Picked up a Matt Hoffman BMX for some computer work at the bike shop today.. thanks Mick!
Obviously I don't need another bike, but I saw it in the shop and thought about using it as an office run around - for grabbing spares and the like. The 3-piece cranks currently hit the chainstay but I'm sure this can be sorted with judicial use of washers. Riding my roadie home and pushing the bmx along made me realise how heavy this thing was and wonder how those jump grommets actually get these things into the air! ;)
I don't have pictures of it yet but they will come soon enough. It's cheap blue paint over chrome I think.

I should learn how to ride a normal velodrome before trying this.. ;)

Details: http://www.consolati.com/hpr/hpr.html

Meet Hatchback the cat:


Steve and Chris have been taking care of this stray for some time now. He is super friendly and appears to have come from a domestic-cat situation before being strayed. Formerly known as Panther, Black Cat or Half-Tail, I named him "Hatchback" due to half his tail being cut off at some stage. Just like a hatchback car, he has a shorter rear end!

It's been a while... but my blog is back up and running after a server change and some permissions issues.

This dude was selling a $10,000 Trek Team TT bike for bugger all - the winning bid was ~$3k: Dodgy Ebay Trek

Before the bidding ended I noticed the ad was simply taken straight from Trek's website. I emailed the seller about this:


Dear jayt91,
This photo appears to be from promo material. Do you have pics of your actual bike?

and shortly after, when I noticed no size, I emailed this question:


Dear jayt91,
Oh, also, what size is it?! You've cut and pasted the details from Trek's website (which makes it look well dodgy) and didn't specify a size..

I received this:


From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]

Dear potential customer,
First of all I want to thank you for your message.
I have a various sizes of bikes right now so please let me know what size do you need so I can see if I can find the size that you need.
The bike model year is 2004. All my bikes are new in boxes and be sure that it will be a prompt delivery and the bike will be fully insured for the total amount.I'm handling the liquidation of a big store stock. The product is brand new in box with all the warranty papers for lifetime. So the best price that I can make for you is $2400.00 including shipping. Let me know if you like the price in order to go ahead with the deal. If you are ok with my price and we will decide to move forward with our deal you must know that we will close our deal under protection of eBay.
Feel free to ask me any other questions. I'm waiting for your reply.
With all due respect,
Mihaela

and 10 minutes later (without me doing anything else) this:


From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]

Dear potential customer,
First of all I want to thank you for your message.
I have a various sizes of bikes right now so please let me know what size do you need so I can see if I can find the size that you need.
The bike model year is 2004. All my bikes are new in boxes and be sure that it will be a prompt delivery and the bike will be fully insured for the total amount.I'm handling the liquidation of a big store stock. The product is brand new in box with all the warranty papers for lifetime. So the best price that I can make for you is $1200.00 including shipping. Let me know if you like the price in order to go ahead with the deal. If you are ok with my price and we will decide to move forward with our deal you must know that we will close our deal under protection of eBay.
Feel free to ask me any other questions. I'm waiting for your reply.
With all due respect,
Mihaela

Wow! Some guy just won the $10k bike for 3k and in the space of 10min the price for me has dropped to $2400 and then $1200!!! That's the price of the groupset alone, let alone the frame, wheels and extras! With some well-justified doubts in my mind I emailed back:


So you are offering a 56cm Trek Team Time Trial bike, complete with wheels, groupset and extras like saddle, stem, seatpost.. all for $1200AUD, including shipping?

..to which I received:


From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]

Hi,
I have a size 56 cm avaible for you.
I will ship the product as a gift and you don't pay any extra taxes. As I have told you the product will be ship via UPS 2nd days air insured in my shipping cost. It will be there in two days.
Usually, I accept paypal but for the moment I can't do that because I want to sell this item quickly and I haven't enough time to clear the deal in a week (4 days for charge my bank account from paypal account +3 days shipping) and second, I had many transaction though paypal in the last days and I'm over the limit (I can't transfer in my bank account though paypal more then $5,000/month and I already transferred this amount).
You can do the payment via wire transfer under eBay protection because I need the money to pay my bill in time. If yes I will announce eBay Safety board about our transaction and we can do that under their protection.
Thank you,
Mihaela

Oh, really?


What do you mean ship it as a gift? You said you were based in Sydney - there wont be a need to pay taxes, hence no need to ship as a "gift".
Ebay's protection only covers items up to $400 worth. This is a $1200 item. Where will the extra protection come from?
Will you do an escrow transaction?
How do I do a 'wire transfer'?

..and for some strange reason I have yet to hear from him!

It appears that someone has hijacked this account and was trying to con someone into handing over clams for a deal 'too good to be true'. I feel sorry for whoever actually won this auction and hope that they realise just how dodgy it is before they lose $3k.

