This weekend I made it out to Eagle Park on Saturday and the back on the Coast to Vines and Veloway on Sunday. Saturday was warm and very Spring-like. The trails at Eagle were dry, fast, and more crowded than usual. I managed about 20km with about 90 minutes of riding time.  I also managed to flat-spot my rear Crossmax ST and lost some of the ceramic braking surface.  Ugh.

Sunday was also Spring-like, but in this case it was overcast, rainy, and unfortunately very windy.  I started out from home, rode north to the River Sturt Linear Park Path, then to the Veloway, and finally onto the end of the Coast to Vines trail at Willunga.  I turned around there and took the Coast to Vines trail east to Reynella and back onto the Veloway, then back up the River Sturt path and then home.  All of this added up to a total of 101.53km.  This was my first metric century, though a few years ago I did manage a couple non-metric centuries.

Shorty after I took this photo I was attacked by an angry magpie.  Apparently these evil birds like to attack pedestrians and cyclists, but prefer cyclists.  This particular magpie gave me five or six swoops and managed to hit me in the head/helmet a few times.  Next time I ride through this area I may have to take protective measures.  (Thanks to Rachel for these tips.)  Also of note is that these foul birds prefer to attack the head, face and eyes.  Charming.

A couple years ago I bought a Brooks B17 Narrow for my then commuter singlespeed. I used the saddle for a while on the singlespeed, but I didn’t like leaving it outside at a rack or in the rain all day. Since I moved, and later sold the singlespeed, the Brooks sat waiting in a box. In my quest to better fit the Gunnar, I swapped the Flite XO in favor of the Brooks.  So far the Brooks is working out very well.  It is not quite broken in yet, but it is still very comfortable.

On Sunday afternoon I rode the Gunnar and attached Brooks from Marino Rocks to McLaren Vale and back. I rode portions of the Coast to Vines Trail and the Adelaide Southern Veloway for a total of about 64.5km.  Both trails are fairly well marked, but the Coast to Vines Trail does disappear into a rail station for a short distance near Marino.  The trail routes, street crossings and surface quality/maintenance are among the best for paved trails I’ve ridden.  How many bike paths have you seen with a center line, passing zones and large, well maintained shoulders?  The scenery is also spectacular and ranges from the beach (coast) to rolling hills and vineyards (vines).  Overall, this is a great ride.

The Coast To Vines Trail

The Adelaide Southern Veloway (right) and the Southern Expressway (left), the longest reversible one-way freeway in the world.

I want a new stem for my Gunnar cyclocross bike.   The Gunnar currently has a Salsa steel stem that is exactly what I want, but a little too short.

After an exhaustive search I’ve found very few road stems with the 26mm clamp.  Does Thomson make one?  No.  What about Moots?  No.  FSA?  Nope.  Salsa does make a couple stems with 26mm clamps, but the steel version doesn’t come in the length I want, and the one that is the proper length is welded aluminum and looks like it belongs on a downhill bike.  The rest of the current offerings seem to all be forged aluminum clones with slightly different but equally garish logos applied.

I thought I found the perfect stem.  eBay came though with a new old stock ITM/Colnago Ergo Lite.  Unfortunately, the sellers description of a 1 1/8″ steerer with shim to 1″ was incorrect and I now have a nice looking but useless stem.  For anyone considering an Egro Lite stem, note that while there is a shim, it is in fact for angle adjustment and only works for a 1″ steerer.

It seems that the perfectly adequate 26mm road bar has fallen out of favor for the ridiculous looking 31.8mm bar.  Moots, Thomson, Salsa and just about everyone else make varying assortments of 31.8 stems ranging from nice (Thomson) to hideously ugly (Easton).  While trashing my 26mm bar for an otherwise identical 31.8mm bar is a potential solution, replacing the bars, tape and computer mount just to accommodate a silly fad is unnecessary, expensive, and annoying.

Currently it is a toss-up between a 26mm to 31.8mm shim or a new frame.  I’ll let you know what happens.