RR: I take it all back.. CLEAN YOUR BIKE!

See: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=234

Glenvale Crescent, C Grade Race Report

The Pug is going in for a service one of these days so I thought I
should clean it beforehand so Mick, my poor LBSG, doesn't get upset when
he realises how I treat my hardware.

This road bike has seriously not seen a rag or any form of cleaning
agent for 12 months plus. I'm a bad person, I know, I'm just so damn
LAZY! (and not called hippy for nothing ya know!).
Anyway, last night I cleaned the Avanti hardtail and the Pug. The Avanti
didn't take too long, it was just dusty, but the Pug! My God.. that
thing had more oil+road grime+dead animals than it did metal for the chain!!

It literally took two hours to clean using degreaser, CT18 truck wash,
brushes, sponges and rags!
I wasn't sure the driveline was even going to work once I'd removed the
4 kilos of 'lube cake'! So unsure, in fact, that I put the bike away and
saved the test ride for race morning

After some initial strange noises, the bike settled down and everything
seemed fine. Getting race number 18 was good luck too.. I think?

The race started easy which was good as I was feeling a bit crook (I
wasn't lying to you Louise! ). It wasn't even due to a hangover which
was sad - perhaps Friday night's beers saved their effects for Sunday?

Similar to the last Glenvale race, two weeks ago, C grade was passed by
D grade early on - the pace was really quite low at the start. Then the
breaks began..

Mid-way through and I was doing it easy. A couple of times when the pace
hotted up I checked my HR for reference and it was around the 88% mark
which wasn't too painful given the brief duration of these efforts.

The orange 3 laps to go sign was up:
"Is that really us?" I thought, it just seemed too early.
Next lap around and there's no sign. Okay, I get it, D grade are on
their last lap and they're giving us more time to split up the finishes.

2 laps to go: I'm not in a good position, perhaps mid-field? I have to
move up and I have to do it soon.

1 lap to go: A little bothered by my position, I was relieved when I
easily moved up to the pointy end of the field.

I hear some pedal strikes and now I'm glad I'm up the front!
Just before the last corner, a guy cuts across the front of most of the
field, drawing out some colourful language from other riders (myself
included). I can't be too hard on the guy because he leads me around the
corner - thanks.

I've been in this situation before.. I have the power to win the sprint
but not from this far out.
This time though, I had taken it easy early on in the race and was
feeling good towards the end.
I was pretty sure the guy I followed around the corner wasn't going to
last to the line and I made the decision to go around him and HAMMER!

Half way down the straight, I was pretty sure no one was on me, the jump
around my leadout guy seemed to have taken the others by surprise. I was
getting closer to the line, head down, seated, but not backing off for a
second.
I checked over both shoulders (I should sprint on one side of the road
so I only need to worry about looking over one shoulder) and there was
no one nearby. It seemed I was 5-10m clear and getting very close to the
line...
I was thinking "This one is mine!"
I kept the power on well over the line, racing by my rule of not
throwing hands up or any of that guff that has caused some memorable
losses in other races..
I got it! I was well clear and unless I'd totally stuffed the
'laps-to-go' count, I had won it! I rolled around and asked Mal if I'd won?
"Yep"
"Awesome!"

So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher's for you)

Will this mean I'll clean my bike from now on? Doubt it, but if I need
to pull out all the stops I know what to do hehehe (The Bike Gods are
warming up their lightning bolts as I speak..)

hippy

hippy wrote:
So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher's for you)


Awesome work hippy!... and $90?!!!! phwarrr..

I am still in the unknown about making the move (forced?) to C.. Plan is to
see if I can race C this week at Kew and hold on..


cheers,
GPL

"hippy" wrote in message
...
See: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=234

Glenvale Crescent, C Grade Race Report

The Pug is going in for a service one of these days so I thought I
should clean it beforehand so Mick, my poor LBSG, doesn't get upset when
he realises how I treat my hardware.

This road bike has seriously not seen a rag or any form of cleaning
agent for 12 months plus. I'm a bad person, I know, I'm just so damn
LAZY! (and not called hippy for nothing ya know!).
Anyway, last night I cleaned the Avanti hardtail and the Pug. The Avanti
didn't take too long, it was just dusty, but the Pug! My God.. that
thing had more oil+road grime+dead animals than it did metal for the
chain!!

It literally took two hours to clean using degreaser, CT18 truck wash,
brushes, sponges and rags!
I wasn't sure the driveline was even going to work once I'd removed the
4 kilos of 'lube cake'! So unsure, in fact, that I put the bike away and
saved the test ride for race morning

After some initial strange noises, the bike settled down and everything
seemed fine. Getting race number 18 was good luck too.. I think?

The race started easy which was good as I was feeling a bit crook (I
wasn't lying to you Louise! ). It wasn't even due to a hangover which
was sad - perhaps Friday night's beers saved their effects for Sunday?

Similar to the last Glenvale race, two weeks ago, C grade was passed by
D grade early on - the pace was really quite low at the start. Then the
breaks began..

