ChrisL and myself were chatting about Wireless Computers and how sometimes they go wacko for no apparent reason. We decided it must be some form of interference. Last night in the early twilight I was traveling on a quiet country gravel road and decided to turn on the strobe of the LED headlight. There being enough light and time to ponder, I noticed the speed indicator start to jump around rising up to 35 kms/hr and at the time I knew I was riding at about 9 kms/hr.

So lets do a test. Switch the light off and the speed goes back to normal. Turn the light on solid and there is no change. Switch to strobe and the speed goes wacko again.

I Repeated the test numerous times with the same results every-time. So if you want to cheat on your stats to yourself just switch on the strobe during a ride. Your average speed will be amazing and the distance you ride will be phenomenal.

Hells Hole Continued and some...

Getting there

OK let's see... After cruising up Cudgera Creek hitting the summit at 180 meters we coasted down to the Burringbar Service Station, I was cautious after having taken a corner very wide on a small descent on Kanes Road and nearly losing it before the ride had even gone 5 kms.  We then rode on to Mooball, ChrisL taking a comfort stop and me continuing, both of us knowing full well he would catch me on the next big rise, which he did and passed me to wait at the bottom. A repeat we would see throughout the ride, sorry Chris...

We took the stock road via the tunnel under the freeway bypassing Billinudgel proper, the second stretch of gravel and a new road for me. We were then on the Pocket Road a few kms of comparative flat before the climb and following decent into Main Arm, where ChrisL was once again waiting... Here I needed to get off the bike and de-numbing? my feet getting the circulation back. So sat by the side of the road and got some stretching in, for 10mins. Now across the undulations gradually climbing the last of the sealed road before the climb ChrisL had warned me about ok he said to ride like a slug just hang on and suck.

It was heavy going but I still felt good being out of the North Easterly, and managed to grind up towards the Manns Road intersection. Here google lets you down completely. Main Arm Road shows no sign of changing or you needing to turn off onto the Skyline Ridge Firetrail, Main Arm Road at street level just continues on until you reach the "T" intersection of Main Arm Road, Manns Road and Middle Ridge Road. I didn't make it! My forward speed dropped to 3 kms/hr and I basically stopped any forward movement!  I got off and began walking, after 100 meters the steep pinch reduced and I again managed to climb back into the saddle and get going again at 6 kms/hr.

At the top ChrisL was once again patiently waiting at the intersection only this time he had some company. A four day mountain bike riding Gold Coast High School excursion was congregating at the intersection. They were at the middle point of their third day between the Gold Coast and Lennox Head and were heading toward Mullum', with two four wheel drive support vehicles and trailers stacked with camping etc equipment.

Now ChrisL informed me that the next climb was to be incredibly steep, he had warned me previously! Little was I too realise just how steep. He had climbed it with a full touring load only weeks before so I was going to give it a go even though my weight equalled his combined with his touring load! the very first stage is a little cruel, it's mildly downhill for a short distance then bang! it just starts climbing. Being in the dense forest you have no way of seeing the summit but these same trees gave great cover from the strong Spring sunshine! This was to be a very short ride! I only made it about 200 meters into the climb and my legs gave out, and had to push the bike the rest of the way to the very summit! The gradient of Middle Ridge Road was way, way, way steeper than the previous climbing section on Main Arm Road, to the point where my feet were slipping slightly on the loose gravel as I walked and pushed the kilometer up the hill! ChrisL said later that he made it with surprising ease. I jokingly suggested it might of been because of all the enforced rest stops he had been having!

ChrisL was waiting at the next intersection, (this time I think the waiting was not so patiently, too much stand around time previously and our destination was so close, maybe?). OK here I definitely needed a rest, even though ChrisL was very eager to be off with me having finally arrived. I crouched with my head between my knees for a bit to try and get rid of my dizziness and had a nut and fruit energy bar. After about 5 minutes we were able to get back on the bikes and begin the short descent along the now named road/fire trail Middle Ridge Fire Trail, which was according to Google just the continuation of Middle Ridge Road, so a new mystery arises where does the, not recognised by Google, rest of Middle Ridge Road go?

