bike of the month?

letter from ray

Hi

I read your site occassionally and enjoy it. I read as part of it that you may be interested in what some of ride and why.

Well, I would like to show you my bike and some photos if I may.

The bike was given to me by a work collegue who has had it for a long time. It’s a Ricardo Viva 7 speed..then. Now it is a rebuilt yellow single speed fixie.

I have included a photo of 'before' and a couple of the 'after' ones. My panel beater friend painted the ole steel frame and new carbon forks ( the original forks were bent from an altercation with a tree) for me in a current Foed colour…the only Ford thing I own by the way…and the rest was done by me. Another friend from a LBS built the wheels using a pair of ancient french track hubs I stumbled on….the ball bearing type..and they polished up beautifully. I also stumbled across the Tinker Juarez saddle as a throw out in another shop and it suits the bike too. I polished the cranks too, to finish it off. It rides really well and I love fixies!!

So I hope you enjoy the shots and I look forward to your continueing blog.

Thanks

Ray

Global Gutz

Picture this:
heavy rainfall, gailforce winds, and no sunshine... good riding conditions?

YES.

Some dandy Facts:
-only 8 people made it to the start line
-5 minutes into the race, almost everyone crashed into the same curb...
-because of fact #2, Harry did the whole race (21km) with his front wheel rubbing against the brakes
-tail winds down Mounts bay, Adelaide terrace and Riverside drive are fun
-headwinds on the South perth foreshore are not so fun
-Brendan is the master of running away from cops
-Didn't see this, but I sure did hear it... turning off from kings park, Simon did a suicide plunge into mounts bay road.. accidentally unclipped, and all I heard was: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

cheers for a great race

Prawi

ACMC Easter weekend 2009

2009 was a year for firsts. The first year that the ACMC has come to Perth, the first year we included an element of state rivalry (although this needs some ironing out) and also the first year bicycle polo has been included.

Sadly Simon and Moosh took a tumble on the first night whilst riding through the mall and had some pretty severe injuries to show for it. Fortunately, as the great man says, skin grows back, but it did write them out of the competition. Another rider who managed took take a pretty vicious tumble was the legendary Danos of Adelaide who had a really nasty fall on the Saturday night riding to Bassendean. He was unable to compete in Sundays events. Props to Danos for making the awards round at Brads and for representing Adelaide solo!

Bingles aside the competition was awesome. Friday we raced a criterium around Kings Park in which nigh on 70% of people managed to cheat so badly they were disqualified. I love the fact that they cheated and then admitted they’d cheated when they got back to the finish. True courier honour there. respect! Personally I think that given the nature of the job it would have been hard not to cheat. However enough of us didn’t cheat to make the race stand. Safa pulled in first with Lane a very close second. I think it was the shotgun on the beer. Proof that a good courier always carrys a pen!

The first round of Polo was played on the Friday morning. I couldn’t make it but nuff respect to Pete, Ray and Damon for showing off Melbourne’s burgeoning bike polo scene in glorious colours and to everyone from Perth and Sydney for making it after a night on the sauce.

Day two saw us out at the track. Originally supposed not to count toward the competition everyone put in such an incredible effort and enjoyed themselves so much that we decided to put the times in. Corey from Melbourne took first place. He was the first one round the track and everyone else spent their time trying to beat him. Great riding from everyone involved! The time trial was very tough with everyone but the first three taking the ride in the pitch black, no easy feat given that the lane ways aren’t lit at all. Loche had it hardest by far as he was fourth off the ranks so the guys on the checkpoints had not set up the aids that those following him benefited from but he did not have the advantage of the sun light that the first three had had. Sadly he got badly lost and his time reflected that. He took it well though and the checkpoint helpers were incredible in giving the riders that followed incredible guidance, making use of rubbish bins and loud voices to help the riders round the circuit. I was manning a checkpoint for Lanes shoot through and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone take a corner as fast as he took the penultimate corner of the course.

The final day we crammed an enormous amount in. In the morning were the finals of the bike polo. Big shout out to Melbourne whom took out the top spot with a display of grace, skill and genuine sportsmanship. The cargo race was next. Thanks to Alex and Xtian for doing the hard work at the final checkpoint. Luckily we had a nice quiet spot to ride the race. Barely a car passed through the trading estate we had chosen. Despite a bit of confusion at the checkpoints about what should have been accepted where, all the riders bar one completed the race and stacked up all possible additional points. The top five were all very close but Lane took the top position with a truly titanic ride, almost made up for the outfit at the track the day before!

We then moved across the river to run sprints and skid competitions. Safa took the top position with a photo finish between him and Corey that was as close as a whisker. Robbie took the skids with a 96m skid. As the sun went down we all left to grab a bite to eat and rode to the meet point for the next race. Put together by the infamous Bene, known as the car park challenge. This was the closest to a typical Perth alleycat we had. It was a fast sprint through the city taking in as many of the car parks as we could. I loved the fast ride up and down the car parks and although we did make a couple of errors on along the way we enjoyed the ride immensely. There is nothing like riding through the city streets at night! Brian and Lane tussled for first and second while Corey and Nick fought for third and fourth. A really great final race. After that we took advantage of the clear car park to go for the track stands and backward circles. Jamie could probably have gone on still longer but managed an incredible 14 circles. Casper came close (ish) with 11 and nobody else could even touch them.

It was a fantastic ACMC and a real honour to host it in Perth. It gave riders here an opportunity to meet some of the best riders, actually scratch that, some of the best people from all over Australia. A huge thanks to everyone that competed. Those that made the trek from the eastern states and those that worked hard to give everyone the best Perth has to offer.

H