Roadworks

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2012-01-31T19:45:00.027+13:00

The riding has been sporadic, but my cunning new tactic of only blogging my rides every couple of months pays dividends by making it look like I'm out all the time. The clue is the good weather in all the rides - with Wellington's quota of only one good day for every three to four rides (assuming a ride usually only occurs once a week) it's easy to see that I'm making the most of summer...

I had a lovely 5km ride around and around the Hataitai Velodrome with Bodhi one Saturday afternoon.

After a nasty near-crash pedal strike early on, Bo understandably shied away from the banking - huge platform pedals, a low b/b and not really that much momentum made the vertiginous slopes très difficile. He attacked lap after lap with gusto, nonetheless...

...including a couple of timed laps...

...and a match sprint against his Old Man in which he gave his all, emerging victorious.

We spent a bit of time post-race just chilling out, reflecting on our results and going over a few tactics - a bit of track craft now could stand me in good stead one day.

Nine isn't quite the milestone that eighteen is, so Bodhi doesn't get his own blog post, but last week was his birthday so here's as good a place as any to mark it thus. Happy 9th Birthday, my lovely boy! x

One thing that has been sorely missed from these Tales of mine in recent times have been adventures with my old mate The Commander - a combination of the usual chaos at my end and a nasty knee injury to Alex have meant it's been months and months since we last ate dirt together. The Christmas holidays were a good time to renew the gift of friendship awheel, with a ride with Nick, Steve and Wayne planned. Despite some initial text-created confusion on my part about whether we were riding Rimu or Rimu(taka Incline) and some nearly running out of gas issues, we made it out to the rendezvous point in plenty of time...well okay, half an hour late then. This technically undemanding ride was perfect for both Al and I to ease back into some riding, I foolishly thought, and for us all to ride side-by-side and socialise. Which admittedly we did, albeit somewhat briefly. We set off in mellow convoy with Al setting the early pace and Nick and I chatting to Steve on his flash new Singular Swift. Alex's knee was clearly fine now, and I was starting to suspect he'd been doing some secret training as he rapidly shot off into the distance.

Steve and Nick cruise one of the old rail bridges as the gradient starts to gently kick in, as I begin fumbling with my camera as an excuse for lagging behind.

After Wayne had effortlessly bridged up to Al, Steve eventually got sick of me lollygagging about with my camera and took off in hot pursuit. Nick too saw his opportunity and dropped the Big O.

Despite my glacial pace and the gnawing feelings of abandonment I was barely dealing with, I put my best pedal forwards, got on with the job and made damn sure I found time to take a cheery self-pic.

Oh, okay. They've gone. Choice.

Oh well, at least I'm not as much of a has-been as these poor remnants.

Phew! They are still there! I really need glasses...

After a bit of debate (captured appositely in this picture of my bicycle) we decided that the gale-force northerlies made heading down to Siberia unwise at best, and downright dangerous at worst. The three racing sardines opted to ride the Back Road diversion on the way back to the carpark, while Nick and I simply retraced our tracks figuring we were going to be having a hard enough time punching into the NWer without adding hills into the mix.

The wind, of course, wasn't as bad as we feared so we meandered down. I stopped to take a photo from a bridge.

Here is a waterfall.

The tunnels are an iconic part of this great ride, even though we'd skipped the big one atop the summit through our wind-borne softness.

Despite my lamentable lack of verve, it was a neat afternoon. Catching up with Al and the boys was very cool, and the riding was fun.

I reconciled my less than stellar fitness by putting it down to all the Christmas excesses and a general holiday malaise, but determined I'd hit the road regularly to make inroads on getting some semblance of basic Oli-level fitness at least. I went so far as building up a new bike to give me that new toy enthusiasm (more on this another time), but sadly after only a few kilometres the 20mm less setback to usual bit me badly on the knee, making me gingerly pedal straight back home in quite some pain. Grr.

So, after a suitable period of inactivity/recovery, Al once again galvanised me into action with a plan to ride out at Meridian Energy's West Wind trails one fine evening.

As can be clearly seen in the photo above, we didn't actually end up riding at West Wind at all. As disorganised as ever, by the time we had got our collective shit together and driven all the way out to Makara we had missed the closing of the rather stout gates by over half an hour (are you seeing a common theme here?). After a panicked and pointless text to a bemused John Randal failed to help Al and I work out if running the gauntlet of the prominently advertised security firm was worth the risk, we quickly formulated a Plan B. We drove back over the Makara Hill to the MTB Park, rapidly unloaded the car and kitted up...

...then rode in through the AMP Connector and up to the picnic table on Ridgeline Extention.

We reacquainted ourselves with our long-missed and much loved Makara Peak with a fantastic run down RE and Big Tom's Wheelie, before flowing like water down the sinuous Lazy Fern.

We then rode up Koru and Rimu, where I discovered my knee was still a bit tender from the road ride. I suggested to Al he get another run down the hill while I grabbed the car to meet him down in the main carpark - he got a shuttle run in, as it were. We got home in time for some Scottish food and a refreshing ale as the sun set spectacularly, sending stunning striated sunbeams of every shade shooting into the solid sky.

I'll dwell on this irritatingly alliterative scene, if I may...

Did we make it back to West Wind? Why, yes we did as a matter of fact! But that is a story for another time, so I'll ride off into the sunset now. As ever, thanks so much for taking your time to read my blog. Cheers, Oli

Work

2012-01-29T14:24:00.047+13:00

I find myself at times somewhat non-plussed by the balance between work, home duties and play, with play sadly usually the loser if it come down to a "choice". Sometimes this balance gets pretty freaking tricky, and the non-plussitude can turn rapidly into stress and agitation, especially if I haven't been able to squeeze in a ride. My sincere apologies to those of you who may recently have borne the brunt of any of my inconvenience, irritation and/or ire. I certainly can't please everyone, but I can try and do a better job of being pleasant.

This is some of the work I've been doing since returning to the spanners after a bit of a summer flu induced delay to the start of the working year...

For Christmas my lovely sis-in-law gave me a matching pair of 'Bici in Italia' knick-knack holders, one of which is in use at home while the other has been utilised in the workshop.

My friend Kath was off to a tri in Wanaka so I gave her Quintana Roo a race service.

Long-time Roadworker Udo has moved on his old Giant TCR and replaced it with a new bike...

...this lovely BMC Roadracer SL01.

Beijing Olympian, Rabobank XC pro and ex-Jazz Apples teammate Rosara Joseph had a quick emergency brake repair needing doing before she headed down to the Dunedin Nationals round.

I sorted the brake but, in the course of giving the gears a quick check (force of habit!), I was stoked to find two disintegrating chain links before they pulled apart potentially mid-race. She went on to finish a fine second despite this being her off-season.

It must be the season for new rigs, as Konrad also has a flash upgrade.

On the other hand, my generous sponsor Geoff from Havana is getting his old Bianchi cyclo-cross bike repainted in the correct Celeste. I stripped it down for him to take to his paint guy.

It's in a bad way after being stored outside in the Houghton Bay salt repository, but hopefully it's not beyond redemption...

Cool lug action.

When Geoff originally got the bike it was built up by Henry at the late, lamented Cycle Services, which was right next to Geoff and Tim's ground-breaking Midnight Espresso coffee house.

While at work one day I spent an hour or so catching up with my old friend and racing buddy Chris, when he dropped off the cool Campagnolo gear bag I scored off him on Trade Me.

Another cool score was this mean calendar sent to me by my man Dr Pete in Dunedin - cheers, bro!

Udo's teenage son Jonas is already a seasoned ride, having done Round Taupo several times and given his Dad plenty of grief on the climbs. Having outgrown his old bike, his Dad stumped up for a great deal in this fine Argon 18 to help Jonas further his cycling ambitions.

Neil's Salsa needed some love in the drivetrain department. He got a Veloce cassette, Record chain and entire Centaur chainset with rings in from the UK for me to swap for his worn ones.

William's classic Merlin Extralight was equipped with some slightly tired old Dura-Ace 9sp kit...

...which made way...

For a new Ultegra 6700 10sp gruppo. This stuff is light, cheap and strong while shifting and braking like a dream.

Two high-priority jobs helped kick the year off. First was legendary endurance mountainbiker Megan Dimozantos' Ninja build. John Randal had asked me last year if I could build his teammate Megan's new ABSA Cape Epic weapon so, on her behalf, Yeti's storied NZ head honcho Kashi Leuchs sent me up a rather lovely piece of kit.

Which I slowly built up...

...resulting in this fine Yeti ARS-5c bicycle.

I was feeling bad that due to my flu and an array of other baffling timing issues I couldn't make Megan's hoped deadline for the Tour de Whaka in Rotorua, but she put my mind at ease when we finally met to hand the bike over a week later. She's a patient and lovely woman to whom I wish every success, and I'm sure her and John will have a fantastic time in South Africa! Just this weekend the Dynamic Duo have been racing at Kashi's invitation in the St James Epic, in which Megan finished 2nd woman and John 3rd man.

The last one is a special one. During our long association stretching back over the last seven or eight years, my friend Tim Wilding has been winner of lots of big races including (among others) Karapoti, NZ Marathon Championships, Xterra Championships, NZ Singlespeed Championships, Australian Singlespeed Championships, NZ Hillclimb Championships, etc., etc. It's always an honour to build Tim up his bikes and/or wheels, and this latest project has been plotted for some months now.

Once Tim had decided on another Santa Cruz Tallboy 29er frame (as opposed to another choice from his awesome sponsor Mike Stylianou of Hyperformance Hardware) and some ENVE carbon rims and put in his orders, the brief was to have the new bike built up last week so that I had time to build his new wheels this week in time for the National Championships being raced in Nelson this weekend...the best laid plans of mice and men go often askew.

The frame arrived in plenty of time.

Then while we waited for the new parts to arrive I stripped down his old Tallboy frame and replaced a couple of mildly tired bearings, allowing me to wallow in carbony goodness.

This is where it all went a bit wrong; spokes proved hard to come by, with the local DT distributor out of stock of the sizes we needed. I cast around the other brands available in NZ only to discover that no one could supply all of the three sizes we needed, and I'm loth to mix brands in the one wheel. In the end the interweb came to the rescue again, and Tim ordered some from the UK by four day delivery. The rims turned up from Wide Open exactly as promised months earlier, so great job there thanks guys!

To compound the problems this week was Wellington Anniversary week, meaning that Monday was a public holiday and, hence, no courier deliveries would occur. I picked up the rest of the kit (bar the spokes, which didn't finally arrive until Wednesday - six days after being ordered!) from Tim's place on Tuesday afternoon while Bodhi and I were out shopping for Kester's 18th birthday on Wednesday. As a huge milestone in our family's life, Ket's birthday would of course be the main priority for the day, and no work was able to be done among all the fun. I figured I could build up the bike on Thursday using the old wheels, making a start on the wheels and finishing them off on Friday in time for him to fly down to Nelson. I'm quite sure that Tim had told me he was flying down at 8am, but in all the confusion I still thought I had all day to work...now time really was getting tight!

I got up, made Bodhi's breakfast, grabbed a coffee and headed in to the shop. By (late) lunchtime I was happy to have fully built up the bike with only a few minor complications, none of which were mission critical.

A quick sandwich and an apple and it was back to work. Having built Hamish's 26" ENVE wheels just before Christmas meant at least I had my systems sorted. I greased all the nipples first.

Then about 90 minutes later the first of these beautiful wheels emerged from my trusty truing stand.

Of course this is where I discovered that somehow my spoke calculations were out, and one of the three sizes I'd got Tim to order from the UK was wrong! Luckily he had only been able to order the spokes in lots of 36, meaning that we fortunately had enough of the size I needed to finish the job...phew. Another 90-odd minutes and the pair were done and ready to rock. I'm really enjoying building these wheels - they are incredibly round (not as common as you might think...), light, strong and build up relatively easily, with end results that are incredible.

I swapped the cassette and rotors off the old wheels and onto the carbons, then set the bike up with the new wheels, minus tyres obviously. Using XTR hubs on both wheels meant no adjustments were necessary, which was just as well as I was now out of time!

As soon as I was done I texted Tim, who dropped everything and raced over to collect it. A quick rundown and a hearty handshake and it was done to deadline, despite all the chaos and conniptions.

Luckily Tim was happy to do the tubelessing at home, and by the time I'd made the evening meal and sat down at the computer he had already posted a pic of the finished machine looking hot in the evening sunshine.

As I dealt with slightly less time-constrained repairs on Friday arvo I was delighted to get a text from Tim, now down in Nelson getting ready to race on Saturday,

Well. The legs need all the help they can get right now and the wheels deliver. Acceleration is great as is tracking. All up, the bike feels excellent. Chur bro!

Despite Tim's training not going quite to plan so far this year, I was even more delighted to get this text yesterday afternoon, immediately following the National Champs.

7th bro! Pretty happy with the race. Bike was a dream.

With those words all the stress and worry washed away, and I was once more able to bask in the reflected glory of another race success. Cheers, Tim!

Photo courtesy of Mike Stylianou

As ever, thanks so much for reading. Pedal on, Oli

Happy 18th Birthday, Kester!

2012-01-25T23:49:00.009+13:00

Old Days - Part Five

2012-01-08T11:59:00.054+13:00

As gale force winds drive heavy rain against the windows in this so-called "summer" of ours, I resort once again to my vast pile of magazines for images that inspire in lieu of actually braving the elements and riding. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do as a somewhat poor alternative to actually getting out on a bike. For those of you who will have already seen these on my Facebook page, my apologies for the repetition...

This first lot are from some Cyclist magazine issues dated December 1984 to February '85. Thanks to my old friend Ray Young for the kind donation. I'll start with a bang with this very limited edition Campagnolo 50th Anniversary Gruppo, black anodised with 22K gold plating. The plating even extends to the b/b axle and the quick releases...

The 1984 Tour de France was the second of Laurent Fignon's two victories - the first was in the absence of his team leader Bernard Hinault, but the second pitted the two ex-teammates against each other with young Fignon triumphing over the four-time Tour winner (at the time) Hinault. Here Fignon in yellow looks back at Hinault as '83 as he piles on the pressure. World Champion Greg LeMond leads the rest of the followers, including Ángel Arroyo, Sean Kelly and Claude Criquelion.

