That summer

I obviously haven't posted for a long time (seven months to be precise). It's not that I haven't been riding (I've done 2200km in that time), I just haven't got around to writing about it.

Like last year, it took a fair while to regain my cycling mojo this summer. In fact, it really didn't kick in until December, when I decided I better get into shape before the Tour Down Under in January. I also decided I'd try and reach the 4000km mark for the year. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it. I got to 3810km by Christmas and thought I'd do a couple of big rides in the last week of the year but I came down with a nasty bout of gastro (along with most of my family) after Christmas, which put paid to those intentions. Still, I'm reasonably happy with that - I only did 2000km in 2012, so it's definately progress.

I was a bit concerned because, after a couple of early rides last October, I was way slower than my best times, but it didn't seem to take too long get my leg strength back. Despite setting up the trainer again for the winter, I still couldn't to bring myself to use it. I'd just rather get out and ride when the weather warms up and eventually it all starts working again.

Most of my rides this season have covered the usual climbs - Crafers/MtLofty, Willy Hill, Corkscrew Road etc. I did 570km in January which was okay, but I'd planned on doing more. However, it's been the forth hottest January ever recorded in Adelaide with numerous days over 40°C and quite windy, so it hasn't been great riding weather. Thankfully, the temperatures eased off a bit for the TDU week. It was a great field this year with Evans, Porte and Gerrans being the stars of the show. There were some great stages with the highlights (like last year) being Corkscrew Road and Willunga Hill. I managed to get along to both:

 

Gerrans and Porte at the Corscrew KOM with very silly hats in forground.

Jensy telling his legs to shut up on Willy Hill.

The highlight of the TDU week was, of course, the Bupa Challenge community ride on the Friday stage to Victor Harbour. After deliberating on the distance I decided I stick to the Meadows start with brother-in-law Troy. It was a distance of 117km with the KOM at Myponga reservoir happening at around two-thirds distance. Troy didn't think his legs would be up for the climb so he took the escape route which was probably a good call because he started to cramp up on the last climb of the day into Victor. It was a brilliant effort though - I think he said his longest previous ride was 40 - 50km so it was a big step up. It was my longest ride too, at 121km (including the trip back to Barrie and Ruth's place at Encounter Bay). The route was quite interesting this year, particularly compared to last year which dragged on a bit. The section from Meadows through to the Myponga turn off with Troy was good fun and seemed to go quickly, with some nice chats to people along the way (as you do on these rides). I enjoyed the KOM (really steep but short) and the road around the Myponga Reservoir was magnificent.

Crap photo of the reservoir and the road across the dam (my new phone has a dreadful camera).

The toughest climb of the day for me was the road out of Yankalilla heading to Victor. It wasn't steep but it just seemed to go on forever. Probably because it came so late in the ride, but there seemed to be plenty of people struggling or walking up the hill. After that it was the gentle undulations of the Inman Valley Road. As I got closer to Victor I stopped to pay my respects at the roadside memorial for cyclist, Kathleen Heraghty, who was killed by a hit and run driver in December while on training ride. Amazingly it was a straight section of road with no visibility issues and she was riding safely on the edge of the road - it's just unfathomable and so bloody sad (and, needless to say, a bit sobering).

Back on the bike for the final section, I smiled for the camera (see below - well, to be honest, I was smiling at the scantily clad devil woman...) on the last climb of the day near the golf course then rolled down into Victor at around 12.30. My average speed for the day was 24.9km/h which is about what I thought I'd do. After soaking up the adulation of the crowd on the finish line I rolled around to Barrie and Ruth's place where a shower, a beautiful lunch and compression leggings awaited. The ride had only about 900m of climbing so, compared to some of the shorter but hillier rides I've done, my legs still felt okay at the end. I nonetheless pulled on the compression leggings for a few hours. I've been using them for the last three months (just for recovery) and my legs certainly feel better the next day. Overall, it was a nice ride - a more interesting and scenic route than last year, the services and support were good and the weather was relatively mild. All up, a great day.

