The hard drive crash delayed a couple of updates I was going to post.  So, without further delay, a boring and potentially nauseating video.  I don’t suggest watching this if you suffer from motion sickness, the camera bounces around quite a bit, and with the video sped up 800% it is pretty rough.

This is the Crafers Bikeway, which runs from Adelaide to Crafers via the Princes Highway.  While the video isn’t all that interesting, or all that steady, it does give an idea of what the route is like.  The Crafers Bikeway is about 10km long, and from Adelaide to Crafers is almost entirely uphill.  This ride was in the afternoon in 35-38°C weather and took about 35-40 minutes to climb and about 15 minutes to descend.

In other news, I’ve decided to make the Gunnar slightly more presentable since it now stays pretty clean and doesn’t see much off-road use.  The paint is in decent shape, but does have some noticeable scratches and chips.  The decals have the most noticeable damage where large portions of the black on silver decal is missing.  I have a set of replacement decals for the frame, but I’m going to save these for some point in the future when I get the frame repainted.  In the meantime, I cut new decals from black vinyl electrical tape.  Many of the letters were touched up, and the second “N” in “GUNNAR” was completely replaced.  Not bad, huh?

Since moving to South Australia, the Gunnar has been used exclusively on the road.  However, the Gunnar has always been set up primarily for trail use.  The small frame and low handlebars are great on the trail, but can be quite tiring and painful on longer road rides, especially on the descents.

Prior to Amy’s Ride I made some changes to better suit the Gunnar to road use.  Having read many, many opinions on road frame sizing and having gone over the geometry and dimensions of my 52cm Gunnar numerous times, I was almost ready to replace the frame.  However, after looking at more appropriately-sized frames, it was clear that a slightly longer and taller stem with my existing frame might be an option.

The new stem is a 120mm 17° Cinelli Via with a 26mm clamp.  It is forged aluminum, cheap, functional and the right size.  It isn’t as nice looking as the Salsa Cromoto, but unlike the Salsa, it was available and not part of a recall.  The new stem moved the bars slightly forward and significantly higher, achieving an effect similar to a larger frame with a taller head tube.  The only drawback taking this route is slightly goofy look that results from the combination of a 25mm spacer and a 17° stem.

Along with the new stem came new bar tape as the brake cables were too short to accommodate the new stem, and the old tape was too worn to reuse.  I would have preferred to replace the old Salsa Goma tape with the same, but, like the Cromoto stem, it was no longer available.  The thinnest most Goma-like tape I found was SRAM Superlight.  The SRAM tape seems slightly thicker than the Salsa tape, but it is less dense.  The texture is not as nice as the Salsa tape either, but it is better than cork.  Wrapping the bars is a little tricky as the Superlight tape does not stretch, but the kinks worked themselves out after one ride.

Finally, I have new tires.  The 28mm Hutchinson Top Speed tires were worn, but in decent shape except for some rips and cuts from road debris.  They were replaced with a pair of Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick 25mm tires.  I was a little apprehensive about going to a narrower, lower volume tire, but so far I’ve been happy with them.  The 25mm wide Vittorias fit on the 22.5mm wide Salsa Delgado Cross rims without a problem, and have a nice cross section when mounted.

The combination of stem and bar tape worked well on the 100km Amy’s Ride.  The taller bars were easier on my neck, descending was much less painful, and I actually looked forward to the next downhill.  The SRAM bar tape was okay, but I preferred the Goma tape.  While I do like the thin, “non-bulky” feel of the Superlight tape, I would prefer something with a similar thickness, but a little more solid/dense.  On the other hand, the new tires worked very well.  They were comfortable, cornered well, and were surprisingly quiet.  The combination of these tires and an almost silent XT rear hub is a nice combination, though it is easy to startle slower riders when overtaking.

Photo Credit: Adelaide Now

Yesterday I rode in the BikeSA 2009 South Australia Amy’s Ride tour from Adelaide to McLaren Vale.  From the Amy Gillette Foundation:

Amy’s Ride provides the Amy Gillett Foundation with an opportunity to proliferate key messages of safe and responsible road use, increase awareness to the need for more shared respect, raise much needed funds and honor the memory of Amy.

The above photo is from the Adelaide Now story and photo gallery covering the ride.  As mentioned in the article, the weather was hot and sunny, and over 3,000 riders took part in the event.

I rode the 100km route that began at Flinders University, went down the Southern Expressway, then along the coast to Willunga, then up into the hills and finally back down to McLaren Vale.  The Southern Expressway, Willunga Hill and some other sections of the route were closed to car traffic.

The Expressway starts out with a steady 4km climb and ends with a fast downhill.  The next notable hill is 3km long Willunga Hill.  This one starts on the east side of Willunga and climbs at and average gradient of 7.5% for a total of 227m of elevation gain.  After Willunga Hill, the ride is mostly downhill with some very fast descents.

Not including my 10-15km commute to the start of the ride, my total time for the remaining 100km was 4:15 with approximately 40 minutes at rest stops/lunch.  I can’t give my usual data because even though my cyclo-computer  was working the night before the ride, it was not on the morning of the ride.  Oh well.  However, based on these estimates, my average speed was similar to that of my last tour, the 2006 MS 150.  Overall, this was a lot of fun, and contrary to what you may think, climbing Willunga Hill was definitely the highlight of the ride.