LeMond began the 1984 Tour late for the prologue and ill with bronchitis, but he went on to finish a fine 3rd overall by the time the race finished in Paris.

Riders stock up with fruit before a stage. The man in the Maillot Vert is Frank Hoste, the eventual overall winner of the Points Classification in the '84 Tour.

Stage 18 to La Plagne saw a brutal series of climbs that determined the final race standings among the favourites. Here Maillot Jaune and stage winner Fignon leads 2nd place Hinault, Eric Caritoux (14th GC) and LeMond in 3rd. Behind the American can be seen the polka dots of the Mountains Leader and 4th overall, Scotland's Robert Millar.

The sprint for Stage 6 saw Ireland's Sean Kelly relegated to the back of the group for irregular sprinting despite being squarely beaten by green jersey Frank Hoste.

Connie Carpenter wins the Olympic Gold Medal in the road race at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, beating teammate and equal-favourite Rebecca Twigg and Sandra Schumacher of West Germany. Connie and her husband Davis Phinney (who won Bronze in the '84 Team Time Trial and got 5th in the road race) are the parents of current US up-and-coming star Taylor Phinney.

Later in the day the erratic and brilliant Alexi Grewal won the biggest race of his career, when he snatched the Olympic Gold medal from under the nose of Canadian Steve Bauer in the men's road race.

Here the US squad races to bronze in the '84 Olympic Team Time Trial, an event sadly no longer held. They finished behind the Gold-winning Italian unit (including some future big names in Marco Giovanetti and Eros Poli), and the Swiss team. Check out the very cool funny bikes.

An advertisement for the 30th Anniversary Colnago Master frame, looking a lot like a GT! Ironically, the GTs of the day didn't yet have the Triple Triangle design they'd become so famous for. If nothing else, the lug photos are worth scanning this for...

A beautiful Bruce Gordon festooned with the black ano/22k gold Campagnolo 50th Anniversary Gruppo shown earlier, as well as a black anodised freewheel, black Cinelli handlebar and stem, and black "enamelled" spokes! Only US$3000 in 1984 - wonder what that would translate to now?

A lovely Bianchi "Centenario" celebrates the 100th anniversary of the venerable brand with a celeste on chrome colour scheme (check the tyres and the sew-on leather bar tape and pump grips), as well as the new C-Record gruppo.

Jumping around chronologically, here are some pictures from a 1981 issue of the French Le Cycle magazine.

This is a Selle Italia Turbo ad featuring 1980 World Champion, Bernard Hinault.

A Piaggio ad featuring a beautiful Bianchi Specialissima.

This is a random ad for something I can't even work out, but I like the Géminiani frame, as well as the neat components and accessories.

More Hinault (can there ever be too much?), this time wearing his 1978 French National Champion jersey in this Campagnolo components advertisement.

This is a sequence of shots taken as the peloton climbs the Col de Madeleine during the 1981 Tour de France.

Defending champion Jacques Anquetil pushes his 180mm cranks around in a time trial during the 1958 Tour de France, won in the end that year by Luxembourg's Charly Gaul.

French sprinter Jacques Eclassan racing a post-Tour criterium.

Now for a bunch of mainly black and white images pulled from the Australian National Cycling magazine issues dated from September 1983 to November '84.

Fausto Coppi rides a lap of the Velodromo Vigorelli after one of his five Giro d'Italia wins.

Il Campionissimo attracts the tifosi even when out training!

This dramatic picture shows a blood-spattered Luis Ocaña being pushed by loyal Spanish teammates after crashing on a mountain descent during the sixth stage of the 1969 Tour de France, Eddy Merckx's first win.

Dutch/Kiwi Tino Tabak being zipped into his brand new Dutch professional road champion's jersey after his success in the 1972 title race. Behind him is Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk who would go on to win the Tour de France in 1980 and become World Champion in '85.

In the 1972 Tour de France won by the "King", Eddy Merckx was at his imperious peak and opened up a decisive break on the flattest of all stages. Here Merckx is initiating the break as he attacks with Italian Felice Gimondi fighting to stay on his wheel.

The summit is near and Merckx changes gear in readiness for a stage finish in the mountains, while keeping a watchful eye on perennial adversary Raymond Poulidor.

Although the 1970 Vuelta a España winner Luis Ocaña lived long in the shadow of Eddy Merckx, he made no mistake in winning the 1973 Tour in the absence of the King. He also gave Merckx a hell of a fright in the 1971 Tour, arguably only losing because of a crash while wearing Yellow on a terrible wet day in the Pyrenees. Here Ocaña follows the wheel of Merckx during the '72 Tour, which he sadly had to pull out of with bronchitis while Merckx went on to win his 4th consecutive Grand Boucle.

Loyal teammate De Schoenmaecker leads Eddy Merckx at 1500 metres in the awful heat of the Pyrenees during the 1972 Tour de France. Zoetemelk who is following Merckx came from behind to win this mountain stage.

Eddy Merckx. 'Nuff said.

After attacking in the yellow jersey on the way to the ski station of Pra-Loup, this is the moment where The Cannibal's quest for a record sixth Tour win came to a juddering halt, as his prodigious strength departs him helping French challenger Bernard Thevenet recapture Merckx and drop him. By the time Thevenet has won the stage he has seized the Maillot Jaune which he would keep all the way to Paris, with Merckx a gutsy second despite a kidney punch from a spectator and a broken jaw from a crash that meant he couldn't even eat solids.

Thevenet in Yellow among the scorched rocks of the Col d'Izoard forges towards his second consecutive stage win and his date with destiny. Fittingly for this French champion, this final crushing of Merckx occurred on the French national holiday of Bastille Day.

Climbing into history in the 1981 Tour de France as the first non-European to lead the race, Australia's Phil Anderson follows the spotted jersey of best climber worn by World Champion Bernard Hinault in the first mountain stage of that year's Tour. By stage end Anderson would don the yellow jersey, although Hinault would of course wear it onto the final podium in Paris.

Belgium's Freddy Maertens sprints to his second World Championship title in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1981. Italy's Guiseppe Saronni is second, but would go on to win the following year in Goodwood, England. The left shoulder of defending champion and bronze medalist Bernard Hinault can just be seen at left.

New Zealander Stephen Cox races to 10th overall in the 1984 Commonwealth Bank Classic.

This cool Vitus "Vitusplus Carbone" was one of the earlier carbon frames to hit the market. I remember selling one of these in my days at Penny Farthing Cycles in 1986.

I'll finish this off with a bit more colour; these pictures are scanned from issues number 1 to 5 of England's fine Cycle Sport magazine, from my own collection. As many of these appear to be stock photos the information is scanty at best, so please feel free to add comments if you have any insights. I will be exploring these magazines further in due time, rest assured!

Here's a lovely profile shot of the ultra-classy eventual 5-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain riding the 1991 race on his Pegoretti-built Pinarello.

Another great profile shot; here is the stylish pedaller Maurizio Fondriest racing his way to victory in the 1993 Fleche-Wallone, his second World Cup classic of the early season after his win in Milan-San Remo.

Steve Bauer rides his custom Eddy Merckx machine for the first of what would only be two race outings, this one in the 1993 Ghent-Wevelgem semi-classic.

The second and final race for this unusual machine was the '93 Paris-Roubaix, with Rock Shox front suspension added to the mix. Designed by Richard Dejonkheere (elder brother of ex-pro and Motorola DS Noel), it was ridden in training by Bauer for five months before he felt used to it. In Paris-Roubaix he used 180mm cranks, and the lip on the saddle was necessary to keep him on the saddle. He finished 21st and, on balance, decided that the advantages were outweighed by the disadvantages - poor standing climbing, and he felt that positioning in the bunch was negatively affected, as he was sitting back further and lower than other riders. He did like the descending abilities - in a slippery Ghent-Wevelgem he carved up Johan Capiot only minutes after the Belgian had been mocking his "chopper". According to my information, the seat tube was 60 degrees - the head tube isn't stated, but it looks 70 or 71 degrees to me...

Aussie great Phil Anderson climbs Swansea's feared Constitution Hill during the 1993 Kellog's Tour of Britain in the yellow jersey he would finish the race in.

Polish rider Zenon Jaskula racing to 9th place in the 1991 Giro d'Italia. Not a man usually renowned for massive results, Jaskula would go on to win a mountain stage and finish 3rd in the '93 Tour de France behind Indurain and Toni Rominger before sliding back into obscurity.

Italian Classics maestro and 1986 World Champion Moreno Argentin raced for the great Ariostea outfit between 1990 and '92. He is riding here one of Ernesto Colnago's interesting double-downtube Carbitubo frames.

Another Ariostea-ite upon a Colnago Carbitubo, here Dane Bjarne Riis rides to 5th place overall in the 1993 Tour de France. Riis would also finish 3rd in 1995 behind Indurain, before ruthlessly taking El Rey apart and going on to win the 1996 race, Denmark's first and only Tour.

The much missed Laurent Fignon RIP gives his all, as always.

Russian/Moldovan/Belgian/Ukranian Andrei Tchmil rides the 1992 Paris-Roubaix. These dry and dusty conditions can't have suited him, because his great win in the Hell of the North came in 1994 in one of the muddiest editions ever.

Pedal on, Oli

Please note that I have written several more Old Days posts - check the sidebar for the links.

Go Ahead, Merak My Day.

2011-12-30T13:37:00.044+13:00

This year I has been mostly fixing bicycles.

Photo courtesy of Graeme Perry

I has built an Olmo for Greg.

Thanks for the kind gift, Greg!

I has also been building many wheels.

Here is a good place to say thanks to my good friend Jonty Ritchie, Grand Panjandrum of the lovely Revolution Bicycles in Northland, for our symbiotic wheelwork relationship. Jonty trusts in my ability to turn out a decent wheel and gives me heaps of fun ones to build, for which I'm very appreciative.

Usually, this process is easy for us both (he doesn't have to worry about building the wheels, and I don't have to worry about arranging anything!) but this particular job caused quite some consternation for us both, and involved something I've never seen before in over thirty years of building wheels...I had laced the wheel and got to the first, early stages of truing and tensioning it, so I put it in the stand to begin to tune it prior to the first destressing. Suddenly and, with a noise like a submarine groaning after a hearty depth-charging, the hub torqued and twisted before my very eyes!

As a used hub we speculate the pressures of running fixed in previous iterations had caused fatigue in the hub shell that simply couldn't take being destressed then stressed again. All's well that ends well though, as Jonty came up with a replacement hub that built up without a hitch.

For our good mate Ian, Jonty specced some Velocity A23s onto DT240s for an affordable wider rim option without sacrificing durability or adding too much weight.

One of the final jobs for me of 2011 was also via Jonty, by special request from our mate Hamish.

Some stunning carbon-fibre ENVE AM 26" rims for his Turner 5-Spot. We laced them up onto beautiful pre-owned Chris King hubs using Sapim Race spokes.

Hamish is riding them around the West Coast as I write (assuming the rain isn't cramping his style like it is mine!) and his feedback on these cool wheels has been super enthusiastic.

I do also generate my own wheel business from time to time and here it is. This is for my Taranaki pal Richard, who had munted his front wheel in a nasty pothole incident (emphasis on "dent")...

Roadworks star adventure racer Dave Hicks was having a clear-out and kindly donated some cool old wheels to the cause of any future restorations I might do...the reason for the clear-out arrived safely at 5pm on the 28th of December, so congratulations to Dave and Robyn and welcome to the peloton, Jack!

Talking of Roadworks stars, I'd like to thank T-Rex and his partner Tamsin for the wonderful pre-Christmas roastie they put on. Some friends were sorely missed, but those of us present had a top time...thanks to Tim for another great season - here he is collecting his biggest win of the year, the Australian Singlespeed Championship.

Thanks also to John Randal for another great year also, a year of results as varied as the events John loves to ride! Here he is on the way to a superb 4th place in the tough two-lap Taupo Enduro.

The Roadworks Team is tied together by these great gents, along with sterling support from top chaps such as Jonty, Paul Larkin, Dave Livesey, Alex Tashkoff and Joel Healy, to name too few. I'm so very fortunate to have you all somehow put up with me despite my many foibles, and I'm so lucky to have such good friends to help me make it through what have been all too often very dark times. Thanks and arohanui.

Some of the support I'm so very blessed and humbled to get even comes from far away. From overseas I get sent lots of positivity by my old mate Eoin. His talented daughter Tahlay is continuing to make inroads into her ambitions to represent Australia. Here's an awesome picture of her laying out a beatdown on her beast Colnago in a crit in Perth, WA. Go hard and much success, Tahlay!

A long-time friend but only recent wearer of the Roadworks azure is Roadworks Track Squad leader Peter Moore...

...who won the Stayers Cup for veterans at the recent Laykold Cup Track Carnival run by PNP. Congratulations, Peter!

Peter isn't just a trackie though, he's also a good rouleur. Here he is riding to a well-deserved 11th place in December's prestigious Rice Mountain Classic.

Wait, here are another pair of wheels I has builded! Chris brought me some CK hubs and Open Pro rims to whittle up for his fine Bergamont road bike he rides in between putting in many hours of trail work as part of the committed gang that built the lovely Transient.

One of my favourite builds of 2011 would have to be this stunning De Rosa Merak...

...which I absolutely loved doing.

Some of you may have noticed my Jersey (Cap/T-shirt) of the Week sidebar feature. I recently was able to borrow a jersey off my friend Selwyn to create a little vignette I've long wanted to create, but have always lacked the apparel for. Cheers, Sel, and thanks to Jonty for letting me denude his wall in the process.

The jersey.

And the vignette.

I got many lovely gifts this Christmas, but one of the best was in the form of a book compiled by my friend Max and given to me by his Dad Jim that contained a photo of some of my most precious artifacts. Like Graeme who took the opening shot of this blog post, Max is training to be a photographer and in both cases it is very cool to see my own life through someone else's eyes. Go to "These Things Of Mine" for more info.

Photo courtesy of Max Scott-Murray

As Christmas hurtled rapidly towards us all in a rabid frenzy of consumption, I sheltered as best as possible in the Sanctum Sanctorum of The Batcave finishing the working year off with Hamish's Enve wheels, but also with giving Head Like A Hole bassist Tallbeast's Surly Pacer some love after he de-singlespeeded it but ran out of tools to finish the job - he's a better mechanic than I am a bass player, by a massive shot.

