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...

tribulations rather than trials

OK OK it's been a while since my last...

Anyway lots have been happening but just some to do with two wheels.

 Lets start after the ride through the tunnel, so long ago.... the Tweed council has had a bi-annual rubbish throw-out and unusually there was no rain during the period of local residents building-up their piles along the side of the roads through out the Tweed Coast. Being a long time "sifter & sorter" of  these treasure troves. I went for a number of rides looking for particular spare parts. My right hip has been playing up a bit lately and I have been thinking (and hope) a smaller frame might help by causing less pain when I am dismounting.

The piles of "trash"  were sprinkled with a large number of badly maintained chain store low end MTB's but at one I noticed a medium/low end Royal Royce-Union Aluminum Frame that might fit the bill. It was kitted with badly worn FIS components and A set of very damaged  RSA front forks (bent backwards to an angle that allowed the old owner to reverse them and ride the bike that way!). Anyway I hoisted it over my shoulder and carried it home, riding the 6km without too much trouble or pain. I also found a pre-loved though now neglected Apollo track bike fitted with "Shimano 600"  thoughout, crank, headset, derailleurs, hubs, selectors and brakes. Even though the frame was very rusty from neglect... It's now taking up some space in the shed... maybe someone might see the beauty of the classic gear... maybe not? but I felt I had to save it from the compactors and the prospect of it becoming just a bit more landfill. If space in the shed becomes an bigger issue with my better half I might have to put it on e-bay for an antique collector to see...

Shit! just lost about 60 lines of drivel after a spellcheck. I cannot be bothered re-typing it and so will post this now. Gawd it happened again! and Again! Now I will need to check out that problem!

OK bugger it was mod_security2

Awoke to the Itch

Yesterdays ride was with Chris and Mark. (all the others invitees found other things to do) The start was somewhat different as everyone prepared for the rain, quite a lot of rain had been forecast, but the ride was completed without even a shower! (at least for Mark and I on the other hand Chris  rode through a southerly headwind and shower just to get here from the coast).

Rode off with Chris arriving a little late after picking up a puncture at Casuarina, the start of the mechanical incidents! While riding up Cudgera Creek road Chris stopped a couple of times to snap off a couple of photos with his camera. The small gullys were still streaming with water after the previous nights rain but it was decided to still take Waba Road through Moobal forrest up to the Tweed Valley Way on the journey to Tunnel Road at Stokers Siding.

Waba Road started out uneventfully athough a little slippery with traction becoming quite slipper at times. The further along the track we rode the thicker and taller the grass growing on the track became. It eventually forced me to get out of the saddle and push the bike through a distance of about 500 meters. While I was pushing Mark on his mountain bike and Chris on his hybrid were able to struggle through, Chris managed to complete this particular climb but Mark succumbed to a mechanical failure, his chain broke! The walk was to reveal itself as a curse in itself, and hence the title of this post!

So at the top we spent about 45 minutes fixing his chain. Luckily Chris had his chain breaker with him! While the repair was undertaken it was noticed that Mark and I, the walkers had picked up a fair few hitchhikers. Leeches. Covering the exposed skin on our lower legs and as was later revealed at Burringbar inside my sox.  No problem at the time pulling them off and monitoring my legs while the repair was performed. OK with the chain reconnected we attempted to move off again. Less than a meter was ridden before the chain broke again and a further 4 links were removed to reconnect it. The greatly foreshortened chain forced Mark to complete the ride without the ability to use all his gears thankfully there were only another two short ascents to go before we reached the "flat" of the railway line off Tunnel Road.  

Mark was unable to shift to high gears and so even his descent of the range was slow as he couldn't even peddle through the gentle slope sections, he had to coast all the way. Chris and I waited in the now welcoming shade of a tree, half way to Tunnel road turn-off.

It was good that Mark knew the way onto the railway line. We needed to open an unmarked gate and ride along a mowed grass stretch of ground on the other side it until it petered out 500 meters further on. This is when we met the ballast and sleepers for the first time, the surface we were to ride and walk over for the next 5+ kilometers both before in and on the other-side of the tunnel. The line is becoming quite overgrown with weeds in places and only short stretches were free of any regrowth. The peddling over the ballast was bumpy and slow, 6-8 kmph.

Just as we were about to enter the tunnel Chris discovered  an open drain covered by tall grass that his front wheel managed to 1/2 disappear into! He was not hurt unlike on Waba Road when he had came off at slow speed when a long branch hidden in the grass decided to trip his bike! This was not to be the last such event I managed to fall over on two further occasions riding on the railway line as we approached the trestle bridge and V tracks sprang out of the grass at me and this is where, I think, I buckled my rear wheel!

Back to the ride! We shared the lead and the person upfront cleared the Green Tree snakes from the track for those following, bouncing, in single file behind, Mark scared three and I rode over two others!

The tunnel was an experience. It was quite hard to see properly inside as it was very dark, derrrr, but the ends were, in that darkness, blindingly light and unavoidable to your eyes. This meant continually re-training your eyes to look at the roof and walls again after walking on only a few meters more. Chris rode the full length and walked back in whereas Mark and myself walked through pushing our bikes. Now don't take this too literally but in many places the tunnels surfaces were covered by glowworms! it appeared as though you were looking at a clear dark sky! with hundreds of stars glowing in that inky darkness! In the safety wall recess' you could see with the aid of a torchlight many very-small bats hanging from soot covered concrete surfaces. For the majority of it's length the tunnel was quite dry but near the southern end the tunnel wall and ceiling was covered with running water pouring and cascading through the now porous concrete. In places it was forcing it's way out as though from a common garden hose!  The sight was as impressive to me as the bats and glowworms inhabiting this man-made cave!

We travelled on over the bumpity-bumpity surface on the southern side of the tunnel, here the regrowth was quite a lot more significant. Maybe the traffic was less on this side or the southern side of the range or something else was the cause it but it was noticeable. About 1/2 way to the now unused railway level crossing on Upper Burringbar Road we found a clear stretch of line and sat down to eat an uneventful lunch.

Farther along the track after lunch I nearly stepped on a meter long Goanna that was quite unperturbed by out meeting not moving so-much as an eyelid as we passed by. At the trestle bridge we all proceeded to tackle the crossing in our own way but no-one attempted to ride! The gap to the ground below through the lattice work of sleepers and beams was only a little disconcerting luckily the drop below was not more than 10-20 meters! 

Here we determined that time spent on repairs and the condition of Marks bike meant an attempt to find where Upper Burringbar road would lead would have to wait for another day! At the park in main street Chris and I took off our shoes to find a few freeloading leeches still sucking. Mark decided he would wait until he got home to do it. Here is where my back wheel buckle was noticed by Chris.

So we separated Chris taking the Tweed Valley Way over the range toward home Mark and I Cudgera Creek Road which we noticed had 6, yep counted them 6 cars encountered over the 5 kilometer gravel section, quite an unusual experience. Nearing the freeway entrance Mark said he was taking the flat way along the freeway as the climb over Cudgera without gears was quite an effort and achievement. I took Kanes road and rode contentedly home to round out 50kms taking almost 7 hours!!!!! Chris will have completed at least a 100 more by the time he gets home!

All in all a good days ride! I'll post more if I think of it later....

I remember now. The reason for the heading the leeches! and me waking at 6:00am to a desperate need to scratch!

To Chris and Mark, Thanks for sharing the experience. and thanks for the sunscreen Chris my face appreciates it!

For some images and another ride report visit Chris's Blog Life Cycle