A gripping yarn

I was going to wait until Penelope had had her first service, but I couldn't. Those Brooks grips were calling me from the garage :-), so I had no option but to put them on at lunchtime. Measuring them against the existing grips, I realised I'd have to take a few rings out of the grips. I didn't want to mess around with putting Penelope's cables any further along; they are obviously adjusted and made to be just where they are.

I'd fitted the same grips to Petunia some months back but hadn't had to remove any of the leather rings. Well, I could have but I was a little lazy so they're about 1cm too long at the ends of the handlebars, but let's not go thre. The Brooks leaflet stated that adjusting the grips to fit your bike was a fairly easy task achieved with a screwdriver, pliers and a file. Lacking pliers and a file (our tool kit isn't huge) I decided a hacksaw would do the job just as well, and it did. It was just as easy as the leaflet promised.

I had to lose five rings from each grip.

Installing them on the bike was dead easy. Fortunately the other grips came off easily enough thanks to the technique from Bicycle Tutor, and within a couple of minutes I had the Brooks grips on and tightened up.

MUCH nicer than those black plasticky things! Penelope looks like she's itching to go out on the street and show off her new grips.

They look a little on the short side, but then I have quite small hands, so are a comfortable fit as I discovered on a test ride afterwards. I was a little worried that the five rings was one ring too many and I'd be gripping the metal rather than the leather on the edges, but no.

Mmm, Brooks. What an excellent way to use up spare saddle leather and bike spokes!

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!

Mustn't speak ill...

I went to a funeral today. They're never happy events, but the departed in question was 92, so that's a good long innings, and she died of heart failure as a result of a quick onset of pneumonia. Sudden, and for all that harder for her family as they weren't prepared for her to go so quickly. Mind you if your mum was 92 you'd be on alert anyway I think.

The woman in question was my close friend's mother-in-law Alice, and you know all those mother-in-law jokes? She was the embodiment of many of them. She loathed my friend Valerie, who is one of the nicest, most genuine people I know. Alice said some awful things to Val when she and Chris first married, awful enough that Val hasn't spoken to her for 20 years and Chris for the most part hasn't either. It could and should have been a happy family from the time Val and Chris' first son was born, but by the time my godson came along they weren't on speaking terms with Chris' mother. Thankfully they made peace earlier this year, with Chris driving down the coast to visit his mum several times, and Alice coming to my godson's 21st birthday two months ago. But the peace was a little tenuous; Chris never trusted his mum not to be bitchy about Valerie.

But today I discovered something Val hadn't let on - Alice had trouble with ALL her daughters-in-law, current and ex. All three were there today out of respect to the family, but it seems that Alice was one of those mothers of sons who loathe the women they marry. No woman would be good enough for her son; you see this quite a lot and I wonder why some mothers go to the extent of trying to cause unhappiness for the child they obviously love dearly. These three daughters-in-law are also nice people, and have brought up their children to love their grandmother and value family no matter how they personally feel about a woman who has been spiteful to them to the very edge of slander.

What is it with some mothers and their sons? I know women too who think their son-in-law isn't 'good enough' for their daughter, but they are usually outnumberd by mothers of men who resent their daughter-in-law. Life's too short for not trying to get on with the people your children choose. Even if you live to 92.

the mortgage minefield

Earlier this year my husband and I bought an investment property from within our superannuation funds on the advise of a financial planner. Given the global financial crisis etc, it seemed the best type of investment and I still believe that. The GFC hasn't hit Australia as hard as it has other places and the housing market here is still pretty strong. The property we bought is in an outer suburb of Melbourne and is being built at the moment.

All was going well... but now we've received conflicting letters from the builders as to what we should be paying to whom. It's a minefield and t'tother half is groaning over a spreadsheet as I type. So much $ for the land, so much for the building construction, so much for the land transfer fees, so much for the deposit.... and suddenly it doesn't compute. We're about $20000 out of kilter. I'm not mathematically inclined at all so I'm trying to be supportive whilst nursing a mild hangover (friend's birthday yesterday.... too much red wine). I'm not much help I confess.

So now it's emails to all concerned (the bank, the builders etc) with the hope that one of these knowledgeable folk can set us straight and make the figures look like the ones we originally signed off on.

Hmm, as if Monday mornings aren't awful enough-!

When old flames sputter and go all waxy...

More years ago than I want to count, because it's scary and I don't feel my age, I was a teenager with a crush on a guy who was a professional in a sports industry. Well, frankly, he was a jockey. I was into horses, and into pretty boys with long flowing hair. These jockeys, small men on big horses, brave and dressed in glistening polyester, were my heroes. I had crushes on a couple of apprentice jockeys, but one crush lasted ages (principally because I had a very sheltered life and didn't meet any real life fellas to take my mind off him).This particular lad - I'll call him Glue 'cos I stuck to his career like glue at the time - was a shining example of my crushdom. Big dark brown eyes, the most gorgeous smile with straight white teeth (obviously had never been hit in the face with a horse's nose) and flowing locks, well down over the collar. This was the 1970s, do remember. Most of the apprentice jockeys had long hair.

