Outside the tent

Ride with the Dinosaurs

2008-07-03T15:21:00.001+12:00

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

2008-03-18T09:38:00.000+13:00

Ms Mullarkey goes to Woodhill

2008-03-10T09:16:00.008+13:00

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

2008-03-06T21:42:00.007+13:00

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

2008-03-03T14:38:00.020+13:00

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

2008-02-11T10:55:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-28T20:20:00.001+13:00

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.

Something for your groovy inner city lifestyle

2007-07-11T08:49:00.000+12:00

Sir Clive Sinclair's new folding A-bike will fit in your umbrella stand, but an average Auckland City pothole might swallow the whole bike.
If you make a practice of riding home from your favourite inner-city watering hole, the A-bike's tiny wheels may not provide the extra stability that you require.

Matt Seaton says a few words

2007-07-10T13:08:00.000+12:00

Posted to youtube by Carlton Reid of BIKEBIZ and Quick Release TV :

"The Guardian's cycling correspondent MATT SEATON gave the keynote speech at 'Marketing and Promoting Cycling', a conference at the University of Bolton on 3rd April 2007.
What are Seaton's views on Tory leader David Cameron and jumping red lights? "

BikeNZ sells us out to the CarBiz

2007-07-01T09:55:00.000+12:00

It's a measure of the ineffectiveness of BikeNZ's cycling advocacy program that a car company would provide three cars for the BikeNZ office.

Subaru are obnoxious.
A large part of their advertising emphasises high-performance, morally aiding and abetting the obnoxious road behaviour that discourages people from walking or cycling even near their own homes.
Subaru's advertising has consistently promoted the concept that it is only permissible to enjoy cycling when it is contingent on the use of their product. Riding from your front door would seem to be unacceptable to BikeNZ's new sponsor.

This concept of the bicycle as purely sporting or leisure product is an aberation of the late 20th century, now rendered obsolete by the prospect of peak oil, resulting in continual fuel price increases; not to mention the moral and practical exigencies of climate change.

TV3 fights rearguard action for doomed auto industry

2007-06-09T21:02:00.000+12:00

TV3 news shamelessly whored themselves out to the CarBiz on Friday night.
First they showed this 'Bikes are dangerous' from China, where, it seems professional derivers are not safe drivers, then followed up with a puff piece on a new Volkswagen which can park itself without human input.

Captain of Bicycle Industry talks sense!

2007-05-18T17:01:00.000+12:00

I didn't think I would live to see the day when a major player in the industry, in this case John Burke of Trek Bicycles, would promote cycling as a solution to some of the world's problems- ferinstance obesity, pollution, congestion, instead of merely as a recreational or sporting activity.
The gist of Burke's speech at this year's Taiwan bicycle show is that 'The (bicycle) industry's greatest opportunity and challenge is to create a bicycle friendly world', and that to do so would be 'the #1 way to grow the bicycle business....'

Well, duh...

To hear the speech in full, check out the Youtube vid, below. Burke's Powerpoint presentation is here.

Seen on the interislander ferry

2007-05-18T10:23:00.000+12:00

From Isa & Terry's cycle touring website

Most deserving of a Tui billboard

2007-05-10T13:16:00.000+12:00

Even if you can't deny anymore, you can still try to minimise the damage.

Ivan Basso's latest utterance ranks with such Clintonisms as 'I didn't inhale' and 'I did not have sex with that woman'.

Pukeko lashes out at Genesis

2007-05-10T11:56:00.000+12:00

You don't see this every day....

2007-03-21T11:16:00.000+12:00

Dead heat between Donna Wynd (Auckland) and Juliet Earle (Canterbury) in the Womens Sprint semi-final for 3rd & 4th.

Juliet beat Donna in the re-ride to claim the Bronze medal.

NZ Womens Sprint Champions 1993-2007

2007-03-21T10:38:00.000+12:00

All the Womens Sprint Champions from the past 15 Championships were racing at this years Nationals.

From left:

Fiona Carswell 1997-1999, 2002, 2006-2007

Liz Williams 2000 & 2001

Donna Wynd 1993-1996

Katri Laike 2003-2005

It was surprisingly easy to get all four together for a photo, much harder to get Ms Wynd and Mrs Carswell to behave in a seemly manner.

