GT6MK3

Glad got it sorted John. I managed to stretch out my conversation with scammers to about 15 emails over 6 hours. They we're after a 200 quid Applgift card to pass onto "a friends wife who baling leukemia". They seemed quite frustrated with my photo taking skills Try as I could, I just didn't seem to be able to get it right for them...

John, Pretty sure your email has been hacked. I’m getting hit with requests to send Apple gift cards on your behalf. Might want to check (oh, and happy belated birthday.) C.

Blah, Update done, blah. Let me know of breakages. C.

I’ll give you a call Nick.

My Grandpa George lived his life for family. First the one he was born into, then the one he and Grandma built together. His teens weren’t spent in school, tough times meant that he was working hard physical jobs from an incredibly early age. He was a fit, tough man, who did whatever he to be done to make sure the family was ok. There are a lot of family stories about him, many dubious, especially when promoted or told by him, but one told by his sister to my dad has always stuck with me. When Grandpa was about 20, he was working planting tobacco at Smoko, near Bright. His sisters and Mother back in Rutherglen sent him a telegram to let him know the household was short on money, so he went to the bank in Bright, cashed his wages, and hopped on his bike to Rutherglen. On arrival he ate lunch, turned around and headed back to Smoko so he could get back to work the next day. I’ve always been impressed by that one, and wanted to give it a burl. Since there are pretty good trails in the High Country there days, it’s a reasonably safe ride, but really really far. So my New Years Day went like this: 6:10am out of Bright 11:15 in Rutherglen 12:00 out of Rutherglen 5:16pm back to Bright 6:40 in Smoko 7:30pm back in Bright A little over 13 hours all up, 10 hours 15 minutes in the saddle, peak temp 34c, 242kms, 985meters climbed. It was hot, sweaty, thirsty, hard work. I’m closing in on being 3 times the age Grandpa was when he did it, but I’m in awe of the fact he did it on a pre war, single speed bike, probably using his foot on the front wheel for a brake. I hope he didn’t have a racing saddle. I think I come in a distant second having crossed the distance on carbon fiber and 24 gears, so Grandpa can keep the record. I reckon he’d be pleased someone followed in his footsteps though.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/11277414

Unloaded the CBR from the ToyBox today and took S.M. up to the top of Mt Buffalo. Not an easy ride with a novice pillion, (and to be fair, it’s an expert level perch!), but a lot easier than the last time I went up there on 2 wheels (1983 on an 18 speed steel push bike). On return it was time for a training ride, so I banged out a quick pre dinner 50km to Happy Valley again. Bike trails here are gorgeous, if looong and a little lonely but the locals Xmas decorations make for good viewing

Well played Sir. Colonial it is. Weather is pretty much what I was expecting for when you were here. Did a 14km loop with SM this morning to the eastbound pub for lunch, then pulled out the new roadie and did a quick solo 50km westerly loop to the aptly named Happy Valley Hotel Before dinner. Sunscreen and hydration are the order of the day.

Today I loaded up the ToyBox™️ and headed to Bright for a bit of decompression. 190kgs on the far left, and about 8kgs on the far right, the sweeping right handers needed to be treated with care. But the sweeping lefties were super stable. Scary to think that one of the 2 wheelers is worth more than the rest combined, and it’s not the one that’s some of Honda’s finest ever work.

It’s pretty aggressively built for an endurance bike. Current road bike is an older model of the same series, but the rim brakes don’t inspire confidence, and the alloy wheels are comparatively heavy. Tyres are stock, but 32 tubeless seems to be the new 25-28 tubed. I’m fascinated to see if the extra contact patch is worth the rolling resistance increase. I’m hoping this will be a good fast commuter that I can expand my endurance and climbing abilities on, and is able to handle light gravel (and the occasionally crappy local roads.). I’ll probably sell my Revolt and let loose the new Defy on the really light gravel tracks that join up the good trails round Melbourne. Off to Bright for our annual stay next week, I’ll be able to test it on a range of surfaces up there and hopefully get a chance to do some serious miles to figure out where it fits in my plans. Might even commit to another 365 in 365 photo thread. First new bike I’ve bought since I was 16. That one took a year of saving, and 41 years later this one’s eaten 12 months worth of discretionary spend…

Xmas came early today… 7940 grams with pedals. Cost more than any motorbike I’ve owned, and I’ve bought 5 cars and 5 vans that were cheaper. Lightness ain’t cheap!

If TRR aren’t keeping their licensing current, they’ll have no preemptive scanning of spammers, which could be the problem. We also don’t allow a first post until its approved by a mod, which helps with the wheat/chaff ratio. zetec would (I suspect) agree that once the initial setup and config is done, Invision is pretty set and forget. Third party hooks and apps can be finicky, but the core product is well supported and brilliantly stable. I haven’t had an update fail for years, to the point where I often feel I’m wasting time when I run pre update backups. Then again, I’ve never had a jack fail, but I won’t crawl under a car without throwing stands under too…

Spent some $$ out of the Sideways fund tonight to renew our software license. Thank you to all the members who’ve hit (and in many cases hit more than once) the donate button. It’s your donations that keep our hosting and infrastructure viable, and keeps Sideways on the air. We run Sideways as frugally as I can find ways to, but at the end of the day, resources cost $$. We remain advertisement free, virtually spam free, and viable thanks to you, so “Thank You”. C.