Me on the final climb into Victor

I haven't done a lot of riding since then. The highlight has probably been my ride two weeks ago through to Belair. We were heading for another 40 plus day so I set off bright and early thinking I just do a shortish 40km ride into the shady climbs of Belair National Park. I was overdue another foray up Saddle Hill Road and Cherry Plantatiion Road (both within the park). The Saddle Hill Road climb was harder than I remember but perhaps it was just the opressive conditions, even early in the morning. I then rolled down the hill and by the time I'd reached the bottom, I started hearing CFS sirens in the distance. I rode around to the Cherry Plantation area and started to smell and see smoke coming through the valley. Then, at the start of the climb, I could see the fire on the next ridge over and all hell was breaking loose with planes and helicopters flying everywhere. Clearly this was no place for a cyclist, so I turned around and headed for the exit, pointing a CFS truck towards the fire on the way out. It turns out the fire was started by a freight train, which came through the park while I was riding up Saddle Hill Road. They managed to get it under control later that day but it was a bit of a worry there for a while with residents in area evacuating. Anyway, it was certainly one of my more eventful rides.

After a bit more tweaking I've finally got my bike the way I want it. I've replaced the fork with the Trigon fork I bought a few years ago. Apparently Trigon are a Taiwanese carbon fibre company that does a lot of OEM frames and parts for major brands and also put out a small range under their own name. I picked this fork up on Ebay for $50 from a guy who bought it but never used it. It's extremely light (380g) which is a bit over half the weight of the standard Oppy fork. I had it on the old Scott roadie and it made a huge difference to the ride. Anyway, I wasn't 100% happy with the feel of the front end on the Oppy so I've swapped it and it feels much better.

Other upgrades include some black 105 brake calipers (again $50 new off Ebay) and some Ritchey WCS Logic II handlebars ($20, Gumtree) which are that more compact 'anatomical' bend. I like the feel of them and I seem to be able ride on the drops a bit more successfully. My back won't permit me to spend too much time in the drops but it's nice to be able to do it when I want to push hard. I also picked up some hardly used Giant PR2 wheels taken from a recent model TCR for $40. They're DT Swiss OEM wheels with rather nice sealed bearing hubs and are a bit of an upgrade from the old Shimano R500's.

Lastly, after trying a number of different saddles over the last few years, I've decided that my aging Selle Italia C2 Gel Flow is still the one that suits my bum best on long rides. Fortunately, Wiggle had them on special recently for $60 with free delivery, so I snapped one up. I've only had a couple of relatively short rides on it so far and doesn't feel quite a comfortable as the old one, but I suspect it'll just take a bit of breaking in.

Anyway, as you can see from the above purchases, my bargain basement cycling experience continues. The bike has only cost around $650 all up and it's quite safisfying to have sourced all the components and put together every nut, bolt and bearing on the thing. A man's gotta have a hobby.....

Port Elliot

We spent a week at Port Elliot last week staying in a house with our friends, the Kelly's. We had a lovely week and the weather turned out to be better than expected for this time of year. We were anticipating wet and wintery weather and spending a fair bit of time indoors but it turned out to be quite sunny for a number of days, so we did lots of walks and some riding along the Encounter Bikeway.

The bikeway runs from The Bluff at Victor Harbour along the coast to Port Ellliot, Middleton and through to Goolwa. It's around 30km and is a mixture of shared paths and quite roads and is great for safe and leisurely riding with the family. We did a few rides over to Middleton to do some whale watching and it was an entirely pleasant experience with some great views along the coast.

Karolle and I whale watching

A bloody big fin

The park at the top of the Stand in Port Elliot

I also did a couple of longer rides on my own. I took my old Repco Olympic 12 down as it's a good allrounder - it's quite comfortable doing slow rides with the family but is also okay on a longer, harder rides. I did a trip to Goolwa and back, mostly sticking to the bikeway, a trip of around 35km. I also did a trip though to Inman Valley from Port Elliot which was a 52km round trip. The main motivation for riding this road (the Inman Valley Road through to Yankalilla) is that it is the final leg of next years Tour Down Under community challenge and I wanted to check it out.