ChrisL stopped us at an intersection and asked me where now? as there was no street signs of any sort! He said he had ridden down to the left and it was a dead end! Straight on was a creek but no falls at either end. I had left my map at home, error #1, I thought I would ring home and ask them to read it to me, error #2 even though there was mobile phone reception. Error #3 was not realising that all the roads had been given new names and Google didn't know much about anything here but still bullshited something close!

Anyway I managed to waste a good 30 minutes trying to solve the mystery. In the end ChrisL and myself felt it would be best to cover some ground he had not ridden previously to see if we could get through to our final destination.

As luck would have it, just as we mounted our bikes, along came a couple of bush walkers from Mullumbimby. I asked if they knew the way to Hells Hole and guess what?, that's were they were going!!!! Anyway it was to the left off the Middle Ridge Firetrail. So ride the descent along the gravel through the lush rain-forest of palms, vines, old trees covered by moss and lichens and the superb quiet!

We arrived at the bridge at the bottom and my memories flooded back. We had made it! Now it was a short walk to the right along the slowly flowing creek bed to the falls. The only change in 34 years was that the jumping tree spanning the pools was now collapsed into the creek with the roots end still high up the valley side. At least it might save someone having an accident jumping into the water filled pool below it. I did it when I was young but now that I am old and stupid I have different ideas!. The quite sounds of the small flow of water falling over the first stage of the falls was what entertained us while I soaked my feet and eat my sandwiches. The View out over the falls was stunning with the steep sides of the valley framing it on both sides! 

The return Trip

OK at 1:30pm we thought we should begin the return journey, back through UKI via Manns Road. The start was to be a walk/push on again off again ride back to the Middle Ridge Fire Trail, for me mostly walk and Push, for ChrisL mostly ride but still some walk/push. Along the Middle Ridge Fire Trail it was all ride, albeit slowly at times to the end of the trail and then the screaming descent down the loose gravel of Middle Ridge Road. Thank goodness for dry working brakes!

At Manns Road ChrisL gave me a precis of the road ahead, which I managed to ride all but for about 100 meters, my legs were sapped of all but the basic energy needs! Then it was the next fast descent over the gravel toward Uki and back onto sealed Roads. At Uki we were to part company. Again we had some luck the Uki Cafe was still just open, moments after we ordered they took the sign down! I said to ChrisL I was going to have a very sweet coffee for the sugar hit, I thought I was going to need it for the yet to come 35kms with 400 meters of climbing I still needed to do to get home.  We sat together having our drinks.

My three hills combined were about the same height as the single hill ChrisL was yet to climb on his way home through Mur'bah to the Gold Coast.

I made it to the base of the Smiths Road hill and only managed to get about 1/3 the way before the legs gave out. Not a good sign for the two hills to come. Anyway the walk was pleasant to the summit. The good news after that walk is that there was only slow riding to come. Making my way over the small Stokers Road hill to the Tweed Valley Way, climbed to the top of the Burringbah Range screamed down the descent into Burringbah, turned onto Cudgera Creek Road and the now seemingly very long grind up to Wabba Road and then down again toward the turn off to Kanes Road and home along very familiar roads. 

At the start of the descent into Cudgera Creek Valley it started to spit with rain and the sun was starting to set. So on came the lights but the rain was soothing to the skin rather than any form of annoyance.

All up for me it was a journey to be sure, but a very invigorating and personal limit stretching experience. I hope that my inabilities did not detract from the overall experience for ChrisL and that he made it home easily without the burden to slow his journey further.

Bring on the next one I say, but maybe ChrisL might just have second thoughts taking on the roll of riding partner in the future!