More Womens Team Sprint

2007-02-17T08:30:00.000+13:00

When I heard that the Womens Team Sprint was back in the Nationals program I sent an email to Cycling NZ president Mark Ireland:

"Hi Mark
It is good to see that the Womens Team Sprint has been reinstated at track nationals, albeit as a demonstration event.

It has been somewhat frustrating that a Championship event that was introduced by the 2003 CNZ AGM, and which was initially extremely successful, was later removed from the Nationals program by a less democratic and transparent process.
It was my understanding that the Womens Team Sprint was introduced, not only because it was a World Cup event at the time, but because it was felt to be a worthwhile addition to the womens events at the national championships.
While the decision to remove it from the program may have been consistent with the philosophy of BikeNZ's elite program it certainly did not serve the interests of Cycling NZ's female membership.
I hope that in future CNZ will be more critical of the decisions of the technical panel."

Marks response:

"I appreciate the feedback, but I feel I must clarify a few points with regards to the processes involved here.

Firstly, the technical panel consists entirely of CNZ personnel. BikeNZ has no involvement on it, although the views of the High Performance team may be sought and from time to time they do make recommendations to the CNZ Council for consideration. The Technical Panel currently consists of two UCI Commissaires (John McDonnell as convenor and Ian Bullock) and myself. Graham Sycamores advice is sometimes sought, with his vast knowledge of international practice.

With regards to the Track programme, the Technical Panel has always taken its principal direction from AGMs, where Centres have submitted remits or there is a forum to specifically debate the matters. This generates an agreed "wish list" of events that the panel then moulds into a workable format.

This was the process followed at the 2003 AGM and was the same at the 2006 AGM, where discussion again formed the basis of the revised programme that was issued recently.

Any format from the technical panel has to then be formally approved by the full CNZ Council.

Hopefully, the womens sprint will be well supported (it had not been previously, one of the reasons it was taken out of the programme) along with the team pursuit.

thanks for taking the time to raise your concerns, your points are noted,

Regards
Mark Ireland"

My response:

"Thanks for the clarification regarding the process.
In turn, I should point out the the 2004 Womens Team Sprint had a larger field than the mens event.
The poor entries in 2005 resulted from the omission of the Womens Team Sprint from the draft program that was distributed to Centres.

Best Wishes
DB"

So, it's good to know that the Nationals program is still in the control of Cycling New Zealand, rather than the elitist megalomaniacs at BikeNZ, but perhaps the CNZ technical panel needs to get out of their smoke filled room and start talking to some of the actual paying membership.

I'm curious whether the event's omission from the 2005 Nationals draft program was merely an oversight, or if there was a conscious decision to delete it and see if anyone complained.

Womens Team Sprint, part 3

2007-02-15T13:15:00.000+13:00

According to the latest draft Nationals program, there will be a Womens Team Sprint demonstration event on 16th March.
It's good to see that someone at Cycling NZ is paying attention.

Auckland Champs Womens Keirin video

2007-02-12T09:23:00.000+13:00

As part of my continued exploration of the blogosphere, I posted a video of yesterday's Auckland Champs Womens Keirin final here on You Tube.

If you are having a quiet day at work, YouTube is a rich source of entertaining Keirin Videos.

More on the Womens Team Sprint

2007-02-09T14:34:00.000+13:00

Ian Densie emailed Cycling Southland, and got this reply from Graham Sycamore:

Hi Ian
My understanding from CNZ Technical panel is that the event is a non starter this year.

I have suggested we could include it in our carnival and consider a remit to the AGM if there is sufficient interest in it from the centres.
Regards
Graham

I fail to understand why this needs to go back to the CNZ AGM, when the 2003 AGM has established the event as a New Zealand Championship.

Womens Team Sprint Championships

2007-02-03T21:35:00.000+13:00

Posted (by me) to the Coaching Forum on cyclingnz.com:

"Why is there no Womens Team Sprint at the 2007 NZ Track Championships?
This event was introduced at the 2004 Nationals, where it attracted more teams than the mens team sprint.

In '05 the entries were poor, because the event was left off the draft programs, so most Centres were unaware the event was being run.

In 2006 the Womens Team Sprint disappeared altogether. Nobody at CNZ was able to explain to me how the event had come to be dropped from the program, or who had made the decision.

The Womens Team Sprint Championship was added to the nationals program at the 2003 Cycling NZ AGM. I wonder who, other than another CNZ AGM , has the authority to remove the event from the program?"

I'm struggling to see any logic behind the dropping of this event.

