I grew up in a household where riding a bike was "normal".  When we lived in the country, my Dad didn't ride to work, because that would have been silly.  With many country railway workers, home and work were, almost literally, only the side gate apart.  When Dad was transferred to the Pt Adelaide gang, he would regularly ride from Mansfield Park to the Port for work, even though we owned a car.  What stopped him wasn't either of the couple of accidents going to work, but a severed Achilles…

For some years, I had been investigating buying or building an Ebike as a replacement for for most of my car-as-driver-only journeys from the city to Upper Sturt, a sort-of "reverse commute".  It was in doing this research that I first stumbled upon AC.

My investigations revealed that for my purposes, a mid-motor, chainwheel drive arrangement would be best, as this makes the bike gears available to the motor, unlike hub motors of any sort, and, incidentally, unlike all petrol motor…

I took the Gitane out for a ride today, the first (apart from "setting up") since I got it.  From near Hadleigh Rise, Upper Sturt, into Stirling, and return, via Sturt Valley Road.

The bike is now set up as 3x7 (48/38/28, 11-28) instead of the original 2x6.  The triple came about because the chainwheel-side crank on the double was bent, so a new crankset was needed anyway.  A headstem with a…

I got caught in the very heavy rain last Tuesday, and the BSA got saturated (not to mention the rider).  However, it seemed to have dried out fairly well.

But this morning, going to and from the Community Bike Workshop at Plympton, I was having trouble getting the outside sprocket (high gear) on the cassette.  It would not change the final step unless I backed off, went down one, and then changed two at once.

Oiling and cleaning the chain made a slight improvement, but still…