'New' Synapse Carbon 105

Synapse ready to roll.

I swore no new bikes unless I dropped below 75kgs... but sometimes a bargain comes along that can't be ignored !!

I picked up this bike secondhand. 2015 Cannondale Carbon 105 for $1600. It came with original RS81 wheelset/tyres/tubes and saddle, PLUS a set of Campagnolo Shamal Ultras, a spare Ultegra 10-speed crankset, some old Ultegra 6600 pedals and some other bits and bobs.

Strzelecki Ranges Tour: Postscript

Last week Justin and I completed 3 days of a 4 day tour - the last day was meant to take us home from Warragul to Lilydale via Powelltown, but alas poor weather saw us on the train home from Warragul instead .

So Friday 4th December we took the train back to Warragul and did the missing last day's ride of 101kms in much better weather and, without touring baggage, it was an easier ride, though quite lumpy from Warragul to Neerim.

We stopped for a coffee at Neerim South, something to eat at 'The Powelly' and more water at Yarra Junction and the horse trough on the Warby Trail, as it got quite hot this afternoon.

Italy: Venice and the Dolomites.

I've taken the plunge and booked a cycling trip for Sept 2014 to Italy. After lots of umming-and-aahhing, and an aborted trip in 2013 I'm heading into Venice on my 59th birthday for 2 weeks of riding the Veneto and the Dolomites.

There will be about 1100kms of riding and dawg knows how much climbing, but it's a great incentive for me to keep riding, stay fit amd maybe even lose a few kilos. I'll either come back riding like a champ or a completely broken man .... !!

I took the advice of a friend of a friend and chose Veloski Sports, a Seattle based tour company for the trip. Hopefully come October there will be several photo-laden posts on reddyneddy to remind me of a great trip into cycling nirvana.

You know winter is here when ...

.... your bike looks like this after a ride !!

Might be time to fit the mudguards methinks ...

Momma gets a bike !!

Bernie's new 2013 GIANT Rove 2

Remember this day - March 29, 2014 - as today we got Bernie her first ever bike. Yep at the ripe old age of 39 (?!?) Bernie has taken ownership of a new 2013 GIANT Rove 2, a women's specific hybrid model, sized and specced just right for her.

We hope that with regular practice (Bernie is a total novice ... ) she will be a competent and confident rider by next year when we head overseas.

We will get some local riding in over the Easter holidays and try to keep it going from there - I'm sure Bernie will quickly progress from cycling novice to mother superior !

Who..would... ever....ride a BIKE... to Woods Point ??

Commercial Hotel, Woods Point

Justin has wanted to ride to ...Woods Point (!!!) for a long time. Not quite sure why ... but what-the-heck, sounded like a plan.

Anyway he talked me into it as well so we took the train to Wang on Wednesday (it left 1hr50m late BTW ) and rode down to Whitfield first night. I guess any old trainspotters can reel off the names of the old stops on the Whitfield line? I recall being diverted down that way once upon a childhood drive... 

Mt Donna Buang Ride

Descending the gravel from Donna Buang to Don Rd.

Justin and I are preparing for a 5 day tour next week and, as he is short on climbing recently, we ventured once more to Mt Donna Buang.

Our proposed tour has 3 tough days of 80+kms and some decent climbing so we need to put some altitude in the legs. Climbing on tour is a bit easier because you just take your time. On the other hand you have extra weight on board and heavier kit, so some training is wise. My recent efforts have helped me out a lot so I shouldn't have too much trouble - I hope !!

Still, I'll be fitting the new 34t inner ring to my cranks this week and riding with the big 30t rear cassette. We may do another ride up the back of Donna this week (on the gravel) as we have lots of gravel ahead of us next week. Should be fun ...

Here is the Strava from last Friday's ride.

AAC140 - Australia Day 2014

Two years ago I did the 130 ride from Bright to Falls Ck and return. This year's challenge was the 140 ride from Bright to Mt Beauty return and then up to Mt Buffalo and back. Plans went astray for my ride buddy Justin so Bernie was able to come along instead for a weekend in Bright - a bit of a bonus for both of us !

Mt Donna Buang ... again !!

Head in the clouds on Mt Donna Buang

Well there's no escaping the need for a final big climb before heading to Bright this weekend for the AudaxAlpineClassic 140 (Mt Buffalo) on Australia Day. So I headed off to Yarra Junction in the car and rode with my mate Dan to the summit of Mt Donna Buang.