1 arse monkey ran a red light...this morning, forcing me to veer around his ute as I hurtled downhill through the intersection. I still brought home a 55min commute (on my road bike for the first time in 3+ months) so no biggie.
Coming home, 3 more arse monkeys tried to take me out in the space of 5 minutes! 1 pulled left into me, turning before indicating, trying to go down a slip lane. I clipped his door with my foot (hopefully taking paint off!). The other was a dumb cow who decided she would pull out of her carpark into traffic, forcing me into car traffic. I can't even remember what the third was.. I was probably too busy swearing at the first two dicks.
What's going on? As soon as I ride my most expensive bike around, instead of the SS, every car wants to take me out - fuckers!

Lets do that again!...

I hit the passenger door of a car last night coming to some lights. As I passed on his left (legal.. I hope :) ) he turned towards a slip lane when I was right beside him. He indicated, but it was only AS he turned so I could only do my best to swerve around. Clonked his door and rolled up to the lights. Looked back, he was stuck in the traffic still (he couldn't even get into the slip lane due to other cars) so I mouthed off a bit, considered myself lucky and rolled on.. only to have another two 'incidents' with people pulling out when they shouldn't, not indicating, etc.. PLUS some idiot had run a red that morning, forcing me to swerve around him through a downhill intersection! Sheesh!! First time I commute on my _good_ bike in 3+ months and it's like 'they know'! I think I'll stick with the ss - maybe because it's slower - cars don't seem to mind it?

I found this guy's site today in some Vancouver blog collection. While I don't necessarily agree with all his comments, most of 'em are pretty funny/cluey. He's a singlespeeder/fixer AND anyone who can do this to their cranks gets much hippy respect! :)

Behold the Weasel Wisdom:
"Of course being a singlespeeder, not only makes you a sex beast, but it also makes you a better person in general"

:: A Weasel's World ::

Here are pictures from the build process of my first street fix:
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6

Stage 6 was after its first road ride around home. It's fun! My legs are quite sore from all the leg-braking (oh and a hilly road ride might have something to do with it).

The frame is an old Apollo road bike frame that I scored off bikesoiler for a 6-pack of Mountain Goat.
It uses a new Miche groupset from my LBS, Profile Airwing bars from ebay, Dia-Compe TT brake lever from my LBS, cheapie caliper that was included with a frame I bought a while back (Lynzz?). Other parts were in my parts bin or from Croydon Cycle Works (plug.. plug.. plug..).

It needs a better seatpost and saddle, better brake caliper and I'm yet to decide on clips/straps or clipless pedals. The wheels are off my track bike so I'm going to build up some new ones for it, hence "complete-ish".

In case you are wondering "Vegemite" is a 'food' spread that aussies like on their toast for breakfast. I figured I was powdercoating the frame to a similar colour as the spread.. "Vegemite" it shall be. I'll get some red and yellow parts to complete the vegemite look.

Comments welcome..

hippy

These people don't think so:

"Takaka miraculously fuses two oppositional but equally unattractive elements of society into a monstrous whole. On the one hand you have the bog-standard New Zealand bogan brought up solely on a diet of spaghetti and white bread, dropped upon head at birth and beloved of white gumboots, whose accidental education has come from mistakenly reading those 'brainy' articles allegedly published in a well 'thumbed' copy of Playboy. Drinking, being emotionally stunted and eating things with pink icing are favourite pastimes.

On the other, one has an influx of those unbearable alternative hippy types drawn hither ostensibly for the indisputable beauties of it's natural surrounds. Clearly that's a lie. They want to strut their hand knitted Peruvian tights and Mongolian lichen dyed ponchos down Commercial Street earning the oohs and the ahhhs of fellow enthusiasts whilst exhibiting deeply irritating holier-than-thou lifestyles including such wonders as hand suckling small soy-based goats on a diet of wheatgrass and toe-pressed lesbian tambourine bands. Yummy. If you want to prop up your flagging self esteem with faux spiritual enlightenment and you want your chakra opened compadres to know abut it, you've come to the right place. Quite good for wife swapping too."

from: New Zealand Crap Towns

The official Powerball website:
www.powerballs.com

Our office scoreboard:
OWA Powerball Scores

Initially I thought the Powerball gyroscope was the silliest toy I'd seen a grown man purchase in a long time. I was wrong.

It's THE most addictive thing our office has seen!

Start it with the string (most of us can start it with a thumb flick now) and then rotate the ball-gyro at the correct speed and "circle size" with the emphasis on using your wrist, rather than your arm. The idea is to get it going as fast as possible. An LED counter on the side tells you the fastest RPM for a "go" and can also give a figure for the power/endurance over a 30 second period of frenzied spinning.

record OLN's Tour de France streamed commentary.
If it works it will mean I don't have to stay up until 2am to listen to the whole race. When you have to wake at 6am for work - this is a good thing!

