Not long to go now until we begin a new year. Before that though, on the 15th December, Tasmania will open its borders to the rest of Australia. Anyone watching the progress of Omicron is a bit worried and not many of us are convinced our hospitals will be able to cope should things covid take off.
My response – get the booster in February, go cycling and keep away from crowds
Ernie and the Mountain Drive
Things not going so well here. 100nm is required to bed the casing serrations into the bottom bracket and I don’t have a torque wrench but – I know that’s quite a lot of nms. A guy I spoke to at MR Recumbents, Melbourne said he tightens MDs with a 700mm pipe on his long socket bar to give it a bit of wellie!
I tightened up the MD some more only to find the sensor for the PAS moving around with the tightening retaining nut. Although I freed the sensor cable from the harness, I think it stretched a bit. The first test run after tightening proved disappointing with the PAS not working well. The motor ran in fits and starts! Further testing indicated the wiring seems to be the problem – so I probably stretched it too far..
Currently the PAS sensor and magnet ring have been removed and the MD tightened as much as possible. The pedal has been on and off more times than I can count. The drive still slipped a little after I had got the thing as tight as I could and, yesterday, I asked Colin to lend some extra power to the socket plus bar plus extension pipe. He managed to turn it a bit further than I could. Testing continues today!
Phil is sending up a new magnet ring, sensor and cable to replace the broken ones and, once the MD has bedded in properly, I will return to work on the PAS.
More from last week
When I posted last week I hadn’t finished the video for the Sheffield ride. Here it is showing how Mt Rowland loomed large :
Road Maintenance
A couple of weekends ago the rail crossing in Longford was closed. On the following Monday we found a new, smooth concrete bed had been put in place to take the rail over the roadway.
A similar construct happened in Perth.
Now it looks like the Bishopsbourne Road crossing will get the same treatment. This will be good as the tarmac at the crossing has been getting choppier and bumpier to ride over each week.
Looking forward to my first ride next week over the smooth rail crossing. Or will be be a disappointment?
Stats for 2021
Yep. Closing in on my challenge target of 5,000 kilometers for 2021. Strangely, Ride with GPS has two numbers for 2021. This is the other :
The dates seem to match up but I suspect the top version includes something from the last week of December 2020. That leaves a bit of a challenge to get 244k in during the festive season. The past two weeks have been a bit slow, so I had better focus – only 26 days to go.
Bicycle Network – Recumbent Ride
Next Saturday is the date for the first BN recumbent ride that I am leading. So far there are 3 of us on the RSVP list. Will we get more …….
’til next time. …………………..
Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog 
I think the bottom bracket barrel end faces need to be machined to a chamfer to accommodate those drives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes Patrick – you are quite right. Phil has chamfered the bracket as required – it just needs to be really tight to bite. The MD on my Brompton had the same problem initially but the Melbourne Bike Shop that fitted it (a first for them) finally tightened it enough. Mine might be there now – I haven’t had time to test today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s certainly going to be interesting here in Tas after the 15th. I work from home and don’t really do much social or going out apart from bunch rides to the cafe. Covid is coming, there’s no doubt. Just gotta manage it the best we can I guess. Enjoy getting in the goal miles over the next few weeks! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I admire your patience and persistence with all of the mechanical tinkering. Good luck getting in those final kms for the year and hope you have a fun and successful ride as leader.
LikeLiked by 1 person