Mark had booked me to finish stripping his old Turner Sultan that had unfortunately sustained a crack, and to build up his new warranty replacement frame complete with the latest reinforcing Gordon Gusset.

Mark has kindly lent me his new Hadley tool set on an ongoing arrangement, so it will be nice to be able to work on these hubs in house instead of having to send them away whenever they need a service.

After a last minute cancellation I was finally able to fit another of my favourite jobs of the year, Bill's beautiful Colnago Master Olympic. When I picked it up from his work he kindly donated me some late-80s Campagnolo Kristal grease to add to my collection of Italian lubriciousness.

So, once I had utterly stripped the bike to the bare bones, I used the Kristal to service the hubs, headset, bottom bracket and other areas that need grease as I re-assembled it back to full Oli-level Colnago-ness.

Some detail shots follow:

Seat cluster.

Seatstay bridge.

Lower head lug.

The ITM Eclypse handlebar stem I dug out of my spares to replace the too long Ritchey one the bike came with. It's made of chromed Columbus steel for extra-cool factor +10, and fits the aesthetic better too as a bonus side effect.

Head logo. I never tire of this one.

And Bill's bike ready for summer and anything else he can throw at it.

Thanks to everyone who has featured in the blog, and also to those who didn't for various reasons (I forgot the camera/the batteries ran out/I forgot to use the camera/etc., etc.) for the support in 2011 and always. Cheers to you all, you Kings and Queens of Roadworks, you Princes and Princesses of bicycles. Belatedly, I send you fond Christmas wishes and in a more timely fashion I wish you all the very best for a stellar New Year.

Cheers, Oli

The Passenger

2011-12-26T18:08:00.023+13:00

Clicking into the pedals and pushing off on the beginning of a ride is one of the very best feelings I know. In those early moments of easy pedaling before the realities of fitness and fatness rear their cruel and beastly heads I am young and fit still, at one with my bike as my body quickly assumes its long-accustomed place atop the saddle. Easily my legs turn over and spin me up to speed as I effortlessly turn into the main road, with nothing but the promise of freedom and fun ahead. I may not look graceful these days, but in those first moments I am still so at home on a bike I feel more than graceful, I feel like I was born to ride. I am carried down through the Bay as if my bicycle and I are one.

However it doesn't take long for the grim realities to bite, and just as I'm getting to grips with my physical failings and starting to drift away from oneness with my machine I'm passed as if I'm standing still by my young friend Connor, who greets me cheerily as he disappears up the road like it ain't no thang. Oddly, rather than discouraging me and adding to my feelings of inadequacy, this just helps me accept where I'm really at and I start to enjoy the ride for itself without trying to match myself to any sort of standard I simply can't meet. I manage to supress the creeping discomforts of my less than impressive condition and reconnect with my bike again. I push on under the bright and hollow sky...

The finishline for the Wednesday Worlds arrives and I feel remarkably fresh still, despite attempting to push hard for the last kilometre or so of the climb known for some reason as Happy Valley.

Time for a quick breather before commencing to carve the superb sweeping descent of Brooklyn Hill. Finally gravity is my friend.

This is one of the freedoms that a bike can give - it's almost like you are being borne along without input, yet you are riding a razor-sharp line of control as your skinny tyres cling to the very limits of adhesion on the hot tar. The wind created by your own velocity carries all thought but pure instinct away. It's almost a Zen state, but then that passes as the descent ends and you try and savour the feelings of exhilaration that are over too quick as traffic lights and motor vehicles intrude once more.

Hoping for empty streets through town, my hopes are dashed by hordes of rapacious Boxing Day shoppers swarming all over the town and straying into the road like particularly stupid sheep. Somehow I avoid several collisions with pedestrians and the cars disgorging them and make it safely through to clear space.

I ride through the city's backside...

...and I ride and I ride...

Many a training ride back in my youth would end up in a kind of impromptu race against the old Aranui or Aramoana ferries - if I could beat them to Point Hallswell I could be fairly sure of beating them to the Pass of Branda. Today, the timing was such that I rode through Shelly Bay as the Aratere was cutting its way towards Hallswell. Almost before I realised I was doing so, I put my head down and flailed away at my big gears, succeeding in making that first crucial objective...

Another one of cycling's great freedoms is that of hitting that ideal compromise between going as hard as you can and blowing to pieces. It's another razor-thin line to ride, and such a great feeling when you are railing it. It's partly the endorphins that make it feel this way, but it's also the heightened awareness of ones own physicality on the cusp of its limits. I realised at this point that the effort probably wasn't going to pay off, but I was along for the ride now so I thought I'd see it through.

As it became apparent that my legs weren't a match for my imagination I gave way to the inevitable and blew to bits as I climbed the Pass of Branda, struggling over the summit of this tiny pimple as if it was the Col du Galibier and I was behind the gruppeto in danger of missing the time cut. Needless to say the ferry won this round, but I was happy to have at least felt I'd put a good effort in.

With the afterjets turned off it was time to glide.

Over Sean Yates, with happy memories of trying to half-wheel Henry and being owned every time.

The Inter-Giro line, and not long till the finish.

There has always been something that I need and crave in cycling, something inherent in the spinning of the wheels and the very motion of the machine.

It's a need I've found really difficult to fulfill lately, but one that was fully sated today; instead of feeling like an unwilling passenger on some sort of slave galley of suffering, for a couple of hours I felt like me and my bicycle were one again. It felt mighty fine.

Thanks for reading, Oli

Cheers to Iggy Pop for the theme music to today's ride...

Bays Culture

2011-11-19T15:53:00.048+13:00

If you're worried that my lack of traditional non-historical up-to-the-minute Oli-bloggage means that I've hung up my tools, you couldn't be more wrong. Even though I do always hang them up.

There are myriad reasons why I haven't been writing much, but they are all so boring I'll just plough on in my once inimitable style, showing you some of the jobs that have stirred my loins and yarning about the ride I have done since last we crossed paths.

Using some of the very tools you see above, a frame from Henry and some wheels and parts from Leonard I built a cool flat-bar racer.

My friend Udo's T-Mobile Giant needed some love.

As did his cool old Klein Adroit...

My buddy CJ was leading the B-grade PNP Balfour Pennington series after some strong work in his debut racing season, when he unfortunately crashed in training. Despite not being able to ride the last round, he still finished a valiant 3rd overall. At least while he was recovering he could ogle the mean Chris King 1" ThreadSet we fitted to his Eddy Merckx.

My friends Jonty and Thomas came to visit me one day, so we had a Raleigh cock-off. Thomas won because his was the biggest.

Anton kindly let me build him some cool wheels. Hope ProII hubs and Stan's Crest rims come together as a very nice lightweight but durable XC wheelset indeed.

David's boss DMR Trailstar was his weapon of choice for Karapoti, but sadly a bad crash meant that he and his bike needed medical attention - the attention his injuries required meant that I couldn't operate on the bike until eight months after the event.

My good mate Alex is also struggling with injury, so we took the opportunity to give his beloved Enduro a tickle-up.

Leonard got hisself a swanky new road bike, which needed a few Oli tweaks.

I gave this cool BMC SLR01 a pre-K2 fettle for Angus, who achieved his goal of joining the sub-6 hour club in this tough, hilly 200km race around the Coromandel.

Phew, I'm thirsty. Time for a coffee (thanks, Greg!)...

Like Greg above, and despite my not being able to fathom quite why exactly, people are often very kind and generous to me, like when I cried on my Facebook page after my Livestrong bracelet I've been wearing since 2004 broke. Stephen was around to hook me up with a new Power Band within a day!

Like most of you who read this blog, Mike is a passionate Tour de France fan. The difference between him and the rest of us (well, certainly me...) is that this year he got to ride some of the mythical climbs of Le Tour, as well as watch a stage or two. He kindly brought me back this trick bottle opener...

...and a cool Carrefour polka-dot cap, both chucked out from the famous Tour caravane publicitaire.

When I renewed my SPOKE subscription I was delighted to be given a loyalty gift t-shirt for four years on the books - I added another T-Rex t-shirt to the one I'd ordered with the sub. The decals were a bonus!

All my blogging about the Old Days seems to resonate with many people, and I have recently been donated two treasure troves of material to plunder for future installments! Thanks very much to Ray for his awesome collection of ICS, Bicycling, Southern Cyclist and more dating right back to the 1970s...

...and thanks also to Ewan for his cool collection of Cycling Weekly mags.

Luckily neither collection had been added to the piles of my existing mags that were saturated in the Great Roadworks Flood of 2011 - a major roofing construction fail a few years ago had finally culminated last month in rain being directly channelled into my previously safe and dry Archive Area. Luckily I only lost one box of magazines, although several of my autographs were badly damaged too dammit.

On a much happier note, my boy John Randal dropped me in a fresh off the press copy of the 8th edition of the Kennett Brothers "Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides" on the same day my Dave and Paul sponsored copy of Rouleur arrived - who needs money when you have friends like this?!

John also brought me a fun build project, his new Yeti ARC aluminium hardtail. As I write this he is testing it out in the arduous Le Petit Brevet event around Banks Peninsular alongside his Cape Epic teammate, Megan Dimozantos.

While John is down south I also gave his Colnago some love in readiness for his Taupo Enduro attempt.

Over the last few months I've built a couple of pairs of wheels for Graham's Coves, as well as pressing in the Chris King headset cups. He recently brought them into me to have a final check over and to shorten the hoses. They are sweet rigs, but he won't be able to ride them much as he's just headed down to Antarctica for a tour of scientific duty!

Here's his STD.

And here's Graham's Hummer.

Andrew's Blue was in as one of my annual pre-Taupo regulars.

Colin is off to Queenstown next week to take advantage of the gondola service that opens up the increasingly wide range of trails those enthusiastic Mainlanders are building. Annoyingly for him, a gentle 8 hour meander around the severely storm-ravaged Karapoti course led to an errant stick leaping up and tearing off his derailleur hanger and munting an XTR derailleur. Here is the new one - official X-Men gruppo, as my mate Glenn called it.

Chris brought me a pair of Chris King road hubs and some Open Pro rims to lace up, which I duly did using Revolution spokes. With brass nipples this lovely riding wheelset weighs a hair over 1600 grams.

I lied before when I said I'd been on one ride only; I've been on a few but I've been deliberately leaving the camera at home, as I was starting to get things all Sidi before Atmos and riding so I could take pictures, instead of taking incidental pictures of the rides I was doing anyway. I'm a bit OCD like that. Anyway, no blog of mine would be complete without at least some photographic proof that I do occasionally actually ride the bikes I own.

Last Friday was the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of the century, and I had managed to clear the decks enough to head out without time constraint. With limited time of late I would have ridden whatever the weather, but happily I was blessed by a classic Welli float day. As I perambulated through Scorching Bay I noted that I was nearing the 11th minute of the 11th hour of this once in a hundred year date, so I pulled over to take a moment's silence for Those Who Gave Their Lives in the Great War. I was joined by my friend Richard in this solemn moment, which I quietly documented for all time.

What a day...

After a lovely ride in the sun I finished up in my 'hood at Berhampore's latest business offering. Evil Genius combines two of my great loves, coffee and old vinyl. As this night was Vinyl Sluts night, I sipped an espresso as I perused their great and eclectic range of records, choosing myself a few random discs to take along.

After posting that last picture on FB, it was brought to my attention - or rather, I was reminded of what I already knew - that the trendy bottle cages on my Bianchi really don't work so well visually. Cheers for the advice Mr Tafi, and I trust you consider the situation remedied.

It's been a long time since my form has been good enough to contemplate riding the monster cross bike up Transient, but this week I finally gave it a crack. Struggling up there with little to no momentum hurt like ten bastards but, as my Uncle Anatole always said, nothing good ever comes easy. It sure was nice to be in the trees anyway.

This is where I would usually try and come up with some metaphor for the ride equating to the eternal struggle of life, but all I can think of to say is that the views are well worth the effort.

Thanks for reading, and until next time...

Old Days - Part Four

2011-10-24T20:55:00.033+13:00

Whenever the now gets a bit full on and rides are hard to come by I tend to retreat back into the past for inspiration and emotional succour. Here then is my latest (and somewhat arbitrary) collection of photos scanned from my collection of magazines and pulled from various parts of the interweb. I have presented them in roughly chronological order, and with as much information as I have been able to glean. I hope you enjoy.

The road conditions of the early Tours were often diabolical, as can be seen here during the first post-war Tour in 1947 won by Frenchman Jean Robic. Pictured here are Louison Bobet of France (Tour winner 1953-'54-'55) leading Italian great Gino Bartali (winner 1938 and '48) up the awful slopes of the Col De La Croix de Fer.

Luxembourg's first and only winner of the Tour to date was the "Angel of the Mountains" Charly Gaul in 1958. He is pictured here on the rock-strewn slopes of the Col d'Izoard in the '56 edition where he would finish only 13th, but convincingly take the mountains title.

The first five-time winner of the Tour de France was French superstar Jacques Anquetil, seen here climbing in the Alps during his initial win in 1957.

The Cannibal, Eddy Merckx, pictured in 1967 as his rise towards becoming the Greatest Cyclist Ever was really just getting started.

Belgian Champion Walter Godefroot attacks Frenchman Raymond Poulidor during the 1972 Tour de France, eventually won for the fourth time, of course, by the great Eddy Merckx.

Belgian legend Roger de Vlaeminck rides typically hard in his inimitable cocked-wristed style on his way to victory in the 1975 Paris-Roubaix Classic. Known forever as Monsieur Paris-Roubaix, he still holds the record of 4 wins in this most arduous of races, and this was his third success.

Belgian star Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke rides in the 1975 Gran Prix des Nations time trial won by Dutchman Roy Schuiten. I love the gold Mafac centrepull brakes and levers, and still wish I'd snapped up the pair we had in the Bicycle Village cabinet for years...

1977 World Champion Francesco Moser follows his Italian rival Guiseppe Saronni during that years Tour of Lombardy, held just a week after he had won the rainbow jersey in Venezuela. Belgian teammates Johan de Muynck and Roger de Vlaeminck follow, with eventual race winner Gibi Baronchelli just visible tucked in behind Moser. Known as "The Race of the Falling Leaves", due to it's autumnal place in the racing calendar, this edition was run in typically foul conditions.

1978 World Champion Gerrie Knetemann (Netherlands) rides alongside Italian (and recently ex-World) Champion Francesco Moser.

