hey its good stuff! except the stella, every bottle is like a 3 course meal, except it gets you drunk!

To matagi, drinking goon is not something I indulge in but its cheap!

for vette:

https://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425827/712869

hee hee hee hee, I wish I'd thought of that.

No bike is too stiff! Whats wrong with a teeth rattling ride?

I am relieved to hear that, a budding economist should cultivate a taste for the better things in life.

Odin, thanks heaps for the pump report. I think I'll go and talk to the nice man I bought my bike from and see if he can get a Road Morph in for me to play with.

My contribution to the pump discussion: I have a "Beto" small size pump that does me okay out on the road. It has a locking mechanism to hold the pump on the valve & a built in pressure gauge too. I only use it as a "get home" device though - gets 80odd PSI in pretty quick (although could go more if I tried) which does me until I can use the floor pump at home.

And is it a good thing to admit to never even having heard of goon?

or is it just a northerners word for Chateau de Cardboard?

I'm with you - never heard of it.

ok, that'll be this weekend's beer

thanks

Hey Odin, how many kms do you do a week to do so well in the vets races?

nah, I found it unpleasant

No, it is a particular brand of Chateau de Cardboard and it is definitely a good thing that you have never heard of it.

Thanks Thylacine. Box would just be something from an LBS, I guess about 140x70x20cm.

Reason I'm asking about sending is because I'm in HK, my bike is in Sydney, and I'm getting really bored here on the weekends. Luggage would be the ideal way to transport it, but I'd have to wait till October.

Went to the LBS here yesterday. It's great- more shiney bikes than you can poke a stick at, but I must resist the massive dent that succumbing to temptation will make to my wallet. I've aleady got two bikes in two countries. Three in three would feel a bit wasteful.

Thanks for the explanation matagi. I'm proud to say I don't know my brands of cask!

On a bad week, 100-ish and on a good week, 150-200-ish.

And there is the further refinement referred to as Wheel of Goon, which involves attaching the cask, sans box, to a Hills Hoist and spinning it round. Whoever is closest when it stops, drinks.

Okay. Unfortunately that's about my monthly figures at the moment.

When I raced in D grade (non-vets) a couple of years ago there were guys doing 200-300+ kms a week & still in D grade. I think there needs to be a "social grade" where you turn up and race & thats your total riding for the week - and then you have a few beers. This sort of comp existed back in my hockey days!

Goon schmoon Buckfast tonic wine is what you want
In recent times, Buckfast has achieved a surprising level of popularity within working class (and bohemian) communities in certain parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Within the above areas, Buckfast is alleged to be the drink of choice for drinkers who are prone to committing anti-social behaviour when drunk, especially underage drinkers. Its high strength (15% alcohol by volume/14.8% in the Republic of Ireland) combined with its low price and sweetness mean that many find Buckfast to be the ideal means by which to become drunk as quickly and cheaply as possible.

In reality, Buckfast is only one of a number of brands consumed abusively, other common choices being alcopops, vodka and strong cider. However, Buckfast has become an icon within the ned youth culture and groups of Neds can frequently be seen drinking it out of the bottle at all times of day in parks and other public places. Aside from 'Buckie', other nicknames for the wine include 'commotion lotion', 'wreck-the-hoose juice' and 'Mrs Brown' [1]. Due its popularity amongst Glasgow's Punk community Buckfast has also gained the slogan "Made by monks, Drank by punks".
Ahhh memories...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine

I think I was sort of average in D grade - some guys did 200-250, others were lucky to do 100.

Lucky to do 100 - that's me for sure. Just finishing was always the major goal!

FWIW, IMO...
My first year of road cycling, racing the CCCC crits I started placing in D grade straight away and moved up to C grade which didnt seem much faster, maybe just more consistent pace.
Weekly KM total was about 100KM including the crit.

Track season this year I had about 2 months of 200+KM weeks then started track training and follishly stopped riding the road bike (got the track bug!)
Started winning D, then C, then B grade races over about 6 weeks before body gave up.

Anyway, the point id, it deemed like it doesnt take much to get improvements to a level (still crap) but sustaining that with no real base when you stop training is the real trick.

e.g. Jock has a solid training plan and base, went from abusin me in D/C grade to racing hard in A grade and getting results pretty quick. Least it seemed that way to me, I wasnt the one in Akuna bay at some ungodly hour on the weekend!

e.g. Climbo has a base fitness from some other planet and turns up setting the A grade pace with little to no training.

oh yeah, and when it stops being fun.... get out on the MTB ;-)

Nothing wakes you up like an OTB moment!

Yeah, some sort of training plan would definitely be helpful.
C grade crits are like you said - not much faster but more consistent, the attacks are more intense but I can stay with them fairly comfortably.
C grade RR's on the other hand are quite a bit faster. The attacks just keep coming and we're usually racing in hilly areas. Much harder than D grade.
I bought a mag trainer recently and have to get some sort of workouts happening.
Being on holidays at the moment, I thought 'great, I'll get heaps of riding in'. Hasn't worked out that way though... there's always something going on.

ah...the joys of being single and not having not no kids!!

A big week for me is 450km to 500km, a good week is 400km, a bad week is 250km, and anything under 150km I consider to be a week off.

Approach bar with $10 note. Ask for 1 roll of quarters, and two (or more) drinks of your choice. You will be given your drinks, plus your $10 in change. They assume you will gamble your change. Don't. Crack the roll of quarters into one of the plastic cups that they hand out for change. Take it to cashier and get your $10 note back. If you're in a quieter casino and make friends with the bartender, you can skip the $$ part, and just get your drinks. If they think you're gambling, they'll ply you with drinks all day and night.

$400 is probably the going rate, and not too bad. I paid $300 for just a frame. An alternative may be to send it by plane as unaccompanied freight. You may need to contact a freight forwarder though.