New noodles for VA Sport

finally tired of the extreme drop of the cinelli gyros,

so moved up to a new pair of nitto noodles

with their characteristic backward-sweeping tops.

shellacked, black cloth tape matches the very dark brown ideale 70 saddle.
black was often chosen for these bikes out of the factory.

in picture but difficult to make out is the Sugino 38t chainring.

"Moon" rear light

attaches to seat rails
so keeps seat post clear
USB rechargeable
excellent non-flashing mode
powerful enough for the jump to hyperspace

Why a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Right now the World's Biggest Fuckwit.
Well, top ten anyway.

This is not about "ideology"
it's about a young dude trying to impress his mates

new helments

the advantages of a leather saddle

you can put things underneath.

tool roll containing multitool, small shifting spanner, three tyre levers and patches
and spare tube
all stashed under the rails

Frame geometry - Routens and Aerospace Sport

getting curious about things like frame geometry

and in particular head and seat tube angles

next stop is working out fork offset

Finally. A semi-decent, mudguard-mounted taillight for bikes

the Spanninga Pixeo is an excellent, inexpensive solution to the problem 

of how to keep your seatpost

and/or packrack clear of taillight attachments.

being Dutch they do not flash, which is, sensibly, against the law in several European countries due to the distraction

and just general fucking annoyance 

of sitting behind a flashing LED in traffic.

runs on two AAA batteries, which means you can use rechargeables.

three thumbs up.

which makes it a bloody mystery why no-one in Aus stocks them.

I got them from here.

Ultrasonic bicycle chain cleaning 2

using just soap and water with a small amount of bleach.

residue on chain is easily rinsed off.

The mysterious art of dynamo wiring

this lovely pic taken from here

Cinelli bars on a Viscount

pity about the Cane creek hoods I know, but hey, this is temporary...

yes I've finally put drop bars on the beloved Sport.
it came about from perving at all the 700c randoneuses in this book.
so I got an old Cinelli Campione del Mondo bars and stem
these bars are period-correct in terms of shape—
deep drops and all
I would have preferred a Nitto Noodles or something with a shallower drop
but the LBS didn't have them in 25.4 to fit the Viscount stem
and this is a cheap test since I already had everything bar the tape.

covered with some brown cloth tape and shellac:
looks the same as leather tape, more long-lasting and cheaper by far.

the cables are NOS first gen Dura Ace
big thick stonking things that could stop a truck

looks good n'est pas?
the ride is a bit strange, as it always is with a new cockpit
handling is less sure
but the range of hand positions is greater.

here's the old set-up with Nitto North-road bars and Viscount stem

clean your bearings the ultrasonic way

my new love
the ultrasonic
no hydrocarbonic solvents
no fumes
just soapy water and
bvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
you have never seen a bike chain so clean as when one of these babies has seen to it

Goldfields

rode from Maldon to Castlemaine and back this Easter

posing in front of this old, old house in Muckleford.

all these pics are big, double-click jobs btw

littered with mine shafts

and amazing rock formations

that patina only took a few hundred thousand years

I'm sure if you tried you could sandblast it to get those unsightly blemishes off it

the whole area is incredibly dry

with no large water source other than artesian

and the trees seemingly dead

but then new growth like this

the forest so grey it creates a fog in your peripheral vision

a haunted, unsettling place

perfectly suited to these guys...

you might see the grey kangaroo looking back at you

but can you see his friend hopping away?

simply awesome adaptation to their environment

Shellacked bartape

I've used cloth bar tape and shellac on several of my bikes now
and it has been great.

The cloth tape on the VA Sport above was originally bright red.

Durable, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.
I don't care that it's not completely period-correct.

This tape was bright yellow before shellacking.

I also found that the shellac is strong enough to hold the tape in place without the need for

electrical tape or twine to bind it off at the end.

I especially like how it wears.
侘寂
or wabi sabi the Japanese call it.

Herse book arrives!

it arrived yesterday

complete with a dent in the side of the box

!

after all JH's palaver about his custom-made foam corners

and box testing

I was a bit concerned

corners were fine

ah, those famous corners...

but what about the edges?

phew!

and a lovely book it is too.

Oh the places you'll go, again the Prom

Wilson's Prom again
southernmost point in the Australian mainland
stunning at all times of day
6am is pretty good though
different day

goowarn
clickit

Oh the places you'll go

in this case the Darby Saddle
on Wilson's Promontory
time - about 6am

Mullum Mullum

is the name of a creek and a tollway tunnel in eastern Melbourne.
here is the bike track that was built around the tunnel
in the distance beneath the gumleaf-bedecked, architectural folly feature
is the tunnel entrance
pretty big pic if you clic

the tunnel was built to save the creek

a magical place to ride on a cool summer's morning