The only change that should arguably have been made is from three to two rider teams, as the UCI has done at Track World Cups. There should not be a single Centre in the country that could not field a two-woman team.

New Bike Friday tikit 2 ride

2007-01-31T14:54:00.000+13:00

A few years back I regularly commuted by train from Papakura to Auckland with my Lambert fixie.
By bringing the bike I could reduce my total travel time by about 30 minutes per trip, but at the expense of taking up more than my fair share of room on the train.
I'm fairly adept at justifying my anti-social behaviour, at least to myself, but less thick-skinned commuters, as well as inhabitants of those controversially tiny inner city apartments, might want to consider the Bike Friday Tikit 2 ride.

Click here to see videos of the Tikit in action.

29er updates

2007-01-22T13:56:00.000+13:00

After five offroad rides on the 9r, I feel like I'm starting get the hang of it.
Sunday's outing at Woodhill, with Gaz and Chris & Sam Money, was the first that did not include a crash or near-miss. You could put this down to a more relaxed atmosphere without the sibling rivalry of our Wednesday evening rides, but I reckon that the changes I've made to the 9r have also made it easier to ride:

Cranks: the Q factor on the standard Truvativ Blaze cranks is 180mm, about 35mm wider than most of my road bikes. I don't think this is big deal when you are twiddling low gears on a multispeed MTB, but on singlespeed I want to keep my hips, knees and feet in line.
I fitted a set of 180mm Ritchey Logic cranks on a 118mm Kajita bottom bracket for a 155mm Q factor. The extra leverage of the 180mm crankarms is no bad thing either.

Gearing: standard gearing is 32 x 18, or 51.5"in trackiespeak, equivalent to a 2:1 ratio on a 26 wheel.
After a couple of rides I changed to 36 x 21 or 49.7", which gives better acceleration on moderate climbs. I've got a 35t ring on backorder which will give 48.3"

Handlebar stem: the standard 10.5cm stem gave 62cm reach from seat nose to handlebar, which felt comfortable, but put too much weight on the front tyre. After a couple of understeer induced crashes, I fitted a 9cm stem.

Ergon E1L* grips are the only truly comfortable grip I have ever used on a mountain bike.

The Cane Creek* Thudbuster seatpost is good for my back.
I found a 25.4mm Thudbuster on Trademe for $60, and used a Cane Creek shim to fit it to the 9r's 26.8mm seat tube.

*Disclaimer- I am deeply implicated in the importation and distribution of GT, Ergon & Cane Creek in New Zealand.
Nothing that I write about them can be believed.

South Auckland Selebrity Sighting

2007-01-02T15:55:00.000+13:00

Woodhill December 31

2007-01-02T11:27:00.000+13:00

Some of my favourite cycling websites are Japanese touring blogs like this one wherein the protagonists take themselves for a leisurely ride, culminating at a restaurant.

This is not unlike mountainbiking with Chris Money, whose lean physique belies his apparent belief that any trip out of the house should be a gastronomic adventure.

On Sunday Chris, his laconic Australian friend Alan, and I took ourselves to Woodhill to work up an appetite, and in my case, lose a little blood.

I knew that Money was turning backflips in anticipation of seeing me suffer on the 29er, and he was not to be disappointed.

In the first 20 minutes of our ride I overcooked my entry to a fast sandy righthand turn. I landed hard on my right knee, but contrived to fall short of a solid-looking trailmarker that would have spoiled the rest of my day. The resultant adrenalin was a boon on the following climb of Uplands, though the 52" gear,and certain aspects of my on-bike demeanour, seem more appropriate to someone half my age.

With Money was bringing up the rear chanting his mantra of "I'm not going to break my collarbone", I chased Alan around a smorgasbord of entertaining singletrack, eventually reprising my early front end washout, but with less pain.

After two and a half hours, (but only 1.5hours riding, according to Alan's computer), we left the forest with all our collarbones intact, heading for Girasol Cafe in Kumeu, where we rewarded ourselves commensurate with out efforts.

The Boxing Day Ride

2007-01-02T11:14:00.000+13:00

In the last years of the 20th Century, Brothers Pete, Bruce and I made a tradition of riding at Riverhead on Boxing Day, in the company of whatever posse we could drum up at short notice.

Except for an outing to Woodhill in, maybe, 2001, the tradition had died out until this year.

