Raleigh Gran Tour on trademe - SOLD

This week's Trademe delight is a slightly hard done by but basically decent 60cm Raleigh Gran Tour frame.
With a bit of love and elbow grease this will make a great winter bike, commuter or credit card tourer.
If you don't believe me, take a look at Oli Brooke-White's stylish but low-budget Gran Tour:

Vicariously Pro

Today CTB is a guest rider for Team Bici Vida at Race 4 of the Benchmark Series at Taitapu, Christchurch.

Cecil Walker frame on Trademe - SOLD

As the ruthless cleanout continues the Cecil Walker frame that I rode at Eroica in 2006 goes on the block.

CTB Tour of Tahiti updates

After a couple of bouts of food poisoning CTB has finished the Tour of Tahiti 23rd on GC and 4th in the masters competition.

After stage 12:
CTB: "Wahoooo. Just finished a 48kph crit.
Teammate won.
Feeling satisfied"

DB: "Good work! Do you have beer yet?

CTB: "Yeah I had money in my pocket and had a beer at the first pub past the finish line."

Before the Stage 12 criterium:
"I am amped. Mark (Langlands) won yesterday.
We just want to stay upright. And tomorrow we have a specatcular day off planned"

After Stage 11:
"Hi I am sick again but made it to the finish. It was a 10km climb to 600m today so not much fun. Lost a couple of minutes. Only a criterium tomorrow night to go! Yay."

Final results are up on the Tour of Tahiti website

Ron Cooper reminisces

A podcast interview with legendary framebuilder Ron Cooper, podcast from English radio show THE BIKE SHOW

Photo: hairyeggg

CTB suffers on Stage 9

Stage 10

From CTB:

"I blew with 10k to go. Gutted! I dropped to 2nd on the masters and 26th on GC. First weak day. Hopefully tomorrow will go better."

Stage details for the French speakers among you.

Stage 10 results

After stage 6

Tour of Tahiti, stage 9

A brief text report from CTB:

“Eagle from Onehunga hangs on to lead on another summit finish! I hate skinny little climbers who make me look so slow and hurt so much on 20 min climbs!”

With three stages to go, CTB is still in the masters jersey, but dropped three places on GC today to 19th.

Photo from stage 8

CTB strings out the bunch

From stage 3

More vicarious suffering

A text report from CTB:

"Today was hard. 120km. 4km climb to 300m to the finish.
Ave 42kph
Pulse for the last 15mins 185BPM
Still leading masters. 16th on GC"

Stage 8 Results

A couple of photos from Stage 5:

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

***************************************************************************************

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.

Chris Whitley - latest update

A lot has happened in the last week.

Chris got the tracheotomy tube out on Christmas Eve and was able to enjoy a somewhat pureed Christmas dinner the following day.

Having asked for his laptop, it was apparent that Chris wouldn’t want to stay put in hospital much longer and on Monday 28^th he was released from hospital to trial staying at home overnight. Under this system Chris would stay at home at night, but come into the hospital during the day for necessary treatment.

In the event, Monday’s sleep was a little short and Jan had to bundle Chris back into the hospital in the wee smalls on Tuesday morning. After a little more recovery and seeing the various specialists they were given the all clear for him to be released from hospital and for any necessary care to be performed at home. At one point it looked like they were going to have to travel to west Auckland for rehabilitation but a better alternative has been found.

Since getting home, Chris has been able to (slowly) negotiate the stairs on his own, bathe, and also made a trip up and down the steep drive to retrieve the mail. Jan drove him down to the velodrome where they stayed for about an hour, walking and catching up with a few people down there.

Chris is enjoying home cooked meals again and seems very happy to be back at home in an environment where he can rehabilitate in familiar and comforting surroundings. It has yet to be confirmed how much help will be forthcoming through ACC both in rehabilitation and home help but that should be sorted in the coming days.

As indicated earlier in the blog, the easiest time for Jan would be while Chris was still in hospital. Now she will be kept very busy looking after Chris and accompanying him through the steps to come. In that regard, if you find yourselves with a bit of free time on your hands and can help out with little chores about the house please drop a line to Jan, and visitors are welcome in the afternoons.

Chris is still finding getting a good sleep challenging, but if he doesn’t get too tired through the morning and can stretch through the day without a snooze, he is better placed to have a decent sleep through the night.

He has more of his familiar look about him every day, and in spite of the fact it seemed his early recovery was drawn out, it is still a relatively short time since the accident and we can be thankful for that.

Thank you to everyone who has given their time, energy, support and good wishes over this time. I’m sure Chris hopes to be back in your circles again very soon.

Honjo mudguards, part 2

After almost a year of procrastination, I made a couple of long mudguard mounting eyebolts, and a suitable spacer out of some lying-about perspex, to adjust the front mudguard line on Donna's Bob Jackson.

Lowering the guard about 5mm below the fork crown means it sits concentric with the wheel instead of higher at the front.

In this photo the eyebolt still needs to be shortened about 15mm
















BEFORE










AFTER

Chris Whitley - Monday updates

From Peter Alexander:
After battling an infection late last week that had his temperature up, Chris has had a good night last night and his lungs appear to be much better. Antibiotics go so far, but the body has to contribute a lot to the healing as well.

He was able to give one of his riders advice for training while he is away overseas, and had the room in stitches during another visit from a couple of riding colleagues. Though such visits often tire Chris out, he seems to have taken this in his stride a bit better, and a bit of laughter appears to be good medicine for him.

Chris continues to be well looked after, and was even able to get his bed turned around to check out his old stomping ground on the North Shore through the window. The medical staff are still keeping a good eye on him, and again he seems to have taken some good steps in recent days.

Jan is keeping busy around visits to the hospital, and sounded really upbeat this morning. Her strength and focus continue to be an inspiration.

...and from Liz Williams:
Chris has been moved from critical into the high dependency ward.
He still has a trach tube in his throat so can't talk, but is communicating by writing notes which are apparenly legible and make perfect sense.
The doctors have said that every day will be different, and he is expected to recover a lot faster once this lung infection has cleared up.
He was stoked with the card that everyone signed on Friday night so thanks for that.
He still gets very tired so if you're planning to visit please leave a message for Jan, or Jenny and Paul first.
Visits have to be very short, and lots of time between each one.
This is the nature of head injuries like Chris's, he really needs lots of rest!