Monday, December 31, 2012

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












Thursday, December 20, 2012

Rando power station


new dyno hub wheel
and lights for Jo
fitted and wired up


one day soon however
those wires will disappear inside the frame
and narry a cable tie will be seen

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Shogun girls' MTB


an opp-shop find
lots of nice details for a budget bike
like biopace chainrings
exage hubs and araya rims
and Shimano 200EX long cage rear derailleur
love the cable routing through the down tube brace most of all.

a nice, relatively light bike

Monday, December 10, 2012

Coffee pays for new dynamo wheel

by buying one of these...


 and thereby avoiding having to pay one of these...


I was able to purchase this.
try it.
avoid cafes altogether and see how much you save in a year.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

the lovely tubes


saw this in Brunny and had to stop
a really nice, unusual Dutch mixte
with lovely curves

the thing that really gets me though is the integrated rear rack


patina looks
accelerated
by human hand
but still somehow aesthetically appealing
not sure how much rust protection it's giving
but obviously the owner's not precious
which is an attitude I'm kind of jealous of


divine chain guard



never seen a twin top tube follow that kind of curve.
just lovely.
wish the other bike wasn't chained to it.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Supa Sport finished


finally done
frame bands, tubing spec decal
and chain-stay aerospaces.
complete as it will ever be


big pictures natch
click on them



Thursday, November 8, 2012

TA water bottle holder


not only period correct and all that
but dashedly clever too.
I thought I couldn't have a bidon cage on my down tube
because of the competition from the Simplex Competition
in other words
the lever wouldn't work, would hit against the bottle
but look


sneaky indent in water bottle fits lever prefectly

Thursday, November 1, 2012

How to stop a handlebar bag from wobbling


jam your toolbag onto the decaleur
especially good if you have an Ideale saddle
with no bag loops

in the past I kept me toolbag strapped to the inside of the seatstays
on top of the rear mudguard
this was fine but it made it hard to see
what gear I was in
and I occasionally hit it with my heel.

here it stays out of the way until needed.
mightn't work with rear opening handlebar bags
like Velo Orange and Giles Berthoud

Routens Randonneuse with white Grand Bois Hetres


just as the 
search engine optimised heading
says

replaced the old red pair after a rear brake block got diagonal
and chewed through the side-wall
!
that's problem with panniers
can't keep an eye on things.

white looks much better on this frame.

what's the difference
between a
randonneur and a randonneuse anyway?
one's a bloke and the other's a sheila?

beautiful small bike


seen outside a doctor's surgery
very nice moulton
campag centaur 10 speed 
miche sealed bearing hubs
brooks saddle
caradice saddle bag


me I'm a bargain hunter
but part of me admires
the determination
certainty 
and wealth
of someone
who just goes out and buys the bike
they want








Sunday, October 28, 2012

why helmets are important for cyclists


...in Melbourne anyway.
two words:
swooping Magpies.
these two three indentations stab marks
were from successful
"hits"
from an irate springtime magpie.
they're such a common problem there's even a google map of where known swoopers live.

you can see the magpie's beak was slightly open
when it hit.


actually I think those are two hits close to each other
one very shallow and the other much deeper.

scariest thing
even scarier than the fact I was riding on a busy arterial road at the time

scary arterial road in question. note complete lack of even pretend bike lanes

is that the trajectory of the attack
meant the maggie would have pierced my temple

thanks be to helment.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Dad



    
  
              無











dad died last week




Pet hate


bikes being portaged on cars.
if you haven't got kids
this should never happen.