First, an update on the Raleigh

My little Raleigh now wears my Brooks saddle, Brooks grips and a rather nice front basket I picked up in a second-hand/antiques/vintage shop.

I've tried to adjust her derailleur - for now - with limited success. At the moment she's a two-speed. She has low gear in low range, and low gear in high range :-). I could take her to the bike shop for a proper going-over but I suspect her chain needs replacing; it seems pretty worn and loose.

I haven't been able to have the Shimano gearset installed and rear wheel rebuilt as I haven't sold Petunia yet and therefore don't have the money to do it. Yes, I have a credit card but I hate using it on items I may not be able to pay off within a month. It's already built up to an alarming total over the last year. More about that later.

Petunia is almost ready to go onto eBay. She's wearing the Raleigh's rather awful 'comfort' saddle - singularly misnamed I must say - and the black plastic grips that came with Penelope. The last thing I have to do it put cable ties around her gear/brake cables. Not having any when I first got her I used clear packaging tape, which probably isn't a long-term solution!

Part of me has held off selling her as she's so lovely, it's just a shame she's a bit too big for me.

I'm hoping to have Petunia sold in the next month though and the little Raleigh, Phryne, ready for early spring adventures.
I'm also on the hunt for a good-looking chainwheel cover for her. I've been watching eBay and nothing nice or suitable has come up. I have rather fallen in love with this one but shudder to think what shipping would cost even if I could afford to buy the thing itself: http://pokacycleaccessories.bigcartel.com/product/floral-chainguard

Stunning, isn't it?

So now I own a Raleigh Cameo...

With Deathtrap still in parts in my garage and realistically destined for the bin, I bid on and won a Raleigh Cameo on eBay last night. I will pick her up at the weekend.

This time there's not a lot to do to make this a perfect ride for me. The paintwork is in pretty good condition for the bike's age; apparently there are a few scratches and bits of missing paint, but this bike is at least 25 years old. The current owner - only the bike's second since new - believes she's a 1972 model.  I'll find out more when I have a good look at her in the flesh, or rather, metal.

I'll be changing the steel wheels for alloy 700C wheels and putting on my cream Delta Cruisers that are sitting in a box in the garage. Also going onto the wheels will be my 8 speed Shimano hub. The brake calipers may need to be replaced to allow for the 700C wheels. I may have to replace the crankset to find a good match for the hub gearset, but that's OK as the cranks are a bit rusty and pitted. I'll also repaint and install the chain guard that was on Deathtrap, as it's a copy of the Raleigh chain guard used on the loop frame/hub gear version of the Cameo. And that's it, apart from swapping the saddle and grips for my Brooks ones.

This time I paid a bit more than $56 - almost $230, but I suspect this is a much classier prospect than Deathtrap.

It does strike me that in owning this bike and the Pashley I will have two rather similar bikes, whereas now with the mixte and the Pashley I have two very different bikes. The Raleigh's geometry and setup is quite different to the Pashley's though, and I think she will weigh quite a bit less. At least I hope so! :-) 

I just hope she's physically a good fit. I think she's a mite smaller in frame size than Petunia, which is what I'm looking for, according to measurements supplied by the seller. Otherwise...oh well, she'll be going back on eBay!  I'm holding off giving her a name until I ride her and consider how well she suits me.

A new bike project

I've come to the sad conclusion that no matter how I position my saddle my beloved Petunia is a frame size too large for me at 21". Riding her for anything more than a trip to the shops isn't the comfortable experience it is on Penelope Pashley. Nobody ever said vintage road bikes had to be comfortable, but forever changing position to try and get the right balance between saddle and handlebars, and a slightly sore back at the end of it all, isn't a long term plan. I've adjusted and adjusted the position of my saddle to no avail.

Petunia was bought as a road bike and converted to swept-back handlebars, to be the sit up and beg mount I'd always wanted. But it doesn't work. The geometry is just wrong. Her head tube is very straight up, and she's built for drop bars, which she had when I bought her.

I hate the idea of selling her, as I do love mixte bikes, but I think it's time for her to find a new home. I'll be swapping her Brooks saddle and grips for something less salubrious and putting her on eBay. I hope I can recoup what I bought her for; lovely vintage bikes like Petunia are quite pricey these days considering their age.

I had bought a Shimano 8 speed Alfine hub with the intention of rebuilding the back wheel and turning her into a hub-geared bike (another thing I'd been longing for) but the gears will go onto another bike now.

Because I've just bought a clunker on eBay, a sad-looking creature in need of TLC, in fact a total rebuild. I bought this Roadmaster Lady Bird 3 for the princely sum of $56 today. She's the most awful colour, and those rims look like steel, so 35x700C alloy rims will be the go when she gets the 8 speed gearset put on. And creme Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tyres, assuming I can actually find some here in Australia. They are certainly in short supply over here!

But best of all she's a 17" frame - more suited to short little me.

