sjh - mountain biking running linux vegan geek spice - mtb / vegan / running / linux / canberra / cycling / etc

Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley

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email: sjh@svana.org

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Aaron Broughton,
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Martijn van Oosterhout,
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Tony Breeds,

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December
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2009
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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.

[/mtb/gear] link

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.

[/mtb] link

Mon, 07 Dec 2009

Cruisy weekend - 11:59

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.

[/various] link

Fri, 04 Dec 2009

Chameleon Pedals - 17:14

New pedals indoors (fullsize)

New pedals in the sunshine (fullsize)
On my way through civic today I had a flat tyre on the CX bike, so I stopped in at Onya to get it fixed, Gareth showed me these pedals I had to buy a pair of. After all my good flat pedals have gone walk about so I really needed new flat pedals. They look like plain pedals D may even like until you take them outside in the sunshine and they have an almost instant colour change. Rock on, will look just right on the pink hardtail during events I need to use flat pedals with.

[/mtb/gear] link


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