Ride with the Dinosaurs

7:30am tomorrow at Bike Central 3 Britomart Place, to ride the truck-clogged streets of Central Auckland, presenting an alternate viewpoint to that of the Road Transport Forum and Auckland's mayor, as seen in today's Herald.

If anyone wants to bring suitable banners or costumes, feel free to do so.

Next Critical Mass, March 28th

Ms Mullarkey goes to Woodhill

Not my best work with a digital camera, but here's Kate on the inaugural outing of the Specialized M2 singlespeed, which Mr James Lewis has deemed to be a 'sick whip'.
In the circles he moves in that's apparently a good thing.

Size XS Singlespeed

This bike is a product of the 80/20 rule of bike building, that is, that once you have 80% of the parts necessary for a project, you should acquire the other 20% regardless of the cost.
The frame has been in the family since 1998; the wheels are a shed-find, leftover from an MTB to commuter conversion; the RockShox Tora fork was homeless, having a too-short steerer for a workmate's singlespeed project.

93-ish 170mm XTR cranks.
34 x 18 gear.

Araya RM20 rims on 7-speed Shimano Deore hubs.
Chain tensioned by a Surly Singleator

Syncros Gain bars and FL stem, hand me downs from the recent 29er upgrade.

More 29er & Singlespeed folly

In anticipation of the inaugural New Zealand Singlespeed Championship, I colour-coordinated my 9r with a matching white pair of Syncros* Fixed Flat Top bars and FL stem.
To get my hands in the same place I fitted a 1cm longer stem to compensate for the 10degree sweep of the bars.
Since I was replacing similar Syncros kit in black, I didn't achieve any measurable weight reduction, but the extra 6cm width of the Flat Top bars definitely pays off in extra control.

The other upgrade since last summer is a pair of Conti* Mountain King 29 x 2.4 tyres, which seem to stay hooked up more consistently than the original WTB Exiwolf 2.35s.
Rest assured that nothing has gone to waste. Already the old bar & stem have found a home on a midget singlespeed, assembled from found material and pro-quality cast-offs, for Kate Mullarkey to ride.
















*Disclaimer- I am deeply implicated in the importation and distribution of Continental and Syncros in New Zealand.Nothing that I write about them can be believed.

Critical Mass in Auckland - updated

5:30pm
Friday, February 29
from Albert Park, by the fountain.

As of today, the local
Critical Mass website is up & running.

Some recent choice bits from the blogosphere

It's been a while since I produced any bloggage, but fortunately others in the blogosphere who are still making sense:
Chloe, daughter of the Large Fella, says a few well chosen words about advertising and the consumer society;
Over at the Velo Orange blog, Chris Kulczycki says a few words that, in these straitened times, you might expect to be hearing from the mainstream bike business.