 

Ride length: 100kms (including walking and pushing)

Elevation Climbed: 1500 meters  (including walking and pushing)

Duration: 11 hours  (including rest stops, lunch and coffee breaks)

Hells Hole Visited

As arranged ChrisL and myself met at my place and set off on the Journey. I left my map at home, more on that later. All up the trip for me was just on 100kms For chris I think it would be closer to 180kms. And my elevation Climbed was close on 1500 meters, though not all ridden there was a bit of push/walk when the gradient got too much for this heavy old bloke.

The route was to include two traverses of Cudgera Creek Road one from each direction. We set off southwards along the Tweed Valley Way to Billinudgel, onto Main Arm and the climbs proper. All the climbs were effected with ChrisL being held at the top waiting for me to catch up.....

 

more later it's been a big day. leaving at 7am and getting off the bike at home, arriving there at 6pm

Bloody Telstra

Ever Since Thursday Afternoon when the Whole of Tweed and the Tweed Coast has been having trouble with their ADSL connections the internet has become unreliable with flaky connections. I have done a couple of onsite service calls. Heard anicdotal evidence and been suffering with the same up/down close up/down yo-yo connection status with the speed nearly halved. When you get on to the tech departments it is always YOUR fault and there is nothing wrong reported at the exchange! Well I am reporting it F#$% they would appear to be a facist corporation. You are guilty we could never be doing anything wrong and so innocent. We will never admit there is a problem, you must have faulty equipment that just happens to work reliably for days and days and then everybodys stuff just breaks at the same time it wasnt us so it must be you. Now Do this basic troubleshooting crap then repeat it 4 or 5 times because thats all we are trained to say!

What? you were expecting a service that you paid us to deliver, na we are allowed to say we provide a service but deliver whatever we feel like, and to keep your complaints falling on deaf ears we employ people in other countries to answer you complaints, we never get to hear them! So we have nothing to deal with,  ipso-facto It's just like the big banks. go somewhere else if you don't like the service! or lack of! We are in the business of making a profit for what was once a public utility company and so F@#& YOU... we no longer are required to serve the community that paid for our creation and development with your taxes. just the shareholders need service and only if they have enough shares to be able to make a noise if they decide to sell! Bring on the bonus for the directors they are doing such a great job give them some more OK

Glad I've got that off my chest, as thats all I can do just hollow blow hard noise.

I was told on thursday after being on the phone for service support that I would have to pay for a tech to come and see what the problem was if it wasn't their fault

A wedding and so much more

September round up.

Possible trip to Hell's Hole on the 7th or 14th, yet to be confirmed and finalised.

Disbandment of the hopeful ride to Grafton for Fathers Day 2008.

Jeff from Cabarita Cycles is sick with the flu again, as is one of my both riding partners Mark and Mark.

I should be picking up my newly ordered black Giant Cypress (19" frame 2009 model)  Hybrid, from Cabarita bike shop in three weeks when they are going to be released by Giant in Australia.  A good bit of luck that I didn't win the bid I made on the 2008 Elwood SE, for only $200 more I'm getting a much better bike with all the services of a local bike shop, and no dodgy history tied to it.

Aside: Jeff and Lyndall are getting married on Sunday at the Hastings Point Headland. Should be good weather but maybe a little windy!

And hopefully complete the restore of the old steel frame dropbar road bike for commuting.

Anyway I'll get on my bike and cruise to work now, as this morning the NSW Teachers Federation is having a 2 hour stop work meeting so I can arrive a little later than usual this morning, yeah.

It's Raining?

Well the event I was hoping for all weekend is here it's raining. Hopefully enough to put soome water in the tank. We were getting a bit light on in this department... winter is done and it's weather has gone this bit of rain probably wont tide us over til the storm season though! I feel this will be a buy wter year, even after the excess of Autumn and early Winter. 

