This looks like an amazing ride, and I hope that the plans to get better cycling infrastructure in the area works New Zealand: Forgotten World Highway | Cycling Tips Cycling around New Zealand has always been a dream of mine but unfortunately I haven’t done much riding there. There’s really no excuse since it’s only a short flight from Australia… Read more →
rather than take a picture of mine, I’m being lazy and linking to the image on the Vivente website: I took it for a test ride today (leaving work slightly early) and it all feels good. The gearing is significantly lower than the Gemini – all this year’s Viventes have mountain-bike gearing whereas in previous years some had higher road… Read more →
Gemini, a photo by wamblicious on Flickr. I got a call from the bike ship yesterday. They found that both seat stays have developed a crack near the top. The metal narrows and flattens there at the braze point, and the worry is that the frame could collapse. It’s part of the original frame (as the only thing replaced in… Read more →
I’ve decided there’s three classes of riders, from slow to fast: people who walk up hills, me and everyone else. Danya came over to my place just before 7am – Duncan had left just before him and went straight to the start. At morning tea (Loftus) Danya got a text from him to say he’d got to the end and… Read more →
The Up And Coming Events section at the Integeo website has an item about me riding the ‘Gong. Of course, I was asked if I would like a mention, and of course, I said yes. Here’s the text Integeo’s Systems Administrator Eric Rose has been a fundraiser for the MS Society for almost 10 years. Once again, he’s taking part… Read more →
Late last week, I received the ride pack for the 2011 ‘Gong – my jersey (like I really need another one 🙂 ). Unfortunately, they forgot to include my lunch voucher, so I’ll have to contact the MS Society about that. The donation bar to the left doesn’t show much activity. Finding a cure for MS is a worthy cause,… Read more →
and you can all rush to sponsor me now 😉 I received an email early in the week stating that priority entries are now available, targeted at last years entrants. Once again, they’re capped at 10,000 riders, and the online entry states that a condition of entry is that you commit to fundraising $250, which is bound to spark a… Read more →
Last weekend, I started my testing of what was not waterproof on the bike. Firstly, I put a bowl with a brick in it in each liner bag and let it sink into a bucket of water. Within a minute there was a centimetre or so of water in the bowl in every case. I first suspected that the seal… Read more →
I’m home and back in the land of decent Thai food 🙂 Everything got wetter than I immediately saw in Coffs Harbour; it appears that the inner liner sacks have a life of about 15 years, and they’re looking a bit mildewy and damp. Water came through in all panniers to some degree, and then soaked into stuff at the… Read more →
My hope for a wet day came true. It must have rained all night and it was still teeming in the morning. I just focused on turning the pedals over as evenly as possible and on the road just in front of me. When I next looked around, 20km had passed. Water was centimeters over the road at Braunstone and… Read more →
Today was a good day. I left Casino at about 6:20 and the skies were overcast with temperatures in the low 20s all the way to Whiporie at about 9:45. After a milkshake and some of a burger I pushed on, making good time. The temperature increased but only to the high 20s. Skies were still overcast with intimations of… Read more →
I left Huonbrook at about 6:40, this morning. It was quite overcast so I didn’t put on sunscreen. By the time I reached the bottom of Montecollum it looked decidedly clearer and I applied some at the side of the road. However, it wasn’t until after Lismore that the skies really cleared enough for it to be necessary. The Goonengerry… Read more →
I’ve started using a new site for online cycle activity analysis – RideWithGPS – to try and get away from Garmin Connect. The new one is not as mature as GC, but has accurate maps instead of Microsoft’s poor substitute. It still doesn’t support all the features of the new FIT activity format – particularly temperature, in my opinion –… Read more →
I left Uki this morning at about 6:30 and shortly thereafter it bucketed down all the way along Smith’s Creek Road until I reached the hill. Like last time I had to walk up it, being nominally a 15% gradient. That said, there’s a sign on the Burringbar Range southwards that indicates a 15% gradient, but it’s certainly no more… Read more →
It seems wrong that a town just 20km or so from one of the major population centres of the far north coast is without mobile reception, but there you have it. I’m typing this up for transmission tomorrow. Today’s ride was hot and slow. Naughton’s Gap was an early indication of the overall tenor of the day; I crawled up… Read more →
I set off at about 6:30 and, apart from a little fog on the outskirts of Grafton, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It’s a boring ride in general from Grafton to Casino, with the main sights being roadkill and potholes, so I was pleased (for a while) to be diverted by the antics of my new Edge… Read more →
But it was overcast and sprinkling when I left Coffs. Sometime during the night it bucketed down (and apparently did in Grafton too) and the road was wet all the way to Coramba. The climb out of Coffs was hard again. Flicking through all the data fields on the edge, I noticed that there was a stretch of 11% gradient… Read more →
Traveling up north on the train today, I started reading Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia. It quite affected my perception of the new housing development north of Maitland. It was encroaching on old dairy farms, and I had this immediate impression of the estate as a new type of farm, where the farmers are in the mortgage business. The grass comes in… Read more →
It’s been about a week now since the new GPS arrived, and I’m mostly loving it. The unit comes packaged with the heart-rate strap and cadence/wheel sensor, and Aust/NZ topographic maps on an SD card; the maps are decent but I’d like to replace the basemap with the OSM CycleMap as the inbuilt ones are not cycle-friendly enough. DC Rainmaker… Read more →
