Welcome to the mid September edition of the newsletter. We have had some challenging rides in the last couple of weeks with the a UAF ride and the Hippy Highway. In this edition you can read about some recent rides and I continue my maintenance journey with my skipping high gear.
I asked this year’s riders for a half page or so of recollections whilst some write a longer report. When I discussed this with George Row he said he spent the entire ride looking at Dave Minter’s back so I asked what else could he tell us. Please read his snipped here
Ruth Brown completed her first PBP this year. I caught up with Ruth on the River Loop social ride this week and Ruth is still on a high from France. You can read Ruth’s recollection here
We have a collection of ride reports this edition.
Tara Horner had rode a permanent re-run of the 400km Freedom Ride that she started earlier this season. Whilst not a perfect ride, Tara clearly shows the Audax spirit in her ride report. Read on….
Brett Fyfield completed the Goat Track Gambol a couple of weeks ago. he recalls: “I love the goat track, but I’m normally inclined to head straight back home via Mt Nebo after climbing it any other day. So, to take off into the flatlands on the other side of the Mt Glorious was an adventure worth having. The ride includes a luxury gravel climb, a gnarly descent and plenty of rural kilometres. Oh my, Marburg is a strange little town. Thanks to Tara for putting on such a good event. Thanks to my riding buddies Miles, Paul and Peter. I should have followed Peter and not my Garmin.” You can watch Brett’s video ride report here
Once again Mark Harris provided us with a pictorial ride report of the Goat Track Gambol which may be morphing into more of a very short graphic novel:
Whilst not an Audax, yours truly recently took the opportunity to take part in the Ride the Range 2 held recently. This was a once only opportunity. You can read my experience here
This is an excellent ride with a couple of steep sections. 8 riders completed with times between 8 3/4 hours and 10 hours
16 riders completed this tough ride with times ranging between 8 hours and just over 11 hours.
4 Riders took part in the extended breakfast ride with all completing in just under 2 1/4 hours.
This is an excellent ride if you can stay in the peleton. It has a few simple rules: it is a group ride, 22.5kmh average speed between controls, a minimum of 4 riders starting, 3 finishing and a 12 hour completion time. 5 riders completed this year. Well done with the winds on the day.
I recall thinking in the last edition that I had rectified the problem of the skipping high gear. Unfortunately not – I discovered this on the quicker sections of Ride the Range. The day after I proceeded to investigate further to see what the cause was but first I will cover off what I had tried in an attempt to fix it:
Swapped the 11 tooth gear with a new one, swap out the chain, put the wheel on my other bike (no issue when I did this), replaced the cable inner and outers, re-aligned and re-indexed the rear derailleur – all to no avail. I had arrived at the assumption (because I couldn’t actually see what was going on) that the chain didn’t have enough tension on enough teeth to stay put. I had a bit of a google to see what the cause could be and most responses came to replacing the derailleur, changing to a slightly smaller cassette and the ever so obvious – buy a new bike. With all these options off the table, I started to have a play with the derailleur and see what the movement was like. Without the chain on the bike, the derailleur pivot was a bit sluggish. I looked at the cage tension as well and thought that maybe I was pushing my luck with a 32 tooth derailleur on a 34 tooth cassette as well.
More googling revealed that the 105 rear derailleurs can be partially dis-assembled for servicing – this is for the pivot springs and the jockey wheels. The parallelogram can’t be field serviced. A caution – the springs are under tension, can be re-assembled or tensioned the wrong way round and have little bits you can lose.
Needless to say, I disassembled each section one at a time, cleaned everything and used some spray on lithium grease to provide lubrication. on my first attempt I tensioned the pivot spring the wrong way (gee that chain looks really loose) injuring myself with the screwdriver when taking it apart for the second time. When re-assembling the cage pivot, I added a bit of additional tension using the second spring hole in the cage. On my test ride, I needed to do a final adjustment on the indexing but all is now working as expected. All I can say is a very good learning experience particularly where more than one item added to the problem.
To view the full Audax calendar, please head to https://www.audax.org.au/public/ridecalendar
Starting on the edge of Brisbane’s northern suburbs and heading west towards the hilly Brisbane Hinterland, this ride will offer you stunning views when climbing Mt.Mee and flowy rides through cattle property’s as well as breath taking downhills on serpentine roads. Start time is 6:30am. 1600m of climbing.
5:30 am start opposite the Regatta Hotel. This is a loose group ride with assembly locations at key points along the ride. Breakfast at Plenty in West End.
7am start with a choice of rides around the Scenic Rim on quiet country roads. 2 distances on offer to suit all riding abilities. All roads are public roads and can be ridden on 28mm+ tyres.
5:30am start opposite the Regatta Hotel with breakfast at West End. The 100km continues over Mt Coottha and to Wacol and returning to the Toowong Roundabout.
6am start at Samford a hilly 200 taking in Mt Glorious, Somerset Dam, Kilcoy, Woodford and Mt Mee. Very scenic, a nice 200, stacks of fun.
5:30 am start opposite the Regatta Hotel. This is a loose group ride with assembly locations at key points along the ride. Breakfast at Plenty in West End.
6:30am start at Noyer Park Windaroo – two distances, excellent scenery and some nice little pinches.
6am start at Crows Nest with a scenic and hilly ride over the Bunya Mountains before returning to Crows Nest.
5:30 am start opposite the Regatta Hotel. This is a loose group ride with assembly locations at key points along the ride. Breakfast at Plenty in West End.
That wraps it up for this edition. If you have any interesting articles or ride reports, please send them to me at qld.communications@audax.org.au