A vicarious night on a drip

CT-B ate something inappropriate during the rest day yesterday, and spent last night on a drip.
Despite suffering epically in todays' sixth stage of the Tour of Tahiti, he managed to maintain his Masters ranking but dropped to 17th on GC .
Go CTB!
Drips are Pro!

Another vicarious cycling triumph

After five stages in the Tour of Tahiti, CT-B is first Master and 15th on GC.

In Thursday's stage he got in a breakaway from the start, eventually taking a couple of minutes out of the next Masters rider.

Ron Cooper

I have wanted a Ron Cooper racing bike ever since Richard Oddy brought his 1969 Cooper on our first ever Retro Ride back in 2002.

Early this year I posted a wanted to the Classic Rendezvous email list, and within a couple of days I was in negotiation with CR listmember Gabriel Romeu for his celeste Cooper frame.
Gabriel emailed a few photos, and I was sold as soon as I saw the four neat holes in the bottom bracket shell.

The frame arrived in the mail 4 or 5 weeks later and, as is my wont, I quickly assembled the bike for the following morning's ride with the Solo bunch.

Most of the parts were handily lying about, but the Roy Thame sacrificed its wheels, to which I glued a pair of 25mm Continental Competition tubulars.

My plan was to build a basic Campag Nuovo Record road bike, but, as I rummaged around, it became inescapably obvious that I should use a lightweight OMAS headset and titanium bottom bracket which presented themselves.

Continuing in this vein, after a couple of rides I felt compelled to replace the steel Nuovo Record derailler pivot bolts with titanium Super Record parts before venturing onto the Butter Chicken loop with Gayle.

The initial build left a bit to be desired.
I struggled with the 14-21 cluster on the wheelset, and the modern Brooks Professional saddle was a bit wide, so I found a 14-24 freewheel and a rough looking old model Pro which has become more presentable with use.

Gabriel had told me the frame took a 26.8mm post, but my 26.8 post seemed to slip every couple of rides, so I reamed the seat tube out slightly to take a nominally 27.2mm SR Royal post.
While I had a broken collarbone recently, Gayle very kindly came round and buffed the post, which I had de-anodised with ovencleaner, to its current shiny finish.






The Salsa stem was quickly replaced with a plausible looking 14cm TTT Record that came at very good price from ebay.
To further improve my hillclimbing performance I replaced the expander bolt with an aluminium part that requires a 7mm allen key, a tool which is never to be found when you need one.
MORE PHOTOS

Headset	OMAS
Bottom bracket	OMAS Big Sliding titanium
Crankset	Campagnolo Nuovo Record 175mm, 41/53
Brakes	Campagnolo Record, standard reach, pre 1978
Brake levers	Campagnolo Victory
Shiftlevers	Suntour bar end shifters
Front derailler	Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Rear derailler	Campagnolo Nuovo Record Pat.82
Hubs	Campagnolo Record, wide flange 28h
Freewheel	Suntour Ultra 6, 14-24 or 14-26
Rims	Fiamme Red label tubular
Saddle	Brooks Professional
Seatpost	SR Royal ESL
Stem	TTT Record 14cm
Handlebars	TTT 44cm

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Cycling shoes for sale, part 1

The recent acquisition of a pair of Quoc Pham fixed shoes for my urban and social riding, plus a pair of Dromarti Race for more sporting toeclip & strap pedal use has rendered obsolete a number of pairs of shoes currently cluttering the bottom of my wardrobe.

The first three pairs of these orphans are currently listed on TRADEME, closing next Wednesday evening.

My vicarious cycling career

While I have not been blogging, my friends have been riding:

Kate stayed upright at the Tasmanian Christmas Carnivals this year, had a decent crack at the Elite Track Nationals, won the Manukau Velodrome Rider of the Year, and has now departed these shores.

CTB finished the Kiwi Brevet in third place, albeit with his arse abraded, then was happy to finish Masters Points race at the 2010 RaboPlus Track Nationals uninjured.
He was first Master at T42.
Against all expectation , he recently turned 40, which he turned to his advantage by wangling the old guy's spot in the BikeNZ team to the Tour of Tahiti at the end of this week.
He also organised a very entertaining Tour of the Waikato Hotpools over the Easter long weekend.

The sublime but terrifying Gayle had a solid ride at the Elite Road Nationals, got third in a stage of the NZCT Womens Tour, then topped off her season by winning the Biosport Criterium series.

Things to do on Sunday

Given that I have not blogged for more than two months, I would be surprised if anyone is still reading this, but in case you are, there are a couple of good things to do in Auckland this Sunday:
The official opening of the SH20 cycleway is at 9:30 at Winstone Park, Mt Roskill.
No doubt the event will be blighted by the presence of various dignitaries seeking to greenwash their public image, but in compensation, refreshments are promised.

This should give the Frocks on Bikes crowd enough time to don new outfits before cycling across the new Mangere Bridge at 2:30pm.
Download the NZTA invitation HERE.