The 2014 TDU routes were announced a couple of weeks ago and looks like it'll be a great week. As it's the first world tour event of the year (and normally stinking hot) the organisers have always made it a relatively easy week for the riders. It's always been a race predominantly for sprinters. However, they included a bit more climbing in last year's race (notably, Corkscrew Road) and it seemed to go down well with the spectators and teams. For next year they've included a bunch of Adelaide's iconic climbs (Corkscrew Road, Menglers Hill, Checker's Hill, the Freeway to Stirling, of course, Old Willunga Hill twice). It should be good fun and, like last year, I'll try and get to some of the climbs and finishes.

As far as the Bupa Challenge goes, I wasn't overly thrilled with last this year's ride. The route was okay but a bit on the dull side and the logistics of heading north of the city for the ride were a little challenging. I'd decided if it was north again, I wouldn't do it. Anyway, it seems my needs have been accomodated as next years Community Challenge ride goes from Unley to Victor Harbour. It's 154km and heads up the freeway to Stirling, then down through Echunga, Meadows, Mt Compass, Myponga, Normanville, Yankalilla, then across to the finish at Victor Harbour. I probably won't do the full ride (it's a bit too long for me) but the Meadows start (110km) sounds good.

Anyway, the Inman Valley Road was great fun - it's beautiful and lush through there at the moment and road is gently undulating and pretty nice to ride on. I didn't have time to make it to Yankalilla so I ended up going about two-thirds the way there and turned back at Inman Valley. It was relatively easy going, which is a good thing because I haven't ridden in the hills for ages and my legs aren't in great shape. The main hill was the climb out of Victor up past the golf course which wasn't too hard. Overall, it was a great day to be on a bike. Here's some pictures to prove it:

 

 

 

 

 

Sad old bastard....

I fear that I may have become a stereotypical MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra, in case you don't know). The evidence is compelling - I've taken up cycling in my mid to late forties, embraced the full road bike/Lycra thing, turned into a complete coffee snob, and now I have this bloody blog to document it all. As I approach 50, I'm afraid I've become a seriously sad old bastard!

However, there's a few parts of my mamilism that don't quite fit the mould. I don't hang out with my cycling buddies at the end of a ride drinking coffee, nor do I do the team kit thing. Neither of these things really float my boat. Firstly, I don't have a bunch of cycling buddies because, for me, bike riding is a fairly solitary experience and I'm not really interested in riding with a group. Nothing against those who do - it's just not my thing. Nor do I like to promote teams/brands etc. I just wear plain jerseys or those from charity rides that I've done. Once again, nothing against those who don the kit, but it's just not my thing.

I've always had an aversion to brands and labels generally and, much to my wife's annoyance, I've never liked wearing garments emblazoned with logo's or brand names. It's no great ethical stance - I've just never been able to work out why you'd pay lots of money for a windcheater that has a huge Nike logo on it. Every time you wear it you are promoting their brand - they should really be giving you a discount because you are a walking advertisement for their company. The people who restore your roof will happily knock a bit off the price if you stick their sign on your front lawn for 12 months. What's the difference?

The coffee snob thing has evolved since last December, when I wandered into Cash Convertors with my son to look at video games and happened upon a Rancillio Silvia espresso machine for sale for the princely sum of $140. I was aware that the Silvia is probably the most popular machine for home baristas and can make a cracking cup of coffee if you get your technique right. It's also around $750 new, so I didn't hesitate in snapping it up. The guts of it is basically like a scaled down commercial machine - it has a full sized grouphead and a mini version of a high pressure commercial boiler with a 3 way valve so you can backflush it to clean it out. My grinder is just a Breville thing, but I've modified it so the burrs run closer together, giving a finer grind suitable for a decent espresso machine. I suspect I'd get better results from a better quality grinder but, for the moment, it does the job.

Anyway, it took me a while to get the grind, dosing and tamping technique right, but I'm finally getting there and can now pull a fairly reasonable shot. It's certainly equal to or better than the coffee I've experienced in most cafe's. Our weekends now seem to revolve around the frequent coffee ritual. We've also had a couple of holidays over the past three months (to Mannum in April and Port Elliot last week) where we've had to take the coffee machine with us. Sad I know but, as we explained to the kids, if the parents are kept happy (and energised) then everyone has a better holiday.

