Steven
Hanley
About
email: sjh@svana.org
web: https://svana.org/sjh
twitter: https://twitter.com/sjhmtb
instagram: https://instagram.com/sjhmtb
Other online diaries:
Aaron Broughton,
Andrew Pollock,
Anthony Towns,
Chris Yeoh,
Martijn van Oosterhout,
Michael Davies,
Michael Still,
Tony Breeds,
Links:
Linux Weekly News,
XKCD,
Girl Genius,
Planet Linux Australia,
Bilbys,
CORC,
Canberra Weather: forecast, radar.
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Tue, 22 Dec 2009
Pretty average bar tape, a 7 month report. - 14:06
My new road bike, a
2008 model Kona
Kapu in Orange I purchased in April, came with white bar tape wrapped up
to just past the brake hoods. The bar is one of the new flat topped ergo style
bars. Though as it is aluminium rather than carbon it will feel quite cold on
chilly mornings. Due to my firm belief that white bar tape is almost as wrong
as white knicks and the fact I did not want to get chilly hands on the bare
aluminium I decided to get new bar tape for the bike.
I searched around trying to find orange coloured tape for a while and found the Lizard Skins tape in a good shade of orange at a shop here. The Lizard Skins tape had some good reviews for the tacky grip feel and seemed alright, though it was around twice the price of most traditional cork or synthetic cork tape. Now 7 months after purchasing the grip tape and putting it on the bike I have discovered the two major problems with it are that it gets dirty and the packaging recommended against using any cleaning agent other than plain water on it as it may deteriorate the grip. I can deal with this as it is sort of in the nature of grip tape to become dirty over time.
My bigger gripe is that I noticed the last few days that after only 7 months the grip tape is wearing out on some of the points I have my hands in contact with the bars the most often. Previously I have had grip tape last for 3 or 4 years before wearing out enough to require replacing so I am definitely disappointed in this and in the next few days will pull off the tape and put on some much cheaper cork tape in orange from a different brand.
Fri, 11 Dec 2009
Paddle times improving all round - 15:49
This week I set a pb at paddling, 49m52s for the 9.6 km on the GPS (first time
ever under 50 minutes). Randall also set another PB (second week running doing
that for him) of 47:08 (I still have almost 3 minutes to gain there...), he is
also getting closer to Brendan and other fast paddlers which is good. Danielle
missed the time trial this week, however last week smashed her PB and wen well
under 60 minutes for the first time, getting 58:59. It is good to see progress
happening all over here, lets hope we can all keep it up for a while at
least. Brendan has mentioned it took him 4 or so years to get to his speed
doing a fairly large amount of paddling, none of us AR nuts really get the
time to paddle more than twice a week most weeks though so do not improve
as fast as we could potentially otherwise.
Mon, 07 Dec 2009
 The lovely Taemas Bridge near Yass (fullsize) |
Saturday morning I hopped on my road bike and headed out to Yass, a
nice 3
hour, 84 KM ride which is always rather enjoyable. The reason to head out
there was for Jeff and
Pia's combined 30th and housewarming. The
bbq/party was a lot of fun and I was able to catch up with many people I have
not seen much of in a while. Thanks for having us all over guys, and what a
lovely place you have there (especially with the views out toward open land
from the yard).
I had been planning to ride back but a friend was keen to go paddling on Saturday afternoon so I got a lift back with Crash and headed out for a paddle, largely so my friend could get some more time in tippy boats. Sunday morning I helped Bilbys do the timing at the triathlon on at the lake and had been sort of planning to go paddling again however ended up going home and napping for an extended period of time. So all in all a fun but relaxing sort of weekend. The Bridge in the photo on the left is one of the reasons I think everyone should go check out the road from Yass to Wee Jasper, a lovely majestic bridge across the river seemingly in the middle of nowhere. |
Fri, 04 Dec 2009
 New pedals indoors (fullsize) |
 New pedals in the sunshine (fullsize) |
