Author: Mischa

Random Shit

Ah, the soft lull of winter! Everything quietens a little, and apparently the BnC website is no different. Things are still ticking here, albeit slowly and softly. Sometimes it’s just hard to crawl out from under the couch doona and away from the world cup. Never mind that the TdF starts next month, which will lead to a few more weeks of hibernation and bleary eyed days. But it’s winter, right? That’s what we’re meant to do.

Not everyone’s dead quiet though. Jordy and the BnC crew up in Launceston have been tearing it up on the streets of the city. They’ve kicked off the Launceston Fixedwheel Club (LFC) and have been trashing wheels and tearing tyres fairly regularly by the seems of it. If you’re in the area you should get involved. Can’t go wrong with skids and beers as far as I’m concerned. Go check their FB page for details and snaps and good times.

On a more selfish note, I’ve got some more shit for sale. What’s the point of a blog if I can’t flog my unwanted shit on it, right? Most of this is pretty decent gear, so get involved.

Item #1
Wheelset – DT Swiss XR400 rims laced to a 15/20mm Chub front hub and a DT Swiss 340 135mm rear. Double butted black spokes and alloy nipples. Never ridden, never installed. Throwing in a set of new Kenda Small Block Eight tyres and some tubes. They’re $600 (or about $1,300 if you built them yourself). Came off a build kit last week.

Here’s a picture, click to make it big:

Item #2
Brakeset – Avid Elixir CRs with 6″ rotors. Alloy levers. Again, brand new and never installed. Awesome brakes, just not what I wanted. Grab ’em for $420 (inc. postage within Australia). No photo, they look just like the ones on the website.

Item #3
Bicycle – This one’s a pearler! A vintage Michalo road bike in beautiful condition. Sized at 54cm square (c-c). Built by Ron Mitten in Tassie back in 1983, it’s barely been ridden since then. Tubing is Tange Championship #1, their top end tubeset. The componentry is a bit of a mix of Shimano, Sachs, Suntour, Dia-Compe, Tange, etc but all looks to be in great condition. Windowed lugs. Beautiful bike that needs little more than a clean up to become a prime road machine. Someone really needs to ride this thing, ’cause it doesn’t fit me and deserves better than my garage. Out the door at $600!

This is a kinda shitty picture, but you get the idea…

Item #4
Bicycle – Another old schooler. Columbus tubed vintage roadie decked out in a bit of a mix of Shimano and Campagnolo components and wheels. The frame’s super nice, but it has a couple of small dings and scratches, and the paint job kinda sucks (British racing green). Lots of nice bits on it though. This one’s a 56cm square (c-c). Selling it ’cause I never actually got around to riding it. No pictures, but hit me up if you might be interested and I’ll take some snaps. Chasin’ $350 for that sucker.

Just e-mail info[at]bottlesandchains.com if you’re interested in anything. Give me money and I will provide you with quality goods! Sweeeeet.

Anyway, enough of the selling shit. Continue on with your day!

Bigger Cages, Longer Chains

Anyone want to buy a nice wheelset? I’m selling the wheels off my CX bike. They’re sexy as hell and haven’t been ridden much at all. Probably 300km at the most. Have we established that I’m lazy yet?

The details:

What: Velocity Deep Vs (blue) laced to Shimano 105 Black hubs. 32H. Black DT Swiss Competition spokes. Black alloy nipples.
Condition: Excellent! Professionally built (by me), running beautifully true.
Location: Hobart. Can ship interstate at buyer’s expense.
Price: $350 firm.
Contact: E-mail mischa[at]aetheus.com or call (03) 6224 4234 during work hours.
Here they are in all their glory:

Liquid Cocaine

I don’t read the Cycling Tips blog very often, but I followed a link to this delicious page earlier today. It’s making me hungry, and I just ate dinner.

We’re planning a similarly-named BnC race supplement at the moment, but we’re a bit stuck when it comes to how much vodka to put in it. Personally I’m a firm believer in the ‘more is more’ philosophy, but that usually ends up with me on the dance floor at Mobius, which can be hazardous to bystanders.

Breakfast Ridin’

So a few months back we went for a bit of a roll down south. Ben, Kiwi, Hunners and I loaded up and hit the gravel, making our way to Egg & Bacon Bay via a few choice back roads. Hunners came along on his SS roadie and peeled off after a while, while the remaining three of us continued on for an overnight stay and a fine selection of Tassie mussels, bad pub food and far too much (not enough) beer. I took along my ailing old digicam and took a heap of bad, over-exposed, blurry photos. Here they are, and it’s a fine tale they tell…

Motorist Self Restraint – Fail!

