2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Readytoride]

@Stefan Mikes - a loose strap or part of the panniers being the culprit was my first thought. Checked both pannier sides and nothing was interfering. (These are actually true saddle bags that comfortably fit right against the bike frame and thus allow a wide clearance to the tires). Second thought was road debris (twig, etc) picked up and annoyingly lodged between tire and fender. Nada on that, too. I just didn't catch the bubbled inner tube exiting the tear in the tire quick enough to prevent it from popping.

I read Court's post on his dad's observations for a flat free existance, and will talk to my mechanic tomorrow about the Tannus Armor inserts. With my model ebike, that may be the closest I'll be able to get to tubeless because you are probably accurate in that my current wheels aren't set up for tubeless.

While the thought of a 4th ebike to add to my herd is tempting, it's not the bike (per say) that rides the gravel roads - it's the tires. Find the right tire and right setup for the task at hand, and any bike can perform better. Like horse shoes - every horse has 4 feet, but it's the right shoes on those feet that make it possible for a horse to do the right job the best way. I came as close as I could to the right setup for this bike's tires and have had a flat free ride ever since. Unfortunately, this road rock had my name on it. Nothing you do can repair a catastrophic failure like a ripped hole. That will leave any bike "dead in the water" as the old saying goes.

And yes, having a personal SAG is important to me to come quickly when I need the help. I make sure to take good care of my personal staff.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I like your post, Flora! Wise words indeed. The point regarding the tyres (compared to horseshoes) is very good. The point is each bike and bike type is limited to certain tyre size. That's why a 2.6" e-MTB tyre is so good to ride on anything rough but -- for instance -- your Vado might have only either 2" slick tyre or 1.75" knobby one. Nothing else fits.

Tannus Armor is believed to be good but it is not 100% puncture resistant (I think the side-wall is not protected), and the armor makes the ride stiff. You cannot have all the benefits. Not in this vale of tears...

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Station master's cottage without a rail line …

Cleveland, Moreton Bay​

I was a little surprised to come across this carefully restored station master's cottage in a park where clearly no rail line had ever been.

After the best part of one hundred years, Queensland Rail deemed the 1889 house to be more nuisance than it was worth; it was in the way! The Returned Services League accpted it as a gift and moved it to a new site. The years passed and once again the cottage was 'surplus to requirements'. Time for another middle-of-the-night house removal! And here it is, just across the road from the Grand View Hotel (previous page) and not too far from the Cleveland Lighthouse which has had its fair share of moves. (How does one move a lighthouse! Presumably, very carefully.)

I admire local authorities that value, and preserve, their heritage.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Your photos make me want see Australia, David....

 

[Chargeride]

Well the ghost was a no go, some ramblings from the wife of my past history of botched conversions.
So the Giant it is and I did the whole thing in 2 hours, I had the back wheel ready with tyre and freewheel, so that helped.
Stuck the legal controller on, deciphered/guessed the chinese writing and works like a dream.

And now its pissing down.

 

[jabberwocky]

I read Court's post on his dad's observations for a flat free existance, and will talk to my mechanic tomorrow about the Tannus Armor inserts. With my model ebike, that may be the closest I'll be able to get to tubeless because you are probably accurate in that my current wheels aren't set up for tubeless.

FWIW, "tubeless ready" these days usually just means the wheel has a rim strip that will seal air. You can just put your own rim strip on, pop in valves and sealant and I bet it seals up just fine. I run all my bikes tubeless, and in years of riding Loudoun gravel I've never had a flat. Though that sort of puncture is pretty much game over for any setup. I bet you hit a piece of sheet metal or a utility knife blade or something. I keep a few park tire boots in my kit for larger slashes (or the old school standby is a dollar bill between the tire and tube to get you home) but I'd generally call the wife-wagon for that too.

 

[FlatSix911]

How often do you refresh the sealant in your tubeless setup?

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

This popped on my Google photos. One of my rides last year in October.
A lovely ride through one of the local parks. My camera was foggy but it was a very pleasant ride.

 

[jabberwocky]

How often do you refresh the sealant in your tubeless setup?

