Week #39. A good one

Monday’s ride of the Magnum to the Ferry in Melbourne was documented in my previous Post.  This is an extra picture of an artistically decorated toilet that can be found along Melbourne’s Southbank.  It provokes the question – Is Graffiti Art?

Back in Tasmania, for the rest of the week the Magnum was my bike of choice!

It rides well but is generally slower than the Anura.  I suppose that’s to be expected as it’s bigger, heavier and has Big Apple tyres which are built for comfort and not speed.  Hill climbing is a bit harder but then it doesn’t have a mountain drive to give really low gears.  During the week Magnum and me covered the route out to Bishopsbourne twice before the usual Friday ride along River Road (on the Brompton) and Bishopsbourne via Armstrong’s Lane on the Magnum and Colin on his Warrior, Saturday.

In all the Magnum clocked up 154 kilometers in the week including the run down to the Ferry.  Add to that 23k on Brompton, the grand total for the week is 177k.  That makes up for one of the low total weeks while we were caravanning.

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On Saturday Colin and I did the ride over to Bishopsbourne and during lunch discussed directional tyres.  Checked his bike for them – not directional.  Checked Magnum – Big Apple tyres are directional.  The rear was on the correct way but the two front tyres were not.  Later in the day I checked the Greenspeed website as the front wheels are laced specifically for the right and left sides of the trike.  My wheels are the wrong way round!  I changed them over so the tyre direction of travel is now correct – will this result in a speedier ride?

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A Sunday Ride for photographs and to check if tyres running correctly improves performance.

It was a pleasant spring morning but at this point about 6°C.  It promises to be our first day since last Autumn to hit 20°C but nowhere close as yet.

Along Bishopsbourne Road “they” have been pruning the Hawthorn hedging.  This particular section was a butchers job.  No sign of any finesse or clearing up the end result.  I do know that earlier in the week there was debris all over the road here so someone has shoved it all into the side of the road at least.  I wonder what sort of slasher was used.

In the picture can also be seen a contrail.  We don’t get many and the vast majority are from flights Melbourne to Hobart and back to Melbourne.  This was the second plane and contrail in a few minutes.  Jetstar and Virgin airlines run two planes down and back leaving Hobart midmorning.  These were the planes on their way to Hobart.  I recall back a few years there were questions asked on afternoon radio as a contrail appeared cutting across the normal flight direction and high over Hobart.  The only place it could have been going was New Zealand and, yes, the announcer came on later to explain that Hobartians should not worry – there was a new service between Perth, WA and New Zealand and it will fly over Hobart!  Bloody Cheek!!

The Hawthorn hedging is starting to show leaves and turn slightly green.  Roll on a good coverage as it gives us cyclists better protection from side winds.

A bit further along I can upon this chap sunning himself (I never think of snakes as “she” – sorry).  A Copperhead, it watched me closely as I cycled past, dismounted, returned to take the picture and warily left.

As always, the Western Tiers provided a great backdrop.  It’s not really clear in this picture but the bare rock upper surfaces really stood out this morning.

Bill on Cycle365 had explained how he took a selfie on the Equinox.  I hadn’t thought of using the interval timer in the camera and have always used the 1 shot 10 second “run back to your place” remote thingo.  I found the camera had an interval timer and set it to the shortest interval of 10 seconds.  Placing the camera on a post I set it running.  After several passes back and forth I had a look and found many empty pictures and 1 with me in it.  Here it is!  BTW the traffic was extremely light on this morning so stuffing about like this was quite safe.

So far the tyre switch had non-noticeable results.  Disappointing.  However it was time to descend a couple of decent hills as we rolled back into Longford.  This week with strong north-westerly winds at my back the trike had clocked 47s and 48s (kph) down them.  Today with no helpful winds we were limited to 45.  It did hit 45.9 but could not get that last .1.  So, OK, a bit disappointing but this is not a trike built for speed.  It is, however, very enjoyable to ride and feels like it will be a great touring trike.

The next step – to load it up with camping gear and have a trial run.

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Coffeeneuring.

It’s nearly time to go Coffeeneuring once more, the season starts on the 12th Oct.  What’s that then? you ask.  All the details can be found HERE.

Anyone can join in and documenting your rides can be as easy as joining the Coffeeneuring Facebook Group and posting each ride there.  I reckon us members of cycle365 will be documenting our coffee journeys on that site but I will be mentioning them in these pages too.

Here was are heading for a busy Spring.

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Total for weeks :    177k            Total for year :  3,741 k          

Vivente :   0 k                     Brompton :  23   k                  Anura : 154  k