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Showing posts from February, 2023

A Bunch of "Kiwis" Ride Le Tour A Day Before The Race

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" One Day Ahead " is a film that asks, "Can an ordinary bloke complete the Tour de France?" Eight riders from New Zealand, one a former olympic cyclist, but none from the pro peleton, get to gether to ride every stage of the 2018 Tour, the day before the official race goes through. "Just ride it to enjoy it... ...'cause there's no room in the car." I'll be watching this tonight and maybe adding a bit more to this post tomorrow, when the reel has been watched. Twenty hours later: Watched it, great tale! Would have liked to have seen more riding and scenery, but there was enough, and I kept spotting places I know from the official Le Tour coverage on SBS every year. That said, I highly recommend this film. For cycling and non-cycling reasons pretty much alike. The eight riders, the cameraman/support crew mate, his wife, and the odd other person close to the riders, set out to see if, as ordinary blokes, they could complete the entire ...

Fixing a Droopy Box With a Naughty Bracket

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The "Rude Bracket" My trusty Reid commuter tourer, "Buster", the Urban X2 with a wide drop bar conversion, has a Wildman head box on the bars for snacks, "occy" straps and other small tat that one might need on a shopping run or longer. The trouble with this otherwise cavernous, yet light, headbox is it gets "the droop" every time the front wheel hits a bump. So I designed and printed the above "rude bracket" to provide a counterforce against the underside of the stem. The Headbox, featuring the solar panel that keeps my lights charged. Now at the proper angle. Aside from keeping my solar panel reasonably in the sunlight, when the headbox droops enough, it rubs against the front tyre. The carbon fibre reinforced, 3d printed, PETG "rude bracket" screws onto the top of the headbox mounting frame, under a custom branding "Clunkerbike" badge and rests against the underside of the stem, as per... The "Rude Bracket...