TrikeAbout

Among this season’s crop of cyclists are Mal and Lee. They’ve just come across from WA on their Catrikes with trailers, and are stopping in for a couple of days before heading over to Tasmania.

Check out their website:
Mal & Lee

On Sunday 29th October I’m taking part in a fun ride organised by the local Rotary Club, to raise money for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Centre. There are more details here at the ride’s website, along with a map of the route. It’s an annual event, and will be a good chance to meet some other cyclists. I doubt many will have three wheels, but that’s okay.

There are three ride lengths, with the longest being 50km. The route is along the bike tracks on the Yarra River. Should be fun!

I’ve had a couple of trips down to Greenspeed this week, now that summer is here. I rode the trike to the Melbourne bicycle expo a week ago, and found that it needed some fettling after the Big Lap, followed by a winter chained up to the wall in the car port. The seat was thoroughly wrecked, and it needed some general maintenance too.

The Greenspeeders were delighted to have the chance to see the GTE as they don’t get too many of their trikes back in the shop after serious milage. I had a good chat with Mick, Paul and Owen, and we discussed some of the little niggles. A couple of these they’d already come up with solutions to (like the tendency of the mudguards to come loose now and again) and they hopefully solved the seat wear issue by machining down the steering bolts under the seat (only an issue with the GTE expedition trike as the main tube has less clearance beneath the seat to give it more ground clearance). Interestingly, the chain hadn’t really worn too much even after 20,000km but the chainring and rear sprocket are both a bit the worse for wear. I’ll probably change the whole drivetrain when the cogs are beyond help.

I’ve fitted my new seat now, and with the good wash and scrub it had while the seat was off, it’s looking good as new (nearly). I’ve had a talk with Greenspeed about getting the frame freshly powdercoated which won’t be a problem so maybe I’ll do that next winter.

Occasional visitors to Trikeabout during the last year will have noticed that I was a bit crap at actually doing anything with the site. I had planned to put regular updates up, but in the end I wound up just creating a mailing list to keep friends and family updated on my trip round Australia. However, I did keep a daily journal for every day that I rode the trike, so now I have a plan.

First, I’m going to start blogging here. As you can see, I’ve installed WordPress. I wish I’d done this ages ago, it was simplicity itself and there are a phenomenal number of add-ons and plug-ins.

Second, I’m going to post back in time and blog my journal from my rather extensive cycle tour of Oz, plus possibly a few other things that I would’ve blogged but didn’t.

So without further ado, I declare this blog…. open! *cuts ribbon*

I woke at 8:30, and it was a beautiful morning. Ray and Maree had gone to work, so I unfortunately didn’t get to say goodbye. I pottered about for a while, getting some breakfast and admiring the view down the valley as well as their most impressive science-fiction library.

My legs were aching from yesterday, which was to be expected. I’ve heard it takes a couple of weeks to really get your riding legs on a big tour. I got on the road about 10, and quickly realised that my odometer was over-reading. I’d cocked up the calibration, so I fixed that, and adjusted the previous day’s stats too. A look at the map suggested that backtracking to Phillip Island wouldn’t be worth it, and I’ve been there before anyway, so I stayed on the South Gipps Highway and headed south-east towards Wilson’s Prom. Continue reading ‘Riding south’

So this is it, I’m off.

I left Claire’s house in Camberwell at about 10:45, and rode into Federation Square. It’s ANZAC Day today, so it’s a public holiday and there’s a parade. Claire was waiting, so we stood around for a bit, she met some of her Guides, and then we said our goodbyes.

Continue reading ‘Farewell and Adieu to you fair Melbourne ladies’