I've priced a respray ($220 including sandblasting and powdercoating, although I may have to pay more to get the delicate seagreen colour I want). Realistically I bought her for her frame, as I believe it's cro-moly (I'll find out tomorrow when I pick her up) and it's lugged. Not outstandingly lugged with exquisite details, but prettily enough lugged to make it worth the $56 plus the respray. Anyway I don't think I can live with that orange. Maybe with chrome mudguards it's a possibility but not the way it is right now with the brown mudguards and chainguard.

She'll need new handlebars as the existing ones are quite rusty, and if I can afford North Road bars it will be lovely, otherwise I'll settle for the nearest and cheapest thing from my bike shop. A new stem will probably be in order too, and if I can find one that allows me to raise the handlebars a bit higher and slope them down a bit, I think we're nearing a perfect setup.

She'll need new brakes I suspect, as I'm sure the brakes she came with will be less than fantastic, 1980s Roadmasters not being the greatest of quality parts wise I gather. Roadmaster used to be a grand old bike name in the 1940s-60s but when manufacture moved from the US to China and Taiwan, quality took a nosedive. Still, the frame should be fine.

There are lots of cheapish ladies' bikes on eBay at the moment, but I chose this one because she already sports a three speed gearset. I know I'll be able to put the Alfine on her without too much faffing around and having to buy too many new bits like chainsets. I know her chainguard fits her; it's an odd-looking chainguard but has a certain quirky vintage quality to it.

Here's an example of a done-over Roadmaster Lady Bird 3 by Melbourne Vintage Bikes, and I hope they won't get upset with me 'borrowing' their photo. They do restore old bikes very beautifully, as do Sydney Vintage Bikes - however I can't afford the fully restored bikes none of which come with Shimano 8-speed hub gears...which means I'd still have to pay for a wheel rebuild. I think the colour below could be described as 'Freshly Peeled Pig" - as pinks go it's not my style, but this old lady now looks like a grand ride, and as good as new. Interestingly although she's certainly labelled Lady Bird 3 she has derailleur gears - probably 5 speeds.

With the right shade of paint, new components and my Brooks stuff I think my new purchase will turn into an elegant and nimble ride too. I hope. I keep comparing the photos above and thinking how beautiful Petunia is, and wishing she was just that little bit more comfortable to ride. Or I was taller. Or something.

If anyone has some names of places to go for good quality components that don't cost the earth, please let me know. I'll be looking for the Schwalbe tyres, alloy rims, decent brakes and a rear rack. I have some good mechanics ready to do the wheel rebuild. I'll worry about lighting later.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be test riding my new purchase. Yes, I broke my golden rule and bought a bike without riding it first, but for $56 if I hate it I can sell it again! Hopefully it'll survive the test ride and so will I :-).

Petunia is going Shimano

I've been pondering this for months and when I decided in early spring I'd convert Petunia to a 7 or 8 speed hub bike Shimano Nexus hubs were in very short supply. They still are. I've been keeping an eye on eBay and other sources and found one on Amazon. The hub was cheap enough but the postage is almost half the cost of the hub!

However, I don't care; I can cover it. The Aussie dollar and US dollar are on parity at the moment so it's still cheap enough to have this little chap below shipped to me:

It's a Nexus 8 speed Rollerbrake or Vbrake hub. Comes with all the accoutrements such as shifters so it's a pretty good deal I think.

I won't be doing the conversion myself as my bike maintenance and repair skills are limited to bolting on extras such as removable headlights, or at a pinch adjusting a derailleur. There's a bike shop down in Parramatta with experienced service staff with whom I've discussed this project. 

Converting Petunia is going to cost more than I originally paid for her - in fact at least double! - but the end result I believe will be a unique sweet mixte I'll be very happy with. 

Having discovered hub gears last year on my lovely Pashley last year I'm in love with them. They are such a boon in stop/start urban cycling. Have to stop? Just select the appropriate gear to set off again in while you're stopped. Now try doing that with a derailleur. You may find your chain departing from the chainring. I feel far more confident riding with hub gears; part of that is because my hands don't have to leave the grips to change gear.

Now I can go searching for a chaincase cover so I can ride Petunia without getting chain lube and dirt on my jeans; if anyone sees a pretty one let me know! I suspect I'll be getting one from overseas and will start my search at Velo Orange.

What will this elegant piece of engineering look like with hub gears? Maybe I'll know by the end of the month - it depends on shipping and how soon those bike shop lads can do the work. I suspect the chainring may have to be changed as well so will see what's out there and affordable and importantly, attractive. Any advice from anyone on chainrings and anything else I may have to do to make this conversion work?

The hub of the matter

Poor old Petunia - I haven't ridden her much lately. In fact I haven't been on either bike as often as I'd like to, but when I have I've taken Penelope out, enjoying her stability, her thumb-lever gearswitch and quiet hub gears, and ambling along at a leisurely pace. My husband, on his lightweight vintage road bike, has usually been at least a hundred metres ahead of me.

His ideal pedalling/riding speed and my ideal pedalling/riding speed don't match, even if we are both on road bikes. He's bigger and stronger than I, and I've given up trying to keep up with him, especially early in our rides when my muscles haven't warmed up. He's used to having to wait for me at certain points in regular rides, while I swan up on Penelope in my own time.