I wish. Unfortunatly its a confidence issue, not a power issue. Having never ridden a bike till she was 40, it's a long process building her confidence to go any faster. Wer\'re hetting there... I do go out riding occasionally with a mate who has a Trek e-bike. They're limited in their assistance here to 22km/h, so he has to work to stay with me on the flat, but I have to work super hard to stay with him on the hills.

This time of year is always interesting in Melbourne. This is yesterday on the freeway at midday. 15c and pissing down. I was genuinely wondering if Nick and S.M. were back in town.. Last night we had the central heating running in Summer. Woke up today to sunshine, 27 degrees and no winds. Convinced Management that we should go for an afternoon ride. Her comfortable cruise speed hovers just under 20km/h, so I spend a lot of time freewheeling, even on the hybrid, but we managed a 45km lap of the city proper, a coffee stop and a good dose of Vit D. The Mamil and Management 1/2 way round.

Well played Hamish. Anyone can build or buy a monster. Spec’ing and understanding what you’ve spec’d, and knowing how to unleash just the right amount of violence to get off the line faster than all the other (often more potentially expensive/violent players), without overcooking it is an art unto itself. Congrats on knowing how to make just the right amount of very loud noise!

Hanoi Jane gas ha a couple of rebuilds since the last update. She’s blown up twice, had a couple of long visits to a mates workshop, done a couple of long rides, lost her electronics 4 times, and generally been hard to love. Her very expensive race cylinder and more expensive performance header exhaust are now on the shelf, and a much more rideable cylinder and box exhaust are installed. For the few months she’s lived at home, been annoying to start (solvable with “Start Ya Bastard”), and she’s been ridden to work and back about once a week. She’s awesome fun again, (albeit horrible to start cold), and back into rotation and part of the fun way to get places. Tomorrow is a Sunday scooter ride with the other idiots that like to push stuff till it breaks. She’s a ready as a 60 year old shopping trolley can be

Yup. I gulped before I said yes. I've bought cars and good motorbikes for less. "Good, light, cheap. Pick any two."

Gonna need all the help I can get! Yep, 7 days over xmas. Was thinking about your visit just the other day. Still can believe Aus turned on such a pell of cold for you. Was 31C today, still 21 at 9:30pm.

Today... Is a public holiday. Not for I.T. though. Holidays are update days. Client "A" has 15 virtual servers and 4 physical. The each need to be updated and restarted in a particular order, or they lose either connectivity to the net, or to the remote access server. One of the virtual servers is in fact the R.A.S., and both it and it's physical host also need updating. So it's a delicate dance to manage. It's a bollocks thing to be doing on a sunny day, and theres 2 more client sites to log into once I finish this one. Bollocks indeed!

Won't arrive till Christmas, but I bought a properly fitted composite road bike (human powered variant) with Di2/Ultegra/Powermeter etc. Did an independant bike fit recently that showed I've been riding frames a little too large, so I'm going to sell the gravel bike, retire my mech geared/rim brake Defy to the trainer, and buy a M/L one of these https://www.giant-bicycles.com/au/defy-advanced-pro-0-2024 . They had large in stock, but while on paper I'm in between a M/L and a large, I jumped on a large in store, and it trying to shrink the cockpit to fit me properly was sub optimal. Better to wait and stretch a M/L to fit, than spend all those sheckles and be on something slightly compromised for years. Will pick up a second set of wheels for light gravel use. I've made a habit of only buying second hand till now, but I figure I've put in enough work to reward myself with something straight from the showroom that's perfectly fitted, has all the good bit's I've coveted on other bikes, and should last a good long while.

Little to pricey for my blood. (And I am lying low at home having made the old "n=x+1" bicycle thing happen again this week).

Good looking toy. Keep it rubber side down and enjoy.

That’s a bravery level several factors higher than mine. Current status - on a boat.

Today I’m definitely bollocks. Yesterday’s adventure was another gentle pedal. After a friend’s 40th birthday party on Saturday night, I was out of bed at 3:15am to shower, fuel up and head for the train. These are normally crowded! Then a quick pedal through the city to get to Albert Park. Normally famous for its F1 race, today it was the start and end point for the Round the Bay” ride Start line was busy It was all of 6 Celsius, so the first few hours were damn cold. 5 hours lates, after crossing the Westgate, and heading through Geelong to coast at Queenscliff, it was time for the ferry. Which was (ahem) “A sea of Lycra.” A couple of hours after disembarking I was in Frankston, and the target started appearing off in the distance. 10 hours after leaving I rolled across the line. Fair to say I was totally done. It’s one ticked off the bucket list I was just hoping to get round inside the 13 hour cutoff, so I was really surprised by my times. I think it was because there were so many groups to ride with, being in high speed trains of bikes was very different to my normally solo rides, and made the going a lot easier than otherwise. Day off today, not a lot being done!