1982 Giro d'Italia winner Bernard Hinault (France) copes with some pressure from eventual 2nd placed Tommy Prim of Sweden, with 4th place finisher Mountains Leader Lucien Van Impe (Belgium) in close attendance behind.

French Champion Laurent Fignon rides the 15th stage mountain time trial of the 1983 Tour de France to move within a minute of the yellow jersey being worn by his injured teammate Pascal Simon, who was struggling heroically but futilely with a broken collar bone.

Fignon now wears the yellow jersey he would take that year to Paris, becoming at 22 the youngest Tour winner since Georges Speicher in 1933. He would also win the following years Tour.

Future Spanish great Miguel Indurain gives it some wellie in a time trial during the 1985 Vuelta a España. In the early to mid 1990s Indurain would go on to become the first ever winner of five consecutive Tours de France, along with two Tours of Italy, a World Time Trial Championship and an Olympic TT gold.

1987 World Road Race Champion Stephen Roche of Ireland rides in the Nissan Tour in his home country, finishing second behind compatriot the great Sean Kelly. The rainbow jersey put a stunning cap on a magnificent season for Roche in which he had already won the Giro and the Tour, becoming only the second rider ever to win the Triple Crown after the incomparable Eddy Merckx. Sadly a recurring knee injury would mean he'd never get near to scaling the same glorious heights again...

1991 Italian Champion Gianni Bugno signs autographs before a stage of that year's Tour in which he'd finish 2nd behind Indurain. The powerful all-rounder wouldn't ever win the Tour, but he would go on to win Worlds later in the year as well as the next, to add to his dominant 1990 Giro victory.

Danish National Champion Bjarne Riis rides a time trial during the Tour de France 1995. He would finish 3rd behind Miguel Indurain this year but go on to win in '96, crushing the hopes of the big Spaniard becoming the first six-time Tour winner in the process.

Marco Pantani (Italy) wins the stage and takes the Yellow Jersey atop the climb of Les Deux Alpes during the 1998 Tour de France after destroying previous year's winner Jan Ullrich on the Mighty Galabier...

Pantani soaks in the adulation of the crowd on the Champs-Élysées after his victory in the turbulent 1998 Tour, completing a famous Giro-Tour double and becoming the first Italian to take the Tour since Felice Gimondi in 1965.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (USA) descends during the 2002 race, his fourth win.

Three-time World Champion Oscar Friere (Spain) racing in 2003.

The first German winner of the Tour de France was the great Jan Ullrich in 1997. After the Pantani hiccup of '98 he was expected to go on to become the pre-eminent Tour rider of the times, but in 1999 he ran into a large roadblock known as Lance Armstrong who would go on to dominate the Tour until retiring after his 7th win 2005. Here Ullrich is pictured grabbing a snack during the 2003 Tour where he came a heart-breakingly close minute and two seconds away from finally beating the Texan...

...here Der Kaiser puts the hammer down and astoundingly drops The Boss on the climb of Ax Trois Domaines during that hard-fought 2003 Tour, with Armstrong powerless to respond in what would be another near-critical moment of his history equalling fifth Tour victory.

In 2003 the Lion of Flanders, Johan Museeuw, rides the terrible roads of Paris-Roubaix, in which he had held aloft the cobble trophy of winner three times (1996-'00-'02).

I'll finish off by going back in time for a postcard of a friend of mine in his heyday. This is New Zealander/Dutchman Tino Tabak readying himself for the 1973 season. Read Jonathan Kennett's gripping "Tino Tabak: Dreams and Demons of a New Zealand Cycling Legend" for more insight into this fascinating character who was a contemporary and feared competitor of Merckx et al.

Thanks for reading, Oli

Please note that I have written several more Old Days posts - check the sidebar for the links.

Wharangi Ride

2011-10-15T16:29:00.000+13:00

The sun shone, the work was done, so time to get gone. Here are some pictures from some of my local trails...

I started out on the City to Sea Walkway.

This walkway starts out winding up behind the Berhampore Golf Course...

Onto an increasingly steep trail with increasingly great views.

Amazing to think that this is only ten or fifteen minutes ride from the Wellington CBD.

Designed (I'm guessing) primarily for walkers, the trail hits some brutal pitches at times, pushing the resources of a punter like me. Luckily a seat appeared just in time for me to pause and take stock of the stunning vistas.

Looking back towards the City, Mt Victoria and the harbour.

Over to Mt Albert.

Cook Strait and Baring Head in the far distance.

Just as I was grovelling up (but imagining ripping down!) this track, I hit some long flights of stairs that confirmed my route selection wasn't perhaps my cleverest, all things considered.

Steeds at the summit of the Tawatawa Reserve.

Owhiro Bay from Wharangi.

Looking over Happy Valley towards the Windmill and Polhill.

Heading down Wharangi, and hopefully avoiding the horse dung.

Happy Valley Road looks steep in this shot - maybe it's not just the constant headwind that always makes this such a grovel!

Hitting the bottom of Wharangi.

I ambled up the road, then veered up Todman Street to the War Memorial.

Respect to The Fallen.

Just look at this picturesque town of ours.

Onwards to Highbury Fling.

Then down Transient.

And home...

Cheers, Oli

Miroir Du Tour '81

2011-10-06T16:10:00.038+13:00

The other day my dear friend Henry pressed a pile of goodies into my excited palms, generously donated to the Roadworks Archives by his friend Vitas. As well as a lovely pair of Bianchi shorts, there were a pair of cool postcards and an original copy of French cycling magazine Miroir Du Cyclisme commemorating the 1981 Tour de France. Packed with great photos this is one worth sharing, I thought to myself, so here it is for you to enjoy also. Obviously I haven't scanned every page or picture, but hopefully I've captured the essence of the story in my own words inspired by the pictures. Click on the pictures if you want to see or DL munty great big versions...

First though, here are the shorts.

The first postcard is of the great Bernard Hinault, winner of five Tours de France, the 1980 World Championships and numerous classics including Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. This is a postcard for the French Look distributor of the day, José Alvarez, and was most likely taken in 1985.

This next one is an absolute beauty. While not of him engaged in one of his many legendary cycling feats, it's nonetheless the autographed picture of one of the true Greats of Cycling, Raymond Poulidor. This man was one of the main opponents of both Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx, meaning he straddled two great eras of cycling in his extraordinary 18 year pro career that stretched from 1960 to 1977! I'm super stoked to have his scribble on this Souvenir du Tour from 1991...

Now to the magazine. The July/August 1981 edition of Miroir du Cyclisme featuring that year's Tour de France winner, the great Bernard Hinault. This was Frenchman Hinault's third Tour win of five, and was one of his more dominant wins notable not just for being the triple, but for the emergence of Australia's Phil Anderson, the first non-European ever to wear the fabled Yellow Jersey.

The peloton rolls along during stage 1 around Nice. Bottom left is the nominal American champion, Jonathan "Jacques" Boyer. He wears the Stars and Stripes although he hadn't actually won the title in a race - as the first American to ever ride le Tour he had simply been ordered to wear the National Team jersey by Tour organisers Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan to generate publicitaire! Spot the other stars of the day in this shot such as 1972 Olympic Champion and '75 World Champion Hennie Kuiper, 1985 World Champ Claude Criquelion, and Yellow Jersey and 1978 World Champion Gerrie Knetemann, among others...

Bernard Hinault (Gitane) chases Peugeot's young challenger Jean-René Bernaudeau down the descent of the Col de la Roquette on Stage 1 of the 1981 Tour de France around Nice. He didn't get away...

Spanish pocket rocket Vicente Belda (Kelme) drags Johan van de Velde (Netherlands) off the front, as the TI Raleigh hardman defends the yellow jersey that sits on the shoulders of his teammate Gerrie Knetemann after the Dutch super squad's victory in the stage 3 TTT.

The mighty TI Raleigh-Creda squad on their way to also dominating the second Teams Time Trial of the '81 Tour on the Narbonne-Carcassonne 5th stage. The current Yellow Jersey (won in the stage 3 TTT victory) Gerrie Knetemann (Netherlands) heads the line, with defending 1980 Tour winner and fellow Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk second in line.

Phil Anderson doggedly holds KOM Bernard Hinault's wheel on Pla d'Adet on Stage 6 to the ski station of Saint-Lary-Soulan. Belgian climber and 1976 Tour winner Lucien Van Impe (Boston) won the stage, but Anderson hung tough and took Australia's first ever Maillot Jaune by finishing with Hinault 27 seconds later...apparently Hinault was scathing about Le Skippy's impertinence in daring to be there, and went so far as to publicly insult the Aussie.

The 1976 Tour Champion Lucien Van Impe on his way to victory on Pla d'Adet. The Belgian climber's eventual polka-dot jersey he would take to Paris this year was the fifth of six. That final tally won after the 1983 Tour was a record that equalled that of the Eagle of Toledo, Federico Bahamontes, and a record that Van Impe refused to break out of respect for the 1959 Tour winner. The record now stands at 7 titles, and is held by the Frenchman Richard Virenque who never did show much respect.

Aussie legend Phil Anderson (Peugeot) tries hard but unsuccessfully to defend the Maillot Jaune in the Stage 7 Nay-Pau individual time trial during his breakout Tour performance.

King of the Mountains Bernard Hinault overcooks a tricky corner during the Nay-Pau TT - amazingly he somehow avoided crashing and went on to win the stage and take the lead on GC.

Stage winner and new Maillot Jaune Hinault grudgingly congratulates Anderson on his spirited but failed fight to hang onto the yellow jersey after the Stage 7 Nay-Pau TT.

La Redoute-Motobecane's Bernard Vallet (France) apparently is famous within the peloton for living "le métier" to the fullest extent - i.e. he is a true professional. In this interesting sequence of shots he is meticulously checking his seat height and alignment with the Team mechanic.

TI Raleigh-Creda's Ad Wijnands (Netherlands) takes his first of two wins in the '81 Tour as he sprints to victory over Spaniard Juan Fernández (Kelme) on Stage 9 from Rochefort-sur-mer into Nantes.

Belgian superstar Freddy Maertens (Sunair-Sport 80) pulls on the Maillot Vert he wore for most of the Tour and onto the podium in Paris. This erratic genius would win five sprint stages in total in what was really only his second good year of his entire career, after his standout 1976 Tour in which he won an astounding 8 stages and wore yellow for 10 days!

Belgian Eddy Schepers (DAF Trucks) struggles with the pace of Frenchman Jean-René Bernaudeau (Peugeot) during stage 12 from Compiègne to Roubaix.

Up ahead Briton Paul Sherwen (La Redoute-Motobecane) is pushing ahead in a doomed 110km breakaway with Adri Van Houwelingen (Vermeer-Thijs) on the cobbled stage to Roubaix, won in the end by Belgian Danny Willems.

The bunch smashes over the cobbles on the epic Compeigne-Roubaix stage. Points leader Freddy Maertens and KOM Lucien van Impe can be seen dealing with the fallout of the pressure being exerted on Hinault's Maillot Jaune by the furious chase after a break containing the defending champion Zoetemelk.

The peloton ascends a typical Belgian climb during the 13th stage between Roubaix in northern France and Belgium's capital, Brussels.

Freddy Maertens looks pretty relaxed after taking out his third stage victory of the '81 Tour on stage 13 into Brussels.

And here Maertens takes his fourth win on stage 15 into Hasselt in Belgium over fellow Belgians Eddy Planckaert (Splendor) and Fons De Wolf (Vermeer-Thijs).

Phil Anderson wears the Maillot Blanc of U25 leader but it won't save him as the Maillot Jaune swallows him up 5 kilometres from the stage finish. Hinault started 2 minutes after him in the Mulhouse time trial and would take another 58 seconds off him by the time the 38.5km test was over...

Irishman Sean Kelly (Splendor) wins the tough and hilly 17th stage into Thonon-Les-Bains.

An unnamed climb deep in the Alps.

French pretender to the Hinault crown Jean-René Bernaudeau was a reknowned descender in his day, and this is a great photo of him doing his stuff.

Hinault piles on the pressure on the Col de Glandon during Stage 19 to Alpe d'Huez. Dutchman and 1980 Tour winner Joop Zoetemelk (TI Raleigh-Creda) on his left shoulder, and Van Impe behind in the Maillot Pois.

Dutchman Peter Winnen (Capri-Sonne) in the process of conquering the famed Alpe d'Huez as he wins stage 19.

Attrition and the brutal pace dictated by Hinault has whittled the field down to three men on stage 20 to Le Pleynet, Belgian prodigy Fons de Wolf (Vermeer-Thijs), Frenchman Jean-René Bernaudeau (Peugeot) and Le Blaireau himself, and he's not sticking around for long as this is the exact moment he puts the survivors to the sword.

Hinault cracks De Wolf and Bernadeau on his way to victory atop Le Pleynet.

Phil Anderson and Belgian Danny Willems (Capri-Sonne) try futilely to drag a group away from Tour leader Bernard Hinault (Gitane/France) on the road to St Priest, Stage 21.

Danny Willems (Capri-Sonne) wins into St Priest from Hinault, stage 21. Willems had already won stage 12 in the iconic Roubaix Velodrome.

The peloton hits the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris on the final stage of the 1981 Tour de France. Maertens would take his fifth win of the 1981 Tour on these storied streets.

The final podium in Paris. From left: Points Leader Freddy Maertens (Belgium/SunAir-Sport 80), 3rd on GC Robert Alban (France/La Redoute-Motobecane), 1981 Tour de France Champion Bernard Hinault (France/Renault-Elf-Gitane), 2nd on GC and King of the Mountains Lucien Van Impe (Belgium/Boston-Mavic) and 5th placed GC and U25 winner Peter Winnen (Netherlands/Capri-Sonne).

Hope you enjoyed this trip back to the time in cycling that formed my love of this great sport.

Thanks for reading, Oli

Winter of Discontent

2011-10-02T11:43:00.040+13:00

I've been feeling a bit negative lately, but as the snow melts and the blossoms bloom I feel the urge to post some pictures...

T-Rex Wins Australian Singlespeed Nationals!

2011-09-24T19:17:00.004+12:00

Congratulations to Tim Wilding on his win today of the Australian Singlespeed National Championships! Thanks heaps to WO Larkin for his support and his photos, and to his employers the fabulous Cycling Edge for helping him win this prestigious race on one of their beautiful Moots Rigormootis rigs. I'm very proud and honoured.

