Sandy's Café Bike is complete

From this....

$5.00 from the dump shop

What started out as a 'Shop Bike' build quickly turned into quite a project but Sandy was determined to do it herself.  Having worked at Cyclezone in Darwin for sometime she had picked up a lot of knowledge of bikes but hadn't really got to swing too many spanners.

The disassembly begins

Sandy learnt about cup and cone bearings

Lose the derailleur components, they dont belong on a shop bike

A little bit of polishing was required

I dont think Sandy has seen a threaded headset before

Still polishing

Had to order a new seat post bolt

Still polishing

The mudguards look a bit past it and new ones only cost $40

Let the assembly begin

Expert supervision....note glass of wine

We were getting excited at this stage

Sturmey Archer bling

How could we not put Brooks saddle and bag on??

Leather grips

The masterpiece

An excellent result but we had a small problem.  The original intent was to create a shop bike.  You know the sort of dodgy looking bike you ride to the shop and not worry about it getting nicked because a) it costs bugger all and b) no one would want to nick it anyway.  To fix that I coined the new term 'Café Bike'.  The bike you ride to the café in your nice clothes and rest it near your table while you drink your coffee.

What has Sandy bought home from the dump shop?

What has Sandy bought home from the dump shop?

Stay tuned for updates

Wednesday 7 April 2010 Purton to Honeystreet 40km

Wednesday 7 April 2010 Purton to Honeystreet 40km

Pathetic, that's what we were when we rode past the Barge Inn, saw the canal and the boats putt..putting by then not 100m up the road a gorgeous thatched roof B&B.  What were we to do?  We had only ridden 40km but we were cold and it all looked so inviting we made an executive descision. We would rather be drinking a pint by the canal than riding our bikes.....so we did.  This is a holiday afterall :)

Let me rewind to this morning:  As we were packing up the owner of the B&B in Purton came out and said goodbye and gave us a little parcel for the road.  It contained a block of chocolate, two yohgurts and four apples, I love English people.  We got free Internet access last night so we spoke to Eleanor and Greyson and my Mum.  We also cooked some pasta and vegies for dinner.

Todays itinery saw us pass by:
Lydiard Millicent
Great Field
Hook
Wootten Bassett
Broad Town - saw our first White Horse here and cycled up a bloody big hill to get out of there.
Avebury - Avebury boasts a henge (you know circle of big stones from about 4,000 years ago)  This was pretty cool and we had lunch here. Nice little village altought squareley aimed at the tourist market.
West Kennett
not to be out done by East Kennett - it was here that we passed a farmer walking his two border collies down the lane.  He saw us coming and said "you've got a big climb coming up." I quickly motioned toward another laneway and acting the goat said "What about that way?" he laughed "You've got big climbs no matter which way you go out of here". And climb we did, although I think we are finally starting to get our 'touring legs'.
Alton Barnes
and then Honeystreet....the demise of our cycle day.

White horse at Broad Town

Part of the stone circle at Avebury

Church at Avebury

Avebury Manor

Chalk downs

White horse at Honeystreet

This was a great days cycling as for the first time we had a tailwind the whole way.  So really we picked a pretty stupid day to cut it short so we could take in the ambiance of the canal over a pint.  Nevermind, there will be other tailwinds......we hope.

We walked from the B&B to The Barge Inn and had a pint.  Considering we were so cold earlier it wasnt such a bad day and we almost considered sitting outside to have out pint......almost.

Our B&B is nice, not old, the plate on the wall says "1996" but they still put a thatched roof on??  The view from our window is pretty special, the window frames a white horse on the hill in the distance.

Cooked our dinner on the Tranigia outside and then settled in with a cuppa to read our books.

Caution bike geek content:
I have been riding the Schwalbe Marathon XR (26x2.0) which are a big heavy tyre designed for expidition touring like South America or the Gibb River Road.  I bought Sandy some new Schwalbe Marathon Duremes (26x2.0) which are the same width but with less aggressive tread and weigh just about half as much.  Today I put the almost slick and narrower Marathon Supremes (26x1.6) back on Sandy's bike and I swapped the XRs for the Duremes on my bike.  I'm hoping for an improvement as the XRs have been pretty tough compared to the Supremes I was running in Australia.

Slow tyres

Yesterday I swapped my Schwalbe Marathon Supremes (26x1.6) for Marathon XRs (26x2.0) and what a difference, it felt like I was towing a trailer.  The Supremes roll so well I think I lost 2kph on my 29km commute to work today.

The Marathon XR is/was the flagship expedition touring tyre form Schwalbe and is bloody heavy at 790g.  It rolls OK but acceleration is very very bad.  I do like the larger volume of the 2.0" tyre though, nice and cushy, I think I will go wth 2.0" Supremes when the 1.6"s wear out.

I will be using the XRs on the first stage or our trip from Perth to Busselton via the Munda Biddi Trail which will be mostly off road so I wanted a bit more tread.  I will be putting the Supremes back on as soon as we get to Busso :)

I might be bagging these tyres but if I was planning on riding across lots of dirt (or just crap) roads then these are what I'd use.

My first loaded ride on the Thorn Raven

This morning a filled my panniers with stuff to roughly equate to a normal touring load.  Headed off for a couple of hours to test the bike and it was supurb.  Handling was predictable and it tracked straight.

The action shot is of the Rohloff hub , it is a thing of beauty.

My commute

Todays cycle to work was something from a literary classic.  I stopped to have tea with my mother, who is staying at my brothers house, and then continued on my way to work in no hurry and yet with no impediment. I imagined, and it wasnt hard to do, that I was cycling a century ago and instead of an IceBreaker t-shirt I was wearing tweed.  I felt sympathy for those driving their cars this morning.

New cockpit

The handlebars on the new Thorns are risers which while comfortable dont leave much room for bling. Problem solved with an accessory bar.

Luckily I hadn't cut the fork steerer yet so I had plenty of room to mount it. Now as you can see I have the Ortlieb handlebar bag mount, GPS, and speedo.

This is cycle touring bling :)

Handlebar Mirror

While planning the big cycle tour we hear lots about the benefits of having a mirror on your bike so get a bit of warning of vehicle approaching from behind. Being the ex-roadie that would never think of putting a mirror on a bike because they are just too un-cool I scoffed.

Anyway we thought we better try one out so Sandy ordere one and I used it on the way to work this morning.....

Dont tell any of the guys on the Saturday group ride but I love it!!!!!! It took a bit of getting used to but by half and hour into my ride this morning I was glancing at it like I do when driving a car.

Cannondales

You can never have enough Cannondales :)

We need a bigger shed

With two more bikes on the way we're not going to have room in our shed.

Looks like the Thorns will have to go in the Lounge Room :)

Gary's new dynamo hub

Now I cant have Sandy having a dynamo hub and me not :) So I ordered a groovy Schmidt hub and spokes and I built the wheel myself.

Sandy's new flat bar tourer

Sandy's Vivente has low handlebars, this combined with the not so efficient brakes made us think about converting her bike to flat bars and putting a set of v-brakes on the front.

Wow!!! What a difference. The bars are higher so she's more comfortable and the brakes are fantastic. We trialed it with the gear of my mountain bike but then bought her shiny new LX shifter and brakes levers and a set of v-brakes for the front. Fitted it all and she loves it.

Will post photos later.

Gary's new front racks have arrived.

My new Tubus Duo racks for the Cannondale are here and I fitted them last night.

Sandy ordered the rest of our Ortlieb panniers yesterday so we're nearly ready.....well the equipment is nearly ready.