Anyway, I'm not about to stop any of these MAMIL pursuits anytime soon, so I'm quite happy to be another sad old bastard riding his bike and writing a blog that mostly seems to get read by people in Moscow. I really don't think anyone there is interested in my mediocre cycling story - I somehow suspect all the hits I get from Moscow come from some automated software that scans websites looking for ways to exploit people and do nasty things. Anyway, onwards and upwards.

Hitting the trail

I dusted off the mountain bike today and hit the trails through Shepherd's Hill Park with my son, Miles. It was only five kilometres or so but it was a reasonable workout with a few steep hills to get over, some of which we had to walk up.

It was a nice area to ride through, albeit a little wet and muddy in spots after a bit of rain this week. We had to hop off a few times to negotiate muddy creek beds, but generally the track was pretty good. My mountain bike skills are terrible though - I don't have a lot of confidence. We both need to do a bit more of it and build up some skills. If I end up following through with my plan to do the Mawson Trail sometime over the next year, I'll definitely need to get plenty of km's on dirt under my belt. Anyway here's some pics:

We did a bit of a walk around at the end of the Viaduct Track, which ends at the Belair train line. We hiked up the hill and did the 'Stand By Me' thing and walked along the tracks for a bit, then into the tunnel.

 

Overall, it was a pretty nice way to spend an hour or two and I think we'll be doing a bit more of this, especially given that we have so many trails nearby.

Some carbon bling

I've been quite content with my road bike which I put together about 18 months ago. Given our lack of disposable funds for my cycling habit, I built up an old Scott AFD aluminium frame from the mid 2000's that I got off Ebay with mostly Shimano 105 components that I acquired along the way. I'm quite happy with the geometry and the fit - it has a fairly long head tube so I can sit relativley upright which suits me with my back issues. I don't obsess too much about the bike fit thing. I'm inclined to think that if you are in the ball park with the frame size, you can fiddle around with different stem lengths and angles, seat heights and get it right. Mind you, I've never had a professional bike fit so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. I just put the seat as high as I can manage, adjust the handlebar to a height so that my back isn't too uncomfortable, then set the seat so my sit bones are across the widest part of the seat. It's fairly simplistic but it seems to work okay bacause I feel quite comfortable on the bike. My lower back is always an issue - I don't think any amount of bike fitting will change that - but I can generally still manage to walk upright after 4 or 5 hours in the saddle.

Anyway, the main problem with my frame (as with most aluminium frames) is that the ride is a bit on the harsh side. I fitted a carbon fork with a carbon steerer which made the front end a bit less skitty, but I still tend to feel every bump and roads with any sort of rough surface can be a bit of a pain. I've fancied getting a carbon fibre frame for a while because of it's 'laterally stiff yet vertically compliant' qualities (ie. it doesn't flex much when you pedal hard so all the power gets through to the back wheel, but it gives a bit when you go over bumps, absorbing some of the harshness). However, a new carbon fibre bike or a just a frame is out of my price range. I've been looking secondhand for the last six months or so and everything has either been the wrong size, too expensive or too crappy. I'm also bit concerned about buying secondhand CF in case there's any cracks etc., so I'm not keen on buying anything from interstate that I cant see first.

On Saturday a frame popped up on Gumtree. It was a large size Malvern Star Oppy Le Mauco full carbon frame, fork and headset, advertised for $300. It was from the first range of Malvern Star bikes that were relaunced on to the market in 2008 and the Le Mauco was the top of the range Dura-Ace equipped model, selling for around $4000. It was well reviewed and considered to be great value for money at the time and they got Phil Anderson to promote it, riding it around for a while extolling it's virtues. Looking at the opinions expressed at the time there seemed to be a bit of bike snobbery about Malvern Star, given that historcally it's been such a ubiqitous bike brand in Australia (undoubtedly the most recognised Australian bike brand - bit like Raleigh in England). Anyway, they're still around and making pretty good, well reviewed bikes.