 

I didn't waste the time during the weekend. I played. I swapped two old 27" alloy road rims from crappy wheels with old rusty chromed steel spokes and rusty chromed steel hubs to better alloy hubs (really old Shimano600's I found in the last council throw-out) with stainless spokes. I even managed to, very clumsily, true the front wheel, basically dish and true the rear. Strip an old dura-ace 5 speed cluster from a old hub I had lying around, Why? just to see how it was put totether. It ain't ever going back together. To remove the cluster I had to crack and then split the internal screw-on hardened steel in the vice, there was no way I could unscrew it it was just too tight/corroded. I was surprised by the amount of tempering it had been given and just how brittle it was.

I now have the 2 wheels ready to finish, rear with a 6 cog cluster, the Shimano600 crank is inplace but will still need to be removed and lubed. The next thing to work on is the rear derailure, which one to use the Superbe or the Shimano600, how to attach the one I choose use a hanger bracket, or do I look for another frame in good condition that has a captive screw location on the axle dropout tab!

Spring has realllllly Sprung

Today's little cruise I saw 2 Echidnas on the sides of the Road. One even crossing the busy Clothiers Creek Road, I  waited and stood guard for traffic until it made this one made it's way to the other-side. I have been noticing Carpet Pythons but they are not yet very active, night time temps have still been in the low   teens. I also managed to ride Wattie Bishop Road at 40-43km/hr (realy good tail wind) but made up for it when I turned into the next open section with the headwind dropping me to 18km/hr.

Aside: I saw a 2008 19" Elwood SE, bought last January, on Ebay today and put a bid in but was outbid. I am pretty sure it was the Seller setting a reserve but I was not going to pay $250.00 (+) on a second hand hybrid which is a superseeded model, no warrantee and no known history. The winning bid was for $255, and I am sure it will not be ridden by the person who did win the bidding! All their Feedback Messages show they resell of most if not all of the items purchased!

I must Remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch!

Images of What Might Be - Hell's Hole Route

Just a lot of images from Google Maps to try to Find the way

[gallery columns="1" size="thumbnail" link="file"]

Byron Ninjas

Just got back from a late job at Suffolk Park, just South of Byron Bay, and my God! the number of Ninjas riding into, around and out of the town center was astounding (maybe a little strong!) but still very surprising seeing the number of cyclists riding, mainly the bike paths, without lights and/or helmets some with a manditory slab tucked under one arm, on a Monday night!.

To add to the surprise as I was just about to reach the 80k/h zone there was a member of the local constabulary booking a Car Driver. Obviously they do not enforce the bike ridng rules as stringently in the Bay!

A little later...

Well Fridays commute saw me start out, with a raincoat, it was only just starting to sprinkle as I swept my leg over the saddle... I managed with a bit of luck to get through the lights onto the main road, but... as I approached Machinery Drive with it's light just turning red, down it came. The drops of rain were massive, as large as possible before it would become an uninterrupted stream poured from a jug. Today was one of those days when I had not replaced the mudguards after cleaning the bike last weekend!!!! When i finally got moving again after the mandatory 3mins at these lights the road spray from passing vehicles was like a deep fog. I still climbed Sextons on the Pacific Highway but was a little concerned, after all the accidents that occur here during times of rain.

After making it through to the Mur'bah turnoff the rain suddenly stopped. Zip zilch nadda not a drop from there to home. Peddled the rest of the way with squelching socks. Which of course I took off after arrived home. Along with the socks came this soggy outer layer of skin yech!  

 

The moral? If I had left on time I would of missed the drowning rat experience! Consider it as just another part of an enjoyable journey.

