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According to his coach, he had a split/cut to the sidewall of one of his tyres so he had to backtrack to a town with a bikeshop

@Rik_Van_Looy yeah, that would have been me, out in the sun, I think I fell asleep on the grass !!!

@Rik_Van_Looy I do ride this event and I have ridden a Klein and a Merlin on it, so possibly it was me. What were you riding at the time?

I am currently commuting on an XLM Merlin, but I have no photos of it that are worthy !!!

@Saarf Somewhere on this site are pictures of the two Kleins as we rode them to Paris in under 24 hours a few years ago

@saarf they were mine, they just hang on the wall and come out sometimes. I should post some photos of mine and the wife's commuters, but I am to lazy !!!

Passed Boris J on the way home, it has been the highlight of my cycling career

Cunting fucking Uber mini cabs
Cunting fucking peds that step out
Cunting fucking cyclists that run the reds at the three way junction at Tower Hill and I nearly t-bone or get t-boned. I had the fucking green !!!

It is days like these I think to myself, why do I commute on my pushie !!!

Rode to the hospital for an x-ray, then to Fulham to get some wine coolers for the wine that I also bought, and now off to Wimbley doan to enjoy a game of tennis or two

My girlfriends Merlin, the day before she rode the Mallorca 312

@danstuff this was my third time for the ride. It is always fast but the Fench/Swiss French don't like taking the front !!!

The Nove Colli is on the wanted list

A lap of Lake Geneva during the Cyclotour du Leman. Tough headwind from Geneva to Lausanne, without this, it would have been a sub 5 hour ride for 175ks, but it was still a PB

https://www.strava.com/activities/310724361

Why pay £75? I find it a joke that they sell a product and it does not last. My first one was two years old and they replaced it for free, and the next one died a similar death to yours after 9 months. When I hit them up, they told me that the devices that they send out are in fact new and not refurbished, it was after we discussed that a device should last longer that they relented and gave me another for free. I did explain that my GF has had an 800 for over 3 years and never had a problem. I think it is hit/miss with these !!!

@7Üp possibly, but next time, she wants a green one, to many Kleins, not enough colourful covers !!!

I've always loved the term, a girl in every port, but my girlfriend has always said no !!! So the next best thing was to have a bike, wherever we go !!!

With a niece getting married in Sydney, one day we were riding the Mallorca 312, a couple of days later, we were standing in the rain at a wedding in Sydney, and all I could think was, we need to get the bikes out of storage and ride !!! But once this was done, she was very reluctant to take hers out in the rain !!!

After waiting 4 more days for the rain to stop, we finally hit the road on a route that most people from the North Shore ride, the four gorges, but we decided to throw in another hill for good measure !!!

The steeds

Hers - 1993 Klein Attitude
Mine - 1985 custom Reynolds 531 frame with 6 speed 106 52/42 12/21. It makes it interesting going up the hills !!!

We set out, it was pretty humid, and 7ks later, we were at the top of our first hill, Bobbin Head, 4ks down, 5ks up, loads of cars cutting through the National Park going the other way, we had a nice pleasant ride till we hit Asquith where the peak hour traffic was on the highway. We jumped onto the next road, and not long after, we were flying down to Galston Gorge, and then the climb back up the other side, but this one was covered in traffic, and amazingly, the Sydney drivers gave us room !!! Once up, we rode through to Arcadia and out the otherside until we were now at the top of the hill down to Berowra Waters. We flew down the hill and jumped on the waiting ferry

Off the ferry, we pushed on up the hill and into Berowra. Normally, most people turn right at the lights and head back to Bobbin Head, but I wanted to go on the old Pacific Highway down to Brooklyn as it is a lovely ride down and I had never climbed back up, so with this, we flew down at her speed. We passed the turn off for Brooklyn and rode over the bridge. Once on the otherside, we chucked a u-turn and headed back up the hill. The traffic was minimal so it was a very nice climb.

Back along the highway until Mt Colah, we dropped back into Bobbin Head for the downhill. I have driven, ridden this more times than I've had hot dinners, the road is fast, and it just flows, even though I don't live here anymore, I reckon I could ride this blindfolded !!! At the bottom, we rode slowly up the other side as we were starting to feel it in our legs, well, actually it was me due to the gears that I push !!!

At home, being the domestique, I was made to wash the bikes as they were going to be put away in storage again till the next wedding/funeral/etc/etc !!!

And finally, the strava - https://www.strava.com/activities/297731458

Rode the Mallorca 312 yesterday, pretty amazing experience, mountainous the first 140, flatish the next 172. Awesome experience, we did an 11:45 riding and a 12:16 total. Didi the devil was handing out beers with 21ks to go, so it was rude not to

In Mallorca, about to do breakfast before the Mallorca 312 challenge

I use the magnets, never had a problem with them

Picture/link?

@iltmimi, it does not work

I asked the question about size, and here is their response

"Thank you for your email. The Garmin mounts have a 31.8mm clamp size as standard, they are supplied with shims to allow them to be fitted to 25.4mm handlebar."

Took a nice ride out to Mount Franklin as my girlfriend had not been up it, she also wanted to see the emus so this time, we stopped

Once at the top, the views are not anything stunning, just trees

The hardest thing about the ride were those pesky skiing kangaroos !!!

We had one last stop as it was raining, but it was 30 degrees !!!

Then back to the house for an Aussie bbq, and as we are in a fire ban, this is an electric bbq !!!

