My Bike Got Stolen And Some Of The Bikes In My Life

Bike bought in 1995 to go touring with

A thief sneaked into my patio one night a few weeks ago and made off with my Giant ATX 870 mountain bike, which I used to go touring with.

I had lots of happy days with this bike, touring the south west, and also commuting to work with from time of purchase in 1995 till my retirement in 2002.

Camping for the night

I also made a trailer for this bike, to take my dog Fleming out with.

Trailer made out of pvc pipes and discarded wheels

The above photo shows the excellent Blackburn rack (expensive) at the back of the bike, which I am also angry at losing.  Thank goodness I had removed the expensive leather Brooks saddle on it to put on another bike.  That saddle alone cost me about $250.

The Giant is the second oldest of my four bikes (the oldest is in my shed, not currently roadworthy).

The thief had a choice of 2 bikes, the other one being newer with much better components but an unknown brand.  Thankfully he chose the older one.

I was about to renew the drive train of the Giant as it was quite worn, but luckily I procrastinated.  Otherwise the thief would have got a new transmission as well.

My automatic gate closer

When Fleming first joined the family, I needed an automatic gate closer to prevent the gate being left open, allowing the puppy to run out.

Being too cheap to buy a real automatic gate closer, I fashioned one with a screw ring and an old bicycle inner tube (which I have plenty of).

The thief actually untied my inner tube so that the gate won't close and make a noise.  That lowlife seems to be quite an exeprienced thief.

I've had parts of my bike stolen before, when I was living in Neptune Court.

I don't have an actual photo of that bike, just this ad from the web.  Mine came with Shimano 600 instead of Campagnolo.

That thief reached in through a locked metal gate and managed to remove my front brake caliper and one of the pedals.

That Raleigh I got in 1975 in Singapore for S$750 and in the mid 80's I traded it in in Oz for a Japanese aluminium bike, the Sakae Ringyo Prism or also known as the Litage Prism.


I got A$400 for the Raleigh.

Again, this is a pic of the Litage taken off the web as I don't have a photo of mine.

The Litage was another bike that gave me many happy hours touring in the south west and the wheat belt with a cycling club in the 80s.

It was a beautiful bike to ride and was quite unique in that the aluminium frame  was put together with aeroplane glue.

In the end it developed a crack in the frame and I threw it out.

Oi! Finally.

Last April I took part in a crowdfunding venture to fund a newly designed bicycle bell called "Oi".

The bell was supposed to be manufactured and then delivered by July this year.

There was delay upon delay; reports of manufacturing problems, bad batches of bells and then, when first delivered, unhappy customers who said their bells were duds or not loud enough, or rang with every bump in the road.

Mine finally reached me in early November ( I had ordered 2; a black one for Son No 1, and a copper coloured one for myself).

The box was a little scratched, but the contents were fine.

Side view.  I'm quite pleased with the way it looks on my bars.

Front View

View from the saddle

For me, there are no complaints.  It works well, looks good.   A black one would have looked less prominent on the black handlebar (which was what Son No 1 wanted) but I couldn't resist the copper colour.

 

It worked out well for me, but I have looked at some projects on Kickstarter where supporters have waited over three years and delivery is still outstanding!

Oi

A bicycle bell entered my mind the other day - a particular type that was fastened to the top tube of the bicycle, not the handlebar as is the usual case.

I remember it to be mainly installed on the more sturdy workhorses used by shop assistants and maybe small hawkers.  This bell would have been around a long time ago, more, I think, in the fifties rather than the sixties.

The bell was rung by rolling the palm of the hand under it and it would ring for far longer than the ones operated by a thumb lever.

Anyone else remember this type of bell?

Wondering if I could get such a bell nowadays, or perhaps an antique one, I embarked on an unsuccessful internet search.  A difficult task, as I did not even know what such a bell would have been called, and both Google and Ebay did not turn up such bells.

I did however found this beautiful bell.

I thought of buying it, and found that it was originally crowdfunded in kickstarter.com.

Surfing round to kickstarter, I found a bell that had quite a unique design.

Here's a video from their site
You can pledge different amounts to their project to fund the production of this bell and get different rewards.   A pledge of $26 (plus $5 postage) gets you a bell.

As it happened, there were 3 minutes left before the project ended and so I pledged my $31.

The project was seeking $20,000 to begin production, but raised well over $1m.

My bell should be delivered in July.

This has been my first involvement with crowdfunding and I started looking at other crowdfunding sites.

