A sunny day in Melbourne is one thing. A sunny day in Melbourne, mid-winter AND on a Sunday is a riding oppurtunity not to be missed!

The Peugeot road bike had been dusted off and a mysterious puncture repaired. ‘Mysterious’ because the bike was fine and had been sitting on carpet for months. It wasn’t even due to heat expanding the air in the tube because I’d let most of the air out.. one of those little mysteries, I guess.

Since March, before visiting Europe, I’d not ridden anything except the singlespeed GT. Gears, skinny tyres and dropbars (bars not bears!) were about to become a novelty!

I originally wanted to do the 100k “Springvale Loop” (preparation for an as yet unplanned Melbourne to Mildura “tour”) but I had other stuff I needed to do and didn’t want to spend that much time on the bike. Solution? Climb a nearby hill – the “1 in 20” to be precise.

It was windy but the road bike was obviously a lot more aero than the GT and the gears were fun (yes, I DO remember how to use them!).

The 1:20’s 7k took a slow (not my slowest) 23:50. Numerous muscles, apparently unused on the SS, really let me know they were there – it was a painful return to the climb.

Quite a few other roadies were out and most of them were nodders. Bonus.

The descent was into a reasonable headwind so my max down the tourist road was only just over 60kph.

Sore triceps. Sore knees. Sore back. I think I’ll have to do some more of that – bring on the sun! 🙂

Ride Stats:

Distance: 38k

Total Time: 1hr 35min

“1 in 20”: 23min 50sec

Max Speed: ~61kph (into headwind)

I decided to take the wheels off my “NotAGibson” track bike and fit them to Vegemite, hoping to ride it today. Nuh uh!

The front wheel was too tight in the forks so I filed down the dropouts a little and in it slipped.

The back wheel was a little trickier, having never actually removed a track rear wheel before.

– Loosen wheel nuts to give some chain slack

– Drop chain off sprockets

– Remove wheel from bike

– Panic because I have no tool to fit the lockring groove

– Find the lockring is ‘actually’ finger tight and remove it by hand (reverse thread spins opposite to normal)

– Use chainwhip to remove cog

I thought the Miche groupset included a lockring. It turned out to be a splined mounting ring for easy cog removal.

Before realising this, I panic, looking at a cog with no thread that would surely not fit onto the threaded hub. Then I found this site: Jeff Noakes “Potentially Useful Cycling Information” which explained that, what I thought was a lockring, actually goes onto the hub first and the splined cog sits on top of that. It was lucky that this setup didn’t need a chain whip because it didn’t fit the fatter Miche teeth anyway!

The whole lot is then held on with the normal lockring (note: removing skin from fingers is not actually necessary at this stage).

Now the real problem becomes apparent:

Being a road frame, with longer chainstays, the track chain included isn’t long enough!

The chances of finding a suitable chain right now are slim, but I’ll head to the shop and see what happens..

The “Vegemite” street fixie is back from the powdercoaters and has had some bits fitted to it in Stage 3:

Vegemite – Stage 3

Previous Stages:

Vegemite – Stage 1

Vegemite – Stage 2

Last night, peak hour, Burke Rd north-bound.

I ride up behind a woman riding with no lights and no helmet! At first I pass, thinking to myself “If you’re that stupid, to hell with ya!”.

Stopped at an intersection I told her she needed lights on her bike. She explained that they were stolen today along with her helmet. She said she was stopping at Whitehorse Rd. and catching a tram home.

I said I would ride behind her because I didn’t want to see a her killed!

No doubt she thought I was a psycho (hey, most people do 😉 ), but I figure it’s better than leaving her to get squished.

I leave her on the footpath to lock her bike and catch the tram as I turn towards home, thinking to myself “my good deed for the day, done”.

Problem was I couldn’t help but think she might have been fibbing to me simply because she was busted without proper gear.

There didn’t appear to be anywhere for a rear light as her seatpost was all the way down. I think I’ve been in the city too long – my faith in humans has been depleted I guess. 😛

Anyway, I hope she made it home safely, however she traveled and I hope she scores some new lights soon!

The rest of the ride involved me busting a lung chasing a workmate in his car and an guy on a older racer. Ah, fun! 🙂