But aha, he didn't have to wait yesterday. Tyres pumped up tight, Petunia was ready to roll. I think the poor man was shocked when I was at his rear wheel from the get go. So was I! I fell behind on the hills, of course, but made up for it on the flat.

Having Penelope and her hub gears has spoiled me. I like being able to change gears with the flick of a thumb, and not have to take one hand from the handgrips to change gear on the head tube. I also like not getting grease on my jeans.

So I've been pondering changing the lovely Petunia to a hub-geared bike and considering the Shimano 7 and 8 speed hubs. At the moment the hubs are scarce here in Australia; Shimano isn't importing many and frankly it's cheaper to buy one overseas and have it shipped over. Even overseas they're a little hard to find right now.

My sister-in-law in the UK has a mixte frame with a Shimano 7-speed hub and she adores it. Her husband, a talented bikebuilder and handyman, built it up for her:

What's holding me back is the cost; it'll cost more than Petunia cost in the first place to undertake her transformation, and I'm a bit short of $400 right now for parts and labour. One of my clients owes me $1000 and keeps finding excuses for not having paid me, which is very frustrating.

Still, I had a chat to a reputable bike mechanic who told me what would need to happen to turn Petunia into a 7-speed beauty. He told me to keep the 27" wheels as they were in excellent condition and tyres would be readily available for some time to come. So that saves me forking out more $ for decent 700C wheels. I'll need a new crankset. New shifters and brake levers. I didn't have the bike with me at the time but will take her in so he can see her for himself and advise me as to feasibility. I know she has semi-horizontal dropouts so might be able to do it without too many extra adaptors. I've been reading the wonderful Sheldon Brown's thoughts on the Shimano Nexus system.

How much neater this rear wheel would look without the derailleur (or the nasty pie dish!)

Sadly neither my husband nor myself is mechanically talented enough to take the job on and save some money on labour costs. Ah, I have fond memories of T'Other Half putting together a sound system cabinet for my mother a couple of years ago. Three screws left over? No problem!!! :-))  So would I trust this man with bike building? Ah, no. It's just a shame my brother-in-law lives on the other side of the world!

On the other side of the tracks...

We live near a railway line, and our usual half hour ride, the before-breakfast or late afternoon one, sticks to our side of the tracks. We go down a shared bike and walkway (which works very well, it's nice and wide and those pesky pedestrians give you a decent berth) from Toongabbie to Girraween. We have to cycle along the roads a bit to get there, but it's a back way by the railway track and nice and quiet.

But today we decided to augment our ride by crossing the tracks after our usual ride, going via the railway station and exploring a track I'd found that I'd been considering as a route to Blacktown, where there is a large shopping mall. I'd had visions of cycling there, filling my panniers and cycling home through International Peace Park. I mean, what a pretty name, it has to be a nice ride, right? (Here's the route by the way). Wrong. Hmm, I don't think I'll be doing that ride on my own. For starters the shared bike and walking path is very gravelly and Petunia felt a little unsure of herself from time to time. And it's very secluded. Too secluded. You ride along behind backyard fences with the canal and then railway on the other side, with lots of bushes around, for at least half of it. I'd heard that a woman had been attacked and her bicycle stolen several months ago on the path, and wondered how on earth that could happen in broad daylight. On the maps the path looks great. In real life I can imagine it only too well. It's actually a bit creepy. I was glad t'Other Half was there with me.

We got a 20km cycle in, but it wasn't a rewarding one in terms of terrain and vista. I'll have to explore other bike paths we can access from our house. Blacktown City Council doesn't keep them as nicely as Holroyd Council, which owns the Toongabbie-Girraween path. The T-G path is nicely concreted, no gravel in sight. Visibility is excellent.

On the other hand, I felt fantastic after the ride - we both put a couple of sprints in along our usual bike path, the sun was shining, and I felt myself used to Petunia again.

It's been HOW long? Ooops...

So much for posting on a daily or almost daily basis. It's been a month. We've had people staying with us and have been touring around - to the NSW south coast, to Canberra,to the Hunter Valley, as well as playing tourists ourselves in Sydney as we showed our Scottish visitors around the city.

Sydney isn't as bike-friendly as Melbourne. Bike racks in the downtown area are not utilised as well as they could and should be, but then it's a brave cyclist who takes on aggressive Sydney drivers, particularly in the city itself. That being said I did see some nice bikes around, particularly some 80s vintage ladies' cycles; however my camera wasn't at the ready and these bikes were in full flight, carrying their riders sturdily.

Canberra is a cycle city. In fact there's a shop which combines bicycle and coffee culture quite nicely in Kingston:

A peek through the window showed tables in front and bikes in back. My visitors aren't really cycling people so I didn't dash in to get a fuller measure of what was inside, but a brief inspection through the front door showed the back of the shop laden with city bikes, road bikes and fixies.

But my favourite bike photo from my touring comes from the farm cottage where we stayed. The owner has created a little paradise (more in another post), with touches that really make this place a special haven in which to relax. This poor bike below...many years ago she was abandoned cruelly by the holidaymaker who propped her against the shed, forgetting even about the flowers so carefully chosen and picked from the roadside, and dashed inside for a cup of tea.

