My Cycling Stable...

As someone pointed out to me the other day the blog has taken a rather heavy cycling turn lately... so to continue the trend here is a quick look at my current bikes...

Kestrel Evoke SL with American Classic 58
The "Friday Bling" bike

Colnago Tecnos Competition with American Classic 420
The "Sunday Club" Bike

Avanti Monza with Velocity Chukkers
Frank(enbike) the "Commuter/Wet Weather" Bike

The Zigo..
Extraordinary Kid Carrier 

Cyc'd Tour De Noosa 2012

Recently I joined a cycling club and the riding has been fantastic. As a way to finish off the year they had the Tour de Noosa. A 211km ride over a couple of bumps from Brisbane through Mt Mee and Maleny to end with a mini family holiday in Noosa.

It was a fantastic ride and quite a number of firsts...

Biggest ride in one day: 217km
Largest Climbing in a Day: 3,389m
Largest single climb: 489m

The organisation was outstanding, the scenery and the challenge brilliant. The holiday at the end was the icing on top!

A huge thanks to everyone at the club who put the day (and weekend) together!

Cyc'd Tour De Noosa 2012, a set on Flickr.

The Old Faithful: Steel Avanti Monza aka Frankenbike

At the same time I had my Colnago built I had a bit of an update for my old faithful commuter the Frankenbike. It gets that name because it's really a cobbled together bike, although it's a steel Avanti Monza at the moment, it started out as a Malvern Star before the frame rusted through. It doesn't even have matching tyres. This is a progression of it's life in photos so far.

The latest addition is a set of Velocity Chukker rims laced to a 36h hub for it's commuting duties. It used to sport a set of American Classics but they were getting a little beaten up with the heavy duty commuting runs. It's certainly not the lightest setup but it is always a pleasure to ride. The new Velocity Wheels are amazing, they roll so smoothly and silently and with the wider footprint they are a comfortable way to roll around.

Here are the specs (for those who care)

Frame:
Avanti Monza Steel (circa 1996)

Fork/Headset:
Roselli 700c 45mm Rake Chromoly Fork

Crankset/Bottom Bracket:
Shimano Ultegra 6500

Pedals:
Shimano PD-M530

Drivetrain/Cog/Chainring/Chain:
11-25 / 53/39 / Shimano Ultegro 6500

Derailleurs/Shifters:
Shimano Ultegra 6500

Handlebars/Stem:
42cm. FSA / FSA 90mm

Saddle/Seatpost:
Fizik Arione / FSA

Brakes:
Shimano Ultegra 6500

Front Wheel/Hub/Tire:
Velocity Chukker  / Maxxis Refuse

Rear Wheel/Hub/Tire:
Velocity Chukker  / Continental GatorSkin

My New Ride: Colnago Tecnos Competition

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a Colnago Tecnos frame cheap on eBay. It's taken a few weeks to get it all together with a big thanks to Jimmy from Bikeology for doing all the hard work. I'm really happy with the end result, looks a lot better than I would have thought.

Here are the specs (for those who care)

Frame:
Colnago Tecnos Competition

Fork/Headset:
Colnago Flash Carbon

Crankset/Bottom Bracket:
SRAM Rival

Pedals:
Xpedo R-Force Ti

Drivetrain/Cog/Chainring/Chain:
11-25 / 53/39 / SRAM 1090P

Derailleurs/Shifters:
SRAM Rival

Handlebars/Stem:
42cm. Cinelli Criterium / Cinelli 90mm. Quill A1

Saddle/Seatpost:
Fizik Antares / Cinellia Vai 

Brakes:
SRAM Rival

Front Wheel/Hub/Tire:
American Classic 420 Aero 3 / Michelin Pro 4 Race Service Course  

Rear Wheel/Hub/Tire:
American Classic 420 Aero 3 / Michelin Pro 4 Race Service Course  

A weekend of adventures

The weekend just gone saw me take on  sole parenting duties for 4 days while ness took a well earned weekend away. I was a little nervous to say the list. The little girl hadn't spent a night without mum let alone three, so I was a little worried how she/I would cope.

I had a pretty busy schedule planned with the idea that if I ran them hard all day they'd sleep well at night.

The little girl and I spent most of Friday out and about while her brother was at kindy punctuated with trips to the train set and duplo. Of course we might have visited a coffee shop or two.
The first night went fairly well. Both the kids went to bed pretty well and the little girl was only up for a couple of hours. But they both started the day pretty early with 430 wake ups.

The first stop on the daddy "wear the kids out" weekend was the rail museum that was having a model train show.

