Wednesday, 15 October 2008

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"]The Shogun Samurai Commuter[/caption]

2 comments:

rob said...

Hey TCT, good project, CW's often have some neat stuff to help, manages to get a set of Campy Athena Ergos from them a few years back and build up a Steel framed Kennedy with discraded record groupset, and some old Shimal road wheels, turned into a sweet ride, 8spd, and superb for a coffe cruise.... rebuilds are great right!... anyway, thats not the point of my contact, I use to live up on the Tweed and wondering what is going down up there advocacy, facillities and general attitude wise for biccylists, I know some of the tradies are tri guys, so maybe the tradie / ute anti bike scene in other places isnt so obvious ... justwondering! :), wouldnt mind catching up on the next trip for a ride... have plenty of relos there and manage a vist a few times each year...cheers, ride on

R
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fingers said...

Gidday Rob,
Advocacy! Around here your kidding aren't you? That's for the big cities, not here, tongue in cheek!

Attitudes by tradies and every other driver is the same here as in the city (as I read) just a slight difference and that is there is less peak hour traffic lasting for a shorter duration. But that said, the drivers can and generally do drive faster and thus expect to always drive faster and they display the attitude of “a treadly just isn't appropriate for anybody to commute on!” Discussions with workmates, neighbours and mates about utility cycling, generally, results in all the usual excuses, especially distance and danger!

The future situation can be exemplified by the high school bike racks they are basically empty. Also the major shopping centres have maybe 4 or 5 bike parking places in invisible locations that are usually empty or maybe contain one or two bikes. (That is except for the small Kingscliff Shopping Centre where there are racks outside each entrance doorway).

The local BUG’s are interested in road racing not utility cycling. The local bike shops are interested in selling BMX and coastal cruisers etc. I have not heard of any bike friendly workplaces but am open to being proved wrong on this one! You can see from the number of submissions to TSC on the shires own site

No worries about catching up for a cruise when you are up this way.
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