Last year, just before my annual visit to Australia, I discovered a website about mountains in Victoria - http://theclimbingcyclist.com/, there was also a link about the 7 Peaks Challenge, but as we did not have enough time, we went out to Bright to have a look at a few of them. We rode two, Mount Hotham and Mount Buffalo, and three months before this years trip, I looked into doing all 7

Now we only had 5 days to ride 7 mountains, perfectly doable but there was to be a huge amount of driving, 295ks to get to the start of climb 1, Mount Baw Baw

It is written, ranked among the hardest road climbs in Australia, the ascent of Mt. Baw Baw presents a challenge for cyclists of all abilities. The first half of the climb is friendly enough but at an average gradient of over 10%, the second half of this climb is not for the faint of heart.

I turned my Garmin on at the start, and it was dead, so I tried my phone instead !!! At the Gantry, the final 6.5ks averages 11%, and it just ramped up. There was no respite, thankfully, it was 12 degrees with mist so we couldn't see what was coming, and to get to the end, my legs were happy

https://www.strava.com/activities/255569812

127ks later, we were in Marysville, and this time my Garmin did work as we hit the base of Lake Mountain, but it died within a K or 2 !!! As for this climb, the temp was 31, and 21.3ks, this was going to be a little bit tough after Baw Baw, however once over the initial 4.4ks with an average of over 8%, it was plain sailing, and it wasn't long before we had arrived at the finish

109ks later, we stopped in Mansfield where steak was on the menu

https://www.strava.com/activities/255643772

Up early, we drove down to the start of Mount Buller, eager to get the 3rd climb out of the way. Only 16.8ks long with an average of 5.9%, the lower parts were very mild, but with 4ks to go, it ramped up towards 15%, and you could feel it in your legs as we ground out the remainder of the climb. Maybe a bit sadistic, we also took the optional K ride just for the views !!!

We also found that my phone was nearly doubling the Garmin ion altitude so my climbing stats were looking impressive !!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/255982727

177ks later, we were in Bright

It was raining when we awoke so we decided to climb Mount Hotham. This is most probably the hardest as there are millions of flies, and the way the last third ramps up. Basically, it is a climb with three sections. The first section just goes up until the Meg where it hits over 10%, the next 10ks, you are in a false flat and you can pedal along at a nice pace, whilst the last 10ks have sections of over 11%. There are also 2 very fast downhill sections, but as the road was slippery, my GF took these very easily. We also hit many crosswinds as we made our way along the ridge, and with the temp only at 10, the windchill made it feel colder

https://www.strava.com/activities/256436845

Up early the next morning, we drove back on up to Hotham, onwards to Dinner Plain. Now the start of this one was another 43ks to Omeo, but we decided to ride there instead of riding back to the car. It was a very undulating ride and we could see what we would be in for. We passed a few guys going up and they looked like they were struggling !!!

After a quick toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich, we hit the climb. 43ks with and average of 2.2%, the first 8ks sit on around 8% and today we could feel it. The road never stopped going up/down and we also had a headwind so I took my place at the front and dragged my GF along. The plan was to break 3 hours, but she got home in 2:29 !!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/256882950

Mentally, this was tough, but we were now home and hosed, so we we hit Bright Brewery

We had 2 mountains left, a long one at 29.5ks and another at 24ks

Falls Creek is another mountain that is split into thirds. The first section has only 4.5ks of climbing at 5% and once over that, the road undulates for 12ks and after this section, you are only 27 metres higher !!! The last 13.5ks just goes up and didn't drop below 6%. As we reached the end, we knew we were now so close to the finish, that we could smell it

https://www.strava.com/activities/257268749

After a quick lunch, we drove to the base of Mount Buffalo. After 6 mountains, we could both feel it in our legs, it was also getting hot, the temp was now at 32, so we took off, not wanting to break any PBs, just survive till the finish !!!

Halfway up the climb, the temp had reached 35, but as we got higher, the temp started to drop. The road went on and on until we crested the last rise and found the turn off to Dingo Dell where a cafe was waiting. It was great to finish !!!

After a quick coke, we rode back down and spoke to some other cyclists telling then there were snakes on the road so to watch out !!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/257336210

It had been an epic 5 days, one that I can recommend if you ever are in the Alpine part of Victoria

It is always great to escape the cold, and as we have a couple of road bikes stored 130ish ks outside of Melbourne, it was time to do some summer riding.

From snow one day, we jumped on a plane, got in late, and once up, we pulled the bike boxes out of the garage and re-built them, it was lunchtime when they were ready, 30 degrees in the shade, but there was a 70k ride awaiting including the clime of Mount Tarrengower which houses a fire tower

Suffering from jet lag sucks, so we were up quite early and I had a ride mapped out. I had stolen it from the Condor Mavic JLT team as they are presently based down the road. Massive cycling area as the Aus champs are held not far away either.

Out we went, just to do a 100is k ride, taking in Mt Alexander, but within 20ks, I had my first puncture

and before we hit the base of the climb, I found my second !!!

Just before the climb, we came a cross a huge kangaroo just sitting in the middle of the road, but alas, no photo !!!

For the third ride, we drove into Melbourne for breakfast at Cafe Racer. Basically a meeting point for either the beginning or end of rides down Beach road. Some days there are hundreds, but we were not interested in just a 46k ride, we wanted to ride all the way to the end of Port Phillip Bay to Sorrento via Arthurs Seat, a tough 3k climb

After the climb, we went down a different way until we reached Sorrento. It was a nice town, but we rode straight through it until we came to the pier where the ferries arrive

We had come 100ks, so we had another 100 to go, but this time, we just stuck to the coast and enjoyed a tailwind, until it switched with 30ks to go !!!

Still, it was a great day out

Not riding to work in London, but instead decided to ride St Kilda to Sorrento. 12 out of 10 !!!

Wait till the next survey for Sky which gives you 20% off !!!

135ks in the Surrey Hills, no ice !!!