We are now on day 5 of the challenge and i'm off to a solid start, 567 km's in 4 days while resting on day 5, that's 30% of the total 1,788 km's of the challenge.  Although the challenge is to ride this, starting on the 23rd of July and to complete it by the 22nd of August I would like to, if it is in me, to finish it on the 11th of August! That's going to be tough! Why the 11th of August you might ask, well, looking back through my Strava account it shows that to be the day in 2011 I rode…

Continue

at the moment, my bike is in for a check up and a new garmin 500 will be fitted as well. it will be the red and black premium with hr and cadence monitors. im also getting a new laser o2 helmet while im at it. nothing wrong with my gray netti helmet its done its job, just wanted a change and i liked the colors of the laser version.

Weather forecast for Saturday the 21st of July was showers clearing with a min of 7C and max of 14C. That was forecast for Noarlunga, the closest forecast to McLaren Vale, the starting location for the latest SSRC L group ride. Not really a forecast to induce people to go for a group ride let alone people who are new to group riding. Its always colder in McLaren Vale by a few degrees too so I knew I would need to rug up for this ride.

You can read Wattys …

Continue

This morning I decided to ramp up my riding in preparation for the "Every Second Counts" challenge. I set my alarm last night for 4am, the time I am targeting for most of my rides during the challenge. I should be able to rise at 4am and be out the door by 4:30am allowing me to do 100 km and still be home for around 8:30am.

Step 1

I headed out the door and started North, looking to spin along the Southern Expressway veloway while totally disregarding speed. To get through…

Continue

Last week I took the plunge and used the early bird entry to enter the full 127 km 2013 TDU BUPA Challenge along with David and several other SSRC riders. We have decided to enter as team SSRC which will add SSRC printed on our BUPA challenge jerseys.

As a rule I do not collect donations for charities  as I prefer to donate to ones I select personally. Having said that the Cancer Council contacted me today to ask if I would "Ride For a Reason" on the TDU BUPA Challenge. As this is an…

Continue

I am off to WA for two weeks to see my family and ride with my 45 year old son, ( hope that he remembers the age difference, he usually doesn't ! )  Have fun you lot, and stay safe.

On the weekend I bought some soapy stuff for when I wash my cars on the weekend. A mate of mine works at Autobarn and recommended me to try the Bowden's Auto Body Wash Gel in a bucket of warm water with a micro fiber sponge. I was skeptical but since it was a mate who recommended me this product I thought I'd give it a go.

In a bucket of warm/hot water, I added a cap full and let the bucket sud up as per normal. Presoaked the car with water and stuck the sponge in not expecting…

Continue

Bikes for Refugees Saturday morning sessions;

  “Bikes for Refugees” works with several  welfare organsiations, who support refugee families settling in Adelaide. The organisations have case workers, who visit the familes, help them settle in, and find out what they need.

If people would like a bike, (for themselves or their children) -  the case worker  places an order with "Bikes for refugees" . We do our best to provide a  bike that’s suitable.  (This can…

Continue

Quick up date on things.

Workshop is continuing well, now well stocked.

We recently added a second stirrup pump,  using funds from donations. This one goes to higher pressure (25 bar). the one pump gets heavily used, and the Workshop really does need a back up.

Visit of pupils from Thebarton Senior College: a few weeks back, 50+ students visited the workshop, looking for bikes. About 12 bikes were given out on the day, and students put…

Continue

Kate and I have just celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to fly over to Sydney as a 'getaway'.

By the time we had landed at Sydney Airport, I was missing my bike already, so we decided to hire some bikes & tour the city.

We phoned Bonza Bike Tours, who we had seen…

Continue

After 10,000 km's my chain is starting to show some signs of wear and I have already had one cable failure so I figured it was time to strip the bike and replace all the cables, chain and inspect all components for wear and tear. This was going to introduce a whole new group of maintenance activities I have never done before like removing the crank, replacing cables, splitting and joining a chain and last but not least replacing the bar tape.…

Continue

Why Am I Doing This Challenge