01 March 2019

Fixing Some Bike Issues

Canberra
28 February & 1 March 2019
110km



A few weeks ago I had new tyres put on my bike and asked for my side stand to be fixed, it seemed like both were a fail. 

I'll start with my side stand, this has been an ongoing saga for a number of years, ever since I had my bike lowered, this meant the side stand was to long and the bike was very upright. I had it shortened but it was not short enough and I had to be really careful where I parked. Last year when my bike was in for a service I asked if they could shorten the side stand, I was told they could cut the foot off and add a screw in foot that would make it easier to make any future adjustments, so I told them to go ahead.

This was the result a round foot that only had rear touching the ground, the side stand was shortened and I was happy with the length but now had the issue of the weight of the bike only on a small surface area which meant I now had to be careful parking on soft ground.

When taking my bike in to get new tyres I asked them to fix the side stand (yet again). We discussed maybe welding a small square plate on the base to spread out the surface area.
 This is what I got. As you can see there is still not much of it on the ground. The next problem is that add to the base and so the bike was sitting very upright again.


I was telling my friend Mark about it and he said to take my bike over to his place and he would have a look at it.

Mark did a fantastic job (nearly losing a thumb in the process) of levelling the base and shaving some of the height off.





After the tyre change my bike just wasn't right, when slowing down it felt like rubbing metal (it's hard to explain exactly what it is and I think I felt it rather than heard it) at first I thought it was the brakes but it happened when I wasn't braking, it seemed to happen when slowing down, but wasn't there at speed.

On my way to and from Mark's place I didn't notice it as much as previously, so before taking it back to be looked at I decided to go for a ride. I needed to ride where I was slowing down and stopping a lot. 

It was a beautiful day to be riding around Canberra, I am very lucky to be living in such a beautiful city (I just wish it wasn't so hot in summer and so cold in winter 😄).

 Parkes Way along Lake Burley Griffin


I did a couple of laps around ANZAC Parade. It was the Australian Army & the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) birthday so this might be why there was lots of white around the RAN memorial.





I did a couple of laps around Russell Offices and past the Australian-American Memorial.

 I found this nice quiet round about out the back of Russell so did about five laps around it. So if anyone saw a bike going round and round it was just me.

I then headed up Mount Ainslie and stopped and took some photos from the top.










Then off around the War Memorial.









So the issue I was having to appear on occasions but fairly infrequently. I will ride it a bit more and then get it serviced in a few weeks time and if it is still happening then I will get them to have a look at it.


I was also having an issue (it's never ending) with my new helmet there was a spot that was digging into my head and making it very painful after about an hour of wearing it. I had sown some foam in and am glad to say that after having the helmet on for a few hours I no longer get the pain. Yay a win.


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