Monday, April 29, 2013

Ultrasonic bicycle chain cleaning 2






using just soap and water with a small amount of bleach.
residue on chain is easily rinsed off.


Thursday, April 11, 2013

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

Thursday, April 4, 2013

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