Fat Tyre Flyer

Since I bought my new Bianchi road bike, my old faithful Surly Cross Check has been sitting idle in the shed. After more than 15,000km of faithful service I had no intention of selling the frame and it's too good a bike to leave idle. Gradually over the last few weeks, I'd been scrounging up the parts to turn it into something useful.

There are miles and miles of lightly-trafficked dirt roads near my place. They're a bit harsh on skinny road bike tyres but a mountain bike is overkill. So I've turned the Surly - which was designed as a cyclocross bike - into a fast tourer. I whacked on some 32mm tyres, some friction shifters and my favourite Stronglight 46-36-26 chainset and it has come up a beauty.

Truth be told, the first test ride wasn't all that auspicious. As befits a Frankenbike, the left crank arm came loose every 500m, I snapped the chain and had two snakebite flats (front and rear) because the tyres were underinflated. All in 20km. So it was back to the shed for some fine tuning.

I rolled the Cross Check out again on Saturday. Because the previous ride was such a disaster, I had pretty low expectations. The nearest shop of any description is in Huonville, which is about 18km from my place, and the best route is along the North Huon Road which follows, unsurprisingly, the north bank of the Huon River. The first 10km is unsealed.

But didn't the Cross Check love it? With a bit more air in the fat knobby tyres, she went like a rocket. Not only did I zoom into town and zoom back after lunch at the cafe, but I enjoyed it so much I did it again today. Even the 2km, 250m climb back to my place was fun. I love my Bianchi, but the Cross Check reminded me why it would be my choice if I could only have one bike. I'm tossing up our next challenge, a dirt road century ride down to Cygnet or maybe having a crack at the 50km each-way trip commute to work, which includes 1000m of climbing. It might be some last minute but much-needed training for the Alpine Classic!

152km so far this year.

Slow news week.

Some random stuff for a Thursday. I'm staying off the bike for a week. After busting a gut to reach 6,000km for the year, I've gone a bit stale. Might do some miles on the weekend - slowly and for fun.

• Something momentous must be afoot in the world when the Wall Street Journal recommends to American people they reconsider their relationship with the motor vehicle. Something momentous indeed.
  

• The people who did the memorable Do The Test cycle safety TV commercial have done another one, which I reckon almost tops their first effort.

• If you like quirky, you'll love Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery. There aren't many comic strips set in bike shops - this one would up there in the top ten.
  

• And Kent's post on his commute, Three Hour Tour, is a lovely piece of writing.
  

• And we all know bikes outsold cars last year. And we all know why.
  

61km so far this year.

Day Zero once more

Another year over and the odometer resets to zero once more. How was 2008 for you bikewise? Apart from a few glitches it wasn't a bad year for me. Although some of my targets seem a little ambitious in hindsight, I did pass last year's mark of 6,000km with a day to spare. Interestingly, I covered the distance a couple of hours quicker. Not much of an improvement but at least I didn't go slower.

At the start of the year I set eight goals, here's how I went:

1. At least 7,200km on the bike. A 20% rise.

Fell slightly short of that one. If 1200km is slight. Can't complain about 6041km, but could have done better. I was badly let down by be effort in February when I rode only 104km. Mind you, November made up for it with 705km. I'm going to try to be more consistent this year. I wouldn't mind trying for a 1,000km month or two, like Treadly and wurple did.

The 6,000km mark came up on the grandly titled Hobart Intercity Cycleway, inbound just past the Tasman bridge near the angry seething seagull rookery.

2. Finish the year in the top 1,000 riders on bikejournal.com

Not even close, I came in about 1300th.

3. At least 366 hours in the saddle - one hour a day for the leap year.

I'm not unhappy with 287 hours (12 days solid riding) , although it was an hour less than the year before! Doing fewer 200 and 300km Audax rides had cut into my hours a bit. In 2006, my best year, I did 6400km in 300 hours on 136 rides.

4. At least 183 rides - on the bike every second day. A 42% increase.

Final total 179 rides. Pretty damn close.

5. Lifting my average speed to at least 22.5km/h. A 4% increase!

Result: 21.46km/h. A speed increase of 20 metres an hour faster. 0.09%. Break out the champagne!

6. Seeing how many days in a row I can ride at least 10km, starting on January 1.

12 days before I got stale and sick of it.

7. Riding at least 400km in the Oppy (360km last year) and completing the 200km Alpine Classic within the time limit (130km last year).

387km in the Oppy. Damn close. Didn't finish the Alpine due to a hangover. Not close. Not smart either.

8. Blog more.

No joy here either. 44 posts, down from 58. Slack. Though this blog mainly continues to be a long conversation with myself, it is approaching to 200 post mark without having managed to impart much useful information. Still, I suppose that's what most blogs do anyhow.

This year's goals are fewer in number: 7,200km on the bike; top 1,000 finish on bikejournal.com; 300 hours in the saddle over at least 180 rides; average speed to more than 22.5km/h; complete at least 360km in the Oppy, 130km in the Alpine and ride enough Audax events to win an award.

20.9km so far this year.