I’ve been putting my mechanical skills to good use lately. Since the family arrived home from America, they have enjoyed the “comparatively” wide open spaces that our neighbourhood allows. Living in a gated apartment complex for 18 months has not been conducive to the boys getting ‘out and about” so, before they came home, I figured that one way I could redress that situation would be for them all to have push bikes so that they could stretch their legs a bit when they got home. Over the period of a couple of weeks I accumulated some push bikes that were for sale on the footpaths around Dapto, at a top price of $20 each. Then, with the addition of two other bikes from a good friend of ours (lying unused in their garage for years) I ended up with enough for me to not only make bikes for the three boys but also a bike for Leith and one for my son, Graeme, who has just moved into a much safer environment in Sydney. (I should add that Graeme has had three pushies and all three have been stolen by the honest citizens of Glebe, NSW 2037)
Obviously with the bikes all being old, there has been a fair bit of repair/refurbishment but I managed to cobble together enough bits and pieces to get 5 working bikes. Lots of tube patching, tyre changing, brake adjusting, seat height modifying and handlebar adjustments later (to say nothing of copious applications of WD40) and yesterday morning the boys were ready to head out on their first long ride. They have already tested the bikes out in our street but yesterday morning Natalie borrowed Helena’s bike and she took them for an 8km ride to the lake and back. This was a loop that I did with the boys before they went to the US but they haven’t ridden for 18 months so I was a bit anxious about how they’d go.
Needless to say, they aced it and came back with no reports of mechanical issues with the bikes as well. Score!
The family needs a car as well and, on Saturday Nat and I went looking and picked up this very nice wagon, low mileage and very well looked-after for the right price.
Needless to say, the South Sydney memorabilia was removed almost before the wheels had stopped turning when she returned to our place with the car. Yesterday was spent doing a clean/detail/checkover of the car with a more detailed check indicating that the car was a pretty good choice. Having to removed the front wheel and grovel around underneath to chase a leak from the radiator overflow bottle wasn’t quite on the agenda, but that’s what you get with a second-hand car. As it turned out, it was a false alarm but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
The penultimate round of the WSBK was completed overnight with newly-crowned champion, Johnny Rea doing the double while Kenan Sofoglu clinched his 4th WSS championship to become the most successful rider ever in the history of the championship.
And, on that note, big congratulations to New Zealand’s Avalon Biddle for winning the inaugural Eurepean Womens’ Cup, run in conjunction with some of the WSBK rounds as well as some stand-alone races. I first saw her race as a Junior at Wakefield Park in 2007 and I suspected that she could go far and, again, I was right. I have already arranged an interview with her when she returns from O/S.
Unsurprisingly, there hasn’t been any time for powered two wheel action this weekend. Hopefully I’ll get out and about soon.