Total Recorder is available from:
http://www.highcriteria.com/
I bought the super cheap Standard Edition for about $12USD (~$20AUD).

I tried to record Stage 5 but it appears to have dropped out (just after I went to bed of course). It's not Total Recorders fault, rather, OLN's stream was near death just before I 'retired' so it probably keeled over totally when I was in Nodsville. I'll try it again tonight and relive stage 5 through Cyclingnews

Calling all Tour de Donut riders...

"Just wondering if there were any of you going to the Tour de Donut race this coming Saturday July 10th in Staunton Illinois. It will be my first time to ride it but believe it will be great fun. If they run the same 30 mile route as in the past years you ride about 13 miles then stop and eat as many glazed donuts as you can, then ride 9 miles and stop and chow down again then ride the final 8 miles back to town. For each donut eaten they deduct 5 minutes off your total time. They have mens and womens classes and a mens over 50 class and had about 525 riders last year I was told. Hope to see some of you there. I'll be on the old orange & yellow Schwinn Continental, probably near the end of the pack (or along the side of the road getting sick!)."
- Mark Bentley

"Mmm donuts.."
- Homer Simpson

"Now we've got 4mins to air right?"
"So I can go to a quick loo loo?"

- during OLN's internet radio coverage of the TdF2004 TTT (Stage 4)

Pulled some tricky moves tonight, squeezing through nice gaps in traffic, all the while laughing at silly cars..
One dopey idiot, driving with a mobile stuck to his ear, takes 5 minutes (actual time: 5 seconds) to make a right turn and then proceeds to drive 20kph below the speed limit. Slowing cars down is one thing but slowing bikes down! Screw this! I pass him (laughing) and then watch as another car passes me somehow catching some rubbish underneath their car which causes a shower of sparks over the tram tracks (and more laughing from me).
Raining now.. hard.. I'm soaked through again, my white t-shirt now transparent, my white body scarring drivers for life.
No brake pads left front or back - emergency stop not an option. Make it home soggy, safe and happy.

Time: 1:05 (pretty good!)

With some parts scored on the weekend, I managed to put together something rideable. Unsafe IMHO, but rideable...
Vegemite Street Fix

Bogans who smash empties on the road should be made to lick the streets clean...

6am - Wake (just) and decide getting the bike ready and riding to Doncaster in under an hour ain't gonna happen, even with my Superman-like abilities .

9am - Wake (for real this time)

9.50am - Leave, after printing Dutchy's directions.

10am - Return home, after forgetting Dutchy's directions.

10.20am - Waved down by PYT (pretty young thing). Supply her with directions to Ringwood and continue on my merry way knowing my good deed for the day is done.

Turn onto Mitcham Rd, spotting Old Warrandyte Road (map reference and possible bunch meeting place?) on the way.

Ride along Doncaster Road reaching High St.. hmm.. where was Manningham Road?

Ride all the way back along Doncaster Rd. (with obligatory high speed 'Bland Rover' pass thrown in) and manage to miss Manningham Road again.. maybe I'm looking for the wrong street?

"Shortly after turn east into Tindals Road" didn't quite work out for me. I'm sure this road isn't signposted on Springvale Rd. so I went straight passed it. At the end of Springy Road,

after that evil short/sharp hill, I did a U-turn and turned left up the continuation of Old Warrandyte Road. "Tindals Road." was on a letterbox up here so I guess I'm blind or the road is marked strangely?

The scenery was great out here even though I spent more time looking at the bitumen, gasping for air, than appreciating it!

The roads are nicer than up in the 'nongs with lots of sealed shoulder to give 'bail room' when that P-Plater wants to 'take you from behind'.

I got as far as "Take next major left which is STILL called Eltham-YarraGlen Road" when I lost the ride's scent. I'd been huffing and puffing for 3hrs and was dreading the thought of the hilly return, so I decided to turn around and head back over the river before I ran out of juice. It turns out that the return was HEAPS faster than the climb out so I was on the

Ringwood-Warrandyte Road in no time - fun!

Dutch: Are you sure the road isn't "Wattle Glen Road" rather than Eltham-YarraGlen Road? After the round-a-bout, there was a left turn to Hurstbridge but I'm sure it didn't have the same name (Wattle Glen Road?).. I continued passed it for a while and gave up at the "Alma Road" bus stop before I saw anything that resembled a "major left".

With the second sunny Sunday in a row - it was a really good ride - my winter tan is coming on nicely! The rolling hills here are much more fun than a pure climb like I'd do in the 'nongs and challenging in a different way due to the power on/power off style riding.

I know it was still reasonably hard because I was out of the saddle a fair bit and for a heavy guy like me, that rarely happens! This could also be a lack of fitness or a singlespeed hangup?

I'll have to try extra hard to make it to the next bunch ride so I can do the rest of it.

Ride Stats:
4hr 5min
No other stats due to *&%*&^ing Polar speed sensor not working