Fatbike On The Fly

  This year saw me take up regular cycling.  This is Jamis on one of the first rides to Woodville. On this 30k  ride I would have suffered in the legs and rump,   Here's my second serious bike Kona on the Central West Cycle Trail.  I had time only for a Sub 24 ride,  but I did camp out.  This year I did a lot of local rides.  During September I rode 500k  for children's charity.   Apart from regular local road rides I rode over Mt Johnstone and here,  after my first Covid shot I rode the mtb trails at Dungog.  It was fast and furious, my reactions were a little slow,  but I got about and had an absolute ball. 

 This is my Land Rover in sparkling form. This year I sold it to my daughter Mia.  I still use it but my preferred transport mode is a bicycle.   I also use the train & discount Opal card to commute to Merewether.  

 After more than a decade I have learned a few hard lessons.  First of all,  unless you have use of a small expensive digger, it's a good physical workout.  Step 1. Place as large a stone as possible in the base off the washout.  .   Step 2: Fill around the base layer and shallow parts of the washout with mid- sized stone.   Step 3: Fill to satisfaction with fist sized or smaller stone.  The theory it's that water will move through the proud construction,  but aft a slower rate and the large stone will anchor the entire construction. 

 FOOD  - tortilla on bags, pnut butter in pilljar, chocolate, m/bars.=> not enough,  choc melted, expensivem/bar was no better.  Choc melted through pack,  needed more WATER/DRINKS.    Carrying 2x750ml was enough.  Never touched spare Restock at toilet block near ferry was bonus. Could carry a little  & could take more.    Coffee, milk powder & coffee worked ok.  COOKER: Trangia, 1/3 fuel, matches. Matches should be bagged. BIKE Jamis on 60k x remote tar, flat pedals,  flat bars.  All worked well tho bars could be better ( drips & aeros) bar bag crowded crowded on the flat bars. SPARES.  No tube carried,  unsafe.  BAGS. Bar bag good but vs. cables. Frame bag handy but crowded,  need cha fl ok bag for phone,  water,  snacks. Seat bag.  Worked well with extra clothes and kitchen. Camp Gear. hammock,  blanket & pad were not used but good to carry.  Hammock needs new ropes. LIGHTS.     Used on the way back and felt heaps safer.  Use always.  CAMERA.  Used phone > roug

 Yesterday,  I set off on Cliffy to see what I could  see.  The plan was to take all my gear as if going on a camping tour and see what unfolded.  Two fully laden panniers,  a tent and seat atop,  as well as a handlebar bag, made the bike surprisingly heavy.  I initially thought i would get nowhere but after a while my legs warmed up and develo0ed more power.  Perhaps my heart lightened up a bit too?  I received a very rude shock as Woodville store.  Cold and damp,  I wandered in looking for lunch,  metho and AAA batteries. For a tomato,  250g cheese,  12 x AAAs and a small coke set me back $30. I was to beat up to assert my need to understand the prices and left feeling depressed.   Along the backroad from Woodville to Wallalong I pulled in to a hay barn to take lunch out of the weather.  Here I discovered that the cheese was in fact a "dairy free" type concoction,  no doubt responsible for the rip off.  I felt I understood the bill a little better, but I resented the fact t

  All at once felt great pride in having elicited such a lovely comment from Howard Rice.  For those that don't know, he was the developer and test pilot for SCAMP and had sailed his expedition style dinghy solo in the Magellan Straits right by Cape Horn. 

 Route was lose,  home to Woodville,  gravel rd by bridge E, to Downfield Rd via Morpeth.   Gear in handle bar bag,  panniers,  tank bag & rack. Pannier #1. Boardies,  swimmers, camp towel,  t shirt,  lycra jersey,  thongs, flanno shirt,  first aid bag ( bandage, stickers, pain relief, heat rub,  balm, survival pack) diary & pen Pannier #2: bike lock,  spare water,  pump,  baby wipes,  insect rub,  multitool,  Leatherman,  charger & cable,  rain jacket. book, kitchen bag ( wraps,  stove,  cup, jar of peanut butter,  hard container with muesli & dry milk,  spork, coffee, brewer) Handlebar Bag : hammock, pad, bag. Rack. Tent ,  seat Tank Bag.  Cash,  phone,  earbuds, opal, mask Metho bottle.  Riding a fat tyred bike,  heavily laden,  into a headwind and rain with not peak fitness,  was not good. I was initially amazed at thetheatre and it's unpack on handling and performance. It got a little better,  but was mostly really inefficient.   Things to do differently: 1. No

