Monthly Archives: December 2004

A very singlespeed day..

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Dave from “One” mag just popped into the office and dropped off brand spanking new copies of ‘One – Issue 2’ as well as some back issues, stickers and postcards!

LEGEND!!

He also happened to have the ONEmag t-shirts (hot off another press) so I scored a “poo brown” one after scamming some money from El Seano.

Green was also available, but brown will hide the dirt better – I fall down too much. The design is an exploded schematic of Shimano’s first ever thumb shifter with a subtle ONE modification. Oh the irony!! 😉

$175 is what it would cost for GripSport to modify my GT’s dropouts (make ’em horizontal!) and a further $85 to powdercoat the frame.

Given the cost of the original bike, I’ll probably take Jon’s advice and stick with a tensioner of some sort, rather than a frame mod. We shall see..

Lets see if I can get something else singlespeed into my day..

I got my ENO hub

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White Industries ENO Eccentric Hub

Caught the ‘Tram Previously Known As No. 69’ (now No. 16.. bleh!) down Glenferrie Rd during lunch today. Jumped off outside Malvern Bicycles Plus, the home of Shifter Bikes. Shifter Bikes is run by Dan, the nutter who organised SSWC03 here in Oz.

He wasn’t there today, but my old mate Doug was and he knew exactly what I was in there for (Dan was probably bitching to him about me taking so long to pick up the hub! 😉 ). While I was there he showed me his mean purple commuter, a ’95 carbon Trek singlespeed also running an ENO. Talked about Project X, bikes and other shit. I eventually coughed up the cash, took from him that which was rightfully mine (i.e. I shutup bought the frickin’ hub) and left, wondering which bakery would get my business..

Glick’s(?) the kosher bakery for dessert (yeah I’m backwards) and boring ol’ Brumby’s for a sheppard’s pie.. mmm.. fresh bike parts and fresh bakery goods.. all I needed was beer..

White Industries ENO website: http://www.whiteind.com/eno.htm

White Industries ENO review: http://www.63xc.com/craid/whiteeno.htm

Kona 24hr Race Report(ish)

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Here’s some gibberish point-form notes that I might one-day turn into a proper race report.. ha!

Low-Mid 30’s (degC) most of the weekend. I had later and cooler lap first.

Lack of prep (road trained, no mtb’ing)

Black Snot from the dirt

Sore ribs from the OTB Killer stick (still sore a week later!)

Dust

Stubby holder great idea, beer even better 😉

Sid Taberlay lap times and crazy speed as he flew by me up long hill

Pinch flats on 2 laps (rigid ss understandable, hardtail – what the?! at the 2k to go mark too – nooo!!!)

Soooo many lollies!

Rested some more, sore ribs when lying down

Cool teammates

Guy falling off ramp at the start

Karate Monkey crash final lap – funny, max respect for the rigid/ss rider

Dust

Rocks

Nice people encouraging me and friendly passing (“take your time”)

Jukka (on our team last year) “Good Samaritan” award, pump, tube and multi-tool in one lap!

Solo efforts – Saul Britton 24 laps in 24 hours (actually 19)!!

9 laps Michelle Wallace!!

Shower – great.. I was sooo dirty!

Kids race was cool to watch

Running low on spare tubes (Paul I have one of yours!)

Saved the “finishing” beers for after I made the drive home.. how sweet were they!

BikeSoiler claiming to see scorpions but I only saw centipedes and spiders.. 😉

Stubby holders with drink were a frickin’ grouse idea!!

I heard the bike cleaning was great – Neil dropped in a $5 for their efforts

1:03 out of my first battery for the 10W helmet light. Goal is to finish a lap on one battery 🙂

Additional

“eddiec” wrote: “How’d your night-lap(s) go?”

Better than last year. I got 1:03 out of my VistaLite 10W NiMH before I had to change batteries. I pinch flatted right at the 2k to go sign – damn I was pissed off! You could probably hear my swearing at the camp.. 😉

Didn’t see any of the scorpions BikeSoiler was talking about but plenty of centipedes and some spiders. It was actually some good riding at night – I was moving well in the cooler temp..

“eddiec” wrote: “How many couches in the campsite?”

I brought three chairs, Phil had a foldout table/chair setup with 4 chairs as well as a bed thing, Ryan had chairs, Bikesoiler had chairs.. the point I’m trying to make is that we had enough chairs! 😉

Couches = 0. No room in the car for that bulk – I’ve got bikes to carry!

“eddiec” wrote: “See the guy on a rigid mtb with racks front ‘n back and drop bars…”

The guy on the touring bike? Yeah, there’s a pic of him on the website. I saw him coming in on one lap, spotted the drops and thought it might have been Dan on his cyclocross bike, but then I saw racks!! Nutter! 🙂

“eddiec” wrote: “Were you one of those intimidating types on the trainers in the transition area?”

I thought seriously about warming up but never did. We weren’t ever going to win it so there wasn’t much point. It might’ve made the initial climb a little more pleasant, but it wasn’t necessary. Besides, people might think I was ‘serious’!!

“eddiec” wrote: “who won the good Samaritan award and what for?”

hehe.. it was actually one of our team from last year’s race.. Jukka. He got it for giving away his pump, a tube and his multi-tool in one lap! The recipient of the multi-tool was also one of our team members from last year! Go Jukka! 🙂

FGP Pics: http://fullgas.fotopic.net/

hippy Pics: thehippy.net 2004 Kona24 gallery

Posted in MTB

Name that 80's UK bike courier show…

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A recent discussion on aus.bicycle reminded me of a television show that used to screen in Australia in the 80’s. It was aimed at teenagers (I think) and was set in a courier company operating in the UK somewhere.

The cast were early 20’s(?) and I think the first episode showed the cycle couriers racing a motorbike courier (could have been two cycles though) through town.

I think during the series the couriers got mixed up with some “bad people” and had to deal with them before everything ended happily ever after..?

I know this is totally vague, but it was a long time ago.

I’d love to know the name of the show…