Tempting...

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Originally uploaded by bensondoc

but a couple of centimetres too small, this 1976 Tom Ritchey road bike seriously caught my attention when I spotted it on ebay last week.
Despite going through the same process a few times before, I spent a while proving that there is no way I can set up a traditional 57cm road bike to fit me. Maybe if I was 20 years younger...

ebay auction #140297305713
The same photos on flickr

Honjo mudguards, part 1

An unscheduled day off work allowed the time to fit some Honjo hammered aluminium mudguards to Donna's Bob Jackson fixie.
Even with frequent reference to instructions in Bicycle Quarterly and on the Jitensha Studio website the job took a couple of hours, and I'm not done yet.
Both the fork crown eyebolt and the bracket of the rear sliding bridge are too short and the guards sit a little high for my taste, so some custom widgets will be needed before I can call this job finished.

Not the January Retro Ride

Mark Battley's Frejus Super Corsa
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

Weather is not a deterrent for some people, and so, despite Biblical rain showers, 4 people turned up yesterday for the first Retro Ride of 09.

Mark Battley brought his rebuilt Frejus Super Corsa, which he bought from me a while back.

Once we were ensconced in the loungeroom it was hard to get going, so Mark, Peat Alexander and I decided to go to the shed and remove a few non-original braze-ons from Battleys 1968 Colnago frame, leaving CTB and Richard Oddy to battle the elements.

Stuff for sale

In a feeble attempt to simplify my life and make some space, I have a few vintage jerseys, some NJS goodness and a few other widgets listed on Trademe.
Check 'em out HERE

Modern technology disappoints, yet again

PC010414
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

Years ago, I renounced cycle computers, heart rate monitors and other digitalia as bearers of bad news.
Without them, you never have to know that you are slow, in the wrong heart rate zone, or down on power.

So why, when my prehistoric mechanical scales gave such satisfactory readings, did I decide to buy a digital scale?
Whereas in my older and happier analogue world my Ritchey Breakaway was a 19lb featherweight, in the cold light of digital day it weighs 9.54kg, a mere gnats whisker under 21lbs.

It is time to confess that all my earlier bragging was untrue, and that Oli's Hillbrick is the lighter by a sizeable margin.
Some uncharitable readers may opine that we should consider the combined weight of bike and rider, however it is style not weight that counts, but having seen Oli carving through the streets of Wellington on his Bianchi I know when I'm beaten.

Ergopower reach adjustment

Ergopower reach adjustment
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

Until the new '09 model, Campagnolo Ergopower levers had too much reach for small hands.

Here, I put a dab of auto body filler, aka 'bog', in the lever stop notch to move the brake lever about a centimetre closer to the bars.

Mayhem Sessions Revisited

Keeping up appearances

Other projects and obligations have kept the Holdsworth Professional on the backburner lately, but in anticipation of it's eventual completion, I have bought the matching cap.

Warwick Dalton- The Lone Eagle

The Kennett Brothers new biography of Kiwi cycling legend Warwick Dalton will be launched 7pm next Tuesday at Avanti Plus, 25 Levene Place, Mt Wellington.

Click on the image for large size

Post K2 suffering

Today I am neck deep, and sinking, in the black hole of lethargy. Perky on Sunday, fairly jaunty Monday, flat yesterday.
Slept like a baby last night, and woke entirely unrefreshed.
I should be grateful, given that I finished K2 on Saturday unscathed, but it never ceases to surprise me how long it takes for fatigue to really set in.

Unlike my two attempts at K1 when I finished a gibbering mess, this ride went pretty well, thanks to the patience of Gaz & Kate who stuck to our simple, if subversive, plan to ride together and stop for lunch in Coromandel.
After struggling with the headwind between Kuaotuna and the Whangapoua hillclimb, we had a tailwind from Coromandel from Thames that provided some respite before we hit the final Kopu-Hikuai climb.

Tonsorial finetuning

This morning I shaved off my moustache, not in search of some aerodynamic margin, but because after 150kms of suffering this Saturday such a rampant walrus will contain a disgusting amalgam of snot, sweat and bugs.

Little else of my recent action has been so purposeful.
I wanted to do a long ride in the middle of last week, at the speed of a postman as Raphael Geminiani would say, but tiredness and bad worktime management put paid to that plan, so I contented myself with taking Friday off for an extra long weekend, which was dominated by further sloth:

Friday- didn't go to work. Rode into the city via Pt England, then retired to the shed.

Saturday- chores in the morning.
Nap in the afternoon.
Go to proposed fixie riding/beer drinking function on the bus.

Sunday- ride fixie in the rain with CTB.
Had Il Forno been open, we may have been content with doughnuts, but instead we ended up at the pub.