Story here on the Cycling Edge blog.

TI Raleigh Beausage Part 2

2011-09-18T10:49:00.019+12:00

Further to Part 1 of the tale, here are the final steps of this fun diversion...

I taped the Cinelli 65-44 Criterium 'bars...

...and sorted the front brake and made sure the cables looped over the stem in the regulation fashion.

The front brake was completed with a new Centaur barrel adjuster - not quite the same look as the original, but close enough and it functions perfectly.

Lovely Stronglight drillium cranks will spin on ahead-of-their-time sealed bearings with lightweight aluminium cups.

The Stronglight bottom bracket installed. Despite their age and much hard use back in the day the bearings are still silky smooth.

Sadly the left-hand crank is fubar, but it'll do in the context of the rest of this look don't ride build.

The Regina drilled chain looks grouse on the Stronglight chainwheels.

Rusty old Campag Gran Sport pedals...

...and Christophe Speciale toe clips with AFA straps...

...complete the drive transmission.

My TI Raleigh-Creda poster framed appropriately in the rear wheel of my TI Raleigh.

The pitted but still very cool C-Record seatpost.

The Rolls Due I originally used for the build has made way for this superfly Cinelli Volare SLX. The weight of the complete bike was a surprisingly low 21.2lb, or 9.62kg if you wish to avoid Imperial entanglements.

Put it in the big ring.

And finally complete! If the tyres were glued (and sound...) and the left-hand crank wasn't cracked this old Team Raleigh would be fully rideable.

I'm not sure what purpose this project really served, but it sure was fun to do and the bike looks awesome sitting there in all it's bygone glory.

Thanks for reading, Oli

1970s International Cycle Sport Images

2011-09-10T14:08:00.013+12:00

Thanks to my old friend Ray Young I have a new collection of old magazines dating back to the early 1970s to avidly peruse. So far I've only checked out the classic ICS issues, but I thought I'd quickly share a few shots from them before I delve deeper into the massive treasure trove of other volumes...

From the March 1978 issue comes this shot of new teammates Roger de Vlaeminck (Belgium) and Francesco Moser (Italy) during an early season training ride. Moser looks particularly uncomfortable in the cold climes.

A great looking Harry Quinn from an advertisement in the March '78 issue.

Giant German Gregor Braun (Peugeot) takes a rare win in the 1978 Henninger Turm over Belgian Jan Pevenage and Dutchman Hennie Kuiper.

Francesco Moser (Italy/Sanson) outsprints ex-teammate Roger de Vlaeminck (Belgium/Gis Gelati) for the honour of being the top ice cream company of the day in the 1979 Ghent-Wevelgem classic. Dutchman Jan Raas (T.I. Raleigh) finished third.

Eventual race winner Jos Bruyere (Belgium/C&A) rides alongside Hennie Kuiper (Netherlands/T.I. Raleigh) and Didi Thurau (Germany/Isjboerke-Gios) on one of the nasty climbs of the 1978 Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic.

Moser again leads de Vlaeminck, this time in the '79 Paris-Roubaix. Moser went on to his second of what would be three consecutive victories in the famed Roubaix velodrome, assisted this time perhaps by an untimely puncture to the Belgian four-time winner.

1976 Paris-Roubaix winner Marc DeMeyer (Bel/Flandria) rides with Kuiper to respective 8th and 3rd places in the '79 event.

Francesco Moser (Italy/Sanson) leads French Champion Bernard Hinault (Gitane) and a teammate on his way to victory in the 1978 Tour of Lombardy. This win also helped Moser win the season long Super Prestige Pernod Trophy.

A great action centrefold poster of Dutch National Champion Henk Lubberding (T.I. Raleigh) from the June '79 issue of ICS.

TI Raleigh Beausage

2011-08-21T12:31:00.013+12:00

I've had my old friend Shorty's battered old 1978 Worksop-built TI Raleigh for some years now, stripped down and collecting cobwebs awaiting some kind of decision about what I might eventually do with it.

Not a phrase you hear much any more...

The removed parts included cracked Stronglight cranks, inoperatively corroded Universal brakes and an almost unrecogniseable Brooks saddle, albeit along with a inexplicably mint condition first generation 1977 Super Record rear derailleur that I've shown before. On reflection I figured the best idea was to hang some of my collection of not quite so battered old parts on it and display it as a mechanical restoration rather than a full one, à la the great Velosvintage blog. I also am not bothering to ensure the parts are all matching period correct, so no nitpicking please!

These beautiful if somewhat abused old Cobalto brakes were donated to the cause by my friend Chris. They were taken from his early 80s Eddy Merckx, of which more later.

The Raleigh is built for old school nutted brake pivots, rather than the recessed brake de rigueur today. I used the front caliper on the rear and replaced the short rear bolt with a NOS Record centre pivot I had in my spares for the front.

This '81 Nuovo Record derailleur is a good choice for this bike...

...as it certainly wears it's fair share of old war wounds.

The front derailleur is also Nuovo Record, and an original part of Shorty's 1979 build.

One of the gear levers had to be retrieved from my keyring.

Sadly the Cobalto "jewels" are missing from the pivot bolts.

Amazingly I had a full set of good condition brake pads in their holders with built-in tyre guides.

The brake lever hoods came off Chris's Merckx, but I already had some good levers to use.

A Rolls Due saddle isn't as offensive to the eye as the leathery pancake it replaced, despite most likely being much less comfortable.

The wheels are the original Fiamme Hard Silvers...

...re-laced by me onto the also original, and truly beautiful, Record large flange hubs...

...which use the sexiest quick release levers ever made.

And as done as it gets for now. Updates probable.

Thanks for reading, Oli.

Other People's Stuff

2011-07-03T14:34:00.028+12:00

I'm not lion when I say that one of the unexpected, but most welcome, benefits of being a relentless blogger in the cycling milieu is that from time to time I get to exchange correspondence and photos with like-minded people from far-flung corners of the world; for example Wales, England, and Auckland. From the former I've been having a fascinating conversation about bicycles, and one in particular that I'll get to in a bit...

Barry has a clear passion for Campagnolo-equipped racing bikes, as witnessed by these fine examples from his collection. Firstly, this lovely de Vlaeminck-esque Gios Torino:

While these restored and re-painted machines are perhaps not fully period correct, they all nonetheless have a good blend of old and new components.

Also in his quiver Barry has this classy white Rossin.

Barry also rides this Pantani era Bianchi XL-EV2...

The reason Barry found my blog was from a picture I'd posted of Marco Pantani riding his Bianchi TT bike during his 1998 Tour de France victory, when he was doing an image search in advance of restoring his own example of these frames. From Barry posting some informative comments on the blog post in question (Old Days - Part Two) we moved to email for these great photos through the process of getting the bike rolling...

Here's the Pinarello-built frame after painting, before clear coating and while transfer placement is getting sorted.

This is the expanding seatpost.

Here are the forks after painting, as well as the forks from Barry's EV2 which were used as a colour template.

Starting to look really good in the middle of being built, and while positional stuff is being sussed.

And done. Here's the authentically colour-coded ITM cockpit. I have one of these complex TT handlebar set-ups myself (in black, and thanks Jonty!) but haven't yet come up with a project this grouse to use it on!

And here it is in full and glorious profile...

...and joining the EV2 to complete Barry's brace of Pantani-inspired bicycles. Great stuff!

Finally, here is Barry looking fit, fast and pro while putting his Bianchi TT special through it's paces in a local time trial in Wales last weekend. Thanks for the pictures, the info and for the kind support from afar, Barry!

Some of you may have read one of my old posts I called The 39 Steps, in which I related building up a lovely Colnago Master in the famous candy red colour scheme of the Colnago that Guiseppe Saronni rode to victory in the 1982 Goodwood World Championships. Gavin in Auckland has been reading my blog, and he got in touch to show me his restored Colnago Super. He's clearly a dab hand with a can of spraypaint, and he has done an amazing job of restoring this old Super.

In the same vein as Barry's bikes (and mine, of course!) Gavin is using more modern parts to complete this classic frame.

I'm a big believer in the lovely ride these old steel relics can provide when set up with the best of modern equipment, and it's always cool to use some older kit as well. To my mind early Shamals are still the most visually appealing deep-section wheels ever to come out of the Campagnolo factory.

Here's Gavin's super Super completed, and with Shamals on...

...and with some wickedly fast Easton Tempest II carbon hoops for race day. Talking of carbon, Gavin tells me he also does carbon repairs to damaged frames so drop me a line if you want to be put in touch with him - judging by his paint skills his workmanship will be top shelf!

Finally, I've blogged my beloved old Chas King Prendero once or twice before...

...which elicited another set of pics from Auckland. In his accompanying email Paul told me it was my blog that inspired him to Buy Now rescue this battered and abused old machine from Trade Me for a cool $100, once he'd spied a Chas King logo in the photo illustrating the anonymous listing.

A mix of components includes a Shimano 600EX chainset, Suntour Cyclone derailleurs with non-indexed down-tube shifters and brakes from Campagnolo

He cleaned the bike up and removed some extraneous bits and pieces, before sending it to his LBS Biketech for some finishing touches.

While musing upon this very blog during the week I was surprised and delighted to receive another email from Buxton in England, that came from a Danny King. Yes, Danny is the Grandson of the late Charles, or Chas, King! He had been Googling his Grandfather's name searching for bikes he had built when he found mine. Danny tells me,

"You are right that Chas was a plumber who emigrated from south London to New Zealand in 1952, settling in New Lynn, Auckland. He'd been keen cyclist for many years and represented Great Britain at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, winning a Bronze medal in the Team Pursuit.

He carried on cycling all his life both in NZ and over here in the UK for holidays, remaining a member of the CTC, and as you say built frames on a small scale. It's great that some are still about!"

I'm super proud to have paid some small tribute to this Legend of Cycle Sport, and I'm also delighted to be able to show him Paul's other example of his Grandfather's superb workmanship...

Thanks to Danny, Paul, Gavin and Barry for taking the time to get in touch and share, and thanks as always to you for reading. Cheers, Oli

Wooden It Be Nice?

2011-06-25T14:05:00.050+12:00

One of the most enjoyable jobs I've been tasked with recently was one I've been looking forward to for a very long time. Malcolm brought in a pair of Cerchio Ghisallo wooden tubular rims for me to build up.

Handmade from aged Slovenian beech by the third generation of the same Italian family who have been making them since the 1940s, these beautiful hoops are similar to the prevalent rims used for racing until the new-fangled aluminium ones eventually took over. They are named for the famed Madonna del Ghisallo museum and shrine for cyclists. Cerchio simply means round and is the Italian word for rims.

The hubs I would be lacing them to were a story in themselves. A 1949 Sturmey-Archer 3 speed fixed hub is a hard concept to bend one's mind around, but it nonetheless exists. Aesthetically it pairs nicely with a high-flange Sturmey-Archer front hub. Both hubs seems to perfectly suit the retro feel of the Ghisallo rims. Before starting the build I followed Malcolm's advice and read up thoroughly on Ric Hjertberg's excellent and informative Wheel Fanatyk blog, gleaning as much information as I could in advance of commencing construction.

Using special 20mm long nipples and rim washers for the thick wooden rim, I also opted to use brass spoke washers for the rear flange to build them up a bit, prevent excess movement and premature spoke head fatigue.

The rear rim and hub were drilled for 40 spokes, which I built up in a standard 3-cross pattern.

The spoke washers in situ on the 3sp fixed hub.

Taking particular heed to Mr Hjertberg's advice on tension it was mildly disconcerting to end up with a wheel with so little tension on the spokes, but it seems generally expected that these wheels will be high maintenance as the wood beds in, and expands and contracts depending on heat and/or moisture. I'll be very interested to see how well they hold up over time. They certainly built up perfectly round and true with surprisingly little effort - they put to shame some aluminium and carbon rims I've seen from some of the big names in rims.

The rims are drilled so the spoke nipples - and spokes themselves - exit the rim at exactly the right angle for the trajectory of the spoke to the rim, and the wood cradles the nipple snugly.

The 32 hole front hub has aluminium flanges and a steel body. The flanges were thick enough that they didn't require the washers as the rear hub did.

It came to me with the axle removed and no balls, so I assiduously researched the specs using my old Sutherland's manual to determine what size balls it may need. It turned out that it was just the standard 3/16, so I installed some lovely Dura-Ace ones to keep it spinning for another 40-odd years. Note the cool drilled out wingnuts.

A shot of the rear hub showing the fixed cog, as well as the control chain for the three speed internal gears.

And done. These weren't easy builds, but they were super satisfying. To get them right needed plenty of research, time and care, as well as consciously adapting some of my usual habits and techniques. By the time I hung them up completed I was confident that I'd done a good job of building them, now it's just a matter of Malcolm road-testing them and seeing how much or how little post-build maintenance they require. I'll look forward to finding out. Just to put these wheels in some sort of context of rarity, the only wooden rims I've ever built up before were a pair of refurbished track wheels for a bike that was never going to ridden, and that was in about 1982! Thanks very much to Malcolm for the chance to build these new ones after all these years.

After such special work it's hard to slip back into the more mundane bike repairs that are the daily pabulum of the jobbing bicycle mechanic - luckily I was able stave such mundanity off by giving my dear friend John's sweet Colnago its first proper Oli-ing since he bought it from the fine fellows at Capital Cycles. Here is John pictured with our friend Ashley of the women's cycling group Revolve holding their respective 2nd place certificates from the recent NZ Single Speed Championships.

The first thing I wanted to do was to sneak my logo up in thurr to hopefully help Sifter find some inspiration when times are getting tough. Kia kaha, bro!

After servicing the bike as if I was building it from scratch it was ready to roll. This fine steed looks fast just sitting there, even if I made an appalling crank placement blunder for this particular shot of it.

Talking of good friends, my man Paul Larkin of Cycling Edge has been representing my global aspirations with a fine showing in the first round of Melbourne's Dirty Deeds Cyclo-Cross series.

Here's a link to a cool video of the Dirty Deeds race - pay particular attention for the first 22 seconds, as Paul shows the most effective way to cross the barriers.

