Debearding the rat

Last year I started to set up the Roadrat with a wierdy-beardy touring setup

It rode well but it never felt truly comfortable, and there were little things that niggled whenever I rode it or looked at it. Plus I never got round to putting gears on it and the combination of narrow-ish drop bars, flat pedals and a single gear meant that it was hard to manhandle up hills. So this week I decided it was time to make some changes and return it to being a joy to ride

The touring bars and klutzy-looking front disk brake are gone, instead it has swept back riser bars    and v-brakes front & back. It needs a pannier rack to make it a true urban runabout, but I'm enjoying the clean lines at the minute.

I don't deliberately use British components but I find they tend to work for me - it's a Cotic frame with On-one bars, seatpost & rear hub, a Thompson stem and a Hope front skewer. Should probably have a Brooks saddle too, but I'm saving that for another build.

The bars look and feel a bit odd but they're comfortable, at least over the short distance I've been riding since the rebuild. They feel very upright though - it makes you want to wear a flat cap, smoke a roll-up and carry a ferret.  I'll see how I get on with them.

 I haven't given up on the idea of touring though - don't panic guys, this still rings true for me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFnarFSj_U

Orica Green Wedge

The Tour De France didn't start well for the Australian team, with their bus getting stuck under the timing sign at the end of the first stage

Luckily they managed to move the bus before they had to cut the race short, but it was an unusually chaotic first day.

Things have picked up for the team now, with Simon Gerrans gaining their first stage win on stage 3 and then the whole team backing it up with another win on the team time trial on stage 4. Gerrans is in yellow, and will probably stay in yellow for the next couple of days. Good work lads!

It's always easy to spot a cycling fan at this time of year - they're the bleary-eyed ones trying not to doze off in front of their desk.....

Far from the mudding crowd

The Qld cyclocross championships were on at Ipswich this weekend, and for once the weather gods smiled. Smiled in a kind of evil malicious way that said 'you always talk up cyclocross as a muddy sport, so I'll give you mud'. Grinned in a way that said 'every time anyone writes about cyclocross they always put in a weak pun on the word 'mud', so here you go'. Smirked in a way that said 'this is a far better sport to be lurking in the stands drinking beer watching than out there doing' (actually scratch that last one, when it comes to competitive bike racing that's a given for me).

We wanted mud and there was mud..,.

 We wanted water crossings, and hepatitis creek was running deep

We wanted air, and some were happy to oblige

some even gave it in the drops



we wanted barriers to be hurdled

we wanted steely determination, and everyone racing gave us that in spades

and of course we wanted beer & cowbells

 

 Thanks Ipswich Cx club and everyone that raced, it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon....

 

 

Political fallout

Marin raised an interesting point in the comments section yesterday - Australia has a compulsory voting policy, and that skews the political landscape and changes the way that the parties market themselves.

Australia has a 95% electoral turnout rate, the highest in the world. The UK (where voting is optional) has a 76% electoral turnout rate. From my experience of living in both countries the level of political interest is roughly the same, which means that around 20% of Australian voters are turning up purely because they have to and not because they want to. The electoral role for Australia stands at approximately 14.5 million, which means that just under 3 million people are standing in line at the polling booth not because they feel strongly about the way the country is run and want to make a difference but merely because they're avoiding a $40 fine and a stern letter.

At the last election there was an overall gap of approximately 1 million votes between the two major parties. So that apathetic voter population has the power to decide who will run the country. And to get that vote, the parties abandon policy (anyone who cares enough to read up policy has probably already made their mind up) and resort to crass advertising tactics, soundbites, threats & bribes. Given that it's estimated that the next election could cost the Australian public more than $100m, the most effective campaigning tool for the ALP could be to do no advertising before the election but just have the candidates hand out $50 bills to people standing in line on polling day. After all who's not going to vote for a guy that just gave them $50?

In keeping with this theme, here's today's musical choice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkVijd9g_Hk

Incidentally this clip was buried in the middle of the Tony Abbot 'blooper reel' in yesterday's post, but it's worth highlighting. Welcome to your future Australia...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amUNEsSdy_g

It's a political circus...

Three years ago the democratically elected Prime Minister of Australia was ousted from his position by a coterie of backroom boys worried that some of his policies were upsetting the mining companies by threatening to *gasp* request that some of their profits get diverted away from the boardroom and into the Australian economy via the tax office.  This was causing some (corporate funded) bad publicity in the run-up to an election and so he had to go.

Fast forward three years - his replacement has weathered a tough hung election and has somehow managed to keep the reigns of power via a loose affiliation of Labor (sic) and independent MPs. However an election is coming and she seems to be running out of ideas to keep the voting public entertained, and so last night the knives were out once more. Gillard "the Pretender" is out and Rudd "the incumbent" is back in again, although this time the roles are reversed & Rudd is the one that is ousting the elected official. So in essence you don't vote for a Prime Minister if you vote for the ALP, you vote for the party and some people you may never even know the name of will decide who gets the top job. Based on either the responses from opinion polls or the positions offered for the service, depending on your level of cynicism.

All of this would be funny if it wasn't for this man, the mad monk who is looming in the wings and waiting to ascend to the top step come the next election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB7cVFY_LCg

Yes, this right-wing, excessively conservative Christian homophobe who's only policies seem to be denying those of the opposition - that's when he can remember the scripted lies that his team have put together for him to parrot out - will almost certainly be our next prime minister.

If politics is a circus then all we seem to get are the clowns.
  

Pave 1, carbon 0

I was in Melbourne for the prestigious 'Melburn-Roobaix', an homage to the Paris-Roubaix bike race. The ride takes in a bakers dozen of paved/cobbled sections of Melbourne's back alleys, and you get the map when you register. It's a completely unsanctioned event which attracts thousands of riders who meander through the northern suburbs of Melbourne, thronging every cafe and pub on the way. It's a fantastic event, although I managed to leave my camera memory card in the computer so I don't have many pictures.

I do have this - the reason why my ride finished prematurely

My fork has a carbon steerer (the tube that goes from the forks through the headtube and which the bars bolt on to). It's a second-hand fork that I've had for 6 years so it's had a good life but I think the combination of a long life, the journey down and the repetitive vibration of the cobblestones proved too much. Luckily it happened when I was climbing at low speed - I stood up, pulled on the bars and there was a horrible cracking & ripping sound coupled with a yielding sensation. I somehow rolled off the front of the bike and escaped with a mildly bruised elbow. I was giggling when I stood up and realised what had happened because it could have been a lot worse - if it had happened on a downhill I could have lost my teeth, my nose or even broken my neck...

Views of Melbourne

 Under the Clocks

 The bay on a dead calm morning

Frost on the boards

Luna Park

 Breakfast in Ackland St

 Rugged up

 Obligatory bike shot

VACC - my first 'real' job in Australia, temping for the insurance company finding files. It was here that I decided that I was going to move to Australia

 A firepit in Federation Square

 Cold beers

 Weaving through the pedestrians at Southbank

 Docklands

Beer!