“The car’s high speed, particularly relative to walking, creates an aggressiveness that must be constrained. Certainly it has not been possible to rely on the self-restraint of the individual motorist, whose motoring decision-making is usually singularly self-centred.

“For a while it was thought that simply providing more and more street space was the solution. But this has rarely proved effective, and one of the major advances in recent times has been the use of a restricted street system to forcibly civilize the car.”

Strong stuff. Must have been written by a Bolshevik bicyclist? A sandal-chewing, lentil-wearing hippy? An Autogeddonist? A car-hating loon?

Nope.

It’s from a book by Maxwell Gordon Lay, author of Handbook of Road Technology and Ways of the World: A History of the World’s Roads and the vehicles that used them.

His car credentials include being Executive Director of the Australian Road Research Board and he was Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria.



Thanks to Carlton Reid of Quickrelease TV for the heads up on this one.

(Notice the driver in the photo on the f*cking phone)

Renovators Dream

For Sale

An oldie but goody. It is a bit scruffy and in need of a bit of TLC and new tubulars, or a wheel rebuild for clinchers. A complete restoration job would be even better of course.

Aero tubing and Dura Ace DX (?) seat post and stem, Campag headset, Cinelli bars, Gaili Maillard hubs and Sugino crank.

Top tube 57cm, seat tube 54cm (c to c) standover 79cm.

Offers? No idea what it would be worth!

Buy Buy Buy!

Holy shit, the best bike in the world is for sale!

For a complete bastard of a reason, we will no longer be selling Scott brand bicycles in the fine retail establishment that provides me with employment and entertainment. This sucks for several reasons, one of which being that they make pretty sweet bikes and I’ve really quite enjoyed being able to sell them. Another reason and possibly the most sucky-est, is that I kinda have to sell a bike that has been nothing but awesome, and resulted in nothing but thick grins and a giddy head (ok, and a bunch of cursing at myself for not riding it as much as I should). I’ve had my Scott Genius 40 (2009) for just over a year now and it’s been more fun than I could have ever imagined.

The six inches of front and rear travel is pretty much the golden mean of the cycling world as far as I’m concerned. Light enough to get up any hill without much effort at all, but big enough that I’ve been able to hook back down again at speeds far beyond my comfort level (my standard comfort level is: couch, while the trails are usually: swimming with sharks and burly). Not only that, but the forks are Fox TALAS 150s, so they’re plenty versatile(110-130-150mm). Combine that with the small piece of future-tech that is the rear shock and you’ve got a bike that’ll handle pretty much anything you throw it at. The (DT Swiss) Equalizer 2 rear shock has 150mm of travel, but is fitted with a remote lever that allows you to reduce that to 95mm and firm everything up at the same time. It means you get rear wheel travel at a rate that pretty much glues the rear tyre to the ground and will climb up and over anything so long as you keep your legs going round in circles. I am a terrible climber but the Genius has seen me overtake people I really shouldn’t, usually on climbs that I’d probably rather avoid. It’s also got a lockout, for those shitty times when you end up riding up sealed roads.

The whole bike’s in excellent condition. It hasn’t seen nearly as much riding as it should have (ask anyone who knows me), and it spent almost all of last winter inside due to me being a soft bastard who’s afraid of the cold and the rain. The drivetrain’s got plenty of life in it, the forks have no wear at all, and the rear shock is running like a dream. There are a few tiny marks from regular wear and tear, but overall it’s pretty much as sexy as the day I bought it. It’s been serviced regularly and checked, cleaned and lubed after almost every ride (with wax lube, none of that grimy oil).

Anyway, I’m chasing $3,000 for it, which is pretty much a decent price I reckon. It’s a Large size, so if you’re between 5’10” and 6’1″ you’ll probably do alright on it.

If you’re interested (or know someone who might be), drop me an e-mail: mischa[at]aetheus.com

Here are some more beautiful photos of it…

Keep reading for a full spec list…

Continue reading “Buy Buy Buy!”

Monster

Joel came into work yesterday and pointed my eyes at this thing…

It’s a Vassago Fisticuff. I guess the small text under the big text in that picture kinda explains it, but it’s still confusing. It takes 700c wheels, but can run 650b with wider tyres. It takes disc brakes, or rim brakes. Goes geared, SS or fixed. I’m sure it’d work with drops, flats or risers. I really don’t really get it, but I do know that as soon as I saw that picture I decided I want one. It may jsut be the bike-hoarder that lurks just below the surface in me, or maybe it’s all this stickin-it-to-the-man that Matt and Ben have been doing lately. Either way, it gets me a little hot under the collar. It’s been belting down with rain here all afternoon, and that really looks like the kind of bike that should be thrashed in the mud.

So yeah, fairly pointless post, but maybe someone will like it and buy one, then they can bring it to the shop and I can take it for a ride.