Poor thing! She must have been a very graceful creation in her day. She wasn't a brand I recognised - the headbadge was so rusted it didn't make much sense, especially with me lifting the basket of flowers with one hand and trying to shove my compact camera under and around with the other. It looks like a bow, doesn't it? Aside from the pretty headbadge the bike has been plainly built: lugs, but not fancy ones. As always when I see a sight like this I long to have the knowledge and capability (and money) to do a restoration job, as her geometry looks very comfortable. I doubt her owner would let me, though - I've been coming to this place for ten years and the bike has been there all that tine (so, actually, have the plastic flowers!). She's a landmark on the property.

As for bikes I can ride, the hot humid weather broke over Easter, and I was able to take Petunia on a good long run rather than just around the block or to the shops. I hadn't had a decent ride on her for ages - she had a broken valve in her back tyre I didn't fix over summer as it became clear it was a summer from hell and too sticky to do much riding. Any riding I did was on Penelope. Oh dear... it felt so weird riding Petunia again! I had trouble balancing. I even had to put the saddle down nearly two inches, as I'd also lost the art of mounting the proper way and needed to have a toe on the ground. After an hour I was used to her again, but still not as confident on her as I was last year.

So lots of relearning for me and Petunia. Penelope has spoiled me with her lovely balance and relaxed geometry. I'm so glad it's autumn, riding weather! Now... if only it would stop raining :-)

Basil Bags - initial thoughts

I was a greedy pig over Christmas and bought myself not one but two Basil bike bags for Christmas.

I'd been taken with the super olive green design on the Postmenbag, but decided initially to get a Basil Mirte shopping bag (slightly bigger) in Rose, which Penelope Pashley is wearing below.

Having ordered that I then saw an olive green Postmenbag for a good price on eBay and splurged on that too. Both bags have arrived now and I have used the Postmenbag today for a very small shopping trip.

Initial thoughts are the quality is excellent. Well stitched, well lined. The white detachable strap on the Postmenbag offers lots of opportunities to get dirty, but I think could easily be cleaned by soaking it in Napisan or any other nappy wash product (no, I don't have kids, but these products are great stain removers). Cleaning the white binding around the bag, as it's bound to get dirty, would be a job for Orange Power upholstery cleaner. Only available in Australia at the moment but absolutely brilliant on fabrics as well as carpet and sofas. Digressing, my husband regularly drops chocolate on our white sofa and Orange Power gets rid of it in a flash.

My brother-in-law has used cycling as his preferred form of transport since a teen (doesn't and won't own a car), and has had experience with all manner of bags. Bearing in mind the comments on the interweb about the plastic clips breaking, he had this to say once I'd shown him photos of the bags: "Those clips look familiar, and should be good for a few years unless they get very cold. And they appear to be removable/replaceable. Karrimore used to use alloy clips and they broke with great ease. Their plastics were an improvement..."

Very cold isn't likely to happen where I'm living. And while the bags don't look huge, they do carry more than you think they might. I think loading them to the point where the clips would break would make for a slow cycle back home in my case. The hills would be murder. In short I can do grocery runs for two people a couple of times a week with these bags. Easy peasy.

Talking of the clips, they fit easily onto the Plescher rack of the Pashley. Top tip is to feed the velcro strap underneath first otherwise you fumble a bit trying to loop it around. I'm guessing the velcro is merely insurance, but did find it difficult to do it up tightly, ie to a point where I felt it could hold the bag on for a little while if the clips ever broke (just till I got off the bike and slung the bag over my shoulder).

On today's shopping trip I only had to get a kilo of Cat's Delight (yes, the local pet food shop guy actually calls it that) for They Who Have Claws, and a packet of tea, without which I will have trouble functioning. I popped the Postmenbag on Penelope and set off. The bag sits well on the rack, doesn't rattle, doesn't interfere with the spokes. Here's what my shopping looks like in the bag. You can see there is a ton of room still there in this 12 litre bag. The goodies rattle around near the bottom.

Laden with this little haul plus a full 750ml water bottle in the bag, I headed home and the bag stayed secure and didn't move on the rack. Unlike my rear basket which tends to slide towards the back of Penelope's rack!

The Postmenbag closes with a flap and a clip; the Mirte with a zipper. I can see it would be very easy to transport objects like celery and leeks in the Postmenbag. It's deep enough for them to go in at an angle with their tops sticking out, and not overbalance and fall out of the bag. Likewise with the Mirte you can zip them into an attention stance, again with their tops out of the bag unless you buy very small leeks.

As both my bikes have racks, I tried the bags on Petunia as well. She looks pretty funky with the green bag - surfer bike!

It fits nicely on her rack and rests against the struts with no danger that I can see of interfering with the wheel.

She looks a little strange with the Mirte bag though - it's definitely more a Pashley bag I think.

And for not only aesthetic reasons. Laden with full baskets, both bikes behave very differently. Petunia has a distinct unsteadiness, a slight wobble at slow speed that Penelope doesn't. However, I will try a shopping trip using both baskets to simulate a pannier situation and therefore lower centre of gravity with Petunia and see if the ride improves. After all she's a touring bike and built to carry panniers. Maybe it's the weight on top of the rack in the form of a full rear basket that makes her very twitchy. Penelope, on the other hand, with her weighty steel body and innate steadiness, handles laden baskets back and front with barely a shimmer.