Even though my derailleurs are always adjusted to the nth degree, I have oft been curious about the increasingly ubiquitous K-Edge chain catchers. WO Larkin heard the call and responded by sending over three of these trick devices for my own ineluctable edification, and if you look closely you can also see a pair of carbon cable adjusters he sent me as well. Cheers heaps, bro!

Easy to install and only adding 20g to the weight of my Bianchi (as if that matters to a bike that weighs over 9kg with a 100kg rider!) the K-Edge worked perfectly when I adjusted my front derailleur to overshift, and I see why the pro wrenches are commonly fitting them to their rider's bikes. Also, the ano blue looks pretty and coincidentally matches my Bike Pure headset spacer...

The next thing was to take the bike out for a test-ride, so I put on my best grimly determined face and set off down through Island Bay into a chilly southerly to try my best to throw the chain on the road...

I headed around the usual South Coast past the airport.

As I've stated many times before, there's always some new aspect of this ruggedly scenic coastline to grab my attention and make me whip out my camera.

I've never noticed this creatively placed seat before, but as soon as I did I've started to notice many more placed around the Wellington environs. I want to sit on them all over time, just to be still and try to take in the views as the seat creators intended.

I attacked the gruelling Pass of Branda in the big ring, such as it is. Taking photos while seated climbing at "speed" while you fight the urge to puke and your heart tried to burst out of your chest isn't quite as easy as you might think!

Matiu/Somes Island stands guard as yet another bitterly cold squall passes over it on it's way to Petone and on up the Hutt Valley.

Instead of just heading around Oriental Bay to home, I decided to climb Alexandra Road to the top of Mt Victoria.

One more quick shot of the view from the top before starting a great fun but very sketchy wet road descent back down Palliser Road to the Monastery. Swooping around the twisting turns on the very edge of adhesion to the slippery tarmac reminded me that I am alive, as well as giving me the morale-building knowledge that I'm still in possession of some of my old roadie DH faculties, despite my fitness having been consigned to distant memory.

The winter grime is starting to build up on the trusty steed, but I'm so enjoying riding again that the weather is utterly immaterial as far as bike and body is concerned.

Satisfied that the K-Edge was the answer to a problem I don't actually have, it was back home to the grindstone. There are lots of issues around being the house-husband that I didn't anticipate, but one I'm all too used to by now is the sick child quandary - what do you do if you've promised a job to be done before the customer flies overseas with his bike but you have a boy at home recovering from a nasty flu? The answer is to fire the shop heater up, rug the boy up, pile some books and toys into a bag and hope he can entertain himself for long enough to do the business. Lucky Bodhi is a good boy who knows the drill, and it was cool this particular day to see him really looking around and hear him describe the shop as "a bit of an Aladdin's Cave, isn't it Papa?"...choice.

On the 12th of June Tim Wilding had one of his good days on the bike, winning the prestigious first round of the popular N-Duro series at a canter. Great work, Tim! Here's a photo from the start line of a relaxed T-Rex about to throw down.

Photo by Helen Brumby

Tim's partner Tamsin had one of those awful wheels built with the infamous rotten spokes, so and to forestall further problems after a couple of recent breakages I rebuilt it using nice, new DT Competition spokes. Note the custom Roadworks hub...

My good friend Malcolm (no relation) and his partner Gabrielle are heading to France on an organised tour to ride some of the legendary mountain passes of the Pyrenees and, after some consultation, we decided to fit compact chainsets to both machines, along with the already required new chains and cassettes. This will help keep them relatively fresh for the vast menu of storied climbs they will be facing. Malcolm was running old Octalink cranks on his Scott so needed a new b/b too, but Gabrielle already had X-type bearings on her Trek, so it was simple to slip her old cranks out, install the news ones and adjust the front derailleur - this means she could as easily swap back to the old 53x39 set-up in the unlikely event she wants to revert.

Contrary to recent media reports, I haven't performed a hostile (or amiable, for that matter!) takeover of Revolution Bicycles quite yet...

...but Jonty still gets me to build wheels for him while he waits for the inevitable swallowing up of his business by the vast global enterprise that is Roadworks Bicycle Repairs. This pair of DT X430 rims were built up on a DT 340 front hub, and a Shimano Nexus rear hub. Nice.

Another day, another pair of pink Chris King hubs to be laced up. This pair is for Graham (as were the last pair of pink ones I built) that will eventually be going on his cool Cove STD. Beefy Mavic EX729 rims, black DT Comp spokes and Prolock nipples on the 20mm front and 150x10mm rear should be just the ticket for the freeridey STD.

And here's one of Graham's fleet of Coves getting a headset pressed, a cool Handjob XC the same as my "monster cross" frame.

After some time overseas David brought me his Condor for revival. It had some badly corroded nuts and bolts from storage, as well as sustaining some damage from shipping. Nothing a couple of hours in my stand couldn't work out...

I'll finish this post off with some photos from my first ride out to Eastbourne since early March. It's not really that far to ride in the scheme of things, but it's always a good reference point for me mentally to feel confident I'm fit enough to make it safely there and back, and when I'm feeling really good I'll TT one or even both(!) directions to get a small taste of the sweet pain of hard cycling. Today wasn't a day for hard efforts though, it was a day for simply cruising and enjoying my re-found ability to ride...

At the end of the road by the Eastbourne bus sheds, looking north back around the Eastern Bays towards the Hutt Valley and the Belmont hills.

The day was still and unseasonably warm for June, with the only sounds the calling of the gulls and the waves breaking on the stony shore.

Another of the seats with a view, this one on Eastbourne beach looks out over Makaro/Ward Island and across the harbour.

This boat has sat on the water in York Bay as long as I can remember. And I'm old.

My town.

I hardly ever usually use the rugged "bike path" that runs alongside the Hutt Road, but for some unknown reason today I did, and was pleasantly surprised to find it freshly swept. It was a very relaxing traffic-free cruise on what can be quite a stressful stretch of road. It will be so good when they finally connect this truncated bike way to the Petone foreshore, and I'm certain bicycle commuting will really explode once there's an easy and safe two-way route in and out of town.

Not that I should be worrying about the Hutt Road when this is the sort of sight that routinely occurs in my own street...

Until next time, stay safe. Cheers, Oli

Dirty Ditty

2011-06-19T11:25:00.045+12:00

All is right with the world. Yep, I'm finally back on the dirt at last. My first off-road ride in four months was up Transient and Highbury Fling, then back down again. Of course I love my road riding, but I've really been hanging out to go bush so once under the canopy I stopped to breathe in the atmosphere of the damp air and the moist trees.

The last time I rode up these cool trails the bridge was still under construction, so it was grouse to ride the completed span.

Once over the bridge I was riding on Terra Incognito, at least as far as I was concerned. The hard-working trailbuilders who have put their heart and souls into crafting this great track must know every inch of it...

Every now and then the trees open up to frame a view of the City.

With only a limited time for a ride I had planned to only go as far as the end of Highbury Fling, but truth be told I was so fragged at this point I was glad to turn around anyway - I'd forgotten how much more physically draining riding the MTB is compared to bumbling around the Bays of a sunny day!

As the rain clears another view opens up, looking towards Northland and past Te Ahumairangi to Skyline.

In my fervent desire to hit the dirt I hadn't considered that the newer parts of the trail might not be up for riding after several days of sustained rain...

...but the builders have been doing their best to protect the trails against the vagaries of weather and wheels. On the whole the trail was well drained and coping well, with just a few boggy bits to be sorted.

Not much fauna today, but some interesting flora including copious amounts of these odd fungi.

The downhill run was a massive hoot, but before long I was back on Aro St and heading home.

The week continued with all the usual demands of daily life and no more time to ride, but Sunday afternoon Bodhi and I saddled up and headed around Red Rocks via Pariwhero to the distant Devil's Gate.

We did cheat a bit by driving to Owhiro Bay, but with this being Bodhi's first proper off-road ride on a solo bike - we've ridden around here a couple of times on the trailer bike - I figured it was going to be plenty of distance as it was without adding the ride from and to home to the deal. By the time I'd unloaded the bikes Bo was certainly keen to ride!

It was busy day on the South Coast. We only saw a couple of cyclists but there were sure plenty of walkers out.

The first stream crossing was a bit of a hurdle to contend with. I rode through ok, but had to carry Bo's bike across while he searched for a place to jump across.

The next obstacle was the sandier sections of the road. Bodhi rode really well, although he did have to walk a couple of the deeper drifts...

...and eventually one caught him out, resulting in his first crash of the day. Luckily he took it with great good humour, as there would be more before the day was out.

Looking back along the way we came towards Island Bay and Taputeranga itself, then over to Baring Head, the Rimutakas and as far as the Aorangi Range.

Bodhi was really digging having carte blanche to get muddy - I'm fairly sure he hit up every single puddle, despite my dire prognostications about him possibly disappearing into a man-sized hole.

When we set out there was no wind to speak of, but I became aware that the clouds that had been sitting still atop the cliffs were now on the move. This would mean a headwind ride back to the car, but we decided to press on regardless.

Ah, a ride with my boy. Life just doesn't get any better than this.

After the initial reluctance to ride the creeks, Bodhi's puddle experience now meant he had conquered his fears. He watched the line I took then followed with admirable commitment to the task...

...although his little legs didn't quite give him enough power to push through.

Despite now having freezing wet feet his good spirits were to the fore again, and he again laughed off this minor stumble.

Another spectacular view looking back east, as the Manly ferry cuts its way to Circular Quay.

The Devil's Gate looms up out of the cold shadows. Bodhi was determined to clean this tricky liitle pinch climb, and the tough little blighter very nearly did!

What a cool cat.

Great to be on the CX rig again. It's ideally suited to a ride like this, although it can handle much gnarlier trails too. Several walkers commented on me riding a "road bike" on such unsuited terrain and, enjoying the hardman mystique I imagined I was creating, I didn't disabuse any of them of the notion.

Beautiful views of the South Island are framed by the jagged teeth of the South Coast's shipwrecking rocks, as the itinerant seal population sun themselves in the fading light.

A closer shot of one of the many chilled out seals.

With the sun rapidly going down we decided it was time to head back.

One more gutsy attempt at crossing the creek sadly ended in wet feet again.

I love ships...

...like Bodhi loves puddles.

He was getting tired now. The headwind was strong now, the crashes were wearing him down, his wet shoes kept slipping off his pedals and the fact that this was by far the furthest he'd ever ridden meant life was getting pretty tough. But even though the smile was fading there was no way he'd let me push him or his bike.

And anyway, there were still puddles to be owned.

As the sun set behind clouds luridly lit by volcanic ash from the eruption of Chile's Puyehue-Cordón Caulle we came to the end of what was for Bodhi an epic ride, and for me one of those ones that I'll always cherish. The only thing I like better than riding is riding with my sons. I was very proud of Bodhi for handling a tough eight kilometre ride as his first proper MTB ride, and the way he coped with the adversities of crashes, dunkings and headwinds made me very proud indeed. Great effort, boy.

Late one afternoon this week I temporarily ditched my familial obligations and head out for another MTB ride. Having not ridden at Makara Peak for longer than I care to remember I chucked the Commencal on the Subie and zipped up to K-Town, parked up and headed up Koru and Sally Alley as far as the entrance to Missing Link.

My original plan was to ride to the Summit, but the demands of the trails so far had put me firmly in the box - even though these trails are theoretically only easy and intermediate respectively, they are still challenging enough when unfit and I was being found out majorly. When you can't go fast you have no momentum, and every little pinch or rocky outcrop saps your strength, plus I have been finding the more dynamic physical demands of mountainbiking over road riding quite wearing on my still repairing core. I decided to err on the side of softness and head back down...after a lengthy breather to admire the stunning views, that is.

My advice, gentle readers, is to not attempt self pics while riding down mildly technical trails such as Ridgeline Extension lest one nearly axes oneself. The similar shot taken on Transient I had stopped and carefully posed, but stupidly I tried this one while still awheel - luckily I somehow managed to steer the bike back on trail, not drop my camera and not die horribly.

The volcanic dust in the atmosphere was lingering and creating some beautiful colours in the sky that my $90 camera can't possibly convey.

I cast the occasional forlorn glance up at the Peak. So near yet still so far away. Soon though, soon.

Even though I had to abandon my lovely bike for months on end to the dank depths of the Brooke-White basement, my love for her remained undimmed. Nice to be straddling her once more.

Rather than the more techy aspects of Swigg and Starfish I opted instead for the straight speed of a run down Lazy Fern. This is a trail that I know very well and always relish opening up the throttle on.

Near the bottom after a fast and clean run I stopped for one more chance to absorb the feel of the bush - the evening birdsong chorus was in full effect too.

Just enough light to load the bike onto the car by, then it was off to imbibe of a well-earned ale or two.

It's so good to be riding the trails again I can't believe it. The only problem now is that every time I have a chance to ride I am back to wasting 20 minutes vacillating between road, MTB and CX bikes before I can make a choice!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Ode to the Road

2011-06-05T15:13:00.034+12:00

For over thirty years I've been riding my bicycles in and around the Wellington Harbour and hills and, as even a cursory glance at previous blog entries will show, I never get sick of looking at or showing you the many and varied views of this pretty city. Depending on the time of day or season of the year, the light on the hills and water can alter the character dramatically, revealing a new aspect at every turn. I've been riding the road a fair bit lately so I thought I'd lay some of my recent snaps on you.

The Basin Reserve is a brief break from the Death Race that is Newtown and Adelaide Road.

There is always wind on the road - today it emanates from the north-west.

On a nice day the Bays teem with recreational cyclists enjoying the scenic route.

The late autumn sun sparkles on the Harbour.

Heading around Point Hallswell and into Kau Bay, with Ward Island and Eastbourne beyond.

On days like this it's only the biting wind and the layers we don that inform us it's not summer.

Looking past the breaking waves and across the deceptively calm waters towards the Kaikouras.

In the late 70s and early 80s traffic was a relative rarity around the South Coast making the Bays somewhat of a cycling paradise for the few of us who rode, but these days the volume has increased markedly into an endless parade of vehicles to "share" the road with. This particular moron would have been doing about 80kph on the tight and twisty road.

The mountains of the South Island stand sentinel over the Cook Strait.

US Navy training ship the Golden Bear sits at dock on the Overseas Terminal, in the exact mooring that was my first landfall of New Zealand. We sailed from England on the Northern Star in 1967, taking a six-week voyage from the country of my birth to our new home in Wellington.

