All things 2 wheeled

I love motorcycles, I possibly love them more than push-bikes but haven't owned as many as I've ridden. Bike Boy's little brother recently bought a 2005 CBR1000RR in the Repsol colours and I have had the priveledge of riding said motorcycle a couple of weeks ago. The memory is still fresh in my mind of how magnificent twisting the throttle on a "litre bike" actually is. ZZzzt Zzzzzt and you're going well over the speed limit on the freeway, and I'm not exaggerating. This bike will do 100km/h in first gear, my brother has done it!

My brief tour around Albury/Wodonga gave me enough of a fright turning onto the new section of the Hume they've cut through the region. A really nice place to get lost on a bike to be honest with Bulla and Hotham within spitting distance and some nice roads in between. I spent a brief time just around my brothers place and thoroughly enjoyed myself. These days we're about the same size so thankfully I can borrow his gear.

The Ruby Inheritance

Last month Bike Boy went on a holiday to visit his family. While he was away he got back into the BMX world and rode his cousins bike around town for a bit. Bike Boy learnt that a 20 inch BMX frame probably isn't going to do him any favours and thought he'll stick to SSFG roadies.

So it was with great joy that Bike Boy's Grandfather informed him of a little family heirloom collecting dust in his shed, I give you "The Ruby":



It was my Great-Grandfather's track bike. There's a little cycling heritage in Bike Boy's family and it looks like it started here. He didn't actually own a car, just rode his bike everywhere but this was the one he raced on. I missed the pedals and crank as I was stoked about the detail on the frame more than anything but it was a fixed gear bike with a really weird set-up on the sprokets and chain. Traditional bars with little rubber grips right on the end of the bars (my Grandfather was messing around with it so he's turned them over) and a rear brake only.

Anyway this is now Bike Boy's project for the next little bit so stay tuned for updates on the restoration process. I'd love to convert it and ride modern gear but if you look at the front forks you'll see that there's no way you'd get a brake on them. Besides which, my Grandfather told me it's worth more if you keep the original parts on it so I'll settle with being able to ride it a couple of times then put it away in the shed, or hang it from the ceiling in my flat somehow. I've spoken to one of the local bike shops and they've recommended me to http://shifterbikes.com/ to start with (watch the audio when you do get to the site).

Safe riding.

Urban Scum Poker Hand Run

I love poker runs, but this year was almost a non-event. The Deluxe Bicycle club that ran last years event folded and it was looking like The Cup Day poker run was going to be called off. Luckily some friends of the group pitched in and we all went ahead as planned and assembled the Pedal Monkey krew.

Getting there proved a little tricky this time around as I took us one stop too far and we had to climb a pretty gnarly hill to get to the meeting place at the Darebin parklands. Alphington is definitely the better option. After registration we scored our course map and were on our way just after 11. The route this year was a little shorter but we hit the cobbles on the first section out of the park. It was a good reminder of what we came for.

The day went off without too many dramas, aside from a drop-in straight onto a tree root and a fairly spectacular stack from someone in our group, it was great. Low scoring hands were had by most of us and I don't think anyone in the group got better than a pair. The winning hand was 3 of a kind this year where as the year prior it was Aces full of 3's. Bike boy's hand was pretty miserable but not the worst on the day.

Around the Bay in a Day

So my best mate said we should do Around the Bay this year and so we set about assembling the group and organising transport and accommodation for the night before. Being relatively new to cycling longer distances we assembled a team for the 100km ride in from Sorento. No easy feat by all means but something the group felt more than comfortable of achieving in a day. For Bike Boy it was a breeze and even the one hill climb wasn't so horrible without gears. Yes Bike Boy rode a single-speed (48-16) for the outing. Whilst being suitably tired after the ride Bike Boy is condfident in tackling bigger distances next year, but on the other hand the "see how fast we can do the 100" option also has appeal.

The day started with a hearty breakfast from one of the local café's who were kind enough to open early for the crowd of cyclists in town. We then set off to find our starting position and luckily it was a simple case of following the group to where they were heading. The team was set and ready for our start time of 08:00 and were off and pedalling by about 08:15. It was a nice gentle start with the slower riders wanting to sprint away at the start and stay infront of Bike Boy but that provided entertainment in catching them. The cat and mouse game played out until the first rest at 25km's. Not a problem, everyone was doing really well and after a pit-stop we were on our way again. We passed some beautiful coastline scenery along the way and at a gentle pace it was nice to take it in.

