Signs on the road to Beauty

yeah it's only 26 km.

but 7 of those took me 45 min

obligatory shottie abuse

great bit of bronze casting

Spot the King of the Mountain...

He took a cut in pay but was immortalised on a plaque

and a testimonial.

Which made it all worthwhile.

cyclists face many risks on the road, and now we have a sign that recognises that fact.
pissed pogo-ists and skiiing kangaroos wouldn't have been in my top three however.

bogong is right in front of you

the hospital is straight ahead actually
see the stripey building?
that's the hospital

romantic lens-flare because Bogong Ave is drenched in nostalgia

a failed, albeit rather lovely, tourism experiment, repeatedly for sale.

the experiment was they thought there might be tourists

now it's just fodder for this blog.

Tawonga Gap or Bright Gap?

depends which side of the mountains you grew up on.
wasn't sure I'd make it, but did.
more pics to follow.

New randonneur (or randonneuse) bling

recently collected parts
where will they go?
on Jo Routens or something new...?

Way out west

not something you see on this blog much,

a bike with me next to it.

little bit of Frisco

in Moonee Ponds

one of my favourite bits of the 

Super Mario Kart Bike track

"slow down" is not an idle threat

that's one fucking tight corner

and checkout the overhang

and the rickety-ness

the galactic shute over Citilink

and half way across
Moonee Ponds Drain Creek Drain on the left
Citilink on the right
and a fuck-off wall in between

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.