What Do? Bottles and cans of course!
You will see from the above Ride Recap for August that I have been cycling a number of shorter rides. This has been for a number of reasons. Mainly the wet and windy winter days to begin with followed by running in a saddle change following the 49.4 kilometre ride.
During the recent shorter rides I have also been bottle and can collecting (!), time not being of the essence.
Saddle Change
The overlarge saddle on the E-City is comfortable for short rides BUT when I rode out to Carrick (50k) it proved to be a bit of a beast. The last 10ks involved a lot of standing on the pedals to relieve the “crushed-butt” situation. As a result I decided to swap over the Brooks saddle from the Brompton.
The swap-over was easy to accomplish but the positioning of the Brooks took a while longer. The first ride also reminded me to look out my padded shorts!
I remember remarking years ago when I first put the Brooks on the Vivente touring bike – “When you first sit down it seems hard and will probably be uncomfortable. It is as uncomfortable at the end of the ride as it was at the beginning”. IE: keep going – it doesn’t get any worse!! It seems so far that nothing has changed.
I will be tackling longer rides as the weather improves (?) getting ready for the 60+k days needed in October for our ride along the NW Coastal Pathway.
The Beriault Camper
Thinking about the October ride I had a think about taking the camper trailer along for the ride. I’m afraid I have decided against it. In my 80th year I am getting ever stiffer and less able to bend. That will make it harder to get in to sleep. Also, when I checked the towing bracket I made for the trike, it was surprisingly bent. That means significant forces are acting on the trike frame. As I can’t attach the camper to the axle (Rohloff is not a through axle and so can be damaged) I decided against using the camper further.
While knowing that in some ways it would be more comfortable than a tent, I don’t think it will work for me now. So the Burley components have come off and the Burley trailer re-built. I will take that attached to E-City and return to tenting. Does anyone want a trailer without wheels?
Bottles and Cans
We visit the bottle and can recycling machine once a fortnight. For the 3 visits so far I have recycled 42, 82 and 93 items. This means there are 217 fewer cans and plastic bottles lying about in the verges close to Longford.
Here is a video of one such trip.
Last for this post – I was looking through a backup disk and found this short video depicting a common issue cycling in Tasmania in the summer months.
That’s all = ’til next time ……………………..
Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog 
Hi Tony – you got a lot of rides done in August. I think consistency is better than longer one-off’s for fitness and everything else. That’s a lot of cans and bottles but I like that you have a pannier sorting system 🙂 I just don’t see that many here – but maybe the smaller, gravel roads get less detritus than the sealed roads? I don’t come across many rogue irrigators around my area (you need to go downstream to pick up the irrgated areas), but gosh, I would really welcome that in summer here! I hope September has been good for riding so far and you are getting all prepped for your NW Tas ride. — emily
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Hi Emily. It’s like the first day of Spring today. 20°C with a blustery spring wind. Quite refreshing and I had to remove my windproof jacket to cool down this morning!
This is a generous community and the cans keep coming.
I think I have sorted out the ways and means of making the October ride happen. Looking forward to trying it out. I have decided to car camp and ride from a base point. That way I will be able to respond to any issues from home. Looking forward to it.
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