The Bike That Phill Built: Bits and Pieces

This next section outlines a whole bunch of items I bought at the same time that didn't require too much research, and I pretty much went off the sales assistants advice.
I bought a Salsa seat post. Its black, adjustable and supports a saddle. Yay!

Combined with a saddle, this makes a bike much more comfortable to ride!

I also picked up some brake levers (Tektro). Once again brake levers for use on touring bikes need to to clamp the brakes when squeezed. A marvel of modern engineering was not necessary. In hindsight it would have been nice to buy levers that also had the horizontal lever option.

Cheap and painless, unlike the rest of the bike

To nearly complete my handlebar set I purchased handlebar tape. I wanted the colour black, so bought black. Like the seat post is produced by Salsa and it is made from stuff called Gel Cork and has little pictures of chilis on it.

It was surprisngly difficult to get black tape, the store kept on selling out

I also purchased inner tubes. The most important factor here was that they matched my wheel size, which, as Little Claire (one of the lovely sales assisstants at Mal Adjusted) pointed out, isn't crucial. Two Tioga Tubes later I was nearly finished shopping.

I have many a tube, I hope these last longer than my last set.

The next order of business was to finish off my wheels so I purchased s0me brand spanking new tyres. I bought the Schalbe Marathon Plus. A bit heavy a approximately 900g, but they are heavy duty, with an extra layer of rubber to ensure that flat tyres are a thing of the past.

I may end up buying a couple of different sets of tyres depending on the type of riding I intend on doing.

Finally I bought a chain. The most though an effort went into choosing this particular item than all the others. I went with a SRAM pc-951 chain (for 9 speeds).

Much cheaper than expected, apparently these are the best value chains

It was a gold link which is has a simple mechanism for uniting the two ends of the chain. Importantly it does not have hollow pins, which are used to lower the weight of the chain, but if you ride off-road there is a tendency for the hollow pins to fill with dirt and grime. Its also about $60 cheaper to buy the non hollow pin version.

You can see the gold links, I was told this is unique to SRAM, or at least the joining mechanism is.

That was a lot of stuff all at once, but now I'm nearly done.
Salsa Seat Post = $54
Tektro Brake levers = $45.00
Salsa Handlebar Tape = $22.50
Tioga Tubes = $6.30 x 2 = $12.60
Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres = $71.95 each (I only paid for one but got two. Woohoo!)
SRAM PC-951 chain = $31.50

If you squint and use you imagination this nearly looks like a complete bike

Total
Frame Set $1099+
Wheel Set $ 495
Handlebars $135
Headset $ 77.50
Cassette $ 89.90
Crankset $198.02
Rear Derailleur $108
Brakes $86.38
Front Derailleur $54
Seat Post $54
Brake Levers $45
Handlebar Tape $22.60
Tubes $12.60
Tyres $71.95
Chain $31.50

$2580.45

Inching up the ladder

Third term sports was a time of great success for Fenner Hall. A period of time that I find quite trying due to the quality of sports offered to the male student population: soccer, volleyball, and aussie rules football.

I love college volleyball, this year we had a fantastic team - in seven games we only lost four sets

After a two year break representing my hall in soccer I returned to the playing field raring for a big season. It was a close competition that saw the Fenner rabbits finish fourth from eight. A trifle disappointing as we could have beaten the eventual pemiers. However we did cap off the season with a monumentous 4-1 win against Bruce Hall despite starting the game with only 10 players (and our regular goalkeeper as striker).

Me preaparing to bludgeon someone twice my size, story of my AFL career.

For the first time in a decade the men of Fenner bludgeoned their way into the aussie rules Grand Final. This year I was used as a utility player, spending time on the half forward and half back flank, on ball, the wing and the forward and back pocket.

Look at the ripplig muscles of the Fenner back pocket, that poor John's player isn't going to know what hit him.

After a huge game against John XXIII in the regular season I was finally thrown to full back to stop their ramapaging full forward who kicked 7 goals against us the first time we met.