Gosh I used to fantasise over him! I had imaginary conversations every day with Glue. In my dreamworld he was intelligent and well-spoken (most jockeys aren't well-spoken, I can assure you), and read books. Dream Glue was interested in the same things I was, in other words.

I read every newspaper and racing magazine I could for news of him, and clipped photos which I sighed over. Yes, sighed over. Can you say 'tragic', children? :-)

He lived and rode interstate, but being one of the topline apprentices at the time ventured to Sydney a couple of times a year. I met him a few times at the races, exchanged a few words (in my case a nervous stammer), and I lived for those conversations and relived them over and over. When I was over the age of consent - erm, about 18, 19 and way too old for crushes - I met him at the races and he told me his marriage was on the rocks. He'd got married very young, about 19 or 20 I think. It was a vague attempt to chat me up but I'd noticed even then he'd arrived with a blonde and the stars were fading a bit from the old crush. Clearly he was a cocksman well out of my league - I was so wet behind the ears you could wring me. The vague attempt got no further; I suspect he figured innocents like me were more trouble than they were worth as rumour had it that's how he ended up married initially.

Over the years I've wondered what he's been up to. Even after my interest in horse racing itself waned, and I was into showing and jumping with my own horses, I kept an eye on the racing guide to see he was still riding. He retired from race riding about ten years ago I guess and I gather from the internet, as he popped into my mind the other day and I researched him, he's been riding work overseas and then in various parts of Australia. A track jockey these days, up at a cruel hour of the morning all year round (as jockeys are over here), riding horses in chilly winter winds before dawn, and in summer before the heat sets in. A track jockey finishes work by about 7.30am in the summer... a little later in winter - after all he starts in the dark, when the horse's breath is the biggest thing you see in front of your nose.

Part of my research took me onto Facebook and there I found him well and truly. The long flowing hair has gone. In every sense of the word - the laddie is very thin on top these days and what is left has been cropped almost to extinction. The eyes are still the same but in a face drawn and tight over the years with the need to keep weight to a cruel minimum. Somewhere along the line a horse made contact with the teeth after all; they're all there but one is brown. It was quite a shock to see that physically he'd altered so much from the fresh-faced lad I'd sighed over. You expect people to age gracefully... most of my friends have.

So. There's Teen Crush. On Facebook. What do I do? A wisp of nostalgia floated past my nose; those silly girlhood days poring over the racing guide. I wrote him a message saying I'd followed his career way back when, if that indeed was him. To my surprise and delight, he wrote back almost straight away acknowledging it was indeed himself and I got a potted life story - married twice, engaged three times and engaged to a girl half his age at the moment. A couple more messages went back between us: he sounded me out about my interests, which I gather were a bit too cerebral by then as he didn't reply and didn't offer to be my friend (sob!) *grin*. Looking at his friends, the majority are female, a good 15-20 years younger than himself. Whatever sparkle was in those brown eyes all those years ago is clearly still working. Even reading the comments from his friends, he's turned 50 and he's still Jack the Lad. Horny little devil!

But not for me. I'm glad I wrote to him. I'm glad he's alive and well and still riding horses. But the few notes we exchanged told me we have absolutely nothing in common. He's a party boy, almost illiterate, and I have a life filled with books and writing. Even if I'd succumbed to his charms it would have ended in boredom and most assuredly tears of disappointment on my part. It's a good thing to make sure that old flames that have died stay well and truly out. Happy riding, Glue, whatever and whoever you're on top of!

Kitted out for a ride to the grocery store

Curse this workload!! It's far too nice a day. I'm glad I worked a bit over the long weekend as the sun was still shining today at lunchtime - so I persuaded t'other half that we should ride to the shops to pick up a few groceries. I ride there when we only need enough things to fill a bike basket or two; one front, one rear. It's an excuse to get out in the fresh air and get some exercise, and is better than taking the car out for just one or two items. (Unless the one item is an economy pack of 16 loo rolls or something!)

Last year I bought a very useful detachable rear basket for Petunia, which looks even better on Penelope. It's plastic wicker, with a handle so you can detach it and carry it into the shops. The handle has an unfortunate habit of bouncing from the back of the basket to the front and when I'm on Petunia, whose luggage rack slopes towards the saddle, hits me on the backside.

Penelope's luggage rack is nice and flat, so the basket itself stays where you put it instead of sliding forward, and if the handle bounces my bum is well forward of it anyway.

Below is a closeup of how it attaches - you simply pull handles on each side underneath to compress the springs, and let go so it grips on. It's a neat little unit, weighs a kilo and a bit, carries quite a lot and is very stable. Sadly there's no cover on the top, so I usually put an eco shopping bag inside and tie the handles together to stop anything bouncing out.

The basket cost me $39 on eBay. I've seen them for more in the shops, even allowing for eBay postage.

Today was the first time I've needed to put the rear basket on Penelope, and she carried a good load of fruit, veg and meat back from the shops. I hardly noticed the basket was there despite the extra weight - she is so lovely to ride!

My husband doesn't have any racks on his bike - a smug 12kg road bike with no mudguards - so carries his load in a backpack as he did today. Even if we fitted racks to his bike I can't quite see him with a twee basket like mine :-). Might have to persuade him to fit racks and buy panniers, so we can shop by bike more often and do most of the grocery load that way.