Wellington's Pantani Memorial.

My own neighbourhood of Berhampore has some interesting sights to be seen. This guy will seriously freak you out if you are the sort of person to get seriously freaked out by this type of thing.

One of the local bus-stops used to be a grim grey hovel that smelled of winos and wee. Now it's a gaily coloured hovel that smells of winos and wees.

Into the hills with my first jaunt up to Northland in a few months. I'm not exactly a Pantani myself, yet still this usually easy climb seemed this day as tough as Alpe d'Huez.

I bet there isn't a cool bike shop atop the Alpe though. Asher used Jonty's Rancilio to brew me a mean recovery coffee, before I had the fun payoff for my uphill grovelling with a wicked fang back down Raroa Road.

The old Herd Street Post Office building is a pretty cool bit of restored deco architecture down by Waitangi Park.

Riding around Oriental Bay I was saddened to see this old landmark house being demolished, no doubt to make way for some soulless hi-rise townhouse complex. This was where my Dad lived when I was maybe 10 or 11, and until recently the house was notable for being swathed in ivy. Just the week before I'd been pointing the old place out to Bodhi and telling him the story of tossing my Red Devils Action Man out of the second story window to float to earth on his orange silk parachute. While it was no family home or anything, I couldn't help but feel a poignant pang of loss for yet another chapter in my late father's life being obliterated.

The gloomy grey clouds reflect dully in the sea, mirroring my mildly maudlin mood...

...but the beauty of this harbour is that it never takes long for the clouds to part...

...and the light to break through.

The grave gent that guards Lyall Bay is an old friend who I like to visit on occasion. I am stoked to have just made Bike Rumor's POTD with a different portrait of this Easter Island-esque fellow.

Some days the coast gives way to the hills, and some different views.

Every corner opens up a new vista.

The Wainuiomata Hills are sending their siren call my way. As soon as I'm back on the MTB I'm heading out there to take a loooong overdue tour of the trail network out there.

One of my favourite little suburban climbs leads me up to the top of Mount Victoria.

Climbing like an eagle, albeit a bronze casting of an eagle, I make sure I look like it ain't no thang.

Before swooping down the sinuous descent of Alexandra Road I got my breath back and took stock by checking out the lovely view over the harbour, and as far as Mt Matthews in the Rimutaka Range.

At over 940 metres this is the tallest peak in the Wellington area, and is probably most famous for being the training ground of the late Sam Raphael. In training for the Kona Ironman, Sam would ride from his home in the Aro Valley out to Wainui, where he would leave his Colnago with the Rimutaka Forest Park Ranger. He would change into running shoes and run up the 5 Mile Track and on up to the top of Matthews and back down again, collecting his bike before riding back into town. A quick stop off at Cycle Services would follow, where he'd have a coffee and/or a quick bit of shut-eye before heading down to Freyberg Pool to swim 10km, before finally riding home up the terrifyingly steep Mt Pleasant (HA!) Road. That's a tough day's training, by any standard. RIP, you crazy guy...

A ride up to Kingston is yet another perspective on the city. This is overlooking the Berhampore Golf Course and Island Bay...

...sweep around a bit and there is the eponymous Island itself, framed by the hills that tumble down to the shore.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and please note that clicking on the images opens up larger versions if you want to get closer to the city I love.

Normal mechanical services will be resumed shortly. Until then, thanks for reading.

Double Century

2011-05-24T18:51:00.054+12:00

Jeepers, how did that happen? Somehow it's my 200th action-packed blog extravaganza! From my first short try out of this blogging thing in 2007 to the sprawling leviathan posts I now semi-regularly inflict on my readers, writing and taking the pictures for them has been a real journey in any sense of the word. I suppose I'd better make this a long one...

As a heart-on-my-sleeve type of guy I appreciate you've put up with me through some ups and downs. I hope there haven't been so many downs you've got the droop, and that there have been enough of the ups to keep you mildly interested. It goes without saying that I also hope you'll stick around as I keep moving forward to who knows where...

Of course the most important part of what I do is you, my famiglia bicicletta. My Team stars have been playing some fun bicycle games of late, so I just wanted to quickly acknowledge their feats. First, I'd like to congratulate Joel Healy on his fine 4th place in the M1 Club Nationals Time Trial in early May. Despite being nearly killed in a nasty hit and run on the Haywards Hill just weeks before, Joel manned up and smashed his new TT rig (pics to come) around the course to finish just off the medals in the event won by the evergreen People's Champion, Gordon McCauley. Great stuff, Joel, and here's to 2012 and a crash-free build up! Here he is racing the Rice Mountain Classic a couple of years ago in lieu of an actual TT picture...

My man Tim Wilding has been having a heap of adventures, but just this weekend gone he teamed up with his partner Tamsin to race as Team TimTam and win the Mixed Teams category in the Wainuiomata 6 Hour Wurldz. This event sounded like a heap of fun, but sadly I wasn't able to make it along to heckle...er, support my riders.

Photo: Jono Baddiley

No mention of my Team stars would be complete without mentioning the redoubtable John Randal, who has also been partaking of a plethora of pulsating pursuits lately. He too raced in the W6W, but in a team with his usual accomplice Simon Kennett. Simon dressed as Robin Hood and, appropriately, John was attired as Little John, complete with a 5kg staff! Check out John's superb blog for the full story, as well as the exciting announcement that he will be riding next year's Cape Epic as teammate to 24hr ace Megan Dimozantos. In the meantime, here is John (st)riding through Sherwood Forest on the way to third place in the Men's Teams category.

Photo: Jono Baddiley

My last note today regarding Roadworks Team riders (of which there are Legion...) is a belated but heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS! to my extreme adventure racing rep Dave Hicks, who has just got married to the lovely Olympian Robyn Wong. May your lives together be joyous, long and smoothly paved! Here's Dave racing in this years Karapoti with eldest son Tom stoking...

Anyway, enough about those sifters! This is MY blog, dammat! This epic anniversary deserves some kind of epic ride report or a rare bike fettle that is worthy, but I've only just worked my way up to riding about 90 minutes, and I don't have much rare Italian steel to proffer just yet. This is not to say I haven't been doing some fun work, and I have to say the 90 minute rides I've managed have felt a metric shitload better than the rides I was doing before The Op!

To keep up the rehab mindset I've been working out on the Swiss Ball...

...and going for gentle rides in clement conditions. So far I've been restricting myself to the stress-free flatness of the Bays, but I'm planning on hitting the hills and even the dirt again very soon.

The best thing about recent weeks has been being back in the shop - it's not exactly a busy retail hub, but it's great fun to be working and have people popping in and out dropping work off and picking it up, or simply stopping by and saying hi. How things are in my stupidly organised life mean I'm often beavering away on my own, so it's really nice to have company from time to time. Here's a shot that hopefully signifies how busy I am getting, while at the same time gratuitously showing off a lovely bunch of Bianchis, two of which, of course, are mine...

Just as an aside, you might have noticed that since the second to last pic my TSX has had a wee cosmetic nip and tuck, with the sudden reappearance of my Celeste Arione saddle and some crisp new Deda handlebar tape...

Still lingering on the Celeste, when the owner of the other two Bianchis in the pile came by to grab them I was surprised and delighted to find he'd brought me the very generous gift of an awesome Bianchi mechanics shirt - cheers heaps, mate!

A detail of the cool panel featuring Bianchi riding stars from the ages, Coppi on the left and Gimondi on the right.

Another kind gift was from Kerrin, who is just back from a work trip to Vietnam. He's never brought a bicycle to me before, but knowing me online he wisely knew the way to my heart was through my tastebuds, and he brought me this beautiful big bag of beans that he had picked up on his travels. Thanks Kerrin, they taste as good as they look!

Kerrin wasn't just supplying me with the Stuff Of Life, he was also bringing me his new commuter bike to tune. He wanted me to assess it for internal corrosion, sort some pesky creaks and generally do the voodoo that I do do, so well.

That's right, my train-spotting compadres, it's a Colnago. And a Colnago Super at that!

He bought it off another online friend of mine based in Auckland, and it's a bike I'd long admired since Brad originally posted online pics of the refurbishment he'd undertaken on it. I love the deep red accents on the silver finish...

Colnago branded drop-outs with working adjusters are fun.

The lug work is jolly nice too.

I didn't just take a couple of photos, I also fulfilled my brief by giving her a stem to stern going over that went as far as checking and rust-inhibiting inside the frame tubes. I found that were in remarkably great shape; I'm not sure if Brad had already cleaned them up, but it could also be attributed to the large cloverleaf cut-out under the bottom bracket shell. Any water that gets in - and it gets into all frames - is easily able to drain and/or evaporate. Those Italians didn't come up the Hutt River on a rusty Raleigh 20, no signor!

As I put it back together I cleaned and serviced the headset, bottom bracket, drive train, pulley wheels, wheels and cables...

...then gave it the Oli Seal of Approval.

Presto!

Leonard bought these fly Boyd 38mm carbon clinchers for me to check out and fit tyres and cassette to. Weighing only a few grams above their advertised weight (a rare thing!) and beautifully true and tensioned out of the box, I will be interested to see how the first pair of these cool looking wheels sold to New Zealand (to the best of Boyd's knowledge) will go.

His carbon PedalForce is his training bike, as the Boyds go onto his BMC SLX01 to turn the slightly heavier aluminium/carbon rig into his race steed. Not bad for a beater, eh?

Super Surgeon Simon's Cervelo R3 needed a squizz over before he and Sally head over to the Pyrenees to ride some of the fabled climbs of the Tour. Bon voyage, guys!

I'll finish off the work stuff with a teaser for a long-awaited and very cool imminent wheelbuild project.

Because I can't usually ride in the early mornings, evenings or even weekends, and with the scatter-fire nature of my working "arrangements", I find it frustrating and difficult to organise riding partners. I usually have to slip out for mid-week rides as the chance takes me and without preamble. Mostly that's okay though, as riding solo is usually my first choice anyway - feeling something like a cross between a slow-moving cyclist and a low-flying dirigible, I generally prefer my own riding rhythm, my own speed and the chance to interrupt the ride at my whim. After all, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to take a look around once in a while, you could miss it.

In saying that, however, don't think I'm a total social reject - some of the best rides I ever do are the ones with good company, and I do love those too. Just this week I've had several inadvertent rides with friends and was stoked to bump into them all....Being a loner that loves company is a confusing way to be, and I can only ascribe that to my Gemini nature...

This ride started out with me firmly in solo mode. I'd had one of those days and hadn't managed to get out until Ket was at home to look after Bodhi but, as it was for Yehuda, the clouds soon lifted once I was awheel. The lowering sun sparkled on the lustrous sheen of my bella Bianchi.

And cast long shadows on the road...

Whilst a gentle breeze wafted over the harbour on this unseasonably warm but typically beautiful evening.

Just after I clicked back into my pedals and rolled off down the road and into the old Shelly Bay Air Force Base, I was greeted by the cheery smile of a rider approaching from the opposite direction, and I was delighted to see Stu turn around to join me. Usually I'd find a 6-time XC National Champion a daunting ride partner, but luckily he was as polite as ever and slowed to what for him must have been a glacial pace, as I lifted my intensity to my anaerobic threshold to match him. It was great catching up with Stu, and fun too to be feeling good enough to ride and talk at the same time! As we approached Seatoun I realised we were catching up on an old friend also taking an evening ride so (just as my lungs exploded and my legs died) I said goodbye to Stu and slowed down to say hi to Arie. Arie was the workshop manager of the original Wellington Penny Farthing Cycles when I was the racing department manager 25-odd years ago, and because it doesn't happen enough it's always great to see him.

(Arie on my left with the mo)

As quickly as I'd flicked Stu for Arie, Arie flicked me for his own direction so I turned around in the village and reverted to doing what I do best - plodding along happily thinking my funny silly thoughts and taking the occasional picture along the way.

It truly was a lovely May evening. The shadows were chilly, but the sunlight still warm.

It's not the hard light of summer, either. It's a diffuse glow that permeates everything it touches...

...and reveals a sleeping giant. I've never noticed him in more than 30 years of riding past his scenic rest.

Even though there isn't one in this shot, I was by now being passed in the opposite direction by various bemused cyclists, mainly of the increasingly prevalent Mamil persuasion. After all the good work by Stu and Arie, this one short stretch of road gave me a disappointing Waveback index of -160 for the ride.

Luckily, and as we have ascertained at length, I am happy to be master of my own domain.

The low sun was still rolling it's way slowly west along Skyline as I made my way back around Evans Bay...

Out of time to head either around Oriental Bay or Island Bay, I opted for the urbs and the Constable Street route home.

The "summit" was another chance to ease the wheeze by taking the 200th career shot of my Bianchi, as it leaned provocatively basking in the warm caress of the golden light.

Okay, that about wraps it up for the Double Ton. If you're still here, thanks heaps for the support. Reading the stats is an incredible eye-opener as to the amount of people who are now reading this bombastic blog I write, and it's very cool to see some of the far-flung places you are from. Whether you enjoy my ramblings or you're only flicking through the pictures, I'm grateful to you all.

As always, thanks for reading. Cheers, Oli

Back To Life

2011-05-15T12:25:00.043+12:00

Back to reality. The last couple of weeks have been great as I ease back into the routines of home/work and a little bit of riding. My First Ride was actually the last ride of that week, as even that low level of exertion seemed to be a bit much to handle. However, after a few more days chafing at the bit off the bike, the next attempts proved much less onerous and didn't seem to result in any marked post-ride discomfort. I feel like it's just a matter of time now until I'm back to winning imaginary races...

...and shralving hardcore.

I've been getting back into the swing of work via some light duties, as sadly the temp I had hired to do the hard work and I had some "creative differences", and I was forced to let Inga go.

I've been very lucky that my clients are a patient (long suffering?) bunch of cool cats, and the ones that didn't have to take their urgent work elsewhere seem happy to give me work that doesn't have deadlines or time pressure. This has meant that I was able to chip away at things as lingering pain and it's associated fatigue would allow. The first job I took on was Max's rear fixie wheel, as he'd already had several weeks of not riding as he waited for me to get back on my feet. His perfectly good rim had been let down by a stripped cheapy fixed hub, so I had got him a new Joytech hub and built it into his existing rim.

Next up was Connor's new Trek Madone with Sram Red components. At this stage I was still having difficulty even lifting a bike into the stand, but no such problems with this frame!

