Um, I always felt Miguel Indurain and Andy Hampsten were better riders in their day. And I'll take a Cannondale over a Trek any day. The missus and I just watched the Red Bull Freight Train DVD, the one where Nathan Rennie (Top Aussie DH racing bloke) gets towed by a motorbike up to about 90kph, then launches off a jump to a ramp 70ft away. Good stuff. And righteous backflips too on the video, but that was a Seppo pulling them off.

...you don't count as a seppo anymore!....now that you've had yor frontal labotomy....you're almost one of us!

Hitchy

You must've inspired me: 126km!!

Oi! I resemble that comment.

i've only got about 45 pages more to read, so i am working up to a response
you've heard the saying i suppose:

better a bottle in front of me that a frontal labotomy?


cheers


marty

Hi everyone. New to the forum, reasonably new to cycling, but have loved the Aussie thread.

I'm bored with Beach Rd, and wondered if you more experienced Melbourne people may have some other suggestions for good places to ride?


Cheers.....

G'day,

so i guesss the first question is, where do you live?.....I'm with you on beach Rd...its full of blokes in sheila's nicks, riding cervelo's......the sooner you get away the better off you'll be

Hitchy

Roughly where do you live?

If you live close to Beach Rd like I do, it's tough to resist going there because it's such a fast ride -- what ever distance you wanna do, there's no place you'll do the kms quicker than good old Beach Rd, apart from a velodrome.

Even though I haven't been for a couple of years, I used to LOVE going up Mt Dandenong, but the Tourist Rd has got much busier in the last ten years, so I've gotta find a new way.

I suppose it depends how far you wanna go

HITCHO!!! MY GOD!!! What are yo doing up?

I just woke up from my afternoon snooze

Did you see any rain on the way home? I saw none! I kept riding and riding waiting for it to rain, but nothin'! I really got it wrong, hey?

How was the drive?

I live in Carlton, and normally go from there to Mordialloc and back, which is 84kms. So I would be looking to do about the same distance..........

Cheers

That thing scares me....i'm suprised you dont have to sleep with the light on after riding it!!

How about this ride Hitchy, should be easy compared to the Alpine Classic.....
www.greatcycling.com.au

g'day SJP,

nah...that route is a cinch the 'Alpine'....we do a training ride in january that follows roughly this course, (but starting & finishing at Sunbury)...its not too bad. a couple of big hills coming out of blackwood, but other than that it's not too bad

hitchy

thunderstorm by the time I got to keilor.....I was thinking, "nev's forecast rain is only about 2 hours late". I don't think it went over your side of the city. A mate was at the cricket last nites & he said they got none....but it was the 'full monty' at Keilor, P!ssing down, lightning, thunder etc

Hitchy

Thylacine lives around Flemington or Kensington, or somewhere 'round there, and he reckons he's found heaps of Beach Rd alternatives. I know he sometimes goes out toward Diamond Creek, and he has another ride which takes him out west.

could easily get over to studley park too. get as many kms up as you want there - nice view of the city.

G'day lads,

well......just back from putting in some distance after the cycle fit, yesterday. giotta tell ya, the gluteous maximus feels like its done 5 years in a cell with a bloke named 'bubba'......I didn't even know my @rse had muscles!.....

Hitchy

Now you know how the sheep feel!


On a different note, I'm looking for some parts, if anyone has suggestions. Wire bead MTB tires for the missus, and a 24" BMX cruiser for me. Also a cheap set of MTB rims (non disc). Yeah, I know I should be able to get my mitts on this stuff, but shipping from the US would be too much, so I'm looking for a local source. Cheap is good too. Cheers.

Why not go further than Mordialloc....MtEliza or Mornington? Or is that still boring old beach Road.

I might give it a go. Sounds like it's similar to Around the Bay, and I dont get to ride out that side of town too often. Now when you say big hills, we talking like that section from olivers Hill to the turnoff to Mt Eliza or worse?

By the way, How did you get 531 to do 126km.......that's amazing.....I thought he was a 70-80km a day type of guy!! He only needs to ride every second day doing those km's

[QUOTE=SJP]I might give it a go. Sounds like it's similar to Around the Bay, and I dont get to ride out that side of town too often. Now when you say big hills, we talking like that section from olivers Hill to the turnoff to Mt Eliza or worse?

...umm I wasn't aware that Olivers to Mt Eliza was classed as a hill!!!!.......more like the 1 in 20, but longer...gradients up to about 5%...nothing terribly steep, except 'the wall' as you come out of blackwood, but you get a decent run up at that....so you halfway up before you desolve into a world of pain......a little fella like you won't have any trouble!

Hitchy

no. what did you do to those sheep?

anyway...

as it happens, i built a wheel for my wife's MTB yesterday. i had the egged the back wheel on my MTB, borrowed hers and ... well i egged hers as too. I vaguely recall some comment about growing up, but i didn't quite catch it. anyway, i had to make good.

it amazed me just how many shops did not keep rims. Most had to order them - but that might just be because of stocks being low post xmas and orders yet to be placed. even quite large stores were only prepared to sell made wheels. a few shops had 36 spoke, but only one that i called had 32 holes rims. i isn't like i live in birdsville. most shops could do a pre-built wheel for about $80 - and offered suggestions that I would be mad to spend the money building a new wheel. (red rag to a bull...)

Anyway, I think I went way OTT. Got a Mavic XC717. was over $100. i used a Shimano STX rear hub (7 speed freewheel) that i salvaged from my first egged wheel and DT champion 15 guage spokes (straight).

I figured that by the time I spent an hour lacing the wheel, and then time truing, pre-stressing etc, i may as well spend and extra 30 or 40 bucks on a better quality rim - so that i spend less time down the track fixing it up.

anyway, i am rapt with the result.

cheers


marty

For $100 I can get a nice set of Velocity hoops, but then I have to wait 2 months for them to arrive. WTB sealed bearing hubset for about AU$25 to my door. Spokes are probably the most expensive part, but easy enough to source. I was just hoping to get the rims locally, and build them up. I'll keep looking. Thanks.

Munchie, you missed out again!

$100 for a pair sounds worth the wait - if you can. i just got impatient. i wanted everything yesterday - but i had to drive for a couple of hours to get it.

why do velocity take so long? i thought they were australian made.

and how much do you pay for spokes?