Mid-way through and I was doing it easy. A couple of times when the pace
hotted up I checked my HR for reference and it was around the 88% mark
which wasn't too painful given the brief duration of these efforts.

The orange 3 laps to go sign was up:
"Is that really us?" I thought, it just seemed too early.
Next lap around and there's no sign. Okay, I get it, D grade are on
their last lap and they're giving us more time to split up the finishes.

2 laps to go: I'm not in a good position, perhaps mid-field? I have to
move up and I have to do it soon.

1 lap to go: A little bothered by my position, I was relieved when I
easily moved up to the pointy end of the field.

I hear some pedal strikes and now I'm glad I'm up the front!
Just before the last corner, a guy cuts across the front of most of the
field, drawing out some colourful language from other riders (myself
included). I can't be too hard on the guy because he leads me around the
corner - thanks.

I've been in this situation before.. I have the power to win the sprint
but not from this far out.
This time though, I had taken it easy early on in the race and was
feeling good towards the end.
I was pretty sure the guy I followed around the corner wasn't going to
last to the line and I made the decision to go around him and HAMMER!

Half way down the straight, I was pretty sure no one was on me, the jump
around my leadout guy seemed to have taken the others by surprise. I was
getting closer to the line, head down, seated, but not backing off for a
second.
I checked over both shoulders (I should sprint on one side of the road
so I only need to worry about looking over one shoulder) and there was
no one nearby. It seemed I was 5-10m clear and getting very close to the
line...
I was thinking "This one is mine!"
I kept the power on well over the line, racing by my rule of not
throwing hands up or any of that guff that has caused some memorable
losses in other races..
I got it! I was well clear and unless I'd totally stuffed the
'laps-to-go' count, I had won it! I rolled around and asked Mal if I'd
won?
"Yep"
"Awesome!"

So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher's for you)

Will this mean I'll clean my bike from now on? Doubt it, but if I need
to pull out all the stops I know what to do hehehe (The Bike Gods are
warming up their lightning bolts as I speak..)

hippy

*applauds*
That must be well satisfying! Well done.

Hippy Hippy Hooray!!!

Well done! The sounds of pedals clipping the ground would definitel
get my heart pumping let alone the riding. I can't believe you hadn'
cleaned the bike for 12 months!!!

--
jazmo

jazmo wrote:
Hippy Hippy Hooray!!!

haha.. how long have you been waiting to use that line?

Well done! The sounds of pedals clipping the ground would definitely
get my heart pumping let alone the riding. I can't believe you hadn't
cleaned the bike for 12 months!!!!

Pedal hits are fine, as long as:
1) it's not my pedals
2) it's not someone in front of me
(oooh... harsh! )

Cleaning? Yeah I know.. I suck. I wipe obvious stuff off the frame but
driveline.. "I'm not touching that! I'll get dirty!"
"I ride in the rain - that cleans the chain for me."
"As soon as I wheel the bike inside, I'm thinking about food, not chain
lube"
etc..

hippy

GPLama wrote:
Awesome work hippy!... and $90?!!!! phwarrr..

Lots of riders = more money.

It sounds like a lot, but its taken me 6 months to go from last to
first. Add up all the hours of training, the coaching, all the worn out
tubes and tyres, any replaced parts and new pieces of kit, all the
powerbars and jelly snakes, gatorade, staminade and saline and you'll
see that $90 barely makes a dent. It's nice, but I'm obviously not doing
it for the money!!

I am still in the unknown about making the move (forced?) to C.. Plan is to
see if I can race C this week at Kew and hold on..

You are obviously strong enough for C grade, winning D straight off the
bat. You shouldn't have too much trouble hanging with C. I don't know
what the Kew fields are like though but you know, there's only one way
to find out..

hippy

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 at 05:46 GMT, GPLama (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
hippy wrote:
So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher's for you)

Schwoit.

Awesome work hippy!... and $90?!!!! phwarrr..

They were debating how to spell that on JJJ the other day. Phwoah
probably.

On that topic, I decided to watch Black Hawk Down lastnight instead of
getting an early night. Do all army guys grunt a "phwarr" as an
acknowledgement?

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
If the plural of moose is meese the singular of sheep must be shoop.
--Hetta on RHOD

"hippy" won in message...
See: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=234

So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

$90 and 30min massage voucher (Carl, this voucher's for you)

hippy

Congratulations hippy! You are now free to leave the country.

Parbs

hippy wrote:

So, I finally have my Glenvale C-grade win!

Great stuff! Maybe having a dirty bike was my problem this week ;-)

hippy Wrote:
See: http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=234
It literally took two hours to clean using degreaser, CT18 truck wash,
brushes, sponges and rags!
I wasn't sure the driveline was even going to work once I'd remove
the
4 kilos of 'lube cake'!

those 3 wheeled brushes in a chain bath of citrus cleanser are trul
impressive, and reward the lazy

--
aeek