BiciSport TTT Training @ Terrey Hills @ 26 May - Stewart Campbell with the Green Beast
BiciSport TTT training @ Terrey Hills @ 26 May - L to R … Stewart Campbell, Graham Cockerton & Eric Dole (hidden is Randolph Baral behind Eric)
BiciSport TTT training @ Terrey Hills @ 26 May - Jordan Reizes leads Pilu Racing
BiciSport TTT training @ Terrey Hills @ 26 May - today was full of highlights … sitting on Booralie Rd watching the BiciSport teams fly past just after 8am & I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Ray Blackett who owns the somewhat unique Bash Car. That was sooo much fun & what a character & gentleman. Mike O’R
BICISPORT MEMBER NEWS
HEZ Industrial Estate @ Kurri Kurri @ 25 May - A good quality field of 140 starters took the start. A grade - Rhett Hall finished in the main peloton. C grade - Ruth Strapp finished 6th in C grade.
UCI Gran Fondo World Championships @ Poland @ September - Ruth Strapp is joining Peter & Melissa Budd in the Poland this year after qualifying at the B2B in Bathurst in March.
BICISPORT SPECIAL EVENTS NEWS - NEW EVENTS NOW ADDED, OTHERS UPDATED
New Special Events added or updated on the BiciSport website now include -
Singleton Recce & Gunnedah Tamworth Road Race - June 15 & 16
with Conor Tarlington, Ruth Strapp & Rhett Hall
Cervelo Masters Series - June 10 & 23, July 14
Sydney Metropolitan Championships (Penrith Lakes) - July 6
a full compliment of BiciSport riders will compete across all Divisions
Goulburn Weekend - September 7 & 8
with Ian Grainger & Conor Tarlington
NSW Masters Road Championships (Coffs Harbour) - September 21 & 22
with Ian Grainger
CA Masters Road Championships (Adelaide) - October 3-6
with Ian Grainger
Sam Miranda Weekend (Wangaratta, Vic ) - October 11-13
with Conor Tarlington
NSW TEAM TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - NEXT TRAINING SESSION IS 2 JUNE AT CALGA
Next BiciSport TTT training session is set for Sunday 2 June @ ATTA Calga from 8.30am onwards. All welcome
BiciSport will be again entering several teams into the NSW Teams Championships to be held over the 3-4 August weekend in Singleton.
Full BiciSport team details (accommodation, dinner & club ride details) are now posted on the Special Events page of this website.
If you enjoyed the Greenwell Point-Nowra experience then Singleton will come as a real surprise with a great circuit, improved accommodation & better dinner venues and a Sunday BiciSport club ride on traffic free roads. A weekend not to be missed & hope to see you there.
RACING THIS WEEK
2 June - Western Sydney Dragway @ Eastern Creek (Waratah Masters)
2 June - ATTA Individual Time Trial @ Calga (includes BiciSport teams for Singleton)
BICISPORT GROUP RIDES THIS WEEK - FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT 0417 403 244
* Motor traffic conditions are now HEAVIER with the NSW School Term in full swing
* Note -
Avoid central City
Due to the Vivid light show in central Sydney City all traffic conditions are heavy until June 15
Roadworks
Forest Way (at Forestville) … taking longer to resolve than the Operation Puerto cycling drug bust !
Mona Vale Rd (Bahai Temple to Mona Vale) … road widening has commenced with a completion date of 2022.
All group rides are cancelled if wet
27 & 29 & 31 May
Centennial Park Lower Loop @ 7.30am (to 9.30am)
28 May
Hills Nursery Terrey Hills @ 8.00am for Akuna Bay & West Head
28 & 30 May
Waratah Peloton @ pass the corner of Yulong Ave & McCarrs Creek Rd Terrey Hills @ 7.50am for Akuna Bay, top of McCarrs Creek Rd climb at 8.25am, then direction Duffys Forest, then return Terrey Hills shops @ 9.00am then to St Ives for coffee
29 May
Wise Monkey Cafe Gruppetto @ Berowra Railway Station @ 7.30am for 60k to Calga & return
30 May
Happy Wheels Waterloo Ride @ 6.00am @ Happy Wheels bike shop at Waterloo.
Centennial Park Ride @ 10.30am @ Spruce Goose Cafe
1 June
Cnr Mill Park Street & Walker St Rhodes (at the Cafe) @ Rhodes @ 8.00am (6 x 10k loops around SOPA).