Someone else Spoke

Today's afternoon commute saw me once again tailing a roadies rear wheel. In a way it was pleasant travelling at an average speed of 29km/hr out of the wind and only really needing to peddle with any vigour up inclines.  We came down the Coast Road after the freeway and rode the 21km quickly. I dropped in on Jeff at Cabarita Beach Cycles to see if the peddle arm puller I had ordered a cup-la-weeks ago had turned up yet. It had and Jeff gave them to me on the  spot to come back and pay later. Both he and Mark, the roadie I was slipstreaming, (this Mark is not my usual riding partner who is also named Mark just a flukey coincidence), ride as members in the Murwillumbah Bike Club B Grade but for whatever reason had never met before! They have both probably been too busy psyching out the "other guy" to get time for a friendly chat. Ahhhh... the sociability of racing!
Anyway to the topic, we continued past my place as I was going to ride Mark back to the freeway interchange at Clothiers Creek Road. About 3kms past my place "PING", a front spoke on Marks bike comes away from the hub on the front wheel. I look through my saddlebag and get a rubber-band to tie it back. Mark tells me the wheels have already been respoked as the "New" bikes wheels had had a history of breaking and they were all replaced under warrantee. Also he had broken a spoke in the same wheel 2 weeks ago! About 1km down the road on the tangle wood flats of Wattie Bishop Road "PINGG" one of the rear spokes lets loose... Mark finds another rubber band and makes the come and get me phone call to his partner, who sounds none to impressed!.

I left Mark to wait byhimself at the interchange for his lift and set off on the return journey home, all uneventfully, for a change!

Change 'n the Air

This week sees the days of change. The Site gets moved and a new look that might make it a little faster and a little more readable, yeah right! But the seasons do seem to be showing signs of starting to drift toward summer. The little wrens and finches have started their dances in earnest. The magpies song is becoming louder, longer and more melodic, nearing the magpie attack season the truce may end any day now!

The sun is getting warmer, though with this cold (which I can't seem to shake) it's difficult to notice being chilled to the bone this winter! I can't imagine living any further south than here at the moment, I invisage that it is all somewhere close to a penguin colony!  

And don't I long for those long, hot and humid rides to come! When the desire to feel a cold breeze is gaining hold but at the same time getting farther and farther from becoming a reality. Not too much unlike trying to recall exactly what happened in a dream episode from last week then last month etc, It ain't going to happen! It does not matter how much effort you put into it some level of failure is inevitable.

Just make do with what is possible a bit of a cooling breeze from riding! ( And some small attention paid to the possibility of a attack launched from above! ) Let the games commence!

Musings

I have just played with the MapMyRide - Site and have found that with the 3 direct bike riding routes home from South Tweed there is a difference of about 5kms.  The two routes that cars take are the same for a bike but the Tweed Shire Bike Path Route adds about 6kms to the trip!

1. The Highway then the Freeway about 26.4kms of very flat and on a scale of 1-10 Danger: Level about a 5 Duration:1.25hrs Distance:26.5km


2. The Highway then the Coast Road mostly flat but many sections with no verge and lots of 80km/hr road rage-ers. Danger: Level 8 Duration:~1hr Distance: 21kms


3. The Tweed Coast Bike Paths as well as adding at least an extra 6kms to the trip it introduces a lot of sharp/blind corners, street crossings,  and badly maintained and or built pavement surfaces which is shared with other bike riders (very few commuters mainly cruisers and bmx/skateboard riders on the way home from school, joggers, dog walkers, site-seeing pedestrians and exercisers as well as "elderly electric goers" ie lots of slower non-concentrating traffic to avoid moving in both directions. The speed through most of a trip along this path is reduced to about 15kms/hr, except for the two wide open sections along the dune front where 25-30km/hr is attainable but with caution as kids have come out of side tracks to and from the beach without looking on many occasions. Danger: level 7 Duration: 1.75hrs Distance:27.4kms

Just a Quickie Post

Feeling really bad today but was called into work and went anyway, box of tissues and "codral cold tablets" © in hand... Yes I did drive and even then was late! During the day i was very forgetful, lucky I didn't ride for sure i would of forgotten to take something of necessity maybe the bike!