There were train rides and the most popular attraction the Lego train set.

A storm threw a spanner in my plans and I ended up leaving a bit early. On the plus side the kids were asleep at 4:30pm. Unfortunately that meant another 430am start to the day and the little girl with a bit of tummy bug. But a trip to the bird sanctuary at Currumbin was on the cards for today and a sleep in the car on the way seemed to sort them out.

The biggest hit was the magic show and feeding the kangaroos (several times over)

Although the little one did save us from a python.

I must confess we may have had a short trip to Nan's after the park where daddy might have snuck a nap before driving two exhausted kids home for another nights sleep.

Monday I took the kids to the cafe for hot chocolates and freckles (they come with the coffees) partly as their last weekend treat and because I'd forgotten milk and was in need of a coffee.


All in all I had a fantastic weekend. Both kids were angels and any of my fears were unfounded with the little girl sleeping. I really enjoyed the whole time and made me really look forward to my 4 days at work next year so we can have a few more daddy long weekend adventures.

Travelling....

It seems these days the only time I get to blog is if I'm travelling, which is fortunately not terribly often.

This week I took off for a short trip to Melbourne. It's still one of my favourite cities in Australia. This time I didn't manage to get much time to do anything other than work which was a shame. Ok so I did get one ride in but let's not dwell on that.

It's much harder to travel now that the kids are getting older. Not just because its more work for Ness at home but also I feel like I'm missing out on them growing up. It's one of the reasons I've switch my work back to 4 days a week to spend some time with them before they are at school. I still haven't worked out what I'll be doing with them but I foresee some trips to theme parks.

We have already got some annual passes to the bird sanctuary and the rail museum, but I'm thinking that after our trip to the big theme parks earlier in the year a trip there wouldn't be wasted.

Sent from my iPhone

MyZigo... the first 200km...

Seems like it didn't take very long but the Zigo has already made it to the 200km mark in just over a month (that doesn't even include trips it's made as a pram)

The bike has slotted into full time commuting duty and with the pod attachment it's getting fairly regular trips to kindy and the park.

Firstly the most impressive aspect is the service from Zigo. I had an issue with the locking mechanism last week and even though I'd bought the bike second hand AND it's out of warranty they still shipped me a replacement free of charge within a week.

As a bike, it's not the speediest thing around, probably topping out at about 24km/h flat out on the pedals. Having said that I'm actually quite glad that it's a slower paced machine. On commuting duty it means I can quite happily ride to work fully dressed in work gear and arrive without needing a change. On a roady there is alway a temptation (for me) to try and chase down that next rider. On the Zigo I'm just happy to cruise along and enjoy the ride. Also being more like a folding bike geometry the lower centre of gravity loaded up with panniers makes handling a breeze.

In full Bike/Pram combo mode it's a head turner. It's pretty rare for me to be riding it somewhere without getting a comment. Mostly I'm asked where I got it and how they get one (Hoffy Cycles Bike shop is the place to go if you're in Queensland). The kids love it... well mostly... the littlest one (10mo) still isn't the biggest fan of helmets or seatbelts so it's often an effort to get her in but on the trip she is usually either giggling with excitement.... or asleep. It's got enough storage up in the pram that I can keep snacks and blankets etc for ready access and with the panniers I can load it up with enough stuff for a picnic and changes of clothes for water park adventures.

Really it's been the perfect solution, being able to have someone push the pram to kindy and have someone else do the pickup run on the bike on their way home. The changeover only takes a few minutes and works seamlessly.

The only negative things I can really say about it are that when riding the bike separately, the mechanism that controls the brakes from ChildPod mode is a bit noisy on the bumps when you're riding the bike alone and the child pod is just slightly wider than our other double pram meaning there are a couple of doorways it won't quite fit through. They are pretty small negatives in an otherwise fantastic package.

If you're looking for a way to transport two kids around and don't like the idea of a trailer this is definitely the solution to go with.

The Zigo... a week in..

After being in search of a cargo bike for a while, we decided that the fixed cargo solutions were going to be good for weekends but not so good during the week. So we started looking at some of the bike/pram solutions and discovered a new one for sale (still boxed) on eBay for almost half the RRP.


So after a successful bid and a not so short trip to Esk to pick it up, a very excited little boy helped me unpack it and build the b(ike p)ram.

Since then it's managed a few short trips to the park or coffee as a the bike pram. It takes a little bit of getting used to riding a trike vs a 2 wheeler, the lack of leaning on the corners made me a bit uneasy the first couple of times. One that is sorted out it's quite fun to ride and being able to keep an eye on the kids is really easy. Obviously I mounted the garmin and some clip-ins to it from the outset.

