Nipples of Doom

A few weeks ago I was coming back from a ride when a nipple connected to a spoke on my rear wheel exploded and pulled through almost sending me off the bike.

My first thought was that the massive power I was producing must have been too much for the wheels to handle. On remembering that I only produce about 230 watts, and some further investigation it became clearly apparent the issue was something else.

Baum Corretto - GTR Grey Red

Custom handmade Baum bicycles are very desirable and are starting to become quite popular. This awesome Grey and Red Baum Corretto was recently delivered to a fellow local cyclist here in Melbourne, Australia.

2012 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic

On Monday I braved 40 degree heat to make the long trek down the highway to Geelong to check out stage 2 of the 2012 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic.

Run over 4 stages/days, this event grows in popularity each year and is seen as a major tune up for the Tour Down Under and Australian Road Cycling Championships held in January of each year.

Rapha Festive 500

In an all too familiar occurrence of cycling related peer pressure and against better judgement; in the week leading up to Christmas I got sucked into taking part in the Rapha Festive 500 challenge.

I'm sure that you are well aware of the Rapha Festive 500 challenge, but in case you have been living under a rock; Rapha sets a challenge to pedal off the indulgences of the festive season by riding 500 kilometres between the 23rd and 31st of December.

McShiney and I ranking up the kilometres

For your efforts you receive the adulation of your peers (or maybe the relief of not being ridiculed by them), the satisfaction of knowing you completed something you set out to do and most importunely the badge from Rapha (above) in recognition of your accomplishment.

Custom Build: Specialized Project Blue Tarmac

These days with the ever growing popularity of cycling it's getting harder and harder to individually distinguish yourself and your bike from the rest of the pack. No matter where you turn there is always somebody nearby with a bike that looks very similar to your own pride and joy.

That being said, you can imagine my delight when I came across this customised sky blue Specialized Tarmac while trawling the internet recently (most likely searching for evidence to support my many conspiracy theories).

Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar

I'm by no means the biggest fan of David Millar; however I was intrigued by the reformed doper's story and greatly looked forward to reading his autobiography; Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar.

Specialized S-Works McLaren Venge at Total Rush

Was in the LBS yesterday getting the finishing touches put on my new S-Works SL4 when something caught my eye. There in all its glory was the first customer delivered S-Works McLaren Venge in Australia.

Specialized Rib Cage Carbon

A new bike deserves new cages and you know what they say... you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink from old bottle cages!

~VL

Rapha Chamois Cream

A bit of a touchy subject (look away now girls); but in the last couple of weeks I had been experiencing a considerable amount of discomfort in the downstairs area as I tried to break in a new pair of knicks.

I've been riding for a number of years and thankfully to date had not previously experienced any rubbing, chaffing or pain from any of my knicks. I'm not sure if I this is because I am (was) super tough or just pretty good at choosing riding gear. Either way; it seemed my luck had run out as I spent more and more time riding the pain train.

Strava iPhone app

I had been waiting on the arrival of a new Garmin Edge 200 GPS for the last couple of months (I ended up with an Edge 500 but more on that later) so I could join all the cool kids on Strava. One day a couple of months ago I stumbled across the Strava iPhone app and decided to give it a go.