Steadily adding parts over the next few days, it was ready for the new owner to ride the following weekend. Hot bike, and I wish Connor many fun hours of riding upon it.

With that as the first bike, it seemed that building wheels was the best way to keep things rolling. I was surprised how much effect this work had on my core, as every wheel took a small toll on me. These were a pair for my good friend Tor - Mavic A719 touring rims on XT hubs made staunch wheels for a powerful man.

I built a pair of wheels for Wellington trailbuilding stalwart and mad huckster Jono Baddiley in June 2009, but sadly he had exceeded the design parameters of the rear wheel and put a massive flat spot in his Arch rim, as well as riding it sans tyre for a few kilometres by the look of it!

Soon enough it was back to full strength thanks to a rim transplant and a handful of new spokes.

On behalf of Jonty at Revolution Bicycles I built up my first pair of NoTubes ZTR MTB hubs onto a pair of the awesome 29er Arch rims. I was very impressed by these hubs, and will be keen to see how they hold up over the long haul.

Graham is building up a new Cove and wanted me to sort him some pimp hoops for it. He gave me a sweet pair of pink Chris King hubs to lace into a brace of Mavic Xc717 rims.

I've always hankered after a pair of these pink hubs, but building them up will have to suffice for now. Hot.

Also rolling on King is this nice Crest front wheel for Barb, this time in Gunmetal...

Instead of Inga, I should have reached deep into my pockets to hire Dave away from his poorly paying IT work. He is building up an old Saronni frame as a fashion fixie and had decided to build his own wheels for it, so he came and hung out in the Batcave to get the rear wheel nailed. For a first attempt I was very impressed indeed - his grasp of tension seemed instinctive, and he hardly needed any help from me, which is good, because I'm a terrible teacher. Judging by the finished product, I expect the wheels to give him little if any trouble at all on the road. Great to have the company for the day, and I enjoyed the fringe pie benefits. Good effort, Dave!

While Dave was plying my trade, and as I had done all I could do for paid work for the day, I spent the time fettling my own bikes. I pulled the Open Pro/Campag Mirage wheels off my Casati...

...and replaced them with my Fiamme Hard Silver/Campag Super Record wheels.

I also fitted some Cinelli Campione Del Mondo handlebars, kindly donated to the cause by Alex Revell to replace the hideously clashing 3ttt 'bars I posted previously.

With the gearing a bit too tall for my enfeebled self right now the Casati has been temporarily reduced to the status of a mere prop, but a very pretty prop nonetheless.

The purpose of snatching the wheels was to give the Bianchi a set of better wheels than the somewhat inert Ksyrium Elites. The 28mm tyres are a close clearance fit, but they work and make for a comfortable and lively ride. Plus the look of three-cross Open Pros with beefy tyres is very cool, and really I'm all about the looks.

Taking a spin on a still day was a great way to both test out my "new" wheels and my poor tortured body. I headed out north via the Newtown craziness up to Oriental Bay, then back south through Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay and home up Island Bay, stopping for a brief time at Greta Point to drink in the delightful day.

Feeling tons more stable in my core relative to the week before and seemingly suffering no ill effects at all meant that the next morning couldn't come fast enough. I decided to reverse the previous day's loop, and after dropping Bo to school and doing my morning chores I suited up and headed down the Bay on the damp roads of a slightly morose morning...

The fishing boats and my Bianchi were the only splashes of colour offsetting the steel grey sea, and a clammy mist clung stubbornly to the low hills.

Suitably buoyed by my much improved condition and the joy of the simple act of riding my bicycle, I was primed and ready for the busy week to come. The shop rapidly filled up as I got on with continuing to clear the backlog of work.

Leonard's Pedalforce needed a new chain and cassette.

Andrew had treated himself to a New Blue that needed a post-purchase Oli-ing to sort out some shifting issues and give it a general going over.

Sally is off to ride the climbs of the Pyrenees in June so her Scott Addict needed some bigger cassette sprockets and a new chain, to go along with a pre-Europe checking over.

Next up was some parts swappage between Greg's two lovely Bianchis.

I took some heavy old cranks off his 9.2.8. Carbon...

...and installed the Ultegras off his other machine instead, as well as giving it a wee tune-up.

The other bike in Greg's Bianchi brace is a cool carbon Sempre he picked up for a song.

I love how this machine is specced with homologous parts reminiscent of the old days of pantographing, for instance the FSA brake calipers:

Stem:

And handlebars:

To replace the Ultegra chainset I fitted a BB30 Sram Force one, then I sorted out some errant cables, swapped the too long stem for a shorter Deda one, and gave the bike a thorough strop-up before giving it the Oli Seal Of Approval.

Presto!

Full rack still, but the bikes are done and I'm up to date at last. It's a grouse feeling.

Hopefully I'll be back soon to regale you with tales of more rides and pretty bikes from my own Reparto Corse. Until then, thanks for reading.

First Ride

2011-05-03T15:33:00.025+12:00

After weeks of recuperation, I began to ease my way into work via spending some time in the shop fettling my Bianchi into a state worthy of my imminent attempt at yet another "comeback". Just being in the Batcave twiddling my spanners was a great feeling, and working on my own machine was enjoyable, if somewhat frustrating as I knew I was still a while away from being able to actually ride it. I figured once I was able to ride I'd be best to ease into things, so to that end I removed my 53 x 39t chainset and cleaned up the bottom bracket...

...then fitted my spare 50 x 34t compact cranks. Together with the 12-26 cassette on my "training wheels" I thought I should have gearing low enough to be able to cope with any small rise and gentle headwind I may encounter on my initial loops.

While I was at it, I swapped out a carbon headset spacer and fitted my new Bike Pure one - a great cause and a little bit bling to boot!

Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't take some more photos of random parts of my bike:

Headtube.

Downtube logo. I know wearing the World Champion colours isn't cool if you aren't actually a World Champion, but I justify it to myself tenuously by proudly having worked for the NZ MTB Team that won gold through 2006 Junior World DH Champion Cameron Cole.

Pantographed bottom bracket shell and Campagnolo Super Record b/b cup - I can't afford the gruppo so this small taste of SR goodness suffices in the meantime.

Columbus Squadra Corse top tube sticker.

A couple of my rough and ready Humbrol touch-ups on the seat cluster of my trusty old steed. From a metre away you don't even notice at all how battered she actually is.

And, because you wanted it, the top cap of my headset! YUSS!

According to strict instructions from Nurse Jacq I was supposed to wait a few more days until the proscribed six weeks since my op had passed, but a chance to have an easy ride on a windless day was too rare an opportunity to let slide by and, on the spur of the moment (and once she wasn't around!), I deemed that the time was right for my maiden voyage. Nearly eight weeks after I rode one of my bicycles I finally threw my leg over one again - and by threw, I mean slowly and carefully struggled to climb aboard in the manner of a very old man.

In an ostentatious display of overkill considering the ride I planned to undertake, I decided to dress in full roadie regalia, including the stylee new Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop shorts that my friend Ben had very kindly scored for me on a recent trip to Texas. When I last rode it was in the height of summer, but today's autumnal conditions called for arm and leg warmers, mitts and even my gilet...

Somewhat apprehensively I wobbled off down the road...

But it wasn't long at all before I was able to revel in the much-missed sensation of the world passing beneath my wheels - I was riding!! I trundled down through Island Bay, getting a cheery shout as I passed through the shops from Mat of Floyd's fame. Feeling appallingly slow and unsteady but otherwise not too bad, I hit Island Bay and paused just long enough to create another of my winning panoramas...

After a short breather and physical stocktake I set off again around my beloved South Coast around to the Owhiro Bay visitors centre, and my planned turnaround point.

I leaned on my machine and daydreamed of the day that my CX bike will carry me around to Devil's Gate.

Then I looked east towards Baring Head. All I see are places I want to ride.

Feeling surprisingly stuffed, I took the chance to regroup by taking my first look at the relatively new Te Kopahou Reserve/Red Rocks visitor centre.

My Bianchi is sure looking mighty fine, if I say so myself...

...fine enough that I was worried about leaving her outside when I realised that there was lots of fascinating info I'd like to peruse within.

It's a very cool little "museum" that's well worth checking out if you get the chance.

Once I had had a wander around I set off for home, visibly pleased with my efforts so far.

Yes, it's true - I am the Master of the Self Pic. After 45 minutes for a ride that should take twenty, I made it slowly but safely home, tired but happy as hell to have finally got out for a spin.

I write this blog today in lieu of cycling again, as I now feel like I've done about three hundred sit-ups. My core clearly needs a lot more time until I'm even back to the poor level I was at pre-hernia, but I'll work on it. It's amazing how weak and unstable I felt; simply standing to pedal was most discombuberating, with a sudden onset of weaving and unsteadiness most uncharacteristic of my usual road bike handling skill levels. In light of that and today's discomfort, I think will leave my next ride for a few days...

Until then, thanks for reading. Cheers, Oli

Chas King Prendero

2011-05-01T12:30:00.021+12:00

From what little I think I know, Chas King was a plumber who emigrated from the UK in the 50s bringing his love for the English club cycling scene with him. Using his fitting and turning skills to build frames for a few of his new-found Antipodean clubmates turned into building them for the general public. If anyone has further information on this fine chap I'd be grateful for it.

Mr King built this cool old track bike that I have inherited. My dear friend Wheels had dragged it out from a basement all covered in rust and cobwebs, and he was going to take it to the tip but offered it to me first. Being a sucker for an old steel bike I snatched it off him and took it back to the Batcave to give it a good look over. The first thing I discovered is that it is almost millimetre-perfectly the size I would order if I was getting a custom track iron! I was initially going to get the prolific Ross Bee to repaint it but, after giving it a wire brush down and blowing all the crap out from inside the tubes, I decided I really liked it the way it is - Yehuda Moon's term "beausage" sums it up nicely.

The bubbling paint looks pretty bad in this shot, but the many coats of wax I've covered it with are preventing it from deteriorating further and, despite the tatty painwork, the Reynolds 531 frame seems to have held up fine from it's poor treatment. "Superleggera" is perhaps a bit of a misnomer, as this isn't the lightest steel track frame in the world, but the words "Made in NZ" on a headbadge are always great to see.

A Zues 2001 fork crown holds stout and stiff round fork blades below the still mint original Campagnolo steel headset.

An aerial view of the Zues 2001 fork crown.

King's name stamped into the seatstay caps.

A lovely Campagnolo Record aero seatpost would grace any machine.

At least the Cinelli Pista handlebars the bike came with are the correct 26.0mm ones for the mismatched 3ttt stem...

I'm reasonably sure the lugs Chas used are Bocama ones, but of course I am open to correction from any of my more learned framebuilding friends.

I am fascinated by how textured the steel looks in these macro shots! It truly doesn't look so rough IRL, I assure you...

A gnarly old hard plastic Super Coureur saddle is all you need on the track, and probably withstands the inevitable track rash better than a covered seat - my worst ever "road rash" occurred thirty years ago after a slide from the top of Hataitai Velodrome's banking to the bottom after a puncture, and the only thing damaged worse than my still-scarred hips and elbows was my lovely Concor saddle...

A trusty old Sachs 3/32 PC-80R chain rolls over my drillium Sugino 46t chainring...

...which in turn is bolted to some gorgeous satiny Campagnolo Super Record Pista 165mm cranks.

I'm not sure if the colours of the seat tube bands actually mean anything, but they set the yellow frame off nicely.

The seat cluster and the Campagnolo SP-RE-104 seat binder bolt.

Some old Look pedals from about 1989 connect my feet to the bicycle.

Some major altitude is lost to the drops with this severely angled 58 degree 3ttt stem - probably too much drop for someone of my somewhat bulky build right now, but man it looks cool!

And here it is. The original wheels were missing, so for now it wears the "hoops" I "curated" during my brief flirtation with fixie hipsterdom. Mavic MA3 clincher rims roll 32 deep on Dimension track hubs.

Thanks for reading, and please fire me an email to oli@oli.co.nz if you have any info or questions on this or any other posts - I love hearing from you. Cheers, Oli

Eddy Merckx

2011-04-30T13:19:00.025+12:00

In preparation for the 2009 BW family assault on the Round Taupo event I built her up this lovely early 90's Columbus SLX Eddy Merckx. I bought the frame off my friend Declan from the much missed Valley Cycles in Aro Street, and built it up using primarily Shimano Dura-Ace 7400 parts begged, borrowed and stolen.

At some point the frame was restored by the talented Ross Bee, whose sad loss is still keenly felt. Ross here pays tribute to the proud cycling heritage of the eponymous frame builder's home country.

The sexy Easton aluminium Dura-Ace seatpost.

The Dura-Ace 7400 derailleur still looks grouse. This one has been customised by original owner Henry with an SRP alloy and titanium bolt kit.

I still love the look of the old Elite Ciussi bottle cage, with their cool bottle retention "buttons".

The 7400 front derailleur...

...and headset. Note the interesting anti-cable rub device that is pressed in between the lower cup and the frame itself. The Merckx logo on the crown is the sort of neat superfluous detail that is sadly lost in modern frame construction.

The brake bridge also proudly bears the Stamp of God.

The front 7400 caliper. As you can see, I used one of my own stickers on the headtube, as Ross can't have had the correct scan to place a proper Merckx logo. This will do until I can eventually be bothered scanning one myself.

The 3ttt handlebars and stem - incredibly I had a matching pair!

Battered but still perfectly functional DA 7400 STI levers. These were the first "brifters" ever produced, and with one fell swoop they revolutionised gear shifting and arguably affected how racers could time attacks, irrevocably changing road racing to a degree at the same time.

The wheels are Antosh-built Ambrosio Formula 20 Crono tubulars kindly donated to the cause by my buddy Glenn, built onto non-period correct DA 7700 9 speed hubs. The front spokes are radial and the rear radial non-drive/three cross drive-side to build a stiff wheel that is still able counter the fierce torque that pedalling puts through a wheel. The tyres are the venerable Vittoria Corsa CX tubulars.

Et voila! I was unable to procure some 7400 cranks, so the chainset is also from the later Dura-Ace 7700 groupset. The *cough* MTB pedals and Velo saddle are Jacq spec, and best ignored for the purposes of this post.

Hope you are enjoying these detail blogs of my small but much-loved collection of bicycles. Pedal on, Oli.