Damn us living in what would have to be the most densely populated cat region in all of Sydney.

Don’t you ever complain about the noise in your dSLR til you’ve used an Nokia e71 in low light. Anyway, I was on the bike by 5:30am, which meant I’d be riding the first hour or so in the dark. The Ayups were brilliant as always.

That was the view from Tom Uglys Bridge looking towards Captain Cook Bridge. Yeah, I can’t make out much detail either.

Winding my way up the hill toward Kirrawee, it was starting to get more light. Sorta.

I stopped a few kilometres short of Waterfall to take this photo, cause well, the landscape was awesome. See that over exposed bit? There were brilliant rays of sunshine in there and the contrast in the clouds was intense. Needless to say, the plastic lens on the e71 didn’t quite do it justice. Stopping to take that photo did let some quick roadies overtake me though, so I spent the rest of the time to Waterfall attempting to catch them. Then I used some more italics.

Oh hai Waterfall.

The next stop was the Whale Lookout in the National Park at Kurnell. This was made a little more difficult as the Sutherland 2 Surf had commandeered the entire Kingsway. No matter, I made it back on track with minimal detours and headed to the Whale Lookout, channelling my inner time trialist.

Just as a side note, road bikes shouldn’t get that dirty, but the road was wet from Sutherland to Waterfall and back so plenty of dirt was flicked up by my wheels. I then set sail for home… via the awesome cafe in Kurnell. I’d have taken photos of the bacon and egg roll I ate, but there was no time as it was inhaled in a matter of seconds. Oops.

The most excitement I had on the way home was seeing my speedo clock over 100kms and still having the presence of mind to take a photo. Ahh memories. I time trialled back to Shark Park, then took the City Cycle Route to get me back to the Airport. A quick jaunt through Sydney Park and I was back home.

That photo was taken… somewhere… so it can go here! But now for the bit you’ve been waiting to see… me after riding the Salsa for one hundred and thirteen kilometres.

Tired++. I’m going to sleep now. Night.

Fast forward to about the 60km mark and I was feeling very good. Perhaps it was the enormous bacon & egg roll and coke I’d devoured for morning tea, or maybe it was that I’d said shut up legs enough, but the last part of the ride was really enjoyable.

Jing commented to me that I looked comfortable on the bike and he’s right; I’ve got the Salsa set up what I consider ‘just right‘ for my body’s geometry and the type of riding I do. It’s always a good sign when after an 80km ride you have no pain in your back, arms, hands, neck or shoulders.  It’s also a good sign when your legs are positively smashed.

One final note, the recently fitted bullhorns were once again great. There were a few times when punching into a sizable heading I was yearning for drops, but the ‘horns will be sticking around.

We shall start with what Liz did this afternoon. Quiet time with Train next to the heater. Om nom nom.

Then what I did. A quick shop by bike at Marrickville Metro where I ran into Laura. Random++

To add insult to a fitness slump… on the way home I scored what I think was a pinch flat. When I say that, I mean the back tyre went flat and after walking home from Newtown station I threw the Salsa in the second bedroom and still haven’t investigated the flat.

Oh, the bullhorns were awesome though. As Harley predicted, stacks of power when you’re out of the saddle mashing pedals.

Wait stop. Don’t call the RSPCA. His face might look distraught, but he really loves it and kept coming back for more and head smooshing us when we stopped.

The other thing Elvis likes doing it is licking his bum. This is an illustrated version of the photo we should have taken where Elvis licks his bum.

That’s it!

23cc Maxxis Refuses had been good to me on the Salsa, so they were the obvious choice. I did a quick google search for maxxis refuse site:au which yielded a few Sydney based shops all within riding distance. I picked the one which wasn’t the closest, nor the cheapest, but one which I’d previously bought bike stuff from before and they’d treated me well. Itching to get out for a ride after my recent sickness I jumped on the Salsa and enjoyed the hell out of the ride to the bike shop.

Upon arriving I mentioned to the bike shop attendant people that I’d seen Maxxis Refuses on their website and asked where I could find them in the store? I was pointed in the right direction, but warned the price in store would be more expensive than the price I saw online. Sure. Okay. I can deal with the tyres being 10-20% more expensive? I mean, running a shop front costs money.

10-20% might’ve been a bit conservative though. Online, the tyres were $40, in store they were $60. That’s half the cost of the online tyre whacked on top again!

Which brings me to the title of this post… the bicycle industry’s business model in Australia is failing. I’m all for supporting local bike shops, but only when they earn a little bit of respect. Previous to this shopping trip, the bike shop in question had always been good to me. Well, by that I mean they’d never really screwed me over. After this shopping trip (and after checking their website and finding nothing stating the prices in store might be different from online) I won’t be buying there again.

It really is annoying when the easiest (if not the timeliness) way of getting parts on my bikes is to buy them online and fit them myself (usually at a fraction of the price). Bike shops of Sydney… I want to support you, I really do… but jeez you make it difficult to do so.

In other news, keen observers will notice this photo links to a jarodandliz smugmug account. It’s early days yet, but tis looking more and more like we’re going to dump flickr in favour of smugmug. Hurrah!