2ish times a year on the gravel bikes. I'm more random with the MTB, but I do carry a small bottle of stans in my pack in case I get a puncture on the trail and realize its been a year and whats in there is all dried up. Not that thats ever happened. More than once.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Wonderful Day, Sad Occasion

The day itself was wonderful. Sunny, temperatures 16-19 C, just golden Autumn. The sad occasion was attending to the Kelner's funeral service at the Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw. As the participants have all been from the "alternative" society, my black cycling attire was quite in place.

The other news: I could collect my repaired Pentax K-1 camera, for hefty money. I hope to be able to show nice photos from my rides soon!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Choice of shade …

Cleveland, Moreton Bay
12.35 pm​

This shady spot is on the edge of Moreton Bay, immediately below the Grand View Hotel and a just a couple of furlongs from the old station master's cottage. It must have been a tough life back in the nineteenth century.

In 1842 the Governor of the New South Wales colony, Sir George Gipps – always Sir Somebody back then – came ashore here to check whether this site would make a suitable harbour. The tide was out and his aristocratic boots sank deep into the mud. Cleveland, with its mangroves and fig trees, were saved and slumbered on.

An inter-island car ferry can be seen approaching the mainland. I doubt that any 4x4's tyres get muddy on the 'sea' journey. Times change.

 

[Cowlitz]

Bovines stopped by a brand new fence.

These cows saw the Demon Dog and I coming up the road and took off in a mini stampede. They arrived here where a fence blocked their progress. There is a reason that the fence is brand new. This area fried on Labor Day and is in the Cold Springs Fire area. That fire took off on Labor day and was pushed by 50 mph winds and ran for 60 ( I may be a bit conservative on this) miles, jumping the Columbia River. Anyway, there is a lot of fence to replace and power poles not to mention a houses and outbuildings. Perhaps these cows were fire survivors? Or were they safe up in the woods somewhere during the fire? They don't have much to graze on.

This was another ride with the purpose of running energy out of the Demon Dog. It takes ten miles to do so. Much more distance and paws get sore. Less, too much energy is not used. Ten miles is what we did. The road which usually will have one to three cars go by had about a dozen vehicles going on it. Most were powerline repair folks. There was also a trailer full of fire debris heading for the dump.

The ride was a little bit depressing. So much was burned up. This is where a bit of fall foliage would be normally, now I'd call it Halloween foliage. In areas with trees, the survivors were few. Note the not quite burned up fence post.

At least my favorite rock did not burn up!

Glad I got out today. Tomorrow, the weather people say we will be smitten with a snow storm and then it is supposed to be quite chilly in these parts. The Demon Dog is resting/recharging. Life is good.

 

[Taylor57]

Bovines stopped by a brand new fence.
View attachment 69440
These cows saw the Demon Dog and I coming up the road and took off in a mini stampede. They arrived here where a fence blocked their progress. There is a reason that the fence is brand new. This area fried on Labor Day and is in the Cold Springs Fire area. That fire took off on Labor day and was pushed by 50 mph winds and ran for 60 ( I may be a bit conservative on this) miles, jumping the Columbia River. Anyway, there is a lot of fence to replace and power poles not to mention a houses and outbuildings. Perhaps these cows were fire survivors? Or were they safe up in the woods somewhere during the fire? They don't have much to graze on.

This was another ride with the purpose of running energy out of the Demon Dog. It takes ten miles to do so. Much more distance and paws get sore. Less, too much energy is not used. Ten miles is what we did. The road which usually will have one to three cars go by had about a dozen vehicles going on it. Most were powerline repair folks. There was also a trailer full of fire debris heading for the dump.

The ride was a little bit depressing. So much was burned up. This is where a bit of fall foliage would be normally, now I'd call it Halloween foliage. In areas with trees, the survivors were few. Note the not quite burned up fence post.
View attachment 69441

At least my favorite rock did not burn up!
View attachment 69443

Glad I got out today. Tomorrow, the weather people say we will be smitten with a snow storm and then it is supposed to be quite chilly in these parts. The Demon Dog is resting/recharging. Life is good.

Washington state area?

 

[Cowlitz]

Yup.

 

[Readytoride]

FWIW, "tubeless ready" these days usually just means the wheel has a rim strip that will seal air. You can just put your own rim strip on, pop in valves and sealant and I bet it seals up just fine. I run all my bikes tubeless, and in years of riding Loudoun gravel I've never had a flat. Though that sort of puncture is pretty much game over for any setup. I bet you hit a piece of sheet metal or a utility knife blade or something. I keep a few park tire boots in my kit for larger slashes (or the old school standby is a dollar bill between the tire and tube to get you home) but I'd generally call the wife-wagon for that too.