So I rang up about it and the guy explained that there was a tiny crack in the white paint on one of the rear stays. He was working in a bike shop when he bought it back in 2008 and this was evidently a common problem with this model and, although there was no stuctural problems, the distributor still replaced the affected frames as a goodwill thing. Given this information I had my doubts about it, but still decided to go and have a look. It was in pretty good condition, with not a lot of use or abuse (nor any sign of a crash) evident. I had a close look at the crack, flexed the rear stay in and out to see if the crack opened up, which it didn't. I also did some research on paint cracks on carbon fibre and apparently it's not uncommon. Anyway, he seemed like a good guy and I satisfied myself that it was worth taking a punt on the frame, so we haggled and I got it for $275. I'm still not sure if I've done the right thing - I'll just keep an eye on it. Anyway, I built it up on Saturday night using the components from the Scott. Most of the bits date from around the same time as the frame (Shimano 5700 series shifters and derailluers, Ultegra calipers and FSA Gossamer compact crankset) which is a good thing. It looks a treat:

I took it for a short spin on Sunday and it's very nice. It's lighter (but still a tad over 9kg because my components aren't exactly light) and is significantly smoother than the old frame. To try it out I went up the Veloway back down again. The path is quite rough and the decent can be bit hairy in spots but it was so much smoother than the old bike. I straight away felt confident and comfortable on it, which is a good sign. I'm looking forward to taking it out next weekend for a longer ride. The fit is pretty good. The head tube is a bit shorter than the old bike but still not too extreme so my riding position is relatively relaxed. And so am I.

Autumn

It's been a couple of months since I've updated this. It's been relatively uneventful from a cycling point of view. After recovering from the broken ribs, I got into a nice routine of daily commuting for six weeks or so. 

I've built up a commuter bike out of parts I had laying around. I was commuting on the Giant CRX2 but we had a change of bike storage arrangements at work - I had always stored my bike in our storeroom but we received a memo advising that bikes being brought into the building apparently constituted a safety hazard and it could no longer happen. The bike racks out the front of work don't have a great theft record so I was disinclined to leave my fairly expensive Giant out there all day, every day. I had an old Avant Montari mountain bike frame with rigid forks hanging in the shed along with some 26" wheels with skinny road tyres, so I built it up as a 7 speed (no need for the front derailluer) with racks, mudguards etc. for commuting. Anyway it's great fun - nice and light and easy to chuck in the back of the car every day and I dont have to worry much about it getting knocked about. All the bits I used probably cost no more than around $140, so I'm fairly happy with that. Here it is...

I'm less happy about being off the bike yet again. I injured my back three weeks ago - I'm still not 100% sure about what happened. I think it occurred when I picked up Ruby's heavy schoolbag one morning and twisted a bit while I did it. I didn't notice it at the time but when I dropped her at school and got my bike out of the car, it was pretty tender. However, I rode to work regardless which, in hindsight, was not wise. I could hardly move when I got off the bike at work, it was spasming so badly. I bought the bike inside, hobbled slowly down to the nearest tram stop and went straight home. As I've probably mentioned before here, I've been prone to lower back issues since having a herniated disc around 12 years ago. I used to tweak it on a fairly consistent basis but it's been better since I've taken up cycling - I suspect it's because my core has strengthened. Anyway I haven't hurt it for around 18 months now, but I certainly made up for lost time  - I was so sore I had to take four days off work. From past history, it takes around four weeks before it feels better. Anyway it's still not 100% but it's improved enough to jump back in the saddle and start commuting to work again today.

We're staying down at Port Elliot in the school holidays (three weeks away) with our friends, the Kelly's, and I intend to do some rides whilst there. My fitness level has dropped over the couple of months, so I  need to start putting some work into my legs between then and now. I haven't been a total slug - I've done a couple of decent rides since I last wrote. We stayed at Mannum for a week in the last school holidays and I did a nice ride out to Palmer. The road out there was straight and not wildly exiting but the climb up Palmer Hill was good fun and a fairly reasonable work out. Beyond Palmer Hill the road stays quite windy through to Birdwood/Mt Pleasant etc or back towards Adelaide through Lobethal/Norton Summit or Woodside/Balhannah. It's all looks like pretty good riding through there but on this occasion I was conscious of not disappearing on my bike for 5 hours when were on holidays, so I reached the top of the hill, turned around and headed back to Mannum. Here's some pics...