Kiva is an interesting one, where you can lend multiples of $25 towards small business projects.  I haven't participated in this one, but I might.

And if anyone knows where to get the first type of bell I mentioned, I'd be interested to know.

A Smaller Piece of the Pie

I thought it's been two years since I last went to a Bike Week free breakfast event, but on checking my photo collection for a pic of the breakfast I had then, I found that's it was four years that I last went!

Time flies when you're retired.

A whole lot of events were scheduled for Bike Week each year, but I've only ever been to the free breakfast ones.

I had two breakfast events in my sights; one at Elizabeth Quay, and the other at Raffles Hotel.

When the day came for the one at EQ, it was too hot and humid for me to venture out, and so I was left with the other one.

I was quite surprised at the number of stalls and all the activity.  In the ones I've been to, it was just a BBQ and cyclists milling round having their breakfasts.

 A radio station was there, doing a live show.

A new bike sharing rental system for the city was also there, introducing their service.

Some other stalls were trying to promote cycling gear.

 And the breakfast?

The chefs (above) and this is what I got (sorry for the blurred pic).

Four years ago, there were no stalls, no hoop-la, but a whole lot more breakfast!

While I was taking pics with my phone, I must have inadvertently upset the gps system and the resulting map of my ride made it look like I flew home!

Fussy Bottoms

My latest bike came with this hard plastic saddle, which didn't quite agree with me.  The pain would set in after about an hour into the ride, and cause considerable discomfort.

I bore with it for about a month, thinking I would get used to it, but that never happened.

Son No 1 then gave me the saddle above, one he had bought but turned out to be painful for him.  Also a plastic one, I tried it for another month, but my bum said no.

So I removed my 20 year old leather saddle from another bike and put it on my new one.

As you can see, it's nicely curved from years of use.  Riding it is like sitting on a hammock.

It's contoured itself to fit me beautifully.

We've been having a strange summer.  After the hot days and that terrible bushfire, we've had a cool change and a run of 25°C days; it's been almost spring-like.

So two days ago, I took the opportunity of this wonderfully cool weather to take a ride to the city, on my new old saddle, to have my first look at the new waterfront development called Elizabeth Quay, due to be opened in a week or two.

You can view a map of my ride by clicking the link in the right hand column.

On reaching it, I found that it was still fenced off, still a construction site and this was the closest I could get to it.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't show very much.  The development is currently that forest of streetlights and those two arches which support a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the water.

Previously, that patch of land was public open space.  Now there will be more tall buildings, restaurants and cafes.   A change for the better?  I wonder.

I aimed my iPhone around and took these 2 shots around me.

That patch of development looked somewhat like this before.

And the flag tells me I will have a headwind on the way home.

A view of South Perth before I leave.

Lastly, I'd like to add that for all of the 46km ride, and for nearly 2.5 hours it took me, my bum was in bliss.

(Incidentally, in Strava site which details my rides, my account is under one of my many 'net pseudonyms - Nat Hopnoo.  Those who have known me for a very long time may like to hazard a guess as to why I chose that name.)

Spokes, Again

Writing the previous post reminded me of something that completely amazed me when I first read of it some years ago.

It's the fact that the spokes in the upper part of the wheel support your weight, not the lower ones!

The rims and the spokes act like a suspension bridge which carry the frame of the bicycle and the rider.

I was still doubtful till the article went on to explain that a spoke is just a thick wire and, if you put a 100 kg weight on it, it will bend.  But you can hang a 100 kg from it with no problems.

It blew my little unscientific mind!  (Comments from my scientific friends welcomed.)

I Broke A Spoke

I was riding my older bike the other day, and suddenly found the wheels really hard to turn.

I stopped to have a look, at a part of the Canning River I had never stopped at before.

A spoke had broken and the rear wheel went out of true and was rubbing against a brake block, adding unwanted friction to my ride.

Can you spot the broken spoke?

This wheel must have been badly built, as this is the fourth broken spoke in about three years.  One of my other bikes is twenty years old and has never broken a spoke.

The last time this happened, I didn't feel like getting my hands dirty, and inquired at the local bike shop.  Believe it or not, they quoted $40 to replace the spoke.

And that was on the easy side of the wheel (ie, not the sprocket side.)

It certainly made me miss my favourite old bike shop in Joo Chiat Road, which sadly closed last year.

They would do a puncture for about 20 cents, and I'm sure a broken spoke wouldn't cost much more in those days.

After getting the $40 quote, I decided to buy the necessary tools for future use, a chain whip and a sprocket lock ring remover.  Both were bought online from the UK for $28.  As I had bought some other stuff as well, I qualified for free postage.

