Getting my name taken off the Australian electoral roll.. makes me feel even more hippy-like than before! haha
You will never find me again Mr. Government!! haha!
More trip goodies
Expecting to buy one of the OnGuard(?) cables from Croydon Cycleworks I was a little disappointed to see only the 10ft long version. “A bit too long for my needs”, I thought. I was pretty surprised when Mick reached under the Magic Desk and pulled out a 7ft Kryptonite cable! Exactly what I was after! He doesn’t even stock Kryptonite!! “I’ll add it to your tab..” and that was that! Yay!
Also hit Cycle Science in Mitcham and bought a Deuter “Trail” handlebar bag for $129.95.
Drowning sorrows.. but still looking for a tasty brew?
Can I suggest..
Krypto Night
Bought myself a Kryptonite U-Lock from Cecil Walker ($109.95AUD) and will see Mick for a 7ft cable tomorrow. I kinda want my bike to remain in my possession while I’m in Europe..
Also bought a Cateye Enduro wiring kit ($22.90) to replace the busted one on the Avanti. I mean, it’ll be fitted to the GT but it’ll use the speedo from the Avanti..
RR: Lang Lang Road Race
Okay, this isn’t a race report. I was a corner marshall.. ๐
This is the view from my corner..
Wheels of Justice
Toilet Theory #1 – Techno, The Thinking Man's Music
Techno is the thinking man’s music. It has no lyrics, save for the occasional vocal sample. It is simply a collection of tones strung out over repeating percussion. With little lyrical content the listener is free to think of their own words, free to attach moods to the tones, free to solve that calculus problem that stumped them at uni five years ago..
The rantings and whinings of the artist are not included. Techno does not burden me with someone else’s lost loves. Emotion can certainly be construed through clever combination of sounds, but it does not ‘tell me’ what to be happy/miserable/puzzled about.. I get to do all that myself. Hence, techno is the thinking person’s music.
RR: BR45 – Strictly Hardcore
RR: BR45 – Strictly Hardcore
Hardcore riders ๐
DaveB
hippy
(TT’ers excused, where were all you softies!!??)
2.5hrs sleep and two previous nights on the piss – perfect preparation for a ride like this!!
Wake and it’s raining. Great! I like nothing better than to ride off into the rain. I decide to wear a polypropylene undershirt for the first time (practice for Europe!) and I thought it was cold enough to warrant knee warmers and arm warmers too. Clamped the rat-tail rear mudguard on to keep my arse dry(ish).
I’m running late so no brekkie (last night’s Beam doesn’t count does it?) so I just grab a couple of fruit bars to eat on the way.
Bike felt a little strange.. get to Whitehorse/Mitcham Rds and sure enough, that crazy valve problem I had last week is happening again and the front tyre is flat.
“Of course it’s happening again you idiot! You didn’t change the frickin’ tube!!” (Oops..)
So I do a quick front tube swap, getting myself covered in black rim crap in the process, and proceed to Doncaster Rd.
Spot DaveB riding east and I pretend not to notice him – so I can just ride home and go back to bed!
“Nah!”.. I chase him down and off we go.
No downhill speed runs this week because 1) I notice my brakes have almost NO pad left and in the wet, they simply don’t work! and 2) I seemed to have rubbed something into my left eye and spend half the ride tearing up – blurry vision not so good for riding fast (couldn’t see through glasses so they were off for the duration of the ride).
I know where ‘the climb’ timing points are now so I started the clock (just after the bus stop) and left DaveB to his PB attempt. HR stayed around 180bpm for this ITT section. I didn’t want to push it any harder because I was dehydrated, very tired and could just ‘tell’ I would cramp hard if I overcooked it. Arrived at ‘the rock’ in 14m 31s. At the top, there was a guy and his Cannondale (with cool orange ano hubs and orange ano rims!). He had punctured just before the top and was using C02 cylinders to reinflate. The first one messed up – lucky the second one worked! ๐
Dave arrives and I ask him his time. His reply? “ah hah ah hah ah hah”
No, he wasn’t laughing.. he’s trying to suck down air, as if tomorrow there wont be any left! The thought “Fark.. I don’t know CPR!” crossed my mind! :S
Eventually he regains his composure and is damn happy to tell me he’s KILLED his previous PB of 16m 50s with a new PB of 15m 40s!! Nice one Dave!!
We roll off and turn left at the round-a-bout, doing the nice, ‘lots of downhill’ BR option. I try for a high speed down Foote St. but can only manage 87.3kph. Not sure if it was the climb TT or the alcohol that stopped me cracking 88kph?
Say “adios” to Dave after some more riding and I head home, glad I managed to drag my sorry arse out of bed.
In the shower at home I notice my legs now have three lines, “untanned”, “tanned” and “tanned and covered in road grime” hehe. It only takes 5-10mins for the feeling to come back to my toes, so it’s not “proper cold” yet..
Stats:
Distance: 70k on the dot
Time: 2h 47m
Heartrate: 148/187 (avg/max)
Speed: 27.5/87.3kph (avg/max)
Cadence: 94/160rpm (avg/max)
Eugene McGee – Killer
There once was a prick called Eugene,
Who drove a bike-crushing machine,
They let him off lighter
For killing a rider
Despite that he fled from the scene.
– TB
There once was a lawyer named McGee
Who thought he could kill and then flee
They let him off light
Someone should set that right
Where’s the justice in this country?
– not TB
GT SS "EuroTourer" Rebuild Part 2
Carried on with the build today and fitted SPD/Flat pedals, LX shifters, LX cassette, LX brake levers, new cheapass front wheel (Joytech hub & Zac 19 rim), new(ish) Vredestein “StreetRazor” slicks, new Ritchey WCS grips, my existing Axiom pannier rack.
The trickiest part of the build today was running the cables and tuning the gears. I don’t do either of these tasks much so it took a while. I also seem to have a tendency to run the cables the wrong way around so derailers don’t sit properly, or leave grommets out so I have to remove and reinstall a cable four times before I get it right.. another plus for singlespeeds.. shuddup! ๐
Once all the gears were on and tuned and the brakes worked, I swapped the old front wheel for the new one and swapped the reflective Vredestein tyres off my Avanti for the original (worn) slicks. Took the bike for a spin.. COOL!! This thing rides super nimble and the gears and brakes are SMOOOOOOOOOTH! What a beast – GT had this (cheap, remember?) frame dialled to my spec’s or something when they built it.. it’s frickin’ AWESOME!
Back inside, I spaced out the brakes and shifters properly (decided to stay with the 670mm riser bar rather than go for skinnier flat bars) and fitted the Ritchey WCS foam grips. Well, actually Quentin fitted the grips – and suffered great pain doing so! The grips were sprayed with metho to help them slip on, and slip on they did, squashing poor Q’s finger under the shift lever. Oops! Thanks for drawing blood for my bike man!
To spoil the bike’s subtle grey on grey looks.. I fit the Axiom rack. I hate racks! But, I’m not carrying everything around Europe in a backpack so a rack is necessary. Used some longer brackets than the ones I had (black too) so the rack could be pushed back further. Another test ride.. schweet! This thing rawks! I like this more than the Avanti I think.. maybe I should take the Avanti and leave this one behind safely locked up? ๐
Have some SKS guards here that look like they might fit, so she’ll look even more daggy soon.. ๐
Check the current state (GT – Groovy Tourer?):