More thoughts forthcoming after a bigger shopping trip using both bags. But initially I'm impressed with the quality and capacity of the bags.

Marathons get the thumbs-up

The sky was brilliant blue in spring sunshine today - a great morning to head to Sydney Olympic Park with our bikes. It was a tossup for me: I longed to take Penelope as I thoroughly enjoyed riding her there last time and she gets me fitter, but I did want to try out Petunia's new tyres, so the Mixte got put on the bike rack this time.

The Scwalbes are excellent - I had suspected they would be. They are replacing the original tyres that Petunia had when she was new 25 years ago. Realistically any tyre would be an improvement one would think, but the Marathons are great. Very quiet, very grippy. Sydney Olympic Park is mainly paved bike tracks but there are some clay/gravel tracks there too which we tried out. I felt more confident riding on the dirt tracks with the new tyres :-). They feel much more stable. They are currently inflated to 80 psi but as they can take more I'll put them up to 85 for my next ride and see how that feels.

As usual I had the camera but was so busy riding I didn't think to stop for pics. D'Oh!

And finally... the Marathons

The guys at my local bike shop put my Schwalbe Marathons on today. While they were being fitted I got chatting with a guy who has had a custom bike built for him but is paying it off weekly and can't take it home yet. It's a mountain bike with Really Ugly Welds, front suspension, disc brakes, hydraulic this and that, aluminium frame, 27 gears etc etc etc. It's costing him around $4800. I gulped. He roared with laughter when I told him my saddle and grips cost more than I paid for my bike. Little Petunia came in for quite a few questions from the shop guys; how old was she? Was that a genuine Brooks saddle and was it leather? Where did I get the bike? What else had I done to it? Initially I was told to come back in an hour for my fitted tyres but once they started asking questions they got her up on the rack straight away and set to work. She does have a certain old-fashioned charm.

The white reflective stripe gives them a bit of an old-fashioned look; while they look a little more modern than the ancient Panaracers they replaced, they don't look too out of place.

More to the point, they ride well. I've only done a really short test ride on them (had to get back to work) but if the weather holds over the weekend will try them out. Rolling resistance seems pretty low, as the manufacturer promises. They can be inflated up to 95psi too - hee hee, that should give me an extra km per hour!

So here's Petunia with stage one almost finished. Just have to find a way to mount a light and a front basket. This may mean replacing the stem and cables unless I can find a clever person who can weld me a custom bracket for the handlebars. I have something in mind.

What's stage 2? At some point in the future, when I'm feeling far more financially capable, I want to rebuild the rear wheel with an 8 speed hub gearset. My sister-in-law has done that to her Mixte, and loves it.

Also part of stage 2 will be finding fenders that fit. Now the new tyres are on I can get measuring in earnest. >;-)

Brooks love and joy...

Yay, we picked up Petunia's Brooks saddle yesterday! It seems only a handful of high end bike shops in Sydney stock Brooks gear, and I had ordered mine fromWoolys Wheels in Paddington. This is a super shop - three stories of bikes and bike stuff. Most of the gear is aimed at the lycra crowd but there was a tantalising locked cabinet of Brooks goodies. The guys fitted the saddle for me so we headed down a couple of blocks into Centennial Park after that (we took both our bikes with us to the shop).

Centennial Park is a mecca for cyclists in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The main riding track is around 4km, mainly flat, so it's usual to see people on speedy road bikes whizz past you in a flash of lycra and skinny tyres. I prefer a more leisurely pace - we tend to average about 16-17km/h when we ride. I had to laugh at the speed signs which stated that neither cars nor cyclists must exceed 30 km/h in the park. Because I didn't take any photos - too busy keeping both hands on the bars and overtaking small children - you can find out more about Centennial Park and see some lovely pics here.

Petunia looks fab with her new, and very comfortable, Brooks B66S in antique brown. I did some tinkering when we got home and moved the saddle forward on the post a bit as I was finding myself sitting on the fork rather than the flat - as with Penelope. It's seriously comfortable to ride on.

So Petunia's transformation is nearly complete. Next come the Schwalbe tyres (next week). Finally I have to figure out a way to mount the rather lovely old-fashioned bullet light I bought AND keep a front basket. The basket I have is easily removable - it clicks onto that clunky big black thing you can see in the centre of the handlebar. However, when it's on the bike there's no room to mount a light underneath. So ideally I need to find a) a shallower, removable basket or b) a basket which CAN be removed when I want it to, which sits low enough for me to mount a light above it (and hopefully stays firm when I'm riding rather than bounce about). I've had no joy with baskets that meet this criteria to date. Most bike shops here, even the posh ones, sell basic baskets. Looks like I'll have to order in from overseas to achieve perfection or at least some way of having a basket and a light! Any suggestions? Answers on a postcard please... or simply leave a comment.