Anyway, on the way home i decided to see what the skid marks looked like from Mondays Near miss. They started in the median strip lane about 100 meters from where they eventually stopped! crossing 3 lanes of traffic. The guy was really hooting along! The only reason I can see for the fuss was that he was speeding to get around those last few cars turning off and must of wanted to cut in front of them and to his surprise we were in his racing line to the exit and reacted by jamming on his brakes and just managed , lucky for us, to partially control his skid. Enough he really deserves ChrisL's Tosspot of the Week award.

Finally Down

Well I suppose it was inevitable. More later... Being a casual relief teacher I replace Sick Teachers and today's ride home saw me travel with a partner, a road racer needing to burn off the lactic acid build-up from the races last weekend so he was keen to have someone "make him" ride slowly. We were riding along the edge of the freeway near the Chinderah Kingscliff off ramp and from behind came the dreaded sound of screeching tyres that seemed to go on and on and on.... Next thing I see out of the corner of my left eye a ute sliding sideways that finally came to rest level with us... a bit of heart pounding after that... the driver without us understanding why seemed to consider us the cause of his delema! After discussing it later we still could not come up with a completely plausable explanation.... luck might mean trying a different method to get through that intersection with safety next time!

After trying to tail him along the rest of the freeway to Clothiers Creek exit I asked him if he wanted to get a few small quiet hills in as well on the ride he said OK and I took him along Watti Bishop and Kanes Road loop into Potty and then into the headwind along the coast road...

Here is where I will continue with the first statement. During the ride along the coast road I seemed to begin to lose all my energy and could not even tail my partner at 20km/hr. Knees started to hurt as well as my back and shoulders... The sniffles I had been having all day were about to change into a fully fledged cold! fever aches & pains, coughing and a runny nose ah! the pleasure of working in a sick environment!

I can only hope it's over in 24hours and the ride burnt it out not increased it's presence!

Simple Commute

At work today I had to put up with the usual put-downs from the "resident roady", about what I was going to be wearing for the journey (What no lycra?), low topspeed (What you need...), My helmet cost me, $XXX and look at that airflow! ie my helmets cost, age and style, blah blah... Surprisingly none of it stopped me getting home from work without the need to call a tow-truck or ride in the peloton!

The ride was uneventful, sun shining light breeze from the East consistently neither a head nor tail wind. The lightness was noticeable to the point of "feeling" the blowby from trucks rolling past on the other side of the road travelling in the opposite direction!

Anyway the wind is expected to reach greater strengths tomorrow and be blowing out of the North West quadrant so the journey home should be at unusually high speeds!! You never know might even average in the 30s. Just need to take the sail to work with me in the morning and it will be a cert!

At the moment it seems to be "just perfect" riding weather.

Caba Cycles

Looks like Cabarita Cycles has found it's niche in the local area, sponsoring along wth many of the areas other cycle shops, the roadriders of Murwillumbah Cycle Club. Jeff has also informed me that he will have a dedicated site available online soon. Good luck with the enterprise, glad I could help you get yourself started with a web presence.

Sick and Missed it!

Called by Marks place on the return of today's Duranbah Hill Loop and he's still laying around in his PJ's. After the trip to Hell Holes was sadly called off at the last minute with Mark coming down with a major Ear Infection, I made him feel better by telling him I broke my rear derailleur cable the previous evening and had No Spares! *( a situation now rectified). This ear infection has laid him in bed for the last 5days, Sat-Wed. He hasn't even been able to see any of his clients, and they are backing-up quickly. He will need to pull some overtime to make up for this episode. Jeeez I'm now glad we didn't go on the ride and either Chris or myself catching it as well!.

Nice day for a ride over the crown of Duranbah. Little traffic or wind. I took it easy and quietly. Marvelling at the scenery as though it was for the first time. The climbs were easy, or maybe they just seemed easier without the stress, with me being quite surprised, on a few occasions, at the size of the gear I was negotiating the climb in when I was roused from my daydreaming.

Tomorrow I'll try another commute to Tweed and back.... until then....

