Showered Sunday Scooter

Today's ride was to see if it was possible to get a loop happening through the Mooball National Park, entrance and exit. Mark and I met around Wattie Bishop Road and rode through to Palm Vale valley along Round Mountain and Reserve Creek Roads then did a gate open, I was a bit overly concerned but Mark thought it was cool so off we treadled up up up through a couple of nice stands of rainforest and a few banana patches pushing and pedalling when required. A gnat away from the top of the final climb Marks previously bent and then shop straightened rear derailleur dropper snapped, it might of been a stick. We broke the chain and tried to set it up as a fixed gear but there was no way of getting the correct tension too loose or too tight, when it was too tight it snapped. So Mark had an expensive scooter!

After this it was not going to be possible to turn towards Wabba Road exit as previously planned. As it was all downhill from the top of Smarts Road where we emerged mark made the DNF call to his misses and we free-wheeled to the bottom and exited the ride at Reserve Creek Road to await his lift. I eat the bit of the lunch I had brought for the loop ride as we waited and prepared to confront the now darkening sky and the climb home over the Reserve Creek hill. About 150m down along the road the first few spits arrived so on with the rain jacket and cruised over the top at nine kilometres an hour.
When I arrived at the old hall in Reserve Creek the rain dissipated and I rode home the rest of the way thoroughly wet but over completely dry roads.
Hope Cabba Cycles has a dropper for Mark to ride the Minyan 40 kilometre next weekend.
All up 45 kilometres with a bit of climbing and a bit of rain!

[caption id="attachment_384" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="looking back into palmvale"][/caption]

Just found this paragraph that I thought i had lost so posted all this again

Hoodoo Mooball Today's planed search for a Mooball National Park circuit ended in a DNF for Mark, more on that later. We, Mark and I planned to take the Youcan and his mtb over the Clothiers Creek Quarry hill and then into the Palm Vale valley to attempt a climb to Condong Range Road and then out to Wabba Road for the return ride down Cudgera Creek Road etc

Salted Battery

Decided to kill two birds with the one stone today. Rode to South Tweed after fixing the "easy wheel" on the garage gate this morning. As I was going past "Battery World" I dropped in an picked up a new 12V 23AE battery for the wireless sender and a new 3V CR2032 for the computer receiver. Not to bad after 26 months of use, but still a quarter the price of a replacement cheapo HUFFY13 bicycle computer. The real reason for the trip was to get my timetable for the next two weeks of teaching, ughhhh!

The wind was a fairly constant NE-NNE about 8-10km/h. So not really any problem as a head wind nor that much assistance as a tail wind.

Only one "yobbo ute" incident on the way home so all up a pleasant 56km ride.

Well the teaching income will come in handy. I was researching DSLR cameras last night and found that I can use my Minolta AF reflex  lenses on Sony A200-A700 cameras (plus others). Which is really Great news! Now those $1000 investments will be able to stop gathering dust! If I get a DSLR body +$750.00

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...

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!

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]

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.

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!

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!