And finally, below is Petunia as she was when I bought her last year. That saddle (vinyl) was a shocker so the gel saddle she's had in the meantime has been an improvement. The handlebars were narrow and scary to ride with and lasted 48 hours before being changed. I think with her current saddle and handlebars she looks a much more inviting ride :-).

How hard can it be... (2)

... to get Schwalbe Marathon 27" x 1 1/4" kevlar tyres for Petunia here in Australia? Hard-ish, it seems. Many major bike shops have Schwalbe in stock but typically only in 26", 28" or 700c. I finally tracked some down this morning on bikes.com.au.

Petunia is shod with her original tyres (and she was built in 1984). Admittedly she was hardly ever ridden before I bought her, but rubber perishes over time. I noticed during a regular check of her tyres, brakes etc a couple of days ago that the tyres have developed little hairline cracks where the sidewall curves over to the running surface. Not ideal - I don't want a massive blowout as I'm careering down a hill.

I could get cheap tyres without kevlar at the local bike shop, but time and experience has taught me that it's best to replace broken bits with the best you can possibly afford, as you'll be happier in the long run. My husband has the cheap tyres on his bike (because the local shop, like so many others here, doesn't stock a kevlar or puncture-resistant tyre in 27") and he's happy enough, but I figure I'll spend the extra and go for the Schwalbe. I've read reviews on them, I like the tread pattern, I like the look of them, and I'm happy with their performance on Penelope.

So tyres have been ordered and should arrive early next week. I know the local bike shop has 27" tubes in stock (phew) so then all I'll be waiting on for Petunia's upgrade is the Brooks saddle, also due in next week. *does a little jig with glee*

Postman Pat's Brooks delivery

Postman Pat knocked on our door this afternoon with a special delivery for the green lady. Penelope is finally getting pretty grips to replace the rather uncomfortable standard Pashley plastic jobbies. I was considering getting her green grips to match her pretty paintwork, but the only green grips I could find were $105 on eBay from the US, and I got these for $65 on eBay from the UK. They are honey coloured, the same as Penelope's. Delivery was super quick - I only bought these five days ago!

Charley our Birman boy gives them the seal (point) of approval. He is the inspector of everything that comes into the house. If it can be chewed, clawed or rolled on the floor it's fantastic by him and the grips meet all three criteria. They are now locked in the garage until I fit them over the weekend.

The venerable Bicycle Tutor has an excellent tutorial on how to replace your grips. I didn't realise the 'proper' way to do things when I replaced Petunia's grips - I simply cut through the old, cheap ones with a Stanley knife :-) (Looks heavenward and whistles tunelessly.) I think I should probably do things properly with Penelope.

Penelope is going back to Kate at Steel City Cycle Works on Friday for her first service. She comes with an impressive warranty but has to be serviced within, approximately, 30 days of purchase. I'm nearer 40 days but the shop is a couple of hours' drive from our place so we have to fit her service in with our work and, lately, our busy or soaking wet weekends. Kate is pretty cool though.

Petunia is getting her new Brooks saddle too, a B66S, finally. There's been a holdup as the saddles come via sea mail from the UK. The new shipment is due in this week and I've got one in Antique Brown put aside for me. I would have preferred Honey to match her grips but sadly not available here in the antipodes. Antique Brown will look just as nice with her champagne frame and anyway the grips go darker the more you use them as I've discovered.

So... a happy weekend fitting new grips to Penelope, and if I'm lucky I'll get the call before the weekend that Petunia's new saddle is in stock too. Just in time to get in the best of spring!

A burst of summer and an early morning ride

Whew... it was a scorcher yesterday! Temps topped the thirties and suddenly we'd gone from a mild spring to midsummer in 24 hours. The cats demanded to go out into the garden and hunt flies and other insects, and laze about in the sun. The garden burst into flower and then gasped and wilted, and we debated turning the aircon on in the house but held back. A bit silly of us as it was so muggy by bedtime we had trouble cooling down to sleep. Our house is brick veneer and cheaply built so you feel the heat and cold very quickly when the seasons change.

Thankfully we got a cool change overnight and now it's cloudy and set for the early twenties again. It's a long weekend this weekend - Labor Day - and of course rain is forecast for all three days. Well, we need it. Just WHY couldn't it hold off until next week? :-)

We both woke early this morning and decided to get the bikes out before breakfast. Inspired by how fit I felt a few days ago I took Petunia for our usual 8km ride - and absolutely flew along sooooo easily. I don't have a huge amount of stamina, I never have, so on the long 1km stretch where we usually pedal flat out by the creek I was coasting a little by the end, but was able to overtake Greg easily going up hills - which was nice :-). The little mixte felt so light :-))!! Can't wait until my Brooks saddle comes into stock though - I really notice the bumps now I've got used to the smooth ride on the Pashley.

What's funny is that when I ride Penelope I move between the first three gears. I've never got into fifth gear yet (must try it downhill sometime). On Petunia, I usually use a good range of the gears on any ride. Today, I found myself essentially using two rear gears and shifting between high and low range, and this seemed to cover most eventualities, even hills. Pleasing.