At last a-bit-o Luck

Most of My riding for the last month has been very short trips. My right hip has been just too sore! Why ? I don't know and have not been to the doctor.
The situation culminated in one morning about 10 days ago. That morning I moved my leg to get out of bed as usual. My scream woke the rest of the house! Since then the pain has definitely changed. It no longer happens every single time I rotate my hip to the side (I don't know what its called), but when it does come, it happens with a vengeance! Thus my reluctence to stress the joint.
I decided yesterday to give it a test. I rode back from work at Tweed Heads, having been given a lift with the bike to work in the morning.
The trip home was against the strongest wind we have had in ages.

 and as I was unsure about my ability rode the bike path up Sextons Hill rather than use the roadway as I usually do. All good so far, except when I had returned my front wheel I had slackly fitted it with the computer magnet on the wrong side, doohh!

Rode across the bridge in the roadworks debris and continued through to after the "tweed valley way" exit there I pulled over to refit the front wheel! Very gingerly dismounted. No pain cool! I did notice quite a bit of numbness in the nether regions so determined I needed to risk the climb out of the saddle a bit during the rest of the ride, commute.
A couple of rises out of the saddle and all felt normal, although I did get some twinges in my hip. I also noticed I was putting more stress on my right knee. I will need to rectify this if I want to be able to go on longer rides again.

No problems except with the rear derailleur throughout the rest of the journey up-to the Clothiers Creek turn off along Watty Bishop onto Round Mountain and home! Parked the bike and back to the house, It seemed just as I was stepping onto the verandah the wind stopped and the rain arrived, It has rained or showered on and off all night and now the tank is full again! In July? Good news and a bit of luck.

Maybe the bike is just too big for me!

Da'Yabby

On todays ride, the first on my main bike in 2 weeks, I went for a contrast journey. Started along the bike path then over to the freeway via Clothiers Creek Road. South to Cudgera Creek Road over the winding gravel over to the sealed section then return over the gravel to Reserve Creek Road. On the return right on top of the hill I nearly ran, slowly, over a v'large yabby a tail thicker than a broom handle and front nippers reared in anger the size of 50c pieces. I thought it strange to see one so high up, even though there has been a lot of rain of late. It may have been washed out of its' home or just looking for a mate and taking the oportunity of the weather to get moving.

All the gullys I passed by were cascading falls and the flat cattle and cane fields were inundated. Turning off Reserve Creek Road onto Round Mountain Road was quietly pleasant. When I approached the freeway overpass up ahead was quite a large and deep expanse of water across the road. No worries, ride on. Getting half way was fine but the second part took the water over the main crank and I felt a bit like I was churning water getting nowhere with my shoes filled with cold water.

I felt like going a little further so turned down Kanes road back to Cudgera Creek and onto Pottsville to ride a further 18km. I left Pottsville just toward the end of twilight and arrived home happy a little after dark, back along the Coast Road and interchanging on occassion the bike path.

The water crossing seemed to affect the gear changes a little. After making the crossing the down-shifting seemed to become a little sticky but the upshift was unaffected. So it was where able, down 2 up 1 to get a clean change. Quite annoying!

Keep Rolling

Just an entry to remember this site exists! and to add and another to http://life-cycle.blogspot.com/
and another to http://treadly.thingoid.com/

Out-a-sorts

Today's ride saw me trundle down to Hastings Headland on the "bitsa"...  what greeted me was an inviting ocean. The swell was clean and mellow, a very, very light ENE blowing, the temperature 24°C... and I thought why not! So rode home and changed into my mothballed "springsuit wetty" and grabbed my much neglected board and rode back down, board under my arm, for a pleasant paddle before riding home again before the temperature began to fall. 20km's in all...

While drying off I watched a couple of whales making their way North for some winter birthing.