 Today I was to be pushing off for a sub 24 run but the forecast temp of 36C scotched that.  I decided toasted to get giing early and take a 30 something kilometre loop  which included a coffee shop.  This route a mix of busy C roads,  one lane sealed and unsealed.  A chance to make some fine tuning gear selection adjustments post chain shortening.   I hit the trail from my door at 0600hrs and flew down the road dodging potholes in the gravel formed during early December rains. Traffic levels were really low due to a local surge in Covid cases, so I enjoy dumping a load from weeks of over grazing and getting to feel my Trucker. Along two lane roads for may be 8k - my bike computer is too complex for me to operate within instructions!?- I hit single lane sealed and identified a problem with my front derailleur.  The small ring could only be selected when skipping directly down from the largest ring.  Also there was an issue with selecting the chain right of the large ring. Adjusting the

 A FB friend posted that she had 2 weeks off at Christmas and had too many route plans swishing about in her head that she was feeling paralysed. I think she was expressing a bit of how many of us were feeling,  "post" Covid and all.  Anyway, all the boys threw further options at her, probably only creating more stuckness, which I found kinda funny. Then,  surprisingly (not),  a woman made an almost Zen  suggestion: "Just go out of your door and keep pedaling". It made me think how when going for recreational rides I will often abandon a route plan on a whim and enjoy the ride.  Afterwards I can reflect on how I wasted energy planning only to have the road our weather take me away.   That's me done. I have a basic direction,  North East to East. We'll see then 

Photo showing a non- standard repair.  A 6mm set screw to replace a shorter set screw in a striped thread in the riser fitting.  I will cut the excess off. A replacement riser has been difficult to find due to the small handlebar diameter (21mm). A set of Butterfly Bars ordered in November are two weeks overdue.  Even if they arrive between now and Christmas I may not have time to fit them.   I also shortened the chain.  There is a chain length formula which is available online.  I used this to calculate that my chain was 5 inches or 5 links too long.  It was causing chain suck I believe.  This is when the chain doesn't release from the chainrings. Other things can cause this,  but it seemed obvious to me that slack in the chain.  Another problem with too many links was that in the smallest gear,  the chain was fouling the top wheel on the derailleur.  This photo shows a clearance. It's no wonder the PO had "trouble with the gears". I have not tested these repairs yet

Cool, sunny & on my son to be "gravel bike". Those is the nobody bike that just does shit. Rode 500k for charity,  fatbike too slow,  ride James.  Want to pool granny gear and ride up V Rd @15% grade,  pick James.  Potable easy gliding commute, James.   I'm now thinking; drop bars,  increased chain ring size, tubeless wheels.   -  z - z - Fine this morning,  but another 30mm  toured out of the rain guage this morning.  That was just from yesterday afternoon's storm.  November must have been a record rainfall month. December is going the same way.   - z - z - This commuting stuff is pretty good.  I get to be out on the streets and beaches and witness lovely scenery.  I also get to read for two hours each day.  Currently reading "High Adventure" by Edmund Hillary.  At this stage,  still conducting exploratory expeditions in order to find the most accessible route to Everest.  He just climbs transom peaks,  with George and three Indian sherpas, for the thri

By the end of the first week in December there'd be some expectations of sunburn,  riding fatigue and being exhausted from my gardening work.  Will this season has been a real  non event due mainly to the weather.  There has not been a day that it hasn't rained.  Okay, so I'm a sook? No not really,  is just that such dodgy weather has me feeling anxious about work, time poor and financially poor. Uttress a bummer of a summer, but riding thought of riding is keeping me hopeful. At t his point Old James is shining through,  not fast,  but simple and reliable.  Joe rode him to vote at Vacy last Saturday and was well pleased.  Cliffy is still close to my heart.  He's decked or for bikepacking with a rear rack reinstalled to keep the seat post back clear of the tyre, to act as a mudguard and to sling the small Ortleib panniers.  Hopefully in Christmas New Year period I can achieve an S240 Alison-Columbey Loop on him.  Trucker had been a little disappointing so far because I