If it's not raining later this afternoon I'll take Penelope for a ride too, just to get whatever exercise I can in before the storms and showers set in. Since it's unlikely we'll get our usual long weekend ride in this week I want to make the most of my bikes.

Get fit...ride a Pashley!

I had to nip down to the shops this morning to buy some more printer cartridges, and thought I'd take Petunia the Mixte for a ride in the lovely spring sunshine. I deliberately haven't ridden her since I bought Penelope, as I wanted to get to know Penelope inside out and get used to riding her with her extra 7 kilos.

So I was astonished today at how much fitter I seem to have become in the last three weeks. Honestly I think I was channelling Cadell Evans this morning :-). I was pelting up the little hills in a higher gear than I used to ride Petunia in, and not even blowing by the time I got to the top. Doing the same route on Penelope leaves me gasping, with aching legs, but perseverance is the key, and today's little exercise tells me Penelope is doing me a lot of good.

I'm lucky to have two lovely and very different bicycles to ride, luckier too that spring is here and the sunshine is a siren song to get out there and enjoy them both.

Sydney Olympic Park

One of our regular weekend rides is Sydney Olympic Park. If you get there early enough, the cycleways (shared with pedestrians) aren't too hectic and you can get a bit of speed and constant movement going. There are around 35km of paths in the park, and we typically do about 22-25km of them on our rides. More info about them can be found here. While the presence of families cycling slowly can be a hazard to navigation, the nice thing is that the paths are for the most part off road, and the scenery along the river is always cheering. You ride through bushland and smell the crisp eucalypts, or the heady scent of wattle. Birdsong trills about you, and aside from tracks that run beside the roads, there is no traffic noise.

The whole area is relatively flat,with a few hills and rises, some of them optional. On a gorgeous day like today heading out there after breakfast was a no-brainer. For Penelope, it seems these bike paths and the bike lanes on adjacent streets are her native territory. The winding, undulating paths are like any you'd find in the UK, just right for a British bike.

The whole area was developed around ten years ago, so the roads themselves are smooth and pothole free. Any bumps are treated with disdain by Penelope. I found my lovely Pashley just as easy to ride as Petunia this morning, quite light despite her steelness, and nimble in mid-range acceleration. Cycling on the shared paths can be stop-start, or slow-go as you negotiate pedestrians, dogwalkers and cyclists who just go too slowly. We generally ride on the roads for a little while as well, as this part of Sydney is geared for cycling and has a superb bike lane structure. She came into her own on one of the back roads - a long, sweeping bend, no traffic... I pedalled madly and was rewarded with a smooth, blisteringly fast (for my level of fitness :-) few minutes. Greg had to drop a gear and go like mad to catch me.

And - nice to know - I CAN stand up and pedal on hills. It feels rather precarious compared to a road bike or MTB, but it works. Greg led us down a wrong turn in search of a different entrance into the park, and it was up hill and down dale for a bit. The down dale was brilliant, and the up hill surprised me. Yesterday's ride must have done my muscles some good as I was getting up the hills easily enough, especially when I got the hang of standing up.

By the time we got back to the car it was getting madly busy; on weekends cyclists outnumber cars in this area about 10 to 1. Next weekend there's a special family cycling day at the Park so we'll give that a miss and head out into the country instead.

Pimping my ride

Having taken delivery of the delightful Penelope, she does need a bit of personalisation. Particularly in the handlebar grips department. I'm surprised that, since they produce and sell leather handlebar grips, Pashley doesn't offer them as standard on their top end bikes such as the Princess Sovereign. The only bit of my bike I don't like is the cheap rubber grips, which are actually not comfortable when you ride for more than a few minutes.

Petunia the Mixte has been prettied up with lovely Brooks leather handlebar grips, which replaced her own cheap rubber grips. They not only look nice, they feel fantastic. As you can see. They match her pretty champagne-coloured frame. (She is still to get her own Brooks saddle though it's in the pipeline.)

I'll be getting Brooks grips for Penelope in the next couple of weeks - they are more readily available than the Pashley grips and I suspect a little more padded and comfortable. I've found two on eBay - one is the same colour as Petunia's, which complement the brown Brooks saddle. Currently they're very affordable but the auction ends on Sunday. The other option is a Buy It Now from the USA for GREEN leather grips which echo Penelope's shiny paintwork. They are a similar hue only lighter in shade. Both eBay options are cheaper than buying through a bike store here in Oz; the US one is more expensive than the auction due to the exchange rate and the postage (international postage seems to have increased significantly lately).

My heart says go with the green grips and be a bit different. Not everyone has green grips. :-)

Blissful bike!

Oh, the joy of it! I went out for a ride on Penelope yesterday, and it was sheer bliss! Having NOT ridden on Petunia first for an hour beforehand, I was fresh and fit this time and gave my lovely new mount a good tryout on my usual 30 minute exercise route.

My husband came with me on his road bike and I discovered I was no more disadvantaged in the 'keeping up' stakes than when I ride Petunia. Well, perhaps a smidge more but not uncomfortably so. I even managed to leave him standing on a downward slope :-). AND pass him going up a hill!

