The Bike That Phill Built: Construction

An exciting day was in store for me. Phil Byron came over and Martyn (Cougar) Clarke meandered downstairs for this momentous occasion. Stocked with turkish pizza and beer we set about spending the day putting together a bike. There is not much of a story to it, so I'll let the photos detail what we did!

Step 1: crankset

Seat post and brakepads

Rear Derailleur

The shifters attached to the handlebars

Front derailleur and crankset

Two Phils sorting out the brakes

Adjusting the chain

Cougar takes it for a test ride

Completed - a modern day success story

Final Price for a fully functioning awesome bike - $2910.70.
It is worth noting that I have spent more since completeing the bike on things such as riding shoes, better brake pads, light, a rack etc. The above price is what was needed to get it safely on the road.

Well that's all from this series, but stay tuned for Phillip's Touring Adventures, coming to website near you!

P Gatt's CBD Discovery Tour

On Friday last week I was bored and grumpy. In order to remedy this situation I organised a night out for the remaining residents at Fenner Hall that has since been dubbed a lounge tour.

I'm bored, someone fix me a drink!

Not content with the usual haunts of the student group at Fenner I vowed to visit a bunch of places that we rarely, if ever, frequented.

Somewhat incredulous that other drinking places exist outside Mooseheads and the ANU Uni Bar, and Fox Place

We started at North Bar because they serve free champagne and then moved onto The Australian. It was a good start to the night as we witnessed a fight (the bouncer had his shirt ripped off and the aggressor nearly glassed himself), a car accident, and we also nearly got run over by an overzealous driver.

Tanya, Cammie, and Bec were the female side of the touring crew

After the Australain we headed to a bar associated with the Crown plaza - Binara One - which was quite pleasant.

Yup, very pleasant indeed

From there we moved to the Holy Grail, a place which happened to have some sort of open mike night. By entering this pub we successfully doubled its occupants and we owned upstairs.

It was a bit of a find - the music wasn't great but I've heard worse in JJJ

We finished with cocktails at the Kremlin and by visiting Level 3 of Uni pub, a lounge bar I had never been to before.

All of us winding down at UniPub

The Bike That Phill Built: Finishing Touches

The bike is nearly ready for assembly. The last things I need in order to have a fully functioning bike are quite trivial

1. I needed some cables for my brakes and gears shifters, complete with rubber tubing to protect the brilliant "gravy brown" of my frame.

This was surprsingly expensive!

2. I needed some metal caps called bike endsfor the cabling that helps stop fraying as well as keeping things looking neat and tidy. Also shown in the photo are little rubber donuts that stop the cable from bouncing off the frame.

I would never have thought of picking these up items withou advice from Phil Byron

3. And of course no bike is complete without a bell

This is the most exciting part of the whole bike!

Bell = $1.80
Cables and Tubing = $18.00
Bike Ends and Donuts = Free

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
Pedals $58.45
Shifters $153.00
Stem $36
Saddle $63
Bell $1.80
Cables and Tubing $18

$2910.70

Back in Kioloa

I returned to Kioloa, ANU's coastal campus, for the third time this year to supervise Fenner's 2010 social committee's first training.

Training the social committee in the art of being social

The day wasn't too exciting, we started with a team building exercise, involving a blindfold and an obstacle course. My team failed epically.

You can already see my team is in trouble, turn around dammit.

This was followed be group planning, brainstorming sessions, goal setting, etc. After all the work was down I drove the group to the local liquor store to stock up on 'evening' supplies.

The all important brain storming session

The night started with a game of Kings (my favourite), then we retreated down to the fire pit to satisfy the primitive urge of dancing naked around a fire.

This is us; naked around a campfire

Hours later I indulged in some poker with three others and we played into the wee hours of the morning...

Its the new me

Things have changed in the last month or so - after about 12 years it has finally happened.