Rick Woodward and I collected a bizarely attired CT-B at Western Springs before heading for the official rendezvous at the Westgate McDonalds, where Pete & Bruce, plus Nick, Adam Lovell (wearing the Best Shirt of the day), Dominic and Hugh awaited. A call from Skoda sent us to the Riverhead Forest picnic area, where Ian Batchelor, Ian's Bro in law, and our guide Skoda were disgorged from Ian's Landrover Discovery.

Ably led by Skoda, the 12 strong posse wended its way through the best of Riverhead singletrack, some of which was vaguely recogniseable from my riding there in the '90s.

This was my first off road outing on my Peace 9r, and Riverhead's sinuous, rutted & rooty singletrack is not the ideal terrain for an unsuspended singlespeed, especially one with an Eggbeater pedal with a broken wing. The 52" gear enforced a brisk pace on the gravel climbs, but was a bit stiff to match Skoda as he twiddled his granny ring up the technical climbs.

The 9r and I got separated a few times, the most notable a trip over the handlebars when I underestimated the size of a small log jump in Gordy's Gully.

Returning to the Picnic area via the rooty Nature Trail, I managed another moment of ignominy, tipping over to the left and jamming my arm in a tangle of branches. Fortunately I managed to pull myself free before I was forced to gnaw my own arm off.

Those of us without other responsibilities or obligations retired to the Riverhead Pub, where chips and Riverhead Burgers were devoured.

By the end of the day, possibly only the Riverhead Pub cat was more content than us.

Christmas Eve Excitement

2007-01-02T10:58:00.000+13:00

On Christmas Eve, our tranquil 'hood was disturbed by the arrival of these two knobs who, pissed as rats, parked their car atop of one of the traffic islands in front of our house.

The driver knob at least had the smarts to stand around and look gormless, but passenger knob (in sweatpants) made a fair effort to start a fight with neighbor Clint who had come out to remonstrate with gormless knob about his poor driving.

A few matters arise from this incident:

Don't lend your car to Gormless Driver Knob (in shorts). He is already a disqualified driver.
Don't let your daughter go out with Passenger Knob- he's a dickhead when he's pissed.
If you're in the market for a white staion wagon, DEB528 isn't a good choice.
If you crash your car outside my house, I will do the necessary to ensure your survival, while cursing you fluently and extravagantly. And, make no mistake, the first call I make will be to the Police.

First new bike in 22 years

2006-12-29T15:56:00.000+13:00

After years of secondhand bikes, project bikes made from garage detritus, and Grandfather's Axe bikes, I gave myself a GT Peace 9r for Christmas.

For the last few summers I have not done much mountainbiking, spending most of my spare summer time at Manukau Velodrome, but this year I'm determined to get dirty on a regular basis.

Despite owning an under-utilised GT I-Drive, I figured that the Peace 9r was a way to try out both singlespeeding, and 29-inch wheels in one affordable package.

Needless to say, I started fiddling with it as soon as it came out of the carton. A Cane Creek Thudbuster immediately replaced the original seatpost- I'm 45 years old, and there's no way I'm riding a hardtail off-road without it.

The Q factor of the Truvativ Blaze cranks was a bit wide for my roadie sensibilities and manky knees, so they and the Howitzer bottom bracket, were consigned to a cardboard box, and replaced by a set of 180mm Ritchey Logic crankarms on a square taper Kajita BB.
This opened another can of worms. The 110pcd Ritchey cranks take a 34t chainring, so Rick Woodward gave me a Shimano 19t sprocket to equal the original 32 x 18 gearing. As it turns out Hyperglide cogs don't do much to keep the chain on, but fortunately I have found an old Shimano Uniglide 19t cog that should be more secure

2006-12-28T18:18:00.000+13:00

This was supposed to be my cranky, somewhat political blog, but I'm struggling to maintain the venom required to argue the propositions below, so I'll leave them for another day.
In the meantime, it's Summer, and the time is right for all kinds of good stuff.

A few topics for later:

Bike NZ will never be an effective advocate for cycling in New Zealand

That most recreational cyclists are stooges of the Car Culture, fortunately for me, Maynard Hershon nailed this one years ago.

That Bike NZ's Team Pursuit-based elite track program is largely smoke & mirrors bullshit

Increasing fuel costs ought to be a gift to the bicycle industry in New Zealand, but most of the protagonists are so tied to their own car-centric lifestyles that they will probably miss the opportunity.