BiciSport Coffee at Miramare Sandstone Cafe (enter off Myoora Rd) @ 9.30am
2 June
BiciSport Team Time Trial Training @ Calga ATTA from 8.30am @ Jones Rd
BICISPORT BIKES IN THE PELOTON - NIGEL SMITH SPECIALISED TARMAC
Miramare Gardens @ 25 May - Nigel Smith (BiciSport) with his Specialised Tarmac
I have been cycling with Mike O’Reilly for the best part of 30 years, and count myself very fortunate to have enjoyed a life long friendship & heavily influenced passion for cycling from a young age. I am flattered that my latest bike build has made the club website with a great mates endorsement .
In more recent years as my career has progressed, training time decreased, while financial means increased. This shifted my perspective on what I enjoyed about cycling and how it motivates me. I was less fussed about performance gains (I was never going to be a pro) and more appreciative of the time I had to enjoy the experience of riding that lead to a new motivation to research & build up various bike projects. Needless to say I have learned lots of home mechanic skills, hacks, & tips along the way, and a big thank you to watching expert builds on YouTube. However the road bike industry is changing faster than I can keep up with both technically & financially. Seems that 2015 is now retro, and newly released top spec bikes cost more than my wife’s car - how did that happen? $17K for a cobble specific, disk only, etap bike - are you kidding? These marginal gains - all aero - micro segment analysis stats is a bit lost on me, when in actual fact I want the ride to last longer, not get through a training ride as quickly as possible. Time on the bike enjoying the experience of cycling (and coffee with mates) was more important than my time uploaded to Garmin.
So with that in mind, this is the backstory to my “old school passion project” before disk brakes & proprietary frame integration take over the world. With a garage full of tools, spare parts and wheels accumulated over the years, I did not want to see these personal investments (& memories) made redundant for an old school rider who still enjoys box rims, quick release skewers, classic racing frames with round tubes, and mechanical shifting, on builds that I can tinker with at home and source parts as a hobby.
The bike in the photo is my latest project, and probably last build for a while (n+1 no more).
The specs :
* Speciialized Tarmac S Works SL4 size 54cm, in rare BOB colourway.
* Ceramic Speed headset & bottom bracket bearings
* S Works FACT carbon seatpost
* Full Dura Ace 9000 group with 39 x 53 chainset (no longer standard spec these days), & 11 x 28 11 speed cassette
* Deda 42cm bars, 110mm stem & Deda bar tape
* Fast Forward F2A alloy clinchers with DT Swiss 240s hubs (hand built) & swiss stop blue brake pads (very worthy upgrade over standard pads)
* Conti 5000 GP tyres with latex tubes (transforms any wheels I put them on - what a discovery)
* Prologo Scratch2 Nack Saddle - personal fav
* Look Keo Blade pedals
* Garmin 130 computer
* Tacx Teo cage & bottle
* Weight = 6.85kg as pictured
Having owned a number of Specialized S Works bikes since 2010 (they tend to breed in the garage over the winter months), this SL4 Tarmac edition is the most refined ride and classic stage racing bike I have experienced, and makes you want to stay out that extra hour longer. The main highlights are the very low weight, surprising smoothness of the entire package (take a bow DT Swiss hubs, Conti tyres, and 9000 Dura Ace), the BB stiffness with a short wheelbase that translates directly into super confident handling & scalpel sharp cornering on tight turns & switchbacks. This bike absolutely flatters the rider, and is a much better bike than I am as the rider. I couldn’t push this bike to its limits with our surpassing my own, however it’s great seeing it piloted by the best pros in the world when competing in grand tours over all sorts of stages & terrain. It’s all the bike I’ll ever need & a great looking silhouette on a sunny day. The natural high from riding such a great bike stays with you long after ride is over.
It has been a pleasure building this bike in my garage (with not too many tools required), with equal parts of planning the process, sourcing the exact parts I wanted to spec, and dialling it all in to my personal preferences of years spent riding.
These projects do not have to cost a lot if you are prepared to look for closeout deals & be patient when on line looking for bits that pop up on bikeexchange.com.au or eBay. Another tip is to search Pinterest for ideas and colour ways of finishing kit.
As I said at the start, this was a passion project not to be rushed but enjoyed as a process, an outlet for stress, a motivator, and all the more satisfying when riding the end result - that is a unique classic build a personal "time stamp" to be remembered for years to come.
Hope you enjoy these personal insights - happy riding.
Cheers, Nige
Giro D’Italia 2019 - the Gavia Pass last week is looking somewhat snowbound. Lets hope it opens for the grand stage on Tuesday but chances now look slim.
Giro D’Italia 2019 - work continued on the Gavia Pass last week to clear the snow