With the addition of the Zigo though I also scored a stand alone commuter bike which has meant the other commuters have had to go. It's in a similar vein to the townie with the high seating position but the gearing (obviously for when you have the child pod onboard). While it's not quick (topping out at about 24km/h pedalling at about 110rpm) it makes a perfect bike for commuting already dressed for work. Even if I got the rush of blood to chase down that roadie (which may have happened more than once or twice riding the fixie) it's not remotely possible so I just kick back and roll through to work.

I might have lost some hipster cred losing the fixie and commuting on the Zigo, but so far it's the perfect combo for child transport and commuting duty.

Is Nintendo going easy on us?

I'll admit I'm a bit slow to this party being a bit cycling obsessed lately but I finally got around to trading up to a 3DS. Firstly, wow it's a pretty amazing little console. I was a bit skeptical about the whole 3D thing, normal glasses tech gives me a headache almost instantly and as a result I've shied away from 3D TV or cinema. I figured I would just be using the 3DS in 3D off mode the whole time. To my surprise it A. Worked and B. I wasn't turning away with headaches at the first minute. It's not all sunshine and lollipops though, it certainly is much more fatiguing in 3D mode, but gone are the days where I have time for endless gaming sessions anyway.

Now to the games, one of my whole reasons for the upgrade was to play Mario 3D Land and feed my addiction to the franchise. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. Not with the game itself so much, because the gameplay and levels are just what you'd expect from a Mario game, but with their insistence on giving you an easy way to finish the level. Die a few times and you'll be given a box with an timeless invincibility power up. Fall off a few more times trying to get that elusive 3rd star coin and boom there is another block to fly you to the flag at the end of the level.

Really? As a society have we become so soft that we can't slog it out for a few more goes? Clearly gone are the days where you leave the console on for days because you made it halfway through the level and couldn't save until you finished.

Maybe Nintendo are concerned about the environmental impacts of all those paused consoles?

Do games need to be handed to us on a platter? Surely our kids could learn a bit of "if you slug it out you can succeed" rather than "if you can't do it it's ok someone will make it easier for you".

If you ignore that it's a pretty fun game. And if you're terrible at platformers. No need to worry. Nintendo has the easy ticket to the end.

In search of a cargo bike

It's no secret that I enjoy riding my bike (any bike really, and enjoy might be a little light an adjective). I'll ride pretty much to everything I can, including to work or client sites in the pouring rain like I did this week.

We live close to the city and have small kids and I'd love to be able to take them shopping/parks etc by bike. When we had one child a seat on the back of the bike worked really well. Now there are two a trailer was the natural evolution but I've been a little uneasy every time I've taken it out.
The kids sit low to the road so they aren't immediately visible to traffic. They are also behind you (a lot further than a seat) so they are harder to keep an eye on or chat to, as a result I've been looking for an alternative.

I spotted someone at southbank riding a Dutch Cargo bike and thought it was a perfect solution. The biggest issue is cost. For a trike style box bike with a canopy it's basically $4k and while I'm really looking at it as a second car alternative it's hard to justify (at this point I'm expecting a lot of comments about the ridiculous price I payed for wheels for my road bike yesterday). There are some cheaper alternatives (at $1.5k) but no one in Brisbane stocks them and it's hard to judge if they'd be suitable (not sure I want to trust my 200kg load of children to a rear coaster brake on any half decent hill)

Where does that leave me? Well considering the cost of the reasonable bikes I've started investigating custom options. There are a couple of custom bike makers who make amazing machines (http://www.jubecustoms.com.au/ have some especially nice bikes) and I've started asking them how they'd feel about making one.

Winter Riding....

Yes yes, another cycling post.... (don't worry I've got a gaming post coming up... just as soon as I finish Super Mario 3D Land)

Someone asked me today what I wear riding in Winter for casual riding and I thought it was worth while posting. A while ago I was "encouraged" to meet non-cycling people for coffee in anything but lycra and pointed to Creux.

Since then I've been addicted to their gear and am slowly replacing my wardrobe with their gear, including a few other options.

So my standard winter riding getup is like this.

A Netti Jersey as an outer layer (soon to be replaced by a Creux brawler that I ordered today, thanks)

A Creux T-Shirt as a under layer, which are fantastic t-shirts on their own anyway.

A pair of Creux Jeans or a pair of Cadence Jeans. 

And lastly a pair of Chrome Kursk Pro (yes they have SPD cleats in the bottom)

All of this on my newly blinged out Avanti Monza Steelie... affectionally know as "Frankenbike"