Went for a 53km quick ride with Ben on Saturday morning, just and out and back to Marshall Mount. The outward leg was a struggle and I wasn't sure if it was fatigue after the kays I'd done during the week, however when we turned back, it was clear that it was the wind. Quite flew back home.
Sunday was day two of the Audax "Robbo Weekend" so I headed up to Robertson at the top of the Escarpment for a 100km ride with the group. It was a mostly sunny ride, though a strong southwesterly that sprung up mid morning made the middle leg from Aylmerton to Berrima a bit tougher. It was lucky we were going with the wind on the last 25kms as it strengthened and became quite gusty.
All in all it was a top morning out on the bike, with lots of birds, a wallaby and various invisible rustles in the hedgerows sighted. Also great to catch up with a few audaxers that I hadn't seen for a while. It is nice to be back on the bike again.
It was time for a rest day today and with that in mind I planned to finish stripping down the Hercules and start cleaning and regreasing.
The work is pretty straightforward. All of the screws and bolts, while a bit rusty in places have come apart without too much effort and before long I had removed everything. Larger parts will get the hand treatment.
I washed and scrubbed grease and other marks off the painted metal parts and gave it a quick and light polish with a light cutting wax. If anything it highlights the various scratches and other damage to the paintwork, but it looks a lot brighter now.
I dropped most of the rusty attachments into a small bucket of vinegar, and the parts are cleaning up quite nicely. Some other parts - such as the dynamo and headlamp I've started polish with Autosol. The dynamo came up really well.
Last job was tackling the wheel hubs. The front wheel was straightforward, lots of really thick old grease but everything was easy. The rear hub with is Hercules B type 4 3 speed was going to be a bit trickier. A bit of research indicates that the Hercules 3 speed is indentical to the Sturmey Archer AW hubs so it was a simple matter of finding a diagram (even a video or two) of how its done, and now the hub and mechanism is stripped out and just waiting for a clean before loading it back in.
The wheel rims need a bit of attention as they are quite rusty and will need some truing as well but there's no great rush.
Having said that tyres and a new Brooks B68 saddle have been ordered and should arrive during the week so it's not out of the question that I could take the Hercules for a ride on the weekend.
More photos can be found on my flickr
Mileage in Kms = 4385
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