Running on for the AFL GF

In the finals he only scored one goal, and that was when I was playing through the middle to give our on-ballers a rest.

Taken down, Gatt style

Even though we were thoroughly pumped in the GF we were happy with our efforts to get that far given that training is considered punsihment.

Our Aussie Rules supporters, cheering for us even in the bad weather

Once again I co-coached the mens and womens volleyball teams with Isaac Lim. It was a weekend competition in which I managed to consume too much alcohol on both nights of the tournament. The alcohol combined with injuries to my hands and kness from the gruelling aussie rules season made it difficult to play at full capacity.

BAM! At 5'9" no one expects a block from the tiny setter. Toad Hall experiences Fenner domination.

Huge efforts from the guys saw us easily in to the Grand Final. B&G were ladder leaders without dropping a set and seven victories (21 pts) followed closely by us with six victories and only one loss (18 pts). The next closest team had only three victories (9 pts). It was a repeat of last years GF against B&G, which we lost (again) in straight sets (25-13 25-15). The women's team dominated day one with two victories and a loss, but struggled on the second day picking only one win to finish in fifth place.

Don't let the height of the serve fool you, my well aimed power serve demolished many opposition

Most importantly our destruction of Burgmann college in aussie rules, volleyball, and womens soccer (2nd place) allowed us to creep past them on the sports shield to take second place heading into the final term. With only a one point lead on them, we will need solid performances from our touch football, road relay, and table tennis teams to maintain our lead.

One more term of hard work is required from these blokes to finalise our spot in second place

Sega na lega - No worries (Waya Lai Lai)

Waya Lai Lai boasted long lovely beaches, mad rock formations, and an awesome bar on the deck.

Waya Lai Lai from a long way up

I spent most of my time amusing myself by reading in hammocks, working on my mid-term report, playing volleyball, and tasting cocktails. Activities offered included a walk to the summit of their hill for sunset, and snorkling in the nearby reef.

We climbed to the top of that rock

By far the most humourous event was the summit walk. I befriended a seasoned British traveller and with a group of about twenty other island hoppers we were led to the top of the hill by a guide. The walk was difficult for people who did not do much bush walking, but Peter and I found it fairly easy. We sat at the back helping Katie, Helen (remember them), and their friend Rachel (also doing the same tour) on the more treachourous sections. They whinged a lot.

Katie, Helen, and Rachel struggling up a hill

At the top we had to make our away across a narrow rock path with a sheer drop one side. It was quite windy and given my dislike of heights it rasied my heartbeat a little.

This dog follwed us up, picking the most inopportune times to get tangled in your feet

The trip down was even more fun (but very slow), the sun had set and light was in demand. A view from the top

The guide a handed out a few torches and some industrious travellers had their own, however, there was no way near enough to go around. Enter the Gatt and his LED Lenser head torch. I became an instant hero with the torch that was able to light the path for anybody with 50 meters of me (perfect for night time trail running).

'The Gatt' in his preferred habitat - can often be found saving the day

Peter dry sense of humour and my ability to make anybody fall over by removing light at opportune moments, coupled with testing our aim by throwing nuts at Katie, Helen, and Rachel (it took them a while to realise what was happening, but at one stage Katie did say 'are people throwing things at us). Pete scored the only hit, striking Helen. Oh the hilarity.
Reef snorkelling was also pretty good. We swam in the ocean for 30 mins and looked at birghtly coloured fish. Not much more can be said about that.

Others who were on the walk, for one and a half days we were bestest buddies

After the summit walk I befriended some others - Laura, Claire, Loci, Pete and I spent the rest of our days swimming, drinking on the beach, drinking in the bar, and just chillin' in hammocks.

The beach party: Pete,(the french guy whose name I couldn't pronounce), Laura, Claire, me, and Loci

We learnt a 'Bula Dance' - a fijian dance that changes slightly depending on the island you're on, a short play depicting Tom the first missionary to the area (he dies in the end), and traditional Fijian dress and weapons. I was incredibly sad to leave these new friends behind, but that's the life on Fiji.

