Coffee shop had these cool cutouts in the concrete steps to hold your bike.
Nick’s carbon Oppy with Shimano 105 (the groupset of the people!).
Finally back on the bike and my ass… my ass fucking hurts.
I turned everything upside down but failed to find some bike shorts and I also left my water bottle at home, but damn it felt good to be back on the bike. Only did 2 laps (8kms) but hey it’s a start and Nick and I plan to ride once a week. Psyched!
Dropped in to Deus.
The future is electric.
Mango French Toast.
Was looking for a jacket, settled for a hat.
Awesome catchups with old friend Sean Torstensson. It’s been way too long! Sean’s MS has gotten pretty bad so he’s now using an electric mobility scooter. He calls it “Bumblebee” (it legit transforms!).
Sadly the hoods on my brake levers have perished.
Luckily I found a NOS set of Dia-Compe’s on eBay which should fit (I stupidly threw out the bike stand and stuff in the move so I’ll have to get the bike shop to do this for me).
Thank fuck for cycling shoes that don’t look like cycling shoes!
Love them.
Fingerless gloves with my name on them!
I went down to 99 Bikes in Alexandria to try on some helmets. Walked in wanting a Giro, but this MET just felt so much more comfortable. Still looks like a mushroom on my head though. As good as helmets look in photos, they always look like mushrooms on your head!
My Paino.
Old (amazingly it was recently painted by Peter Fleming at Star Enamelers, same guy who painted my Paino!).
New.
This bike raced in the 2019 edition of L’Eroica, an amazing annual vintage bicycle ride that starts in the lovely village of Gaiole in Chianti in Italy (PS: also painted by Peter Fleming at Star Enamelers!).
I picked up my Paino today from Europa Cycles. New cables and air in the tyres. I’m (almost) ready to ride!
Also managed to take a few snaps in the shop. Some things don’t change (and I’m so happy about it!). Steel is real and I love your old stuff better than your new stuff!
Spent a beautiful weekend in the mountains with Gina who treated me to a lovely B’Day lunch at a gorgeous little restaurant called Ates in Blackhealth.
Nick and I have been talking about catching up over rides at Centennial Park instead of coffees (we can do both!). I’ve been browsing bikes online and no matter how hard I try to hit the buy now button on “that’ll do bikes” I always end up perving on hot Canyon aero bikes instead.
In the end I decided to drag the old 80’s Paino road bike out of my storage cage and drop it off at Europa Cycles in Kensington for a tune up. The legend, John Abeni (shop owner) wasn’t there, but his son was (and I hear John is still around and well which is awesome), and as expected, there were still some really awesome old school road bikes in the shop on display.
In prep I’ve decided to swap out the old Campagnolo pedals and cages (they’re busted anyways) for some Shimano SPD pedals and so glad I stumbled upon these SPD compatible adidas Velosamba’s.
Always good catchups.
Driving her to the airport!
My friend Jas is off to live in China for a bit. Massive move! I’m terrible at travelling alone (let alone grasping the concept of moving to another country) so I respect anyone that does. Follow her journey: https://www.tiktok.com/@jasminiag