Cometh the pipeline, cometh the bike - heading towards Palmer from Mannum

Heading up Palmer Hill

...further up the hill...

...and heading back down

The other notable ride was a run down to Willunga and back last month. I had another shot at the big hill and tried to focus on pacing myself better. I'd always tried take it easy early on in the climb, fearful that I'll run out of puff at the end. However, I've been feeling like I've been leaving a bit too much in reserve, so I'm trying to go out a bit harder on climbs. On this ocassion the first km was relativley quick (for me) - I did tire towards the end of the climb but I still managed to knock a bit off my best time, despite being in noticably worse shape that the last attempt.

While I was at home recovering from my back injury (and in a slightly valium induced haze) I started day dreaming about riding the Mawson Trail. The Mawson Trail is a series of connected and signposted tails, fire tracks, back roads etc. that stretch from Adelaide to Blinman in the Flinders Ranges - a total of 900km. I started reading a bunch of blogs and stories about people who've done it and it's fired up my imagination. It won't happen in a hurry - there's a fair amount of planning and training involved and I'll need to allow three weeks to do it, which will mean taking long service leave. I'll need to spend a fair amount of time on my mountain bike (which I hardly ever ride) and do some shorter two or three day trips, maybe even on some of the Mawson Trail segments closer to Adelaide. There's also the Kidman Trail which runs from Willunga to the Barossa which, at around 250km, might be be good to try first. Anyway, that's the plan.

Back on the bike

Well, I finally got back on my bike on Saturday. It's been 6 1/2 weeks since the accident and my ribs feel like they are progressing quite well. I've mostly followed the doctors orders to stay of the bike for six weeks. I've also started commuting to work again last week but have changed my route to the CBD. I now come in on the bikeway along West Terrace, avoiding the the horrible (and stressful) Morphett Street section.

I took the plunge on Saturday, got back on the roadie and headed for Norton Summit. The first thing I noticed was that my ribs were fine but my wrist is still quite sore from the accident. It wasn't as noticeable on a flat bar commuter but the my wrists take more pressure on the drop bars and it was quite painful. Either I got used to it or it settled down, but I didn't seem to notice it so much as the ride went on.

The last few times I've been up that way I've contemplated heading up to the top of Kensingston Road, but have chickened out. Now, my legs that are a bit out of condition after six weeks of bugger all activity. I had intended to get on the trainer and try and maintain some fitness and strength over the past six weeks but I just can't seem to summon any real enthusiasm for riding on the trainer - I just need to be out in the fresh air and riding in the hills. I need to have a destination. However, I will try and get into it because I want to maintain some fitness over winter this year. Anyway, despite all that, I decided to tackle the climb.

I have seen Kensington Road mentioned often in discussions about Adelaide's nastiest climbs. From the Penfold Road roundabout it's 1.3 km at 11.5%, which put's it in the short but brutal category (for me, at least). After making it to the first right hand bend, there's a long, steep straight bit ahead which is fairly intimidating. Looking at the road ahead I thought I had bugger all chance of making it up this bit, let alone to the top, but I persevered. I nearly made it - I got to around 200m of the top and just couldn't go on. I had a 2 minute breather and did the last bit to the lookout.

The business end of Kensington Road

The last bit before the lookout at the top of Kensington Road

The view from the top

After admiring the view, I rolled down the hill and it was clear that my legs had turned to jelly. Thankfully they recovered sufficiently by the time I reached the bottom of Norton Summit Road. The weather was perfect on Saturday (mid 20's and a gentle breeze) and there were loads of cyclists out on Norton. It was a perfect morning to be riding up a hill and, despite my lack of fitness, I still managed to knock around 45 seconds off my best time, which I'm quite pleased with.

Tom Playford minding my bike in the park at Norton Summit

Looking back down towards the steep bit on Woods Hill Road

From Norton Summit I headed over to Greenhill Road, rolled down the hill and headed home. All up, it was 64km with 825m of climbing, which was a fairly good workout for my first day back on the bike. Hopefully we'll have a few more weeks of decent weather so I can squeeze a few more long rides in before winter hits.