She's a tougher ride in that my legs really feel it, but her solidity and smoothness more than make up for it. She really does glide along graciously - never was a bike more aptly named than the Princess.

I feel quite different when I ride her... more happy to dawdle along, head up looking at the scenery. In my quest to find a gracious, old-fashioned outlet for my mind and heart in the midst of technology and stress and today's too-fast pace, she (even more so than Petunia) is a vital addition. In her saddle, I can forget everything else.

Can't wait to finish my work for the day and get back into her saddle :-).

Meet Penelope

OK, I'd had my heart set on a Velorbis Victoria, but after testing riding a Victoria and a Pashley Princess Sovereign (which I'd INITIALLY had my heart set on until I found out how much they weighed), the balance fell in the Pashley's favour.

Why? Ride quality was good on both, and the Shimano gearset on the Victoria is lovely. It was very tempting. However. The Victoria costs an additional $700 compared to the Pashley. Could I find $700 value in the difference? Um...the Vic's headlight stays on for a minute when you're stationary (quite a nice touch for a dynamo light). It's got more gears and there's not much to choose in quality between Shimano and Sturmey Archer. The Victoria is 4kg lighter, which was tempting. Ultimately I found it hard to justify the extra money for the Victoria, given that one or two people on the internet have questioned build quality and longevity.

So Penelope Pashley has joined our family. This is easily the nicest bike I've ever had - so stable, so smooth. When I sat on her in the shop yesterday I was stunned at the stability even standing still. This is a Rolls Royce of bicycles.

My test ride in both cases was on fairly flat ground with minor upward slopes, which was a bit of a concern. I'm 20 years older (and 10 kg heavier and heaven knows how less fit) than when I first got a mountain bike with 21 gears, I ride a 25 year old 12 speed road bike and get up hills these days without too much gasping, but I'm buying a bike with 5 hub gears which weighs 7kg more than Petunia my mixte. When I bought Petunia last year I hadn't ridden for about ten years; I felt every nuance in the terrain heartily for the first few months.

My first real ride on Penelope today told me I'll be feeling every nuance all over again. Honestly my legs felt like chewed string at the end of 8km (which includes a hill or two). I guess it didn't help that we'd taken our road bikes out this morning for a 16km ride in a park which includes The Long Slow Hill From Hell so my muscles had worked hard already. But what a bike... she feels so stable and once she's up and running the momentum of her weight carries her effortlessly on the flat. I think I'm in love :-).

Here's Penelope, just after I paid for her and took her out of the shop. I'm considering a sugar rush to get over the shock of paying a four figure sum for a bicycle LOL! Thanks to the fantastic Kate of Steel City Cycle Works for importing these wonderful bikes.

I've gone bike mad

Last year I picked up a lovely 25 year old Centurion Accordo mixte frame road bike on eBay. I hadn't ridden for years, and the last time I had was on my just-as-old mountain bike. I had the road bike a few days before swapping the saddle for a gel one and changing the handlebars to sit up and beg. I don't have the best sense of balance, and the drop handlebars terrified me, especially turning corners going down hills.

Since then I've been out on my bike, which I've named Petunia, every week. I ride her to the shops with baskets front and back if I don't have to grab a big load of groceries. I go for half hour rides along a super bike track for a bit of exercise, and now my husband has a road bike too we load the bikes on the car and head for the country or somewhere like Olympic Park with 35km of bike tracks.

It's brilliant. I love it. I've now swapped the tacky rubber handlebar grips for Brooks leather ones, and my husband is buying me a Brooks saddle for my birthday. The gel saddle can go on the MTB to replace the existing ancient one and I'll sell the MTB on eBay I think. I'm unlikely to ride it again.

I bought a lovely new oldstyle bullet light for Petunia but the blasted thing won't fit 'cos of the front basket, which is really annoying. I need the basket though. So I'm doodling away on designs for attaching it to the basket instead. Could, I suppose, mount it on the SIDE of the forks rather than under the basket where it won't fit? Note to self: fiddle with that.

But now I've found something I really really really really want. This. I've been trying to turn my bike into something old-fashioned, but when I saw this bike my heart somersaulted. I want it. I'm saving up for it now. While I love Petunia, she's rough and ready, the gears do change by themselves despite regular servicing, and while I adore her for her vintage bike charm, I'd love to have this Rolls Royce of a Velorbis Victoria as well. Not that I'd be riding it to the shops. Around here someone would take chain cutters to the locks and make off with it. So Petunia would still be my shopping ride. You might say there are cheaper bikes around that look a bit old-fashioned, any kind of cruiser would do, but I know myself and know I won't be happy with something cheaper, especially once I've had a test ride of the Velorbis which I plan to in the next couple of weeks. I want a bike that will last me the rest of my life. The Velorbis ticks every box. I researched the Pashley Princess too, but it's only available with 5 gears and I live in a hilly area, and it's several kilos heavier than the Velorbis. See the bit about the hilly area again.

I've started to obsess about bikes. I try and find time every day to nick out on mine even if it's only for ten minutes to the shops. It's healthy. It's getting me fitter and heaven knows I need that, I'm far from fit at the moment. This can only be a good obsession, right? Right? :-)