As the broken spoke this time was on the sprocket side, these tools would get their first use.

Incidentally, spokes now cost $2 each - in the 80's, you could get one for 20 cents.

The required nipple wrench (above) I already have in my bicycle tool collection.

In the 70's, before the internet, Google and YouTube, my main source of info re bicycle maintenance and repair came from this really good book.  (Regretfully, the author died last year.)

I still refer to it, even though it's slightly out of date as bicycle design has changed quite a bit in the last 40 years,  rendering many a tool of mine obsolete for my newest bike which I got a few months ago.

Above - removing the sprocket.  The chain whip stops the sprocket from rotating whilst its lock ring is unscrewed.

Above, the wheel with sprocket removed.

Once the new spoke has been laced in, it was time to consult my book as to which spokes have to be tightened or loosened,  and in which direction, in order to true the wheel.

The theory is simple, but in practice, it's very easy to get confused and get into a terrible mess.

Below, me with my truing stand, bought many years ago, at my kitchen table.

Once finished, the bike's ready for riding again.

Soccer Balls on my Bike?

Ever since I got my Ridley from about a month ago, I've been puzzled by these two "soccer" balls near the bottom bracket.

At first I thought they were stickers and tried to peel them off, but no, they're actually painted on the frame and covered by a clear protective coat.

There's another two directly on the other side of the bike, partially obscured by the chain ring.

There are other little numbers elsewhere on the bike, like the one below, which are not so

mysterious - the 5Nm indicates the torque limit to which the adjoining bolts should be tightened and no more.

Yes, my bike has a clock - this is an accessory which I installed.

The problem was finally solved by worldly wise Son No 1, who said the answer lay on the other side of the bike.

They were not soccer balls, but Lotto balls!

Lotto Belisol sponsored a team in the 2013 Tour de France which rode the Ridley bike.  Sad to say, they came in 20th out of 22 teams.

Lotto operates the Belgian lotto game and Belisol are window manufacturers.

Mystery solved.

Little Joker

This little guy has learnt that he has the power to make us laugh and takes every opportunity to do so.

Here's a couple of his funny faces.  Pics are stolen from his mum's Facebook.

And whilst I'm posting other people's stuff, enjoy this little song that plays in my head whilst I ride my new bike.
 
And this reminds me of this old photo, taken in 2004, when I built this bicycle trailer to take Flemington with me when I go cycling.

He didn't like it in the end, because one day he jumped out whilst in motion and he fell.  After that, he wouldn't go back on it.

Retail Therapy

After all the bad news of recent weeks, and a fortnight alone at home (wife being away visiting for the first time her uncle's war grave at Kanchanaburi), I indulged in some much needed retail therapy.

But there is a story behind this purchase.

About 6 months ago, son number 1 (nearly 40, father of three), indulged in his childhood fantasy of becoming a cyborg by having an RFID chip implanted on the back of his right hand.

One thing he has done with it, is to programme his chip to lock/unlock his electronic garage door with a wave of his hand, handy as he cycle commutes more than he drives or bus.

I wonder if you can programme it to read people's credit card details from their pockets as I've seen metal sleeves being sold to protect your card from such an occurrance.

Anyway, one day his garage door was left open and his bicycle got stolen.  I suspected a wayward motion of his hand unlocked his door, but he denied this.

So he got a new bike - a Canadian designed Cervelo, which, we suppose, was made in Taiwan as the majority of the world's bicycles are.

I had a ride on that, and ever since had a hankering for a high tech carbon fibre bike.

For the last month, I've been scouring the web for specials on carbon fibre bikes, missed a couple of bargains as i waited too long, but finally found one for a good price.

I ordered it online last week.  It was a Belgian bike, made in Taiwan, from a shop in Sydney and depending on which local shop I go to here in Perth, varied from being $450 to $750 cheaper.

Yesterday a big box arrived.

Carbon fibre bikes come without pedals and on the same day I ordered the bike, I also ordered pedals from a bicycle shop in the UK that I had patronised before.

I had wondered which parcel would arrive first, as the UK shop has very fast service.

An hour later, all ready to go, but no pedals!

Online tracking shows the pedals had left Singapore and arrived in Perth yesterday.

 

Today, the pedals were delivered to me and I've just returned from my first ride. 

I had debated with myself as to the wisdom of purchasing a carbon fibre bike, for I can't really provide the engine power that the chassis deserves.

But what the heck, at my age I need all the help a lightweight bike can give me!