It was a cool pleasant day in the valley but there was cloud up top and it was very cold and nearly raining so on went the jacket for the descent to Warburton. A pie and a hot chocolate later and we rolled back to Yarra Junction and home.

Dirty Dandenongs

Harry the horse, and friend...

Today we covered some more new ground in the Dandenongs. There are lots of popular road-riding routes through the 'Nongs, and we've done the usual ones many times - 1:20 (The Basin-Sassafras), Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, The Wall (Olinda-Monbulk Rd), Skyhigh etc - but occasionally we like to go exploring lesser used roads. This is great fun, despite usually involving unsealed roads and steeper climbing !!

Basin-Olinda Rd .... Finally !!

Basin-Olinda Rd

I've been wanting to ride the 'quick' way up to Olinda from The Basin for ages ! But as usual with these things the right opportunity had yet to arise. Justin and I had postponed the ride a number of times and once again this week we are out of sync with our rides so we each decided to tackle it alone. Today was my chance !! 

I have just acquired a new set of ín-between' wheels (Fulcrum 7 CX) and some new 28c tyres (Continental Grand prix 4Seasons), as well as a new climbing cassette with a low gear sprocket of 30t and these were all fitted to the CAADX yesterday ... so off I went ! 

Around The Bay in a Day 100km Sorrento-Melbourne

Well what a day that was !

We spent the night at Rye and rose promptly this morning for the short ride to the start at Sorrento. Kevin was over from Hobart for another ride and was back on the Raceline, Chris was aboard his relatively new Cannondale CAAD 8 and I was on the trusty CAADX 105 - I even remembered to bring the Garmin this time !!

Merri Creek Trail and Plenty River Trail Ride

9 1/2 Weeks - And Making Progress .... to Smith's Gully, at least !

Maybe I could have had an affair with Kim Basinger in the same tiem, but .... well I fell off on May 26 and today was finally a decent climbing ride and a fair distance. Longest, climby-est ride for 4 months in fact. And it was a cracker of a day for it !! Went out via Koonung Trail, Wonga Park, and Kangaroo Ground to Smith's Gully. 

Main Yarra Trail - my rehab ride zone ...

Looking NW back down the fire trail.

Today I rode the MYT again and threw in some single-track exploration, always a little dicey on the CX bike but fun anyway. I rode up a fire-trail hoping in the Yarra Valley Parklands just east of Fitzsimmon's Lane, hoping to see some kangaroos. I didn't spot them today but took a few pictures at the top of the trail.

Bike parking, bike festival, bike share ... bike, bike, bike !!

I haven't been riding much lately due to a prang 2 weeks ago and the generally miserable recent weather in good ol' Melbourne but hopefully that will change soon !

Meanwhile I've been doing a lot of time on the internet and here  a a few things that have caught my eye. Cheers ...

Old Observatory - Melbourne

After a slight change of plans I rode into the Old Melbourne Observatory today. Perfect day for a ride, although a bit windy.

Didn't stop at the Observatory Cafe this time but yummy stuff is available .... !!

Tightening Bidon Mounts or Rivnuts

Today I finally got around to tightening the loose bidon mounts on the old Raceline road bike. I've been meaning to do it for ages since J explained to me how to go about it. It's pretty simple ....

Behold - The BSA Airborne Bicycle !!

We visited the Darwin Military Museum on the last day of our trip to Darwin and discovered this unique bicycle used by glider pilots in WWII.

The BSA Aiborne Bicycle is often called a "parabike" by collectors, but it seems that this is an erroneous term. This appears to be a post-war nickname applied to a commercial variant. The only war time manual references found so far clearly call it the "airborne bicycle".

The bike was designed to be folded in half and carried on board an aircraft. It could be landed by glider, thrown out of the aircraft with its own small parachute, or carried by a paratrooper as he jumped out of his aircraft.

Mt Donna Buang Ride

Halfway up the climb...

Yesterday I rode with two mates and we did Donna the back way, a 95 km loop from Mt Evelyn that takes in some gravel climbing up Don Valley Rd and then Ben Cairn Rd (C505) from the Warby Trail at Launching Place followed by the rapid descent down to Warburton and the weary trundle back along the Trail to Mt Evelyn.