Thanks for this info on tubeless ready rims. I ended up talking to my bike mechanic about the Tannus Armor, and he told me that I would be "making" my tires "run flats" (can ride on them if they go flat) and it would be an excellent option for me. He gave me the go ahead to order them, and he'd install them on both bikes. I now have a set for the Giant and a set for the Specialized coming in about 4 days.

Still don't know what caused the tear but it was a fairly big slash. Way too catastrophic to fix, even with the $20 bill I carry with me for a flat tire repair. This was also my first flat on the gravel. The other two times I've had flats over the years have been on the paved roads, both times caused by tiny thorns.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

R2R…
I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus MTB with Tannus Armour.

The Tannus Armours bulks out the tyre, increasing the distance that a sharp object has to pierce its way through before it can do any damage. To make doubly sure, I have glued Panaracer Flataway strips which are made from Kevlar or similar to the inside of the tyres.

Of course, the tubes are filled with sealant.
…David

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Road signs (just for Stefan) …

Brisbane River, Borallon
6.10 am; 12 km from home​

Just the usual suspects… no signs about creepy crocodiles, snappy sharks, slithering snakes and wandering wombats. There'll be plenty of those signs in the tourist shops when they reopen in 2021; or should that be 2022?

 

[Readytoride]

R2R…
I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus MTB with Tannus Armour.

The Tannus Armours bulks out the tyre, increasing the distance that a sharp object has to pierce its way through before it can do any damage. To make doubly sure, I have glued Panaracer Flataway strips which are made from Kevlar or similar to the inside of the tyres.

Of course, the tubes are filled with sealant.
…David

Thanks for the heads up. I'll ask my mechanic about using a sealant in the tubes. Anything I can do to help mitigate the possibility of me standing alone on a rural road, far from rescue, with a flat tire. Lately I've seen first hand far too many casual flats (other people I'm with) not to be a bit spooked.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Them Road Signs

Road signs (just for Stefan) …

Just the usual suspects… no signs about creepy crocodiles, snappy sharks, slithering snakes and wandering wombats

Thank you David! Oh, them road-signs... These are certainly different in Australia, U.S./Canada, and Europe. Even if the EU road-signs are fairly standardised, these look slightly differently in each country, and certainly different local beasts are pictured on them Unlike U.S., Europe prefers symbols to any text on the signs, and especially the signs painted on the road are just symbols (too many languages are spoken throughout Europe to use textual information) . UK seems to be a little different. I used to laugh at the painted warning for pedestrians: "LOOK RIGHT" (look properly?)

"If you don't LOOK RIGHT - your days are numbered!"
/Angelic Upstarts "Teenage Warning"/

The octagon STOP sign looks pretty universal. Europe has imported it from America. St. Andrew Cross is the sign warning against railroad.

A triangle is a warning. Here, "Two dangerous bends ahead, the first turn is to the right". When I was taking my driving lessons, the instructor asked me:
-- What does this sign mean?
-- It's the "Two dangerous bends ahead, the first one might be to the right"
-- Did you say "might be"?!
-- Oh, no, it's "is to the right"!
At that moment the instructor braked the car violently. I was about to miss a dangerous turn to the right...

From left to right: No Entry, One Way, Expressway, Yield after 250 m.

Cows, Wild Quadrupeds for 10 km, Snakes The latter is an information sign of the National Park. We don't want to kill our reptiles, too little of them left here. Especially for you, David!

The white "Inhabited Area" sign indicates the default speed limit of 50 km/h (30 mph).

Multi Use Path

Bike-Only Path. Unfortunately, pedestrians too often ignore the sign and enter such paths, worse, with their dogs...

David, I occasionally post your photos on my private Facebook profile. My friends are delighted with the beauty of your photographs!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

David, I occasionally post your photos on my private Facebook profile. My friends are delighted with the beauty of your photographs!

You are most welcome to do so!

Q: The rarest car in Australia?
A: One with a foreign registration plate.

After almost fifty years (since 1972), I'm still waiting to see my second foreign-registered vehicle. (The first was our VW Kombi.) Of course, the shipping containers on trucks and trains have been to or will go to just about everywhere in the world, Poland included!