After out first stop we moved into the hill sections and Bike Boy was concerned they would be his downfall. Riding a single-speed up a long steep hill is not the smartest thing to do but thankfully the hills weren't that steep for long. The team makes it to the top of Mt Martha and takes another rest before beginning the descent. This was a hoot and after the re-group at the bottom Bike Boy noticed a top speed of 71.4 km/h. That was really impressive and certainly the most exciting part of the ride. We make it to Frankston and take another rest and a quick snack where in the process of taking photos Bike Boy drops his camera. The good news is it didn't break so that was a relief.

Speaking of relief, the port-a-loo toilets that had been set up provided intersting times when wearing road cleats. A plastic floor that was wet wasn't the best place to try and stand up in.

From Frankston to Mordialloc our thoughts turned to lunch, what it would be like, would it be enough to keep us going, are we there yet. I hadn't really figured the distance so I was glad we did stop and have a snack at Frankston as if memory serves it was a little over 10km's before we got to the lunch break at Mordialloc. We turned in to a park sometime around midday and found a reasonable patch of grass to sit on to enjoy our lunch. We had a chicken sandwich with some form of browny, some of us got chocolate while others had banana. We were given some new sugar free Powerade rubbish for the drink and while I'm sure it did wonders to hydrate you I'd actually prefer to drink tap water. It was fairly ordinary and equalled in weirdness to the Powerbar gel packs we were given. Only one of the group was brave enough to try the strawberry banana combination and the results were amusing. Bike Boy still hasn't tried his and will probably have to be near starving before he does.

From lunch it was a fairly steady 40km cruise back into the city taking in Beach Road for the most part before cutting back through Port Melbourne at Pickles Street to head up City Road to the finish. We stopped a couple more times on our way back in as one of the group was struggling with a knee injury but managed to soldier on and complete the ride. Bike Boy also made a dash to find a toilet in a hurry. A fairly trouble free ride all things considered. We rode past a few cyclists who'd came of second best against the road and Bike Boy only saw one guy fall over at an intersection because he didn't clip out. Bike Boy had to laugh but is thankful that it wasn't him, it is a tricky thing to clip out in a hurry as squashing testicles is quite easy! The girl that panicked and threw both her feet out at once also should have had more practice with cleats but it provided the team with entertainment, when we weren't riding next to her anyway.

A roll through the finish was quite tame as much as I would have loved to do the sprint finish we rode the very last section as a team. We'd made the 100km's without much drama at all, not a single puncture was had nor mechanical mishap. A really good day. Bike Boy is looking forward to next year and would like to encourage anyone considering it to go for it. There are a couple of different options but the 250 is definitely a goal.

Bike Boy would like to thank the crew that got him out to Sorento and sorted accommodation. It really made the day that much more enjoyable that we didn't have to get up at 4 in the morning to make transport out to Sorento. Our thoughts now turn to a much easier event that features a ride over the Westgate, the Melbourne Summer Cycle is on again folks so get your regsitration in and join in the fun.

Thanks again team and safe riding.

Mourning the loss of a fellow cyclist

I'm often amazed at the consideration a lot of vehicles give cyclists. After a verbal exchange with a Calais driver the other morning I am really sad to hear that a cyclist was killed in the city this morning. The article is here.

If you asked me which vehicles were the least considerate I'd have to say busses. My CBD cycling buddies may disagree but given the circumstances of the accident and my experiences with them I have to say Bus Drivers beware, look out for cyclists!

On this sombre note my thoughts and prayers go to the family of the woman that was hit. I pray that something good comes out of it and would ask all my cycling friends to be wary of all vehicles when riding.

Watch out for that... median strip?

Welcome to Bike Boy's cycling adventures. Today we're learning the importance of observing the road surface and looking for carefully disguised median strips posing as flat sections of road.

Bike Boy was on his way to a friends place the other night and was cutting across a road when all of a sudden he noticed he was airborn and heading for certain disaster as he had recently purchased road shoes and was "clipped in" to his single speed. It seems that in Bike Boy's haste to cross the road he'd completely missed the fact that this particular road has a small median strip separating lanes so he had smashed into it at a decent speed and manage to flip over. Needless to say Bike Boy crashed hard! There is damage to the front wheel, again, which means a replacement and a pretty battered helmet which will also need to be replaced. A bit of skin of Bike Boy's elbow and a nice bit a gravel rash on his shoulder. What is really hurting him though is his bottom. When Bike Boy crashed he landed on his right cheek and it's still really sore. He has been walking around like an old man for most of the day.

Now he gets to go shopping for a new front wheel and he's wondering if he should spend money on a nice set of Velocity rims. The ultimate hipster single-speed rim!