Bula - Hello (Nadi and South Sea Island)

Bula is a universal greeting that can also be used in place of please and thankyou. After only a few hours its very sound sent a feeling of well being coursing through my body.

Views like this also made me somewhat happy...

My first night in Fiji was spent in Nadi on the mainland. I landed at about 3:00pm and made my way to my backpackers - Aquaris Pacific. It was funny though, when I landed in Vietnam last year I was offered help, and then forced to pay exuberant prices, and I expected the same in Fiji. However this was not the case. Everyone was super super friendly.

I spent two weeks at places just like this!

I arrived at my accomodation and immediately bought myself a colourful cocktail, which I drank whilst watching the sun set over the ocean. Throughout the eveining/night I invested in a full body massage, worked on my midterm report, met the staff, drank lots of beer and visited another backpackers/bar to see some AFL and firedancers. The next day I was up early to start my adventures through the Yasawa Islands.

This is South Sea Island. It was tiny in size by huge in fijiness

I was herded onto a catamaran called the Yasawa Flyer, and it took me to my first destination - South Sea Island. This was the nicest island I visited - about 400m in circumference, it was all sand, coconut trees and hammocks. My entire day was filled with sipping beer, reading my book, practising my songs for the musical, some beach volleyball with the staff, and sleeping. The biggest decision I had to make was which hammock to lie down in. That at night at dinner I met two english girls (Helen and Katie) who will make regular appearances throughout these blog entries. They were doing the same tour I was, except one day ahead. After dinner we played some organised games (crab races and dancing) where I met another two british ladies who were sailing with me the next day. Everyone went to bed early, so I stayed up drinking with the cute Aussie Dive instructor Mattie and one of the activity organisers.

My second Day on South Sea saw me boarding the seaspray for a 'sailing adventure'.

The Seaspray

We visited the island from the movie Castaway shown below









The island from the movie Castaway
(ironically Castaway Island is adifferent island) and snorkelled. Next we visited a Fijian village and met the elders. We then took part in a cava ceremony which involved a lot of clapping and Bula's. Finally I returned to South Sea and I said goodbye to my new friends, never to see them again (or remember their names).









Fijian village
Once again I found my Fijian friend and he invited me to join the rest of the staff for more Cava. Cava basically tastes like dirty water and its supposed to make your face go numb. I was suitably toasted so not to notice any more effects. It was this night that I met Tom, a Swiss bloke who was also doing my tour. He was a day behind me and will feature in most of my inebriated stories.

One of the lovely English ladies from South Sea;
I was sad when they left, but in Fiji there are always
friends to be found.

Santa visits Canberra

Saturday night turned into an unexpected drinking festival. It started as a few sneaky European beers in the afternoon at Pinko's to celebrate the fact it was a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Pinko showing off our expensive beers

Yours truly is truly happy its a Saturday and I have nothing to do on Sunday
(except 6 hours of musical reheasal and 1.5 hours of AFL)

Soon Steve Martin joined us and we amused ourselves by drinking beer, playing chess, and kicking the footy.

Steve meanders in...

While we took turns sawing through branches for the fire we realised this was going to turn into something big.

Pinko and Steve around our beautiful fire

We donned silly hats and headed towards PJ O'Reilly's for a pint or seven.

Our silly hats. Steve was Santa and I was nicknamed 'little elf'

We managed to score premium seats - that unfortunately came with a free creepy man - for the karoake and we enjoyed(?) the singing until Steve Williams arrived.

The extra member is Steve Williams - not the creepy man

A few more beers and we moved to O'Malley's (spot the theme) and continued on our mission of drinking pints.

The gang at O'Malley's

The random photographer got a little snap happy.

After busting a grove we downed a fried chicken and chips before heading to where all good nights end - Mooseheads. True to form Mooseheads was as crappy as ever...

However it was still an awesome night!