Monday- rise late.
Procrastinate until PM commitments have reduced possible ride time to about 2 hours.
Ride through the faux-Angeleno canyon subdivision atop Redoubt Rd, showing disapproval for the car dependent lifestyle by singing Neil Young's Revolution Blues on the way down the hill.

Crash Diet

PA190365a
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

When the pressure is on, everyone becomes a weight weenie, and after the savage pasting I got in the Waitakeres yesterday, I'm pleased that I have wisely invested in a pair of fancy wheels to assist me at K2.
Lacking the power to get any advantage from aero wheels, I opted for low weight and minimal rolling resistance.
I horsetraded a set of Campag Record 28 hole hubs from Wellington's Capital Cycles, and loaded my credit card with a pair of IRD Cadence rims. Spokes are Wheelsmith- 1.8mm doublebutted on the front & lefthand rear, 2.0 double butted at the driveside.
With Gran Bois Cerf 700 x 28 tyres, the wheels are 620g lighter than my everyday 36 spoke Mavic MA3/Campag Veloce/Gatorskin 28 wheelset, and reduce the weight of my Breakaway to sub-20lb.
Despite the possibility that my scales may be a few decades past their best, I choose to believe that the Ritchey, with a Brooks saddle and no carbon, is no heavier than Oli's 8.76kg/19.31lb Hillbrick.

From Sunday's Retro Ride

PA120324
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

Frosty was in fine form, never got out of the 53 and kept up a constant stream of good natured banter, even when the Type-A carbon bike guys went to the front.
Furthermore, he brought more biscuits than we could eat.

More photos HERE

It is said that the young Tino Tabak pretended to be Anquetil, and back in the 80s I had a workmate who wanted be Sean Kelly.
I don't recall ever wanting to be so specifically someone else, but on the rare occasions I find myself striving in the drops for a semblance of speed, I'm reminded of this photo from the 1991 Bridgestone USA catalog.

I will never match Pineapple Bob's form and athleticism, but this catalog tipped me down the slippery slope on which I still slide.
It introduced me to 'Q factor', the beauty of wool jerseys, and to this quote, from mountaineer Doug Robinson, which still informs my semi-Luddite attitude to new technology:

"Technology is imposed on the land, but technique means conforming to the landscape. One forces a passage, while the other discovers it. The goal of developing technique is to conform to the most improbable landscape by means of the greatest degree of skill and boldness supported by the least equipment."

a break from our usual programming..

sometime nothing uplifts the spirit better than a good goddamned racket like this.
'Turn it up!' as Van Morrison used to say:

Jetset dilemna

This weekend, I wanted to be at Eroica in Tuscany, until I heard about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco.
Instead, I cranked out 110kms on Saturday, and spent yesterday in the shed, futzing with various projects, most notably Gayle's new Fixie Inc Peacemaker.

Zeus 2000 Centrepulls

somecmavicetc038_edited
Originally uploaded by curmudgeon1957

To my mind, the second finest centrepull brake in history.

Though completely surplus to my requirements, I may have to build a bike to justify having bought them.

Trademe mishap

PA020284
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

Darryl Parker was just fooling around on Trademe and accidentally bought this early 90s Colnago Master.
It's had a pretty hard life, with a welded-up righthand rear dropout, and mismatched Ergopowers, but its also got some zoot period kit, like the Cinelli Grammo titanium stem and Royce bottom bracket.

The titanium USE seatpost, though a period correct blingpiece, is an unforgiveable taste crime, so if you have something more suitable, like C-Record or Chorus aero post, please get in touch.

Rotorua K2 Training camp

A few weeks ago I emailed the usual suspects:

"To maximise our performance at various forthcoming atletic ordeals, it is crucial that we hold a brutal training camp in Rotorua sometime in September. The plan is to ride, eat, watch cycling movies, eat more, and ride some more. "

We achieved most of these goals, except for brutality, though Chris Money, who was suffering from an excess of lung butter, may disagree.
After a late start on Saturday, we managed a circumnavigation of Late Rotorua, with a scenic detour into the hills from whence we could see the sea:



Sunday dawned fine, but with a nippy southwesterly to help build character.
Money made a gallant, Captain Oates-like, gesture and took his malfunctioning lungs for a short ride whilst Gaz, Vaughan and I headed into the hills:



PHOTOS

What could possibly go wrong?

In less than eight hours, Chris Money and Vaugan Yarwood will arrive to take me to Rotorua for a couple of days road riding with Gaz.
Normally, you would take your mountain bike, but some road mileage is called for as Gaz has decreed that, having piked on the Okoroire Mid-Winter Fun Ride, we must do K2 .
This makes even less sense than most of Gaz' utterances, and Money and Yarwood are treating it with the disdain it deserves, but I'm still hedging my bets in the hope of miraculously finding form or at least some endurance.