Turn Turtle

Well put together the PEAK and Royce-Union adding a new front derailleur needed to be a top pull, also replaced the crank bearings ( a hammer worked well as I was ditching the arms) and got Jeff from Caba Cycles to replace the Rear wheel Bearing I dont have the tools to pull clusters or peddle arms later.... Anyway did the adjusting of breaks brakes and all the gear indexing and finally the seat and bar positions... took it for a few circuits of the yard and all seemed cool after a few tweaks so decided to take it for a short circuit. On the way home I bumped into Mark and a mate of his out doing some trail riding, both covered in mud and crap for their efforts, they were going to return over Towners Road and after a quick think I thought it would be good to complete a test ride on a very cheap Junk Pile MTB, (now calledthe "bitsa") with a bit of a bush-bash... It took the gravel climb well and I kept the speed down, just in case????, on the descent. After getting to Jim T's place we started on the "private" section of Towners and all was cool until I tried to get past a simple prone fence post obstacle. I was riding with a pair of strap peddles Joy had picked up at the tip and I had forgotten! Anyway the front wheel came to a stop against the post and I went to put my foot down.... I picked myself up after a somersault with the bike attached to my feet coming to rest on my back... no damage me or the bike... little dirty that's all and a good laugh. Mark was behind me and got a good view from there and helped me by getting the bike off the top of me.. lying like a turtle on my back in the mud!

The bike held up it just requires a clean and some minor adjustments after the cables, brakes and bearings have settled in etc

The most important thing is my dismount was not painful when I actually deliberately tried!

Solitude Not Quite

Just got back from a cold and sticky pre midnight 20k ride. The chill was very noticable in shorts and t-shirt. The old lubrication on the chain proved annoying as the gear changes were noticably sluggish and riding over 21kms/hr was cold. The wind was a thick light westerly. It was only on the 5km coast road stretch that I saw any other movement 2 cars going the otherway even the overpasses of the freeway were clear of traffic.

Nearly the whole way around the circuit the reflected light from the near full moon allowed me to read the computers readout quite clearly!

Good Job, Not falling down

Last Saturday Jeff, from Cabarita Beach Cycles, asked me for a hand to help him load and later unload his new shop fittings, which loo good and are very functional. Only took an hour or so and no injuries sustained except for Jeff who managed to have a sliding cabinet door slam close onto his thumb and with his young daughter present he managed to withhold the obligotory expletive! Well held!

On a ride the weekend before I also managed to knock a bit of bark off my right knee and elbow. Well it's embarrassing but... Riding slowly up Reserve Creek Road toward Kanes Road I/the front derailleur decided to change to a non-existent cog when I shifted down once too often!  I attempted to re-engage the chain and with the little momentum I had I right turned across the slope of the hill and continued to turn the peddles hoping the chain would take up... Next thing I knew I was laying sprawled on the ground having made no effort to arrest my fall. Without clips or straps quite the stupid thing to do... live and learn then repeat. Healing well now.

I have used my spare time Autumn pruning the beautiful, though massive, out-of-control and overgrown Boganvillia creeper near my front gate. Now I have given myself a mild case of RSI from using the 'ratchet pruning shears' to cut up 2 heaped trailers full and 3 stationwagons packed to the roof to take to the green waste depot (they don't come and collect it here Tweed Shire Council's reason supplied: not enough demand in that area... Oh! I get it! A Catch22 excuse.) 

Back to bikes, I finally took my tired old MTB rear wheel down to Cabarita Beach Cycles to get the long needed new bearing fitted. I need to get a couple of tools if I am going to continue to ride cheaply. A peddle crank arm puller and a rear screw-on cluster remover (cause I use cheap equip) so I can replace these bearings when they require it. I bought a set of allan keys to go with the chain breaker and spoke spanner. If I plan on traveling with all this equipment and spares I will need a support vehicle just to carry it all. Might require a re-think here! Might be better off staying home, nah! just kidding.

Also I have stripped the Aluminium Frame and repacked and replaced the crank bearings next task buy a top pull 3-speed front deraileur to suit this particular frame. Then I can transfer all the other kit from the slightly too large "Old Peak MTB"... I must ask Jeff...