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"

Worst new tyre record ever.

So I attempted to give "Frank" a bit of love as it's now my go to bike while the kestrel is away getting assessed for its frame crack. I got some new tyres, and given the color scheme went for all white. I picked vittorias specifically the zaffino pros. It had previously been running the non pro version of the tyre and they had comfortably handled the trip up Arthur's seat and 2/3s of the Midi Smiddy.

The zaffino pros however haven't fared so well. My previous record for a flat (specifically from something that breached the tyre, not a pinch or faulty tube) was held by a brand new GP4000s which had managed a mammoth 10km before hissing like a cranky cobra. That record today was smashed by the Vittoria Zaffino pro which travelled just 5.7km before exposing my tube to the elements. It's a pretty decent cut too (photo attached).

The rest of the ride was a debacle as well with the rest of my tubes failing at which point we carried the bike to the coffee shop had a coffee and headed to the ferry for the "ride" home. Fortunately a patch kit donation saved me the embarrassment of having to carry "frank" home, after carrying it the length of southbank. I can say though the bike really quite helpful.

Big thanks to Myles who stuck with me in possibly the most eventful and shortest ride in history.

A weekend not easily forgotten (Midi Smiddy 2012)

As I sit here in my lounge room writing this post it's hard to believe that in the last 3 days I shared 570km, climbed 5.4km and spent over 24hours riding with 48 almost complete strangers (and two good friends) to raise money for cancer research and had one of the best weekends of my life.

I've had a couple of posts along the way but I though I'd combine the summary of the last day with a look back at the whole weekend.

The last day of the Midi Smiddy was the longest and possibly the hardest day we had to do on the ride. Although our trip up the range wasn't as steep and came earlier in the day, everyone knew that it would be hard having already travelled over 360km.

We started very early in the day, before the sun had started to peek through. Most of us were rugged up prepared for the cold and potential rain that had been falling heavily all night.

Most of the morning was spent discussing the events of the fundraising dinner in Warwick the night before and how much of our hangover was a hinderance or aid for the ride ahead. Most of us were nervous with the though of another ascent of the range ahead and the weather threatening to dampen the roads even further.

Eventually the climb to Queen Mary Falls was here and after a quick briefing about carpets on cattle grids we were off. Even though this was a "go your own pace" (aka smiddy smash) section we all knew it would be a hard climb and all chipped in to help those who weren't feeling as fresh. Jon (my recently acquired cracked frame buddy) teamed up determined that our rider would get to the top without a stint in the van. I think I felt more accomplished at the top of that climb than in any other before it (no matter how many other riders I'd passed).

The scariest part of the day, however belonged to the descent. 17%+ gradient shrouded in mist and fog was ahead of us. The briefings about being safe on the descent only cemented our fears. It was here on the 5th hair pin that I'd get my first flat of the Smiddy (And the first flat on "Frank"). Hard breaking for too long and I overheated my rim and blew the front tube... fortunately enough I slowed to a stop in the clearing and yet again my frame buddy came to my rescue with a new tube and set off to chase down the peloton. Two riders ahead of me were lucky not to be caught in a stampede of bovine as they neared the bottom of the descent, if the descent itself wasn't scary enough!

The rest of the day seemed to flow by with everyone eager to get to the finish to see friends and family. There were plenty of rolling hills to challenge even the freshest of legs but there were plenty on hand to offer encouragement or the occasional push to make sure we all made it. After we passed our final stop the pace of the peloton surged as we felt closer to home and could almost smell the sausage sizzle. Congratulations and thank yous started to flow amongst the group as we realised this was the last few kilometres we'd be spending on the ride.

As we reached Indooroopilly we stopped to regroup as we headed for Park Road. We started rolling and i looked down to discover that my front tyre had flatted again. Boydie and I discussed (for probably the next 2 kilometres) whether I could make it with the flatted rim (or an alternate route to make sure I made it) we decided that a change was the best choice. In what felt like something with F1 team precision or the flurry of a pro peloton I stopped and Jimmy (from Bikeology) had my wheel swapped out in a matter of seconds. After that it was the hardest sprint I'd done for the entire weekend determined not to suffer my first "Van Time" less than 5km from the finish. The irony of course is just as I caught the peloton we hit traffic on Coronation drive and the 50 riders sat stationary for 15 minutes stuck less than 1km from their waiting friends and family.

Once we cleared the traffic we headed for home and the sound of the crowd as we pulled into Smiddy park was amazing and made the last 570km feel like a short pedal to the park.

The post probably sounds a little gushy overall and that's mostly because I had a fantastic weekend, I made some lasting friendships and helped raise money for a good cause doing something that I love. As one of the riders said "A bad day on a bike is still a lot better than a bad day at work". Mostly is sounds gushy because I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to be in a position to help even after breaking a bike, have a few places that are a little more chaffed than I'd like and most of the muscles in my legs being just that little bit sore. Especially after hearing everyone's stories on why they'd taken the time to punish themselves over 3 hard days of riding.

I have to say a big thanks to my Wife for putting up with all the training and the time away for the ride, especially after signing up for a smiddy event biannually!

Lastly a huge thank you to all the people who donated and offered their support for the ride. Your donations are invaluable and hopefully as a result one day we won't need to have a ride....

Midi smiddy day #2

Short post today after a fundraising dinner and a 445 start tomorrow.

A shorter day today with "only" 157km. Did the full day on my steel avanti "frank" after I cracked the frame on the faithful kestrel yesterday and the bike mechanic declared it unsafe. Fortunately one of the road crew very kindly drove to Brisbane and picked up "frank" and another riders spare bike.

"Frank" served me well and the weather gods were very kind keeping the rain away but repaying us with headwinds most of the day.

The rain has set in tonight so fingers crossed it will be rained out when we head out in the dark tomorrow.